#scaling on invasion of privacy and manipulation

[sk3tch404]

Thought of this for a sec and was like, "yeah 🤔🙂"

#ultimategamermoment

Also I have not played on a Gameboy in like 8 years nor have I touched a Nintendo ever. So.. yeah.

[briannamwood]

Week 3: Social Media, Privacy, & Internet Business Model

Welcome back readers!

In our increasingly digitalized world, the impact of big data and algorithms cannot be overstated. The rapid growth of technology has transformed the way we live, work, and connect with others. After watching the lecture and the Netflix documentary "The Social Dilemma," it's important to reflect on the immense power exerted by these tools and the potential dangers they pose. In this blog post, I will explore the reasons why big data and algorithms are powerful and delve into the associated risks. Additionally, I will discuss strategies to address these issues on personal, professional, and societal levels.

The Power of Big Data and Algorithms

Big data and algorithms have become formidable tools due to their capacity to process and analyze vast amounts of information efficiently. Their strength lies in their ability to identify patterns, make predictions, and optimize outcomes. Here's why they are so powerful:

Data-Driven Decision Making: Businesses, governments, and organizations use big data and algorithms to make informed decisions. These tools can analyze consumer behavior, market trends, and even predict disease outbreaks, leading to more effective planning and resource allocation.

Personalization: Algorithms are responsible for the highly tailored content and advertisements you encounter online. They analyze your preferences and behaviors, aiming to enhance user experience and increase engagement.

Efficiency and Automation: Automation, driven by algorithms, has improved productivity in various sectors. This includes self-driving cars, recommendation engines, and smart manufacturing.

Scale and Speed: Big data and algorithms can process information at an unprecedented scale and speed, offering insights and solutions in real-time.

The Dangers of Their Use and Abuse

Privacy Invasion: The collection of vast amounts of personal data raises concerns about privacy. The documentary "The Social Dilemma" shed light on how user data is harvested and monetized by social media platforms, potentially undermining individuals' privacy.

Filter Bubbles and Echo Chambers: Algorithms that prioritize personalized content can trap individuals in filter bubbles, reinforcing their existing beliefs and limiting exposure to diverse perspectives.

Manipulation and Misinformation: Big data and algorithms can be weaponized to spread misinformation and propaganda.

Bias and Discrimination: Algorithms can perpetuate and even exacerbate societal biases, leading to discrimination in various aspects.

Addiction and Mental Health Concerns: The addictive nature of social media platforms, driven by algorithmic recommendations, has raised concerns about their impact on mental health and well-being.

Addressing the Issues

1. Personal Level:

Educate yourself about data privacy and digital literacy to protect your personal information.

Limit your screen time and be mindful of your online consumption.

Diversify your information sources to break free from filter bubbles.

2. Professional Level:

Emphasize ethical AI and data use in the workplace. Develop guidelines and policies that promote fairness, transparency, and accountability.

Invest in employee training to ensure awareness and responsible use of data and algorithms.

3. Societal Level:

Advocate for stricter regulations and policies governing data collection and algorithm use.

Hold tech companies accountable for ethical practices and demand transparency in their algorithms.

Promote digital literacy in schools and communities to empower individuals to navigate the digital landscape effectively.

In conclusion, big data and algorithms are undoubtedly powerful tools with the potential to revolutionize industries and improve our lives. However, they also pose significant dangers when misused or abused. To strike a balance, we must address these challenges on personal, professional, and societal levels to ensure that the digital age benefits all of humanity without violating fundamental rights and values. It's a journey that requires collective efforts and continuous observation.

Until next time,

Brianna W.

[ofcoursethevibes]

Did The Algorithms See Week 3 Blog?

Big data and algorithms are powerful tools because they have the capability to gather and analyze vast amounts of information in order to identify patterns, make predictions, and influence decision-making. By processing and interpreting data at an unprecedented scale, these tools can provide valuable insights, optimize processes, and enhance efficiency in numerous domains, such as marketing, healthcare, finance, and social media.

However, the dangers of their use and abuse arise from their potential to be manipulated and misused for various purposes. One major concern is the invasion of privacy. Big data and algorithms can collect substantial amounts of personal and sensitive information, often without consent or knowledge of users. This can result in the exploitation of individuals' personal data, surveillance, and targeted marketing, leading to issues like identity theft and breaches in confidentiality.

Moreover, algorithms can easily amplify biases and discrimination. If they are trained on biased datasets or programmed with biased instructions, they can inadvertently perpetuate or even exacerbate societal inequalities and injustices. The use of algorithms in hiring practices, loan approvals, and predictive policing, for example, can reinforce systemic biases and lead to discriminatory outcomes.

To address these problems, action needs to be taken on personal, professional, and societal levels. On a personal level, individuals should be aware of their digital footprints, regularly review and adjust privacy settings, and critically evaluate the information they consume and share. By being cautious about the data we provide and the platforms we use, we can protect our privacy and reduce the influence of algorithms.

Professionally, organizations should prioritize transparent data practices and algorithmic accountability. Companies should adhere to ethical guidelines when collecting and using data, ensuring the security and privacy of user information. They should also implement rigorous testing and auditing procedures to identify and correct algorithmic biases.

At the societal level, regulations and policies should be implemented to protect individuals' privacy and prevent the abuse of big data and algorithms. Governments should establish legal frameworks that dictate how data can be collected, stored, and shared, while also holding companies accountable for the misuse of personal information. Additionally, promoting digital literacy and educating individuals about the implications of big data and algorithms can empower them to make informed decisions and safeguard their privacy.

Overall, while big data and algorithms offer immense potential, their misuse and abuse can have severe consequences. By taking collective action at personal, professional, and societal levels, we can strive for a balance between leveraging the benefits of these tools and ensuring the protection of privacy and fairness for all.

[visionaryvogues03]

How Email Marketing Is Winning Back Trust?

In an age of hyper-personalized digital experiences, where privacy concerns and ad fatigue are at an all-time high, a surprising contender is regaining its relevance: email marketing. Once dismissed as a relic of early internet commerce, email is now quietly making a comeback and not just in inboxes, but in the hearts of customers and businesses alike.

But how is this possible in an era where skepticism about data privacy is pervasive, and audiences are more empowered to ignore digital communication than ever before? The answer lies in the evolution of direct mail itself. From batch-and-blast campaigns to finely tuned, ethically crafted messages, email is transforming. For U.S. businesses that understand how to wield this tool with care and strategy, email marketing is becoming one of the most trusted and effective digital channels again.

Rebuilding Trust in a Privacy-First World

Over the past decade, trust in digital platforms has eroded significantly. From high-profile data breaches to the rise of ad blockers, consumers are more cautious about who they let into their digital space. According to a Pew Research Center survey, 79% of Americans are concerned about how companies use their data.

Against this backdrop, email marketing is uniquely positioned for a comeback. Unlike social media or programmatic advertising, email allows for direct communication with an audience that has opted in. Consent is baked into the process. That small but critical detail makes a big difference in trust. When someone gives you their email address, they're inviting you into their personal space, a privilege not to be taken lightly.

Leading U.S. brands have begun to recognize this shift. Companies like Patagonia and Warby Parker have built their email strategies around transparency, relevance, and timing. Rather than flooding inboxes with aggressive promotions, they deliver thoughtful content that aligns with customers' values and preferences.

The Shift from Campaigns to Conversations

For years, email marketing was largely transactional: coupons, discounts, and flash sales dominated the landscape. While these tactics still have their place, they are no longer the focal point. Today’s successful campaigns are more like ongoing conversations than one-way broadcasts.

Take, for example, the rise of newsletter-style content. A 2024 Litmus report found that 87% of marketers in the U.S. are using content-rich emails to foster engagement and loyalty rather than pushing immediate conversions. These emails might include behind-the-scenes stories, customer success narratives, or even curated industry news. The focus is on long-term engagement, not short-term gain.

For startup entrepreneurs and managers, this evolution offers a significant opportunity. Unlike ad campaigns that require constant investment and optimization, digital mailing can scale cost-effectively. Once a relationship is built through well-crafted sequences, that trust often leads to higher customer lifetime value and stronger retention.

Personalization That Respects Boundaries

Modern email marketing isn’t just about using someone’s first name in a subject line. It’s about context, timing, and relevance. Yet, personalization must walk a fine line. Cross it, and you risk being perceived as intrusive or manipulative.

Thanks to advancements in CRM platforms and AI-driven analytics, companies can now segment their audiences with remarkable precision. But what separates winning campaigns from the rest is a commitment to ethical personalization. For instance, companies like Everlane and REI are known for using data to tailor messages without being invasive. They don’t overstep; they inform, suggest, and invite.

This approach reflects a broader shift in how personalization is understood. A 2023 survey by Salesforce revealed that 65% of U.S. consumers expect companies to understand their unique needs, yet 53% said most companies still fall short. Email marketing is bridging this gap by offering a respectful and value-driven form of personalized communication.

Deliverability Is the New Battleground

Even the most beautifully written email means nothing if it doesn’t reach its intended audience. With spam filters becoming more sophisticated and user inboxes increasingly cluttered, deliverability is a growing concern. Validity’s 2024 Email Deliverability Benchmark report noted that only 79% of commercial emails in the U.S. land in inboxes, a reminder that strategy must go beyond content.

For C-suite executives, this aspect is particularly crucial. Deliverability is not just a technical metric. It’s a signal of organizational integrity. If your messages consistently go to spam, it tells your customers and ISPs that you haven’t earned their trust.

Automation Without Alienation

Marketing automation is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it allows for timely, consistent messaging at scale. On the other hand, it can feel robotic if not handled carefully. Fortunately, newer tools are enabling smarter workflows that keep the human touch intact.

Whether it’s a welcome series for new subscribers or a re-engagement sequence for dormant users, today’s automation tools let marketers fine-tune messaging based on behavior, preferences, and timing. The result? Emails that feel like they came from a person, not a program.

For example, Shopify store owners often use Klaviyo’s automation suite to deliver timely product recommendations that align with a customer’s browsing history, purchase behavior, and engagement level. But the best performers ensure that the tone remains friendly, not formulaic.

Metrics That Matter

Another reason email marketing is winning back trust is its measurability. Open rates, click-through rates, conversions all of these give businesses a clear sense of what’s working and what’s not. In contrast, ROI from social media and display ads can often be murky, reliant on indirect attribution models.

According to Campaign Monitor, the average ROI for direct mail marketing in the U.S. is $36 for every $1 spent, a staggering figure that continues to outpace most other digital channels. This level of transparency not only makes email more accountable, but it also builds internal trust among stakeholders. When CFOs and CMOs can see the direct impact of their efforts, support for email advertising grows organically.

Reinventing the Brand Relationship

[Source - Allbirds]

In today’s crowded market, brand differentiation isn’t just about product features or price points. It’s about how you make customers feel. Email marketing has become a key vehicle for shaping that emotional connection.

Brands like Allbirds and Glossier have mastered the art of tone, using their emails to reinforce brand identity and community. Whether it’s a quirky sign-off, a clean design, or a story-driven format, their emails resonate because they reflect the brand’s voice and values consistently.

From Tactical to Strategic

Perhaps the most profound shift is in how organizations are thinking about email marketing. It’s no longer just a tool in the marketing toolkit. For many, it’s becoming the foundation of their digital customer relationship strategy.

This strategic elevation means that C-suite leaders are paying attention. They’re asking not just how email supports sales, but how it supports the broader brand mission, customer experience, and revenue goals. And they’re increasingly directing resources to ensure that email marketing is done right with creativity, accountability, and above all, integrity.

Conclusion

Email marketing may not be flashy. It doesn’t generate headlines like AI or the metaverse. But in a world hungry for authenticity and trust, it’s quietly becoming the most dependable form of digital communication once again.

Uncover the latest trends and insights with our articles on Visionary Vogues

[vansh19104]

The Future of Advertising: Automation, AI, and Beyond

The Rise of Data-Driven Advertising

Big Data and Consumer Insights

Big Data has revolutionized the advertising landscape, transforming how brands understand and engage with their audiences. Instead of relying on assumptions or traditional demographic categorizations, advertisers now have access to a treasure trove of detailed insights. These include browsing behaviors, purchase histories, social media activity, location data, and even real-time engagement metrics.

Imagine you’re trying to sell a new line of eco-friendly sneakers. With Big Data, you don’t just target people who like shoes—you target eco-conscious millennials who have recently searched for sustainable products, clicked on green lifestyle blog posts, or engaged with environmental causes online. That level of precision is a game-changer.

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Moreover, Big Data allows brands to map the customer journey in its entirety. By understanding which touchpoints lead to conversions, advertisers can allocate budgets more effectively, optimize content for each stage of the funnel, and reduce wasted spend. This approach is not only more effective but also far more efficient, helping businesses achieve higher ROI on their campaigns.

The integration of data into creative strategy also means advertisements can be tailored dynamically. A single campaign might have hundreds of variations, all generated by data cues—ensuring the right message hits the right person at the right time. It's personalized marketing at scale, and it's only possible through the smart use of data.

However, the sheer volume and complexity of data require sophisticated tools and skilled analysts. Platforms powered by AI and machine learning are crucial for sifting through terabytes of information and surfacing actionable insights. Without them, Big Data would be just that—big and overwhelming.

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Privacy Concerns and Ethical Considerations

As advertising becomes increasingly data-driven, privacy has taken center stage. Consumers are growing more aware of how their data is collected, stored, and used—and many aren’t happy about it. The backlash has spurred legislative responses like GDPR in Europe and the CCPA in California, putting serious legal constraints on how brands can gather and use data.

For advertisers, this shift represents both a challenge and an opportunity. On the one hand, there’s a need to tread carefully, ensuring compliance and maintaining consumer trust. On the other hand, it’s a chance to lead with transparency and ethics, potentially turning privacy into a competitive advantage.

Read More- PPC Agency in California

Ethical advertising means obtaining clear consent, being upfront about data use, and offering users control over their information. Brands that do this well can differentiate themselves in a crowded market. They become trustworthy—an attribute that pays dividends over time.

There's also a growing interest in alternative data strategies. Contextual advertising, which targets based on the content of a webpage rather than user behavior, is seeing a resurgence. It’s less invasive, privacy-friendly, and still quite effective when paired with AI.

Another approach is the use of zero-party data—information that users voluntarily share, such as preferences or product interests. While it requires more effort to collect, this type of data tends to be highly accurate and valuable, fostering more meaningful customer relationships.

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Ethical considerations don’t stop at data collection. They extend to content as well. Brands must be cautious about using manipulative tactics or spreading misinformation, especially as deepfakes and generative AI become more common. The future of advertising will belong to those who use tech responsibly.

Balancing Personalization with Privacy

Striking the right balance between personalization and privacy is like walking a tightrope. Personalization can dramatically improve user experience—think of Spotify's Discover Weekly or Netflix's recommended shows—but push it too far, and it starts to feel creepy. Ever had an ad follow you across every site after a single Google search? Yeah, not cool.

This balance is crucial in the advertising world. Over personalization can lead to what’s known as the “creep factor,” where users feel surveilled rather than served. To avoid this, smart marketers focus on relevant personalization—using data to enhance the experience without invading privacy.

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One effective tactic is to be transparent and offer value in exchange for data. For instance, users might willingly share their preferences if it means receiving personalized discounts or content. This kind of exchange feels fair and respectful.

Another approach is anonymizing data. By removing personally identifiable information (PII), advertisers can still glean useful insights without compromising individual privacy. Coupled with machine learning, anonymized data can still power highly effective campaigns.

Future-forward companies are also investing in Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs). These include methods like federated learning, differential privacy, and secure multi-party computation. While these sound complex (and they are), their role is simple: protect user data while still enabling insights.

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Ultimately, brands that get this balance right—those that deliver personalized, relevant content without overstepping—will win consumer loyalty and future-proof their advertising strategies.

The Evolution of Creative in Automated Advertising

Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO)

Dynamic Creative Optimization, or DCO, is a powerful tool in modern advertising. It automates the creation of ad variations in real time, using data to match creative elements—like images, headlines, and CTAs—with user profiles or contextual triggers.

Let’s say you're launching a global campaign for a travel app. With DCO, users in New York see snowy getaways, while users in Bali see tropical adventures. The message, image, and even color scheme can change based on location, device type, browsing behavior, and more.

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This isn’t just a gimmick—it’s a proven way to boost engagement and conversions. Studies show that personalized creatives can increase click-through rates (CTR) by as much as 50%. The best part? It’s all automated, freeing up marketers to focus on strategy rather than micromanaging ad sets.

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What sets DCO apart from traditional A/B testing is scale. Instead of comparing a few variants, DCO can test and optimize thousands of combinations, constantly learning what works best for each segment. It’s like having an AI-powered creative director, constantly fine-tuning your ads for maximum impact.

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However, like all tech, it’s only as good as the inputs. Poor quality data or uninspired creative assets can limit its effectiveness. That’s why successful DCO campaigns rely on a solid foundation: sharp design, clear messaging, and robust data.

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[sacredtrinitydigiagency]

When I came across this 🎥 🔗 https://www.instagram.com/reel/CryY9jgAkdE/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==,it made me realize we are allowing ourselves to be manipulated by allowing data gathering hence its potential impact on democracy are indeed significant.

The process of gathering vast amounts of data about individuals & their behaviours is often referred to as "Big Data."This data can be collected from various sources social media,location data from smartphones, financial transactions etc.When analysed, this data can provide valuable insights into individuals' preferences, behaviours,& even predict future actions!!

Some of the key concerns related to data acquisition & its potential impact on democracy:

1. Privacy & Surveillance: The mass collection of personal data can lead to a significant invasion of privacy, as individuals' private lives & activities are constantly monitored & analysed without their consent. This surveillance can have a chilling effect on free speech & expression, as people might self-censor out of fear of being watched or judged.

2. Manipulation & Influence: Governments & corporations can use the data they collect to tailor & target their advertisements, & political campaigns to specific individuals or groups, potentially influencing their beliefs, opinions, & behaviours without their knowledge.

3. Algorithmic Bias: Data-driven decision-making & algorithmic systems can perpetuate & amplify existing biases in society.

4. Erosion of Democratic Values: The accumulation of vast amounts of data & the use of sophisticated algorithms can potentially concentrate power in the hands of a few entities, leading to a situation where government & corporations have more knowledge & control over individuals than individuals have over themselves.

5. Lack of Transparency & Accountability: Often, data collection practices & algorithms used by & corporations are not fully transparent, making it challenging for individuals to understand how their data is being used or challenge unfair practices.

6. Cybersecurity Risks: Large-scale data storage & centralized databases also pose significant cybersecurity risks too #awareness #citizenrights #sacredtrinitydigiagency

[depravitymoon]

Sexy Yandere Scale: Passione edition

Warning: Non-con, drugging, somnophilia, breeding kink (Melone and Bruno), humiliation, Mista's bad hygiene, forced exhibitionism, dollification in Formaggio's part (inspired by this)

The actual title of this list:

Sexual Appetite Scale:

Yandere Passione Edition

How the Yanderes act when they're horny for you. It's a scale that goes 1 to 10 with it's own sub-categories.

1 to 3 is the Sexual Assertiveness Scale: How much they want sex?

4 to 6 is the Sexual Aggressive Scale: What they’re willing to do to get sex from you?

7 to 10 the is Sexual Sadism Scale: How sadistic they are in bed?

1 would never even initiate sex. Lower sex drive and/or really cares for your comfort.

2 would ask for it and be fine if you decline. Normal sex drive.

3 would constantly beg for it, but will only act with your consent. High sex drive.

4 is dubcon territory where an aphrodisiac of sorts is used to make you more willing.

5 is when Somophilia and sleeping pills are used to make sure you're not struggling.

6 is non-con territory and your resistance is shrugged off. He’ll make sure you’re enjoying yourself! Don’t worry!

7 prioritizes their own pleasure over yours.

8 involves humiliating you.

9 involves public humiliation, where multiple people can witness it.

10 is nonstop everyday humiliation/torture.

Examples

1 - Pesci

Pesci is barely a Yandere. He truly wants a healthy normal relationship with you! He just goes about it the wrong way (stalking, stealing your stuff, invasion of privacy) because he's never met a person who treated him with such kindness! He's awfully nervous about taking the 'advice' his more aggressive colleagues give him. He's too insecure (and too aware non-con is wrong) to initiate any sexual activity with you.

3 - Ghiaccio

When he first kidnaps you, he thinks he’ll be a 1. He’s never really had a sexual urge in his life. He never understood what’s so important about sex other than procreation, but then you came along. Turns out he’s just demisexual. He can go from 1 to 4; it just depends on how long you refuse to sleep with him. He'll try to play it off that he doesn't care, then he occasionally asks you, then he's straight up begging. It's not about him losing his virginity! He wants to express his love! Finally, 'out of options', he rationalizes that you're just nervous and needs something to relax you.

3.5 - Narancia

Similar to Pesci, he has friends whispering in his ear that your consent doesn't matter. However, he still wants a normal relationship with you. He's just too delusional to understand boundaries. There's a 50/50 chance he whines about wanting to make love until you give in. There's also a chance he slips some drugs into your drink to get you in the mood. He just wants to make you feel good! Please let him make you feel good, mielo! Please sit on his face! Let him taste you!

4 - Abbacchio

Abbacchio feels so guilty kidnapping you. He knows you wouldn't want to fuck your captor.... but he's horny. So the solution is to drug your drinks while he gets some liquid courage to take advantage of you. Post Nut clarity sucks, but.... fucking you is worth it. At least he can manipulate you enough to believe you acted on your own. Also, you get amazing aftercare. He has thought about fucking you while you're unconscious, but it'd only make him feel guiltier.

5 - Melone

He's between 4 and 7. It depends on your personality and his mood. The nicest he'll be is drugging you to be as enthused about fucking as he is. If you're being defiant or if he's impatient, he'll just fuck you while you're sleeping, or have Babyface hold you down while Melone has his way with you. His typical mood is 5. Seeing your face when you wake up to him fucking you just amuses Melone. It's even funnier when you get pregnant and you don't remember how!

6 - Bruno

If he was a lucid Yandere, he would have been at a 4 or 5, but sadly, he's delusional. He'd rather things be completely consensual, but he understands how shy you can be. Don't worry, he'll guide you! Even if he has to unzip your limbs! He's a very gentle lover. Gently wiping your tears away, gently kissing your body, gently thrusting inside you. He does apologize for being so pushy. It's just.... he knows you're ovulating and he doesn't want to miss this chance! He's going to take such great care of you while you're pregnant! Trust him!

Varies - Giorno

Before being Don, he'd be at 2. He's at a 3 if it's the canon timeline. If it's an Everyone Lives AU, he's much worse. Unfortunately, being Don has gotten to his head and now he's on a power trip. He fluctuates between 4 and 8. At 4, he gives you his new 'herbal tea', Erotic City. At 8, he has Gold Experience fucking you while he watches. Could he just be a normal human being and NOT do all of that? Yes, but where's the fun in that? He already takes such good care of you, the least you can do is amuse him with his little games. He'll always get you to enjoy it. He's a 6.5 if I had to pick a number.

Duality - Fugo

He's at a 2 or an 8 and nothing in between. When he's calm and you're behaving, sex isn't his priority. Yeah, it feels nice and he loves fucking you, but it's not a problem if you're not in the mood. Now, when he's angry, it's a different story. Even if you're not the source of the anger, he'll take his frustrations out on you. Be prepared for some very rough sex leaving you limping for awhile. If you've been a great darling, he'll drug you so you never realize what he did to you.

7 - Prosciutto

He fluctuates between 6, 7, and 8, but his typical mood is 7. Your main goal is to please him, not vice versa. That was the deal. He doesn't mind pleasuring you, but he never feels obligated to. That's his gift to you for good behavior. If you're on bad behavior, you're fucking him with nipple clamps on. He'll also force you walk around the house with a vibrator on. Even if you are on good behavior, he'll occasionally humiliate you for laughs. For example, forcing you not wearing panties for a whole day or you're forced to suck his cock while he watches tv.

8 - Mista

He's delusional, so he thinks you're into non-con role-play when you clearly are not. Number 5 is the only one who realizes you're not into it, but there's not much he can do, being bullied by the others. You're forced to deepthroat Mista even when he hasn't washed himself for days. Sadly, he's into gunplay, so your resistance is very limited. He takes provocative pictures of you for his scrapbook. He'll even fuck you in semi-public places like a public bathroom, a back alley, or a closet at your workplace.

8.5 - Risotto

The good news is Risotto cares more about your pleasure than Prosciutto. The bad news is that he gets off on humiliating you and forcing you to do stuff. Worse, he'll have La Squadra stumble onto you getting fucked. When you two fuck, the door is never closed. The hitmen can always get a good look at you fingering yourself, using a vibrator, getting the daylights fucked out of you, or cockwarming their Capo while he does paperwork. For most of them, it's amusing to watch.

9 - Formaggio

It's fun to make you small and dress you up like a barbie, and force you to play along. You know what's even funner? When things get sexual. He forces you naked and has you fuck some modified Ken dolls for his amusement. Now, what the funnest idea you think comes to his mind? Having Illuso and Melone join in and watch you get humiliated. Even orchestrating gangbang with multiple Ken dolls. Messing with you has become their favorite pastime. It's quite effective in making you comply when Formaggio actually wants to fuck you.

10 - Illuso

Even on his nicer days, your comfort means very little to him. I guess you don't have to fuck him, but you'll be stuck in the mirror world until you do. Keep in mind, he could always just take you by force. He's the 2nd largest member in La Squadra, so the chances you could fight him off are slim. So be grateful he kind of feels merciful. On his nicer days, he'll sell drawings of you in sexually explicit situations. On his meaner days, he'll have you fuck his stand for his amusement and takes pictures of you to sell to the deep web. You can be his muse or his whore, which would you prefer?

[tsipasce]

Same Difference, ch.05

Chapters: 01  |  02 |  03 |  04

AO3 | Fanfic

The door opened and she saw what looked like a control room with a window that overlooked what seemed like a training arena. The walls and floors of the arena were much rougher than the pristine surfaces of the lab. Whatever had happened in there prior had been overhauled multiple times over.

I wonder just how much he lets loose in here… and on who?

Snapping her out of her daydream, Overhaul began,” You’ve seen my—”

“No, I haven’t.” She cut him off, knowing he was eager to see her use it first. “I may have read reports and seen photos, but I haven’t actually seen you use it. So…” she motioned her hand for him to begin.

He scanned her for a moment before indulging her, “Alright, what would you like to see?”

“Just do whatever you were trying to do to me in the back of the car, hm?” she smiled but the emotion didn’t reach her eyes.

He narrowed his gaze at her, seemingly amused. He went to a place on the wall, looking between Nanami and it comparatively before removing his glove. He pressed his bare hand to the wall, taking a chunk out of it to create a golem-like figure of her. It didn’t have much detail specific to her, but it had arms, legs, and a head. He removed the other glove slowly placing both hands on either arm of the golem. Within a second both arms were gone, now particles floating in the air. Within the next second, they were back, formed exactly the same as before. It was odd seeing it used on stone walls when all the reports spoke of flesh and bone. Though she’d never wish anyone to be a test subject, it was a little underwhelming seeing it this way.

Overhaul must have seen the thoughts across her face as he paused before calmly rolling up his sleeve. She could see him tense for a split second before his arm was disassembled then reassembled in the same breath.

As terrifying as it was to see him dismember himself so easily, she was also professionally (and morbidly) intrigued. How much detail would one have to know and actively apply in order to disassemble and completely reassemble something as complex as a limb in that short a time span? It was as fascinating as it was terrifying.

“Now,” He began, rousing her from her thoughts, “I’d like to see something from you. What exactly did you do to me in the car?”

“Oh… that? That was um...” suddenly she was embarrassed, feeling her cheeks warm as she remembered the moment and her very ill-timed thoughts. “It was nothing.”

“It didn’t feel like nothing. Explain.”

“Well, I call it Reverb—not the most interesting name, I know—but it’s basically…” his eyes narrowed as she hesitated to answer.

“Out with it.” He said, getting impatient.

“I... tickled you?”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s really a harmless move.”

“Harmless?” He said with more incredulity.

“Ok, so your ego was a little bruised, but your cells should have recovered just fine. How are your abdominals and obliques doing?” She asked sincerely this time, hoping he wouldn’t think she was trying to tease him further.

Sighing, but still quite irritated, he replied, “They’re fine. What exactly did you do to produce that... ‘tickling’ feeling?”

He’s definitely pissed…

“I guess another firsthand demonstration would be out of the question, so here” she replied as she approached the wall, placing both hands on it carefully. She turned to see if he was watching her and though he was obviously still irritated, his eyes were tracking her every move. Nanami focused, replicating what she had done on him days before. Small pieces of the wall began to undulate, disassembling and reassembling in the same instant making the wall seem as though it was rolling. She stopped and the wall continued to reverberate the movements she had started as she explained in detail what was happening.

“… I see.” He spoke affirmatively as though he was mildly impressed, his eyes now trained on the wall. She had to admit a certain sense of pride welled up in her at the thought of impressing him in some way. It was difficult not to imagine having some kind of connection when you know you share such an intimate part of yourself with another person… Even if they are a bit more morally ambiguous than I’m used to…. Nanami admitted to herself.

“How else do you utilize my qui— I mean overhaul?” He queried.

The correction was small, but she was appreciative nonetheless. Thinking in earnest how to answer the question, she began,“ Well, it’s nothing special since I don’t use it on as large a scale as you, quite the opposite, really.” He gave her a look encouraging her to elaborate. “I prefer to use traditional methods in my line of work, but if the situation calls for it, I can also use it to create and remove clots.”

“You mean causing a pulmonary embolism?”

“NO. My gosh, no for the exact opposite reason. Everything train goes straight to Murder Town™ with you, huh?” exasperated Nanami before she continued, “If reaching the artery is too invasive, I can break it down through a small incision in the skin preventing fun things like what you mentioned. Besides healing, I usually only use it for self-defense and smaller transformations. I… don’t use it very often.” At this Overhaul noticed what sounded like shame in her voice. She’d been told throughout her childhood she was a freak after the incident as she’d refer to it. Even now, it felt like a sore subject. He knew he’d be able to coax the story out of her, but it wouldn’t be tonight.

“Then tell me, how were you able to negate my attack in the car?”

“That I can’t tell you.” She replied simply.

He shifted his weight, folding his arms, “If we’re going to make this research count, we’ll have to cooperate. Don’t you want to see how far this power can be taken?” He coaxed.

“One, I don’t have a particular lust for power, so that ~thing~ you’re doing with your eyes won’t work on me. And two, even if it did, I couldn’t tell you. Not just because I find the idea of you being able to nullify a quirk to be… unsettling. But because I literally don’t know how I did it either. It just happened.”

He searched her features for signs of deception but found nothing. “Then it looks like we’ll have to get to the bottom of that as well. “ He moved suddenly towards her and she braced herself, but he continued to walk past her and back into the lab.

It looks like we’re playing the long game then… Nanami noted inwardly. He could have tried testing her again physically, but hadn’t. It was an intentional show of restraint to get her to let her guard down. She wasn’t naïve enough to think it was just out of some newfound comradery, but she also wasn’t 100% sure it was some malicious power play. Manipulation was something she assumed he’d employ but seeing it in action was a different story. He’s good at this.

She followed him after a beat into the lab to see him writing notes down on the white board.

“Now that we’ve demonstrated what we know to be physically true, we can begin crafting a hypothesis and concrete testing procedures, a.k.a. the fun part.” He said after hearing her enter the room. He finished the observations he was writing and sat down at the workbench, motioning for her to sit across from him. “Let’s compare notes, shall we?”

She sat down and began looking through the file of her he’d created as well as some hypothesis he’d come up with. It was odd reading such a detailed report about herself and even more so imagining how he’d gotten the information so quickly, but she was relieved to see there wasn’t a mention of the incident. Brushing the obvious invasion of privacy aside, she was grateful to see that even though quirks were a virus to him, his assessment of why they shared the quirk was very similar to hers: genetic mutation.

Closing the folder on the table, Nanami began “It looks like agree on the premise of this experiment. Now we can—”

“Not entirely.” He cut in.

“Please, don’t say it…” Nanami sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

“But it has to be said. We can acknowledge quirks as a genetic mutation while also acknowledging the origin of that mutation was a virus.”

“That’s just… no. Sure viruses can be ‘passed down’ in the sense that their genetic leftovers might show up in offspring, but that doesn’t mean that’s what quirks are. They’re much too drastic of a change to just be caused by a virus. No other virus behaves that way.”

“Until recent history, quirks were not normal. They are an anomaly so it’s no stretch of the imagination to say that the virus that created them would also be an anomaly. You’re being close-minded about this, and it will hinder the process.” He stated matter-of-factly.

“I’m being close-minded? This coming from the guy who won’t accept the consensus of thousands of scientists. If I’m close-minded, you’re downright obtuse!” She retorted.

The argument went on for the next 15-20 minutes, both of them behaving much like children in the eyes of Kurono who had returned 10 minutes ago, but decided it was best to wait outside until they’d finished whatever spat they were having. Now silent, they were both standing, leaning over the table and glaring at each other. Suddenly, Nanami saw an epiphany flash across Overhaul’s face and consequently a look of annoyance came across hers.

“Let’s make a bet.”

“No way.” She responded immediately, but judging by the look in his eyes, he had already made plans to change her answer.

“You haven’t even heard the terms. “

“Knowing what I know about you, I don’t think I want to...”

He continued as though he’d already won, “If your hypothesis is correct, you may ask one favor of me. Anything you want.”

“And if you win? What fresh hell will I be in then?”

“I get the same; nothing more, nothing less. Any favor I ask, you have to grant it.”

“There is literally zero reason for me to indulge in this.”

“That sounds like something a loser would say.”

Brows raised in disbelief Nanami retorted, “Are you... trying to goad me?”

“Is it working?” He replied smoothly, knowing the answer.

“… You’re on.” She knew she’d regret letting her pride get the best of her, but she also knew she’d win. Nothing wrong with a casual, life-altering bet every now and again. She reassured herself.

“Perfect. We’ll begin blood sampling and testing during your next visit. In the meantime, I’ll be thinking of a fitting favor as my prize.”

“As if you haven’t already decided…” Nanami said under her breath. When she looked back at his face, she caught a glint of pure mischief in his eyes.

Yup, definitely going to regret this.

[presidentrhodes]

Spider-Man Far From Home spoilers

I just finished watching it and, honestly, I’d say it was a pretty good way to bid farewell to the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Spoilers under the cut. This is pretty long and rambly. 

1. Midtown high is supposed to be a school for geniuses but these little shits use comic sans in tribute videos and steal watermarked Getty Images pictures to put in them. I loved it, particularly with the song choice and the fact that Vision’s picture was from the Civil War airport standoff in Leipzig — that means only Peter could’ve provided it and no one bothered to ask how he got it. 

2. Tom Holland really wasn’t kidding when he said the film was a love letter to RDJ/Tony Stark. He was everywhere, his sacrifice was being recognised around the world: they even had a documentary on him, which was available in the in-flight entertainment, plus, there were murals and photographs in Venice and Prague. He was very much present throughout the film. 

3. EDITH. In a nutshell, it’s an augmented reality-enabled AI that controls a tactical and defensive system Tony built to protect Earth in the aftermath of his demise. Think Ultron’s perfect self minus the winning personality — EDITH controls a bunch of massive Stark Industries satellites in orbit that are equipped with thousands of weaponised drones. It can remotely target individual threats and take them out with simple voice commands. It also is able to connect to any network in the vicinity, so, Peter was able to see what his classmates were doing on their devices. 

I’ve already seen so many angry posts comparing EDITH to Project Insight without taking into account a) intent; and b) the reality of the MCU. Tony didn’t build EDITH for the same reason Zola built Project Insight. The former was meant to be a last or first line of defence, controlled by an Avenger Tony personally trusted. The latter was a means to subjugate the world population to Hydra’s will. 

All tech in the MCU is dangerous when it falls into the wrong hands — that’s why they’re called the wrong hands and why Steve once said the safest hands are their own. The supersoldier serum gave us Steve Rogers; it also gave us the Winter Soldiers, a bunch of dangerous, invincible highly-trained assassins. Pym particles gave us Ant-Man and the Wasp as well as time travel; it also gave us Yellowjacket, who immediately wanted to weaponise the tech. The Iron Man suit gave us Iron Man; but also gave us Iron Monger, who wanted to build an army of metal soldiers. Wakanda’s highly-advanced weapon systems were able to withstand a full-scale invasion from the Outriders, but those same weapons almost started a global war in Killmonger’s hands. Project Insight and Ultron showed us the bad side of AI; JARVIS, Vision, FRIDAY, Karen and EDITH, to an extent, showed us the good side of AI.

The point is, technology in the wrong hands will always be a bad thing yet people only seem to gripe about Stark tech while ignoring every other piece of advanced technology we’ve seen weaponized or misused. I wonder why. Since the MCU canonically isn’t made up of one big Luddite colony, there’ll always be new technology being developed and bad guys finding ways to abuse them. 

Just look at the holographic tech Mysterio designed while at Stark Industries. Even before he was fired, his ambitions were grander and afterwards, he weaponized it and willingly sent people to their dooms so that he could play a hero. When 16-year-old Peter Parker, MJ and Ned — literal children — found out the truth and Mysterio risked being exposed as a fraud, he actively tried to kill them. Mysterio beat the shit out of Peter and threw him in front of an incoming high-speed train, so, no, I don’t care if Tony Stark was mean to him by firing him, he was a piece of shit who tried repeatedly to kill a kid. 

Tony, meanwhile, spent $600+ million on the holographic tech to design B.A.R.F — a technology with some really promising applications in the MedTech sector to help people overcome their PTSD and trauma. That’s the fucking difference between a superhero and a supervillain.

Sure, EDITH also has massive privacy concerns. That’s on Tony, but after the Decimation, I think people have bigger problems to worry about than whether Peter Parker is snooping on their text messages. Ultimately, EDITH offers Peter, and whoever else is going to fill up the Avengers roster in the future, a plan B to strike the bad guys from a safe distance. I

4. Tony left Peter in charge of EDITH. Not the Avengers, not SHIELD, and definitely not the US Department of Defense — a fact that actually pissed off Mysterio. Tony left it in Peter’s hands because he knew Spider-Man took the meaning of responsibility far more seriously than he ever did. All those years ago, Peter told him if one could do the things he could, and they didn’t, and then the bad things happened, they happened because of them. And, honestly, if anyone deserves to have control over such a potentially dangerous piece of tech that can help in future battles, then it’s Peter — even more so than Tony. 

5. Again, Peter is 16 in this film and still coping with loss and trauma. He willingly gave controls of EDITH to Quentin because Mysterio had everyone fooled, including Nick Fury/Talos — they’re both highly experienced soldiers. Fooling them wouldn’t have been easy and Mysterio’s plan was extremely well thought-out and perfectly executed. Peter redeem himself in the end and takes back control of EDITH. 

6. Peter and MJ were super adorable. Spider-Man is the only franchise apart from Iron Man, where the secondary lead characters are allowed to grow without it all being about the main hero. MJ is allowed to explore her feelings for Peter and measure them against Brad’s affection. Ned is allowed to also grow in his character and be more than Spider-Man’s best friend/guy in a chair. 

7. Happy and May were also adorable.

8. Happy ruined a perfectly good bed of tulips just to rescue May’s nephew and give him the TLC/pep talk he needed after, again, Beck pushed Peter in front of a high-speed train that would’ve killed an ordinary person. 

9. Peter confusing ACDC with Led Zeppelin is the most Gen Z thing ever. Happy watched Peter design his own suit and it reminded him of the times he spent watching Tony tinker in his lab. You could feel Tony’s absence pretty viscerally in that scene on the jet. 

10. Peter tingle. Lol. 

11. Happy’s words about Tony were beautiful. He said something along the lines of, “Tony was my best friend. He second-guessed everything he did. He was a mess. But the one thing he didn’t second-guess was picking you.” That really furthered the Iron Dad Spider Son narrative.

12. Iron Zombie was the w o r s t thing ever. Again, Beck emotionally manipulated 16-year-old Peter Parker and said if Peter was any good, his mentor would still be alive just as he projected an illusion of a decaying Iron Man corpse attacking him. To give you a sense of how manipulative he really is, he told his guy in the chair that Peter’s blood will be on his hands because he had failed to report a missing drone part that MJ had discovered in Prague. 

13. Peter finally understanding that he doesn’t have to be the next Tony Stark or Iron Man. He just needs to be the next Spider-Man and Peter Parker. 

14. Peter choosing to safeguard EDITH. 

15. J. Jonah Jameson and J.K. Simmons. That is all. He’s the MCU equivalent of Alex Jones and I love him so much. I wonder if this means we’ll see Doctor Strange offer Peter his help to erase everyone’s memories about the reveal of his secret identity. 

16. Every Nick Fury scene automatically becomes 2000x funnier when you realize it’s Talos posing as Fury and 90% of the time, he has no idea what the fuck is going on and he’s just winging it as he goes along. Also, he was furious that he and his wife, as members of a shapeshifting species, were unable to detect Mysterio’s ruse. 

17. Mysterio was a douchebag. Apart from trying to kill actual kids because he feared they might expose him, he did nothing worthy of a hero. He was jealous and angry about Tony, and he wanted to usurp Iron Man without doing any of the hard work. He willingly put people in danger, was prepared to sacrifice people to make his actions seem more realistic and wanted to take credit for saving the day and preventing an Avengers-level catastrophe. I’ve already seen reviewers trying to sympathise with Mysterio, and his persistent attempts to kill a 16-year-old kid because Tony was apparently mean to him. 

18. And, no, Tony did not steal B.A.R.F tech from Mysterio as some review sites are claiming. The narrative is unreliable at best because we hear only Quentin’s point of view — the same Quentin who had been using his holographic tech to deceive people and put them in harm’s way because he wanted to shake the Queen’s hands or some misguided bullshit. He deserved to fired. Plus, he was a Stark Industries employee. Tech companies almost always own the patent to whatever tech you design or invent for them when you’re on their payroll. It’s how corporations work.

19. Tony quoted Henry IV to Fury when he told him to give EDITH to Peter and said Spidey wouldn’t get the reference (Heavy is the head that wears the crown) because it’s not Star Wars. It was a nice, poignant moment — made funnier when you realize that’s Talos in disguise, which means at some point, Fury had to have a conversation with him about Shakespeare and Star Wars. Someone pls write the fic. 

20. The most important thing is that this film actually tried to address the Decimation. Endgame pretended to gloss over it to give Gay Joe Russo his 15 minutes of fame. But this film actually started with May and Peter organizing an event to help the displaced. Pepper sent a huge check and apologized for not being able to make it in person. :( 

20a. I love Jake Gyllenhaal. I had expected Quentin to be a dramatic thot but he really brought a lot of depth to the character. 

Overall, I liked the film a lot more than I had anticipated. Some people are going to scrutinize this film to death to prove Tony was the ultimate MCU villain and, hey, if that’s the hill they choose to die on, I don’t really care. After 11 years and 23 films later, if they still think that Tony was the real villain all along, then nothing we say or Marvel does, will change their mind. 

Personally, I thought this film was a good send off to Tony, now that they’ve firmly established that Peter Parker/Spider-Man is going to be the new face of the MCU and will carry with him the Iron Man legacy. He wasn’t always right and a lot of his choices tended to backfire but, in the end, his motivations were good and he still went out as the man who saved the world. He, unlike Beck, or Vulture before him, never tried to kill a child, not even when he brought him to a parking lot brawl among friends. 

Now, if only Marvel can just leave Tony’s legacy alone and let Peter, and the rest of the MCU, thrive on its own instead of retconning established Iron Man lore to fit new narratives. 

[redknight3996]

The Demon Lord’s Generals 1

Chapter 1 – The Crimson Dryad

Autumn had lived for a very long time. 

All dryads did; it came with the territory of being a dryad. Trees lived long lives, and so too did the dryads born from them, though Autumn didn’t really think there was a difference between her stationary self and her traveling self. 

It was like claiming a human’s brain was somehow separate from the rest of them, capable of acting on its own; humans were brains in the same way that dryads were trees, they were inexorably linked and only the truly stupid thought different.

Autumn had a very low opinion of stupidity, and an almost equally low opinion of humans. Really, most meatfolk struck her as unpleasant, though she had to admit some fondness for those she met much later in her life.

Before then though, back when she had her first grove in the sodden, swampy lands of her birthplace, she utterly despised all creatures of the flesh, whether they be matted with fur and hair or covered with scales and feathers. Even the wildlife irritated her, for they were coming into her territory and trying to eat of her fruits, the wretched things. Yes, that was supposedly the “natural state of things”, but fuck that nonsense, she was an immortal tree and liked her privacy.

Bees were somewhat tolerable though. Insects in general didn’t bother her overmuch. They were small enough that she barely noticed them. Everything else could go straight to Hell though. Well, they could once she actually knew what Hell was. 

Before then, she just wanted them out of her presence, which initially involved trying to smash them with her branches until she finally formed a traveling form; one that mimicked the elfin races in form, though she lacked any tails or antlers. Apparently she was “voluptuous”, which meant a great deal of staring whenever she appeared in front of some mortal and yelled at them to get off her property.

She was also green back then, back before a fateful encounter granted her a new family and faith. Her skin and hair, back then, were a dark, mossy green, something shared by most of her kind in the swamplands and not by her more vibrant, eastern sistren, though that was also much further in time.

Time was odd for her, old as she was, but she remembered when her first grove was invaded. Not merely encroached on by thoughtless animals or ignorant meatfolk, but actively, violently invaded by aggressive parasites looking to rip her territory away from her.

Really, to compare them to parasites was to disparage simple creatures that merely sought to live, and even aided her ecosystems with their presence; these imbeciles, on the other hand, were simply callous, thoughtless conquerors seeking what wasn’t theirs for some bizarre, imagined sense of glory. 

At first, they came to take members of her grove, and the food that they grew. Their numbers proved to only stain the ground with their corpses and blood. And yet, despite her efforts her grove suffered from the invasion. While no one was lost, many remained scarred from the attack. 

Her hatred of the meat sacks began to consume her, and she became ever vigilant for invaders, placing traps and employing other such methods to defend her grove. 

As such, she was more than ready when the second invaders came, screaming about some misbegotten revenge. Whether they were part of the first invaders or not, she did not care. They were simply pests that needed to be disposed of. 

Such was how life was to her: protect her grove and prepare for the inevitable pests. With each invasion, she grew wiser and stronger. She knew where to defend, and how to eliminate invaders quickly. And, despite her traveling body being immortal, she even developed armor to clad herself in. The wet wood of the swamp was easily manipulated by her and would protect her from even Fire, the loathsome element that brought her such pain when employed against her. 

Eventually, before she even knew it, the other members of her grove seemed to hold her as their leader. At first, she didn't even know what this meant. There was never a leader within a grove; everyone simply coexisted. And yet, something swelled within her as the others looked upon her with awe and reverence. As much as eyeless, faceless plants could look, at least.

However, even with her power, there were things even she could not stop. 

At first, it was merely whispers, stories from outsiders who had set up for the night outside her territory, telling of a new demon lord called Irascagan. For her, this was of no matter. She had protected her grove from such matters before, and she would do so again if he tried to force them to bend the knee. 

And yet, despite everything she did, she could not stop the deaths that came with the first of his forces. Unlike others, who came to try and make them bend, these only wished for death and destruction. For the first time in her life, she felt hatred not for those who came, but hatred at her own failure. 

The plants of her grove, the simple folk in need of her protection, died in droves with each push. Trampled, sundered, ripped apart by monstrous things she’d never seen before, reeking of unnatural rot, necrotic yet living all the same. Many felt no pain and would not be driven back, so her methods became more effective in response. Simple impalement on thorns and roots was not enough; crushing rarely worked either. 

Complete and total dismemberment, however, was immensely effective.

At times, it almost seemed like there was more gore than water soaking into her grove. And yet, the twisted things still came. Some were even fused amalgamations of plant and meat, things that sent a shock of horror through her very soul, and drove her into such a rage...really, she wasn’t entirely sure what happened that day. She felt somehow...fuller though, afterward.

Still, eventually, the reality of her situation dawned upon her. She would be ever defending against monstrosities as long as their vile creators existed, and she could not reach those creators from her grove. Not unless they were stupid enough to come to her directly, and it was very clear they weren’t that inept.

She needed to leave, that was clear, so she did something immensely uncomfortable. She absorbed her stationary self, pulling her entire being into her form capable of travel. It made an odd sort of sense to her; if her traveling self could be manifested at will by her stationary self, why not the opposite?

Still, the act sent tremors through her body, and in an instant, she was beset by desires and sensations she had never felt before. Thirst, hunger, simple discomfort at the cold...It was disturbing, yet necessary.

So in this lull of invasions, a period she knew would be taken by her enemy to regroup and replan, she clad herself in full armor and crafted a pack from the leather of the corpses not yet consumed. Within it, she filled soil and water, and then began to take her bewildered subjects and place them inside. Some needed contortion to fit, but she made sure the process was not uncomfortable, and spaced them evenly so they would all have a place in the deep transport.

Once prepared, she left the lands of her grove entirely, the land now stripped and barren of whatever the monsters could gain of it. In that, she felt a strong satisfaction. Her enemy would gain nothing from their victory, and all their efforts would be wasted.

And so she traveled. Further than she ever desired to, wandering towards a destination she did not know, but would be far better than anywhere near the monstrosities that had invaded her former home. 

It was an uncomfortable journey. The sensations of her body were persistent, and she found herself often having to pause for a variety of inane reasons her traveling form suddenly demanded of her. Though, in one positive, she did learn one quite nice fact about the creatures of meat: they tasted delicious.

So while the waters of the swamp were enough to quench her thirst and the beasts around her aided in quelling her hunger, she did still have to stop on occasion, merely to rest as she avoided the dwellings of the meatfolk. She was strong still, certainly; capable of bending the will of her kind around her to her ends with ease. But her body had limitations, and it was during one such rest that the monstrosities caught her.

She had wandered too far near one of their “roads”. The ground was easier to walk, a faster route, so she thought it would be worth the exposure. But when she saw the familiar monsters, scaled like some natural creatures yet twisted with bodies rotted and warped, clad in their steel armors, she knew she made a truly stupid mistake. 

Fighting them was something she had grown used to; however, when her grove was in a pack not even a few feet away, there was little she could do aside from stay on the defensive. 

And as the first of the creatures pierced her armor and stabbed into her traveling form, she felt pain for the first time in her long life. With her armor chipped away, and pain wracking her form, she fell atop of the pack containing her grove, in a desperate attempt to keep them safe. 

However, before the final blow could be delivered, a savior came to her. Turning as she heard bodies collapsing in the dirt, she found a robed figure standing before her, their arms moving with an almost hypnotic grace and brutality as they ripped the monsters apart.

At that moment, whether it be desperation over her grove being saved, or the pain making it difficult to think, she felt thankful for this meat sack. 

Despite this, she did not let up her guard once the monstrosities were defeated and her savior turned to look at them. 

“Hello there,” they, a figure that stood so stark in her memories, permanently defined by the blood red robes and pale white mask they wore, greeted in a calm, almost friendly tone, “I hope you are not hurt.”

She felt odd in that moment. It was the first time a meatsack had spoken to her with any type of kind words.

Still, her second reaction was immediate hostility, if just to judge how her “savior” would react. Thankfully, their intentions were genuine, and they simply offered reassurances that they meant no harm and merely wanted to see her safe.

She still remained highly wary, however, because she wasn’t an idiot and suspicious individuals were always potentially dangerous, particularly when she had so much she had to keep safe. Though it was somewhat appreciated when her savior gave her food and drink. And it was further appreciated that they sat and spoke with her about why she was traveling and what her purpose was. Not in an interrogative sense, merely...well, it was questioning, but...The point was, it was nice.

Their name was Zia. Apparently, they were a “priest–no, more a monk–well, technically a neophyte” of Mother Marrow. 

That was the first time she’d heard of Mother Marrow, yet she felt the draw even back then. The allure of Her. It was a feeling in the air as Zia spoke of their beloved protector, a feeling that drew the dryad in, and bade her to learn more.

The two traveled for a time afterward. The dryad felt it unnecessary, and even drew attention to the fact that Zia had originally been traveling in the opposite direction. Yet the strange meatsack, pink-skinned and smelling of strange blood, merely replied that their path had changed. According to them, the two met for a reason, ordained by their god.

The dryad thought Zia was an idiot, but having an ally was beneficial, so she tolerated the stupidity. They did make for a decent traveling partner, capable of defending her subjects when necessary and providing intriguing conversation at times. 

It was during that time that the dryad learned the most about her future deity, the glorious God of Blood, Defender of Her Own, deaf to the cries of peace and mercy.

Understandably, the God’s principles matched up easily with the dryad’s, though she didn’t fully give herself over to Mother Marrow at the time. The idea of becoming subservient to another rankled, so while she learned of Bloody magics and the Infernal Court called Phlegethon, she refused that initial opportunity to join the faith outright. 

Still, Zia gave her a gift when they parted, a simple mark to place and an incantation to intone if ever she should find herself desiring such a connection. So there, where the cold of her home melted away into a deep, warm humidity, the two bid their goodbyes, and the dryad tread her own path into the great jungles of Skiritaba.

The heat hit her like a wave as she crossed the boundary between regions, bathing her body in a warmth she’d never felt before. A very unpleasant warmth, at least at first. 

It was so different to her natural environment that she, quite naturally, utterly loathed the heat that swept across her skin, clinging in a horribly wet way as she trudged over unfamiliar brush and strange soils. The animals were quite different too; still easy to kill in many ways, but their poisons were different and their tastes unfamiliar. There were also a number of strangely sweet-smelling plants and beasts that rarely tasted as good as their scents claimed.

It was one such sweet scent that led her to the most important meeting of her life; her first encounter with Eytelia.

Her mouth had watered the instant that rich fragrance hit her nostrils. She devoured the flesh of a monstrous jungle cat barely minutes ago and yet the intoxicating aroma demanded her attention and appetite like nothing else before. She’d nearly stumbled as she pushed through the brush towards it, saliva outright leaking over her chin, until she reached the most beautiful sight she’d ever seen.

The dryad had never seen an alraune before, nor did she know what one was; really, all she knew was that the plant before her was alluring in ways she’d never known, to the point that all earlier hungry desires were forgotten entirely as she gazed upon the wondrous being in front of her.

Standing a great deal taller than her, the alraune was a beauty beyond compare; a vibrant flower of gorgeous, deep blue petals formed her lower half while her upper consisted of a bright, grassy-green body much like the dryad’s own darker, duller form, if significantly more voluptuous.

Long, blue hair spilled down her head and covered one of her equally bright blue eyes, glimmering like pools of clear water in the light of the grove as they widened, staring right at the stunned dryad. 

“Oh…greetings! I was not expecting a guest, particularly one such as yourself!” The alraune smiled, nearly stopping the dryad’s heart right then and there. “May I help you with anything?” 

“...Yhah...hah...Mmh, uh...mm…” she eloquently responded, slightly lifting a hand and then letting it drop to her side.

“Heh. Are you so struck by my beauty that you’ve gone speechless~?”

The dryad rapidly nodded, earning a surprised blink and a slight blush from the alraune.

“O-Oh...W-Well, welcome to our grove. I am Eytelia.” Eytelia curtsied, her petals shifting upward like a skirt. “I must say, I haven’t seen a dryad of your complexion before. Have you traveled far?”

“Hh.”

“Heh~. Still stunned?”

The dryad nodded, earning a giggle.

“I appreciate your honesty~. Well, you appear to have traveled for quite some time. Would you like to stay?”

“...C...C-C-Ckhh..mm hm…” She nodded rapidly, almost feeling lightheaded, then finally, for the first time in ages, took her pack down from her back. 

And there, the dryad found her new home.

Her own subjects mingled well with Eytelia’s, taking to the soil with only a small amount of encouragement needed, and soon enough, the dryad had settled in her new home. Her stationary self was finally planted in a decent patch of rich soil, where water was plentiful and sunlight bright, even through the leaves of the greater trees above.

She had found a home there, among the land of the alraunes, where the sisters of Eytelia rested in the buds of their own flowers, forming a wide territory that no reckless fool could hope to invade.

...And yet, the dryad still held that fear. 

She knew it was foolish, ridiculous even, to allow anxieties to overwhelm her. She had seen the defensive measures of the alraune. In an instant, they could pull their roots from the earth, much like vines, and use them to rip apart an attacker, assuming any invader of their territory could even overcome the sheer seductive power of their scents. The first time she had seen Eytelia easily snap the neck of a leopard and rip its flesh apart with her teeth and roots, she knew the alraune could handle any simple threat with ease…

Yet...the dryad had held that same confidence in herself, back in her first grove. A confidence shaken and shattered by the mad determination of brutish monsters. And she had far more to lose now…

It was those feelings, that desire to protect, building and aching over the course of weeks, that drove the dryad to perform a simple ritual, and meet directly with the Blood God Marrow. She who was immense and mighty, utterly massive and clad in armor the color of rich crimson, crafted from the still screaming anguish of those who suffer the slaughter of war.

“How interesting,” the goddess intoned amid a blood red sea, standing tall and proud over the dryad, “I have never had one of your kind call upon me before, little one.”

“...O-Oh great, mighty Marrow, I beseech you,” she stated, hating how her voice wavered. She clenched her fists, looked up and glared straight into the eyes of the goddess. “I SEEK THE POWER TO PROTECT THOSE I LOVE! I ASK THAT YOU GRANT ME SUCH A GIFT, MIGHTY PROTECTOR!”

“Ah, determined. Interesting. But why come to me, little one? Power can be found elsewhere, and much more easily. My little sibling, Vitriol, caters more to your kind than I. Wouldn’t you prefer the mossy depths of her graceful despair than the bloody seas of my violence?”

“NOT AT ALL! I DON’T WANT DESPAIR! I WANT TO PROTECT MY HOME!”

“...I can hear you just fine, you don’t need to yell.” The goddess sighed. “There are other methods you can seek to protect your home-”

“I don’t care! You’ll do fine!”

“...Again, you realize you’re a plant, right? You won’t be able to use the kind of magic-”

“I’m sure I can! I’ll work it out! You said I was the first dryad who called on you, so you don’t know if I can use it or not! Even if it is a different color, blood still flows through my body! Is the bark on my body not my flesh?! It should still fall under your domain!”

“...Little one, that argument would work far better with Tisserand than with me...Though, that is an interesting point…” At that moment, the goddess smiled. “I suppose I could give you a chance...Rot did gain that little champion of her own a few years ago, so really, why not? Perhaps you could be interesting.”

The dryad bowed, keeping her expression serious. “My thanks to you!”

“Geh heh heh...It’s a little early for thanks, little one. Still, don’t worry. I’ll only call on you when needed.” And with her words, a huge fingertip pressed down on the back of the dryad’s head, and in an instant, she felt a rush, and the world came into a new clarity.

Blood stood out to her far more starkly from that point on; the constant pulse of living beasts nearly overwhelmed her at first, but she endured and adapted. The only downside to this new power being the odd connection she received with meatbags. 

Regardless of what she may had thought of them before, the constant new feeling of Blood in the world let her know about any meatbags that were nearby and what they were feeling. 

Which, of course, meant her hatred of them only grew as she continually felt their pulses constantly increasing once they placed their sights on the dryad and her new grove. And yet, her new power also made it quite easy to dispose of them. 

With her new power, she believed herself ready. So she remained ever vigilant, waiting for the monstrous forces that she knew would come. To protect her new grove, and the one she loved, she would not falter. 

And when the day arrived, she struck without hesitation. 

It was almost interesting. Her new powers told her nothing about the twisted creatures, and yet it did tell her that, whatever they may be, they held no blood within them. They were simply puppets following commands. And so, with a rallying cry for battle, she led the charge into the midst of them, her alraune allies ensuring her protection from behind as their vines tore them asunder and her bodies split them apart.

As she destroyed the creatures with ease, she could feel a grin etch itself across as the rush of victory pulsed through her body. 

Even if her only goal was to protect her groove, she would admit there was some pleasure to be had in decimating her enemies. It was almost saddening once their numbers were destroyed entirely. Though that may have just been because their stench was currently overpowering the lovely smell the alraune gave out. 

The stench faded quickly enough, and her allies fed with glee, gorging themselves on the ruined flesh. She was not especially fond of the taste, but they seemed to care little, so it was no matter. Of more importance was what the alraunes began to call her, once they saw her green flesh speckled with red.

It was one of Eytelia’s sisters, Perilla, who first called her by her name: Autumn, for her newly red leaves. An alteration that marked her as different from all other dryads. Some dryads, the cheerful girl explained, could be yellow, or orange, or even deep browns, but they were those who changed with the season. None were ever red, and certainly none were ever such a deep, bloody crimson.

Eytelia said it made her look lovely. Beautiful and unique.

So Autumn she became, and Autumn she was for all of time.

The years passed, past that point, and routines were established. She’d taken it upon herself to become the guardian of her grove, an eternal protector of Eytelia and all her family, in a unique place where plants of the western swamps and the eastern jungles intermingled and formed hybrids anew. 

Still, circumstances changed sooner than she liked, and it was with an immense fury that Autumn met the newest intruder into her home. A woman, dark-skinned, yellow-eyed, and mostly human, reeking of ambition and plague.

“Good morning,” the white-robed woman greeted, curtsying in the daylight with a smile. She stood just barely beyond the border of Autumn’s grove, before two trees set as an archway. It was for that reason alone that Autumn did not immediately leap to attack the woman who had decided to catch her attention with a snap like thunder. “My name is Claire Valondrac, duly appointed Countess of Blekhon County and a few other titles that don’t really matter. May I ask if this is the Crimson Grass Grove?”

“No.”

“...No I can’t ask, or-”

“It isn’t. Leave.”

Valondrac blinked, then stared at Autumn, who met her gaze with as much anger as she could convey. “...Alright, I think there was a misunderstanding here, because you’re clearly a red dryad and I’m fairly certain there are no other red dryads out in the jungles of Skiritaba. So...that should make this the right grove, shouldn’t it?”

“...” Autumn didn’t move her eyes from Valondrac. 

“...So, since you’re standing here, listening to me, I suppose it’s a decent enough time to move forward with my offer-”

“No.”

“-so, I’d like to ask if you or any others in your grove might be interested in joining up with my forces,” she continued, as though Autumn hadn’t spoken.

“No.”

“Are you sure? I am offering a number of benefits, such as guaranteed protected lands and access to plants and magic you can’t find out here.”

“My answer is no, festering meatsack! Now leave,” Autumn snarled in reply.

“One more question, then I will. Are you the champion of Marrow?”

The one question gave her pause and guaranteed her fate. “...I am.”

“Excellent! Then I’d like to challenge you to a duel.”

Autumn should have said no. She should have told the encroaching idiot to leave her land immediately or she would rip her apart in an instant. And yet… “Why?”

“Because I want to be Marrow’s champion too, and she said I could if I just so happened to beat you in a fight.” Valondrac smirked. “She also said that if I did beat you, you being her champion and all, you would join up with me as my newest vassal.” She held up a finger, cutting off Autumn’s irritated refusal. “But if you win, it would be the opposite. I would join up with you, in whatever capacity you might want me to serve you, and my own patron, Mother Rot, would give you a small bonus too. Maybe a certain title if you want? After all, I can’t very well call myself a conqueror if I’m conquered.”

“...”

“If it sweetens the pot a bit more, we could also add Drought’s support to the wager. She’s already expressed an interest in me, so…?”

“...Those terms are...acceptable.” Autumn held up her own hand. “For the wager. For the match itself…I want a physical contest. A match between the two of us. No tricks. No deceptions.”

“Aw, you don’t trust me?”

“No.”

“Ha. That is smart of you. So, what contest will it be? Fencing?”

Autumn glared at her.

“...You know, sword-fighting? A duel? I try to stab you, you try to stab me, so on?”

“Ah. Fine.” And so it was decided.

Both of them wielded wooden “rapiers”; long, narrow blades meant for stabbing, though Valondrac requested the tips be rounded to avoid deep injuries. Both of them fought–bereft of armor and robes, hiding no secrets and trusting in their own strength–under the eyes of the alraune, who cheered for Autumn and jeered the invader. And both of them were panting, soaked with sweat, and covered with cuts and bruises by the time Valondrac drove Autumn to her knees, the tip of her “blade” pointed straight against her throat.

“Good match. Welcome to the team.” And Valondrac’s smile was surprisingly kind as she helped Autumn back to her feet.

Autumn did not appreciate the gesture at the time. It confused her, it infuriated her, and she spat some quite unkind vitriol in her new lord’s direction. 

Yet Valondrac the meatsack merely laughed it off, and then began to chat with her on all manner of things. Autumn departed though, vanishing into her red leaves, then watched Valondrac as she walked among the alraune without fear, complimenting and praising them all, and while their new lord left in the afternoon–giving Autumn time to sulk with her Eytelia, who pet her hair and praised her efforts–she returned in the evening, with meats and alcohol and a cheerful grin on her face.

The party annoyed Autumn. At first. Then Eytelia called her over, smiling cheerfully in the conjured lights as her sisters laughed and cheered amongst each other. That was when she sat, and talked, and drank, and ate, all with Valondrac and her Eytelia.

She didn’t care for Claire. She wasn’t loyal. She hadn’t been inspired by her confidence or her unerring determination. 

She would be, eventually, but in that moment, eating and laughing with the second meatfolk who ever had the audacity to call her a friend, she only had the merest inkling that she could, one day, begin to like this very strange human. 

Or so she would say to any who asked.

-------------------------------------------------

So here’s something I’ve been thinking of doing for a while. My s/o and I have this story we’ve written together called The Demon Lord’s Lover (https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/20243/the-demon-lords-lover) and we decided to start posting some of the bonus chapters over here. Partially for advertisement, partially to share and entertain. Hope you liked reading, there’s going to be more coming.

[georgina-divergent-practice]

Divergent Practice

For the Divergent Practice module, I have begun to look into creating a mixed media artist’s book, working mainly with embroidery and fabric-based developments, incorporating both text and printing. I want to continue exploring confessional artwork, but on a scale that is more intimate and concealed in contrast with my Creative Enquiry developments. An artist’s book borrows elements of diary keeping, from the implementation of text, the process of working on the pages daily, and even appropriating the form of a traditional book. Working with sewing, a form of binding, allows the book to become deconstructed, what holds the book together becomes the contents of the book itself, exploring the relationship between the material surface and thread.

I plan for the work to be interactive for the viewer, displayed in a way that is accessible to flip through. The subversion of the traditional gallery experience of being unable to touch or manipulate the work gives the viewer a sense of involvement and control over how they would like to experience it. There is also a duality of lingering feelings of privacy invasion, yet the sharing of a diary-like object brings an emotional, intimate bond that contrasts with the nature of the viewer as a passive stranger.

[twilight-red-mage]

Attachment Style Test - Conrad Murgleys

2.8% Relaxed, 2.8% Avoidant

Relaxed-Avoidant (Dismissive): Individuals in this quadrant often take a dim view of others, preferring to keep their distance and guard against invasions of their autonomy and privacy. Relaxed-Avoidant personalities tend to have a strong belief that others are too different from them for truly intimate relations to be worthwhile. They may have a spouse and family, and even be solidly anchored in a stable network of friends and acquaintances, but at the end of the day, they tend to avoid entering into relations where emotional interdependence and intimacy are required. Unlike individuals who fall in the On Edge-Avoidant quadrant, Dismissive personalities tend to be quite content keeping their deepest feelings and views to themselves, and they often have a deeply-held belief that the opinions of others are mildly irrelevant or even second-rate. Consequently, many Dismissive types are often quite good at dissimulating, that is, appearing to share their innermost thoughts, while in reality, they are simply appeasing others without ever letting them come close.

         Independent and proud of it, these individuals can typically achieve remarkable feats of social manipulation and self-restraint, but on the downside, they may have trouble kicking bad habits (such as drinking or smoking) which they can enjoy in solitude and use to comfort themselves, independently of the company of others. They can frequently be unmotivated or lazy with regard to the duties that others expect of them, but on the other hand, they are often very original (since they are not hindered by concerns about having to conform to the expectations of the group). Finally, they also tend to be intelligent risk-takers, since they are at heart relaxed and cool under fire.

I disagree with this quite a bit. Conrad really cares about other people and wants to develop attachments, and it’s pretty obvious that he does if you read about him. He just doesn’t really know how to, and the possibilities of how it could all go wrong hold him back. But then, he’s really close to the absolute center of the scale, so... the result should probably be taken lightly anyway.

Take the test here!

Tagged by: @cahli-tia! Thank you very much!

Tagging: Anyone who hasn’t done this yet!!

[antialiasis]

The GDPR is really good you guys

I’m really excited about the GDPR.

Right now, I admit, it’s kind of making everything awkward and annoying. There are annoying consent popups on every website suddenly, annoying e-mails from everything we’ve ever signed up for about their updated privacy policy. Most users don’t really care, and don’t really want to read privacy policies, and just want to keep browsing the web and be left alone. Heck, that’s how I generally spend my browsing. But this is some great stuff, guys, really, and after this awkward adjustment period I think it’s going to do so much good.

The GDPR mandates that companies that collect any information about you must justify that collection on an actual reasonable basis and explain it transparently in their privacy policy (which must be written in plain language and not in obfuscated legalese). In other words, they can’t collect data about you just because. They’re allowed to collect stuff they need to provide their services, and they’re allowed to ask for your consent to collect any other data (such as data used for targeted advertising or the like). The GDPR actually explicitly defines consent here, and it does so in a way that’s so good and refreshing that reading about it for work made me want to dance in my seat. For example:

Consent has to be opt-in. You must explicitly choose to give consent, and have a clear, equally easy option to not give it (and also an equally easy option to withdraw it at any point in the future). “By continuing to use the site, you agree that blah blah blah” does not constitute legally valid consent. Neither does giving a handy yes button but requiring you to navigate labyrinths to say no. Neither does a pre-checked box in a form; the user has to explicitly check it for it to be valid. “If you do not consent to the use of cookies, disable cookies in your browser” is absolutely not allowed.

Consent must be informed and given on a granular and specific basis. They can’t have one checkbox to consent to both sending information about your browsing to advertisers for targeted ads and giving up your location to get relevant recommendations on the site itself; you must be able to say yes to the recommendations but no to the targeted advertising (or the other way around, or yes to both, or no to both). They’re also not allowed to then go on to send the location data you gave them to the advertisers, unless they stated this clearly where you consent to giving your location data - and they’re also not allowed to later decide they’re going to send the location data you gave to advertisers. Anything they send to advertisers, you must expressly and specifically consent to it being sent to advertisers; in general, they can only use your data for purposes that you expressly, specifically consented to.

Consent can’t be incentivized with arbitrary privileges. This is huge, guys. It’s not valid consent if they tell you you must consent to giving up extra data in order to browse their website, or use their services, or use parts of the services - not consenting to data collection can’t hurt the user’s experience in any way, except in ways where the extra information is necessary to provide that specific part of the service (for instance, if they ask to use your location data for location-based recommendations, obviously you’re not going to get location-based recommendations if you say no - but they’re not allowed to make other, unrelated parts of the service available only if you share your location).

(Yes, this does mean half of all the cookie consent popups out there right now are not actually remotely legally sufficient under the GDPR. I really hope it actually gets enforced strongly enough in practice to scare all these sites into actually complying.)

And a lot of marketing and advertising people are so mad about all this. What do you mean you have to make it equally easy to say yes and no to tracking for targeted advertising, and there can’t be any incentives for saying yes, and it can’t be bundled with anything else that the user might actively want - who’s going to want to go out of their way to say yes, they cry, unaware of the irony. Yes, I wonder! It’s almost as if “ads being more relevant to you” is not in fact a thing that improves people’s lives to the point of most people actually believing it’s worth having disconcerting amounts of information about their internet activities floating around a billion ad networks, and instead the only reason they’ve gotten away with this so far is that people either aren’t even aware of how this works, or it’s just not a pressing enough concern in their daily lives for them to sacrifice everything they might get out of the otherwise useful services that do this whether they like it or not, or go out of their way to navigate labyrinths just to opt out of it.

(Convenience is a hell of a drug. I’m willing to wager people are astronomically more likely to consent to something like this if you just make the no option a little bit more difficult - hell, I’ve already consented to a bunch of non-compliant cookie popups that I just can’t be bothered to figure out how to say no to - which is exactly why for consent to really count as a real expression by the user that they actually for real want this, it needs to be equally easy to say no.)

So, because online advertising has over the years become built around invasive tracking that nobody wants but few people actively care enough about to do something about it when they’re just trying to get stuff done, the GDPR has resulted in everyone awkwardly trying to get you to consent to being tracked by all their 400 ad networks. But surely, the end result here is going to be that ad networks are going to stop it with the invasive tracking. There’s now a great, very relevant niche in tracker-free ads - ads that you can just display without having to include a popup asking for consent to set a bunch of tracking cookies. Surely new ad networks will jump on this, and the old ad networks start offering tracker-free options. Websites, whose users are annoyed and disgruntled about all the annoying popups by now, switch over to offer a better user experience than the competition; nobody wants the tracker-filled ads and their consent popups anymore, so more ad networks make the switch. Eventually (hopefully, please), ad trackers go the way of popup ads and become a thing of the past, or at least a thing only seedy websites do, and we’re all better off, without our personal information and browsing histories being passed around between ad companies. There’ll still be ads, but they’ll have to be targeted based on things like, say, the actual page they’re being displayed on, instead of a creepy big data collection of your entire browsing history.

I think this is a pretty good example of where large-scale regulation is necessary to effect change. Free market enthusiasts love to act like what people do perfectly reflects their preferences, but in reality, the free market here has been strongly incentivized to make acting on one’s actual preferences difficult and annoying, and when that happens, people just have better things to do with their lives than boycott the services they need and look for alternatives. You could argue that if they don’t boycott, then clearly they don’t really care - but undeniably, if you get different results from the current system than you get when they have to give real, free consent, companies are clearly able to manipulate people away from expressing their true preferences, and are obviously incentivized to do so, and this is clearly bad for the actual people.

Meanwhile, if just one country like Iceland decided to enact a regulation about this - well, it’d be irrelevant. Nobody but the tiny, tiny percentage of Icelandic websites would actually comply. If we tried to do the GDPR’s thing of saying that if you serve Icelandic customers you’re bound by our law - then, well, companies are just going to block Iceland, not improve their privacy handling. Only something like the entire EU and EEA taking this up unilaterally had enough weight to start to spark some real change in a deeply toxic industry. I think that’s a really important thing and I hope we get more of these sorts of initiatives.

[daniloqp]

Biden has to play Hardball with internet platforms

Biden has to play Hardball with internet platforms

https://theministerofcapitalism.com/blog/biden-has-to-play-hardball-with-internet-platforms/

The federal government this week the campaign to reform Internet platforms increased dramatically. The surgeon general cited misinformation as a threat to public health. The White House press secretary asked Facebook to remove 12 accounts that may be responsible for up to 65 percent of Covid’s misinformation on the site. Referring to Facebook, President Joe Biden said, “They’re killing people,” only to step back a day later. He then appointed Jonathan Kanter, architect of the EU antitrust case against Google, to head the antitrust division of the Justice Department. The table can finally be set for the necessary reform.

Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and Twitter have become basic communication platforms of our society, but collectively they are undermining public health, democracy, privacy and competition, with disastrous consequences. Most Americans understand this, but they don’t want to bother losing what they like about Internet platforms. And they struggle to understand the scope of the problem. The platforms have successfully muddyed the waters, using their massive wealth to co-opt huge academic areas, think tanks and NGOs, as well as many politicians.

It’s easy to see why platforms struggle so hard to resist reform. Coveted misinformation, subversion of democracy, invasions of privacy, and anti-competitive behavior are not mistakes. They are examples of business models of Internet platforms that work exactly as they were designed. The problem is that platforms like Google and Facebook are too big to be safe.

At its current scale, with about twice as many active users as the people of China, platforms like Google and Facebook are a systemic threat analogous to climate change or the pandemic. Fixing them would be a challenge in the best of circumstances. But today, the courts are aiding economic power and Congress remains paralyzed, leaving the administration as our best hope. Forty years of deregulation and reduced funding have left our regulatory infrastructure with few tools and little muscle tone. Fortunately, the appointments of former FTC adviser Tim Wu to the National Economic Council, antitrust scholar Lina Khan as FTC president, FTC commissioner Rohit Chopra to head the Office of Protection of Consumer Finance; and Kanter are brilliant moves because these leaders understand the problems and will take advantage of the limited tools at their disposal. The benefit of getting this right will be huge.

The first challenge the president and his team face is to pose the problem correctly. The trend for policymakers so far has been to see the damage to Internet platforms not as systemic, but as a series of coincidental issues. With limited tools and time, the administration must look for high leverage opportunities.

Internet platforms are media companies that depend on consumer attention, but have huge advantages traditional media. They have unprecedented scale and influence. They are surveillance engines that collect data about users. They complement this by acquiring location data from mobile phones; health data of prescriptions, medical tests and applications; web browsing history and the like. With all of this, platforms create data voodoo dolls that allow them to make predictions of user behavior that can be sold to advertisers and manipulative recommendation engines. Platforms could use this power to make users happier, healthier or more successful, but instead use data to exploit each user’s emotional triggers as it is easier to do and generates more revenue and benefits.

The last five years have shown that Internet platforms cannot be persuaded to reform. They do not believe that they are responsible for the damage caused by their products. They believe that this damage is a reasonable cost of their success. That’s why Facebook did nothing significant after learning it had been used to interfere with Brexit and the 2016 presidential election. Why the company shrugged after the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya. in Myanmar and the live broadcast terrorist attack in Christchurch. Why he ignored warnings about the radicalization of users in QAnon and their use to organize and execute the insurrection. And why Mark Zuckerberg and his team make it clear that they are not responsible for spreading Covid’s misinformation. Since 2016, politicians, civil society groups, and activists like me have been trying to persuade Facebook to change its business practices for the public good and executives. we have chosen the company by country.

Source link

[avandelay20]

Great article, a bit wordy with diluted analogies; paraphrased below and abridged in some areas for brevity...

“

Surveillance capitalism stage one: companies stake a claim to people’s lives as free raw material for the extraction of behavioral data, which they then declare their private property.

Stage two: a sharp rise in epistemic inequality, defined as the difference between what I can know and what can be known about me. 

Stage three: (we are here) introduces epistemic chaos caused by the profit-driven algorithmic amplification, dissemination and microtargeting of corrupt information, much of it produced by coordinated schemes of disinformation. Its effects are felt in the real world, where they splinter shared reality, poison social discourse, paralyze democratic politics and sometimes instigate violence and death.

Stage four: epistemic dominance is institutionalized, overriding democratic governance with computational governance by private surveillance capital. 

Surveillance capitalism has no formal interest in facts. All data is welcomed as equivalent, though not all of it is equal. The Cyclops voraciously consumes everything and is indifferent to meaning, facts and truth.

In a leaked memo, a Facebook executive, Andrew Bosworth, describes this willful disregard for truth and meaning: “We connect people. That can be good if they make it positive. Maybe someone finds love. … That can be bad if they make it negative. … Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack. … The ugly truth is … anything that allows us to connect more people more often is *de facto* good.”

Content moderation is a last resort for Manipulation Platforms... data triage is undertaken either to minimize the risk of user withdrawal or to avoid political sanctions. 

Algorithms were responsible for the viral spread of divisive content that helped fuel the growth of extremist groups. 

Mr. Zuckerberg rejected internal proposals for operational changes that would reduce epistemic chaos. A political whitelist identified over 100,000 officials and candidates whose accounts were exempted from fact-checking, despite internal research showing that users tend to believe false information shared by politicians. In September 2019 the company said that political advertising would not be subject to fact-checking.

Facebook’s Reality Distortion Machine Killed 130k People in 2020

The Washington Post reported in late March 2020 that with nearly 50 percent of the content on Facebook’s news feed related to Covid-19, a very small number of “influential users” were driving the reading habits and feeds of a vast number of users. A study released in April 2020 by the Reuters Institute confirmed that high-level politicians, celebrities and other prominent public figures produced 20 percent of the misinformation, but attracted 69 percent of social media engagements.

A study released in May by Britain’s Institute for Strategic Dialogue identified a core group of 34 extremist right-wing websites disseminating Covid disinformation. From January to April of 2020, these websites garnered 80 million interactions, while posts linking to the W.H.O.’s website received 6.2 million interactions, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received 6.4 million.

An Avaaz study released in August exposed 82 websites spreading Covid misinformation reaching a peak of nearly half a billion Facebook views in April. Content from the 10 most popular websites drew about 300 million Facebook views, compared with 70 million for 10 leading health institutions. Facebook’s modest content moderation efforts were no match for its own machine systems engineered for epistemic chaos.

The analysis of the number of AVOIDABLE COVID DEATHS concluded that at least 130,000 deaths could have been avoided. Of the four key reasons cited: “misleading the public”...

In 1966, Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann wrote a short book of seminal importance, “The Social Construction of Reality.” Its central observation is that the

Everyday life we experience as reality is actively and perpetually constructed by us. 

This ongoing miracle of social order rests on “common sense knowledge,” which is “the knowledge we share with others in the normal self-evident routines of everyday life.”

“All societies are constructions in the face of chaos,” write Berger and Luckmann. Because norms are summaries of our common sense, norm violation is the essence of terrorism — terrifying because it repudiates the most taken-for-granted social certainties. “Norm violation creates an attentive audience beyond the target of terror,” write Alex P. Schmid and Albert J. Jongman in “Political Terrorism,” a widely cited text on the subject. Everyone experiences the shock, disorientation, and fear. The legitimacy and continuity of our institutions are essential because they buffer us from chaos by formalizing our common sense.

No society can police everything all the time, least of all a democratic society. A healthy society rests on a consensus about what is a deviation and what is normal. We venture out from the norm, but we know the difference between the outfield and home, the reality of everyday life. Without that, as we have now experienced, things fall apart. Democrats drinking blood? Sure, why not? Hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19? Right this way! Storm the Capitol and make Mr. Trump dictator? Yeah, we’ve got that!

Society renews itself as common sense evolves through trustworthy, transparent, and respectful institutions of social discourse. Instead we are saddled with the opposite, nearly 20 years into a world dominated by a political-economic institution that operates as a chaos machine for hire, in which norm violation is key to revenue.

The digital must live in democracy’s house, not as an arsonist but as a member of the family, subject to and thriving on its laws and values.

A democratic information civilization cannot progress without new charters of epistemic rights that protect citizens from the massive-scale invasion and theft compelled by surveillance economics.

Writing in 1967, Justice William Douglas argued that the authors of the Bill of Rights believed “the individual should have the freedom to select for himself the time and circumstances when he will share his secrets with others and decide the extent of that sharing.” That “freedom to select” is the elemental epistemic right to know ourselves, the cause from which all privacy flows.

FIRST: We need legal frameworks that interrupt and outlaw the massive-scale extraction of human experience. Laws that stop data collection would end surveillance capitalism’s illegitimate supply chains. The algorithms cannot exist without the trillion points of data fed to them each day.

SECOND: we need laws that tie data collection to fundamental rights and data use to public service, addressing the genuine needs of people and communities. Data is no longer the means of information warfare waged on the innocent.

THIRD: we need to disrupt the financial incentives that reward surveillance economics. Prohibiting commercial practices that exert demand for data collection in the first place. Markets that traded in human beings were outlawed, even when they supported whole economies.

We may have democracy, or we may have surveillance society, but we cannot have both. 

“

Facebook is a chaos machine. 

Facebook is not interested in anything but it’s own survival at any cost. 

Facebook is an unwitting terrorist organisation who’s algorithms and commercial imperatives disrupt societal norms and warp society’s shared understanding of reality thereby sowing chaos and terror into the minds of its captives. 

END. FACEBOOK. NOW.

[facts-before-ideology]

Some big internet companies, such as those that own and control social media sites like Facebook or search engines like Google, collect your personal data. 

This includes what you’ve searched online, when you looked at an ad or webpages and for how long, and who you know. 

Other companies purchase this information. They add to this information. The profile of you becomes more personal, more specific. They sort you into categories.

This can be anything from “sports lover” to to “prefers cats”, to “homosexual youth” to “female and disadvantaged” or “doesn’t speak English”.

We all have an online profile big companies have made of us. 

Our “profile” is sold to other companies, maybe advertisers or analytics companies. We have no control or protections over our online profiles being bought, at the moment. There are no online privacy laws.

Now let’s think about this along with Net Neutrality being overturned. 

Internet Service Providers now control what sites we visit. They can block us from visiting certain webpages. What does this do? It prevents us from contacting certain people, accessing specific information, and prevents us from seeking out resources. So maybe abortion is legal in your state but your ISP is against it. Sorry, you can no longer access the Planned Parenthood webpage. You cannot find their number, locate a clinic near you, or read about their services. 

They can also slow down your internet speeds without blocking the content you visit and charge you if you want to have access to certain content. 

Maybe you are desperate for medical care. To have that abortion. You need that information, so you fork over money to access Planned Parenthood’s Webpage. 

Isn’t this exploitation? 

Putting this Altogether:

Large corporations specializing in selling different things or providing certain services interact with each other. 

They buy and sell “profiles” of us,

There are no internet privacy laws. You have very little control over what information is collected of you online, who knows what about you, and preventing them from harvesting personal data. 

Large, powerful companies owned by predominantly white and male rich people (who may also be homophobic, sexist, or racist) know very personal things about you, like that you do not speak English, are female, are homosexual by invasive collecting your data and stalking you online. They know your biological characteristics, your health information, your location, who you know, and whatever conditions you live in. 

Large, powerful companies will control what information you have by controlling what websites you are able to access and what sort of advertising you are exposed to. They dominate what you know and therefore can from now on regulate what you and future generations perceive to be true or false.

On a broad and collective scale, the wealthy, white, male, and powerful can manipulate who we vote for, what we believe. They can willfully disrupt or prevent organizing between activists, solidarity between marginalized groups, and can change the language and erase the very frameworks we use to understand our oppression and separate ourselves from our oppressors. 

What does this mean for human rights and environmental justice? What does this mean for science and truth? 

 This is like Operation COINTELPRO meets Project MKULtra.