Federal clean energy tax credits have been essential to the financing of wind and solar projects across the country, and a key part of states’ plans to transition to wind and solar power.
Following President Donald Trump’s moves to quickly phase out those credits, pending projects have a tight time frame to start construction before their eligibility expires. But states have long struggled to speed up permitting decisions, reduce regulatory hurdles and add new power to the grid. And the clock is running out.
“Every month counts,” said Patty O’Keefe, Midwest regional director at Vote Solar, a clean energy advocacy nonprofit. “[The tax credits] are the financial backbone of nearly every renewable energy project that’s currently in the pipeline.”
Charles Borges, the agency's chief data officer, alleged that more than 300 million Americans’ Social Security data was put at risk by DOGE officials who uploaded sensitive information to a cloud account not subject to oversight. His disclosure was submitted to the special counsel’s office on Tuesday.
“After reporting internally to management and externally to regulators, serious data and security and integrity concerns impacting our citizens’ most sensitive personal data, I have suffered exclusion, isolation, internal strife, and a culture of fear, creating a hostile work environment and making work conditions intolerable,” Borges added.
The Government Accountability Project, which is representing him in his whistleblower case, posted Borges' resignation letter on its website Friday evening. Borges declined to comment.
“He no longer felt that he could continue to work for the Social Security Administration in good conscience, given what he had witnessed,” his attorney Andrea Meza said in a statement. She added that Borges would continue to work with the proper oversight bodies on the matter.
Social Security’s chief data officer, Charles Borges, resigned after alleging officials mishandled sensitive data on 300M Americans, citing retaliation and a hostile workplace.
The New York Times, citing a statement from Mueller's family and people close to him, reported Sunday night that Mueller had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in the summer of 2021 and has had difficulty speaking.
A House committee investigating the DOJ's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case has withdrawn a subpoena to former FBI Director Robert Mueller, citing the state of his health.
The World Travel & Tourism Council projected ahead of Memorial Day that the U.S. would be the only country among the 184 it studied where foreign visitor spending would fall in 2025. The finding was "a clear indicator that the global appeal of the U.S. is slipping," the global industry association said.
"The world's biggest travel and tourism economy is heading in the wrong direction," Julia Simpson, the council's president and CEO, said. "While other nations are rolling out the welcome mat, the U.S. government is putting up the 'closed' sign."
Travel research firm Tourism Economics, meanwhile, predicted this month that the U.S. would see 8.2% fewer international arrivals in 2025, an improvement from its earlier forecast of a 9.4% decline but well below the numbers of foreign visitors to the country before the COVID-19 pandemic.
A decline in foreign visitors traveling to the United States has stretched well into the summer. And tourism experts say the downward trend shows no immediate signs of reversing.
A plan circulating in the White House to develop the “Gaza Riviera” as a string of high-tech megacities has been dismissed as an “insane” attempt to provide cover for the large-scale ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territory’s population.
Named the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust – or GREAT – the proposal was reportedly developed by some of the same Israelis who created and set in motion the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) with financial planning contributed by Boston Consulting Group.
Most controversially, the 38-page plan suggests what it calls “temporary relocation of all of Gaza’s more than 2 million population” – a proposal that would amount to ethnic cleansing, potentially a genocidal act.
Palestinians would be encouraged into “voluntary” departure to another country or into restricted, secure zones during reconstruction. Those who own land would be offered “a digital token” by the trust in exchange for rights to redevelop their property, to be used to finance a new life elsewhere. Those who stay would be housed in properties with a tiny footprint of 323 sq ft –minuscule even by the standards of many non-refugee camp homes in Gaza.
After his first arrest for sex crimes, Jeffrey Epstein tried to get into a new line of work: surveillance. In 2015, he partnered with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to invest in a security tech startup called Reporty Homeland Security, now known as Carbyne. Leaked emails show that Epstein was using Barak to seek out opportunities in the surveillance industry and build connections with powerful figures around the globe, including American businessman Peter Thiel, the former director of Israeli signals intelligence, and two people in Russian President Vladimir Putin's circle.
After he was first caught sexually exploiting teenage girls, Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution in 2008; he served a little over a year in detention. Meanwhile, he invested his wealth in bizarre projects, including a ranch to breed women with his DNA and "efforts to identify a mysterious particle that might trigger the feeling that someone is watching you," according to The New York Times.
The leaked emails show that Epstein was also interested in more mundane means of spying on and manipulating people, which overlapped with the technologies governments often pursue. This interest crossed borders.
Barak's email inbox was quietly posted by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a website widely considered to be a successor to WikiLeaks, on a file-sharing platform for verified journalists and researchers in May 2025. The contents came from Handala, a hacker group named for a Palestinian cartoon character that has been leaking files taken from senior Israeli officials for several months.
Although the emails were posted without technical metadata or cryptographic signatures that would allow their authenticity to be verified, they include dozens of images, videos, voice recordings, and scanned documents from Barak and his friends and family that have never been published elsewhere. And they include information that was not publicly known at the time of the email leaks, including a reference to Epstein's birthday book.
The emails below, which have not been published elsewhere, paint a picture of Epstein as a man very eager to be at the nexus between private money and public surveillance. While they were hammering out the Reporty investment, Epstein invited Barak to come to a meeting with Thiel, cofounder of PayPal and the surveillance contractor Palantir, in May 2014. Although Barak couldn't make that meeting, Epstein insisted that Barak "spend real time with peter thiel [sic]" and offered to set up a dinner the following month.
Apple's alleged automation mandate spans all major product categories, including the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. Apple now purportedly expects suppliers to fund their own automation upgrades rather than rely on Apple to finance or subsidize the necessary capital equipment. This policy change diverges from Apple's previous approach, where the company frequently invested in tooling and machinery for contract manufacturers to meet its specifications.
Thr reason of course is that thr soldiers are deployed to crack down on people with dark skin having rights or accumulating assets or political power, not any kind of actual criminal activities
That came in November, filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and 10 other Republican AGs, accusing three of the biggest asset managers on Wall Street—BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street—of running “an investment cartel” to depress the output of coal and boosting their revenues while pushing up energy costs for Americans. The Trump administration’s Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission filed a supporting brief in May.
The overall pressure campaign aimed at what’s known as “ESG” is having an impact.
“Over the past several months, through this [lawsuit] and other things, letters from elected officials, state and federal, there has been a chilling effect of what investors are saying,” said Steven Maze Rothstein, chief program officer of Ceres, a nonprofit that advocates for more sustainable business practices and was among the earliest letter recipients. Still, “investors understand that Mother Nature doesn’t know who’s elected governor, attorney general, president.”
Earlier this month, a US District Court judge in Tyler, Texas, declined to dismiss the lawsuit against the three asset managers, though he did dismiss three of the 21 counts. The judge was not making a final decision in the case, only that there was enough evidence to go to trial.
::: spoiler 12 Key Findings 1. Age assurance can be done in Australia privately, efficiently and effectively: Age assurance can be done in Australia – our analysis of age assurance systems in the context of Australia demonstrates how they can be private, robust and effective. There is a plethora of choice available for providers of age-restricted goods, content, services, venues or spaces to select the most appropriate systems for their use case with reference to emerging international standards for age assurance. 2. No substantial technological limitations preventing its implementation to meet policy goals: Our evaluation did not reveal any substantial technological limitations that would prevent age assurance systems being used in response to age-related eligibility requirements established by policy makers. We identified careful, critical thinking by providers on the development and deployment of age assurance systems, considering efficacy, privacy, data and security concerns. Some systems were easier for initial implementation and use than others, but the systems of all technology providers with a technology readiness level (TRL) 7 or above were eventually capable of integration to a user journey. 3. Provider claims have been independently validated against the project’s evaluation criteria: We found that the practice statements provided by age assurance providers with a TRL of 7 or above fairly reflected the technological capabilities of their products, processes or services (to the extent applicable to the Trial’s evaluation criteria). Some of the practice statements provided have needed to be clarified or developed during the course of the Trial, but we observed that they offer a useful option for transparency of the capabilities of the available age assurance systems. Those with a TRL below 7 will need further analysis when their systems mature. 4. A wide range of approaches exist, but there is no one-size-fits-all solution for all contexts: We found a plethora of approaches that fit different use cases in different ways, but we did not find a single ubiquitous solution that would suit all use cases, nor did we find solutions that were guaranteed to be effective in all deployments. The range of possibilities across the Trial participants demonstrate a rich and rapidly evolving range of services which can be tailored and effective depending on each specified context of use. 5. We found a dynamic, innovative and evolving age assurance service sector: We found a vibrant, creative and innovative age assurance service sector with both technologically advanced and deployed solutions and a pipeline of new technologies transitioning from research to minimum viable product to testing and deployment stages indicating an evolving choice and future opportunities for developers. We found private-sector investment and opportunities for growth within the age assurance services sector. 6. We found robust, appropriate and secure data handling practices: We found robust understanding of and internal policy decisions regarding the handling of personal information by Trial participants. The privacy policies and practice statements collated for the Trial demonstrate a strong commitment to privacy by design principles, with consideration of what data was to be collected, stored, shared and then disposed of. Separating age assurance services from those of relying parties was useful as Trial participants providing age assurance services more clearly only used data for the necessary and consented purpose of providing an age assurance result. 7. Systems performed broadly consistently across demographic groups, including Indigenous populations: The systems under test performed broadly consistently across demographic groups assessed and despite an acknowledged deficit in training age analysis systems with data about Indigenous populations, we found no substantial difference in the outcomes for First Nations and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and other multi-cultural communities using the age assurance systems. We found some systems performed better than others, but overall variances across race did not deviate by more than recognised tolerances. 8. There is scope to enhance usability, risk management and system interoperability: We found opportunities for technological improvement including improving ease of use for the average person and enhancing the management of risk in age assurance systems. This could include through one-way blind access to verification of government documents, enabling connection to data holder services (like digital wallets) or improving the handling of a child’s digital footprint as examples. 9. Parental control tools can be effective but may constrain children’s digital participation and evolving autonomy: The Trial found that both parental control and consent systems can be done and can be effective, but they serve different purposes. Parental control systems are pre-configured and ongoing but may fail to adapt to the evolving capacities of children including potential risks to their digital privacy as they grow and mature, particularly through adolescence. Parental consent mechanisms prompt active engagement between children and their parents at key decision points, potentially supporting informed access. 10. Systems generally align with cybersecurity best practice, but vigilance is required: We found that the systems were generally secure and consistent with information security standards, with developers actively addressing known attack vectors including AI-generated spoofing and forgeries. However, the rapidly evolving threat environment means that these systems – while presently fairly robust – cannot be considered infallible. Ongoing monitoring and improvement will help maintain their effectiveness over time. Similarly, continued attention to privacy compliance will support long-term trust and accountability. 11. Unnecessary data retention may occur in apparent anticipation of future regulatory needs: We found some concerning evidence that in the absence of specific guidance, service providers were apparently over-anticipating the eventual needs of regulators about providing personal information for future investigations. Some providers were found to be building tools to enable regulators, law enforcement or Coroners to retrace the actions taken by individuals to verify their age which could lead to increased risk of privacy breaches due to unnecessary and disproportionate collection and retention of data. 12. Providers are aligning to emerging international standards around age assurance: The standards-based approach adopted by the Trial, including through the ISO/IEC 27566 Series [Note 1], the IEEE 2089.1 [Note 2] and the ISO/IEC 25000 [Note 3] series (the Product Quality Model) all provide a strong basis for the development of accreditation of conformity assessment and subsequent certification of individual age assurance providers in accordance with Australia’s standards and conformance infrastructure. :::
Australia’s government trial of age‑assurance tech to keep under‑16s off social media says social media age checks can be done, despite errors and privacy risks
::: spoiler 12 Key Findings 1. Age assurance can be done in Australia privately, efficiently and effectively: Age assurance can be done in Australia – our analysis of age assurance systems in the context of Australia demonstrates how they can be private, robust and effective. There is a plethora of choice available for providers of age-restricted goods, content, services, venues or spaces to select the most appropriate systems for their use case with reference to emerging international standards for age assurance. 2. No substantial technological limitations preventing its implementation to meet policy goals: Our evaluation did not reveal any substantial technological limitations that would prevent age assurance systems being used in response to age-related eligibility requirements established by policy makers. We identified careful, critical thinking by providers on the development and deployment of age assurance systems, considering efficacy, privacy, data and security concerns. Some systems were easier for initial implementation and use than others, but the systems of all technology providers with a technology readiness level (TRL) 7 or above were eventually capable of integration to a user journey. 3. Provider claims have been independently validated against the project’s evaluation criteria: We found that the practice statements provided by age assurance providers with a TRL of 7 or above fairly reflected the technological capabilities of their products, processes or services (to the extent applicable to the Trial’s evaluation criteria). Some of the practice statements provided have needed to be clarified or developed during the course of the Trial, but we observed that they offer a useful option for transparency of the capabilities of the available age assurance systems. Those with a TRL below 7 will need further analysis when their systems mature. 4. A wide range of approaches exist, but there is no one-size-fits-all solution for all contexts: We found a plethora of approaches that fit different use cases in different ways, but we did not find a single ubiquitous solution that would suit all use cases, nor did we find solutions that were guaranteed to be effective in all deployments. The range of possibilities across the Trial participants demonstrate a rich and rapidly evolving range of services which can be tailored and effective depending on each specified context of use. 5. We found a dynamic, innovative and evolving age assurance service sector: We found a vibrant, creative and innovative age assurance service sector with both technologically advanced and deployed solutions and a pipeline of new technologies transitioning from research to minimum viable product to testing and deployment stages indicating an evolving choice and future opportunities for developers. We found private-sector investment and opportunities for growth within the age assurance services sector. 6. We found robust, appropriate and secure data handling practices: We found robust understanding of and internal policy decisions regarding the handling of personal information by Trial participants. The privacy policies and practice statements collated for the Trial demonstrate a strong commitment to privacy by design principles, with consideration of what data was to be collected, stored, shared and then disposed of. Separating age assurance services from those of relying parties was useful as Trial participants providing age assurance services more clearly only used data for the necessary and consented purpose of providing an age assurance result. 7. Systems performed broadly consistently across demographic groups, including Indigenous populations: The systems under test performed broadly consistently across demographic groups assessed and despite an acknowledged deficit in training age analysis systems with data about Indigenous populations, we found no substantial difference in the outcomes for First Nations and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and other multi-cultural communities using the age assurance systems. We found some systems performed better than others, but overall variances across race did not deviate by more than recognised tolerances. 8. There is scope to enhance usability, risk management and system interoperability: We found opportunities for technological improvement including improving ease of use for the average person and enhancing the management of risk in age assurance systems. This could include through one-way blind access to verification of government documents, enabling connection to data holder services (like digital wallets) or improving the handling of a child’s digital footprint as examples. 9. Parental control tools can be effective but may constrain children’s digital participation and evolving autonomy: The Trial found that both parental control and consent systems can be done and can be effective, but they serve different purposes. Parental control systems are pre-configured and ongoing but may fail to adapt to the evolving capacities of children including potential risks to their digital privacy as they grow and mature, particularly through adolescence. Parental consent mechanisms prompt active engagement between children and their parents at key decision points, potentially supporting informed access. 10. Systems generally align with cybersecurity best practice, but vigilance is required: We found that the systems were generally secure and consistent with information security standards, with developers actively addressing known attack vectors including AI-generated spoofing and forgeries. However, the rapidly evolving threat environment means that these systems – while presently fairly robust – cannot be considered infallible. Ongoing monitoring and improvement will help maintain their effectiveness over time. Similarly, continued attention to privacy compliance will support long-term trust and accountability. 11. Unnecessary data retention may occur in apparent anticipation of future regulatory needs: We found some concerning evidence that in the absence of specific guidance, service providers were apparently over-anticipating the eventual needs of regulators about providing personal information for future investigations. Some providers were found to be building tools to enable regulators, law enforcement or Coroners to retrace the actions taken by individuals to verify their age which could lead to increased risk of privacy breaches due to unnecessary and disproportionate collection and retention of data. 12. Providers are aligning to emerging international standards around age assurance: The standards-based approach adopted by the Trial, including through the ISO/IEC 27566 Series [Note 1], the IEEE 2089.1 [Note 2] and the ISO/IEC 25000 [Note 3] series (the Product Quality Model) all provide a strong basis for the development of accreditation of conformity assessment and subsequent certification of individual age assurance providers in accordance with Australia’s standards and conformance infrastructure. :::
This document presents the official report of the Age Assurance Technology Trial, offering a comprehensive overview of its findings, methodologies and key observations.
::: spoiler Key Findings 1. Geopolitical Events Trigger Unprecedented DDoS Campaigns Expand: Major political events drove increased DDoS activity, evidenced by attack count spikes that coincide with these occurrences. These events saw hacktivist groups launching up to double the normal number of attacks in short timeframes. 2. Botnet-Driven Attacks Dominate with Increased Sophistication Expand: Botnet-driven attacks are getting longer, more frequent, and are employing multiple attack vectors to avoid mitigation. They are targeting known vulnerabilities in IoT devices, servers, routers, and more. 3. NoName057(16) Maintains Dominance Among Familiar Threat Actors: Well-known hacktivist and attack groups, such as NoName057(16), are launching more attacks across the globe while leveraging several attack vectors. 4. New Threat Actors Emerge with DDoS-as-a-Service Capabilities: Emerging attack groups like DieNet and Keymous+ are leveraging DDoS-for-hire infrastructure to launch DDoS-as-a-service campaigns, lowering the barrier to entry and expanding the threat landscape. 5. Global DDOS Attack Volume High with Regional Variations: With more than 8 million recorded attacks globally in the first half of 2025, DDoS attack volume remains massive. The attacks also show sustained intensity, reaching speeds of 3.12 Tbps and 1.5 Gpps. :::
DDoS attacks are no longer just a nuisance, they’re a weapon of geopolitical influence. In the first half of 2025 alone, more than 8 million attacks were recorded globally, with threat actors leveraging AI, botnets, and DDoS-for-hire services to launch increasingly sophisticated and sustained campaigns.
DDoS Dominate the Digital Battlefield: AI integration, persistent hacktivist campaigns, and nation-state actors weaponize DDoS attacks, creating unprecedented risks for organizations globally
::: spoiler Key Findings 1. Geopolitical Events Trigger Unprecedented DDoS Campaigns Expand: Major political events drove increased DDoS activity, evidenced by attack count spikes that coincide with these occurrences. These events saw hacktivist groups launching up to double the normal number of attacks in short timeframes. 2. Botnet-Driven Attacks Dominate with Increased Sophistication Expand: Botnet-driven attacks are getting longer, more frequent, and are employing multiple attack vectors to avoid mitigation. They are targeting known vulnerabilities in IoT devices, servers, routers, and more. 3. NoName057(16) Maintains Dominance Among Familiar Threat Actors: Well-known hacktivist and attack groups, such as NoName057(16), are launching more attacks across the globe while leveraging several attack vectors. 4. New Threat Actors Emerge with DDoS-as-a-Service Capabilities: Emerging attack groups like DieNet and Keymous+ are leveraging DDoS-for-hire infrastructure to launch DDoS-as-a-service campaigns, lowering the barrier to entry and expanding the threat landscape. 5. Global DDOS Attack Volume High with Regional Variations: With more than 8 million recorded attacks globally in the first half of 2025, DDoS attack volume remains massive. The attacks also show sustained intensity, reaching speeds of 3.12 Tbps and 1.5 Gpps. :::
DDoS attacks are no longer just a nuisance, they’re a weapon of geopolitical influence. In the first half of 2025 alone, more than 8 million attacks were recorded globally, with threat actors leveraging AI, botnets, and DDoS-for-hire services to launch increasingly sophisticated and sustained campaigns.
On August 28 and 29, California Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled two sweeping initiatives that together mark a sharp rightward turn in state policy and expose the Democratic Party’s deepening complicity in the destruction of democratic rights. As he portrays himself as a bulwark against President Trump, Newsom is in fact laying the foundation for a massive expansion of state power against the working class and the poor.
Under the guise of public safety and compassion, the Democratic governor has placed the California Highway Patrol (CHP) at the center of two major new enforcement regimes: a statewide “crime suppression” expansion and a “homeless encampment clearance” task force.
These measures are being marketed as alternatives to Trump’s deployments of federal forces into major U.S. cities, but in substance, they mirror their basic functions. Far from opposing the authoritarian measures emanating from Washington, Newsom’s actions mimic them, signaling a growing alignment between the Democratic Party and the Trump administration on the fundamental issue: the use of state repression to deal with the social crisis created by capitalism.
I setup a Mastodon relay - anyone want to help me test by adding it to their instance? Would help me know if the "Recent jobs" stat is working (I think it requires 2 instances at minimum to show jobs) and if adding to instances (outside of my own) is working properly and how traffic looks.
The Delhi High Court ordered the blocking of Sci-Hub, Sci-Net, and LibGen in India on August 19, 2025, following a copyright infringement case brought by academic publishers Elsevier, Wiley, and the American Chemical Society[^5][^7].
The court found that Alexandra Elbakyan, Sci-Hub's founder, violated her December 2020 undertaking not to upload new copyrighted content by making post-2022 articles available through both Sci-Hub and a new platform called Sci-Net[^7]. While Elbakyan claimed this was due to technical errors and argued Sci-Net was a separate project, the court rejected these arguments[^7].
The ruling requires India's Department of Telecommunications and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to issue blocking orders within 72 hours, with Internet Service Providers required to implement the blocks within 24 hours[^7].
This case marks the first time Sci-Hub and LibGen faced legal action in a developing country[^2]. Earlier intervention attempts by Indian scientists and researchers had argued these platforms were "the only access to educational and research materials" for many academics in India[^2], with social science researchers specifically highlighting the "detrimental effect" blocking would have on research in India[^9].
A group of social science researchers have filed an intervention application, with legal support from IFF, highlighting the adverse impact any decision to block LibGen and SciHub will have on them.
The natural world is built for change. Seasons shift. Rivers rise and fall. The climate gradually warms and cools again. Animals migrate, adapt, and evolve in response to these rhythms. This is how Earth has always worked – and how it’s supposed to work.
The pine forests of the Western U.S. offer a perfect example. For thousands of years, ponderosa and lodgepole pines evolved with periodic wildfires that swept through every decade or two. These fires weren’t disasters – they were essential.
Lodgepole pines actually depend on fire to reproduce. Their resinous cones only open in intense heat, releasing seeds onto the ash bed below. Ponderosa pines developed thick, fire-resistant bark to survive the low-intensity ground fires that cleared out undergrowth. These frequent, cool burns created open forests with widely spaced mature trees, healthy and highly productive ecosystems that provided clean water, timber, and wildlife habitat.
So the problem today isn’t change. It’s the speed of change.
Changes that used to take centuries or millennia are now unfolding in a matter of years. Levels of climate-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have risen to well above 400 parts per million, a concentration that last occurred about 15 million years ago.
But even more concerning is the rate of change: By burning fossil fuels, we are emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere 30 times faster than at any point in the last 100 million years. That’s like putting nature’s slow-moving film on fast-forward – only the device is overheating as a result.
Juliana Moreira ed Edoardo Stoppa, ospiti di Caterina Balivo a La Volta Buona, hanno ripercorso i 17 anni della loro storia d'amore, mostrando il lato più autentico e ironico della loro coppia... leggi
How OnlyFans Piracy Is Ruining the Internet for Everyone
The internet is becoming harder to use because of unintended consequences in the battle between adult content creators who are trying to protect their livelihoods and the people who pirate their content.
Porn piracy, like all forms of content piracy, has existed for as long as the internet. But as more individual creators who make their living on services like OnlyFans, many of them have hired companies to send Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notices against companies that steal their content. As some of those services turn to automation in order to handle the workload, completely unrelated content is getting flagged as violating their copyrights and is being deindexed from Google search. The process exposes bigger problems with how copyright violations are handled on the internet, with automated systems filing takedown requests that are reviewed by other automated systems, leading to unintended consequences.
These errors show another way in which automation without human review is making the internet as we know it increasingly unusable. They also highlight the untenable piracy problem for adult content creators, who have little recourse to stop their paid content from being redistributed all over the internet.
I first noticed how bad some of these DMCA takedown requests are because one of them targeted 404 Media. I was searching Google for an article Sam wrote about Instagram’s AI therapists. I Googled “AI therapists 404 Media,” and was surprised it didn’t pop up because I knew we had covered the subject. Then I saw a note from Google at the bottom of the page noting Google had removed some search results “In response to multiple complaints we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act.”
The notice linked to the Lumen Database, which keeps a record of DMCA complaints, who filed them, and for what. According to the Lumen Database, the complaint was filed by a company called Takedowns AI on behalf of content creator Marie Temara. Takedowns AI is one of many companies that help content creators, especially adult content creators, to scan the internet for images and videos they posted behind paywalls on platforms like OnlyFans and posted elsewhere for free. These companies also file DMCA takedown requests and navigate the copyright systems of big platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Reddit. One of the most effective ways of preventing people from finding this pirated content is sending DMCA takedown requests to Google asking the search engine to delist results to sites that share it. As its name implies, Takedowns AI heavily relies on automation to do this work.
The complaint that impacted 404 Media included a list of 68 links to different websites that allegedly violated Temara’s copyright on content she posted to Instagram, OnlyFans, and other platforms. This was the allegedly offending link on 404 Media, which is a collage Sam made for her AI Facebook therapists story.
The collage includes Meta's AI-generated profile pictures of three of these AI therapists. The story itself has nothing to do with Temara, and the profile pictures look nothing like her. In fact, it would be hard for anyone to claim copyright for that image because in 2023 a U.S. court ruled that AI-generated art can’t be copyrighted.
I went through every other link in the same complaint and couldn’t find even one link that looked like it violated Temara’s copyrights. There were images from Grand Theft Auto V, famous baseball players, robots, stock images of people at theme parks, and movie posters, none of which looked remotely similar to Temara. In addition to 404 Media’s article about AI therapists, some of the pages that Google removed from search results due to this complaint included tech site wccftech.com, horror movie site bloody-disgusting.com, and rugby and wrestling sites.
These links are also just part of one complaint out of hundreds that Takedowns AI files every day. I looked through dozens of complaints to Google filed by Takedowns AI that were archived by the Lumen Database. The vast majority of them appear to be legitimate, but I did find other egregious mistakes. One of the worst mistakes I saw was a takedown request filed on behalf of a creator who goes by “honeyybee” against an article about actual honey bees on the University of Missouri’s website. The takedown request clearly targeted the article and caused Google to remove it from search results just because it was about a subject with a similar name to that of Takedown AI’s client.
Temara and honeyybee did not respond to a request for comment.
Takedowns AI CEO Kunal Anand told me that the company has filed 12 million takedowns requests to Google since 2022. He said that Takedowns AI uses facial recognition, keyword searches, and human reviewers to find and take down copyrighted content, and said he was overall confident in the company’s accuracy. Anand told me that sometimes his clients use Google Search’s API to see what results come up when they search for themselves, then ask Takedowns AI to remove everything on that list as is, which is what he thinks might have happened with Temara and honeyybee.
“We don't really review it [the list] because we are an agent for them,” Ananad said. “For the requests that we send out ourselves, usually they get reviewed, but sometimes they [clients] do a search by themselves, and they come across some content and they flag it and they're like, ‘We want this taken down.’ We don't review that because that is something that they want taken down. I'm not particularly sure about this case, but that is what happens. What we planned on doing was also reviewing these but it's usually not very fruitful, because the user is very sure they want that claim. And even if we say, ‘Hey, we don't think you should do that,’ they're like, ‘We want to do it. Just do it because I'm paying you for this.’ And if we just say, do it yourself, that kind of takes away the business from us. So that is basically how it works.”
Yvette van Bekkum, the CEO of Cam Model Protection, a company that’s offering the same services as Takedowns AI but that has been in business since 2014, told me that her company does not process requests like Anand described for clients. Cam Model Protection also uses AI, reverse image searches, and keyword searches to find infringing material, but it has systems in place to prevent false positives, Bekkum told me. These include a database of “whitelisted” content that it shouldn’t file takedown requests against, and human verification that each link the company sends to Google actually points to infringing content.
“Just a news article is not a copyright infringement,” Bekkum told me. “If there is no content being used or only a name being named, I don't need to explain to you that it's not in violation. Everybody can make a mistake, of course, but if you just randomly gather [links] and then report it, if it's not grounded on an infringement, you should not report it, of course.”
Bekkum and Ananad both said they understand why creators don’t want to click on every link that might be infringing on their copyright. It’s not only too much work—that’s why companies like Cam Model Protection exist in the first place—it also requires sifting through a sea of pornography they don’t want to see.
“This process is so time consuming,” Bekkum said. “And they do not want to focus on all that negative energy in Googling their name and seeing pages and pages full of links leading to illegal content.”
Elaina St. James, an adult content creator, told me she used a copyright takedown service and that it was most helpful when she flagged offending sites herself. St. James said she used the service to take down pirated content as well as catfishing accounts using her images, a problem 404 Media previously talked to her about. Overall, St. James said these services are useful but imperfect.
“I think they [DMCA takedown request companies] should stop overpromising,” she told me in an email. “There are some platforms—TikTok in particular—that do not comply. Tube sites in foreign countries also rarely comply.”
Automation of DMCA takedown requests has existed for years and has always resulted in some errors. Similar problems have also plagued YouTube’s automated Content ID system for years. More sites are likely to get caught in the crossfire as more content creators strike out on their own and turn to these services in an attempt to protect their income.
It’s an issue at the intersection of several critical problems with the modern internet: Google’s search monopoly, rampant porn piracy, a DMCA takedown process vulnerable to errors and abuse, and now the automation of all of the above in order to operate at scale. No one I talked to for this story thought there was an easy solution to this problem.
“It's all science fiction, but in the dumbest possible way,” Meredith Rose, a senior policy counsel with Public Knowledge who focuses on copyright, DMCA, and intellectual property reform, told me. “At the end of the day, the DMCA takedown provisions are a way to get speech off the internet. That's a very powerful tool. Even if you're not outright malicious, if somebody says something nasty about you and you want to keep your name out of their mouth, the DMCA kind of lets you do it without anybody checking your work. And so it is this really interesting case study in when you build these tools that give the power to anybody, even people who might not be who they say they are in these applications to get stuff taken down. Abuse happens. Sometimes it happens at scale. It happens for all different kinds of reasons. Sometimes it's just malice, sometimes it's incompetence, sometimes it's buggy automation [...] I feel like with AI, we're going to see a lot more of this.”
Anand said he believes the responsibility is with creators.
“The best way to solve that is to educate the creators more that this is not their content,” he told me. “A lot of creators are very scared, and what they want is everything about them taken down from everywhere. And then they start getting more aggressive with their takedowns.”
A spokesperson for Google told me that the vast majority of DMCA removals come from reporters who have a track record of valid takedowns, and that its DMCA removals process aims to find a balance between making it easy and efficient for rightsholders to report infringing content while also protecting free expression on the web.
“We actively fight fraudulent takedown attempts by using a combination of automated and human review to detect signals of abuse,” the Google spokesperson said. “We provide extensive transparency about these removals to hold requesters accountable, and sites can file counter notices if they believe a removal was made in error.”
In a new paper, several Stanford economists studied payroll data from the private company ADP, which covers millions of workers, through mid-2025. They found that young workers aged 22–25 in “highly AI-exposed” jobs, such as software developers and customer service agents, experienced a 13 percent decline in employment since the advent of ChatGPT. Notably, the economists found that older workers and less-exposed jobs, such as home health aides, saw steady or rising employment. “There’s a clear, evident change when you specifically look at young workers who are highly exposed to AI,” Stanford economist Erik Brynjolfsson, who wrote the paper with Bharat Chandar and Ruyu Chen, told the Wall Street Journal.
In five months, the question of “Is AI reducing work for young Americans?” has its fourth answer: from possibly, to definitely, to almost certainly no, to plausibly yes. You might find this back-and-forth annoying. I think it’s fantastic. This is a model for what I want from public commentary on social and economic trends: Smart, quantitatively rich, and good-faith debate of issues of seismic consequence to American society.
A group that infiltrated Microsoft’s headquarters building this week disputed the company’s account of the incident — describing their sit-in as nonviolent and saying the “listening devices” allegedly left behind were phones that fell from their pockets when they were arrested.
“As Brad himself admits, if someone were to plant listening devices, this is not how they would do it,” said Hossam Nasr, one of the leaders of the group No Azure for Apartheid, referring to comments made by Microsoft President Brad Smith after seven members of the group occupied his office Tuesday afternoon. “If anything, we would like our phones back, please.”
The group, which is calling on Microsoft to cut ties with Israel over the alleged use of its technology against Palestinians in Gaza, also disputed the company’s assertion that its members do not represent elements of its workforce, and questioned the sincerity of Microsoft executives in addressing the issues the protesters have raised.
Un’altra Mostra del Cinema si accende con una presenza che fa discutere e riflettere: quella di Kevin Spacey. L’attore è tornato a calcare un red carpet internazionale di grande rilievo, scegliendo il Lido di Venezia per segnare un ulteriore passo nel suo atteso ritorno sotto i riflettori, dopo la conclusione positiva delle sue vicende legali.
La famiglia Parr sta per tornare, ma armati di pazienza! I fan de Gli Incredibili dovranno aspettare ancora un po’ per il terzo capitolo. L’annuncio ufficiale è arrivato, ma la data di uscita è ancora lontana: 2028, se tutto va bene.
Il finale di If You Love ha lasciato i fan con il cuore spezzato, ma anche pieni di gioia. Dopo settimane di passione, è tempo di dire addio ad Ates, Leyla e al resto del cast. Ma quindi, ci sarà una seconda stagione? Scopriamolo insieme!
Grandi novità dal mondo magico! Per celebrare il “Ritorno a Hogwarts”, è stato annunciato che Warwick Davis tornerà a interpretare il professor Filius Vitious nella serie TV di Harry Potter targata HBO. Un ritorno che farà felici i fan! Ma non è l’unica sorpresa che ci aspetta.
La votation du 28 septembre arrive à grand pas, alors faisons vite un tour du sujet le plus numérique de cette fournée : l'Identité électronique. Qu'est-ce que l'e-ID, comment cela fonctionne et quels sont les points importants à retenir avant la votation
La votation du 28 septembre arrive à grand pas, alors faisons vite un tour du sujet le plus numérique de cette fournée : l’Identité électronique.
Qu’est-ce que l’e-ID, comment cela fonctionne et quels sont les points importants à retenir avant la votation ? HTTPS-VD vous a préparé son top 5 des infos à connaître pour voter avec les bonnes clefs en main.
Nous vous invitons également à nous rejoindre le jeudi 4 septembre 2025 à 19h30 à la SDMB, rue Caroline 16, pour une soirée d’information sur l’e-ID et son fonctionnement expliqué par des experts du domaine.
Petit rappel avant propos : une identité électronique n’est ni un identifiant, ni votre login, ne remplace pas vos mots de passe. Une e-ID sert uniquement à vérifier une (ou plusieurs) information précise à votre sujet une unique fois auprès d’un prestataire. Cela correspond à montrer votre carte d’identité, mais pas à utiliser une clef.
1. Maître de son identité
Le système d’identité électronique (et non identification, la nuance est importante) est programmé pour être sous le contrôle complet de l’utilisateur (= titulaire). L’application Swiyu, fournie par la Confédération, enregistrera vos informations uniquement sur votre téléphone et nulle part ailleurs. La Confédération n’intervient que pour valider ces informations et fournir un certificat d’authenticité ; elle agit donc en tant que garant de la véracité de celles-ci (Art. 2, al. 3 LeID.
Seul l’utilisateur peut valider quel prestataire de services (= vérificateur) peut vérifier ses informations. De plus, à tout moment, s’il a le moindre soupçon qu’un prestataire utilise le service d’e-ID de manière non conforme, il peut signaler le fait aux autorités, qui doivent immédiatement déclencher une enquête (audit). L’utilisateur reste donc en permanence maître de la manière dont ses informations sont vérifiées (Art. 3 LeID).
Enfin, la loi précise explicitement que l’e-ID est facultatif. Tout prestataire qui en fait usage doit, en parallèle, avoir une solution équivalente pour qui ne souhaite pas l’utiliser. Il y aura donc toujours une alternative (Art. 25 LeID).
2. Minimisation des données échangées
Les données d’identité sont stockées uniquement sur votre appareil auquel les prestataires de services n’ont pas accès. (Art. 8, al. 2 LeID) Seule sont transmises les informations validées par le titulaire et confirmées par la Confédération, sous forme codée (ou non codée, si le titulaire le choisit). Pour pouvoir utiliser le système d’e-ID, le prestataire doit effectuer une demande à la Confédération, justifiant chaque information pour laquelle il requiert une vérification (Art. 32 LeID). De plus, la vérification est automatiquement effacée après 90 jours (Art. 27 LeID), ce qui limite fortement les possibilités d’usage par les prestataires.
La Confédération ne saura en revanche pas comment le titulaire utilise son e-ID, pas plus que ce n’est le cas aujourd’hui avec la carte d’identité. (Art. 10, al. 2 LeID)
3. Décentralisée (l’identité est dans votre téléphone)
La Confédération se basera uniquement sur les registres existants pour certifier l’identité du titulaire de l’e-ID. Les informations spécifiques à l’e-ID ne seront utilisables qu’à partir de l’appareil de l’utilisateur. Une fois l’identité validée, le système est quasiment autonome vis-à-vis de l’État, ce qui lui limite drastiquement les possibilité de surveillance. Il s’agit donc d’un outil très décentralisé. Cela augmente également fortement la sécurité de l’outil, puisque si un utilisateur voit sont appareil infiltré, il sera la seule victime et les autres titulaires d’e-ID ne seront pas affectés. (eid.admin.ch/fr/technologie-f)
L’application est en revanche uniquement prévue pour les deux principaux distributeurs (Apple store et Google Play store) pour le moment. Les développeurs doivent encore trouver un moyen de s’affranchir des ces distributeurs pour rendre Swiyu accessible depuis des plateformes entièrement libres. (Pour participer : github.com/swiyu-admin-ch)
4. Non obligatoire
La loi encadrant l’e-ID est claire : son utilisation n’est pas obligatoire (Art. 25 LeID). Les organismes devront toujours proposer un autre moyen de vérifier l’identité d’une personne, même si ce service alternatif peut parfois être assorti d’un émolument (Art. 31 LeID). L’e-ID ne remplace donc pas les pratiques actuelles, mais affectera surtout les démarches déjà fortement numérisées (achats en ligne, signatures de contrat à distance, etc.). Les commerçants de quartier continueront donc à demander votre carte d’identité pour vérifier votre âge. Son déploiement plus large prendra du temps en raison des contraintes légales strictes, mais justes, qui garantissent une utilisation conforme à nos lois.
5. Code source ouvert
Enfin, la loi prévoit que le code de l’e-ID soit développé en open source, ce qui garantit transparence et auditabilité (Art. 12 LeID). Des exceptions juridiques restent toutefois possibles, et il sera important de rester attentif à leurs applications, même si la jurisprudence actuelle est plutôt favorable à l’ouverture complète du code. Nous sommes rassurés par la manière dont l’aspect « code source » du projet d’eID suisse est géré. Le processus se distingue par son exemplarité : le développement est ouvert aux contributions externes, la documentation est complète et accessible, et la transparence permet à chacun de vérifier et d’améliorer la solution. (swiyu-admin-ch.github.io/intro…)
Conclusion
En résumé, la nouvelle version de l’e-ID corrige avec brio les défauts de la première mouture. Si les exceptions prévues à la transparence forcent les citoyens à rester vigilants, le reste répond de manière explicites aux critiques formulées lors de la précédente votation. Le cadre légal présenté coche presque toutes les cases attendues pour un tel outil, et son aspect facultatif permet, comme avec les cartes bancaires, de toujours garder le choix du papier.
It's a Monero donation platform, so even if they were to remove your page, the donation wallet you set up for it would still be able to receive donations even without them.
It's a Monero donation platform, so even if they were to remove your page, the donation wallet you set up for it would still be able to receive donations even without them.
I hate catbox. I can't see images posted via catbox because for some reason catbox is very actively and aggressively bans VPNs. Yeah, you heard that right: they ban VPNs, not only for posting, even for viewing! I managed to find one VPN server that worked well... for few weeks. Until it got banned as well. Someone once said catbox is a honeypot. Idk about that, but their VPN policy is definitely honeypot-tier.
Added: What's even more funny - imgur also used to ban VPNs, but my current server, at the moment I picked it I choose by criteria that both imgur and catbox and some third service should work, and few weeks later imgur still works while catbox don't, which means catbox bans VPNs more aggressively than imgur! Really makes you hmmmm.
I don't know what VPN you use, but i have zero issues running Proton VPN and accessing catbox. Maybe some VPN nodes are used to attack Catbox and they are temp banned?
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.
Funnily enough I've been watching through Dark Matter and Alien: Earth and last night after watching an episode of each back to back realized that we're probably not far off from being directly ruled by corporations after all our governments fall, which is a central theme in each show.
I don’t think our governments are going to fall. I do think they are however extensions of corporations and over time are becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish from business.
I haven't read the books, but from what I understand, fans of the books generally don't care for the show because they think they changed too much. I think season 2 was a little slow but 1 and 3 have been great.
I'll give it another try once I forget most of the book, otherwise it's hard not to compare. I loved the books so anything different is hard to digest.
I haven't delved too deeply into the criticism so far all I know it could be baseless "internet complaints" like The Last of Us where people were upset that the girl playing the teenage character "wasn't attractive enough."
Thats just the first round of IP law vs AI Corpos. I'm really interested if this process will fix the broken copyright system or fix the AI Corpos - one of the two has to give.
It is my Great Honor to report that the United States of America now fully owns and controls 10% of INTEL, a Great American Company that has an even more incredible future. I negotiated this Deal with Lip-Bu Tan, the Highly Respected Chief Executive Officer of the Company. The United States paid nothing for these Shares, and the Shares are now valued at approximately $11 Billion Dollars. This is a great Deal for America and, also, a great Deal for INTEL. Building leading edge Semiconductors and Chips, which is what INTEL does, is fundamental to the future of our Nation. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Thank you for your attention to this matter.
The Trump administration said it had taken a 10% stake in Intel, President Donald Trump’s latest extraordinary move to exert federal control over business.
China's internal market is far more cutthroat and "capitalist" than that of the USA. And less regulated. And less monopolized, except for a few services which, ahem, are mandated (WeeChat, yes).
That was their "unique path", to move all hierarchical stuff into political entities. It look interesting on a large scale, from more "peasant-oriented" communism, kinda changing the initial Marxist picture of worker-capital relations, to this.
An actual city wall existed on the street from 1653 to 1699. During the 18th century, the location served as a slave market and securities trading site, and from 1703 onward
So, I haven't checked project 2025, but there is a Christian nationalist plan that wants to take over everything called Seven Mountains Mandate. You can just read the link, but the idea is to take over what they consider all major parts of society, including business and have a Christian Dominion.
Wait. The point of the unbelievable amount of telemetry you can't even disable was to collect info in situations like this. Right? Why is there telemetry if they have to ask?
Edit: title of the article is a bit misleading, as I obviously commented before reading the article.
The "another" company they are in contacting is Phison, the manufacturer of thr affected controllers, so it doesn't sound as bad as from the title
They have received no official reports, and cannot reproduce the issue. I'm betting this is a case of a couple drives failing and then everyone screaming at MS without any verification.
I wanted to post this yesterday, but my instance was having issues the entire day. Apologies if this is a repost.
Shi allegedly sent a message to Oppo saying that he was working to “collect as much information as possible” before starting his job. And he searched the internet for terms like “how to wipe out macbook” and “Can somebody see if I’ve opened a file on a shared drive?” from his Apple-issued MacBook before leaving the company.
For someone who is presumably pretty intelligent, this is pretty dumb.
Apple is suing a former employee on the Apple Watch team, Dr. Chen Shi, who left to join Oppo, alleging that he “conspired to steal Apple’s trade secrets relating to Apple Watch.”
And he searched the internet for terms like “how to wipe out macbook” and “Can somebody see if I’ve opened a file on a shared drive?” from his Apple-issued MacBook before leaving the company.
He now heads up a team working on sensing technology at Oppo — which Apple says it learned because of “messages he left on his Apple-issued work iPhone.” In his resignation letter to Apple, Shi said he was leaving “due to personal and family reasons.” Via that iPhone, Apple also says it found messages from Oppo demonstrating that it “encouraged, approved, and agreed to Dr. Shi’s plan to collect Apple’s proprietary information before leaving Apple.”
Why would either of these companies hire someone this stupid in a pivotal role?
Sounds damning, however the evidence will need to be presented. Apple’s legal team has a tendency to present and open-and-shut case to the media but it’s very much spinned in their favour.
If they just made up a bunch of accusations with paltry evidence to prove it, the scandal would make headlines. "iPhone maker found to be full of shit in court!" is clickworthy gold. I don't think your stance is very strong. Every entity tries to spin things in their favor, but you make it sound like they'd bring an empty case and they very much would not. No one starts a lawsuit they don't think they can win unless they're someone with no credibility and endless money like Elon Musk (see lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI) or oil companies going after environmental lawyers.
I politely disagree. Apple legal will most certainly make extreme accusations and throw the book at individuals as a deterrent to other staff who may be considering bringing “trade secret” knowledge with them as they leave. Which is basically turns any kind of creative solution to a tech problem into a “trade secret” 🍆in this reality of patents and intellectual property.
I suspect that this person thought they were getting away with something minor and it’s being spun into mustache-twirling supervillains as a warning to staff.
After developing a facial-recognition app for Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses and doxing random people, two former Harvard students are now launching a startup that makes smart glasses with an always-on microphone.
I remember when Google glass came out. I was living in New York, and almost every single establishment banned them nearly immediately. You wouldn’t be allowed in if you were wearing them, and if anyone saw you put them on, you get kicked out. No questions.
Well, you are far from alone. I imagine that a majority of people will feel this way, especially when they are more privacy invasive than Google glass ever was.
Also, people are much more privacy focused than they were 15 years ago. I can imagine there will be significant pushback to wearing these glasses anywhere but in open, public spaces. Private establishments will likely ban them.
Google Glass purposefully made it obvious what they were. The newer glasses without cameras from Meta et al basically look like regular glasses if you can't see the waveguide in the lenses.
If you know what you’re looking for, they’re not that difficult to spot. But, yeah, to most people, they would just appear to be regular sunglasses. This is a huge problem. It’s one thing when you’re being recorded by someone who is obviously holding a camera. It’s another one when, potentially, dozens of people around you could be recording everything all the time without anyone else, knowing it.
Not only is a potential for abuse incredibly high, the fact that Meta ends up owning all of the content so they can harvest it for monetary gain is even worse.
There's a big social stigma against this. Every other version of this that has come out has failed due to the combination of expense and stigma. I suspect this is nothing to worry about.
Very few people are going to pay hundreds of dollars to be socially isolated. Kill the market, kill the device.
“The AI listens to every conversation you have and uses that knowledge to tell you what to say … kinda like IRL Cluely,” Ardayfio told TechCrunch, referring to the startup that claims to help users “cheat” on everything from job interviews to school exams.
“If somebody says a complex word or asks you a question, like, ‘What’s 37 to the third power?’ or something like that, then it’ll pop up on the glasses,” Ardayfio added.
The product sounds like just another shitty AI assistant but on your face. The problem might fix itself when only 5 idiots buy them.
Remember how cell phones spread, and even people in poor countries with limited infrastructure?
This will be the same or worse. No, you won't be able to avoid being recorded by other people. This will change in the future, if it ever does, only when a large majority understand how the devices are being abused by power to control us and keep us enslaved. But, even upon that realization, if people find enough value in using the tech, they'll put up with being enslaved if they're still comfortable enough. It's a balance, and power knows it. They're working out the details as they go.
This is what's coming. My suggestion is don't have kids.
To feed the data centers with yummy personal data. No dataset is to big, no picture of the side of someone's arm is too pointless. We must consume all data
FOMO. Every experience is recorded just in case you (or really the government) might ever realize it was missed. Just in case it ever becomes interesting.
Tl;dr two over privileged teenage psychopaths stole a stupid idea from Meta/google that was hated by many and are going to make it worse by going all-in on the reasons people hate them.
I would. They're making an entirely unoriginal product with an entirely unoriginal sales pitch and, presumably, an unoriginal surveillance-based business model.
Is it really unoriginal? If it is patentable then it is as original as one can get in an already very developed technological market. I’m not saying I want this out there, but that doesn’t mean that what they are doing is wholly unoriginal, especially if no one has done it before.
Oh, it will join that very successful startup that was doing a pin that did something similar. It had AI in the name, I bet it does great and the product is very successful
While researching this news story I noticed that it was removed twice from Reddit by the mods with no clear reasons, so I added here some extra sources to make sure everything here is accurate.
I am not sure if the news story is being censored or if there is other reasons.
If you find any local articles or coverage that can add more context, please drop them in the comments and I will add them to the post.
A fire broke out at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant in Russia after Ukrainian drone flying near the plant was shot down, the press service of the plant said on August 23.
Seems like it would be a good way to funnel content into more niche communities by tying their posts to whatever is posted on a subreddit until they can take off on their own.
Does such a thing exist? If not, making it shouldn't be too difficult. I could probably whip something up real quick and toss it up on a software sharing platform.
Would anyone be interested in something like this? It could actually work really well with Lemmy's option to show/hide bot posts because people could choose if they want to see it at all.
It exists and some Lemmy communities operate that way. It’s not a good idea at all in practice. For example one community mirrors a tech support subreddit. It’s utterly pointless engaging in that community because the person asking the question will never read your answers. You can’t bootstrap a sense of community.
It probably doesn't make much sense to mirror /r/technology to /c/technology since that community is already popular and self-sustaining on lemmy.
There are countless other 'niche' communities that have no posts for months, however. There already isn't anyone engaging in these communities and it's unlikely that that will change because nobody wants to manually make posts that next to nobody is going to see. It's cyclical.
True, but from experience, those cycles are not broken by bot posts. You then have a community full of crossposts with 0 comments. Try it if you like, but usually the reason for dead communities is a lack of interested people.
There are countless other 'niche' communities that have no posts for months, however.
Hey, have you seen !fedigrow@lemmy.zip? It's got a lot of discussions on how to handle this.
I think that to grow a niche community, you need at least 2-3 regular posters, and you need to make posts that encourage discussion (i.e. ask questions or provoke a thoughtful reaction that readers would like to share.)
There are whole instances dedicated to mirroring Reddit. However a lot of people on the fediverse oppose such features, on my home instance eg. lemmit is filtered out of /all stream. lemmit.online/
You are right, this is a 1:1 mirror of Reddit without any Lemmy user interactions. Since it is a one way mirror, any comments would not reach Reddit, I assume this is why it was decided to keep the communities closed down in such a way.
They exist. In some communities they may work but IMO a lot of times they hurt community engagement, since no one really wants to reply to an autogenerated OP or join a community that's a wall of empty bot posts.
It's easy to make one. But why would you want that?
As time goes by and more and more people join the Fediverse, I'm sure some niche comms will start taking off. I don't like bots mirroring content from somewhere else, even as a help. In fact, I will immediately unsubscribe from any comm that starts doing that. And I'm sure many people also would.
That's not true. There's one bot that routinely posts to news communities called "MicroWave" and there are consistently people engaging with its posts.
A huge thing that real posts have but bot posts do not have: comments notify the OP and thus have a good chance of getting a response. The bot communities almost never get comments, and even if they do it's extra rare for them to get a reply.
If I didn't care about human-to-human comments then I wouldn't be here or on Reddit, I would just use RSS feeds, or the Google news feed.
This already exists, I have seen it used before, don't know any exact repositories though. The reason it's not really used is because it's pointless. What are you trying to achieve with it? Your community won't look more active if it has more posts with zero upvotes and zero comments all made by the same user.
Hiding posts from bots will also hide posts from this bot.
Keep in mind that not everyone here uses Lemmy, so a Lemmy feature isn't a good defense in a federated world like this.
There are rss bots that post stuff on lemmy, like for hackernews. And then as another user mentioned there are some servers like 50501 that mirror reddit and cross post to lemmy.
I think the general problem with such things is.... they post a lot of shit. Sure the top content within a community -might- be interesting but you're also going to get pointless junk that just fills up the fediverse. Not to mention the other issues with lack of interaction. I think the unfortunate reality is that the long term best thing for the community is hand curating content and posting it yourself. I say unfortunate because that's more work than a bot, but you'll be better able to grow a community. Plus some people like me will just block any bot i see because they generally are a waste of my time
Yeah I remember when people were "backing up" subreddits here and mostly just created a shitload of dead posts that the original OP had no idea existed
dumnezero
in reply to silence7 • • •