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Alec is a technologist, writer & security consultant who has worked in host and network security for more than 30 years, with 25 of those in industry.
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From 2019: ‘If there were 5 million “bad people” on Facebook – terrorists, criminals, drug-dealers, whatever – that would be 0.2% of the userbase’

2026-04-14 02:05:49

99.8% would not be “bad people”.

This is “scale”.

Occasionally people need reminding how this works.

I find it bizarre that the AgeVerification (AV) industry says “platforms don’t want AV because they don’t want private data” – BUT civil society says “platforms DO want AV because they want private data”

2026-04-13 17:04:07

It’s like those criticisms of the BBC where they receive conflicting hate from both sides, so you have to start wondering whether the platforms aren’t simply doing the right thing to have pissed-off everybody.

Probably, yes, given the circumstances.


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Trump posts graphic video of slaying to argue for stricter immigration policies | BBC News

2026-04-12 04:24:14

“Hey, d’ya remember the good old days back when journalists, politicians & civil society would rage that platforms “must do more to take down violent content” – including proactive censorship – RATHER THAN POLITELY COMMENT ABOUT IT BEING REPOSTED & AMPLIFIED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE USA ON HIS OWN SITE?”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1eqvpw3j1no

In a X/Twitter post that garnered over 3.2 million impressions, EFF declares X is”…no longer where the fight is happening”

2026-04-11 04:01:24

A startling revelation: if folk who are supposed to be fighting for your rights abandon the battlefield in fear & despair, then there will no longer be a fight. Who would have guessed?

Supposedly 3.2 million people “saw” the EFF tweet; which is comparable to / only marginally less than the total daily usage of Bluesky.

A bug on the dark side of the Moon

2026-04-08 14:30:03

The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) is one of the most scrutinised codebases in history … We found a bug in it that had been missed for fifty-seven years: a resource lock in the gyro control code that leaks on an error path, silently disabling the guidance platform’s ability to realign.

https://www.juxt.pro/blog/a-bug-on-the-dark-side-of-the-moon/

The trial lawyers come for online free speech | Blaze Media

2026-04-07 03:23:37

Trial lawyers are poised to accomplish in courtrooms nationwide what politicians have thus far failed to write into statute. The effects of this effort — undertaken without the deliberation of the nation’s representative bodies — are likely to rival those of even the most sweeping laws.

https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/the-trial-lawyers-come-for-online-free-speech