new startup idea from Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz's a16z¹: a tool to let you control thousands of #socialmedia accounts that look "as human as possible"

¹ Owners of large stakes in #Substack, The Privatized Public Square (AKA “X” AKA “The Everything App”), and (soon) #TikTok

#DoubleSpeed #AI #grok #psyop #a16z #MarcAndreessen #SlugsOfA16z #uspol #disinformation #BenHorowitz #nerdreich #broligarchy #broligarchs #X #NetworkState

new startup idea from Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz's a16z¹: a tool to let you control thousands of #socialmedia accounts that look "as human as possible"

¹ Owners of large stakes in #Substack, The Privatized Public Square (AKA “X” AKA “The Everything App”), and (soon) #TikTok

#DoubleSpeed #AI #grok #psyop #a16z #MarcAndreessen #SlugsOfA16z #uspol #disinformation #BenHorowitz #nerdreich #broligarchy #broligarchs #X #NetworkState

This return to the Dark Ages with all the thoughtfulness of Atilla The Hun seems to be driven by the arrogance of those who own #AI assets.

The #SiliconValley overlords believe that they are a year or two away from disintermediating academics and scientists through the creation of an #AGI. I have my doubts on that front

#TechnoFeudalism#USPolitics#TechnoFascism#Broligarchy#Technogarchy

On 23 July, the US president issued an Executive Order 'Promoting the Export of the American AI Technology Stack'. It provides for US federal financing tools, such as 'direct loans and loan guarantees', 'equity investments' and 'co-financing' to promote the export of American AI technologies and standards.

@EUCommission: thank you for your attention to this matter under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation ( #fsr)

#mercantilism #broligarchy #exportsubsidies

Bo Hines, the nepo baby son of Todd Hines who was serving as an advisor to America’s “ #crypto czar” David Sacks, has resigned a few days after his dad Todd Hines joined the advisory board of a crypto sports gambling operation.

But it’s fine, I’m sure he won’t be profiting off of all his new contacts in the highest reaches of the American government.

#BoHines#toddHines #strike #crypto #cryptocurrency#sportsGambling #gambling#corruption #uspol #davidsacks #broligarchy #broligarchs #techfascism

i will go to bat for y’all any day. ANY. DAY.

but your messaging to normies needs to be more pointed, more specific and more aggressive in how you describe the human rights #crimes the #techbro #broligarchy is getting away with due to people’s ignorance on how the microcomputers we use as phones are exploited and abused for #surveillance

love your work, @eff

that’s why i believe y’all can do better.

love,
liza

i will go to bat for y’all any day. ANY. DAY.

but your messaging to normies needs to be more pointed, more specific and more aggressive in how you describe the human rights #crimes the #techbro #broligarchy is getting away with due to people’s ignorance on how the microcomputers we use as phones are exploited and abused for #surveillance

love your work, @eff

that’s why i believe y’all can do better.

love,
liza

✨ new on #TheFutureIsFederated 🚀

« In this age of #technofeudalism every writer who covers technology - especially resistance to #BigTech - should disclose their tech stack. Here's mine »

🔗 : https://news.elenarossini.com/technofeudalism-disclosing-my-tech-stack/

Basically, a love letter to #FOSS and the #Fediverse… with room for improvement (especially on the hardware front)

#selfhosting#GoToSocial#Mastodon#NextCloud#Pixelfed#PeerTube#Signal#YunoHost#DeGoogle#LeaveSubstack #resist #resistance #broligarchy

✨ new on #TheFutureIsFederated 🚀

« In this age of #technofeudalism every writer who covers technology - especially resistance to #BigTech - should disclose their tech stack. Here's mine »

🔗 : https://news.elenarossini.com/technofeudalism-disclosing-my-tech-stack/

Basically, a love letter to #FOSS and the #Fediverse… with room for improvement (especially on the hardware front)

#selfhosting#GoToSocial#Mastodon#NextCloud#Pixelfed#PeerTube#Signal#YunoHost#DeGoogle#LeaveSubstack #resist #resistance #broligarchy

Substack is terrible - but even people who know it don't want to leave the platform – a tale in 3 acts.

Act I

Tech journalist Taylor Lorenz published a scoop a few days ago, showing how "Substack sent a push alert promoting a Nazi blog" (if you don't want to give #Substack a click, here is an alt link https://archive.ph/FTjEH).

It was a terrific and disturbing piece - kudos to her.

Act II (plot twist)

People started pointing out that Lorenz herself is using Substack as the publishing platform for her blog - which she monetizes with subscriptions. So, very ballsy move on her part to criticize the platform that she relies on to make a living, but still, some people started pointing out the incongruity of this. What about her values? Why wouldn't she move her newsletter?

Lorenz was starting to get fed up with these comments and explained on Bluesky (alt link / snapshot if you don't want to give Bluesky a click: https://archive.ph/CePll)

" Them: Get off substack
Me: Ok I set up a Patreon. The features aren’t as good but I’m willing to take a hit and do a lot more time consuming work on the back end to make it work. Here’s where you can subscribe to support me. Once enough people hop over I’ll be able to make the jump
Them: crickets "

She followed up that post with the comment:

" A lot of people on here want to attack and punish creators (esp women and LGBTQ ppl) for being forced to rely on certain platforms to make a living, but aren’t actually willing to support those creators in a way that allows them to leave the platforms ur so critical of them being forced to rely on. "

Fair enough.

Act III (in which I insert myself)

I don't post on Bluesky anymore but I felt compelled to resuscitate my account to point out that Substack is not only terrible, but it's also very expensive and takes the BIGGEST cut out of all other newsletter platforms.

I wrote:

" With all due respect Taylor, moving away from Substack is the ethical choice and it also makes financial sense. The great Molly White compiled a detailed breakdown of how much money creators who rely on subscriptions could save... by switching over to other platforms. "

And I linked to Molly White's brilliant post: https://hachyderm.io/@molly0xfff/114319870485786053

I also added a link to the article by @micahflee : "Not only is Substack right-wing broligarchy garbage, it's way more expensive than Ghost" https://micahflee.com/not-only-is-substack-right-wing-broligarchy-garbage-its-way-more-expensive-than-ghost/

Lorenz responded:

"Again, I am on Patreon and have had the option to receive my newsletter directly outside of Substack since day 1. Only 3 people have ever taken me up on this. By the way I cover Substack and the only reason I got the scoop I got it from being in the platform. Hence why I’ll always have an acct"

I just replied to her that #Ghost offers a free concierge migration service (https://ghost.org/concierge/) where she could move over all her paid subscribers... and I said that IMHO she could still use Substack Notes to share her articles if she moved elsewhere... but staying on Substack and giving them 10% of her earnings feels like an implicit endorsement.

I meant that in the most empathetic way. I can understand her struggles but she has 87,000 subscribers and if she wanted to move she could simply ask for help and I'm sure people would volunteer to set her up somewhere else. If she did so on the Fediverse she'd have a self-hosted account on a VPS in less than 24 hours.

Lest you think I want to "attack and publish creators (especially women)" like in Lorenz's words on Bluesky, well, I'm a woman who started self-hosting only 6 months ago and I now run my own Ghost blog which I manually installed. It's not that unattainable.

Maybe it's just me, but I believe that the tech we use sends an important message about our values and the causes we support. Everything is politics now. Including our tech stack.

#DigitalLiteracy #DigitalCoup #A16Z #Broligarchy

Substack is terrible - but even people who know it don't want to leave the platform – a tale in 3 acts.

Act I

Tech journalist Taylor Lorenz published a scoop a few days ago, showing how "Substack sent a push alert promoting a Nazi blog" (if you don't want to give #Substack a click, here is an alt link https://archive.ph/FTjEH).

It was a terrific and disturbing piece - kudos to her.

Act II (plot twist)

People started pointing out that Lorenz herself is using Substack as the publishing platform for her blog - which she monetizes with subscriptions. So, very ballsy move on her part to criticize the platform that she relies on to make a living, but still, some people started pointing out the incongruity of this. What about her values? Why wouldn't she move her newsletter?

Lorenz was starting to get fed up with these comments and explained on Bluesky (alt link / snapshot if you don't want to give Bluesky a click: https://archive.ph/CePll)

" Them: Get off substack
Me: Ok I set up a Patreon. The features aren’t as good but I’m willing to take a hit and do a lot more time consuming work on the back end to make it work. Here’s where you can subscribe to support me. Once enough people hop over I’ll be able to make the jump
Them: crickets "

She followed up that post with the comment:

" A lot of people on here want to attack and punish creators (esp women and LGBTQ ppl) for being forced to rely on certain platforms to make a living, but aren’t actually willing to support those creators in a way that allows them to leave the platforms ur so critical of them being forced to rely on. "

Fair enough.

Act III (in which I insert myself)

I don't post on Bluesky anymore but I felt compelled to resuscitate my account to point out that Substack is not only terrible, but it's also very expensive and takes the BIGGEST cut out of all other newsletter platforms.

I wrote:

" With all due respect Taylor, moving away from Substack is the ethical choice and it also makes financial sense. The great Molly White compiled a detailed breakdown of how much money creators who rely on subscriptions could save... by switching over to other platforms. "

And I linked to Molly White's brilliant post: https://hachyderm.io/@molly0xfff/114319870485786053

I also added a link to the article by @micahflee : "Not only is Substack right-wing broligarchy garbage, it's way more expensive than Ghost" https://micahflee.com/not-only-is-substack-right-wing-broligarchy-garbage-its-way-more-expensive-than-ghost/

Lorenz responded:

"Again, I am on Patreon and have had the option to receive my newsletter directly outside of Substack since day 1. Only 3 people have ever taken me up on this. By the way I cover Substack and the only reason I got the scoop I got it from being in the platform. Hence why I’ll always have an acct"

I just replied to her that #Ghost offers a free concierge migration service (https://ghost.org/concierge/) where she could move over all her paid subscribers... and I said that IMHO she could still use Substack Notes to share her articles if she moved elsewhere... but staying on Substack and giving them 10% of her earnings feels like an implicit endorsement.

I meant that in the most empathetic way. I can understand her struggles but she has 87,000 subscribers and if she wanted to move she could simply ask for help and I'm sure people would volunteer to set her up somewhere else. If she did so on the Fediverse she'd have a self-hosted account on a VPS in less than 24 hours.

Lest you think I want to "attack and publish creators (especially women)" like in Lorenz's words on Bluesky, well, I'm a woman who started self-hosting only 6 months ago and I now run my own Ghost blog which I manually installed. It's not that unattainable.

Maybe it's just me, but I believe that the tech we use sends an important message about our values and the causes we support. Everything is politics now. Including our tech stack.

#DigitalLiteracy #DigitalCoup #A16Z #Broligarchy

Team meeting this morning to do some filming for #EleFediVideos & to discuss the next steps. An issue that came up beautifully illustrates the power of the #Fediverse & decentralized social media.

The 1st video introducing the Fediverse to people not familiar with it will discuss Silicon Valley's #Broligarchy.

#YouTube could take down the video if offended right wing people complain about it.

But if I upload the video to #PeerTube... who are you reporting the video to? To ME! I'm the admin 🤗

The plan for his #DOGE was mapped out in a series of closely held meetings in Palm Beach, FL, & through early #intelligence-gathering efforts in Washington.

Without ceding control of his companies, the richest man in the world has embedded his engineers & aides inside the government’s critical #digital #infrastructure, moving with a swiftness that has stunned #CivilServants.

#law #regulation#CivilService#Technocracy #broligarchy #plutocracy#NeoReactionary#NRx#Technofeudalism#Musk#Trump