Stephen T. Stone 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Yes, Section 230 Should Apply Equally To Algorithmic Recommendations

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2026 @ 06:28pm

    you could tune it that way, if you wanted to
    When I talk fine-tuning (and I apologize for the misspelling of that term in my prior post), I’m referring to how a user’s decisions narrow an algorithm’s recommendations to fit that user’s tastes. It is possible to do that tuning for an individual user if a service really wanted to do that. But that kind of tuning doesn’t scale to millions of users because good lord, who would even have the time. That’s why…
    there’s also a grey area where you don’t tune it based on exact posts, but just broader themes
    …I mentioned that exact point in regards to tuning algorithms.
    Unfortunately, that does come at a cost. Cases where it is intentional will end up protected as a byproduct. But you can’t really fix that without opening the doors to expensive vexatious lawsuits, so I think we’re kind of stuck with it.
    That’s a lot like my position on speech and the First Amendment. I’d love to be able to say “Nazis shouldn’t have the right to spread their bullshit without being arrested”, but I can’t take that position without opening myself up to a similar attack on my right to speak that I couldn’t logically rebut.

  • On the post: Court Orders Slavery Exhibit At George Washington’s House Restored After Trump Admin Pulled It Down

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2026 @ 05:15pm

    I’ll go back to being a lurker now.
    Awww, is the widdle baby running away because he can’t get anyone here to join in his hatred? Like I said: you a bitch. Door’s to your left; don’t come back now, y’hear? 👋

  • On the post: Yes, Section 230 Should Apply Equally To Algorithmic Recommendations

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2026 @ 02:38pm

    Putnam (and paper distributors in general) still have distributor liability, and would face liability if they had specific knowledge.
    Paper distributors generally know what content they’re publishing and distributing. They should have liability if they knowingly publish and distribute defamatory/illegal content. An algorithm is, in broadly applicable terms, built in a way that doesn’t give exact knowledge of the exact content being published by a user and distributed to other users. The algorithm may be built to recommend, but it isn’t fine-tined for an individual user’s tastes in the same way a service might perform broader tuning of the algorithm to manage broader swaths of content. And some content could still sift through the cracks anyway because no algorithm is perfect. I’m wary of attaching first-party liability to third-party speech recommended by an algorithm because those imperfections could be purely accidental instead of intentional.

  • On the post: The Media Still Can’t Figure Out That Trump Says Things That Aren’t True

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2026 @ 11:46am

    They know that being targeted by Donald Trump also means they’ll have to worry about several other things⁠—like wasting money fighting his bullshit, being targeted by his lackeys in the government, and employees and their families potentially being targeted by Trump supporters. The fewer headaches, the better. Besides, the billionaires who own mainstream media outlets don’t give a shit. Jeff Bezos is destroying the Washington Post and he’s probably richer now than he was when he bought it.

  • On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2026 @ 05:13am

    Jeffries and Schumer need to be primaried hard enough to make them join the GOP.

  • On the post: Court Orders Slavery Exhibit At George Washington’s House Restored After Trump Admin Pulled It Down

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2026 @ 05:09am

    No crime has slavery as a punishment as noted above.
    People can be treated as slaves while they’re in prison, though. As far as I’m aware, no one has passed a law that forbids the government from using prisoners as labor without fair compensation.

  • On the post: Court Orders Slavery Exhibit At George Washington’s House Restored After Trump Admin Pulled It Down

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2026 @ 12:23pm

    Your words and conduct make you exactly the kind of person any reasonable person wants to be.
    Except for the fact that there’s not a drop of sincerity behind any of his posts. I may be a crass, vulgar, swear-happy son of a bitch, but at least I’m sincere about who I am and what I believe. He hides behind “polite” language designed to make you think he’s just a poor pitiful li’l guy who just wants to know why everyone’s being so mean to the poor dumb MAGA faithful so you don’t notice that he’s implicitly (and in one case, explicitly) supportive of the Trump regime doing worse things to the people that regime targets with violence. He’s a right-wing provocateur and that’s all he’ll ever be. He doesn’t want a sincere discussion. He wants you to make some sort of statement that he can interpret as you claiming to be someone who supports luxury gay space communism so he can go to his right-wing pals and go “look at the [slur]s on this site”. I’d invite him to prove me wrong, but he doesn’t have the balls to be who he really is.

  • On the post: Court Orders Slavery Exhibit At George Washington’s House Restored After Trump Admin Pulled It Down

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2026 @ 12:16pm

    To assigning someone a “race” and treat it as fact it to accept and promote the theory behind racism.
    And yet, you can’t actually discuss the construct of race without discussing it as an actual existing construct. Even if it’s bullshit, it still exists. Acknowledging that construct, how people exist within it, how people are perceived within it, and how it affects our society and culture doesn’t inherently make someone racist. I’m what the racial construct would call a “white person”. Does my saying I’m white make me racist only and specifically because I acknowledge the construct, how I exist within it, and how I would be perceived within it? And if that does make me racist, how should I be punished for acknowledging my racial category only and specifically in the context of social perception? I agree that race and racial categories are bullshit. But the idea that anyone who discusses race is a racist only because they acknowledge the reality that race, no matter how shitty a concept, is a social construct that exists in our society? That, too, is bullshit.

  • On the post: Court Orders Slavery Exhibit At George Washington’s House Restored After Trump Admin Pulled It Down

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2026 @ 07:10am

    You a bitch. Now that the crass insult is out of the way: Nah, I’m not going to try to convince you of shit. I could lay out the most reasoned argument in the simplest way possible and you’d still disagree. You’re a MAGA cultist, you’re not here for a good faith discussion, and all this “I’m a flyover state voter, take pity on my dumb ass UwU” shit doesn’t do a damn thing to convince me why I should waste any of my time trying to have a good faith discussion with you. Engage with a sincere desire to learn about perspectives you would otherwise dismiss as “too woke” or fuck off; either way, you can drop your “I’m the calm and rational fascist and that makes me better than you emotional wokesters” act because it isn’t working. Nobody is going to think any less of you than they already do if you openly hope for the deaths of undocumented immigrants and Trump’s critics/political enemies. If anything, I’d respect the honesty.

  • On the post: Court Orders Slavery Exhibit At George Washington’s House Restored After Trump Admin Pulled It Down

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2026 @ 07:00am

    For a “social construct”, the construction of race is quite poor.
    A-HA! You mentioned race! Now you’re a racist! …see how stupid that sounds? I hope so, because that’s your whole argument here⁠—that so much as mentioning race, even in the context of discussing it as a social construct, makes someone a racist⁠—and I really hope you see how dumb it is now.

  • On the post: Bondi Bragged About Forcing Facebook To Censor Speech. Now FIRE Is Suing.

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 21 Feb, 2026 @ 05:48pm

    As already explained in the article Techdirt published about it, there is no proof that Apple did removed the app because it was asked to.
    Feel free to explain why you believe an on-the-record statement to the press from a high-ranking government employee⁠—in this case, the United States attorney general and head of the Department of Justice⁠—that says “we told them to take it down” shouldn’t count as evidence.

  • On the post: Court Orders Slavery Exhibit At George Washington’s House Restored After Trump Admin Pulled It Down

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 21 Feb, 2026 @ 05:37pm

    Convince me to join you rather than insult me.
    Nah, I’d rather insult your bitch ass. Trying to have a reasonable good-faith discussion with you wouldn’t change your mind, anyway⁠—I tried that and you basically voiced support for an increase in violence from ICE/DHS/the Trump regime. In what world do you think your “I’m just trying to have a civil pro-fascism conversation, stop making me feel bad UwU” schtick makes you any better than a swastika-wearing Nazi who says all the racial slurs?

  • On the post: Court Orders Slavery Exhibit At George Washington’s House Restored After Trump Admin Pulled It Down

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 21 Feb, 2026 @ 05:23pm

    The first step of racism is convincing the public that it makes sense to somehow divide humans into “races”.
    To be clear, are you saying that anyone who talks about the social construct of race⁠—in any context whatsoever⁠—is a racist, even when they’re decrying racism or admitting that race is a social construct?

  • On the post: Court Orders Slavery Exhibit At George Washington’s House Restored After Trump Admin Pulled It Down

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2026 @ 08:07pm

    Those who try to hide or erase history want to repeat it. If’n you don’t believe me, ask every right-wing dipshit who insists “slavery wasn’t that bad”.

  • On the post: Bondi Bragged About Forcing Facebook To Censor Speech. Now FIRE Is Suing.

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2026 @ 12:35pm

    The small singular upshot of Trump being president is that his dreams of running a fascist nation-state will always be hampered by how the only people willing to carry out his fascist bullshit are fucking idiots.

  • On the post: Department Of Education Forced To Back Off Illegal Plan To Be Racist, Sexist Assholes

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2026 @ 09:08am

    Nah, no need for garlick. But keep the stake. We could get a couple more and a big ol’ cross. I mean, since these fuckers want to claim Jesus Christ as their role model and all…

  • On the post: Wikipedia Grapples With New Challenges From AI

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2026 @ 07:44am

    So are AI evangelists who don’t give a good god’s damn about the social, political, and ecological harm that generative AI/LLMs are doing. When will you be calling them out?

  • On the post: Wikipedia Grapples With New Challenges From AI

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2026 @ 07:43am

    It also made me do homework incorrectly in engineering school
    Did it hold a gun to your head when it did that? No? Then you fucked up your homework yourself.

  • On the post: Before We Blame AI For Suicide, We Should Admit How Little We Know About Suicide

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2026 @ 02:13pm

    Hence why I said “accused of doing”. But fair point regardless.

  • On the post: Before We Blame AI For Suicide, We Should Admit How Little We Know About Suicide

    Stephen T. Stone ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2026 @ 01:36pm

    By the same token, if someone actively encourages another person to die by suicide in the way ChatGPT and other chatbots have been accused of doing, shouldn’t that person bear some liability⁠—morally and ethically, if not legally⁠—for their encouragement?

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