Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dave Willner @dwillner.bsky.social · 5d

Right? I don’t even know what the current fight is about, but let’s not be silly now.

Dave Willner @dwillner.bsky.social · 5d

So, the first part of this is plainly false, both historically and currently. I don’t think it’s a good thing in most cases…but it’s plainly the case that pressuring the people in charge of moderation to either ban (or not ban) people works *All The Time*. It is why people do it!

Jay 🦋 @jay.bsky.team · 5d

Harassing the mods into banning someone has never worked. And harassing people in general has never changed their mind.

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Reposted by Dave Willner

Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · 6d

New Ctrl-Alt-Speech: Moderating is Such Sweet Sorrow with guest host @dwillner.bsky.social who is entirely responsible for bringing up Shakespeare as part of this discussion. (@benwhitelaw.bsky.social will be back next week!)

podcast.ctrlaltspeech.com/2315966/epis...

Moderating is Such Sweet Sorrow - Ctrl-Alt-Speech

In this week’s roundup of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike is joined by Dave Willner, founder of Zentropi, and long-time trust & safety expert who...

podcast.ctrlaltspeech.com

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Dave Willner @dwillner.bsky.social · 15d

While terrible, this is entirely unsurprising. If you hold serious safety efforts in contempt, this sort of thing is inevitable.

Ryan Mac 🙃 @rmac.bsky.social · 15d

This is horrific and feels like it should be a bigger deal. Business Insider reports that people who have worked at xAI have seen Grok create images and written material with child sex abuse material.

www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-gr...

Behind Grok's 'sexy' settings, workers review explicit and disturbing content

Workers say they've faced sexually explicit content while xAI has marketed Grok to be deliberately provocative. Experts say the company should be cautious.

www.businessinsider.com

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Reposted by Dave Willner

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · 18d

Disney/ABC have a responsibility to refuse to participate in corruption.

Kimmel must be reinstated. If Disney/ABC agree to this extortion then perhaps creatives + workers should consider collective action to push back. Same w/buying park + cruise tickets if they bow.

People have power. Ask Target

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Nate Cardozo @natecardozo.bsky.social · 18d

No one who agrees to this is a journalist.

Scott Nover @scottnover.bsky.social · 18d

NEW: The Pentagon told journalists it will require them to pledge they won’t gather any information — even unclassified — that hasn’t been expressly authorized for release, and will revoke the press credentials of those who do not obey. @washingtonpost.com

Pentagon demands journalists pledge to not obtain unauthorized material

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is imposing strict new rules that would severely limit the ability of journalists to report on the Pentagon.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Dave Willner @dwillner.bsky.social · 19d

I somehow doubt it.

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Kate Klonick @klonick.bsky.social · 20d

Losing my ever-loving-mind watching the same people who were just clutching their pearls claiming censorship over mean emails from WH staffers to Twitter about COVID misinfo are now HAVING THE FCC CHAIR openly threaten broadcast licenses over a joke about the president AND THE BROADCASTERS CENSOR IT

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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 20d

This is a massive, history making abuse of your power. It will define your legacy and one day you will come to regret punishing free speech and trying to destroy democracy.

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Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 20d

This is jawboning. This is what the Freedom Caucus fascists of the Weaponization Committee and their Substack lackeys pretended was happening under some “Biden regime,” but it wasn’t. It was always projection.

The ABC late-night host's remarks constituted "the sickest conduct possible,"
FCC chair Brendan Carr told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson on Wednesday.
Carr suggested his FCC could move to revoke ABC affiliate licenses as a way to force Disney to punish Kimmel.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," Carr said. "These companies can find ways to change conduct and take actions on Kimmel, or there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead."
Carr added that the broadcasters, including ABC, "have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public

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nilay patel @reckless.bsky.social · 20d

We cannot make the headlines blunter people www.theverge.com/policy/77979...

Republicans are honoring Charlie Kirk’s memory by declaring war on the First AmendmentThe guardians of ‘free speech’ sure had a change of heart.

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 22d

staring straight into the camera and lying. just a despicable person and a poor excuse for a national leader.

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 22d

Vance: “People on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence. This is not a both sides problem. If both sides have a problem, then one side has a much bigger and malignant problem and that is the truth.”

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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 27d

We must stand resolutely against political assassination and political violence of all kinds, and just as resolutely against everyone who exploits acts of violence as the pretext or excuse for political repression of political opponents.

Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social · 27d

Very, very bad stuff coming from leading right-wingers

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Dave Willner @dwillner.bsky.social · Aug 27

We got really positive feedback on the TrustCon workshop we ran on writing good content policies for LLMs...so we're doing it again! If you're interested go sign up here, so we can start to figure out timing: forms.gle/tj7vf7ng8n7R...

Zentropi LLM Policy Writing Workshop Signup

forms.gle

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Stanford Cyber Policy Center @stanfordcyber.bsky.social · Aug 20

The agenda for the Trust and Safety Research Conference is out now. Two days of lightning talks, presentations, networking and more, with @dwillner.bsky.social‬ as keynote. Join us!

For the full line-up and times, plus link to register, visit:

cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/content/trus...

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Benjamin Wittes @benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org · Aug 19

A sprite of mischief in New York left sunflowers at the Russian consulate.

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Benjamin Wittes @benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org · Aug 19

I mean honestly, people, this is a really good idea. Cut sunflowers make Russian diplomats really really angry.

Buy a few sunflowers.

Drop them at an embassy/consulate near you.

youtu.be/R8tr6Dhn78A?...

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Reposted by Dave Willner

Mike "looking for research fellowship" Caulfield @mikecaulfield.bsky.social · Aug 10

The joy we felt when after hearing repeatedly to not expect anything sooner than 18 months when we were told they'd be rolling something out before the end of the year. The absolute testament to the power and ingenuity of the American system of science. Moon landing level stuff, and now erased.

lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · Aug 10

I got a flu booster today and it made me reflect on the sense of national accomplishment I felt when I drove to a public facility, waited in my car until my number was called on an app, and got my first covid jab. It's fucked the right gets to erase what a moment of technological liberation that was

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