Marc Elias: sycophants

I hope that everyone reading the 1/6 committee transcripts now realizes there was no "team normal" in the Trump White House. With strikingly few exceptions, there were immoral sycophants and deranged sycophants.

NPR: Facebook parent Meta will pay $725M to settle a privacy suit over Cambridge Analytica

Facebook parent Meta will pay $725M to settle a privacy suit over Cambridge Analytica - The proposed settlement is a result of revelations that the information of up to 87 million people may have been improperly shared with the data analytics firm that worked for political campaigns.

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/23/1145303268/facebook-meta-cambridge-analytica-privacy-settlement

HuffPost: Twitter Still Banning Journalists Who Refuse To Delete Certain Tweets

Twitter Still Banning Journalists Who Refuse To Delete Certain Tweets - The disputed tweets mention or link to Twitter account @ElonJet, which has tracked Musk’s private jet flights using publicly available information.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/twitter-elon-musk-banned-journalists-tweets_n_63a66cd8e4b0d6724fb69f91

Does this mean Rudolph is transgender?

@Sheril@mastodon.social

With the holidays upon us, ‘tis the season to share a reminder that all of Santa’s reindeer are female.

Males drop their antlers after the Autumn mating season. So since the world’s most celebrated reindeer are always depicted with spectacular antlers, we must assume that the intrepid team pulling the sleigh, presents & Ol’ St. Nicholas himself, is entirely female. #science

NBC News: Musk driving Mastodon user growth

NBC News

Mastodon, an alternative microblogging platform, has seen several spikes in user sign-ups since Elon Musk purchased Twitter in late October.
https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/twitter-owner-elon-musk-driving-user-growth-mastodon-rcna62832

NBC News: Twitter users have reached a breaking point with Elon Musk

NBC News

After a weekend that included a brief ban on external links and a poll asking if he should step down as CEO, some Twitter users who initially welcomed Elon Musk are now skeptical of remaining on the platform.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/twitter-users-reach-breaking-point-elon-musk-rcna62403

Imagine if you will ... (meme on mastodon)

For_the_Joy_of_It

Protect your social media

Fedi.Tips

The reason Mastodon and the Fediverse is spread out on so many servers is it protects it from being taken over by anyone. Not even the richest can buy this place.

Centralised services like Twitter are incredibly easy to buy out. If you move from Twitter to another centralised service, sooner or later that will get bought out too.

The point of the Fediverse is to break this buyout cycle, to let people be permanently in control of their accounts.

More info here:
https://fedi.tips/mastodon-and-the-fediverse-beginners-start-here/#whyisthefediverseonsomanyseparateservers

Poor people pay more for slower Internet service

Sean Gonzalves

Y'all do realize that poor people pay more for slower Internet service than those in wealthy neighborhoods, right?

And one recent study found that poor, mostly black and brown neighborhoods in LA County pay anywhere from $10 to $40 more per month than mostly white, higher-income neighborhoods for the exact same service.

It's expensive to be poor in America

Wrote a story about it. Wanna read it, here it go
https://muninetworks.org/content/study-low-income-la-county-neighborhoods-pay-more-internet-service-wealthier-neighborhoods

The Egoloon does not like freedom of the press and John Mastodon materializes

Mastodon Migration

Who is Taylor Lorenz and why should we care?

She's a technology columnist for the Washington Post, suspended this evening from Twitter apparently for asking Musk to comment on a story involving Musk. Musk is demonstrating that he can extort censorship from the media with the ban hammer. Taylor was targeted to be an example. Other journalists are put on notice it's not them...this time, and reminded to toe the line. This is about press freedom. That's why we all should care.

" target="_blank">Casey Newton

Twitter banned @taylorlorenz for … asking Elon for comment?? Embarrassing

" target="_blank">Taylor Lorenz
Mediaite right wing writer Isaac Schorr misread the Twitter account @joinmastodon as "John Mastodon," and referred to him as the founder of the platform in his article https://www.mediaite.com/opinion/hypocrisy-and-fear-all-the-way-down-at-twitter/

Mike Galsworthy

If you're wondering what the #JohnMastodon thing is about...

...here you go. Captured by the Wayback Machine for you, as the author has since realised he'd misread the Join Mastodon account name. 😂

And thusly, the legend of John Mastodon is born.

Pro Publica

Our publication has a long history with #JohnMastodon

He went to college with our illustrious founder, P.R. O'Publica

Duane O'Brien

A front page article on the Washington Post telling people how to get started with Mastodon?

That’s a big deal.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/17/how-to-join-mastodon/
A guide to getting started with Twitter alternative Mastodon