Who's trying to break the internet today?

[Dekafox]

Some good news:

Internet Archive’s legal fights are over, but its founder mourns what was lost

We survived, but it wiped out the library," Internet Archive's founder says.

arstechnica.com

 

[Dekafox]

And as if to balance that: https://www.404media.co/fbi-tries-to-unmask-owner-of-infamous-archive-is-site/

 

[Dekafox]

Wisconsin Lawmakers Propose Bill for VPN Ban as well as ID Checks on Adult Sites

Wisconsin lawmakers propose a bill banning VPNs and enforcing age checks on adult sites, sparking privacy and digital rights concerns.

www.technadu.com

 

[Ungnome]

We'll see how effective enforcement of a vpn ban is.

 

[Anonymous X]

Mike Stabile (@mikestabile.bsky.social)

The British government admits it is now monitoring VPNs use by UK residents. Regulator Ofcom has contracted with an AI-powered surveillance service to detect the number of citizens using VPNs to evade the Online Safety Act. The UK tech minister has said a VPN ban is on the table...

bsky.app

UK government already talking about banning VPNs (good luck with that!).

 

[Dekafox]

EU's Chat Control is back already: https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-p...nvinces-lawmakers-but-not-privacy-experts-yet

 

[NovaSaber]

Mozilla, no!

 

[abates]

They've clarified that you will be able to turn the AI off and it is going to be opt-in:

Firefox for Web Developers (@webdevs.firefox.com)

Something that hasn't been made clear: Firefox will have an option to completely disable all AI features. We've been calling it the AI kill switch internally. I'm sure it'll ship with a less murderous name, but that's how seriously and absolutely we're taking this. …

bsky.app

 

[Pocket]

Still. The more time passes, the more I'm convinced that "You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain" is an absolute truth of the universe.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Larian (Divinity and Baldur’s Gate 3 dev) got into similar hot water because they dared to mutter the forbidden term, “AI”. The reality I see is that machine learning and generative algorithms are here to stay. You can’t ignore it, you can’t hide from it. The best you can do is figure out how to use those resources effectively, ethically, and to ensure the human element isn’t completely removed.

But right now, it seems any time someone dares mention “AI”, it’s suddenly “a bad thing” and the knee jerk reaction is reflective of that.

 

[Pocket]

There is no way to use them ethically. That's the thing. The only reason they exist is because companies were allowed to get away with intellectual property plunder on an industrial scale. The dataset is irreparably tainted.

 

[wonko the sane?]

More to the point: AI's current uses are solely to remove the human element to creativity. It's not there to help a writer get over writers block, it's there so the marketer can replace the writer, so the intern can replace the marketer, so that the CEO can replace everyone who isn't blue collar.

 

[Ungnome]

Firefox is open source. Can always switch to Zen or one of the other browsers based on their codebase.

I agree that generative algorithms are here to stay, but you can still be critical of companies using them. For the most part the ONLY reason they use them is so they can avoid paying artists. It's greed, pure an simple, and doesn't help anyone but the CEO class and the shareholders.

 

[Corvus]

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Still. The more time passes, the more I'm convinced that "You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain" is an absolute truth of the universe.

I'm thinking "You either die a villain or live long enough to see yourself become the hero" might sometimes be true as well. I'm thinking every tech company needs a guy who just responds "What's the use case?" to every new feature suggestion.

 

[Pocket]

Firefox is open source. Can always switch to Zen or one of the other browsers based on their codebase.

I've always assumed there was a reason none of the various forks gained any traction, despite Firefox's many, many missteps. Maybe they lock you out of using Firefox Sync? Which is kind of a deal breaker as a person with more than one internet-capable device.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

My Firefox build is so heavily tweaked that I'm afraid to start over.

 

[KidTDragon]

I guess this is as good a place as any to post this, even though it's doing the opposite of breaking the internet.

Hacker Wipes White Supremacist Sites Dressed As Power Ranger

The hacker then published user information from all the websites

kotaku.com

 

[Pocket]

I mean, it's breaking the part of the internet that deserves to be broken. In an ideal world, these would be the only people who would need to be afraid of any laws or regulations made to govern online activity. Instead of the only people who don't.

 

[Anonymous X]

UK government targets VPNs in online safety consultation as Lords vote for ban

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall promises "evidence-led" approach to keeping children safe online

www.techradar.com

If there was any greater reason to abolish the House of Lords (Britain’s unelected equivalent to a senate) it’s this. Loads of clueless geriatrics trying to ban technology that they don’t understand.