Jaymann wrote: ↑Tue Aug 13, 2024 3:03 am
LOL, the Musk "interview" of DonOld was a disasterpiece theater. Technical difficulties, alleged denial of service attacks, incoherent DonOld, etc. In other words another Monday for DonOld.
Not to mention his and Musk outright slamming workers for demanding better wages and work conditions. Hence the UAW hitting them both with federal labor charges today. For a guy who's supposedly a genius and a businessman who...well...I don't know what the fuck he's known for beyond being orange and obsessed with being a celebrity...they're both so utterly lacking in common sense it's astounding they're still around/not in jail/broke.
Although the quality of the people who support them might be a way to determine why that is.
Arend and his wife Anneesa Feenstra relocated their family from Canada to Russia to escape perceived LGBT ideology encroachment.
However, their dream soured when their bank accounts were reportedly frozen upon arrival.
...
Anneesa's frustration boiled over, leading to a regrettable outburst against their new home, which only worsened their situation when Kremlin officials took offense.
...
However, in a subsequent update, Arend issued an apology, acknowledging that their "thoughts aren't always conveyed properly." He added that their funds had been unfrozen, and despite the challenges, they remain committed to building a new life in Russia "for the long haul."
In the clip, he emphasized that Anneesa's frustrations were not directed at Russia as a whole. However, Anneesa's tearful display in an earlier video has raised doubts about their true feelings towards their decision to relocate.
...
Unfortunately, the family hit their second setback when they tried to unfreeze their money. In a YouTube clip, Arend expressed his frustration, noting the challenge of navigating the situation without English-speaking assistance in Russia.
Unagi wrote: ↑Mon Aug 19, 2024 1:26 pm
I imagine The Onion will tighten their belts and let some staff go today... I mean, how do they compete in this world?
Last week, The Onion began distributing a print edition for the first time in more than a decade and will soon deliver it monthly to everyone who subscribes to its site. The move is a throwback to the publication’s roots as a campus weekly in the late 1980s.
But it is also emblematic of a growing trend in the media industry — trying new ways to attract and retain digital subscribers.
The Onion is no stranger to the difficulties that face the publishing business. Its headlines have tracked the tumult in the media industry over the past several years, even occasionally poking fun at itself: The Onion: ‘Mild-Mannered Reporter Suddenly Transforms Into Incredible Unemployed Man’
The print edition is part of a variety of perks that the company plans to offer online subscribers, who pay $5 a month, said Ben Collins, the CEO of The Onion’s parent company, Global Tetrahedron.
...
LaFlure said he hoped the print newspaper would reach a younger generation of consumers who had already begun to show some affinity for analog substitutes of digital products.
“I think for the same reason that 18-year-old kids are buying Taylor Swift on vinyl,” LaFlure said, “we can introduce those same kids to the notion that a print publication is a much richer way to consume media.”
Arend and his wife Anneesa Feenstra relocated their family from Canada to Russia to escape perceived LGBT ideology encroachment.
However, their dream soured when their bank accounts were reportedly frozen upon arrival.
...
Anneesa's frustration boiled over, leading to a regrettable outburst against their new home, which only worsened their situation when Kremlin officials took offense.
...
However, in a subsequent update, Arend issued an apology, acknowledging that their "thoughts aren't always conveyed properly." He added that their funds had been unfrozen, and despite the challenges, they remain committed to building a new life in Russia "for the long haul."
In the clip, he emphasized that Anneesa's frustrations were not directed at Russia as a whole. However, Anneesa's tearful display in an earlier video has raised doubts about their true feelings towards their decision to relocate.
...
Unfortunately, the family hit their second setback when they tried to unfreeze their money. In a YouTube clip, Arend expressed his frustration, noting the challenge of navigating the situation without English-speaking assistance in Russia.
Victoria Raverna wrote: ↑Mon Aug 19, 2024 8:57 pm
Putin need new conscripts?
Hostages.
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. Merton MYT
Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at Le Bourget airport outside Paris shortly after landing on a private jet late Saturday and placed in custody, three sources told Reuters.
The arrest of the 39-year-old technology billionaire prompted a warning on Sunday from Moscow to Paris that he should be accorded his rights, and criticism from X owner Elon Musk who says free speech in Europe was under attack.
There was no official confirmation from France of the arrest, but two French police sources and one Russian source who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Durov was arrested shortly after arriving at Le Bourget airport on a private jet from Azerbaijan.
One of the two French police sources said that ahead of the jet's arrival, police had noticed Durov was on the passenger list and moved to arrest him because he was the subject of an arrest warrant in France.
If you're going out of your way to look like a Bond villain...
At any rate, if you're doing something that pisses off both Putin and Musk, it can't be all bad.
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
French investigators issued a warrant for his arrest for allegations of cyberbullying, fraud, drug trafficking, organised crime, and promotion of terrorism on his platform. He is accused of failing to take action to prevent criminal use of his platform.
So Musk says free speech. I've never used Telegram. I seem to remember some years ago it was something the underground liked because of its encryption. If France have a case, it's yet another indicator of why Comrade Musk should move to Russia and leave behind all his government subsidized property. I hear freedom loving people are welcomed with open arms.
One interesting thing I've seen mentioned is that Russian milbloggers are particularly upset about this because the Russian military actually uses Telegram for operational purposes, presumably because their military comms capabilities are shit.
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
French investigators issued a warrant for his arrest for allegations of cyberbullying, fraud, drug trafficking, organised crime, and promotion of terrorism on his platform. He is accused of failing to take action to prevent criminal use of his platform.
So Musk says free speech. I've never used Telegram. I seem to remember some years ago it was something the underground liked because of its encryption. If France have a case, it's yet another indicator of why Comrade Musk should move to Russia and leave behind all his government subsidized property. I hear freedom loving people are welcomed with open arms.
From what I've been able to read, this arrest does seem like bullshit. Creating a platform where people can communicate securely should not be a crime, even if some people use it for evil. I hate to be aligned on anything with Musk, but I think he might not be wrong in this case.
French investigators issued a warrant for his arrest for allegations of cyberbullying, fraud, drug trafficking, organised crime, and promotion of terrorism on his platform. He is accused of failing to take action to prevent criminal use of his platform.
So Musk says free speech. I've never used Telegram. I seem to remember some years ago it was something the underground liked because of its encryption. If France have a case, it's yet another indicator of why Comrade Musk should move to Russia and leave behind all his government subsidized property. I hear freedom loving people are welcomed with open arms.
From what I've been able to read, this arrest does seem like bullshit. Creating a platform where people can communicate securely should not be a crime, even if some people use it for evil. I hate to be aligned on anything with Musk, but I think he might not be wrong in this case.
Agreed. Free speech has become, sadly, another right-wing rallying cry, but it's one issue we can all agree matters, even while we define it differently. My superficial understanding is that this guy and his platform are being singled out.
I don't have an understanding. Get back to me. I would hope France has a strong case against him to decide to detain him but that's shrouded in ignorance as of yet.
French investigators issued a warrant for his arrest for allegations of cyberbullying, fraud, drug trafficking, organised crime, and promotion of terrorism on his platform. He is accused of failing to take action to prevent criminal use of his platform.
So Musk says free speech. I've never used Telegram. I seem to remember some years ago it was something the underground liked because of its encryption. If France have a case, it's yet another indicator of why Comrade Musk should move to Russia and leave behind all his government subsidized property. I hear freedom loving people are welcomed with open arms.
From what I've been able to read, this arrest does seem like bullshit. Creating a platform where people can communicate securely should not be a crime, even if some people use it for evil. I hate to be aligned on anything with Musk, but I think he might not be wrong in this case.
The reporting on why he was arrested has been somewhat vague, to the point that it could be hyped up nonsense, or it could actually be legit. Initial reports claimed that he was arrested over a “lack of moderation” but other reports suggested potentially more serious claims around drug trafficking, terrorism, and CSAM....
...The problem is, without more details, we have no idea what is actually being charged and what his alleged responsibility is. After all, we’ve seen other cases where people have been charged with sex trafficking, when the reality was that was just how law enforcement spun a refusal to hand over data on users.
On top of that, leaping to criminal charges against an exec over civil penalties for a company… seems strange. For that to make any sense, someone should need to show actual criminal behavior by Durov, and not just “his service hosted bad stuff.”...
...As of right now, we just don’t know.
It sounds potentially worrisome, because if it’s really just “well, they refused to take down what we wanted,” that would be a dangerous attack on free speech. But if it’s “Durov himself was actively involved in the creation of and the sharing of illegal content,” then it could be trickier. And there’s a wide spectrum in between.
I will note that, over on Twitter, Elon’s fans are insisting that this is a test run before officials arrest Elon, but that seems ridiculously unlikely.
Also, I have to remind folks that a little over two decades ago, France also put out an arrest warrant on Yahoo CEO Tim Koogle, charging him as a war criminal, because Yahoo’s auction site in the US (notably, not the French version) allowed people to sell Nazi memorabilia. Eventually he was acquitted. You would hope in the two decades since then that officials would be a bit more sophisticated about this stuff, but at this moment, it’s just not clear at all.
Black Lives definitely Matter Lorini!
Also: There are three ways to not tell the truth: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Absolutely. If Durov has been himself doing illegal things, great. I'm all in favor of the rich actually seeing consequences for their actions. I'm skittish mostly because it seems most every country seems to feel profoundly threatened by encryption, and there have been too many attempts to regulate or cripple its use by normal people.
Sure, but do you really think a russian app is not going to have a backdoor allowing all messages to be decrypted? Or even copied before encryption? Or any one of a number of unscrupulous ways to undermine security for the user?
I'm a big fan of the rule of law, but russians don't seem to be. So from that perspective, you reap what you sow, I guess. We'll see.
GreenGoo wrote: ↑Mon Aug 26, 2024 4:59 pm
Sure, but do you really think a russian app is not going to have a backdoor allowing all messages to be decrypted? Or even copied before encryption? Or any one of a number of unscrupulous ways to undermine security for the user?
I'm a big fan of the rule of law, but russians don't seem to be. So from that perspective, you reap what you sow, I guess. We'll see.
It's not a Russian app. His first company was seized from him (VKontakte, a massive project that's like Facebook and LinkedIn rolled into one, with a pirated music and movie downloading platform on the side). He had to leave Russia and was already living in Dubai when he created Telegram. He may be a dirtbag but a different kind of dirtbag... If Russians are expressing "concern", it's because they don't want EU authorities to see their own communications.
I'm far from ignorant enough to think we live in a perfectly governed society. What I do think is that if France, particularly as part of the EU (meaning some group oversight) decided to nail this particularly big fish, they must have something rather potent. So, it's just going to be a few days or weeks of waiting. And listening to Musk, sadly.
Absolutely. If Durov has been himself doing illegal things, great. I'm all in favor of the rich actually seeing consequences for their actions. I'm skittish mostly because it seems most every country seems to feel profoundly threatened by encryption, and there have been too many attempts to regulate or cripple its use by normal people.
In the end, though, a lot of this does seem potentially very problematic. So far, there’s been no revelation of anything that makes me say “oh, well, that seems obviously illegal.” A lot of the things listed in the charge sheet are things that lots of websites and communications providers could be said to have done themselves, though perhaps to a different degree.
So we still don’t really have enough details to know if this is a ridiculous arrest, but it does seem to be trending towards that so far. ...
...it still feels like many of these issues would normally be worthy of a civil procedure, perhaps by the EU, rather than a criminal procedure by a local court in France.
So in the end, while it’s useful to see the details of this investigation, and it makes me lean ever so slightly in the direction of thinking these potential charges go too far, we’re still really missing many of the details. Nothing released today has calmed the concerns that this is overreach, but nothing has made it clear that it definitely is overreach either.
Black Lives definitely Matter Lorini!
Also: There are three ways to not tell the truth: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
LordMortis wrote: ↑Mon Aug 26, 2024 1:15 pm
I don't have an understanding. Get back to me. I would hope France has a strong case against him to decide to detain him but that's shrouded in ignorance as of yet.
France and the western intelligence agencies want those sweet sweet encryption codes. They’ll scour his laptops, his personal effects until they find a way in or he gives them one. And even if he doesn’t hand them over they’ll tell the Russians he did.
I predict a tragic upwards fall from a basement window on his return to Russia.
gilraen wrote: ↑Mon Aug 26, 2024 5:08 pm
If Russians are expressing "concern", it's because they don't want EU authorities to see their own communications.
How? It's encrypted, isn't it? It would be unethical and likely illegal if not outlined in their end user agreements to have a way to decrypt private communication.
Unagi wrote: ↑Tue Aug 27, 2024 7:55 am
Why on earth would he return to Russia, where he has already left - to avoid Russia.
It doesn't really matter, for any practical purposes. We've seen on more than one occasion over the last couple of years is that if the Kremlin wants to reach out and touch a Russian billionaire or oligarch, they don't need to wait for them to visit Russia.
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
waitingtoconnect wrote: ↑Mon Aug 26, 2024 6:23 pm
France and the western intelligence agencies want those sweet sweet encryption codes. They’ll scour his laptops, his personal effects until they find a way in or he gives them one.
This sort of scenario always reminds me of a classic xkcd comic:
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
After years of bickering with the Biden administration about vaccine misinformation, Mark Zuckerberg has now accused the White House of "repeatedly" pressuring Facebook for months "to censor certain COVID-19 content" in 2021 that Facebook supposedly would not have taken down without pressure.
In a letter to the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on Monday, the Meta CEO claimed that senior officials from the Biden administration "expressed a lot of frustration" when Facebook pushed back on certain content removal requests. According to Zuckerberg, the Biden administration didn't just want misinformation taken down, but also "humor and satire."
"Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take the content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19 related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure," Zuckerberg wrote, taking accountability for his platform's actions.
However, if Facebook was put in the same situation again—by any presidential administration—Zuckerberg claimed that his platform is now "ready to push back" and resist compromising its content standards.
Yes, it's very important you act as a megaphone for vaccine conspiracy theories and Nazis. Definitely go with that.
Unagi wrote: ↑Tue Aug 27, 2024 7:55 am
Why on earth would he return to Russia, where he has already left - to avoid Russia.
It doesn't really matter, for any practical purposes. We've seen on more than one occasion over the last couple of years is that if the Kremlin wants to reach out and touch a Russian billionaire or oligarch, they don't need to wait for them to visit Russia.
That's fine - I agree, but I was commenting on Waitingtoconnect's prediction of an event that followed his return to Russia. I found the prediction odd to start with a context like that.
I don't see deportation being on the table if they want to prosecute him for crimes in their jurisdiction, and extradition isn't going to be an issue given that he doesn't seem to have any other outstanding warrants. It's more a matter of whether or not he's granted bail (assuming they go forward with the charges and don't simply release him). He reportedly holds multiple passports and has ample resources to flee the country, so they may decide he's too much of a flight risk to be released on bond.
Threatening to send him to Russia isn't any sort of leverage because it isn't like anything bad will happen to him just because they put him on a plane to Moscow that couldn't happen to him anywhere.
"What? What?What?" -- The 14th Doctor
It's not enough to be a good player... you also have to play well. -- Siegbert Tarrasch
Unagi wrote: ↑Tue Aug 27, 2024 7:55 am
Why on earth would he return to Russia, where he has already left - to avoid Russia.
It doesn't really matter, for any practical purposes. We've seen on more than one occasion over the last couple of years is that if the Kremlin wants to reach out and touch a Russian billionaire or oligarch, they don't need to wait for them to visit Russia.
That's fine - I agree, but I was commenting on Waitingtoconnect's prediction of an event that followed his return to Russia. I found the prediction odd to start with a context like that.
I've seen a few articles indicating that Telegram's relationship with Russia has markedly improved in recent years. It's no longer trusted or used by much of the Russian opposition.
