Drew_Wilson 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (303)

• On the post: LA Times Owner To Personally Review Opinion Headlines To Avoid Offending Elon Musk

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 05 Dec, 2024 @ 02:41pm

  The smaller outlets do need help as well - now more than ever.

• On the post: Press Glosses Over Fact Trump’s FCC Pick Will Decimate Consumer Protection, Media Consolidation Limits

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 20 Nov, 2024 @ 01:50pm

  When I covered this story, I actually directly quoted Bode talking about consumer protection being gutted while pointing out that free speech is basically under threat because of the appointment. I know, I'm not some major news outlet by any means. If anything, Techdirt is a bigger name than my site, but hey, I'm glad I'm not part of the problem at least. :)

• On the post: What Free Speech? Trump Ramps Up Threats To Sue Publishers Over Their Speech

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 15 Nov, 2024 @ 01:35pm

  I think an extremely frustrating aspect is the fact that the large media outlets spent this entire election sane washing Trump and normalizing his dictatorial tendencies as "normal" political behaviour. These efforts to distort reality has helped Trump make it back into the White House. With these efforts of playing these stupid games, the large media outlets are being "rewarded" with these stupid prizes. It would be hilarious if it didn't affect everyone else who are actually standing up for truth and basic civil rights in the process.

• On the post: We Need To Fight For Free Speech More Than Ever

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 07 Nov, 2024 @ 04:09pm

  He created a website, did a metric tonne of research, analyzed court documents, analyzed the various laws and legislation going around, informed the public on what is going on, withstood legal attacks, examined what's going on internationally for added context, and encouraged people to take part in the fight for free speech among other things. Meanwhile, you leave an anonymous comment on his site that he built. I don't think that's the zinger you think it is.

• On the post: We Need To Fight For Free Speech More Than Ever

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 07 Nov, 2024 @ 02:18pm

  When both websites I worked for shut down, I had a choice: do I go it alone and build a website from the ground up or do I just give up on the fight for free speech, privacy, digital rights, and more? I chose the latter knowing full well that it is entirely possible that the website I built would never succeed. I also braved legal threats that I would have to deal with myself because someone out there with lots of money didn't like what I had to say and actively wanted to silence me (and I have faced those threats). Yet, I chose to keep going in probably one of, if not, the biggest acts of bravery in my life. Not only did I choose to carry on the fight, but I carried it on for a whopping 11 years which I'm sure is FAR longer than anyone would've expected me to last. The situation today is FAR different. You have a president who is basically above the law, has unlimited power, and has an axe to grind on everyone he feels wronged him. America is heading towards a fascist dictatorship and nothing can be done to stop it at this point, plain and simple. Things like free speech is basically going to be non-existent soon in the US. By all means, take a stand against it. I applaud you and anyone else out there willing to stand up for your rights like that. The thing is, I don't see how that is going to change the outcome of the situation other than putting yourself at considerable risk of jail or worse. Trump has said it himself, he wants to jail journalists. Personally, I'm going to wait and see if he does manage to follow through with that. If the mass arrests start happening, I don't know if I have the will to keep going. Call if cowardice. Call it defeatist. Honestly, continuing the fight even as the arrests, jailings, and killings are happening feels like all I'd be doing is trying to go out in a blaze of glory. I'm happy to continue the fight for as long as possible, but when shit hits the fan, I seriously don't know. I might be better off if I'm out. If someone out there wants to take the baton and carry on knowing full well the risks, by all means, you'd have my support. I'm looking at things right now and thinking that I'm seeing the end of the road coming up for me.

• On the post: Net Neutrality Heads Back To Court; Corrupt Supreme Court Could Dismantle U.S. Broadband Consumer Protection

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2024 @ 02:19pm

  America runs on hate. Trump ran on hate. Trump is now president elect.

• On the post: The American Privacy Rights Act’s Hidden AI Ban

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 29 Oct, 2024 @ 08:53pm

  You do realize that AI, as a concept, is not inherently bad, right?

• On the post: Dear Jeff Bezos: The ‘Hard Truth’ Is That Cowardice Like Yours Is Why People Don’t Trust The Media

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 29 Oct, 2024 @ 05:11pm

  The rot in the mainstream media is becoming more and more difficult to ignore. While far right wing weirdos love to bash the mainstream media for being out to get them personally for their "deeply held conservative views" (they aren't really), that is not to say that there aren't deeply problematic issues within the mainstream media. The consolidation of the media companies and the venture capital ownership that many find themselves under has led to the stripping of resources that have allowed the major media companies to thrive in the past. A number have been saddled with crippling debt on top of it all. This as a lot of talent that still lingers in the newsroom have to continually work with less and less. Some ended up leaving and the talent dwindled over time. The effects are very obvious. Articles that should never have been published for failure to fact-check the basics (just look at the publishers stories on link taxes) are pushed. When they get called out on obvious errors, there is usually a doubling down and the media companies either ignore the criticism or they push back and accuse others of "misinformation". The mainstream media with that alone have devolved into the very thing they regularly bash social media of being - a megaphone for disinformation and misinformation. Obviously, there's also the problems of them being feckless along with the usual "view from nowhere" coverage. I legitimately thought it was bad enough that the mainstream media simply reposted press releases from major corporations without the slightest bit of independent research (re: the RIAA filesharing lawsuit days), but they went from bad to worse with their domestic political coverage. I think the worst aspect of all of this is the refusal to think that they did anything wrong in all of this. For them, it's not them that is royally screwing things up, but rather, it's the rest of the world that's wrong. If people aren't reading their coverage, then that's the audiences fault for not reading their glorious perfect coverage. If people are using social media to get their information, then it's not only the audiences fault, but social media's fault that this is happening. If the mainstream media isn't making money like they used to, then again, that's not their fault. It's clearly the rest of the world that's at fault there. The mainstream media is of the mindset that they are never at fault for any of the repercussions of the decisions they made. It's because of that attitude that I sincerely doubt a course correction is going to happen any time soon. The best I can hope for is for the journalists to form various independent news rooms and simply overtake the legacy media companies position and letting the old growth media die off and make way for the newer business generation. That will take time, but I suspect that might happen sooner than the mainstream media companies admitting that they made mistakes along the way and start reforming the way they do business.

• On the post: Some (Slightly Biased) Thoughts On The State Of Decentralized Social Media

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 29 Oct, 2024 @ 03:15pm

  Honestly, 13 million users is still a heck of a lot better than 145 million bots and a half a million real(ly toxic) users (which is a rough picture of what X/Twitter has become in the last year). Bluesky is probably one of the top platforms I wish I was active on, but simply don't have enough time (I work a part time day job). I'm already managing a website, a growing YouTube channel (just hit 155 subscribers!), and am active on Mastodon, so my time is pretty much stretched thin as it is. I think Twitch and TikTok are the only other platforms that I kind of wish I was on as well. My understanding is that it's supposed to be possible for Bluesky users to communicate with Mastodon users (maybe I'm wrong?), but when I tried searching for my Mastodon account on Bluesky, it doesn't appear. I think it would be fantastic to be able to follow Mastodon users on Bluesky while sharing and boosting posts from one app to another. I mean, I think it would be absolutely amazing that a Mastodon user could boost a Bluesky post because they share the same protocol, but I'm not sure it's all that possible as of yet. I think if that sort of thing happens, it would be another nail in the X/Twitter coffin.

• On the post: ExTwitter Is Such Hot Garbage Even British Cops No Longer Want Anything To Do With It

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2024 @ 12:11am

  It always bothered me that numerous journalists and politicians stuck with Twitter. Both have long screamed about how social media is destroying society and harming democracy, yet they always flock to the worst offender of this and continue to use it like no tomorrow. Many rightfully criticize Musk for many of his actions, yet they continue to make X/Twitter their daily driver anyway. Almost every other platform in existence is better and you are feeding Musk's personal megaphone by staying and pushing your content. They need to seriously stop because they are part of the problem with this whole sorry affair. Use better alternatives like Mastodon or Bluesky, give Threads a shot, try TikTok, give YouTube a try... anything but continue to help the likes of Musk. I understand not wanting to use Facebook and Instagram since the media companies decided to kick themselves off of those platforms with link taxes, but there are loads of other platforms out there that are better run. The media and politicians need to stop feeding the Musk troll.

• On the post: Muscular Dystrophy Took His Mobility, But the Internet Gave Him Community

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 10 Oct, 2024 @ 12:47am

  Mike Masnick should write more headlines that rhyme. I find the word choice to be sublime.

• On the post: Chinese Access To AT&T/Verizon Wiretap System Shows Why We Cannot Backdoor Encryption

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 08 Oct, 2024 @ 03:25pm

  I've honestly lost track of how long this very scenario was warned about, but I suspect that, rather than learning that the stove is hot, authorities will respond by doubling down on the "nerd harder" business because asking for the impossible is just a minor challenge that others can tackle.

• On the post: Oxford Study: Those Dastardly Video Games Are Good For Improving Your Mood

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 04 Oct, 2024 @ 12:28pm

  Well, I can recommend taking a break from the news from time to time (which you are already doing which I think is good). Personally, I don't view it as healthy to be telling people comforting lies. Of course, being a journalist myself, it's kind of a requirement to be telling the truth. Be thankful you aren't a journalist like myself where there is little you can do to step away from the madness. I know plenty of writers who quit because they (understandably) couldn't take it anymore.

• On the post: Oxford Study: Those Dastardly Video Games Are Good For Improving Your Mood

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 04 Oct, 2024 @ 12:24pm

  Never said that. Just pointing out the possibility of funny business is all. I really hope Kamala wins so we can have some semblance of normalcy in world politics.

• On the post: Oxford Study: Those Dastardly Video Games Are Good For Improving Your Mood

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 04 Oct, 2024 @ 01:27am

  Not of Trump manages to steal the election of course. The voting math is weird in the US, but if I remember correctly, the last time a Republican presidential candidate won the popular vote, George W. Bush got his second term in office. Democrats have won 7 elections out of the last 8 when it comes to popular vote. Republican's have had to otherwise rely on the funny math of the EC for every other time they took the White House. For all the complaints about "rigging", the system is actually rigged for Republican's for the last some odd 30 years. So, it's entirely possible Kamala can win the popular vote and still lose the election.

• On the post: The Copyright Directive’s Link Tax Has Been A Failure; Will Anyone Learn From This?

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 30 Sep, 2024 @ 07:50pm

  The Copyright Directive’s Link Tax Has Been A Failure; Will Anyone Learn From This?

  No. It's been my experience that dealing with link tax supporters is like dealing with the Borg. They cannot be bargained with or reasoned with. Every time you bring up a valid criticism towards any link tax, they will always come back with things like how you are wrong, cherry pick data that is, at best, half related to the conversation, scream at you for being part of some grand conspiracy perpetrated by "Big Tech", resort to childish insults, or ignore you altogether. In Canada, for instance, the entire Canadian media sector lost an estimated $120 million after slamming their dick in the link tax car door. Their response? Self-congratulatory victory dances and shouting to the rooftops that they pulled off a masterful gambit. After the string of bankruptcies that have tore across the media landscape, they keep declaring victory for reasons that really only make sense to them. Even worse, when the Online Streaming Act gets through the CRTC process, a process that those same supporters wrongly insist is needed to support those same news outlets that were already "saved" by the Online News Act, several platforms are going to leave, investment is going to get pulled, and the return on investment is going to be abysmal (all the while screwing over internet business owners in the process). The media landscape could become a barren landscape of dead sites, derelict buildings, abandoned social media accounts, and a couple of homeless people searching around for scrap metal. The link tax supporters would still look at the situation and say how much the link taxes have saved journalism. There's absolutely nothing that will get them to listen to reason and common sense. The link tax failed in California, failed in Canada, in the process of failing in Australia, and has already failed multiple times in Europe. If that won't convince them that this is a failed government policy, I don't know what will.

• On the post: KOSA Rises From The Ashes: House Committee Announces Markup

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 17 Sep, 2024 @ 04:29pm

  I'm not sure that'll make a difference in this debate, personally. Both parties are itching to censor the internet.

• On the post: KOSA Rises From The Ashes: House Committee Announces Markup

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 17 Sep, 2024 @ 04:26pm

  It's one of a number of reasons why people don't specialize in covering such things and writing the news about bills like these. In my personal experience, you have to build up a tolerance to pure insanity and continue moving forward, even if what you are covering is soul crushingly bad. I've witnessed many writers who were good at this sort of thing ultimately choose to leave writing about these things and move on to something else because, in part, it was too much for them. It's not just putting up with this on an emotional level, but also putting up with this over many many years. It's for reasons like that (along with the stress of maintaining a site in general over the long term on top of it all) that I don't blame people for leaving after a while. Just covering this is not easy in the least. For one, you are trying to decipher highly technical elements of both law and technology. For another, it can be extremely thankless because even when you are right, you'll get detractors from obviously misinformed individuals who will launch relentless personal attacks against you on top of it all for... accurately reporting the news. What's more, it pays terribly as well. It's a tough gig all around.

• On the post: California Politicians Embarrass Themselves By Calling For ‘Warning Labels’ On Social Media

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 12 Sep, 2024 @ 05:17pm

  I've seen some of those warning labels here in Canada ('this product may cause harm to reproductive health', etc.). I remember asking about that and found out later that it was just an overblown thing that can be ignored. It makes the product much scarier than it really is.

• On the post: California Politicians Embarrass Themselves By Calling For ‘Warning Labels’ On Social Media

  

  Drew_Wilson ( profile ), 12 Sep, 2024 @ 05:14pm

  If it makes you feel any better, I was about to tear the comment apart myself until I read the last paragraph. I can understand where you were coming from, there. :)

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