@seangon.bsky.social
Community Broadband Evangelist at ILSR (co-parent of this baby here www.communitynets.org) • Internet Scribe • Telecom Infrastructure & Policy Plug • Monopoly Board Flipper • Books/Movies/Music Connoisseur • #BlackSky Walker 👨🏾💻📚
I finally have a newsletter!
It's called The Fine Print* and I'll be writing about tech, media, politics, consumer rights (and whatever else I damn-well please).
It's free, but if you have disposable income, you can support independent reporting for just $50/year or $4/month.
Grok stands as the clearest example of an AI that is both ideologically aligned and operationally embedded in a social media platform, says Matthew Kirschenbaum. Its mechanisms should be taken apart under bright lights, in much the same way people learn how to defuse a bomb, he argues.
One reason I enjoy working on digital equity issues from a community broadband perspective ….
It’s an area where local communities can exercise real power and get real results that improve quality of life and expand economic opportunities
FCC: Mergers, monopolization? No problem b/c who cares about consumer protections?
But DEI, yeah that’s the real problem 🙄
I suppose 30 years late is better than never
Predictable scam alert
Not that the BEAD program established by the infrastructure law under Biden to build new future proof networks was perfect
But with this admin, everything they touch turns to instant enshittification
In an era filled with tech dipshits who never developed emotionally past the age of 13 & use their wealth to become odious monsters ...
... listen to Steve Wozniak.
My ILSR colleagues @ronmknox.bsky.social and BLP host Danny Caine welcomed Cory Doctorow as a podcast guest on Ron’s Who Shall Rule Substack for a wide-ranging talk about Doctorow’s new book on Enshittification
Dope convo about the problems of the platform economy & some possible solutions
It’s similar to an idea floated by some policy analysts who say an online sports betting tax could help shore up the Universal Service Fund
“If the government is going to sanction something with proven harms, why not tax it to fund something with proven benefits?”
Dem-Gov candidates in WI are pushing to legalize weed in order to fund broadband expansion
Call me high but I kinda like the idea, esp since the Trump admin is doing its damndest to undercut fed broadband initiatives
More recently, Roth has been threatening to pull billions in already awarded broadband grants if states enforce net neutrality or engage in any meaningful oversight of this country's shitty telecom monopolies.
This, it should be said, is illegal. As my colleague @seangon.bsky.social explores here:
It’s infuriating, even if completely predictable, to see the BEAD program get hollowed out like this along with any semblance of concern for the millions who still don’t have access to such an essential service
I’ve lost track of how many laws this admin has either side-stepped or flat out ignored
But here’s another one I wrote about it
This time the assertion is they will withhold fed broadband $$ b/c of state efforts to address the monopoly driven affordability crisis in broken broadband markets
Anyway, yet another reminder that "debate me bros" were always full of shit, and anyone who claims that they were actually about free speech or real discussion over ideas is lying or gullible.
www.techdirt.com/2025/09/17/t...
I gotta look for that! I just grabbed cultural bio on Octavia that I haven’t started yet …
Partaking in one of the few things that bring me a lil joy these days: watching Steph and my Warriors hoop
Happy to see Route 50 cite our work
And its especially nice to see the outlet highlight two Black communities we have a had the pleasure of supporting: Wave 7 in Enfield, NC and Delta Interfaith in East Carroll Parish Louisiana
Anyone who has used the internet for 5 minutes could tell you this exact thing was guaranteed. That the company makes it possible is entirely intentional.
Good to see NDIA join the fight to restore the Digital Equity Act
Our story - written by @karlbode.com - really shines a light on how epically idiotic this admin’s disregard for the law is, to say nothing of the damage it inflicts on its own base (rural communities, Veterans & older adults)
We should all be studying this book in the U.S. because something tells me we might be on the …
The entire "free speech on campus" moral panic was manufactured to blackmail us into making space in intellectual life for bigots and charlatans who couldn't get there on their own merits. Its a DEI scheme for fascism. Congratulations to everyone who took it at face value.
And let the church say …
This has been well established theologically 🙄🤦🏾♂️
Remember the good ol ancient days when the “scandal” was Obama’s tan suit or his remark about clinging to guns and religion?
Now we have toddler behavior in the White House and it’s totally “normal”
Looong overdue, even as Congress is now a rubber stamp branch for whatever TF this “President” wants to do, including cancelling laws Congress passed
Any Constitutional scholars out there that can tell us when checks and balances went fr being a central feature of our democracy to a museum relic?
Real story: President Trump posted online that the Digital Equity Act is "racist" & he would simply ignore the law. Now, millions of dollars for broadband in rural communities have gone away because of it.
It's illegal & Congress is silent.
kffhealthnews-org.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/kffhealt...
This week, join Sir Tim Berners-Lee & Brewster Kahle for a conversation on the past, present & future of the Web.
📅 Thurs Oct 9, 7:30 PM PT
🎟️ In-person
➡️ blog.archive.org/event/buildi...
Welcome to Opt Out October, our collection of tips to slowly break free from online surveillance and throw sand in the gears of overreaching large tech companies. Today’s tip is about establishing good online security fundamentals. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
