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Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:23:58 JST Molly White

The world's richest man has joined a growing chorus of right-wing voices attacking Wikipedia as part of an intensifying campaign against free and open access information. Why do they hate it so much?
https://www.citationneeded.news/elon-musk-and-the-rights-war-on-wikipedia/
#Wikipedia #ElonMusk #USpolitics #USpol

In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:23:58 JST from hachyderm.io permalink
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:26:21 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  
  Recent tweets by Elon Musk, Libs of Tiktok, Mario Nawfal, and others have claimed that Wikipedia is spending “$50 million for DEI”, misrepresenting Wikipedia’s actual budget and financial statements to claim Wikipedia is now “Wokepedia”.
  #Wikipedia #ElonMusk #USpolitics #USpol
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:26:21 JST permalink
  Attachments
  1. First was Chaya Raichik, also known as “Libs of TikTok,” who on December 23 screenshotted a pie chart of budget categories from the Wikimedia Foundation’s 2023–2024 annual plan.1 Apparently not bothering to read past the labels, Raichik dashed off a tweet condemning the Foundation for spending $50 million on “diversity, equity, and inclusion”,a the right’s latest bogeyman, and urging her own substantial follower base to “Stop donating to Wokepedia”.2b Musk agreed, amplifying her post with the comment: “Stop donating to Wokepedia until they restore balance to their editing authority.”3 [Image: Pie chart from Wikimedia’s annual plan, breaking down the budget by goal categories: Infrastructure, Equity, Safety & Inclusion, Effectiveness.] That the “safety & inclusion” link is not purple in this screenshot taken from Raichik’s tweet suggests she didn’t even bother to visit the page to determine what that category encompasses. a. “DEI” has been a recent addition to “CRT”, “wokeness”, and other dogwhistles used by conservatives and those further to the right to gesture at, and broadly oppose, racial and gender equality.5455 b. Rightwingers trying to come up with a slur against Wikipedia should really have considered something that doesn’t so closely overlap with Wookieepedia, a near-homograph that predates the “Wokepedia” coinage by twenty years, which makes me do a double take every time. For those who aren’t familiar,
    https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/761/340/325/896/415/original/33625695f57b4283.png
  2. Two days later, Musk retweeted Mario Nawfal, who had ripped off Raichik’s same post to produce his own, with the bold and all-caps headline “Wikipedia blows $50M on wokeness”. Nawfal added, “That’s $50 million for DEI instead of, you know, improving the actual site. … Sure, inclusion is nice, but maybe they could use some of that money to ensure they’re a reliable source of information first? Just a thought.”4 What Nawfal, Raichik, and Musk either failed to understand or deliberately misrepresented was that these budget categories they’ve dismissed as “DEI” directly support Wikipedia’s reliability. The funding goes to programs to expand coverage of underrepresented topics, recruit editors with expertise in neglected subject areas, develop tools to identify and counter coordinated disinformation campaigns, improve article and source reliability, and protect the project and its editors from attempts to censor or restrict access to Wikipedia content. Far from detracting from Wikipedia’s mission, these programs work to directly address the types of concerns Musk and others raise.5
    https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/761/344/788/592/894/original/3498cccb14941897.png
  Joachim repeated this.
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:27:31 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  
  Then, Musk amplified an erroneous and months-outdated claim that Bill Clinton had been deleting information about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein from Wikipedia.
  #Wikipedia #ElonMusk #USpolitics #USpol
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:27:31 JST permalink
  Attachments
  1. Then, in the early hours of December 31, Musk reposted a video from a self-described “Conspiracy Realist/Coincidence analyser” account, “@BGatesIsaPsycho”, which had in turn taken the video from antisemitic conspiracy theoristc and self-described “OSINT journalis[t] exposing globalism” Ian Carroll. “No more donations to Wikipedia until they start being truthful”, Musk added, atop a video where Carroll claimed that “someone deleted all of Bill Clinton’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein from Wikipedia”, suggesting that Clinton himself was behind the edits. This, again, was a complete misrepresentation: the text was moved, not deleted, and not likely by Bill Clinton.d If Carroll had cared to look at the public article editing history, he would have seen that the extremely long biographical article on Clinton was in fact split678 — as overlong articles often are9 — into separate subtopic articles, “Bill Clinton sexual assault and misconduct allegations” and “Post-presidency of Bill Clinton”, both of which are linked from the primary page. The Epstein-related section was restored to the primary Clinton article by a different editor three weeks later,10 shortly after Carroll published his video but months before Musk reshared it.
    https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/761/348/869/322/371/original/0216822d1ed52566.png
  Fabian and Joachim repeated this.
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:27:46 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  
  Musk’s recent Twitter rampage reveals a man with a grudge against Wikipedia, looking for anything to support his position, regardless of whether it’s true. But why have Musk and others on the right chosen Wikipedia as a favorite punching bag?
  #Wikipedia #ElonMusk #USpolitics #USpol
  
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:27:46 JST permalink
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:30:08 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  
  Attacks on press freedom and free expression have become commonplace, even among the right’s self-described free speech champions. But neither Trump, Musk, nor anyone on the right can control Wikipedia as they wish.
  #Wikipedia #ElonMusk #USpolitics #USpol
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:30:08 JST permalink
  Attachments
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:32:37 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  
  The right’s frequent claims that right-leaning sources and viewpoints are “banned” on Wikipedia are also either misguided or intentionally deceptive.
  #Wikipedia #ElonMusk #USpolitics #USpol
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:32:37 JST permalink
  Attachments
  anban repeated this.
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:33:54 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  
  Most of Musk’s ire towards Wikipedia stems from his anger that articles about him do not repeat his own attempts to write his personal and professional history.
  #Wikipedia #ElonMusk #USpolitics #USpol
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:33:54 JST permalink
  Attachments
  1. Personal grievances While these days Musk frames his crusade against Wikipedia as a principled stand against bias, the timeline of his complaints reveals a more personal motivation. His earliest grievances targeted his own Wikipedia biography, which accurately but much to his chagrin describes him as an “early investor” in Tesla rather than a founder.31h He’s also complained about the Tesla article, which he gripes “glorif[ies]” one of Tesla’s actual founders.32 He has repeatedly claimed his Wikipedia article was written by his “enemies”,3334 and has joined his fans’ complaints about the portion of his Wikipedia page outlining his role in spreading misinformation, bigotry, and conspiracy theories, agreeing with one who suggested “someone paid to have this written”.35 He has boasted so often363738 that has has not tried to “curate” his Wikipedia biography (by which he seems to mean edit it himself, or pay someone to do so on his behalf) that I wonder if he doth protest too much. (As a very highly-watched Wikipedia page, attempts by Musk or his lackeys to insert false or unverifiable portions of the autohagiography he repeats elsewhere would likely meet considerable resistance, as demonstrated by the battles between Musk fanboys — hired or otherwise — and Wikipedia editors that rage in the edit history and talk page.) This grandstanding rings hollow given his track record: when faced with unfavorable coverage elsewhere, Musk has shown no hesitation to exert direct control thro
    https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/761/372/127/152/919/original/174f08cf7126dc0d.png
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:35:49 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  
  Only after failing to rewrite his own history on Wikipedia did Musk’s criticism expand to broader complaints, such as Wikipedia’s supposed systemic bias.
  #Wikipedia #ElonMusk #USpolitics #USpol
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:35:49 JST permalink
  Attachments
  1. Only after failing to rewrite his own history on Wikipedia did Musk’s criticism expand to broader complaints, such as Wikipedia’s supposed systemic bias. This crusade gained momentum through several high-profile incidents that became right-wing flashpoints, each fueling his campaign when the site’s coverage didn't match his desired framing. In July 2022, in one of his first tweets complaining about the site beyond where it mentioned him, Musk and others fell for the false statement by Mike Cernovich that “Wikipedia changed the definition of recession to favor the Biden regime, and then locked the page.”39 An article screenshot provided by Cernovich featured text that had remained unchanged since the Trump administration, but that didn’t stop a right-wing firestorm, joined by Musk, where people claimed that Wikipedia had removed the common definition of “recession” as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. (It hadn’t). Tweet by Molly White @molly0xfff: absolutely begging people to learn how to diff wikipedia articles before falling for clickbait here's the "recession" article, on july 14 vs. today. [Image: Diff of two versions of the Wikipedia article on recession, showing minimal wording changes, and that a sentence was added: "Although the definition of a recession between different countries and scholars varies, two consecutive quarters of decline in a country's real gross domestic product is commonly used as a practical definition of a recession."]
    https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/761/377/993/582/916/original/36878623d272a847.png
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:37:41 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  
  However, even many of his complaints about supposed widespread bias still boil down to disgruntlement at how he personally is covered on Wikipedia.
  #Wikipedia #ElonMusk #USpolitics #USpol
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:37:41 JST permalink
  Attachments
  1. However, even many of his complaints about widespread bias still boil down to disgruntlement at how he personally is covered on the site. Later that year, Musk complained “Wikipedia has a non-trivial left-wing bias”,42 in response to a tweet by Ian Miles Cheong, who observed that there was a deletion discussion underway for the “Twitter Files” article, adding: “These people work hand in hand with the MSM to shape the narrative.” (Anyone can propose a Wikipedia article for deletion, triggering such a discussion. Although deletion discussions normally last seven days, this one was closed early due to overwhelming consensus to keep the article. Neither Cheong nor Musk noted this outcome, and in fact a year later Cheong reposted Musk’s reply to complain, “I still think about this post and how Wikipedia hasn’t improved at all since then. It’s only gotten worse.”43) Only days after his outrage that the controversy he was trying to stoke might not be covered on Wikipedia, Musk was dismayed when a different controversy — with him at the center — was deemed sufficiently noteworthy for a Wikipedia page. “A two day suspension of maybe 7 accounts for doxxing got an actual Wikipedia page!?” he tweeted,44 referring to a Wikipedia article documenting the unexplained banning of ten journalists who had reported on Musk. Twitter and Musk would later try to retroactively justify the ban with a newly-created rule against sharing real-time flight information such as that posted by the ElonJet Tw
    https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/761/384/787/939/274/original/5cd59a69cdd5cb66.png
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  charles (charles@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:38:46 JST charles
  in reply to
  
  @molly0xfff A great reminder that today is a great day to donate to Wikimedia.
  
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:38:46 JST permalink
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:39:22 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  
  Musk has occasionally brought up the question of why the Wikimedia Foundation needs such a large budget. (The Foundation’s annual budget for 2024–2025 is 0.3% of Musk’s proposed pay package, by the way.)
  #Wikipedia #ElonMusk #USpolitics #USpol
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:39:22 JST permalink
  Attachments
  1. Spending Some of the ostensible concern about Wikipedia revolves around its spending, though not about the most recent boneheaded claims that Wikipedia is “wasting $50 million” on “DEI” that I’ve already addressed. Amusingly, the question of whether the Wikimedia Foundation’s actual spending is justifiable is arguably Musk’s most reasonable argument, but it’s also one he hasn’t brought up in a long time. “Have you ever wondered why the Wikimedia Foundation wants so much money? It certainly isn’t needed to operate Wikipedia. You can literally fit a copy of the entire text on your phone!j So, what’s the money for? Inquiring minds want to know …”, wrote Musk in October 2023.45 Setting aside why Elon Musk is the one asking this question — the man who says he personally needs a pay package46 of 300-500× the Wikimedia Foundation’s annual budget for the upcoming year47 — Musk betrays the same complete lack of understanding for how software companies work as when he acquired Twitter and claimed it would work just fine if he fired nearly everyone based on absurd evaluations of their productivity (it hasn’t).48 While the cost to simply host a 50-gigabyte stripped-down copy of Wikipedia, or even the hundreds of terabytes of all content across all projects, might be comparatively low, Musk is apparently ignorant to the massive infrastructure costs for running a project like Wikipedia: maintaining and developing MediaWiki (the software that doesn’t just display Wikipedia articles
    https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/761/393/505/676/570/original/854feb6a2ae45188.png
  Wordsmurf of Mouthshire :emacs: 🍄 repeated this.
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:40:14 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  
  There certainly can be reasonable conversations about whether the Wikimedia Foundation needs to spend as much as it does, and the community has these conversations regularly. Most of the conversations I’ve seen from Musk and allies, however, are not such conversations.
  #Wikipedia #ElonMusk #USpolitics #USpol
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:40:14 JST permalink
  Attachments
  1. There certainly can be reasonable conversations about whether the Wikimedia Foundation needs to spend $150–$200 million each year. I suspect few have had as detailed conversations about whether there is a need for such spending and fundraising, or about the tone of fundraising emails and banners, or the ultimate purposes of the spending as have Wikimedia’s very own volunteer editing community, which has a rather peculiar and at times adversarial relationship with the Wikimedia Foundation.495051 But “why does Wikipedia need more than the cost to serve a 50GB file” is not one such reasonable conversation. Nor are some of the other talking points that tend to come up in these kinds of conversations (“why does the Wikimedia Foundation pay employees six-figure salaries when they don’t even pay their editors??”k and “why do they need more money when they already have over $270 million??”52l are another two I see a lot). I personally have shared some of the concerns about the magnitude of spending by the Wikimedia Foundation in the past, and have disagreed with some of its allocations — but I’ll also note that I happily contributed money to the Wikimedia Foundation earlier this year, as I have in the past. k. Editing Wikipedia for pay is an enormously fraught topic, and the damaging incentives introduced by offering payment for edits at an organizational level would likely be ruinous. l. The Wikimedia Foundation tries to keep assets amounting to 12–18 months of expenses in reserve
    https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/761/397/822/137/102/original/6d83750bd437d754.png
  Kim Scheinberg, Joachim and Mr. Bill and 2 others repeated this.
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:41:12 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  
  Attacks on Wikipedia from Musk and his allies aren't just about an online encyclopedia — they're part of a broader assault on any information source that refuses to be controlled.
  #Wikipedia #ElonMusk #USpolitics #USpol
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:41:12 JST permalink
  Attachments
  1. The escalating attacks on Wikipedia from Elon Musk and other powerful figures on the American right follow a familiar pattern. First come the claims of bias, supported by cherry-picked or misrepresented examples. Then the demands for “balance”, which in practice mean giving equal weight to fringe views or demonstrably false claims. When these demands are refused, the attacks shift to the platform's legitimacy itself: its funding, its governance, its leaders, and its very right to exist as an independent entity. We've seen this playbook deployed against traditional media, with Trump labeling unfavorable coverage “fake news” while promoting outlets that parrot his claims. We've seen it in academia, where “viewpoint diversity” is weaponized to demand equal time for climate change denial or historical revisionism. And we've seen it in social media, where Musk himself spent $44 billion to seize control of Twitter after claiming it was biased against conservative views.
    https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/761/402/553/114/959/original/ef826ee92e58fd06.png
  2. Wikipedia’s resilience to these tactics makes it both a model and a target. The very features that Musk and others criticize — its decentralized editing model, rigorous sourcing requirements, and nonprofit status — are what have allowed it to remain one of the internet’s most trusted resources. But these same features make it an obstacle to those who seek to control the narrative. Wikipedia faces real challenges: its relatively small editing community and difficulties attracting new editors, threats from AI-generated content,m and regulatory proposals that could restrict its functioning or threaten members of its editing community. m. Among them: decaying sourcing, the introduction of poor quality LLM-generated content into articles, and the reduced visibility of Wikipedia as people use LLMs trained on the site instead of the site itself. But as other information sources fall to acquisition, intimidation, or other pressure, Wikipedia’s stubborn independence becomes more vital than ever. The attacks from Musk and his allies aren't just about an online encyclopedia — they're part of a broader assault on any information source that refuses to be controlled.
    https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/761/402/560/062/579/original/49fc7aec036e7a82.png
  Wordsmurf of Mouthshire :emacs: 🍄 likes this.
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:42:19 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  
  Disclosures for this piece:
  #Wikipedia #ElonMusk #USpolitics #USpol
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:42:19 JST permalink
  Attachments
  1. Disclosures: I have been contributing to Wikipedia for more than 18 years (as “GorillaWarfare”), and am among the English Wikipedia’s most prolific contributors.53 I volunteer as an editor, administrator, functionary, and have previously served three terms on the site’s Arbitration Committee. While I think this makes me reasonably qualified to speak about Wikimedia-related topics, I should be clear that I do not work for the Wikimedia Foundation (and have never), do not speak on their behalf, and am not (and have never been) compensated for my Wikimedia-related work.n I talk a lot about the Wikipedia articles on Elon Musk and Tesla in this piece; as of publication, I haven’t edited either one (Musk, Tesla).
    https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/113/761/406/795/734/529/original/4d5013c156a7b0b7.png
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:42:43 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  
  If you enjoyed this reporting, please consider signing up for a free or pay-what-you-want subscription — it really helps me to keep doing this work. Citation Needed is an independent publication, entirely supported by readers like you.
  https://www.citationneeded.news/signup
  
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:42:43 JST permalink
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:43:05 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  
  Also, don’t forget there are audio versions of all of my newsletters (100% real human, no robo-voice)! You can listen on the article page linked at the top of the thread, or in your favorite podcast player.
  https://pod.link/1719025552
  
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:43:05 JST permalink
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  Allan Svelmøe Hansen (svelmoe@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:44:14 JST Allan Svelmøe Hansen
  in reply to
  
  @molly0xfff For people always calling for others to "do their own research" - they truly hate information they do not control and have difficult manipulating.
  
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 08:44:14 JST permalink
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  bison ✅ (bison@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 09:01:17 JST bison ✅
  in reply to
  
  @molly0xfff you voice them yourself?! Whoa!
  Sadly I can't stand the fake-robo voices (at least most of em), so I finally can listen to some news-posts :BlobhajHeart:
  
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 09:01:17 JST permalink
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 09:01:17 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  - bison ✅
  @bison I do! I hate the robo-voices too, they’re too uncanny.
  
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 09:01:17 JST permalink
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 09:01:43 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  - VessOnSecurity
  @bontchev you should probably read the linked article
  
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 09:01:43 JST permalink
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  VessOnSecurity (bontchev@infosec.exchange)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 09:01:44 JST VessOnSecurity
  in reply to
  
  @molly0xfff Because it has become so biased to the left on any political or generally controversial topic that even its creator says it can no longer be trusted?
  https://nypost.com/2021/07/16/wikipedia-co-founder-says-site-is-now-propaganda-for-left-leaning-establishment/
  
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 09:01:44 JST permalink
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 09:14:48 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  - David Cornu
  @dc good idea!
  
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 09:14:48 JST permalink
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  David Cornu (dc@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 09:14:49 JST David Cornu
  in reply to
  
  @molly0xfff that’s really cool. I had totally assumed it was a robot-voice reading because the UX matches what many big name publishers are doing. Might be worth calling that out in the caption underneath.
  
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 09:14:49 JST permalink
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  Adam Demasi (kirb@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 11:03:46 JST Adam Demasi
  in reply to
  
  @molly0xfff Thanks for mentioning this, subscribed! Seems you’ve been doing the recorded versions since Nov 2023. Did I skip the audio player without realising it every time?! Maybe it needs more visual differentiation, I’m used to these inline players being some 3rd party TTS widget so I must naturally scroll straight past. Could make the footer text more prominent + add a podcast icon (does a free one exist or does everyone just use Apple’s?)
  
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 11:03:46 JST permalink
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  Molly White (molly0xfff@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 15:52:56 JST Molly White
  in reply to
  - Octale
  @Octale I imagine it would depend on the context
  
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 15:52:56 JST permalink
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  Octale (octale@nerdculture.de)'s status on Friday, 03-Jan-2025 15:52:58 JST Octale
  in reply to
  
  @molly0xfff Hi Molly.
  I'm curious: Do lies of omission count as lies (or misinformation, of whatever term we're all using at the moment)?
  
  In conversation Friday, 03-Jan-2025 15:52:58 JST permalink

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