I really feel sick to my stomach using Bluesky after the last few weeks. It definitely feels like diminishing returns are setting in. BC the main BSky server will always be the biggest, spinning off to your own PDS still means you’re at the mercy of Bluesky mods for maximum reach. I don’t know man

"During the meeting, Whear told the board they are offering 'books that affirm and promote lifestyles that are sexually corrupt' and attacked what he sees as a collective effort from trans people to prey on children. "Some in the crowd clapped as Whear left the podium. One man yelled, 'Amen!'"

Chicago isn’t a “warzone”… but the Broadview ICE facility is. That’s why it’s time to say enough is enough. But to do that, we need our leaders. And your help:

In the US, the number of book bans is accelerating as censors become more emboldened to pull titles under the guise of protecting kids. What they’re really protecting is ideology.

If you think this is US-only, it's not. If you think the GDPR protects you, it's doesn't. If you hadn't realised privacy is a national security and corporate espionage issue, it is. If you think politicians can't tackle this, they can. If you believe that tech or business need this, they don't.

The tide may be turning. "Educated We Stand," a national counterpoint to the pro-censorship group Moms For Liberty, says it had a 78% win rate in school board races nationwide last year. www.tampabay28.com/news/state/k...

They’re stripping rural libraries of low-cost WiFi because letting people access to ideas and information is now a program to “censor Conservative ideology.” I’d say, next come the books, except they’ve already come for books.

Surprise. The Online Safety Act is only pushing people to worse corners of the internet. To combat the fact that their surveillance law is a failure, Labour proposes revamping school curriculum focused on digital literacy, which is what they should have been doing all along.

404 Media and the Freedom of the Press Foundation are suing DHS, demanding that it hand over a copy of an agreement that shares the personal data of nearly 80 million Medicaid patients with ICE. 🔗 www.404media.co/404-media-an...

JUST IN: A U.S. citizen from Alabama who has been detained twice by ICE while working at a construction site, has filed a class action suit claiming ICE's broad warrantless arrest powers violate the constitution. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Our new report with @thejcpa.bsky.social found that X is a hotbed for antisemitism. “The platforms turn a blind eye to harmful content being spread on their sites, and they leave society to suffer the consequences." Learn more in @thejerusalempost.bsky.social ⤵️

SESTA/FOSTA backfired miserably. The UK's age verification law backfired miserably. The TikTok ban is backfiring miserably. So of course @blumenthal.senate.gov has decided now is a great time to revive the terribly written Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) which will ... spoiler... backfire miserably

The president said, in a televised speech, that he's sending his new, less restrained, more violent military into US cities to practice their brutality on immigrants and minorities, to better train them to apply that brutality to other countries. He said this out loud.

The Governor of North Dakota knows the age-verification law he signed doesn't work. He doesn't care. Porn is still easily accessible online, including to minors. Meanwhile, North Dakotans trying to access Bluesky are forced to show their papers.

Age-verification laws are making it difficult for adult sites to get indexed, since the crawlers can’t always bypass AV. Which results in lower indexing. Which results in lower traffic. Which results in censorship.

so the takeaway here is that if you elect anyone mildly socialist they will just pull the gestapo out of the area? just like that?

Being a person with autism has not been easy but the reason it hasn't been easy- is because non-autistic people are not taught how to interact with autistic people. Autistic people are expected to socially mask & neurotypicals generally don't have even a base idea of how autistic people communicate.

Another thing. Don't be angry at small companies like Bluesky. Where were Google and Meta during these AV fights? They're the ones with the resources to fight these laws. Yet they were absent during FSC v. Paxton. Instead of fighting, they rolled over to pre-comply. They sold us all out.

People of Illinois, we need your help. Get your cell phones out – record what you see. Put it on social media. Peacefully ask for badge numbers and identification. Speak up for your neighbors. We need to let the world know this is happening – and that we won’t stand for it.

EA games getting bought out by Trump's son-in-law and the Saudi investment fund was not on my 2025 bingo card, yikes The Sims started out as a commentary on capitalism... How far we have come

What if there is a tech device that will substantially decrease your risk of dementia? My new blog post. And yes, I have started using this device. (Hearing aids. Hearing loss is strongly associated with dementia risk. Hearing aids solve things.) www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ment...

It's sad to think that the family that was detained by ICE at Millenium Park on Sunday went because their daughter wanted to visit the park. Should have been an easy choice but now immigrants in Chicago feel they should stay away from parks and refrain from shopping. Disappearing from public life.

This administration has literally not done a single thing to make living more affordable

“You look Mexican so should be arrested” is not *at all* different from “you look Jewish and should be arrested.”

No one outside adult truly has any idea what online censorship really looks like. They imagine it's easy to get around with a cute spelling. In reality, censorship is arbitrary and nonsensical, enforced by multiple parties. The liability so great that some topics stop getting discussed completely.

absolutely insane a social media app would be asking for users to upload their IDs to see 'adult content'. If that shit ever manages to reach where I am, i will no longer be using this app. If you're in affected areas that demand this, leave @bsky.app a bad review- this is a total breach of privacy

If you haven’t been paying attention to the EA takeover because you’re not a gamer, here’s why it should concern you anyway. 2 out of 3 people in the US play video games —and right-wingers are gearing up to control their content. Their messaging, their propaganda. Coming to a console near you.

I really don’t understand why people get confused when we don’t want CNC/non-con/SA banned from art spaces. No other topic is treated like this. No other victims are forced to be compliant. What makes bloody murder art so much holier than fictional non-con? Why is sex always a special case?

It’s official: AIPAC is trying to buy my election to keep me out of Congress. Apparently, I’m a “dangerous detractor”... by believing Palestinians (like myself and my family) deserve basic human rights. But we’re not going to let AIPAC win.

The Virginia council member pushing for a new "obscenity" ordinance in Lynchburg cites "sadomasochistic" abuse and clearly political speech from the Warped tour as the type of performances he thinks should be criminalized. www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kIW...

my biggest problem with the whole "tylenol autism" thing is that people are focusing on it "being an attack on pregnant women". It's actually an attack on AUTISTIC PEOPLE. These people hate us and would love for us to be eradicated!

And porn. If you're touting "science" about the damaging effects of pornography you're carrying water for right-wing orgs that for ten years have pushed anti-porn (anti-masturbation) pseudoscience as a justification for censorship of sex and sexuality online. Porn is not "a public health crisis."

sims 4 patch notes: hey all with the EA buyout we have some big changes to announce! - new bible item added - no more same sex interactions - if you open this menu at all, we will install 37 monitoring programs immediately - if you search wickedwhims we will send feds immediately game on!

The legislator behind the new Ohio age-verification law doesn't even know what's in the bill. He claims that it excludes social media sites. No such language exists. This is why you don't push something you couldn't get passed the normal way into an budget omnibus. www.wkbn.com/news/ohio/ho...

Tomorrow, @bsky.app will begin requiring all users in Ohio to submit facial scans, government IDs or other identity info to access the site, in order to prevent prosecution under the state's age-verification law. Meanwhile, X does nothing. Because it likely doesn't fear prosecution.

“The things they are doing, I haven’t seen government actions like this in my lifetime,” said @katiefallow.bsky.social, @knightcolumbia.org's deputy litigation director. “The most recent analogies would be from either Nixon or the Red Scare.” More in @huffpost.com. www.huffpost.com/entry/donald...

@elgato.com Please make your Stream Deck and Wave Link software available for Linux. I'm sure every Linux gamer and streamer that owns Elgato products would appreciate it (myself included!)

Today's death threats are because I'm trans, which according to dozens of conservatives evidently means I'm a child sexual predator. 🙃

My theory is Bluesky’s team is embarrassed by its userbase, there’s consistently this feeling of loathing. Like everyone on here is prone to hysteria. Most anger and outrage over Bluesky policies are justified, it’s very rare people actually get upset at staff over nothing

Today in "Freaking cool Science News"

"A 3D printable bio-active glass could be used to repair bone damage and help them grow back, a study suggests." www.newsweek.com/scientists-c...

The ‘Surveillance State’ is literally at your fingertips, and folks are still going on about mRNA vaccines like it will be the end of them. Fucking smooth brains!

There it is, black and white. Noncon art ban

Democratic Governors Can Arrest ICE Agents. What Are They Waiting For? open.substack.com/pub/cmarmita...

the us government is at war w its own ppl

ICE arrested press tonight. They threw a tear gas canister into the press last week. This was not an accident. Release Steve Held.

Let's be perfectly clear: executive order or no executive order, "domestic terrorism" has always meant whatever the government at the time wants it to mean. The FBI used to infiltrate vegan potlucks, y'all. Don't panic. Don't stop organizing. Just be careful and take care of each other.

Abolish ICE. Now. www.newsweek.com/ice-detentio...

We have to stop dehumanizing ICE agents while they are doing their important job of dehumanizing us

Trump just ordered the military into Portland, and he’s giving them the green light to use lethal force on American citizens. Authoritarianism is an abstract concept but Trump is making its impacts real and tangible. Let’s be real about it: This is the beginning of dictatorship in America.