Drew_Wilson 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: FTC’s ‘Tech Censorship’ Investigation Is Censoring Comments About ‘Censorship’

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 30 Apr, 2025 @ 12:28am

    That is still to be determined. Just when an answer seems to appear to show that we have finally reached that limit of maximum stupidity, the government will continue to find a way to exceed that threshold and find new levels of stupidity. This may very well be one of those mysteries that never get solved, despite the many levels of expertise trying to determine this.

  • On the post: Trump’s Secret Police Are Now Disappearing Students For Their Op-Eds

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 27 Mar, 2025 @ 04:16pm

    It can be pretty fucking fun to say fuck at times too.

  • On the post: Trump’s Secret Police Are Now Disappearing Students For Their Op-Eds

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 27 Mar, 2025 @ 01:41pm

    Did My Part

    These are scary times, but people need to stop cowering. They need to speak up. They need to show up. They need to say that this is not the America any of us were taught to believe in. This is not the America of freedom and rights.
    Did my part. This story is fucked up. https://www.freezenet.ca/trump-escalates-his-war-on-free-speech-by-outright-disappearing-people/

  • On the post: Yet Another Columnist Claims Bluesky Is A Liberal Echo Chamber Because Its Users Keeping Kicking Nazis Out Of The Bar

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 21 Mar, 2025 @ 02:21am

    This all tracks with everything else I've witnessed over the last several years. Far right wingers want a license to endlessly harass others with no repercussions. The claims that they want their own space is simply hollow. They had it with sites like Parler and Gab, but both failed because they (to paraphrase Mike Masnick I believe) broke the cycle of abuse. So, Musk bought Twitter and turned it into a Nazi bar. People got fed up with the sewage and left and the platform is now failing. So, some of the garbage people are trying to get into places like Mastodon and Bluesky to continue the cycle and ran into fierce resistance because not only will users not put up with that crap, but use the tools to drop them from conversing on top of it all. The freedom to harass marginalized people are what the far right really care about. This has been proven time and time and time again. The whining about being blocked only serves as a more recent reminder of this. I mean, seriously, don't like being blocked, stop being an asshole. Not that hard. Heck, it wasn't that long ago that I used Mastodon's block feature on someone desperately trying to convince me that Biden is a pedophile. I didn't even bring up Biden in the first place, but suddenly, this user started hitting me with all these obviously made up BS conspiracy theories. I declined to show interest and when the user insisted, I hit "block" because I had no interest in putting up with that crap. If that makes me a Liberal echo chamber, then I have absolutely no problem with that. After blocking that user, my feed was, once again, nice and squeaky clean and my experience continued to be quite pleasant.

  • On the post: The FTC Wants More Control Over Online Speech. That’s A Big Problem

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2025 @ 10:41pm

    If you strictly focus on Facebook, X/Twitter, and Reddit, of course it's going to look monopolistic. If, however, you include smaller platforms like Mastodon, Bluesky, and others, then you see the diversity in the market. The only exception here is the advertising realm which really is monopolostic and limited to mostly Facebook and Google, but that's... the online advertising market and not the social media market. Ever since Elon Musk drove X/Twitter into the ground, there's actually been a nice injection of new services that have been brought into prominence. If you can believe it, competition in the social media landscape has actually improved in recent years.

  • On the post: The Real ‘Gulf Of America’ Is Between The News Outlets That Cover This Administration

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 14 Feb, 2025 @ 05:01pm

    they’re not stupid
    The link tax debate in previous years has me thinking otherwise. They argued that social media is wholly dependent on news content for their success (which is wrong). They argued that linking to them is stealing (which is wrong on numerous levels). They argued that the platforms would have no choice but to negotiate "deals" to pay for linking (that never happened in either Canada or the US). They tried boycotting the platforms (all of which failed at downright comical levels). The end result was that, in some cases, they got themselves kicked off the platforms, shooting their own foot in the process (as is the case with Meta and Canadian news links). With respect to Canada, the end result of that was that they became wholly dependent on Canadian government bailouts to keep them in business. The current (unfortunate) political frontrunner is chomping at the bit to immediately cut funding to the media afterwards, potentially wiping out a huge chunk of the press corp in the process. With respect to the US, though, I think the press legitimately thought that Trump wasn't really going to go through what he said he was going to go through with. Like you, I think they thought it was going to give them better ratings when the US slips into tyranny. Yet, Trump has said it himself that he is wanting to jail reporters for daring to hurt his feelings. With how things are already escalating, we aren't that far off from the press being required to tow the Trump propaganda line or being forced to shut down. I doubt this is going to be beneficial to the press over the long term.

  • On the post: No, The People Didn’t Vote For This

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 10 Feb, 2025 @ 04:07pm

    Saul Williams - Not in Our Name (Pledge of Resistance). On YouTube. You're welcome.

  • On the post: No More Pretense: Carr’s FCC Threatens News Radio Station For Reporting The News Too Specifically

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2025 @ 04:59pm

    Orange furor has been chomping at the bit to crack down on journalism for a long time now. Now that he has unlimited power, he's darn well going to do it. Defending one's self against right wing attacks is likely going to be a big topic of discussion moving forward. I suspect that it's going to be much tougher to defend yourself within the US, but being "offshore" and being in another country might offer some protection - even if temporary. Whether or not this will result in the building of heavily encrypted anonymous news organizations remains to be seen given that we are so early into this. It will probably depend on how far the Trump administration plans on carrying through with the threats on actual free speech.

  • On the post: SCOTUS: TikTok’s China Connection Is So Scary & Urgent, We Can Ban An Entire App. Biden Admin: Just Kidding, We Won’t Enforce It

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2025 @ 12:49pm

    I've been on the lookout for even the smallest shred of evidence that any of this hyperbole about TikTok being an evil brainwashing data collecting entity myself. I never saw any. The security community couldn't find anything substantive that makes TikTok seem like a unique threat to my knowledge. The best show that conspiracy theory had was when the national security apparatus went before Congress to testify on the threats of TikTok. The response? They were just merely speculating on hypotheticals and nothing more. They had no evidence that any of it was actually going on: https://www.freezenet.ca/as-us-intelligence-admits-tiktok-threats-are-purely-hypothetical-us-accused-of-using-tiktok-to-manipulate-china/ So, if there was actual evidence, like Mike, I couldn't find any.

  • On the post: SCOTUS: TikTok’s China Connection Is So Scary & Urgent, We Can Ban An Entire App. Biden Admin: Just Kidding, We Won’t Enforce It

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2025 @ 12:43pm

    Free speech is legally dead in America.

  • On the post: TikTok Users Gleefully Embrace Even More Chinese App To Spite US TikTok Ban

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2025 @ 04:02pm

    This is about setting precedent. If the government can arbitrarily ban one app just for shits and giggles, they can do that for any app and threaten any app or site as needed. We've seen this in the age verification debate. In the earlier days, supporters of age verification laws swore up and down that this was strictly about keeping minors away from pornographic material and would never expand into other things. Fast forward to today and we've already seen not only the backtracking of those comments and an admission that age verification is just a stepping stone to a full porn ban law, but also attempts being made to expand age verification to social media, video games, and apps. In short, they are finally dropping all pretense of what they are really trying to do here. Simply put, the government is wanting an unprecedented amount of censorial power over the internet. If they get this win, you can darn well bet they are going to take that censorial inch and run a mile with it. Any apps or sites appearing "disloyal" or somehow "anti-American" (re: whatever made up BS reason they can come up with since it clearly worked for TikTok) can be subjected to a massive censorship order on a whim. This risks ripping the entire open internet apart and compels users to start seeking anti-internet censorship tools to circumvent the Great Firewall of America (again, something that has happened in the age verification laws). I really hope this ruling doesn't open the censorship floodgates, but if it does, it would be a repeat of what history has already shown with such additional powers afforded to government.

  • On the post: Jeff Bezos’ Latest Gambit To Bring Back Trust In Media: Silence Editorial Cartoonists Who Call Out Your Sniveling Compliance

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 06 Jan, 2025 @ 01:53pm

    Having an owner meddling in the content of his news staff for personal, business, or political purposes is absolutely devastating to the credibility of any news organization. The long-standing criticism of the mainstream media is that they are only reporting the facts that are friendly towards the large mega corporations and the ultra wealthy. While they may not like that criticism, here we see, yet again, the Washington Post actually proving that criticism to be correct. I can't help but think that we are on a path of a major reckoning with outlets like the Washington Post, but at this point, I'm not entirely sure what form that would take (and whether it would be good or bad).

  • On the post: Trumplican 6th Circuit Just Killed Net Neutrality (And Whatever Was Left Of Pathetic U.S. Broadband Consumer Protection)

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2025 @ 01:38pm

    I know I've been pretty pessimistic about a lot of things lately, but in this instance, there is something positive to think about. Multiple states (i.e. California) have passed their own version of network neutrality laws. While there have been challenges, a number of those challenges have been dropped. Yes, a patchwork set of rules across the country is no replacement for a federal level set of laws, but at the very least, a patchwork set of protections is better than no protections at all, right?

  • On the post: Elon Musk Doesn’t Like Some Headlines. But That Doesn’t Make Them Defamatory

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 02 Jan, 2025 @ 02:56pm

    Don't give them legislative ideas.

  • On the post: 2024: AI Panic Flooded The Zone, Leading To A Backlash

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2024 @ 10:00pm

    People will honestly believe the darndest things and the mainstream media will have no qualms spreading such conspiracy theories - even going so far as to report them as facts directly in the headlines as you so nicely pointed out. I remember throughout 2023 the predictions that AI was going to cause humanity to go extinct sometime in 2024. That... obviously didn't happen, so I'm fully expecting the goal posts to be moved to say something like sometime in 2025 or 2026 (this time for reals edition) and some people, depressingly, won't be batting an eye at that and assume that they have never been led astray before, so why question it now? It was just today that I learned that there was still an active cult out there that believed that the Y2K bug really would've been responsible for widespread destruction and chaos as the entire planet could've erupted into a giant fireball, every computer system would've physically exploded, every plane on the planet was going to fall from the sky the moment the clocks struck midnight, and everyone was going to die. The only reason that didn't happen, according to them, was because people were working for over a decade to fix the issue. I was absolutely astonished that the Y2K doom cult still existed to this day, 25 years later. I'm closing in on asking these same people how they averted the world ending over the Mayan calendar thing. In all seriousness, though, I guess this really is where we are at in modern society. All conspiracy theories are real and all facts are just a conspiracy so "they" can more effectively "get you". I seriously hope that I don't eventually have to put up with death threats somehow making their way into my mail box one day because I published a minor explainer on how fair dealing in Canadian copyright law works. Even if I do, I already know I wouldn't be the first in such a scenario.

  • On the post: Rethinking Screen Time: Not All Screen Time Is The Same

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 26 Dec, 2024 @ 08:15pm

    Yeah, I was always suspicious of any moral panic that involved "screen time". Every time I've ever seen the hand waving about it, it was never discussed what that "screen time" is. Is it online banking? Is it e-learning? Is it work related? Is it paying the bills? Is it online shopping? Is it using an ATM? Is it taking an online course? All of the above is rarely frowned on, yet "screen time" is supposed to be this societal menace that is plaguing society. Unfortunately, most of those kinds of reports never talk about those specifics. It's always "screen time BAD!!!" as they attach it to whatever technological moral panic the media companies are trying to spread at the time. The term "screen time" is about as vague as "EDM".

  • On the post: Ken Paxton’s Subpoena To 404 Media Shows How MAGA World Is Already Harassing Journalists

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 12 Dec, 2024 @ 05:29pm

    That's two attacks on the media in two days from the MAGA crowd (if I got that timeline correct). I think it goes without saying that this is not a good trend.

  • On the post: Ken Paxton’s Subpoena To 404 Media Shows How MAGA World Is Already Harassing Journalists

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 12 Dec, 2024 @ 05:27pm

    Looks like the embeds were fixed (had the same issue on my end).

  • On the post: NBC News Does Entire Piece Trying To Link CEO Shooting To ‘Violent Video Game’

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 12 Dec, 2024 @ 05:26pm

    To my knowledge, it absolutely does violate the Canadian Charter. Canada does protect the right to free speech (albeit 'within reason'). If that stinker of a bill gets passed, I'm certain it'll at least get challenged in court. For that to happen, though, it has to become law first. We're not there yet, but not that far off. Hopefully, it doesn't come to that.

  • On the post: NBC News Does Entire Piece Trying To Link CEO Shooting To ‘Violent Video Game’

    Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 11 Dec, 2024 @ 08:53pm

    Canada’s got one in the works, though not sure how it’s doing. (See Bill S-210)
    I can fill you in on that. It passed both the House and the Senate. It was generally expected that it would become law by making Royal Assent sometime in November (last month). We were all pretty much bracing for impact on that one, but then, ironically, the Conservative filibuster (the Conservative party is the ones trying to pass this) hit and ground everything in parliament to a standstill. The House rises for Christmas break on the 17th, so unless the filibuster is lifted within a week and this gets pushed through at the last minute, then it is, at minimum, getting delayed until next year. There's still technically a possibility that it will become law, but everything is in a state of limbo for the time being. If an election is called and it doesn't make it under the wire, then it will die on the orderpaper. Personally rooting for that to happen in this context.

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