Australia’s Age Verification Law Still a Failure, Study Finds

An Australian government study has found that little has changed in the governments failed age verification laws.

https://www.freezenet.ca/australias-age-verification-law-still-a-failure-study-finds/

#Censorship #News #AgeVerification #Australia #fail #research #SocialMedia #study

Former Flock employee Jonathan Paz quit after discovering the surveillance company lied about working with ICE. He was tasked with convincing cities to buy Flock cameras before learning CBP and ICE had direct access to the data. https://www.404media.co/why-a-flock-worker-quit-they-lied/ #Media #SocialMedia #Privacy

RE: https://mastodon.social/@sturmsucht/117025930463084597

"Normal People enjoying normal Things"

This blog post by @sturmsucht sharing his experience with traditional #SocialMedia and the #Fediverse is pure gold. If you've been in both worlds you'll enjoy the read, and the transitioned you've made already, while agreeing violently with your head... 👌🏻😍

"Social media on big tech platforms isn't about sharing what we love and connecting with others anymore"

#SovereignByDesign #DigitalAutonomy #DigitalSovereignty

"It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for 'em."

"According to investigators, surveillance footage and information provided by the suspect's roommate led detectives to quickly identify and arrest #Laschinger. During questioning, he allegedly admitted to the attack, telling investigators he had been influenced by content he viewed on #socialmedia shortly beforehand. Police said he also acknowledged that he deliberately targeted the building because it was a #Jewish place of worship."

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/americas/artc-florida-brick-thrown-through-window-of-chabad-synagogue

Which software ecosystems have you been brave and courageous enough **to abandon completely**? Check all that apply

Please boost for #Science

#SocialMedia #Meta #Google #Microsoft #internet #web #apps #Bigtech

Bluesky’s Attie is an AI tool built on AT Protocol that helps people create custom social feeds from public social data. Interesting idea, but it also raises real privacy questions: when AI analyzes your public posts, likes, and follows, it can infer a lot more about you than you may expect.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/24/blueskys-ai-assistant-attie-expands-into-an-open-social-research-tool/

#Bluesky #ATProto #SocialMedia #AI

"Starting Sunday in #EU, #AI #chatbots, receptionists, #media must reveal they are not human"

https://nltimes.nl/2026/08/02/starting-sunday-eu-ai-chatbots-receptionists-media-must-reveal-human

This is excellent

But:

Laws require enforcement

Or they are just feel-good declarations that rot the rule of law: a corpus of laws without bite means the law has no meaning. A dangerous precedent

So *how* do we fight AI. Especially on #socialMedia

You have to understand it's an existential threat. Not to #Mastodon/ #Fediverse, but *all* social media... all media

1/2

Alt...

an abstract image of "AI"

Most Australian teens still on #SocialMedia three months after under-16 ban began, study finds

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/most-australian-teens-still-social-media-three-months-after-under-16-ban-began-2026-07-31/

#Australia #SocialMediaBan #AgeVerification #privacy

Amending #AB1709 Doesn’t Fix It: #California’s #SocialMediaBan Still Threatens Free Speech and #Privacy

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/amending-ab-1709-doesnt-fix-it-californias-social-media-ban-still-threatens-free

#SocialMedia #AgeVerification

Social media companies sued over deaths of four teens as pressure, lawsuits over child safety mount.

@AssociatedPress reports: "The families are suing Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube over what they describe as 'years of escalating harms.'"

https://flip.it/H7Nxzd

#SocialMedia #Tech #Technology

Lot of fedi commentary on #Australia's #RoyalCommission.

Pretty standard. Five testimonies about firebombing a #synagogue, being cut off from employment opportunities, harrassed in the street, or mass-fucking-murdered on #Bondibeach will get ignored. One person whining people were mean to them for wearing an #Israel pin proves their case against #antisemitism being real.

Things like the royal commission are huge tactical errors on the part of #Jewish #diaspora institutions. They're so stuck on these failed strategies they think doing the same shit harder bigger faster stronger will defeat antisemitism™.

It fuels it.

If the underlying #bigotry believes #Jews control #media, #government and whatever, then anything in the media or by the government, etc that demonstrates antisemitism proves the fucking #conspiracy to them... and the opposite also proves it. Magic!

#Socialmedia is an accelerant. Ya can't win playing a crooked fucking game.

Boomer anti-antisemitism = the wise men of Chelm.

Alt...

Once upon a time, an angel, carrying a sackful of foolish souls back to heaven for repair, snagged his sack on a tree growing on top of a tall mountain top. The sack tore and alas, all the poor, foolish souls spilled out of the ripped sack, rolled down the mountain side into the town of Chelm where they stayed from that day on. - The Wise Men of Helm and their Merry Tales by Solomon Simon Image: Jeffrey Allon, "The Wise Men of Chelm Capture the Moon", from the book Ten Traditional Jewish Children's Stories [a group of bearded men standing around a barrel with the moon's reflection in it mostly wearing Tevye caps, one in a Streimel]]

Mashable: Central Park lawyers’ viral kiss sparks privacy debate. “On July 23, TikTok creator Jay Guapõ, who boasts 3.5 million followers, posted a video showing a man and woman kissing near Central Park West and West 63rd Street. Guapõ approaches them while continuing to record. ‘Get a room. There’s kids around,’ he tells them.”

This is something that stems from the bulletin board system period.

When people started to Flame each other they were just banging at the keyboard

BBS flame wars

What happens now {last 20 years} is the same; they can only be horrific towards each other when banging at the keyboard.

I've been told that people in industrialized countries can be very lonely. Hundreds of them in a building but they are still lonely

Often that loneliness is portrayed in a negative manner on public internet forums by people who often live a miserable life. Some of them in the US many, can also not pay for the psychiatric care they need.

The end result is a mess of a comment section

@rl_dane

#Social #Media #SocialMedia #troll #reaction #any #good #YouTube #no #TV

Sometimes, Sharpie on scraps, done quickly and cheaply, says more than an AI-generated image ever could."

Bettina Makalintal for Eater: https://www.eater.com/trends/975087/restaurants-lean-into-bespoke-handmade-elements-during-ai-flyer-backlash

#Longreads #AI #SocialMedia #Restaurants #Analog

In this article, I share how I approach language learning. Check it out.
https://philosophics.blog/2026/07/29/anki-meets-chatgpt-for-snacks-in-paris-for-lunch/?utm_source=masto&utm_medium=social
#philosophy #learning #teaching #memory #psychology #blog #podcast #french #anki #italki #youtube #socialmedia #resources #advice #ai #chatgpt #claude

Reuters: US FTC sues Hims & Hers for sending user health info to Meta, Snap. “The U.S. Federal Trade ​Commission sued Hims & Hers on Wednesday alleging the telehealth platform shared users’ health ‌data with online advertisers, despite promising privacy, and engaged in deceptive billing and cancellation practices.”

#Brazil gives parents #SocialMedia controls for their kids. Should the #US?

https://themarkup.org/privacy/2026/07/28/brazil-gives-parents-social-media-controls-for-their-kids-should-the-u-s

#privacy #SocialMediaBan #AgeVerification

Russia has charged Telegram founder Pavel Durov with aiding terrorism, claiming the popular messaging app had been used by Ukrainian spies to organise attacks. If convicted, the billionaire could face up to life in prison.

https://flip.it/q-sN4F

#Russia #Telegram #SocialMedia

"#Antisemitism in our seven countries is no longer a surge; it is our new normal,” the organization said in a statement. “Governments must stop reacting after #Jews are attacked and start acting before, with real #securityfunding, stronger laws and #socialmedia platforms that enforce their own rules.”

Fifteen Jews were #murdered at a #Hanukkah celebration on #BondiBeach in #Sydney, two were #killed at #HeatonPark #Synagogue in #Manchester on #YomKippur, two were killed at the Capital #Jewish Museum in #WashingtonDC, and one was killed in #Boulder, #Colorado.

The figure was the highest since 1994, when 85 people — including 67 Jews — were killed in the #AMIA #bombing in #Argentina."

https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-deadliest-year-in-decades-for-diaspora-jews-task-force-warns-hate-is-our-new-normal/

European Researchers Say Big Tech Is Blocking Access to Their Data

despite being legally entitled to obtain platform data under EU law, researchers face obstacles, obfuscation, and, in some cases, court battles to obtain it.

#EU #DSA #data #research #socialmedia #tiktok #twitter #meta #technolgy #tech

https://www.wired.com/story/european-researchers-want-to-study-social-medias-harms-but-cant-get-the-data/

Deepfakes and other AI-generated content must be labeled from Sunday in the European Union as sweeping artificial intelligence transparency rules kick in. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2026/07/28/tech/made-by-ai-label-eu/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #business #tech #ai #deepfakes #misinformation #europe #eu #meta #google #nvidia #apple #socialmedia #bigtech #instagram #facebook #x #openai

“Iran 1953: How Britain and the CIA Overthrew a Country to Keep Its Oil”

by Kathy in Manufacturing Dissent on Substack

@palestine@fedibird.com
@Palestine@masto.ai
@palestine@lemmy.ml
@iran
@palestinenews

“Most Westerners grow up with a cartoon version of Iran’s history. A neat little story about a ‘crazy regime,’ a ‘backward country,’ and a ‘dangerous revolution.’ What they never hear is that Iran once had a democracy. A real one. And the West destroyed it because Iran dared to say its oil belonged to its own people”

https://open.substack.com/pub/mandissent/p/iran-1953-how-britain-and-the-cia

#Press #SocialMedia #Iran #War #Trump #Israel #OperationEpsteinFury #OperationEpicMistake #RegimeChange #WarCrimes #CrimesAgainstHumanity #Hormuz #Empire #Collapse #US #Sanctions #EconomicWarfare #Hegemony #Mossadegh #Coup #Britain #US #MI6 #CIA #Oil #Nationalization

In 1868 Dostoyevsky perfectly described social media

"Some have only to meet with some idea by hearsay, or to read some stray page, to believe at once that it is their own opinion and has sprung spontaneously from their own brain. The impudence of simplicity, if one may so express it, is amazing in such cases. It is almost incredible, but yet often to be met with. This impudence of simplicity, this unhesitating confidence of the stupid in himself and his talents"

#socialmedia #ageOfStupid

United and American don't just swap miles with hotels and card partners. Airline data broker ARC sells passenger travel records to DHS and marketers, cross-linked with your card spending into a full movement profile.

#privacy #surveillance #socialmedia #indigoprivacy

EU finds TikTok failed to shield the privacy of children's accounts from adults

The European Commission has found TikTok did not adequately protect children's privacy on its platform, after allowing adults to view the accounts of minors.

#euope #eu #DSA #tiktok #socialmedia #privacy #technology #tech

https://www.euronews.com/next/2026/07/24/eu-finds-tiktok-failed-to-shield-the-privacy-of-childrens-accounts-from-adults

The education minister stepped ‌down, meeting ‌the protesters' main demand, in a rare such setback for Modi. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/07/26/asia-pacific/india-instagram-gen-z-modi-polls/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #asiapacific #narendramodi #india #instagram #socialmedia

France plans to require age verification for social media, with access potentially blocked for users under 15 who don't have parental consent.

Supporters say it's about protecting children online. Critics warn that mandatory age verification could impact privacy, anonymity, and data collection.

Read more: https://digitalescapetools.com/2026/07/france-social-media-ban-age-verification-privacy.html

#Privacy #SocialMedia #AgeVerification #France #DigitalRights #OnlinePrivacy #TechNews #DigitalEscapeTools

#SocialMedia addiction lawsuit against #Meta is dropped

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/22/social-media-addiction-lawsuit-against-meta-is-dropped/

#Facebook #Instagram #privacy

Associated Press: EU finds TikTok violates its digital rule book by failing to protect privacy of minors. “The European Commission on Friday said it found TikTok had not adequately protected children’s privacy rights on its platform by allowing adults to view the accounts of minors. The action exposed children to cyberbullying, unwanted contact and predatory behavior, commission spokesperson […]