nabiha syed

I write about some interesting developments in the ATmosphere (and the broader universe of decentralised and federated social media). Very intrigued by #Eurosky, especially the idea of shared moderation infrastructure. I will be following (and hopefully writing about!) this with a lot of interest.

The Case for User Agent Extremism - Anil Dash A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

Was doing some research around AI agents, and ensuring users' rights - and @anildash.com was really cooking here. In 2013! www.anildash.com/2013/03/19/t...

I keep saying, Google intentionally making its search worse is a world-historical fumble, and it's a huge opportunity for so many others across the internet, if they'll just seize it..

Another good reason to avoid being on X is that Isaac Chotiner could start asking you questions there at any time

I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...

HMRC 'function creep' means spying on your travel plans to block benefits Governments weaponising data against people is one of the top themes of 2025. In this latest example, tax agency uses post-9/11 era travel surveillance to administer tax benefits, and to wrongly…

The government is scooping data that you probably didn’t know you were sharing.

For thousands of families, that resulted in the UK tax agency HMRC wrongly suspending child benefit payments on the basis of incomplete and misinterpreted flight records.

privacyinternational.org/news-analysi...

Ayman Soliman was a beloved children’s hospital chaplain in the Cincinnati area.

The Trump administration however tried to smear him as a possible terrorist, jailing him for 73 days.

Ayman speaks to @swin24.bsky.social in a Zeteo town hall today at 2pm ET.

Sign up:
zeteo.com/p/2pm-et-tue...

He Hunted Alleged Groomers on Roblox. Then the Company Banned Him YouTuber “Schlep" built a huge following tracking down alleged child predators on Roblox before being kicked off. The platform is facing multiple lawsuits over child safety.

YouTuber “Schlep" built a huge following tracking down alleged child predators on Roblox before being kicked off. The platform is facing multiple lawsuits over child safety. www.wired.com/story/he-hun...

Don’t get me started on how they ruined google scholar

Developers, researchers, protocol nerds: the Decentralized Communication devroom at FOSDEM wants YOU!

Got something to share about federated systems, p2p protocols, self-sovereign tech, or resilient comms?

Submit your proposal now, our CfP ends on Sunday!

#FOSDEM #Decentralized #Federation

God it's so cool that so much of British and European nationalist politics has broadly been shaped by warehouse clickfarms rented by guys in South Asia running "how to make money from racist old people" workshops, and that this has had more influence on media and politics than any grassroots group

"writing code to solve a problem" used to have "understanding the problem" as a prerequisite. but vibecoding allows solution-shaped objects to be produced without any of the hard-won understanding. beware of solution-shaped objects.

The Thing We Still Can’t Say SHAXI, 18 July 2025 — Adam Tooze came to visit me recently here in Shaxi, the little town in Yunnan where I spent the last month.

"The idea that China is no longer just catching up, but redefining the arc of development itself, is hard to absorb — especially for those conditioned to see the West as a permanent reference point, even when viewed critically."

(h/t @70sbachchan.bsky.social)

I think it’s pretty clear at this point that one of the main impacts of LLMs is to disrupt thinking: to make it so that far too many people never properly learn how to do it, and then to control the output so there are thoughts that people never learn how to think.

Isn't it so weird to deeply know in your bones something obvious with no equivocation, for years and years, and then to one day see articles about people wondering if maybe the incredibly obvious thing you've known this whole time might be happening, as if the media is discovering it now??

Fucking awful, and also highlights why having independent local media that doesn't just reprint law enforcement press releases is essential for holding people accountable.

Although the scale of this is still to be assessed, this is the inevitable outcome of the monetization of the algorithm. Rage-bait becomes a personal revenue model. Nothing about this should be a surprise.

When OpenAI adjusted ChatGPT’s settings to appeal to more people, some users were left spiraling. Kashmir Hill, who reports on technology and privacy, describes what the company has done about the users’ troubling reports. Read more: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/t...

NetChoice v. Jason S. Miyares, 1:25-cv-02067 - CourtListener.com Docket for NetChoice v. Jason S. Miyares, 1:25-cv-02067 — Brought to you by Free Law Project, a non-profit dedicated to creating high quality open legal information.

With luck we'll never find out, because this week brings us Netchoice v Miyares, in which Netchoice once again picks a fight and invites us along for the ride.

Docket: www.courtlistener.com/docket/71921...
Netchoice: netchoice.org/netchoice-v-...

I'll link my declaration when it's up!

re: roblox dude's interview crashout. the thing he wants to say but can't is "at scale, kids are gonna get hurt. that is the price for scale." the thing nobody wants to say out loud is "maybe scaling to a level where harm isn't manageable is bad, and scale should be contained"

How to Rethink Regulation with Prosocial Design | TechPolicy.Press An emerging global consensus says online harms are the outcomes of platforms designed for attention, engagement, and data extraction, writes Lena Slachmuijlder.

An emerging global consensus says online harms are the predictable outcomes of platforms designed for attention, engagement, and data extraction, writes Lena Slachmuijlder, author of a new guide to “Prosocial Tech Design Regulation.”

Pranksters Recreated a Working Version of Jeffrey Epstein’s Gmail Inbox Using Jmail, you can read thousands of Jeffrey Epstein's emails in a familiar format. Use the star function to highlight notable finds.

Using Jmail, you can read thousands of Jeffrey Epstein's emails in a familiar format. Use the star function to highlight notable finds.
wrd.cm/49u9pdF

California’s Child Farmworkers: Exhausted, Underpaid and Toiling in Toxic Fields State officials are failing to protect the health and safety of thousands of young field laborers, an investigation has found.

Really dark and necessary read on child farmworkers in California, many of whom are immigrants.

Keker Sues DHS, ICE Over Allegedly Inhumane Conditions at Calif. Detention Center

Described as worse than prison, the conditions at the largest ICE detention facility in CA are inhumane. With the lives of detainees at stake, KVP has joined Prison Law Office, the ACLU, and the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice in filing a class action: www.keker.com/news/news-it...

Welcome to Mozilla Foundation With over two decades of global impact, Mozilla Foundation continues to lead the movement for a better technology future—powered by people, open by design, and fueled by imagination.

Make good tech the norm.

Stand up for a better internet.

We have the power and change doesn't happen unless people stand up, roll up their sleeves and do something about it. That's the message of the Mozilla Foundation and its wonderful director @nabiha.bsky.social

www.mozillafoundation.org

Stack of blocks labeled, all modern digital infrastructure. A ratchet tipping over the entire stack is labeled AI. A load bearing pillar is labeled unpaid open source development. Another label is AWS, and Cloudflare and Unpaid Open Source Developers.

Extremely upset that a throw-away XKCD joke somehow became the organizing principle for the Internet.

You see the thing about Republicans is they’re really passionate about states rights

I wanna invent time travel and then require every high school student to take a class called "All The Shit We Fixed Before You Got Here" where they tour smog-filled US cities, polio wards, pre-vaccine hospitals, buildings with no safety regulations, kids working in mines, etc.

Truly mind-blowing levels of hypocrisy from this admin on using government strong arming to threaten social media companies into censoring

www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crime/3...

Airlines Will Shut Down Program That Sold Your Flights Records to Government The move comes after intense pressure from lawmakers and 404 Media’s months-long reporting about the airline industry's data selling practices.

New: the airlines (Delta, United, American, etc) will shut down a program in which it sold hundreds of millions of your flight records to government agencies, including ICE, FBI, ATF, more. Comes after intense lawmaker-pressure and 404 Media's months-long reporting
www.404media.co/airlines-wil...