"Steam Did Not Respond To Us": Collective Shout Defends Calling On Payment Processors To Ban Adult Games
Collective Shout Responds To Critics Following Steam And Itch's Adult Games Ban
Collective Shout denies calling on Itch to remove all of its adult games, but it was behind the pressure on payment processors.Rhiannon Bevan (TheGamer)
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Competition shows humans are still better than AI at coding – just
Competition shows humans are still better than AI at coding – just
Przemysław Dębiak, who beat OpenAI at world finals, says he may be last human to win due to incredible pace of technological progressHannah Devlin (The Guardian)
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The real winners from Trump’s ‘AI action plan’? Tech companies
The real winners from Trump’s ‘AI action plan’? Tech companies
Millions spent by Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and others appear to have paid off as president vows to cut red tapeDara Kerr (The Guardian)
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SCOOP: Substack sent a push alert promoting a Nazi blog
SCOOP: Substack sent a push alert promoting a Nazi blog
The alert contained a swastika and prompted users to subscribe to newsletter featuring opinions and news important to the "white nationalist community."Taylor Lorenz (User Mag)
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Arkansas 'Whites-Only' Town Revives Far-Right Ideals: Return to Segregation?
A whites-only town in Arkansas revives far-right segregationist ideals, banning immigrants, people of colour, Jews, and LGBTQ+ individuals in a disturbing return to the past.
Australia to ban under-16s from YouTube
Sydney (AFP) – Australia will use landmark social media laws to ban children under 16 from video-streaming site YouTube, a top minister said Wednesday stressing the need to shield them from "predatory algorithms".Communications Minister Anika Wells said four-in-ten Australian children had reported viewing harmful content on YouTube, one of the most visited websites in the world.
"We want kids to know who they are before platforms assume who they are," Wells said in a statement.
"There's a place for social media, but there's not a place for predatory algorithms targeting children."
Australia announced last year it was drafting laws that will ban children from social media sites such as Facebook, TikTok and Instagram until they turn 16.
The government had previously indicated YouTube would be exempt, given its widespread use in classrooms.
"Young people under the age of 16 will not be able to have accounts on YouTube," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters on Wednesday.
"They will also not be able to have accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and X among other platforms.
"We want Australian parents and families to know that we have got their back."
Albanese said the age limit may not be implemented perfectly -- much like existing restrictions on alcohol -- but it was still the right thing to do.
A spokesman for YouTube said Wednesday's announcement was a jarring U-turn from the government.
"Our position remains clear: YouTube is a video sharing platform with a library of free, high-quality content, increasingly viewed on TV screens," the company said in a statement.
"It's not social media."
On paper, the ban is one of the strictest in the world.
But the current legislation offers almost no details on how the rules will be enforced -- prompting concern among experts that it will simply be a symbolic piece of unenforceable legislation.
It is due to come into effect on December 10.
Social media giants -- which face fines of up to Aus$49.5 million (US$32 million) for failing to comply -- have described the laws as "vague", "problematic" and "rushed".
TikTok has accused the government of ignoring mental health, online safety and youth experts who had opposed the ban.
Meta -- owner of Facebook and Instagram -- has warned that the ban could place "an onerous burden on parents and teens".
The legislation has been closely monitored by other countries, with many weighing whether to implement similar bans.
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As a parent of young kids....youtube is a complicated mess.
It is full of really great content; but YT kids sucks...so if you want access to the good stuff it is standard YT.
But the utter shit that shows up in the side bar and suggested videos is insane.
For older teens/adults; you don't have to worry about the shit tier garbage that is suggested.
I block the ads, but that is a whole other level of cringe/inappropriate content that just gets shoved into videos; completely unrelated to what is on.
You can use uBlock Origin to block the recommended section or another player like FreeTube which allows you to disable that section entirely.
FreeTube also offers Hide Videos and Playlists Containing Text feature in addition to general channel blocking. That should help tailoring content to kids where YouTube fails.
uBlock Origin - Free, open-source ad content blocker.
uBlock Origin is not just an “ad blocker“, it's a wide-spectrum content blocker with CPU and memory efficiency as a primary feature. Developed by Raymond Hill.uBlock Origin
Australia’s attempt to join the space race lasts 14 seconds
Australia’s attempt to join the space race lasts just 14 seconds
: ‘I would have liked more flight time but happy with this’ says CEO of private rocket outfitSimon Sharwood (The Register)
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L'abisso dei ragni che si servono di microbi per trasformare il gas metano in sostentamento - Il blog di Jacopo Ranieri
L'abisso dei ragni che si servono di microbi per trasformare il gas metano in sostentamento - Il blog di Jacopo Ranieri
Nelle remote profondità del Pacifico, esistono recessi ove la vita è rarefatta al punto da permettere di sopravvivere soltanto ad animali altamente specializzati, il cui metabolismo è calibrato al fine di minimizzare il consumo di energie ed al tempo…Jacopo (Il blog di Jacopo Ranieri)
Substack promoted a Nazi blog again
Substack sent a push alert encouraging users to subscribe to a Nazi newsletter that claimed Jewish people are a sickness and that we must eradicate minorities to build a “White homeland.”
This has been a problem for years: Substack has a Nazi problem - The Atlantic
Substack won’t commit to removing Nazi content - TechCrunch
I don’t think this can be ignored anymore. If you’re on Substack, please consider one of its many fine alternatives. Plus, it’s easy to move these days. Wired wrote about just a few last year
Substack won't commit to proactively removing Nazi content, ensuring further fallout | TechCrunch
Substack has industry-leading newsletter tools, but its recent content moderation missteps could prove costly.Taylor Hatmaker (TechCrunch)
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if i had a nickel for every time substack promoted a nazi blog.......
... i'd have a shitload of nickels.
Samsung’s One UI 8 might shut down bootloader unlocking on Galaxy phones
Samsung’s One UI 8 might shut down bootloader unlocking on Galaxy phones
Samsung’s One UI 8 update appears to block more users from unlocking their device’s bootloader, preventing them from installing custom software and making other changes to their Galaxy device.Emma Roth (The Verge)
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OT but form factor looks like a Sony Xperia. The trend points to sleek now?
Edit: right, it's a foldable.
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Briar is already audited lmao
The other option is Meshtashtic
Either is better than this amateur stuff
TikTok hires ex-Israeli army instructor as new hate speech manager, sparking backlash
TikTok's new hire to oversee hate speech policies for the app has long-standing ties to the Israeli army, the company confirmed to Jewish Insider on Monday.
The social media platform announced that Erica Mindel, a former US State Department contractor who worked for ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the Biden administration’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, will join TikTok’s public policy and hate speech team in the US.
Mindel will “develop and drive the company’s positions on hate speech”, aim to “influence legislative and regulatory frameworks”, and “analyse hate speech trends” with a particular focus on antisemitic content, according to the official job description shared by TikTok.
Before her career at the US State Department, Mindel was an instructor in the Armoured Corps in the Israeli army’s spokesperson’s unit, according to information she provided when she appeared on a podcast with the American Jewish Committee.
TikTok hires ex-Israeli army instructor as new hate speech manager, sparking backlash
TikTok's new hire to oversee hate speech policies for the app has long-standing ties to the Israeli army, the company confirmed to Jewish Insider on Monday.MEE staff (Middle East Eye)
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Australian Labor government threatens Signal encrypted messaging system
Australian Labor government threatens Signal encrypted messaging system
The Albanese government’s moves are attacking the existence of a vital free, open-source, encrypted communications platform used by millions of people worldwide.World Socialist Web Site
Microsoft is rolling out Xbox age verification to comply with the UK’s Online Safety Act | VGC
Microsoft is rolling out Xbox age verification to comply with the UK’s Online Safety Act
The age verification tools will be mandatory for some social features in 2026Jordan Middler (Video Games Chronicle)
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YouTube will identify and restrict minors’ accounts with AI
Extending our built-in protections to more teens on YouTube
We're extending our existing built-in protections to more US teens on YouTube, using machine learning age estimation.James Beser (YouTube Official Blog)
AI finds speech patterns in Reddit hate groups mirror those in some psychiatric forums
our results indicate that hate speech communities on Reddit share speech patterns with Reddit communities for Schizoid Personality Disorder, three Cluster B personality disorders (Borderline, Narcissistic, and Antisocial), and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. While the Cluster B disorders would be expected due to prior studies into the Dark Triad and hate speech, this nonetheless offers confirmation that they are acting similarly to their Dark Triad counterparts when it comes to hate speech. Furthermore, the two non-Cluster B disorders have not been discussed in hate speech or misinformation literature to the best of our knowledge, and offer new routes of investigation.The association in speech patterns between certain psychiatric disorders and hate speech (and misinformation to a lesser extent) suggests that, despite hate speech and misinformation being a social phenomenon, framing and approaching hate speech/misinformation as though they were psychiatric disorders may prove beneficial in combating them. For example, designing counter-messaging against these issues could utilize elements of therapy used for the psychiatric disorders that are most similar to hate speech and misinformation. Although hate speech embeddings being classified most frequently as Cluster B personality disorders could be seen as problematic due to those disorders’ historical resistance to treatment, the successes in treating Borderline Personality Disorder through Dialectical Behavior Therapy indicates that treatment of these disorders is not impossible and could be applied here [59,60]. Furthermore, although hate speech shares similarities with Cluster B personality disorders, that does not mean that it actually is a Cluster B personality disorder; it is most likely less resistant to change than a personality disorder is.
Misinformation’s relations to psychiatric disorder communities proved to remain elusive; a clear connection can be seen in the TDA mapping, and zero-shot classification had over 25% of the misinformation embeddings assigned to psychiatric disorders, but it was difficult to elucidate a clear pattern with the dataset at hand. A more robust dataset may be able to identify clearer trends.
Topological data mapping of online hate speech, misinformation, and general mental health: A large language model based study
Author summary The advent of social media has led to an increased concern over its potential to propagate hate speech and misinformation, which, in addition to contributing to prejudice and discrimination, has been suspecting of playing a role in inc…doi.org
AI Data Centers in Texas Used 463 Million Gallons of Water, Residents Told to Take Shorter Showers
AI Data Centers in Texas Used 463 Million Gallons of Water, Residents Told to Take Shorter Showers
Texas has long been defined by oil, heat, and huge infrastructure projects. Now, it’s also at the center of a growing environmental debate.Keith Anthony (Techie + Gamers)
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Labour rules out VPN ban in UK but issues warning to UK households
birminghammail.co.uk/news/midl…
With Proton VPN downloads skyrocketing in th UK, the Online Safety Bill has lead to fears that VPNs can be banned in the country entirely. Although the ruling Labour Government has ruled out a VPN ban, Tech Secretary Peter Kyle has issued a warning to VPN users.
“Adults should get behind the aid verification system, because every time they do it, you keep a child safe.” Kyle told The Telegraph last week in a warning: "If platforms or sites signpost towards workarounds like VPNs, then that itself is a crime and will be tackled by these codes.
UK households could face VPN 'ban' after use skyrockets following Online Safety Bill
Labour could ban the use of Virtual Private Networks after use skyrocketed in recent days.James Rodger (Birmingham Live)
the Emperor's grand tour has concluded.
the Emperor's grand tour has concluded.
…and the Atlantic alliance has never looked more like a medieval court.Deaglan O'Mulrooney (the spectacle)
Naah JS is fine, just use TypeScript!
TypeScript does not throw an error at compile time for accessing an out-of-bounds index. Instead, it assumes that the value could be one of the types defined in the array (in this case, 1 or 2) or undefined.
TypeScript automatically infers the type of a value accessed from an array, even if that access is out of bounds. It assumes that the value could be one of the defined types or undefined, which can lead to confusion if you expect stricter enforcement of valid indices.
I just spent the last 2 hours trying to understand why I was getting a valid type from something that shouldn't have been valid.
I think that the hate that JavaScript receives is well deserved, at least coming from Rust this is an absolute nightmare.
To add to my own comment, I want to remind you that JavaScript was designed to power websites, and having an entire website break because an array didn’t have anything in it yet is probably worse than the alternative.
A lot of JS’ decisions actually make sense when you understand its history. That doesn’t mean it’s a great language, but it’s undeniably good at fulfilling its original purpose, making websites interactive in myriad different browser implementations.
Yes you're probably right, I definitely have bias and the time spent tryna fix the bug influenced this..
Thanks
Google Refuses to Deny UK Encryption Demands
Google Refuses to Deny UK Encryption Demands
US Democrat Senator Ron Wyden has written to the Director of National Intelligence Tulso Gabbard asking for increased pressure on the UK over its attacks on encrypted services, as reported in the Washington Post.Open Rights Group
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Cosa succederà se Putin ignora l’ultimatum di Trump?
Sex toy maker Lovense caught leaking users’ email addresses and exposing accounts to takeovers
Lovense: The Company That Lies to Security Researchers
How Lovense has ignored the same critical vulnerabilities for 2+ years, lied about fixes, and manipulated bounty payouts while leaving 10s of millions of users exposed.bobdahacker.com
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My 2.5 year old laptop can write Space Invaders in JavaScript now, using GLM-4.5 Air and MLX
My 2.5 year old laptop can write Space Invaders in JavaScript now, using GLM-4.5 Air and MLX
I wrote about the new GLM-4.5 model family yesterday—new open weight (MIT licensed) models from Z.ai in China which their benchmarks claim score highly in coding even against models such …Simon Willison’s Weblog
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This study on the impact of AI on perceived developer productivity is making the rounds. I find @simon, Quentin Anthony, and @gergelyorosz’s take the most interesting.
My personal theory is that getting a significant productivity boost from LLM assistance and AI tools has a much steeper learning curve than most people expect.news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4…
It’s super easy to get distracted in the downtime while LLMs are generating. The social media attention economy is brutal, and I think people spend 30 mins scrolling while “waiting” for their 30-second generation.
I cannot stay in the zone when using a time-saving AI coding tool; I need to do something else while code is being generated, so context switches are forced, and each one slows me down. It’s a distraction.
I can confirm the danger of getting distracted when working with AI. I’ve learnt and continue to learn how to best leverage Cursor in my daily work. I know its impact on my productivity is very different depending on the projects I work on. I know I must use Cursor differently depending on the codebase I work with. I know I’m not as productive as I would like with some project types, because I haven’t found the best way to organize my work yet.
But I think the same was true when I worked without the help of AI.
Cursor makes developers less effective?
A study into the workflows of experienced developers found that devs who use Cursor for bugfixes are around 19% slower than devs who use no AI tools at all. One possible takeaway is that AI tools can be harder work than we’re led to believe.Gergely Orosz (The Pragmatic Engineer)
French PM says EU-U.S. trade deal an act of ‘submission’ and a dark day for Europe
French PM says EU-U.S. trade deal an act of ‘submission’ and a dark day for Europe
France called a framework trade deal between the United States and European Union a “dark day” for Europe, saying the bloc had caved in to U.S.Reuters Staff (CTVNews)
UK Users Need to Post Selfie or Photo ID to View Reddit's r/IsraelCrimes, r/UkraineWarFootage
UK Users Need to Post Selfie or Photo ID to View Reddit's r/IsraelCrimes, r/UkraineWarFootage
“If visibility of r/IsraelCrimes is being restricted under the Online Safety Act, it’s only because the state fears accountability,” moderators say.Emanuel Maiberg (404 Media)
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Sealed Chain of Deception: Actors leveraging Node.JS to Launch JSCeal
Sealed Chain of Deception: Actors leveraging Node.JS to Launch JSCeal - Check Point Research
Campaign JSCEAL executes compiled Javascript files to target crypto app userssamanthar@checkpoint.com (Check Point Research)
Will your job survive AI?
Will your job survive AI?
Expert on future of work says it’s a little early for dire predictions, but there are signs significant change may be comingChristina Pazzanese (Harvard Gazette)
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Antidepressant of the masses
Incensole acetate, an incense component, elicits psychoactivity by activating TRPV3 channels in the brain - PMC
Burning of Boswellia resin as incense has been part of religious and cultural ceremonies for millennia and is believed to contribute to the spiritual exaltation associated with such events. Transient receptor potential vanilloid (TRPV) 3 is an ion ..pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey
2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey
The 2025 Developer Survey is the definitive report on the state of software development. In its fifteenth year, Stack Overflow received over 49,000+ responses from 177 countries across 62 questions focused on 314 different technologies, including new…survey.stackoverflow.co
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The dangerously blurry line between wellness and medical tech
Let me catch you up. On July 15th, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent Whoop a letter. In it, the FDA declared that Whoop — maker of a niche fitness tracker favored by elite athletes — had crossed a line. Its new Blood Pressure Insights feature, the regulator said, was being marketed to customers without undergoing the proper clearance process.In response, Whoop pulled out the W word: wellness.
In the world of health and wearable tech, “wellness” is sort of like a “get out of jail free” card. Some advanced health features, like EKGs and atrial fibrillation notifications, require regulatory clearance before consumers can use them. These features could be interpreted as diagnostic in nature or prompt a person to make a medical decision. Others, like step tracking and blood oxygen measurements, don’t require FDA oversight at all. They’re simply meant to make living a healthy life easier by helping you visualize certain measurable markers. Those features fall under the wellness umbrella. They’re “just for fun.”
Archive: archive.is/IeGW2
The dangerously blurry line between wellness and medical tech
Whoop is saying its latest blood pressure insights feature is wellness tech. The FDA disagrees, saying it has clear medical and diagnostic implications.Victoria Song (The Verge)
My 2.5 year old laptop can write Space Invaders in JavaScript now, using GLM-4.5 Air and MLX
It’s interesting how almost every model released in 2025 has specifically targeting coding. That focus has clearly been paying off: these coding models are getting really good now.
I still contend that this sort of task is uniquely positioned to show off LLMs. The idea that they'll turn into agents that can do real-world tasks remains a fantasy. Despite how impressive this is, they're losing money and have no real path to profitability.
Look up Ed Zitron's newsletter and podcast for more info on why the industry is a bubble. I'm genuinely impressed with this specific example, but our economy is gonna suffer when the bubble bursts.
My 2.5 year old laptop can write Space Invaders in JavaScript now, using GLM-4.5 Air and MLX
I wrote about the new GLM-4.5 model family yesterday—new open weight (MIT licensed) models from Z.ai in China which their benchmarks claim score highly in coding even against models such …Simon Willison’s Weblog
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West seeks to divide and conquer Africa: Liberation Movements Summit
West seeks to divide and conquer Africa: Liberation Movements Summit
Liberation movements meet in Johannesburg to resist neo-colonialism and Western interference and reaffirm African unity and sovereignty.Al Mayadeen English (West seeks to divide and conquer Africa: Liberation Movements Summit)
chemical_cutthroat
in reply to themachinestops • • •like this
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resipsaloquitur
in reply to chemical_cutthroat • • •Australian writer, speaker, blogger and media commentator
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)like this
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Voroxpete
in reply to resipsaloquitur • • •Babalugats
in reply to themachinestops • • •Cens+rship g+ne t++ f+cking f+r.
That article is shit to read. What's the point in censoring words?
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Cypher
in reply to Babalugats • • •hdnsmbt
in reply to Cypher • • •like this
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MonkderVierte
in reply to Babalugats • • •Fingolfinz
in reply to themachinestops • • •Lena
in reply to themachinestops • • •Did they seriously censor their own article, on their own website
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ushmel
in reply to Lena • • •SlartyBartFast
in reply to Lena • • •zurohki
in reply to themachinestops • • •like this
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rottingleaf
in reply to zurohki • • •Because nobody will ban that legally, and people paying for adult stuff themselves naturally have made a decision.
So these people (the Russian word is pidor) are trying to sneak a block someplace else.
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cley_faye
in reply to zurohki • • •Because THEY decided that THEIR opinions are better than everyone else's, so YOU have to listen to THEM, willingly or not.
Something something free speech and all that jazz.
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dontbelievethis
in reply to themachinestops • • •collectiveshout.org/our_team
collectiveshout.org/collective…
collectiveshout.org/ambassador…
Make yourself heard.
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Archer
in reply to dontbelievethis • • •like this
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Nikelui
in reply to Archer • • •like this
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dontbelievethis
in reply to Archer • • •Because talking is legal.
You shouldn't bombard those people with emails or phone calls or order pizza without toppings/cheese. Don't harass them and make their life miserable, don't ruin something they enjoy. Don't use OSINT to find more about them and certainly don't ask "where is your god now?" when they break down crying. Don't clog their systems with trashdata. Just don't raid them.
Talk with them in a civilized manner. Look at human history and you will see that every conflict can be settled if you are just willing to use words and nothing else.
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PerogiBoi
in reply to dontbelievethis • • •like this
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dontbelievethis
in reply to PerogiBoi • • •Hozerkiller
in reply to dontbelievethis • • •like this
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very_well_lost
in reply to Hozerkiller • • •hungprocess
in reply to dontbelievethis • • •An admirable sentiment, but I feel like you and I read very different history books.
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Passerby6497
in reply to hungprocess • • •winkerjadams
in reply to Passerby6497 • • •Passerby6497
in reply to winkerjadams • • •hungprocess
in reply to Passerby6497 • • •cley_faye
in reply to dontbelievethis • • •You dropped this
/s
Vinstaal0
in reply to themachinestops • • •like this
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Mubelotix
in reply to themachinestops • • •like this
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glimse
in reply to Mubelotix • • •Imagine 4k people sending 4k emails to 6 employees
collectiveshout.org/our_team
They, understandably, don't list their emails but I doubt they're impossible to find
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glimse
in reply to glimse • • •Is it doxxing to post contact information for a public company? If so mods I'm sorry please don't ban me
Email: volunteers@collectiveshout.org or help@collectivevoice.com
Phone: +61 1300 146 987
Fax: +61 3 9815 9201
Mailing Address: PO Box 2451, Taylors Lakes, Victoria 3038, AU
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glimse
in reply to glimse • • •Melinda T Reist on Instagram: "For more information email melinda@tankardreist.com or head to my website melindatankardreist.com #melindatankardreist #schools #teachers #education #awareness #harassment #policy #practice #safeguarding #children #youth #
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