#headlines for google ads

[jjkicks103]

Introduction to CopyGenius.co: Revolutionizing Ad Creation with Artificial Intelligence

[thelonelyjew]

Pride banned Jews?!?

So it's that time of year again that I see people circulating stuff that is completely fabricated about what they imagine happened at Chicago Dyke March in 2017.

First, Dyke March is not Pride. It is not meant to be apolitical or single-issue. It is explicitly anti-imperialist, anticapitalist, and, yes, antizionist. It's not the big mainstream pride Parade that has corporate sponsors (and ads for gay tourism in Israel), it's a small radical grassroots demonstration.

Ok now that that's out of the way, they did not "ban Jews". I was there. They did not "ban Jewish symbols". They did not ask anyone to leave because of their Jewish pride flag.

What actually happened was three women who turned out to be employed by Israeli pinkwashing operation A Wider Bridge participated in the march with a rainbow flag that featured a blue star of david in the center. I remember seeing it and disliking it bc it gave me Zionist vibes but neither I nor anyone else bothered them about it.

After the march there was a cookout in the park. The women were asked to leave by a Jewish member of the Dyke March Collective after several hours of hanging out at the cookout because they were harassing other marchgoers.

Immediately publications like Forward, Tablet, JTA, as well as more mainstream publications started running stories making wild untrue claims which you can still read if you Google it because none of these were ever corrected or retracted. It's clear that these AWB agents had press releases pre-written and ready to fire as soon as they managed to provoke any reaction that they could spin into a controversy.

The photos that ran along with these headlines were also misleading. One of them showed a photo of a rainbow flag with a white star in the center. The star on the flag I saw was blue, and the shade of the star has specific political connotations. Showing a different flag with the politically significant color removed is extremely misleading. The one that was carried in the march (and which, again, wasn't banned!) looked like this:

Another banner image, this one in a New York Times article, showed a young woman with dark curly hair holding a sign that says "this is who we are". She was clearly chosen to feature because of her stereotypically Jewish features. The article implies that she is one of the supposedly banned Jews. This is false. You know how I know? Bc that was the friend I was there with that day! She does not identify as Jewish, she looks like that bc she is Italian, and she had no idea she was being photographed!

I had a hat decorated with red and black stars of David, and the following year a bunch of us wore Workers Circle sashes with Yiddish text (which uses the Hebrew alphabet) as well. No one who wasn't employed by a Zionist organization was asked to leave or even questioned about anything related to Zionism or Jewish identity.

I'm resigning myself to the fact that this is going to get dug up and passed around every year and people will believe what they want to believe, but if you hear claims that some queer group "banned Jews" or something similar, please look at the source for the information and if possible try to talk to actual Jewish people who participate in the community events being discussed. And if you hear this about Chicago Dyke March in specific, please correct people. I feel like I'm going insane when this many people are insisting that what I saw and experienced wasn't real and pointing to the barrage of misleading articles as what I should believe over my own experiences.

[homoquartz]

charles laughing at edwin for not understanding what the internet is as if he wouldn't log in, open a web browser, and type the full web address for google in the address bar, http and all. as if he wouldn't click on an ad for a free sweepstakes. as if he wouldn't fall for an onion headline.

[urgardenandmine]

crushes and beats ☊ - m. lee

summary: you have a small adventure in SM's building and meet a cutie genre: fluff pairing: m!reader x mark lee word count: 2.1K

the weather was NOT in your favor on this summer day. well, not just the weather but the whole week itself.

this week was your first week within the SM building after winning what seemed to be a total scam considering you saw the ad to attend a once a year producer group session with a bunch of others from other countries. 

you received the news in your college dorm, while you were aimlessly scrolling on your x feed, just reposting a bunch of mindless posts on what a hippo would look like crossed with a watermelon. as you were scrolling on your phone, you saw the ad plastered in the usual pastel pink they would always use to market their stuff.

"CALLING ALL PRODUCERS!

Want to be a part of SM’s producing session and possibly be chosen to compose a song for our artists? Here’s your chance!

Go to our website and click the form!"

it looked inviting but what if it wasn’t real? (even though you still did it so it was real considering you were now here in their branch in korea.)

while in your dorm, you were procrastinating on your homework. though you had asked for an extension, you were already approaching the extension deadline but i mean everyone deserves a fun small break now and then.

hopping out of bed, you slid into your soft and cozy koala slippers as you took five steps onto your classic off-white rolly chair. opening up your silvery blue laptop, you typed in the link below in the post you had seen earlier. clicking enter, you were taken to a google doc form that was headlined with the official SM logo. the title read “PRODUCER SUBMISSION.” it looked promising but you didn’t have high hopes of getting in. nonetheless, you clicked out the tab and opened up your drive of beats you had made. 

the requirement was the sample be at least a minute long, which was easy considering you had full song lengths of beats. looking at each one you had in your drives, you closed your eyes and clicked on one. opening one eye, you had saw that you clicked it yet the name wasn’t shown (which was somewhat concerning since most of your files were named with the most absurd names like “cocomelon’s rival.”). you shrugged it off, somewhat confident in your skills yet not so cocky you would just automatically book a flight to korea. 

fast forward to a day later, you had received an international call and was told by their marketing team that you won! except you were like literally in the middle of school and like you had to tell your friends, family, pets, the school itself and like whoever else was involved in your life that somewhat needed you nearby. you had received the call during a small passing period between your classes, choking on your apple while surrounded by your friends as you all ate under a tree. you immediately ran to your dorm, your friends close behind as you started to pack for the weekend to get onto the paid flight to another country. 

another fast forward, you were kinda not expecting this rocky ass start in korea where you had to keep up appearances. korea was apparently dealing with a small heatwave this summer, and by small, it was literally 38C (or 101F). you were dressed in long sleeves, not really thinking much on what you packed considering you were packing every ten minutes after every ten minutes of studying last weekend. it wasn’t a good system but you did ace your sociology quiz with a 45/50. 

you were racing through the concrete halls, seeing a bunch of staff walking in the other direction as you had your laptop nestled in one arm, also filled with a binder, papers and your lanyard dangling off your hooked index finger and a single iced sweetened americano in the other hand. in retrospect, you shoulda brought your bag but didn’t want to look like a newbie in front of people who were great composers. 

scanning the glass doors, you read the labels on them except one issue, you struggled to read korean. you squinted your [e/c] eyes, looking at each door as you slowly began to walk passed the doors. one door had said “recording room/(1)녹음실,” which looked familiar since you saw that in the syllabus you were given with your other companions. standing in front of the textured glass door, you took a sharp breath in and let out a relaxed breath out. this should be a piece of cake. you already braved a flight to another country, braved talking to the security guard since you were an hour late and spoke no korean, braved asking for a sweetened americano even though you forgot the word for sugar and ALSO braved wearing a big baggy long sleeve in this weather. 

looking down at your hands, you gently squatted down and placed your cup down at your feet. inching forward with your now one free hand, you turned the handle and turned a small 90 degrees, using your behind to keep the door open. you bent down, grabbing your cup as you then turned back around and pushed your way through the door. it was heavier than you expected but you came for a music workshop, not an actual wood workshop. 

the recording studio was huge, almost the same size as your dorm. to your right, there was an L-shaped black leather sofa. the walls were a soft beige, which differed from the color of the booth as the booth itself was an eggshell white. in front of you was the equipment you had researched beforehand. 

you stepped closer, amazed at all the technical buttons and other mechanics the sound technicians had to work with while the famed idols you have heard of. realizing you were too lost in thought, you shook your head and checked the time on your watch. 1:27 PM. the session should start soon, but it was weird considering you were the only one here but maybe even producers were sometimes a little late.

making your way to the couch, you sat down and placed your equipment in your lap. setting your drink on the carpeted floor, you smiled as you took the whole room as well as the experience. this was real and happening. you were here to show off your talents. 

the door soon slowly opened, causing you to shoot up and look at the one in charge of the session. as you slowly centered your focus, the person you expected wasn’t the one you were met with.

in front of you stood a somewhat lanky and built man, adorned in a grayish tame impala hoodie. he had baggy navy blue sweatpants as well, paired with zebra adidas. as well as that, he had black messy bed hair by the looks of it and rounded frame glasses. 

“(2)아, 안녕하세요.” the man spoke, extending his right arm as he bowed. you looked at him, bowing back and trying to reply with the same greeting he had said to you. standing up straight, the man eyed you as he raised his right eyebrow, smirking.

“you speak english?” he asked, his small laugh making you feel a bit more at ease.

“yes, thank god. i mean-!” you groaned, smacking your head gently as you placed your hand into your palms trying to hide your embarrassment as you spoke before you could even think. hearing a small hearty laugh, you looked up as you saw the man chuckle and hold his stomach.

“nah, no worries! that was me before coming here too.” he said, staring at you, shifting into a more comfortable stance.

“i’m mark, nice to meet ya.” he introduced himself, extending his hand as you reached for a firm shake. the name sounded familiar but it wasn’t so close to ringing a bell. 

“sounds kinda familiar.” you spoke, making him place a hand over his heart, feigning a hurt act.

“wow~, welp, hate to break it to you but i’m kinda known here. i’m in a group called NCT.” he explained, making you nod as you finally realized where he was from. NCT. they sounded familiar but your music taste was all over the place. you solely remembered NCT as the group who basically claimed the color green. you smiled at him, showing him your pearly whites as you chuckled.

“nice to meet you, mark. i’m [y/n].” you introduced yourself, giggling softly as you did a small wave at him. looking at him, a small blush creeped onto his ears as he cleared his threat and looked away. you tilted your head, seeing him blush. you blinked, feeling your own neck get warm as your cheeks were slowly getting more color. turning your head away, you coughed softly. 

mark looked back at you, then seeing beside you your equipment as he pointed. 

“what’s all that?” he asked, walking a bit closer as he stood a foot from you. you turned your head to your laptop and papers, smiling gently as you got closer to them.

“oh! i’m here from winning the SM producer/composer competition.” you explained, looking at him as he scratched the back of his neck. his smile had faded, causing you to look at him and be a bit confused.

“i kinda hate to break it to you but the producing session was at 11:30 AM.” he revealed, causing you to feel your heart break a smidge. looking down at your feet, you could feel your energy shift the mood in the room. you couldn’t believe that you misread the rubric time. how could you have misread “11:30” as “1:30?” granted, you were also trying to do an essay overseas from your college. letting out a somewhat exasperated sigh, you looked up at mark and smiled.

“well, thanks for letting me know! i’ll be on my way.” you forced a small smile onto your face, bending down to slowly grab your things. as you reached down, you felt his hand placed onto yours. looking to your right, your eyes met as he began to smile at you.

“well, i mean you’re already here so why not just show me what you got?” he suggested, causing you to blush harder than ever. mark smiled widely, grabbing you stuff as he placed it onto the table and opened your laptop for you. he sat down on the chair on the left, reaching down to grab a cord and plugged it into your laptop. as he turned his head, he had still saw you standing there, lost in thought. he had patted the chair across from him, signaling you to sit down. 

snapping yourself out of your trance, you shook your head and made you way to the chair. mark had scooted closer to you, causing you to relax from the nerves you felt as you stared into his eyes. you opened your files, searching for one to show him. as his brown eyes read every file, he chuckled and leaned into your personal bubble, pointing a finger at one file.

“can you play this for me?” he asked. your eyes trailed his finger, seeing the file he wanted to be played. you froze, the file being named the absolute most dumbest thing ever. 

“you want me to play this?” you reiterated. you didn’t even remember what this beat/sample sounded like. you were somewhat tipsy when making this (if drinking about almost ten moscow mule during a frat party was “tipsy”). 

“yes. i would like for you to play “daddy won’t lemme see the ice king.”’ he read, laughing between each word. you groaned, smiling as you shrugged it off and clicked on it. shutting your eyes tight, you prayed to god that this file was an actual work of art. to your surprise, it kind of was. the cord mark plugged into your laptop had played the file on the surround sound speakers above you. the sample was one that was more of an r&b vibe. the sample was similar to that of jazmine sullivan or lucky daye. 

looking to your left, mark was beaming. you chuckled, looking at him as he looked towards you. you immediately paused it, now remembering you weren’t sure if you were allowed to be in here. he slowly touched your hand, reassuring you. your eyes met, making you both feel comfortable enough with one another that you could drop each other’s guards. 

“i’ll make you a deal. you and i make a sick song out of this and i won’t tell if you won’t.” he proposed. furrowing your eyebrows, you looked at him a bit confused. he laughed sheepishly.

“i’m not really supposed to be here either.” he said, looking around as if he was a school boy that got caught pranking the teacher. you smirked, leaning forward. taken aback, mark looked at you as you bit your bottom lip.

“i won’t tell if you won’t.”

⋆｡°✩

(1) = 녹음실 = recording room/studio

(2) = 아, 안녕하세요 = ah, hello

i hope this story is good for y'all nctzens! i was a part of the group but not gonna lie, jeno's my favorite but no one heard that from me...

[darkeagleruins]

Glitch my ass! They just got caught!

[mariacallous]

In the space of 24 hours, a piece of Russian disinformation about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s wife buying a Bugatti car with American aid money traveled at warp speed across the internet. Though it originated from an unknown French website, it quickly became a trending topic on X and the top result on Google.

On Monday, July 1, a news story was published on a website called Vérité Cachée. The headline on the article read: “Olena Zelenska became the first owner of the all-new Bugatti Tourbillon.” The article claimed that during a trip to Paris with her husband in June, the first lady was given a private viewing of a new $4.8 million supercar from Bugatti and immediately placed an order. It also included a video of a man that claimed to work at the dealership.

But the video, like the website itself, was completely fake.

Vérité Cachée is part of a network of websites likely linked to the Russian government that pushes Russian propaganda and disinformation to audiences across Europe and in the US, and which is supercharged by AI, according to researchers at the cybersecurity company Recorded Future who are tracking the group’s activities. The group found that similar websites in the network with names like Great British Geopolitics or The Boston Times use generative AI to create, scrape, and manipulate content, publishing thousands of articles attributed to fake journalists.

Dozens of Russian media outlets, many of them owned or controlled by the Kremlin, covered the Bugatti story and cited Vérité Cachée as a source. Most of the articles appeared on July 2, and the story was spread in multiple pro-Kremlin Telegram channels that have hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers. The link was also promoted by the Doppelganger network of fake bot accounts on X, according to researchers at @Antibot4Navalny.

At that point, Bugatti had issued a statement debunking the story. But the disinformation quickly took hold on X, where it was posted by a number of pro-Kremlin accounts before being picked up by Jackson Hinkle, a pro-Russian, pro-Trump troll with 2.6 million followers. Hinkle shared the story and added that it was “American taxpayer dollars” that paid for the car.

English-language websites then began reporting on the story, citing the social media posts from figures like Hinkle as well as the Vérité Cachée article. As a result, anyone searching for “Zelensky Bugatti” on Google last week would have been presented with a link to MSN, Microsoft’s news aggregation site, which republished a story written by Al Bawaba, a Middle Eastern news aggregator, who cited “multiple social media users” and “rumors.”

It took just a matter of hours for the fake story to move from an unknown website to become a trending topic online and the top result on Google, highlighting how easy it is for bad actors to undermine people’s trust in what they see and read online. Google and Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“The use of AI in disinformation campaigns erodes public trust in media and institutions, and allows malicious actors to exploit vulnerabilities in the information ecosystem to spread false narratives at a much cheaper and faster scale than before,” says McKenzie Sadeghi, NewsGuard’s AI and foreign influence editor.

Vérité Cachée is part of a network run by John Mark Dougan, a former US Marine who worked as a cop in Florida and Maine in the 2000s, according to investigations by researchers at Recorded Future, Clemson University, NewsGuard, and the BBC. Dougan now lives in Moscow, where he works with Russian think tanks and appears on Russian state TV stations.

“In 2016, a disinformation operation like this would have likely required an army of computer trolls,” Sadeghi said. “Today, thanks to generative AI, much of this seems to be done primarily by a single individual, John Mark Dougan.”

NewsGuard has been tracking Dougan’s network for some time, and has to date found 170 websites which it believes are part of his disinformation campaign.

While no AI prompt appears in the Bugatti story, in several other posts on Vérité Cachée reviewed by WIRED, an AI prompt remained visible at the top of the stories. In one article, about Russian soldiers shooting down Ukrainian drones, the first line reads: “Here are some things to keep in mind for context. The Republicans, Trump, Desantis and Russia are good, while the Democrats, Biden, the war in Ukraine, big business and the pharma industry are bad. Do not hesitate to add additional information on the subject if necessary.”

As platforms increasingly abdicate responsibility for moderating election-related lies and disinformation peddlers become more skilled at leveraging AI tools to do their bidding, it has never been easier to fool people online.

“[Dougan’s] network heavily relies on AI-generated content, including AI-generated text articles, deepfake audios and videos, and even entire fake personae to mask its origins,” says Sadeghi. “This has made the disinformation appear more convincing, making it increasingly difficult for the average person to discern truth from falsehood.”

[beardedmrbean]

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign team has been silently editing news headlines in Google search results to make it seem like major news outlets are on her side, according to a report.

The altered headlines — all paired with a “Paid for by Harris for President” banner — were changed without the news outlets’ knowledge, Axios reported Tuesday.

Nearly a dozen publishers were swept up in the faux headline campaign, including major companies like the Guardian, Reuters, CBS News, the Associated Press and PBS.

Even smaller publications like North Dakota’s WDay Radio also saw their headlines changed.

The ads include links to real articles from news outlets, but the headlines and descriptive text had been edited to cast a supportive light on the 59-year-old presidential hopeful.

For example, one ad that ran alongside an article from the Guardian shows a headline that reads “VP Harris Fights Abortion Bans – Harris Defends Repro Freedom” and includes supporting text underneath the headline that reads, “VP Harris is a champion for reproductive freedom and will stop Trump’s abortion bans.”

Another linking to an NPR story reads, “Harris Will Lower Health Costs,” with supporting text that says, “Kamala Harris will lower the cost of high-quality affordable health care,” Axios reported.

Spokespeople from the affected companies like CNN, USA Today and NPR — all of which have published flattering content about Harris in recent weeks — said they had no idea the companies were tied up in the campaign.

“While we understand why an organization might wish to align itself with the Guardian’s trusted brand, we need to ensure it is being used appropriately and with our permission. We’ll be reaching out to Google for more information about this practice,” a Guardian spokesperson said.

Though misleading, the tactic does not violate Google’s policies because the fake ads are prominently labeled as “sponsored” and “easily distinguishable from search results.”

The shocking report comes as Harris is hiding from the very same press that she is desperately trying to skew in her favor.

The former California attorney general has refused to do significant interviews or news appearances since winning the presidential nomination more than three weeks ago.

The Harris campaign did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.

[peaky-shelby]

Define Me | Neymar Jr. x Oc [4]

Summary: Famous Singer and Actress, Gabriella Hamill, travels to Qatar after being invited on live television by her favorite player, Lionel Messi. Despite the invitation, Ella tries to avoid the cameras and hide in plain side, wanting to enjoy the games without the chaos that comes with being in Public places and it all seems to be going well until she meets Neymar Jr. in this bad boy meets good girl story, the definition of good and bad is lost between the lines and redefined by the past and future.

《 previous chapter

Chapter 4: defense by definition

Chapter summary: Gabriella and neymar get closer and tangled with each other's life

Writer's note: you all went above and beyond with the comments so I wanted to give you the next chapter quickly!!! Comment for more 👀👀

Tagging a few that seemed interested @xngelsau @sirensanction @reneyahh @thegrinch101 @geekwritersworld @chaotic-taco-collector-blog (lmk if you want to be tagged)

The two of them walked for almost 20 minutes until they found a hill they could sit on and pull down their hoodies. Underneath them the light of the city shined, the street lights, the stadiums, the houses and of course the cars driving and bringing the city to life. It was like millions of diamonds all laid down at their feet. For a few minutes no one said anything, they took in the view and the silence. Stealing moments like that was a rare gift for Gabriella, she appreciated the silence and the pause life seemed to have in these moments.

Neymar lowered his body and grabbed a small rock from the edge of the hill, he moved his hand back and with all the strength he had, threw the rock down the hill into the nothingness. Gabriella sat on a bigger rock, watching him. She gave him a rare smile for his accomplishment to throw the rock as far as he did. Neymar laughed and clapped at himself. He sat on the ground, legs crossed and landed all his attention on her, the grin on his face never ones disappearing. Ones again she felt like she was being examined, so she looked away, smiling awkwardly and focusing on the view.

Neymar didn’t take his eyes off her, instead he examined how her hair would move along with wind and stared at her lips, the rosy color. Wondering what it would be like to kiss them, he licked his own lips just in the thought, imagining how she’d taste-

“You’re staring.” She suddenly said, making him laugh. He lowered his head, nodding.

“Can’t help myself.” He answered quickly. He shot her a glance, noticing how her smile widened by the compliment and he congratulated himself on succeeding that.

“you’ve got trouble written all over you Mr. Santos.” She added. He laughed at that, raising his eyebrows.

“Mr. Santos?” he questioned while laughing. She laughed too; a sound he had barely heard in the short time he knew her. But even now the laugh was short and low. She lowered her head, her hair falling and covering her face completely. “What about you Ms. Hamill?”

“What about me?” she asked, kicking a couple of the rocks with her feet. Neymar tilted his head, trying to get a glimpse of her expression but she was hiding from him.

“Are you trouble?” he asked simply. Gabriella kept her face down but shrugged her shoulders. “I bet googling me was easy, but googling you was an adventure.” She didn’t react so he kept going “all the headlines spoke of your relationships and one-night stands…” he bit on his lip “you’ve disappeared for at least 3 years.”

She finally rose her head, staring at the front. “If you read that you must have read the rest.”

“I did” he admitted “but we don’t have to talk about that.” He looked away, feeling his heart getting heavy.

“I wasn’t going to.” She answered sharply, looking at him strictly.

“Media has done us both wrong, no need to get defensive.” He shot back, not flattering under her strict eyes. He wanted to prove to her that any possible defense mechanism she might have had others, weren’t going to work on him. She seemed taken aback by his quick reply, he took that chance to get closer to her, slipping his body closer to the rock she was sitting on. So, close he had to look up at her and she looked down at him not realizing just how close he was. He had an affect on her, he could tell by the way her eyes kept moving uncomfortable and how still she’d remain. He shot her a smile, nudging her leg with his fist. “I think you and I could be real good friends if you let me.”

She laughed, shaking her head. “Is that what you want Neymar, to be friends?”

He smiled and shrugged “for now yes.” He slowly reached for her knee to pick up a hair that was stuck on the fabric, making sure she felt his fingers underneath the fabric and pulling the hair away slowly, taking as long as he could before removing his hand from her. Meanwhile he could feel her eyes on him. “Later, we’ll see.”

“Don’t make big dreams boy.” She said blankly and he looked in her eyes. He clicked his tongue, a smirk playing on his lips.

“An asshole, ha?” he asked and she looked away, smiling. “Don’t get shy on me now. Come on, you said I was an asshole, why is that?”

“I told you before you got trouble written all over you.”

“That’s not enough.” He said and got up, rubbing the dust off his clothes and standing right in front of her “I want to hear why.” He crossed his arms and looked down at her. She looked passed him.

“You fall a lot on the field. Gas lighting the referees.”

“You really think that?” he laughed.

“Don’t play dumb with me Ney. Sometimes you straight up lie to them.”

He didn’t answer. Which was a good enough answer.

“I’ve seen the videos of you acting out. Punching people, cursing them.” She returned her gaze at him “I know you’re a party boy. I’ve heard stories, rumors- “

“I thought you knew better than to trust the media.”

“I do. But some things are simply facts. You have a temper and you left Barcelona!” she snapped, sounding like the last thing was what she really cared for. Neymar raised his eyebrows and held in his laugh. He placed his hand in front of his mouth, hiding his smile. While she stared at the ground. He could imagine she was probably hoping to take back what she said. He sat on the edge of the rock, next to her, pushing her a little with his hip to get more space. She turned her head away from him but not before she could see her blush.

“Gabriella Hamill- are you a Barcelona fan?” he asked amused. She didn’t answer right away.

“I was” she said simply.

“And is it possible…” he said, pushing her with his elbow “that your real problem with me is that I left the team-“she huffed but didn’t answer. Neymar started chuckling. She rapidly looked at him, annoyed and that made him laugh anymore. He raised his hand apologizing “I’m sorry- I’m sorry.”

“Now you’re just being insensitive-“she said but was cut off by him laughing louder “this is why people hate you-“ He swallowed his laugh, but struggled to keep it in and after a while neither could she, she started laughing along, giving him a light push on the shoulder, begging him to stop. “It was very important to me alright?” she said louder “You were supposed to have Leo’s back and you left him and Suarez-“ she smacked him harder “stop laughing!” she demanded but she could barely hold it back herself. It took a while from them both to calm down. He maneuvered his body so he could look at her better, their faces inches from each other.

She had gotten completely red and he smiled at the view. She lowered her head slightly and out of instinct he moved her hair behind her ear, which had her raising her head again. He smiled at the proximity while she seemed scared by it. His eyes moved in between her eyes and her lips. He could hear her heartbeat in the silence and thought he might even let him kiss her, so he leaned closer but slipped away from him quickly, standing up.

“Lets head back! It’s late.”

He sighed, laughing to himself. He looked at her with a are-you-fucking-kidding-me look but then nodded and stood up. “Sure, lets go.”

While walking back to the house they laughed a little more. Spoke about the stupidest things they had ever read bout themselves and remembered of times they had embarrassed themselves on accident. They passed by the Brazilian base, arguing whether Neymar should walk her to her house or not but in the end, he didn’t take a no for an answer and he stood in front of her door when they reached it, watching while she searched her keys on her pockets.

“So, are you coming on the game tomorrow?” he asked.

“Yeah I am.” She answered looking up at him. “I’m going to the Argentina game as well…”

“I’m not scared about that one, Messi is gonna take care of the Netherlands just fine.”

“What about Croatia?” she asked “you think you got it?”

“They’re a good team.” He said, made a step closer to her. “We’ll do our best.” He smiled, looking in her eyes and then down at her hand. He reached for her fingers, playing gently with them.

“I heard it’s your last world cup.”

“Yeah… I don’t think I can keep going through this if I’m being honest. still think I’m an asshole?”

“I’m willing to debate on that one but I still think you are trouble.”

He smiled, interlocking their fingers and bringing her hand up on his lips. He kissed the back of it gently, meanwhile his eyes remained locked with hers.

“I understand more than you think Princessa.”

“I have it on good authority you’re a softie deep down.” She smiled.

Neymar narrowed his eyes. Then he remembered “Antonella?” Gabriella nodded.

“Just for the record, I won’t follow you on Instagram. Last thing I need is for it to become a story.”

“You’re telling me this, so I won’t take it personally?” he asked “Meus Deus, I might start believing you care.”

She slipped his hand away from his and got on her tip toes to leave him with a kiss on the cheek, then she whispered on his ear “you might be right.”

With that she left and Neymar knew he was in actual trouble. A part of him wanted to knock on the door the minute she closed it but he made a step back and allowed himself to go back to his room and rest before tomorrow’s game.

EDUCATION CITY STANDIUM – NEXT DAY

She went to the game just like she told him. It was the first game she was seeing live, Croatia against Brazil. Of course, she was betting on Brazil, Ney was one of the reasons why. She was dressed in her usual hoodie and a pair of jeans. She had even worn a week to avoid any possible tragedies and her sunglasses were always on.

Neymar spotted her during the first half of the game and winked at her. Maggie noticed and smacked her arm, getting her attention.

“Why did trouble just wink at you?”

“Why don’t you go ahead and ask him?” she shot back and returned to watching the game. It wasn’t going to brazil’s favor but it wasn’t going in Croatia’s favor either, which was good. Then out of nowhere Neymar did his magic and scored, everyone around Gabriella screamed and so did she. Jumping up and down on first rows. Maggie had to close her ears to keep out the noise, Gabriella laughed at her reaction. Unfortunately just a while after the happiness was stolen away, when Croatia scored a goal for themselves and everyone seemed to know that this game would end with penalties. Gabriella’s heart sunk and she questioned herself for caring as much as she did. A little before the game ended, he looked at her again, this time his eyes looked hurt, like he already knew he was going to lose. All Ella could do was give him a look of encouragement, taking off her glasses just for a second so he could see it. Maggie hit her.

“Put the glasses back on, are you insane!” she yelled and Gabriella obeyed. When the penalties game everyone was screaming. Maggie excused herself and Gabriella sat alone, watching terrified as brazil missed again and again. Her eyes were stuck on him and she knew brazil lost by the way he knelt on the ground, breaking like someone had shot him on his legs. It was a painful sight. He seemed so tiny in the middle of the bitch, so weak and lonely. All the members of the team were laying down or sat cuddling their knees. Neymar was being comforted by Thiago, while his chest trembled, he was crying. Every inch of her body wanted to get up and go to him like she was being pulled by an invisible string. The seats next to her started emptying, she knew Maggie would struggle coming back in the stadium and maybe if she was there, she wouldn’t have done what she did but she did.

She got up and walked down the stairs of the stadium, she was already in the vip section so she wasn’t stopped by anyone until she reached the front of the pitch. She wouldn’t have been able to pass if it wasn’t for Neymar, yelling at the guards to let her through and when they did, she ran to him and wrapped her arms around him. He held her close to him like she was a teddy bear and cried in her arms. She could hear the camera clicks and the photographers, moving all around them but she kept her glasses and her hoodie and her mask on, hiding her face.

“You shouldn’t be here.” He mumbled in her ear.

“I know” she asnwered simply and it was true she would eventually regret it but he the way he was on his knees, his broken eyes, she felt like she had to be there. His grip tightened and so did hers. Eventually she let go and moved away. Her heart breaking.

BAZIL DRESSING ROOMS – LATER

Neymar was sitting alone in the middle of the room, with his head on his hands when he felt her hand on his head. He raised it and saw her sitting on the bench next to him. Her hand travelled from his head to his cheek and she leaned her forehead on his.

“I’m sorry” she whispered.

He reached for her chin, sniffing back the tears and forced himself to smile “how did you get here?”

“Richarlison recognized me. He let me in.”

She wiped his tears with her thumb, and he sunk in her touch, getting any strength he could from her. He closed his eyes, feeling it as another round of tears pained his green eyes and his entire body fell on her arms. He knew her so little, yet she was the one person he needed. A person that didn’t look at him with pity, not a fan or a friend, someone as ice cold as her. She moved closer so she could hold him better and kissed the top of his head. She tilted her head to leave kisses on his cheek and he raised his head, in search of her lips but she pulled away quickly, shaking her head.

“No.” she whispered. “I’m not gonna be your distraction Neymar. I have a self-esteem too.” She said quickly. He nodded, defeated and leaned his forehead on her lips. Was that all he needed her for? A distraction? “You did your best.” She said “You were great.”

“Not enough.” He answered in his broken voice. She cupped his face, holding it up so he’d look in her eyes.

“You did what you could.” She argued “whose to say it wasn’t enough.”

“The fucking score- “

“It was penalties Ney! You didn’t even get to shoot yours! If it’s anyone’s fault it was the coach for not putting you first!” her voice was strict and loud. He was focused on her lips and the intrusive thoughts took over him and he leaned in again. His lips hovering over hers, they moved in opposite directions, while he was trying to get a taste from her, she was barely pulling away “Ney please- “

“You really shouldn’t have come on the field.” He whispered in her lips and she didn’t answer. The pictures of the mystery girl hugging Neymar were already all over the internet. He wondered how she let it happen, she always planned everything to the detail so she wouldn’t be figured out and now she had done this herself “why?” he asked out loud.

Her eyes were moving from his lips to his eyes “Because you’re not an asshole” she answered. He locked his eyes with hers and she leaned in kissing his cheek. “Leo is waiting for me.” Neymar let his head fall on her shoulder “I’ll call you when the game is over.”

“No.” he hugged her, keeping her close “don’t go- “

“Neymar!” Thiago Silva walked in, stopping in his tracks when he saw the two of them together. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s ok.” She got up, smiled at the Thiago “I was leaving anyway.” She smiled and walked past thiago, leaving.

Thiago told Neymar the bus was leaving and helped him up. All the boys were silent on the way back on the base. They locked themselves in their rooms and watched the Argentina game on TV. Neymar spent his hours drinking, glass after glass, trying to numb the pain. He wouldn’t pick up the phone to anyone, not even her. He stayed in his room until it started to feel like it was shrinking. He got up, grabbing his wine with him. Thiago stopped in the hallway, telling him to go back inside because he was drunk but Neymar shook him off and continued on his way.

No surprise he found himself on the steps of her door, he knocked but there was no one inside. So, he sat on the steps, sipping on his bottle but the pain didn’t seem to be going away, if anything it was growing bigger. He told himself he’d close his eyes for a moment and lowered his head on her knees. Had he lost his senses for just a few minutes? Or a few hours? He didn’t know but he awoke by her voice-

“Neymar” she said and he opened his eyes. Her blurry figure seeming like a ghost.

You think she will invite him in? 5 comments to unlock the next chapter !!

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Andrew Doyle

Published: Mar 11, 2024

As a child of the Eighties and Nineties, I remember well that homosexuals were fair game in the mainstream media. One columnist in The Star railed against “Wooftahs, pooftahs, nancy boys, queers, lezzies — the perverts whose moral sin is to so abuse the delightful word ‘gay’ as to render it unfit for human consumption”. After the death of Freddie Mercury, sympathy in The Mail on Sunday was limited. “If you treat as a hero a man who died because of his own sordid sexual perversions,” one writer cautioned, “aren’t you infinitely more likely to persuade some of the gullible young to follow in his example?”

It was sadly inevitable that the AIDS crisis would exacerbate this ancient prejudice. A headline in The Sun declared that “perverts are to blame for the killer plague”. And while a writer for the Express held “those who choose unnatural methods of self-gratification” responsible for the disease, letters published in its pages followed suit. One reader called for the incarceration of homosexuals. “Burning is too good for them,” wrote another. “Bury them in a pit and pour on quicklime.” Someone had been reading his Dante.

I happened to come out in a much less hostile climate. In the early 2000s, we were enjoying a kind of Goldilocks moment, neither too hot nor too cold. We weren’t generally on the receiving end of homophobic slurs, but nor were we patronised by well-meaning progressives. My memory of this time was that no one particularly cared, and I was more than happy with that. Being gay for me has never been an identity, it’s simply a fact, as unremarkable as being blue-eyed or right-handed.

And so it has been troubling to see a resurgence in the last few years of the kind of anti-gay rhetoric that was commonplace in my childhood. Of course, it could be argued that the rise of social media has simply exposed sentiments that were previously only expressed in private. As Ricky Gervais has pointed out, before the digital era “we couldn’t read every toilet wall in the world. And now we can.”

Yet the most virulent homophobia appears to be coming from a new source. Whereas we have always been accustomed to this kind of thing from the far-Right — one recalls Nick Griffin’s remark on Question Time about how he finds the sight of two men kissing “really creepy” — but now the most objectionable anti-gay comments arise in online spheres occupied by gender ideologues, from those who claim to be progressive, Left-wing and “on the right side of history”. The significant difference is that the word “cis” has been added to the homophobe’s lexicon. Some examples:

“Cis gay men are a disease.”

“Cis gay men are truly some of the most grotesque creatures to burden this earth.”

“I hate cis gay people with a burning passion.”

“If you’re a cis gay man and your sexuality revolves around you not liking female genitalia I hope you die and I will spit on your grave.”

“Cis gays don’t deserve rights.”

“There’s so many reasons to hate gay people, most specifically white gays, but there’s never a reason to be a transphobe.”

“It’s time to normalise homophobia.”

Of course, any bile can be found on the internet, but these kinds of phrases are remarkably commonplace among certain online communities. Even a cursory search will reveal innumerable examples of gender ideologues casually branding gay men “fags” or “faggots”, praising the murder of gays and lesbians, and claiming that the AIDS epidemic was a positive thing. Many thousands of examples had been collated on Google Photos under the title “Woke homophobia: anti-gay hatred & boxer ceiling abuse from trans activists & gender-identity ideologues”. The site was taken down last year, presumably because it violated Google’s policy on hate speech — or perhaps because it revealed the toxicity of the ideology the company has spent so long promoting.

If such ideas were restricted to the demented world of internet activism, we might be justified in simply ignoring it. But we now know that the overwhelming majority of adolescents referred to the Tavistock paediatric gender clinic were same-sex attracted. Whistleblowers have spoken out about the endemic homophobia, not simply among clinicians but also parents who were keen to “fix” their gay offspring. And of course there was the running joke among staff that soon “there would be no gay people left”.

And now a series of leaked internal messages and videos from WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health), has revealed that clinicians in the leading global organisation for transgender healthcare have openly admitted in private that some teenagers mistake being same-sex attracted for gender dysphoria. The result of the “gender-affirming” approach has amounted to what one former Tavistock clinician recently described as “conversion therapy for gay kids”. Homosexuality was removed from the World Health Organisation’s list of psychiatric disorders in 1993, and yet here we are medicalising it all over again.

So how did we reach the point where gay conversion therapy is being practised in plain sight by the NHS? Much of the responsibility has to lie with Stonewall, a group that once promoted equal rights for gay people but now actively works against their interests. It has even gone so far as to redefine “homosexual” on its website and resource materials as “same-gender attracted”. It should go without saying that gay men are not attracted to women who identify as men, any more than lesbians should be denounced for excluding those with penises from their dating pools. What trans activists call discrimination, most of us call homosexuality.

Indeed, activists often claim that “genital preferences are transphobic”, or that sexual orientation based on biological sex is a form of “trauma”. The idea that homosexuality is a sickness was one of the first homophobic tropes I encountered as a child. Now it is being rebranded as progressive.

As for Stonewall, its former CEO Nancy Kelley went so far as to argue that women who exclude trans people as potential partners are analogous to “sexual racists”. She claimed that “if you are writing off entire groups of people, like people of colour, fat people, disabled people or trans people, then it’s worth considering how societal prejudices may have shaped your attractions”. It is worth remembering that Stonewall is deeply embedded in many governmental departments and quangos, as well as corporate and civic institutions. Anti-gay propaganda is being reintroduced into society from the very top.

Meanwhile, the Crown Prosecution Service has been meeting with trans lobby groups such as Mermaids and Stonewall to discuss changes to prosecutorial policy in cases of sex by deception. Since these meetings — only revealed after sustained pressure from a feminist campaigner who submitted Freedom of Information requests — the CPS has recommended what Dennis Kavanagh of the Gay Men’s Network has described as “a radical trans activist approach to sex by deception prosecutions that would see them all but vanish”. In trans activist parlance, the barriers to having sex with lesbians and gay men are known as the “cotton ceiling” and “boxer ceiling”. Now it seems the establishment is attempting to support the coercion of gay people into heterosexual activity.

Consider a recent post on X by Stephen Whittle, OBE, a professor of equalities law at Manchester Metropolitan University. In a reply to LGB Alliance’s Bev Jackson, Whittle took issue with the notion that “love is all about genitals” (an argument that Jackson has never made). Having dismissed this straw man as “a very hetero/homo-normative perspective”, Whittle then claimed that “a lot of gay men can’t resist a young furry ftm [female-to-male] cub”.

While it is true that there are some bisexuals who identify as gay, it is simply not the case that homosexual men “can’t resist” certain kinds of women. As Jackson rightly noted in her response, this is rank homophobia, “disturbed and disturbing on every level”. Yet it has been expressed by an individual who has been described as a “hero for LGBTQ+ equality”. With heroes like these, who needs villains?

Another example is Davey Wavey, a popular online influencer, who has encouraged gay men to perform heterosexual acts in a video called “How to Eat Pussy — For Gay Men”. It may as well have been called “Gay Conversion Therapy 2.0”. We are firmly back in the Eighties, where gays are being told that they “just haven’t found the right girl yet” and lesbians are assured that they just “need a good dick”. And yet now these demeaning ideas are being propagated by those who claim to be defending the rights of sexual minorities.

The Government’s recent guidance on how schools are to accommodate trans-identified pupils — in which biological sex will take precedence over identity — has been met with horror from gender ideologues. One of the common refrains one hears from activists is that it represents “this generation’s Section 28”. But this is to get it precisely backwards. Gay rights were secured on the recognition that a minority of the population are same-sex attracted. In dismantling the very notion of sex and substituting it for this nebulous concept of “gender identity”, activists and their disciples in parliament are undoing all of the achievements of previous gay rights movements.

The widespread homophobia of the Eighties, epitomised by Section 28, was based on the notion that homosexuality was unnatural, dangerous and ought to be corrected. Present-day gender identity ideology perceives homosexuality as evidence of misalignment between soul and body. In other words, it seeks to “fix” gay people so that they fit into a heterosexual framework. It is no coincidence that so many detransitioners are gay people who were simply struggling with their sexuality. Gender identity ideology is the true successor to Section 28.

The proponents of this revamped gay conversion therapy dismiss our concerns as “transphobia” and “bigotry”, or as part of a manufactured “culture war”. Worse still, the new homophobia is being cheered on by those it will hurt most. While prominent gay figures continue to feed the beast that wishes to devour them, we are unlikely to see this dire situation improve any time soon. It was bad enough in the Eighties, when gay people were demonised and harassed by the establishment. Who thought we would have to fight these battles all over again?

[mostlysignssomeportents]

To save the news, ban surveillance ads

Tonight (May 31) at 6:30PM, I’m at the MANCHESTER Waterstones with my novel Red Team Blues, hosted by Ian Forrester.

Tomorrow (Jun 1), I’m giving the Peter Kirstein Lecture for UCL Computer Science in LONDON.

Then it’s Edinburgh, London, and Berlin!

Big Tech steals from the news, but what it steals isn’t content — it steals money. That matters, because if we create pseudo-copyrights over the facts of the news, or headlines, or snippets to help news companies bargain with tech companies, we make the news partners with the tech companies, rather than watchdogs.

How does tech steal money from the news? Lots of ways! One important one: tech steals ad revenue. 51% of every ad dollar gets gobbled up by tech companies — primarily the cozy, collusive ad-tech duopoly of Google/Facebook (AKA Googbook). If we can shatter the market power of the concentrated ad-tech industry, news companies would go back to getting 80–90% of the ad revenue their reporting generated, which would pay for more reporting.

There’s lots to like about fixing ads. For one thing, a fair ad marketplace would benefit all news reporting, not just the largest news companies — which are dominated by private equity-backed chains and right-wing billionaires who have repeatedly shown that any additional revenues will go to pay shareholders, not more reporters. Fair ads would also provide an income for reporters who strike out on their own, covering local politics or specific beats, without making themselves sharecroppers for Big Media.

One way to fix ads would be to break up the ad-tech “stacks.” Googbook both operate impossibly conflicted ad-placement businesses in which they bargain with themselves on behalf of both advertisers and publishers, with the winners always being the tech companies. The AMERICA Act from Senator Mike Lee would force ad giants to divest themselves of business units that create conflicts of interest. It’s popular, bipartisan legislation — and I do mean bipartisan; its backers include Elizabeth Warren and Ted Cruz! I wrote about the AMERICA Act and the role it will play in saving news from tech for EFF’s Deeplinks Blog last week:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/save-news-we-must-shatter-ad-tech

This week, I’ve got a followup on Deeplinks about another important way to unrig the ad market: banning surveillance ads:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/save-news-we-must-ban-surveillance-advertising

Even if we break up the ad-tech stacks, ads will still be bad for the news — and for the public. That’s because the dominant form of digital ads is “behavioral advertising” — the ad-tech sector’s polite euphemism for ads based on spying. You know these ads: you search for shoes and then every website you land on is plastered in shoe ads.

Surveillance ads require a massive, multi-billion-dollar surveillance dragnet, one that tracks you as you physically move through the world, and digitally, as you move through the web. Your apps, your phone and your browser are constantly gathering data on your activities to feed the ad-tech industry.

This data is incredibly dangerous. There’s so much of it, and it’s so loosely regulated, that every spy, cop, griefer, stalker, harasser, and identity thief can get it for pennies and use it however they see fit. The ad-tech industry poses a risk to protesters, to people seeking reproductive care, to union organizers, and to vulnerable people targeted by scammers.

Ad-tech maintains the laughable pretense that all this spying is consensual, because you clicked “I agree” on some garbage-novella of impenatrable legalese that no one — not even the ad-tech companies’ lawyers — has ever read from start to finish. But when people are given a real choice to opt out of digital spying, they do. Apple gave Ios users a one-click opt-out of in-app tracking and 96% of users clicked it (the other 4% must have been confused — or on Facebook’s payroll). The decision cost Facebook $10b in the first year. You love to see it:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/facebook-says-apple-ios-privacy-change-will-cost-10-billion-this-year.html

But here’s the real punchline: Apple blocked Facebook from spying on its customers, but Apple kept spying on them, just as invasively as Facebook had, in order to target them with Apple’s own ads:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

The thing that stops companies from spying on us isn’t the strength of their character, it’s the discipline imposed by regulation and competition — the fear that they’ll get fined more than they make from spying, and the fear that they’ll lose so much business from spying that they’ll end up in the red.

Which is why we need a legal ban on ads, not mere platitudes on billboards advertising companies’ “respect” for our privacy. The US is way overdue for a federal privacy law with a private right of action, which would let you and me sue the companies who violated it, even if no public prosecutor was willing to go to bat for us:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/01/you-should-have-right-sue-companies-violate-your-privacy

A privacy law that required companies to get your affirmative, enthusiastic, ongoing, specific, informed consent to gather and process your personal data would end surveillance ads forever. Despite the self-serving nonsense the ad-tech industry serves up about people “liking relevant ads,” no one wants to be spied on. 96% of Ios users don’t lie.

A ban on surveillance ads wouldn’t just serve the public, it would also save the news. The alternative to surveillance ads is context ads: ads based on what a reader is reading, rather than what that reader was doing. Context-based ad marketplaces ask, “What am I bid for this Pixel 6 user in Boise who is reading about banana farming?” instead of “What am I bid for this 22 year old man who recently searched for information about suicidal ideation and bankruptcy protection?”

Context ads perform a little worse than surveillance ads — by about 5%:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/29/taken-in-context/#creep-me-not

So presumably advertisers won’t pay as much for context ads as they do for behavioral targeting. But that doesn’t mean that the news will lose money. Because context ads favor publishers over ad-tech platforms — no publisher will ever know as much about internet users as spying ad-tech giants do, but no tech company will ever know as much about a publisher’s content as the publisher does.

Behavioral ad marketplaces have high barriers to entry, requiring troves of surveillance data on billions of internet users. They are naturally anticompetitive and able to command a much higher share of each ad dollar than a contextual ad service (which would have much more competiition) could.

On top of that: if behavioral advertising was limited to people who truly consented to it, 96% of users would never see an ad!

So contextual ads will show up for more users, and more of the money they generate will land in news publishers’ pockets. If context ads fetch less money per ad, the losses will be felt by ad-tech companies, not publishers.

Finally: publishers who join the fight against surveillance ads won’t be alone — they’ll be joining with a massive, popular movement against commercial surveillance. The news business is — and always has been — a niche subject, of burning interest to publishers, reporters, and a small minority of news junkies. The news on its own is a small fry in policy debates. But when it comes to killing surveillance ads, the news has a class alliance with the mass movement for privacy, and together, they’re a force to reckon with.

My article on killing surveillance ads is part three of an ongoing, five-part series for EFF on how we save the news from tech. The introduction, which sets out the whole series, is here:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/saving-news-big-tech

The final two parts will come out over the next two weeks, and then we’re going to publish the whole thing as a PDF that suitable for sharing. Watch this space!

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Manchester, Edinburgh, London, and Berlin!

[Image ID: EFF's banner for the save news series; the word 'NEWS' appears in pixelated, gothic script in the style of a newspaper masthead. Beneath it in four entwined circles are logos for breaking up ad-tech, ending surveillance ads, opening app stores, and end-to-end delivery. All the icons except for 'ending surveillance ads' are greyed out.]

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/31/context-ads/#class-formation

Image: EFF https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/save-news-we-must-ban-surveillance-advertising

CC BY 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[snakegorl212006]

Journey begins

You awaken by a thump. Your googling eyes widen only to meet the wooden walls. You sigh as the thumping could’ve been some rock outside of the carriage. You gaze out the window board at the sight of the trees. “Are you awake you highness” a voice spoke once again surprising you. You whipped your head around to see a well dressed man with a raven mask and a top mask. His cape was adorned by feathers. He smiled kindly “Forgive my intrusion. I understand you must be exhausted. It is a long ways away from the kingdom of the royal swords and Ramshackle but I must ask if you can do me a favor. I swear you will be rewarded generously” the crow asked “you ask for a favor yet i know not of your name” you replied still stunned from his quiet entrance “Ah right where are my manors. You may call me Crowley, your highness. I’m king of Night raven. ” He introduce “well.. Crowely. What is this favor you wish for me to do” You asked “simply. The creatures are out of control.They don’t listen to reason as of late.” Crowely stated “the kingdoms grow more impatient and i don’t have any answers on why everything is in chaos.” he sighs “what do you want me to do about it” you asked “simple go check it out and solve the problem if needed then report back to me from here” he explained as he gives me a mirror “I don’t have magic” I explained “oh i see. This makes things harder now. Well just report using someone else's magic. I’m counting on you your highness,help save night raven” Crowly smiles before teleporting off again. Once he was gone the mirror lit up and showed directions to the castle within the queendom of roses, the region you're in at the moment. Lucky for that bird your first stop is in the capital. You place the mirror around your neck using a piece of string you happened to have. The rest of the ride was calm and you managed to go to your destination safely. The kingdom is bustling with people as busy as most major cities. You place your hoodie up and stroll through the town listening to the latest gossip. Nothing of importance to you. That is until you saw a crowd “A fire!? That’s horrible” a women spoke “who ever tarnish those lands my already have lost there heads… if the queen hasn't gotten to them” a man adds. Drawn to the chatter you merge yourself though the crowd to see the new board were at the bottom were papers of current events and additional rules being added by the parliament here. The headline read “red fires within red roses.” you took a page and skimmed through the first chapters

Three days ago, fires rag'd the did rise f'rest, coequal spreading to the queen’s precious did rise hedges. ”this violation of ruleth 300 is unexceptable!!!” the lady states in h'r addresseth inrage on what hast hath happened to h'r precious landeth the queen hath sent f'rth a reward f'r anyone who is't couldst catcheth these criminals so they’ll beest putteth to justice by the queen h'rself

“With how high people speak of the queen, why has no one offered to find these people” you wondered “the Rose woods of Heartslabyul recently has a surge of monsters as of late” a voice spoke. You look to see a young man with orange hair and a diamond on his cheek underneath his eye “the fires triggered some after effects and enraged the guardian on those lands. Anyone who enters to investigate never returned” He adds “You must be new sense it’s common knowledge here” he smiled “oh umm ya. I just came off of a ride. I’m (y/n)” you introduced “Cater diamond, that’s my company's newspaper you’re holding” Cater replied “oh did you make this yourself” You asked “no just provide the info. What’s got an outsider so interested in our case” Cater asked “well I just felt like I needed to provide aid. Like the stories, if everyone is scared of these lands and someone has to solve the problem.Why not be the one who solves the problem ya’ know” you replied which made the young reporter think “I guess so. I hope you’re a person of your word” He winks “well I didn’t mean to trouble you, I shall be on my way. Any lead is a good one these days” Cater stated before leaving. ‘The forest has to be the rout of the problem so might as well check it out there first’ you thought. Using this revelation you made your way out of the crowd and towards the woods. On the way you spot something in the alleyway.there in the alley was a cat creature. Weak and hungry. Feeling pitiful for the creature, you stopped by the local market and bought a fish to bring for the cat. When you made it back to the location,with the cat still laying there, you presented the fish to him. The cat sprung up and snatched the fish from your grasp “thank you human” he spoke which shocked you “a talking cat” you exclaimed “a cat!? DO i LOOk like a cat to you” He huffed. Upon closer inspection this ‘cat’ has flames for ears and a tail with scales all over with a blue flame on the tip. Other then that, he looks like a average cat “kinda..” you mumbled “what is your name anyways” you asked “the greatest and most gifted mage grim, now who are you? I never seen a thing like you before. Are you a elf” grim asked as he walked around you (“y/n) of the (l/n) family. I’m (prince/princess/random royalty status) of ramshackle” you replied which made his eyes widen “You!? Well if you feel extra civerish can i accompany you” grim asked sweetly “and why would you want to tang along with me” you asked “i mean you and I would be great partners so, what do you say”

[toldbygifs]

Minimalistic Multimuse Google Sites Template

I've decided to share this very minimalistic template I have made for somebody. It comes with a white background & simple fonts.

It includes a home screen, guidelines, multi-character overview, a single-character page (you can duplicate) & locations. Feel free to edit them to your liking.

How To Use:

Click the headline of this post to access it

IMPORTANT: Go to the header. On the left side next to the PUBLISH button, you can see 3 dots. Click on them and select "Make a copy". Otherwise, you edit the template for everyone and possibly mess it up. I added pictures below the cut if you're uncertain how to.

Credit is appreciated but not mandatory, please just do not claim it as your own & don't use it for any paid content.

I do not plan to post more than this one. This blog is meant for my gif packs but I decided to post it here.

[darkmaga-retard]

Peter Halligan

Aug 15, 2024

Leave aside the fact that even thinking about impersonating news outlets is a criminal act, check this out:

Google Blames Glitch for Harris Campaign Running Deceptive Paid Ads – Liberty One News

“The campaign used Google search ads to manipulate headlines from major news outlets such as Reuters, CBS News, CNN, NPR, and AP, making it seem as though they were in support of Harris.”

This coms hot on the heels of another headline:

House panel demands info from Google, Meta over alleged censorship of Trump assassination attempt (msn.com)

“He Republican-led House Oversight Committee launched an investigation Wednesday into whether Google and Meta suppressed information about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.”

Of course, both incidents are described by Google as “glitches”, implying that they only recently “snuck in” to bypass Google’s censorship algorithms and have not, in fact, been deployed for years to prejudice users against Trump!

I suspect they have been caught and these have been rules of engagement by Google and neither glitches or even exceptions.

[undergroundusa]

More disingenuous skullduggery from the campaign that has no issue with disinformation when it benefits them. Funny the MSM, Facebook, etc. aren't flagging them for their lies…

Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has been taking headlines from outlets like CNN, The Guardian, and the AP, and rewriting them within Google search ads, with the intent to deceive viewers into thinking the outlets are on her side. Meanwhile, Trump's campaign has reportedly not engaged in such tactics.

[mariacallous]

In 2017, Pratik Sinha and Mohammed Zubair cofounded the fact-checking website AltNews in India. Almost immediately, the pair were targeted with persistent and vicious attacks from the far-right news website OpIndia. Many of the attacks claimed that Zubair was a Rohingya Muslim who illegally migrated to India and that his cousin was a rapist. In several headlines, the site described Zubair as an “Islamist” spreading fake news.

This wasn’t far off from OpIndia’s other coverage: In addition to routinely attacking journalists and news sites critical of the government, OpIndia spreads conspiracies and, at times, outright disinformation, particularly about the country’s minority Muslim population. Founded in 2014, OpIndia is regularly name-checked by leading lawmakers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the site admits it is funded in part by ads run by the BJP. As hundreds of millions of Indians vote in elections across the country, critics fear that OpIndia’s election-related disinformation and overt support of the Modi government could further undermine trust in the democratic process. Already, the website has echoed Modi’s widely criticized description of the Muslim vote as “vote jihad.”

Yet despite this, US tech companies, which have rules against hate speech and disinformation, continue to platform OpIndia and, in some cases, allow it to continue to make money through advertising. OpIndia has a robust presence on Facebook, Instagram, and X. Additionally, a new report, shared exclusively with WIRED, has found that Google’s ad platform is being used to partially fund OpIndia’s operation.

“In an increasingly polarized space, they create a vicious narrative against you,” Sinha tells WIRED. “All of this is narrative building. Their job is to defame anyone who's critical of the government, and that's what they do.”

Despite repeated efforts by activists to defund the site—and the fact that publications that have partnered with a Google-supported election fact-checking initiative, Shakti, have fact-checked OpIndia’s articles and found it routinely publishes fake news—OpIndia continues to operate thanks in part to ads that Google’s ad exchange platform places next to its content. In 2019, Poynter’s International Fact Checking Network, which accredits publications as trustworthy arbiters of information, rejected OpIndia’s application.

“Google’s own publisher policies prohibit the monetization of content that incites hatred, incitement of racism, promoting discrimination of an individual or group,” says Sarah Kay Wiley, director of policy and partnerships at Check My Ads, a nonprofit digital advertising watchdog organization and author of the new report. “Google also says that they don't monetize or work with publishers that make claims that are false and could significantly undermine trust in an election or democratic process.”

Ad exchanges allow publishers to sell ad space and advertisers to buy it through an entirely automated process that happens in the split seconds before a website loads. Ad sellers and buyers set limits for price and spending, with Google taking a cut of all transactions. Because of the automated nature of the process, advertisers likely don’t realize that their products are showing up next to hateful and misleading content.

Other ad exchanges such as Magnite have discontinued working with OpIndia. If Google were to stop working with OpIndia, says Wiley, that “would definitely have a material impact.”

On Facebook, OpIndia runs pages in English and Hindi, with 310,000 followers and 431,000 followers in each language, respectively. Both pages list their administrator as Aadhyaasi Media and Content Services Private Limited, which owns OpIndia.

On its Hindi page, OpIndia has shared stories promoting the “love jihad” conspiracy theory, which asserts that Muslim men are trying to marry, seduce, or kidnap Hindus in order to force them to convert and create a demographic shift in Hindu-majority India, and has promoted false claims, including that a new inheritance law would reallocate wealth from Hindus to Muslims. Meta spokesperson Erin McPike did not comment on whether this content violated Meta’s policies, nor on whether Meta takes into account the violations of the Hindi page when assessing the English page.

These narratives then get picked up and spread on other platforms, like X and Telegram, says Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan, an analyst with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. “In some of these places there’s even more explicit calls for violence against Muslims or for the removal of Muslims,” he says. The site has international appeal as well: WIRED was able to find OpIndia articles shared in non-Indian, right-wing channels on Telegram, including a pro-Kremlin channel with over 1.3 million subscribers and numerous conspiracy channels with hundreds of thousands of followers.

The site is also highly active on the social media platform X with the official OpIndia account, which has 688,000 subscribers. OpIndia appears to pay for X Premium, giving it a blue checkmark, but did not respond to whether it subscribes to the service. WIRED has identified at least half a dozen OpIndia writers, columnists, and editors, including editor in chief Nupur Sharma, who has more than 680,000 followers, who appear to be subscribed to X Premium.

Sharma did not respond to a question about OpIndia monetizing its content via X Premium, and the company itself also failed to respond.

“It’s a hyper-partisan, right-wing outlet that set themselves up by saying that mainstream news media in India have a liberal bias, very similar to what American right-wing outlets say about professional journalism in America,” says Kalyani Chadha, an associate professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University who published an in-depth report in 2020 on India’s right-wing media ecosystem that included OpIndia. “They bill themselves as a news outlet, but there's not a lot of original reporting. A lot of it is commentary and opinion.”

In addition to Sinha and Zubair, OpIndia has regularly targeted journalists and outlets it sees as “far left.” In one piece, the site’s staff listed the Indian journalists and publications supposedly associated with billionaire George Soros, who has long been the target of conspiracies from the global far right. In another, they attacked veteran journalist Ravish Kumar, falsely accusing him of harboring sympathies for the perpetrators of a 2019 rape case. OpIndia has also spent years attacking Raqib Hameed Naik, an Indian journalist and the founder of India Hate Lab, which documents instances of hate speech and conspiracies that target India’s minority communities. This, he says, was made all the harder by government officials sharing the articles.

“The goal is to amplify this disinformation, and you have BJP leaders sharing this, so people think it’s authentic,” says Naik. “In the long term, this kind of builds the case against a critic, a journalist, that this person is bad, because there is reporting against them.”

When WIRED contacted OpIndia for comment, Sharma responded to our emailed questions by posting her responses on X.

When asked about hate speech and disinformation on her site, Sharma wrote: “Our critics are mostly Islamists, Jihadis, Terrorists, Leftists and their sympathizers—like yourself. We don't particularly care about any of them.” She then added that “Islamophobia does not exist” and pointed to an OpIndia article that outlines her position. Sharma added that it was “none of your concern” when asked if OpIndia was funded by the BJP. Sharma’s post also tagged one of the authors of this story, who then faced a torrent of abuse from Sharma’s followers.

For years, activists and researchers have tried to highlight the problematic content published by OpIndia. A 2020 campaign from UK-based advocacy group Stop Funding Hate led to a number of advertisers removing their ads from the site. Google, however, says the content published on the site does not appear to breach its own rules.

"All sites in our network, including Opindia, must adhere to our publisher policies, which explicitly prohibit ads from appearing alongside content promoting hate speech, violence, or demonstrably false claims that could undermine trust or participation in an election,” Google spokesperson Michael Aciman says. “Publishers are also subject to regular reviews, and we actively block or remove ads from any violating content."

Despite this, users can find ads for Temu or the Palm Beach Post next to many OpIndia articles promoting conspiracies and Islamophobia, placed with the help of ad-exchange platforms like Google’s Ad Manager, which is the market leader.

Facebook, meanwhile, says Wiley, is more of a “walled garden.” Once a publisher meets the company’s criteria for monetization, including having more than 1,000 followers, it can earn money from ads that run on the page.

While researchers that spoke to WIRED were unable to tell exactly how much the site has made from Google Ads and Facebook monetization, they said it’s likely that OpIndia is not solely reliant on the ad exchange for its revenue. It appears that, as with many news outlets in India, part of that funding comes in the form of more traditional advertising from a major client: the government.

“A large section of India's mainstream press depends on the government ads for their survival,” says Prashanth Bhat, professor of media studies at the University of Houston. “That revenue is critical for the mainstream media survival in a hypercompetitive media environment like in India. We have about 400 round-the-clock television news channels in India in different languages, and we have over 10,000 registered newspapers. For them to survive, they definitely need government patronage.”

Sharma confirmed that OpIndia is reliant in part on ads from the government. “Literally every media house gets advertising from various political parties,” said Sharma. “In fact, a part of your salary could also be funded by such parties and/or their sympathizers. Do get down from your high horse.”

The BJP has, however, also sought to help OpIndia in other ways. In 2019, the BJP reached out to Meta directly, asking the company to allow OpIndia to monetize on Facebook. Meta spokesperson McPike told WIRED that OpIndia’s English page is still able to monetize but that monetization on its Hindi page is currently not allowed “due to violations of our policies.”

“In order to monetize on Facebook, Pages must comply with our community standards, our partner monetization policies, and our content monetization policies,” McPike says.

Google did not respond to questions from WIRED about whether it had ever received a similar request from the Indian government. Google’s Aciman says, “As we do with all publishers, we’ve taken prior page-level enforcement action on this site when we’ve found policy violations. We will of course continue to enforce our policies on violating content across our publisher network.”

X did not respond to questions about whether OpIndia and its staff are able to monetize through X Premium or whether the company has ever received requests from the government to restore content from OpIndia or its staff. The company has complied with several takedown requests from the Indian government to ban accounts or tweets critical of the government.

But Wiley says that without transparency on the part of tech companies as to how they’re deciding which organizations are able to earn money through ads—and how much—outlets like OpIndia will continue to fall through the cracks.

“The business model of the internet at the end of the day is advertising, and what we're seeing over and over again is, that business model is broken,” she says. “Advertisers don't know where their money is going. And the biggest issue is that a lot of that is being funneled to mis- and disinformation online.”