Cynthia Khoo

Bill C-2 LandBack, CashBack, Databack

I've also compiled a list of resources on Bill C-2: jeff.doctor/resources/bi...
I focused on C-2 because I don't see it mentioned much in Indigenous spaces and I'm trying to change that. It'll have sweeping implications on our privacy and data sovereignty if it passes, none of it good.

I finally did it and organized my thoughts on Bill C-2, C-5, 5 etc. into a concise(ish) narrative. There's many threads to navigate through below if you wanna spend your day / week going down all the rabbit holes I did.

I made a more accessible version in this article: jeff.doctor/blog/my-summ...

"Ignorance isn’t always innocent. A lot of the time, it’s strategic. ... White ignorance doesn’t persist bc there’s a lack of information—it persists bc there’s a refusal to engage... once you admit you knew & did nothing... you’d have to admit you were fine with it. You have to admit complicity."

Thank you, and good on you, for writing that! Hopefully more people follow your lead in responding similarly to the "consultation".

Killing the story: Journalists speak on Palestine in U.S. newsrooms October 7 Panelists Aline Batarseh Abdallah Fayyad Eman Mohammed Sana Saeed Hosted by Laura Albast

📢Join us for Killing the Story, a virtual event on Oct. 7, 1pm PT/4pm ET!

Palestinian, Arab, & Muslim journalists give firsthand accounts about how media manufactures consent & silences dissent as we approach 2 years of the Israeli-imposed & U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza.
tinyurl.com/killingthest...

It's been two years. Are we there yet?

"[D]ays after the massacre of 7 October, I warned of revenge that would achieve nothing but yet more violence and suffering. I feared the unbridled Israeli response I knew would follow, but even in my worst nightmares I did not imagine it could amount to such systematic, calculated annihilation."

It is so, so vital to understand and internalize that the Gaza Genocide has been waged in key part at the behest of tech and surveillance oligarchs who beyond cruelly test their violent technology on Palestinians in order to determine how to apply them here.

Palestine is a laboratory.

Why not a consistent moral position against any loss of human life? Well, that's easy: because they don't think we're human.

Our politicians have accepted that Palestinian lives are worthless, so an infinite number of us can be butchered. Two years on, they still act as though there is no greater tragedy in the modern age than October 7, when much worse, on a much larger scale, has been done to Gaza.

Essay: Why I Write I have begun and abandoned several essays lately because I collide into a voice that taunts and challenges: “You can’t write that.

"How dare I entertain nihilism when Bisan daily stares down death in Gaza? ... How dare I entertain complacency as this Palestinian storyteller outruns a genocidal Israeli regime, armed and funded by the most powerful country in the world, determined to annihilate her people?"

If you only knew how much of tech's energy is devoted to building better tools for abusers

Anyway. I'm not an expert in human behavior or anything. I'm just saying, if you're in a situation that calls for some level of expertise, and maybe there were some warning signs you passed a mile back, and maybe there are experts shouting at you?

Please. Listen to advice. Admit you might be wrong.

...and I know. I just described a lot of the people running this country right now. And other countries. And a lot of the people leading major tech companies. And editing our newspapers.

A whole lot of people are driving this world up Black Bear Pass in a rented Kia right now. It's a little scary.

And this situation is emblematic of a problem that arises in so many other circumstances. Wild overconfidence untempered by any experience and capped off by a complete inability to listen to advice or admit any error...it's a /really/ toxic combination that gets people killed.

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

Yup. And unfortunately, we only got to this point of corporations being able to conscript the entire public because they were left unchecked when testing and training (and inflicting harm) "just" on those segments of the public hardly anyone with a voice or in power cared about 🙃

Others have drawn these links already, but: colonialism, rape culture, and AI /big tech are intertwined. It all comes down to a deliberate unwillingness to respect consent. Whether land, sex/bodies, or data—if those driven by white supremacist patriarchy want it, doesn't matter if someone says no.

"Something needs to be done differently. We are stuck in a loop expecting something different. I do not think engaging with a performative, pre-determined public consultation process is it." 💯 That the govt is forcing a "sprint" precisely where there is the greatest need to slow down, says it all.

Strongly agree w/ @anabrandusescu.bsky.social. There’s not much reason to engage w/ a government that’s not really interested in listening.
This is a long-standing problem in Canadian digital policy. It’s getting worse under Carney, who’s not even pretending to be interested in balanced AI policy.

This social app can put your face into fake movie scenes, memes and arrest videos The new Sora social app from ChatGPT maker OpenAI encourages users to upload video of their face so their likeness can be put into AI-generated clips.

OpenAI is essentially a social arsonist, developing and releasing tools that hyper scale the most racist, misogynistic, and toxic elements of society, lowering the barriers for all manner of abuse. The so called guardrails make a pinky swear look like an ironclad contract.

Four-hour delay on Via Rail so still en route to Ottawa, but it was time well spent as I finally had a chance to read this cover to cover. What a tour de force, both comprehensive excavation and mobilizing detailed blueprint. Absolutely mandatory reading for anyone purporting to work on AI issues.

In the past week, I've noticed when I enter the #NYC subway in my KN95 mask, one or two other riders - in a train car packed with unmasked riders - timidly reach into their purse or pants pocket, pull out a mask, and put it on. It's like seeing me in a mask gives them the courage to put on theirs. 😷

Boosting again as RSVPs tick up. I've moved venue outdoors to be more covid-safe, unless weather prohibitive. We will have no shortage of things to discuss and I look forward to co-creating even this small preliminary space for a bolder, more radical and liberatory vision of Canadian AI law/policy.

It's also because ppl like Ezra Klein aren't really affected by the political projects they engage in because they don't really have any actual stakes except mental masturbation. Whereas people like Coates have actual skin and the game and know the reality of politics harming people.

People in the complex said they were zip tying kids and they didn't have names or anything. They took you first, then ran to see if you had any outstanding warrants - not just immigration. And the FBI helped them.

It’s a clarifying conversation in that it so clearly shows what people like Klein are on about. For him, politics is a game of chess that’s just about tinkering with the pieces. His sole concern is for an “uncivil” world where he doesn’t get to write and be respected for his chess strategy.

Not only does Klein have absolutely zero answer for the vicious harm brought upon disadvantaged groups from conservative incitement, but his political solutions aren’t even convincing. “Be nicer to conservatives and things will improve” has literally no historic precedent. Just not how it works.

Coates is concerned with the way black people and trans people are harmed, and Klein is concerned with civil discourse. His response to Coates’ concern is simply “well if Democrats win then trans people will be better off.”

I listened to that Ezra Klein and Ta-Nehisi Coates discussion and the clearest takeaway is that they are just engaged in completely different political projects. For Klein politics is academic and for Coates politics is flesh and blood.