Strawb 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (2397)

• On the post: Internet Age-Gates Are A Growing Global Threat

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 18 Jun, 2026 @ 06:53am

  If this age-gating purgatory comes to fruition in a broad sense, it's also going to push websites that could potentially be labelled "fit for age-gating" deeper into the dark, even if the content is completely benign. And then in a few years, we'll have politicians starting another social panic over "harmful" sites that they can't age-gate.

• On the post: RFK Jr. Insists Scientific Journal Explain Retraction Of Anti-Vaxx Article He Liked

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 18 Jun, 2026 @ 05:44am

  The reality is that scientific journal publications and retractions are ROUTINELY political.

  No, they're routinely scientific. Politics rears its head every now and then, but it's not the routine.

  So yes, his concern is completely valid.

  No. RFK has no background in anything that would make his concern valid, especially when he's demanding an explanation for something that has already been explained. If anything, the publisher's reason for retracting the "study" is what's valid.

  There is (sadly) basically NO scientific validity conferred by journal publication, which is why pre-print servers are a thing.

  That depends entirely on the journal in question. If something is published in journals such as Nature or JAMA, it has enormous scientific validity.

• On the post: Fox News Viewership Increases Belief In False Conspiracy Theories About Immigration

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 17 Jun, 2026 @ 12:30am

  That covid was developed in a lab? (it was)

  Prove it.

  That Biden was senile, it was very obvious to even casual observers (meaning the public) and that a wide swath (very liberal) MSM covered it up?

  Sure, Biden was not fit for office in his last term. But if conservatives were so mad about that, how come none of you are commenting on Trump's obvious mental degradation and the complete lack of commentary on it from right-wing media? To put it another way, why are you such fucking hypocrites?

• On the post: The UK’s Teen Social Media Ban Is Political Theater, Not Child Safety Policy

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 17 Jun, 2026 @ 12:25am

  Look, Social Media is without question bad for kids.

  Citation needed.

  The UK puts more people in jail for speech than Russia and China combined, btw.

  Citation needed.

• On the post: The UK’s Teen Social Media Ban Is Political Theater, Not Child Safety Policy

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 17 Jun, 2026 @ 12:22am

  I didn't say they're supposed to list every single covered entity, but lists like this tend to have the most well-known examples, so it seems odd that an almost infamous platform like Discord isn't on it if this is "for the children".

• On the post: Xbox: A Mess, Moving Back To Exclusivity Deals, & The Layoffs Microsoft Promised Wouldn’t Happen

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 17 Jun, 2026 @ 12:19am

  I dunno. You say they’re in 3rd- but Sony is also retrentching on exclusives in the face of struggles, and Nintendo never left. As much as I absolutely hate exclusives, the lesson seems to be console makers tried less exclusivity, and got burned for it.

  I'm not sure about how Microsoft did it, but Sony "got burned" because their reduced exclusivity was in the form of releasing Playstation titles for PC 18-24 months after initial release. That's not a likely recipe for successful crossplatform revenue.

  Does it actually maximize sales (or rather, profit) though? The catch-22 as a console maker has always been that selling more games has to offset lower sales on hardware and locking people into an ecosystem.

  For Xbox/Microsoft as a publisher, it certainly seems intuitive that releasing a game on as many platforms as possible leads to more people having access to it, and in turn more sales.

• On the post: The SpaceX IPO Sends Elon Musk And Trump’s Starlink Cronyism Into The Thermosphere

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2026 @ 01:52pm

  I did, already? Pretty much the whole thing, actually.

  Actually, what you did was present a hyperbolic strawman, and then light it on fire. You have yet to point out any lies in the article.

• On the post: FBI Raids Offices Of Ohio Voter Registration Group That Fought GOP Redistricting Efforts

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2026 @ 01:49pm

  No, it’s because there is evidence of fraud.

  Present it, then.

• On the post: Apparently The Real Reason Anthropic’s Models Are Offline: A Six-Year-Old Trump Grudge

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2026 @ 01:48pm

  You have zero evidence this is true, but when have you let that stop you?

  You're supposed to read the article before commenting on it, numbnuts.

• On the post: The UK’s Teen Social Media Ban Is Political Theater, Not Child Safety Policy

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2026 @ 01:45pm

  Discord would fall under the designation given for the law, but despite how popular and "controversial" it's been for the past year or so, it's odd that it's not part of the "the ban will include" list.

• On the post: Why Google’s New AI-Saturated Search Page Will Be A Disaster

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 12 Jun, 2026 @ 12:34am

  But, also, how does my lack of visiting hurt Wikipedia?

  Wikipedia relies on visitors to donate money to keep the site running. Fewer visitors = less money coming in.

• On the post: US Researchers Say Trump’s Attack On Science Has Resulted In Self-Censorship

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 12 Jun, 2026 @ 12:28am

  That’s why you get myths like trans surgeries make the victims happier (provably false, now)

  Okay, so post the proof.

  that climate change is primarily human caused despite basically none of the models being predictive.

  Models being predictive or not is irrelevant to proving that climate change is currently happening primarily because of humans. You really ought to self-censor when you don't know what you're talking about.

• On the post: California’s AB 412 Still Demands AI Developers Do The Impossible

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 11 Jun, 2026 @ 07:52am

  And if there's no record, or worse, conflicting records of those dates?

• On the post: California’s AB 412 Still Demands AI Developers Do The Impossible

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 11 Jun, 2026 @ 12:40am

  I could understand the skepticism if this was written by a big tech executive, but it's coming from an organization that tends to understand the intersection of tech and law. And as he points out, the issue isn't that the big companies probably couldn't throw money at the problem to fix it(or get around it); it's that the small AI developers don't have the money to throw at the problem. So it would further entrench AI development powers for Big Tech.

• On the post: Trump, Musk, Lutnick, and Bezos Hijacked Infrastructure Bill Broadband Grant Money, Causing A Giant Mess

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 08 Jun, 2026 @ 11:31am

  Correction: the current government can't do anything well.

• On the post: ‘Tomb Raider’ Remake Developed Using Some AI, Everyone Freaks, Crystal Dynamics Responds, And I’m Confused

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 07 Jun, 2026 @ 10:26am

  The point isn't whether there is or isn't GenAI content in the final game, it's that Kotaku decided to call it GenAI slop with no evidence of what GenAI has even been used for in the development process.

• On the post: ICE’s Reliance On Masked Thugs Is Predictably Resulting In Masked Thugs Claiming They’re ICE Officers

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 07 Jun, 2026 @ 02:47am

  Maybe ICE officers shouldn't be actually killing people, then.

• On the post: ‘Tomb Raider’ Remake Developed Using Some AI, Everyone Freaks, Crystal Dynamics Responds, And I’m Confused

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 05 Jun, 2026 @ 11:54pm

  The disclosure says that "all finished content in the final product is human-crafted", so Kotaku suggesting that "GenAI slop" is going to be in the game is still a conclusion without evidence.

• On the post: Former California AG Bill Lockyer Offers A Dumb And Lazy Defense Of The Paramount Warner Bros Merger

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 04 Jun, 2026 @ 10:20am

  You have never done this. You’re just upset that WB is going to the people who agree with you slightly less.

  So does the Ellison family pay you by the hour, or...?

• On the post: Whoops: Hackers Simply Had To Ask Meta ‘AI’ For Access To High Profile Instagram Accounts

  

  Strawb ( profile ), 04 Jun, 2026 @ 04:21am

  If you think that's crazy, it's going to drive you up the wall that AI has been used to create treatment plans for colon cancer patients in my country. OOoooOOOoooOOO!

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