@violetmadder @anton @glassresistor there is no blame here, only the idea that we are all imperfect and maybe we can work together on that, because it is incredibly difficult, and every single one of us is fighting a hard battle that we cannot see
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»Diminishing the value of official identification due to the inevitable data breaches, eventually pushing the system to require even more intrusive identification techniques, such as iris scans and fingerprints.«
Next step, rarely considered – very important to highlight. Thank you!
@Em0nM4stodon Interestingly, so far "age verification" for things that actually shouldn't be accessible to teens like hardcore porn and sites selling vapes is ticking a box
@Em0nM4stodon by far my favourite part is how absurd this list gets and yet how it could be reality in, lets say, 10 years
@Em0nM4stodon The internet was born in small spaces. Niche networks of interconnected interest groups using simple protocols to communicate. Our biggest weapon against this is to empower people to create those networks with their own compute. Our biggest enemy is the push to turn every device into a cloud provider's thin client. We can always resist as long as, in everyone's hands and homes, there is a general purpose, Von Neumann architecture, computational engine.
@Em0nM4stodon saving the children while the Epstein Class is still on the loose. Typical: crimizalize the poor for the richman's crimes.
@Em0nM4stodon The harms of Social Media that they claim to be protecting children from are harmful to *everyone*. Age verification isn’t the answer and just throws petrol on an already huge privacy dumpster fire…
@Em0nM4stodon nodds in agreement
" #AgeVerification" is just yet another #FalsePretense for more #Cyberfascism, #SurveillanceState & #PoliceState!
- Thus it is our moral obligation to not.only #RefuseToComply but teach everyone to circumvent this bs!
- And if that means we gotta "drop off #USB #Flashdrives" with #Tails like Darlene in #MrRobot then so be it!
@Em0nM4stodon THE INTERNET IS RAN BY THE GOVERNMENT, DUDE. No ones banning anyone and your legal identity being tied to a public display name that ISN'T a legal identity is absolutely NOT a danger to the public. You're being EXTREMELY counter productive and making it look like YOU use the internet to harbor fugitives who are banned from use of the internet for BEING dangerous to those groups you just mentioned ON THE INTERNET. People get banned from the public domain when they become offenders.
@Em0nM4stodon If it was illegal for social media companies to use and sell personal details, then the lobby (funded secretly by Meta, Google, Apple) for removal of privacy would evaporate.
Children are not protected by revealing full ID info by everyone, that is a lie.
@Em0nM4stodon ah yes, i also anonymize myself throughout social media to protect my privacy 
@Em0nM4stodon they day I have to provide ID to use your service is the day I cancel, it's pretty simple.
And it doesn't take much to antagonize the current government in the US:
"The ICE agent wanted more than a month’s worth of electronic data, but offered no information as to what, exactly, caught the agency’s attention. When John Doe’s attorneys later reviewed their Reddit posts, they found nothing to suggest criminal activity or intent.
"There was a thread from early January, after news outlets including The Intercept identified Jonathan Ross as the ICE officer who shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis. Commenting on a Minnesota Star Tribune article, another Reddit user posted that Ross might be welcomed as a hero in Florida or Texas. John Doe responded by sharing that Ross had lived in Chaska, Minnesota; grew up in Indiana; and served in the Indiana National Guard — biographical details that were circulating widely at the time. “Hopefully he moves up to Stillwater State Penitentiary,” they wrote.
"In another post, a Reddit user asked what they should write on an anti-ICE protest sign. John Doe suggested the lyrics to a song: “Urine speaks louder than words.” In a third instance, Doe wrote, “TSA sucks and we all know it.” According to the Reddit user’s attorneys, these were the most aggressive posts they could find."
https://theintercept.com/2026/04/10/reddit-ice-protest-grand-jury/
@Em0nM4stodon if they cared about the well-being of children and developmental problems with being exposed to the the internet they'd be talking about different thing.
You'd want to make the internet less addictive and dangerous, by limiting ad-tracking and algorithmic systems the incentivize mass data harvesting. Force public-facing spaces to effectively moderate to keep from being dangerous to children.
You'd want to make the material environment more hospitable to doing anything other than sitting inside on a computer all day. Limiting cars so it's safe to be outside, promoting public parks, social programs and child-friendly public events.
You'd want to make the internet less addictive and dangerous, by limiting ad-tracking and algorithmic systems the incentivize mass data harvesting. Force public-facing spaces to effectively moderate to keep from being dangerous to children.
You'd want to make the material environment more hospitable to doing anything other than sitting inside on a computer all day. Limiting cars so it's safe to be outside, promoting public parks, social programs and child-friendly public events.
@anton @Em0nM4stodon ok but what about our complicity here? Everyone wants “free” services that they don’t have to pay for. What is the actual price for that?
@codinghorror @anton @Em0nM4stodon what has that to do with making the internet safer?
@codinghorror @Em0nM4stodon The problems of algorithmic tracking and individual micro-targeting are distinct and much more pernicious than the problems of ad-supported media in general
Long term the project of 99finches is to convince local businesses in Iowa to advertise here instead of on platforms that have been proven in open court to have screwed over their business clients on ad purchases. Then use that revenue to pay people in Iowa to do the long-term work needed to make the Fediverse a serious threat to big tech.
Long term the project of 99finches is to convince local businesses in Iowa to advertise here instead of on platforms that have been proven in open court to have screwed over their business clients on ad purchases. Then use that revenue to pay people in Iowa to do the long-term work needed to make the Fediverse a serious threat to big tech.
@anton @Em0nM4stodon I like this plan a lot.
@codinghorror @anton @Em0nM4stodon
What about it? The moral injury of getting roped into being "complicit" in our own oppression is just one more way they damage us and try to convince us we somehow brought this bullshit on ourselves.
Imagine, for a moment, a world where people could easily get their basic needs met. If disposable income was an actual thing, people would not be in nearly such a hurry to jump for the dangerously predatory "free" shit on offer from the people who helped make sure we're poor in the first place.
@violetmadder @codinghorror @anton @Em0nM4stodon and frankly "people only want free stuff" was never true.
people were always willing to pay a reasonable price for media or software. its just always been priced as a luxury to maximize profits for middlemen. also the shift to free wasnt consumer or creator driven but seller driven as the growth over profits practice is how we got here.
@violetmadder @glassresistor @anton @Em0nM4stodon I don’t agree. People, statistically speaking, have an insane bloodlust for “free”. I have met the enemy and it is me.
@violetmadder @glassresistor @anton @Em0nM4stodon I don’t know how to change human nature but I do know it is folly to work against it rather than acknowledging our collective weaknesses and work alongside them, with them, redirecting and guiding. It is a very difficult path, and the easy way out is constantly, incessantly beckoning to us every damn step of the way.
@codinghorror @violetmadder @anton @Em0nM4stodon human nature is something race scientists made up at the turn of the last century. stop projecting your own shortcomings on to the world and actually study history
@glassresistor @codinghorror @violetmadder like.... yes you can have an understanding of "human nature" as a concept and the political motives of social scientists of the 1900s to make this position reasonable in a vaccum
but that is not a reasonable statement to make in this context. having studied history does not make people automatically agree with you nor automatically have the correct opinions
but that is not a reasonable statement to make in this context. having studied history does not make people automatically agree with you nor automatically have the correct opinions
@anton @codinghorror @violetmadder its funny how little content this reply had. its almost like instead of a point or counter argument you went for the claasic dodge of "haha just because my opinion is unfounded, ahistorical, and lacks even shallow analysis doesnt mean people shouldnt value my opinion" and "your not always right"
please explain to me your historical context for why freemeium became the norm
@glassresistor my point was there wasn't any claim made @codinghorror that warrants so much hostility from you. Yea he was being dismissive and annoying. But whats the core disagreement here? Funding models for media outlets? do we really need to be so dogmatic about it instead of just.... talking about the many, many problems with ad-supported models
@anton @codinghorror i mean to he for clear coding horror is a POS for many prior reasons so im not jumping into this contextless
@glassresistor not surprised, libertarian reply guys tend to have a recognizable pattern
But obviously I, as someone without said context has no reason to be compelled by it. You're undermining your position against the need for ads by making a bunch of vague and inflamitory non-sequiturs
But obviously I, as someone without said context has no reason to be compelled by it. You're undermining your position against the need for ads by making a bunch of vague and inflamitory non-sequiturs
@anton @glassresistor who exactly is a libertarian here? It ain’t me. Proof: https://infosec.exchange/@codinghorror/116178697799384635 or just search my timeline for that word. If I could wish every “libertarian” into the cornfield, I would do it instantly without the slightest hesitation, and the world would be a better place for it.
@codinghorror alright that's fair, I should have been more precise with my jab at you
I meant with that is that you were taking an overly assertive tone. but that such a tone from you does not justify abandoning rigorous argument
I meant with that is that you were taking an overly assertive tone. but that such a tone from you does not justify abandoning rigorous argument
@anton the last time I met a stealth libertarian — my shields were down as this person seemed ok and was invited to my house — I nearly had a complete mental break. It was really dark. I scared the entire family. That is how much I despise libertarians. My advice to “libertarians” is to grow the fuck up, and stay as far as possible away from me, because they have been warned.
@anton @codinghorror @glassresistor
Observing humans under capitalism and saying it is in their nature to be greedy, is like observing humans underwater and saying it's in our nature to drown.
Humans can be shockingly malleable, in terms of what we can be conditioned to accept as normal. Huge amounts of social engineering went into giving us the desperate impulse to grab for whatever we can reach. That's a compulsive behavior, very much like the food hoarding of a person who's experienced starvation. Or the junk-hoarding behavior of people who've had everything taken away from them multiple times-- sweeping the homeless compounds their trauma and makes them that much more likely to cling to anything and everything they can.
Artificial scarcity is DESIGNED to make us act like this. Torture programs research learned helplessness and addiction and more, for this purpose. Blame the victims, convince everybody this is just a dog eat dog world where everybody is a selfish bastard deep down and.. actually, what IS the point of that line of reasoning??
@violetmadder @anton @glassresistor there is no blame here, only the idea that we are all imperfect and maybe we can work together on that, because it is incredibly difficult, and every single one of us is fighting a hard battle that we cannot see
@codinghorror @violetmadder @anton i can agree we are imperfect. can you agree that "users demanded free" is ahistorical. users pirated because digital media was overpriced and inconvenient, users happily paid for records and books while pirating photoshop.
people love paying for spotify now.
the move to free with ads then paid without ads to finally pay for less ads was always the strategy and one planned pretty early on. the valley has been chasing leverage over profits for 3 generations now. people didnt choose this CEOs did and made us think we did.
@glassresistor @codinghorror @violetmadder all these ad-supported businesses that would otherwise be subscription-based are heavily reliant on network effects. it's a lot easier to get someone to try something if that thing is free to use.
That understanding of the demand for piracy in large part comes from Valve Software and Steam. With the Steam example Valve had the benefit of making Half-Life, one of the most popular games of all time. And the other thing with Steam is that a lot of the people who make games for Steam would not settle for a non-paid option.
because the content and the consumer aren't distinguishable for social networking. For the promises of federated systems to really work, exit costs need to be kept as low as possible. Most people do not, and should not be expected to, have loyalty to their particular instance strong enough to make most instances financially sustainable.
Ads should have their place in the federated ecosystem. especially when said ads are structured in a way that helps recruit powerful people in the fight against tech-oligarchy and the surveillance state
That understanding of the demand for piracy in large part comes from Valve Software and Steam. With the Steam example Valve had the benefit of making Half-Life, one of the most popular games of all time. And the other thing with Steam is that a lot of the people who make games for Steam would not settle for a non-paid option.
because the content and the consumer aren't distinguishable for social networking. For the promises of federated systems to really work, exit costs need to be kept as low as possible. Most people do not, and should not be expected to, have loyalty to their particular instance strong enough to make most instances financially sustainable.
Ads should have their place in the federated ecosystem. especially when said ads are structured in a way that helps recruit powerful people in the fight against tech-oligarchy and the surveillance state
@anton @codinghorror @glassresistor
The powerful people ARE the tech-oligarchy and surveillance state.
We need the combined power of a lot of ordinary people, not "powerful" rescuers who are just going to keep pulling the same old crap. Ads pollute the ecosystem.
@violetmadder @codinghorror when I say powerful people I mean elected officials, local political parties, union leaders, small business owners. These people are absolutely not the tech oligarchy, these are also categorically not just "ordinary people". Those types of people are in fact quite often *the* enemy in wide range of political struggles.
I've thought about this shit before, I understand many of the problems with advertising as a model. If you have a specific structural concern with how advertising would corrupt the platform incentives I'm all ears.
If you have another way I can potentially make a living for myself and others fighting the colonization of our attention and social relations by tech ghouls. Which doesn't increase barriers to entry, and doesn't require being beholden to wealthy donors, and isn't advertising, I'd fucking LOVE to hear it
I've thought about this shit before, I understand many of the problems with advertising as a model. If you have a specific structural concern with how advertising would corrupt the platform incentives I'm all ears.
If you have another way I can potentially make a living for myself and others fighting the colonization of our attention and social relations by tech ghouls. Which doesn't increase barriers to entry, and doesn't require being beholden to wealthy donors, and isn't advertising, I'd fucking LOVE to hear it
@anton @violetmadder it is extremely complicated and we have to work together because we outnumber the vastly wealthy especially in the second gilded age; the math is brutal, we may not have vast wealth but we have something far more powerful: each other. 💛
@Em0nM4stodon It is not a bug, It is a feature.
