History shows that when democracies face crises, strengthening and reinvigorating democratic participation is essential to prevent democratic backsliding and the rise of authoritarianism. This is not that.

Today in infrastructure

tbh, if you've got any material size of investments in the UK and you haven't threatened the government that you will withdraw them unless you're given a subsidy, can you really look your shareholders in the eye and say you did your best?

Reviewed Nick Clegg’s book. Didn’t think much of it, except for: “Nadine Dorries, while secretary of state for the department overseeing the internet, ‘once called me in high dudgeon, demanding to know why I hadn’t taken down tweets … I had to explain to her that Twitter was a different company’.”

From things I've seen recently, I think many people would benefit from reading this. It's short, and it's free. 👉 rdcu.be/dbFbB

“Bustling crowds wait for overwhelmingly non-white shop staff to serve up their alcohol, never wondering about who would turn up to scrub Westminster station clean of their urine at the end of the day.” www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-t...

Ah yes if black and brown people throw a party we need to scan their faces. White supremacists organising a hate march do not need to worry about their privacy. The police have them covered. This btw is also why everyone arguing for digital id in this country is either naive or dangerous.

An assassin writes Bella Ciao in the same breath as a Notices Your Bulge meme on his bullets. One of the government responses is a practicing Hindu asserting that the fundamentalist Christian victim will join him in a Norse pagan afterlife. Welcome to the epistemic collapse.

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I was initially surprised that Rayner hadn’t sought more advice on her tax liability. And £40k is a lot of money. But @timleunig.bsky.social makes a good point here, especially as a court told her to set up the trust. Goes to show quick takes can be bad ones. open.substack.com/pub/timleuni...

I decided to test whether EXIF data is removed from images sent over X's new encrypted chat feature like Signal and other messengers do. I can confirm it is not. I was able to extract information including GPS coordinates from a test image sent to me.

Government platforms that all messages and state interactions - at all levels of govt - go through? Where things aren't designed to resist authoritarian abuse so central govt can read things? Hunh Luckily no liberal democracies would be daft enough to build such things

Trump administration has added to its “specially designated” sanctions list (a list for terrorists & drug traffickers) the three leading Palestinian human rights organizations- Al Haq, Al Mezan, and PCHR. Because of their courage and dedication ofc!!!

“This is the inevitable result of Elon Musk’s changes to X: he has outsourced moderation to the UK’s police forces – and unsurprisingly, they are bad at it. They are having to make decisions, and use the blunt instruments of the law, because Musk is refusing to use the many tools available to him.”

I never thought I would see this in my life, and that they’re making it immediately generic so it’s affordable is making me want to cry

If you're in the US and want a *signed* copy of my book "Hey, There's Science In This", please order it BEFORE FRIDAY 23rd*. The rules for mailing goods to the US are changing and I can't feasibly mail them after that. evaamsen.com/product/sign...

Yes. I also felt this way about the assassinations in Minnesota. In fact, I continue to feel this way about the assassinations in Minnesota.

"yes, you can be banned for life from football grounds for saying that. on the other hand, Oxford University is legally required to protect your ability to say it during a lecture"

ICE is now clean on OPSEC. www.404media.co/ice-adds-ran...

Minnesota teen says server forced her to prove her gender in restaurant bathroom The 18-year-old high school student alleged the server would not let her exit the Buffalo Wild Wings restroom until she unzipped her hoodie and showed she had breasts. For @nbcnews.com: www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-...

GCHQ first bsky.app/profile/thej...

the data governance parts are in no better a state. The staff left will commandeer all GP medical notes and hope Palantir will fix it all. bsky.app/profile/shau...

Sunder is doing heroic work providing informed and balanced analysis on asylum protests (which are hugely exaggerated by many).

I could say the same about Long Covid and the millions of children who will suffer the proliferation of cancer, vascular disease, immune dysfunction, kidney and liver disease as the result of repeated infections from SARS-CoV-2. Adults live in denial about what they’re doing to their own kids.

Listen, we are in a terrible and difficult time where the horrors can often feel overwhelming. Lean into the things that bring you joy. If that means that sometimes you're wringing that last drop of dopamine out of watching bad people suffer as the result of their poor choices, you do you.

Centralise NHS (in England) onto an app? Led by PM & SoS? & without any real thought for how this might affect people who don't use apps and healthcare services that don't easily go through one app? Looks like a path to worse healthcare, & ultimately higher costs institute.global/insights/pub...

RFK Jr. used to warn about a government takeover of our data. He said wearables and their tech were part of a plot to surveil us, enabled tyranny, caused cancer, and turned users into “permanent consumers” to Big Tech. Now, he'd like your data, please. www.msnbc.com/opinion/anal...

While July 31 @planet.com imagery shows some more minor damage — it at least shows the dirt berm area was not expanded. That space included hundreds of now-bulldozed gravestones. A June image from Middle East Eye shows the same corner that's now been destroyed: www.middleeasteye.net/sites/defaul...

A new episode of Everything Digital Health just dropped: The NHS Single Patient Record - with Sam Smith of MedConfidential https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knp8bQJ47xg Sam Smith from MedConfidential once again joins me on Everything Digital Health to discuss the pr...

The London originated ignorance in this tweet on Cambridge is pretty funny x.com/rupwalker/st...

Today I launched the first video in my multi part series about data brokers and surveillance capitalism!! I dug into the history of data brokers and how the industry emerged, decades before the Internet itself youtu.be/8VL16A7OWiw?...

With Tom Lehrer's passing, I suppose this is a moment to share the story of the prank he played on the National Security Agency, and how it went undiscovered for nearly 60 years.

Camden has been without a bookstore since Waterstone’s became TKMaxx. An independent bookstore has just opened on Chalk Farm Road opposite the Stables Market- and this little ray of sunshine has given me hope.

The only excuse for this mindset is that the truth is too unbearable. It is no less grotesque and unforgivable for that.

Yoti are notoriously aggressive about ID checks everywhere, but naming their porn watcher after the DSIT Secretary seems a bit on the nose…

This might get noisy - US threatening to ban Peter Kyle and ofcom from US travel over OSA heavy handedness against Americans x.com/prestonjbyrn...?

Now with a link to the article: www.bbc.com/news/article...

This is probably the most detailed investigation we've ever done, proving which units and commanders were behind the use of cluster munitions in Kharkiv in the opening months of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Great example of where we are vs where we think we are.

lol you’ve got an AI girlfriend?? ur putting techbros in charge of your relationship??? ok buddy lmfao ok champ

“Without immediate intervention, the last remaining reporters in Gaza are going to die.”

A man in Leeds was arrested for having this sign, which is just a print out of a page of Private Eye magazine. Courtesy of the Labour Party www.instagram.com/reel/DMTTMAk...

WSJ claimed the Trump–Epstein article was an “exclusive.” But what if I told you they fully intended to show it to people? storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

MIT Technology Review wrote about my dystopian backup plan USB stick

@rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social somewhere you asked about why it’s US money and British talent, Ormand talked about that a decade ago… www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-poli...

There’s a nonzero chance you will die from a cancer that could have been curable because people who couldn’t pass 7th grade biology and are scared of things like “mRNA” and “riboflavin” and “walkable cities” decided to make their ignorance everybody else’s problem

Starting to see how often access to patient notes is abused www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambrid...

Bloody Sunday used to be the most shocking event I knew. The British army fired on civilians and killed 14 people. David Cameron gave an official apology for the atrocity 38 years afterwards. 57 times as many people have been killed whilst trying to obtain food aid in Gaza. This is not normal.