#Elon Musk AI Concerns

[fingertipsmp3]

I did show my stepdad reddit btw so if you see him being annoying on like an aviation photography subreddit I can only apologise

[world-store]

Sam Altman heaps praise on Elon Musk for remarkable success of OpenAI, calls him 'magnet'

When ChatGPT was unveiled in November 2022, the world was amazed by its capabilities. People used it for crafting content, poetry, music, and generating ideas. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and its CEO, Sam Altman, became well-known globally because of this AI tool. Over time, more details emerged, revealing that Twitter’s owner, Elon Musk, was also involved with OpenAI a few years ago. Musk,…

[viridianriver]

I want YOU to fuck with Elon Musk's finances!

Apologies for the nerd-talk here, but I have a easy political action for you!

Right now, the Tesla stock seems to be held afloat not so much by individual investors, but by investment banks which include the stock in index funds. The sort of funds that many people's 401ks are in. (I've been watching the stock, the 'sells' are many and small, the 'buys' are fewer and large, likely indicative of big-banks propping up a failing stock.)

And you, yes you, if you have a IRA, 401k, or other retirement investment which includes Tesla, can fuck Elon up today. (If you don't have one, send this post to any cool Boomers you know who might!)

What you're gonna do is call whoever you or your employer banks with (Vanguard, Schwab, TD, whoever) and tell them the following:

You're concerned by their reliance on TSLA in their indices, a volatile stock whose value is not based in investing fundamentals.

The intrinsic value of the stock (discounted cashflow / relative valuation) is $46 while the stock is trading at over $200

The current valuation is defended by the following flawed arguments:

a. Sales to consumer vehicle market - The majority revenue source. However sales across the globe are dropping compared to this time last year; 73% in Germany, 65% in Australia, and 49% in China. b. Potential Autonomous vehicle? - Promised for years, as a retrofit to existing vehicles - has not materialized, even after competitors (Waymo) succeeded in fielding the technology. c. Potential Humanoid Robotics? - An industry Tesla has no experience in, and is facing significant competition in from well-established well-funded competitors such as Boston Dynamics. d. Potential "AI"? - Unless specified further, with a concrete path to profitability this seems to be vaporware. e. Elon's personal brand - Has been losing credibility, due to partisan political behavior. He has also been failing to perform his fiduciary duty to shareholders, by neglecting his role as CEO to become politically involved. f. Battery Technology - Has a high reliance on imported materials such as Lithium, the availability of which is dependent on the unpredictable geopolitical situation in Ukraine.

And you are HUGELY worried about the impact on your finances when the stock corrects itself towards it's true value, and returns to trading along financial fundamentals. (If you want to get spicy with it, you can say you feel they too are failing in their fiduciary duties to you by continuing to invest in TSLA. But, from what i know of finance bros, that's fightin words, so use with discretion.)

So... If you want to have an outsized impact on this hair-plugged skinhead's finances, all you gotta do is call the finance nerds and speak their language a little. (I know phone calls suck but I literally gave u a script!) Most retirement investors are passive, so even a handful of upset callers can have an outsized impact.

Embrace your inner Karen if you want. (You're doing WHAT with my money? Propping up a failing overvalued business?)

Good luck, and tell me how it goes if you do this!! (disclaimer: this is not financial advice)

[ralfmaximus]

We completely changed how the algorithm worked, pushing pro-Trump and right-wing posts to the top of people's feeds. To make it look balanced, we also boosted some left-wing critics of Democrats, but it was all carefully calculated. These changes didn't just affect Americans - they impacted users worldwide. One of the most disturbing things we did was create thousands of fake accounts using advanced AI systems called Grok and Eliza. These accounts looked completely real and pushed political messages that spread like wildfire. Havn't you noticed they all disappeared? Like magic.

We all fucking knew this was happening. Apparently it was far more egregious & widespread than ever suspected. Holy shit.

[mariacallous]

Jack and Fiona wanted to do something, but they didn’t know where to start. For months, the couple had watched as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, then spearheading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), had turned the US into what they thought was “a fascist hellscape.” But they live in a deeply red county in a deeply red state in the South, and were worried that speaking out publicly could mean putting them and their children in danger.

Jack, who requested WIRED use a pseudonym to safeguard his identity, has long been familiar with extremism in the US. He says he was brought to his first KKK meeting at the age of 7. “I have seen the kind of behavior exhibited by MAGA, and know that it's exactly what I saw when I was younger,” he says. “The strain it is putting on society is the same strain that it puts on every single one [of us] who was in that space.”

So Jack and Fiona turned to technology. Searching on platforms like Reddit and Bluesky, Fiona stumbled on Realtime Fascism, a website that uses AI to trawl the internet for news articles featuring keywords linked to fascism. The tool analyzes those stories to produce a score for the threat posed by fascism in the US at any given time. The rating they found when they opened the site in February? CRITICAL.

The couple wanted more people to understand what was happening, so they built their own website called Stick It to Fascists. They bought a $100 thermal label printer, created a QR code linking to Realtime Fascism, and began making stickers.

What began with 500 stickers posted all over their small town “in the heart of MAGA country” quickly grew—with the help of an appeal on Reddit—to a campaign that has so far seen the couple and their children send 750,000 stickers to more than 1,000 people in all 50 states.

Stick It to Fascists is one of countless grassroots efforts that have emerged since Trump took office a second time. Many of them are fueled by technology: printers, QR codes, Reddit, online platforms, encrypted messaging apps like Signal. Across the country, small local groups have used a wide variety of online tools to mobilize their resistance to Trump 2.0 while trying to protect themselves against backlash from the administration. As millions of Americans joined some 2,000 “No Kings” protests last Saturday, these tools were powering the movement.

Spinning up crowdsourced collaborative tools is relatively easy. Maintaining them is much more difficult, however, and without aligned goals or aims, many of them could eventually become digital wastelands. But that is not stopping people who see no other option.

WIRED spoke to more than a dozen people involved in organizing against the Trump administration who all believe that the Democratic Party has not presented a coherent opposition to Trump and DOGE’s dismantling of the government. As a result, the organizers say, they had no choice but to get involved.

“We're doing this now, because in a couple of months, what we're doing may be illegal,” Fiona says. “This administration is already doing everything within their power to limit free speech, and it's extremely important that dissenting voices not be silenced.”

In the early days of Trump's second term, there was concern that an opposition movement against Trump was nowhere to be found.

But the reality is that protest movements this time around are just different than during Trump’s first term. Last time, while groups like the Women’s March and others organized large-scale demonstrations in the early months of his first presidency, this time around opposition is being driven by decentralized groups and individuals focused on a smaller-scale approach.

The change from a top-down movement to a much more decentralized one is key to understanding what’s happening, says Dana Fisher, a professor of sociology at American University and author of American Resistance: From the Women's March to the Blue Wave. “This is what we who study social movements call a moment of tactical innovation, where there are going to be all these innovative ideas about ways to break through and to get people to mobilize and work together in these very dark moments,” Fisher says.

People are still in the streets, as well. Data from the Crowd Counting Consortium, a joint project of the Harvard Kennedy School and the University of Connecticut, shows that in late January and February alone there were over twice as many street protests in the US than in February 2017. The numbers have kept growing.

The protests at Tesla dealerships, for example, began as a grassroots effort that has grown into a nationwide movement. There are also people working together online to combat the disinformation being pushed by Musk and DOGE, in addition to individuals like Jack and Fiona doing what they can. In isolation, these are small-scale protests; viewed as a whole, they show the level of anger that ordinary Americans feel at what has been happening in Washington over the past five months.

The number and scale of the protests has grown significantly, with millions of people turning out at more than a thousand separate protests in all 50 states on April 5. Last Saturday’s No Kings protest, which was organized by dozens of groups, drew over 5 million people to more than 2,100 events across the nation, according to the organizers, though notably not in Washington, DC, where Trump held his military parade to celebrate the US Army’s 250th anniversary.

Many of these calls for protest can be traced back to a single post on a subreddit called 50501, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement.

Sydney Wilson first learned about the online movement against Trump through this subreddit. Her journey into political activism began in late January while she was idly poking around on Reddit and came across a flyer for an event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, at which citizens would be protesting against the Trump administration. Wilson was intrigued, but living 200 miles away, she wondered if there were any events closer to her home in Pittsburgh.

That’s when she found 50501. Though the subreddit had been created just a few days earlier, it was already amassing huge support. It began on January 25 with a single Reddit post calling for citizens to fight back against executive overreach. The idea took hold, and within 10 days, those who signed up had organized protests in 80 cities across the US. Two weeks later, on February 17, they held another set of protests, with thousands of people attending.

Wilson, who had attended political protests in the past but had never been involved in organizing them, joined the group’s Discord channel to help plan.

“Not even in my wildest dreams did I think that my first protest that I organized with another group of Pennsylvanians would have 200 people show up,” Wilson tells WIRED. “Then the next one, I think we had 300 or 400, so I'm optimistic right now. The trick will be to keep this energy going.”

Like Wilson, many of the 311,000 subscribers to the subreddit and the 17,000 members of the group’s Discord have no experience in organizing protests. Still, they felt they had to.

“Democracy needs to be defended, and it's up to us as community members to stand up and do that work, because no one else will do it for us,” Wilson says.

The 50501 group also uses a wide variety of other online platforms to coordinate their efforts, including encrypted messaging apps like Signal and Matrix, which smaller subgroups use for sensitive conversations. Platforms like Mobilize.us allow participants to share information about upcoming protests, while state-level groups come up with ideas for signs and chants on shared Google Docs.

“Everybody's kind of using different strategies to communicate, so it's all over the place,” says TJ Demetriou, the public affairs officer for a 50501 subgroup for veterans. “If you're involved in a couple different groups, it can be confusing.”

Discord is the primary platform for planning and assigning volunteer positions within local groups, but it also serves as a place for the community to vent. Following the group’s protests on March 4, many of the members gathered on the group’s Discord server to watch Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress.

The “general chat” channel was quickly filled with anger, not at what Trump was saying but at the response from the Democrats in the chamber, who had decided the best way to confront Trump was to wear pink blouses and hold up tiny signs that no one could see.

“I kid you not, they are holding signs instead of booing,” one member wrote incredulously. “Bunch of spineless fucks,” another added, after no other Democrat came to the defense of representative Al Green of Texas, who was removed from the chamber for heckling Trump.

“Well I'm glad YOU all are protesting because holy shit that was a weak showing from dems with their bitch=ass [sic] paddles and pink shirts and blue ties,” another member wrote.

Though the group has had a lot of successes, some infighting has unfortunately become a distraction.

In April, the person who posted the original 50501 post, known online as Evolved Fungi, locked down the subreddit entirely, claiming that some national groups were seeking to take control of the 50501 group for their own ends. According to a since-deleted post on Reddit, Fungi believed someone had sought to file trademark applications for the 50501 name. A member of the 50501 leadership group subsequently claimed in a Reddit post that there was an attempt to trademark the name and create a 501c4 entity, but that this was done by “a separate, independent group of three people wholly unconnected to the broader 50501 group.

Fungi, who was posting anonymously, says they were doxed and accused of what some felt was inappropriate behavior during a Zoom call with other members of the 50501 group. Some 50501 members circulated a petition calling for them to step down before they finally did so. Fungi declined to comment when contacted by WIRED.

Fungi's departure didn't slow the movement down. By late spring the organization was deeply involved in organizing the No Kings protests on June 14, ultimately helping bring people to protests across the US and bolstering the movement's momentum even further.

The 50501 movement is not the only grassroots effort that began life online. The Tesla Takedown protests began with a single Bluesky post that exploded in large part thanks to social media posts, including protesters’ pictures and videos outside dealerships. These efforts were boosted when celebrities got involved, and Instagram reels went viral from people like Grammy-winning singer Sheryl Crow waving goodbye to her Tesla.

Other movements online, including tools for keeping tabs on the Trump administration, have also sprung up. One online tracker follows how many of Trump's policy actions align with Project 2025's goals. As of this writing, it shows that more than half of them have been completed or are in progress. Another tracker, Spotlight on DOGE, aims to fact-check claims made about the department's savings. The organizer, who asked to remain anonymous, says they recruited more than a dozen professionals, including lawyers and doctors, across the US to help analyze DOGE's actual savings.

But for all the work being done online to organize, educate, and plan, veteran activists who protested the first Trump presidency believe that success this time around will rely on turning that online support and activity into real-world demonstrations.

“I do think that there's a lot of work to do to move people from where we are now to the kind of mass society-wide struggle that it will take to stop this regime,” Sam Goldman, host of the Refuse Fascism podcast, tells WIRED.

“What this is going to require is sacrifice,” he continues. “It is going to require what people did in the Arab Spring, which was, get in the streets, stay in the streets, bring more people into the streets, coming back again and again and again, and not stopping until their demands were met.”

But deciding what those demands are can be difficult, especially in a movement that is so decentralized, and often leaderless. As national groups and bigger names seek to leverage recently activated grassroots activism, conflicts and disagreements are inevitable. This happened among the leadership of the Women’s March, and it’s already happened within the 50501 subreddit.

Last week, as people took to the streets of Los Angeles to protest deportation raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Trump called in the National Guard and Marines over the objections of California governor Gavin Newsom and LA mayor Karen Bass. Protests persisted anyway, as online supporters hit the streets.

[odinsblog]

If you're on Twitter/X, you may have noticed a sudden stream of high-profile accounts heading for the exits. And no, it's not (just) about the election.

This exodus is thanks to a new Terms of Service document, which takes effect on November 15. Although the company isn't talking about it, the new ToS gives owner Elon Musk the right to use your tweets, photos and videos to train his AI bot, Grok.

The option to opt out of Grok training, something users currently have, may still exist in your settings the following day. But it also may not matter, legally speaking. Nothing about opting out is mentioned in the document you are required to sign. And it doesn't appear to make a difference if your account is locked: So far as this ToS is concerned, Grok gets to feed on it anyway.

Oh yes, and following free speech is no longer free. You'll be on the hook for $15,000 in damages if your account accesses more than a million tweets a day. Not even the hardest of hardcore Twitter junkies will reach that number, but many researchers do. For anyone who tracks hate speech on X, this will have a chilling effect. The Knight Institute for the First Amendment at Columbia University calls it a "disturbing move" for a supposed free-speech advocate.

Disagree with anything in this document, or any other changes going forward? According to the ToS, your only legal recourse is to fight the world's richest man in one court in rural Texas, many miles from X HQ in Austin. This happens to be a court where a judge who may still own a pile of Tesla stock has already given Musk favorable rulings.

Don't want Elon Musk to feed your feed to his pet AI? There is, alas, only one way out of it now: delete your account.

(continue reading)

[thefreethoughtprojectcom]

Once you go down the Thiel rabbit hole you will understand why so many are concerned about his connection to Trump, JD Vance and Elon Musk.

This meme barely scratches the surface.

Learn More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/deep-state/peter-thiel-from-gaza-ai-war-criminal-to-white-house-puppet-master

#TheFreeThoughtProject

[samuelbush7578]

Elon Musk’s Five-Pronged Approach to Reducing Government

Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur behind Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter), has long been vocal about his concerns regarding excessive government intervention. Whether it’s through regulatory pushback, decentralization efforts, or technological disruption, Musk is actively working to reduce government influence in five key ways.

1. Challenging Regulatory Overreach

Musk has repeatedly criticized government regulations that he believes stifle innovation. From Tesla’s battles with dealership laws to SpaceX’s friction with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), he has frequently clashed with authorities over what he sees as unnecessary red tape. By publicly pushing back against these restrictions, he aims to set precedents that could lead to reduced regulatory burdens across industries.

2. Privatizing Space Exploration

NASA was once the sole player in space exploration, but SpaceX has shifted the industry toward privatization. By reducing dependence on government-funded programs and proving that private companies can outperform traditional bureaucratic models, Musk is driving a shift away from government monopolization of space travel.

3. Advocating for Free Speech and Decentralization

After acquiring Twitter (now X), Musk positioned himself as a champion of free speech, often criticizing government involvement in content moderation. He has also expressed support for decentralized social media and blockchain technologies, which could reduce reliance on centralized, government-regulated platforms.

4. Developing Alternative Energy and Infrastructure

Tesla’s push for electric vehicles and solar power indirectly challenges government-controlled energy industries. By promoting self-sufficient energy solutions, such as home battery storage and off-grid living, Musk is creating alternatives that reduce reliance on state-controlled utilities and fossil fuel subsidies.

5. Advancing AI and Automation to Limit Government’s Role

Musk has a complex stance on artificial intelligence (AI), both warning about its dangers and investing in its development through xAI. By accelerating automation, he envisions a future where technology reduces the need for bureaucratic inefficiencies, potentially shrinking government involvement in areas like labor regulation and public sector jobs.

Conclusion

Musk’s efforts to reduce government influence aren’t just theoretical; they manifest in tangible actions across multiple industries. Whether he succeeds or not remains to be seen, but his impact is already reshaping the relationship between innovation and regulation.

[diakamu]

If you’re going to put a huge obnoxious watermark over everything you draw, what is the point of uploading your work at all? Sure, the evil algorithms can’t see it but neither can anyone else. Unless you’re just virtue signaling that you think Elon musk is bad on a site he doesn’t even run or go on because you think that’ll get you more notes

nah im actually paywalling my watermark off version I'm sorry!! ;;w;; But I try to take the FUCK ELON part off from it when i post it on non-twitter websites but i tend to be too lazy about it. too cumbersome to make 2 different versions when i have to glaze and nightshade (anti-AI filtering) each of them with my slow ass pc.

I'm sorry if that annoyed you more than Elon Musk himself bothers you tho. but it probably did since you even wanna type out all these so i see your concern about my pesky virtue signaling. But for me tho, if I were to post smth on twitter in todays political climate. Esp if i post my art, I want to show where I stand every single time. I Cant delete the acc there for financial reasons (I am a comm artist i need to connect to my clients,) and I am rightfully angry that Grok eats my art no matter what. + I want Grok to say FUCK ELON as the result. I don't think its gonna happen just cuz one artist does it everytime they post on twitter. but 1 is more than 0 yk. so thats what im doing. yk its like saying "Fuck JKR" if i dare to speak about my favorite Harry Potter stuff. I need to make it clear where i stand. So sorry that this and my laziness for not taking off the watermark when i post it on tumblr bothered you so much. you can block me. I hope youre doing well. have a good one honestly.

[jclovely]

📯📯📯 2025 YEAR OF DECISION 📯📯📯

MANY THINGS FORECASTED AND TOLD BUT THE CHOICE IS YOURS, BELIEVE LIES AND DECEPTIONS OR THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL ???

Here is a summary:

. The Rapture of the Body of Christ ie. all born again believers past and present.

. Lies and deceptions through AI, project Blue Beam, aliens in the skies, creation of Black Swan event such as the drones leaving poisonous substances in the air which many US and UK people have seen and fell sick to.

. Transgenderism and continuation of transhumanism agendas under Elon Musk, and all Luceferian global elites under WHO, UN, WEF, CDC, NHS, NIH and more creating the NWO.

. FALSE Ecumenism or Omnism bringing many faiths together creating ONE WORLD RELIGION.

https://rumble.com/v63gvok-exploring-the-abrahamic-family-house-a-temple-to-world-religion.html

. Terrorist attacks continuing domestically and internationally as we have seen lately in NYC, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Germany.

. Tower of Babel 2.0 returning trying to destroy the work of the Lord and destroy humanity.

. Hatred of Jews and Christians continuing as well as antisemitism and hypocrisy towards Israel defending itself since Oct. 7th 2023.

. CBDC and creation of digital currency.

. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ALREADY FORECASTED IN 1997 BY DR. ANDY HINES AND JOSEPH COATES. THEY WROTE ABOUT IT BECAUSE IT WAS THERE ALREADY AND THEY IMPROVED IT.

. Markets crashes around the world.

. World War 3 starting in the Middle East.

. 7 years Tribulation coming after the Body of Christ is Raptured and the revelation on the antichrist bringing FALSE peace.

. Club of Rome division of the 10 regions, now Trudeau gone, Canada, Greenland, Panama fair game for Trump and Musk to get these countries and their rich natural resources.

. And more sinister outcomes as mentioned in the Book of Revelation by the Apostle John.

IT WILL NOT HAPPEN ALL IN 2025 BUT IT IS WHAT IS SURELY TO COME IN THE FOLLOWING YEARS.

THERE IS NO FEAR FOR THOSE THAT BELIEVE IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. HE IS OUR HOPE.

IF YOU DO NOT KNOW JESUS CHRIST AS YOUR SAVIOUR, HE IS READY TO GIVE YOU THE GIFT OF SALVATION RIGHT NOW:

A - Admit you are a sinner.

B - Believe in Jesus Christ, that He died for your sins and He resurrected and returning soon.

C - Call on His Name, confess that He is your Saviour now and forever.

As you come to Him, the Holy Spirit will seal you and will direct you to His Holy Word and reveal Himself to you and to all TRUTH.

God bless you all.

RECEIVE THE FREE GIFT OF SALVATION THAT THE LORD JESUS CHRIST READY TO GIVE YOU.

BUT HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS YOU CAN BE SAVED FROM ALL THIS AND BE TAKEN AWAY WITH HIM.

ONLY ONE SOLUTION SALVATION THROUGH THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WHAT HE WARNED US 2000 YEARS AGO HAPPENING NOW. REPENT, WE ARE ALL SINNERS, ACCEPT HIS FINISHED WORK AT THE CROSS AND BE SAVED FROM THIS WORLD GOING TO DESTRUCTION.

LET HIM DIRECT YOUR PATHS AND PROTECT YOU FROM WHAT IS COMING. HE IS THE TRUTH.

Thank-you to @godslove, @hiswordsarekisses, @heartsings77, and many others for all the gifs and memes.

Amen.

📯👑📯

🇮🇱👑🙏

🙏💖🌺🦋🕎✝️👑🇮🇱🕊📯

[voltaspistol]

[mariacallous]

The Trump administration’s Federal Trade Commission has removed four years’ worth of business guidance blogs as of Tuesday morning, including important consumer protection information related to artificial intelligence and the agency’s landmark privacy lawsuits under former chair Lina Khan against companies like Amazon and Microsoft. More than 300 blogs were removed.

On the FTC’s website, the page hosting all of the agency’s business-related blogs and guidance no longer includes any information published during former president Joe Biden’s administration, current and former FTC employees, who spoke under anonymity for fear of retaliation, tell WIRED. These blogs contained advice from the FTC on how big tech companies could avoid violating consumer protection laws.

One now deleted blog, titled “Hey, Alexa! What are you doing with my data?” explains how, according to two FTC complaints, Amazon and its Ring security camera products allegedly leveraged sensitive consumer data to train the ecommerce giant’s algorithms. (Amazon disagreed with the FTC’s claims.) It also provided guidance for companies operating similar products and services. Another post titled “$20 million FTC settlement addresses Microsoft Xbox illegal collection of kids’ data: A game changer for COPPA compliance” instructs tech companies on how to abide by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by using the 2023 Microsoft settlement as an example. The settlement followed allegations by the FTC that Microsoft obtained data from children using Xbox systems without the consent of their parents or guardians.

“In terms of the message to industry on what our compliance expectations were, which is in some ways the most important part of enforcement action, they are trying to just erase those from history,” a source familiar tells WIRED.

Another removed FTC blog titled “The Luring Test: AI and the engineering of consumer trust” outlines how businesses could avoid creating chatbots that violate the FTC Act’s rules against unfair or deceptive products. This blog won an award in 2023 for “excellent descriptions of artificial intelligence.”

The Trump administration has received broad support from the tech industry. Big tech companies like Amazon and Meta, as well as tech entrepreneurs like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, all donated to Trump’s inauguration fund. Other Silicon Valley leaders, like Elon Musk and David Sacks, are officially advising the administration. Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employs technologists sourced from Musk’s tech companies. And already, federal agencies like the General Services Administration have started to roll out AI products like GSAi, a general-purpose government chatbot.

The FTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WIRED.

Removing blogs raises serious compliance concerns under the Federal Records Act and the Open Government Data Act, one former FTC official tells WIRED. During the Biden administration, FTC leadership would place “warning” labels above previous administrations’ public decisions it no longer agreed with, the source said, fearing that removal would violate the law.

Since President Donald Trump designated Andrew Ferguson to replace Khan as FTC chair in January, the Republican regulator has vowed to leverage his authority to go after big tech companies. Unlike Khan, however, Ferguson’s criticisms center around the Republican party’s long-standing allegations that social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, censor conservative speech online. Before being selected as chair, Ferguson told Trump that his vision for the agency also included rolling back Biden-era regulations on artificial intelligence and tougher merger standards, The New York Times reported in December.

In an interview with CNBC last week, Ferguson argued that content moderation could equate to an antitrust violation. “If companies are degrading their product quality by kicking people off because they hold particular views, that could be an indication that there's a competition problem,” he said.

Sources speaking with WIRED on Tuesday claimed that tech companies are the only groups who benefit from the removal of these blogs.

“They are talking a big game on censorship. But at the end of the day, the thing that really hits these companies’ bottom line is what data they can collect, how they can use that data, whether they can train their AI models on that data, and if this administration is planning to take the foot off the gas there while stepping up its work on censorship,” the source familiar alleges. “I think that's a change big tech would be very happy with.”

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Scholars in support of the Moraes Brazil decision against X

Here is the link, in Portuguese, here is part of a Claude translation:

We, the undersigned, wish to express our deep concern about the ongoing attacks by Big Tech companies and their allies against Brazil’s digital sovereignty. The Brazilian judiciary’s dispute with Elon Musk is just the latest example of a broader effort to restrict the ability of sovereign nations to define a digital development agenda free from the control of mega-corporations based in the United States. At the end of August, the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court banned the X platform from Brazilian cyberspace for failing to comply with court decisions that required the suspension of accounts that instigated right-wing extremists to participate in riots and occupy the Legislative, Judicial, and Governmental palaces on January 8, 2023. Subsequently, President Lula da Silva made clear the Brazilian government’s intention to seek digital independence: to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign entities for data, AI capabilities, and digital infrastructure, as well as to promote the development of local technological ecosystems. In line with these objectives, the Brazilian state also intends to force Big Tech to pay fair taxes, comply with local laws, and be held accountable for the social externalities of their business models, which often promote violence and inequality. These efforts have been met with attacks from the owner of X and right-wing leaders who complain about democracy and freedom of expression. But precisely because digital space lacks internationally and democratically decided regulatory agreements, large technology companies operate as rulers, deciding what should be moderated and what should be promoted on their platforms. Moreover, the X platform and other companies have begun to organize, along with their allies inside and outside the country, to undermine initiatives aimed at Brazil’s technological autonomy. More than a warning to Brazil, their actions send a worrying message to the world: that democratic countries seeking independence from Big Tech domination risk suffering disruptions to their democracies, with some Big Tech companies supporting far-right movements and parties.

Continue reading.