Pluralistic: Private-sector Trumpism (31 Mar 2025)

Today's links

Private-sector Trumpism: Monopoly, facial recognition and property rights all add up to a private system of government.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
Object permanence: 2010, 2020, 2024
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

Hypothetical AI election disinformation risks vs real AI harms: And those real AI harms are priming people to believe disinformation.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Podcasting "How To Think About Scraping": How to preserve the benefits of web-scraping while targeting the real harms.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018, 2022
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Kashmir Hill's "Your Face Belongs to Us": A candid, whistleblower-informed history of Clearview AI.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2003, 2008, 2013, 2018, 2022
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Laura Poitras fired from First Look: She says it's because she spoke out on Reality Winner.
Kickstarting a pad of "Tiny Paper Dungeons": Procedural paper adventures for your pocket.
Facebook says it's the best henhouse fox: Only we can stop Qanon.
I was investigated by the FBI: It took 20 years!
Yugoslavia's Cold War obsession with Mexican music: Nonaligned Yumex gave us Celovečernji the Kid.
Machine learning is a honeypot for phrenologists: "AI" researchers just can't put away the fucking calipers.
Disneyland kills annual passes: No more Disney at a stroll.
Tesla's valuation is 1600x its profitability: Finacialization, in green and white.
This day in history: 2006, 2016, 2020
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Email sabbaticals: I'm going offline until next year.
Chaos Communications Congress: Finally a way to do CCC without making your family furious.
Landmark US financial transparency law: Beginning of the end for the US onshore-offshore industry.
Rogues' Galleries and facial recognition: Self-fulfilling prophecies at the core of white supremacist policing.
Jan 1 is Public Domain Day for 1925: Gatsby, Dalloway, Buster Keaton, Ma Rainey, et al.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

IDing anonymized cops with facial recognition: Privacy for the powerless, transparency for the powerful.
ENDSARS: Global protests over Nigeria's murdering special police.
Companies target robots in disclosures: Sentiment analysis is finally useful for something.
US border cruelty, powered by Google cloud: IBM at Auschwitz.
Free the law of Wisconsin: Carl Malamud wants you to read Wisconsin's jury instructions.
This day in history: 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

AI, 1A and Citizens United: The lawyer behind Citizens United wants to legalize Clearview AI.
James Ball's "The System": My review of a superb new book that surfaces the invisible infrastructure underpinning our digital world.
Canadian SFF Hall of Fame induction: Today at 4PM Pacific.
This day in history: 2005, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Ukrainian steampunk masks: The gorgeous work of Dmitriy and Aleksandra Bragin.
OTF spared (for now): Trump's administrative incompetence saves the US Agency for Global Media from becoming Global Breitbart.
Insurers are secret, powerful police reformers: Money talks, bullshit walks.
Ohio GOP leadership arrested for racketeering: Largest corruption scandal in Ohio history.
Little Brother as a role-playing game: Notes from the Fiction & RPG Podcast.
Anti-facial recognition tool: Fawkes will alter your images in ways that are invisible to humans but confounding for algorithms.
Kentucky AG sues top GOP donors: Kentucky's Republican lawmaker is the best kind of class-traitor.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

John Oliver's comprehensive explanation of the rot in US policing: It's in every bone and organ.
Cox violates the Geneva Conventions: The throttling will continue until morale improves.
Paramount's Unproduced Screenplays: A core sample of 1,000 ideas from the vault.
Police budgets are out of control: "More than the city spends on health, homelessness, youth development and workforce development combined."
Auditing Omniballot, a terrible e-voting system: Paper ballots, marked with pencils, accept no imitations.
Who are Dark Basin?: Outing the cybermercenaries who attacked Net Neutrality and anti-Exxon activists.
NYPD's structural racism: Bulk of NYPD human rights complaints come from Black and Latinx youth.
IBM kills facial recognition program: But the problem with facial recognition isn't just "bias."
Nutrition labels for IoT: Only works if there's competition.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading