Notices tagged with bigtech, page 14

Some fediverse instance admins: “How cool, Meta invited us to the adult table.”

Yes, they did.

Because you’re what’s for dinner.

#fediverse #mastodon #meta #Project92 #BigTech #SiliconValley #SurveillanceCapitalism

I love it. There’s a poll ongoing about whether folks would ban a Meta (Instagram/Facebook) instance and people are like “well, I’d give them the benefit of the doubt.”

I really have no words.

Is it learned helplessness? Stockholm Syndrome? Masochism? Something else?

I just don‘t get it.

#SiliconValley #BigTech #SurveillanceCapitalism #PlayItAgainSam

Headlines that should get the attention of every Dem electeds at the federal and state level (especially in CA) and they should be moving immediately to hold these big tech companies accountable. #uspol #bigtech #Twitter #Google #abortionrights https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/15/tech/google-anti-abortion-ads-ccdh/index.html

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rachel-hunt-north-carolina-twitter-video-abortion_n_648b4257e4b0756ff8631dec

We need to save the #news from #BigTech - here's how: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/saving-news-big-tech

Behind the simple interfaces of the websites we visit everyday, lies a complex web of code and exploitation.

Researcher Joanna Moll uncovered the hidden cost of ONE user buying ONE book on Amazon:

-1,307 different requests to various scripts (mostly used for tracking and profiling you)

-This totals 8,724 A4 pages worth of printed code

-The amount of energy needed to load up all that garbage: 30 Wh.

https://www.janavirgin.com/AMZ/

#Amazon #BigTech #Privacy #Environment #SoftwareSustainability

I've been given links to several comment chains which have simultaneously been full of far left and right demagoging and conspiracy theory. The beauty of the fediverse is that my view of the world didn't have that. When I went to them I could see them but my world's view didn't have it. This is because of the nature of how the fediverse works. Specifically:

• Federation isn't all-on-all
• We don't have a click/engagement goosing algorithm shoveling the content in our faces
• Users and server admins have powerful moderation tools

Ask me again why I prefer a decentralized, open source, open data, self hostable social network ecosystem over the walled gardens, new and old, that the SV VCs keep trying to lock us into. It isn't perfect but is improving. #fediverse #BigTech #SocialMedia

Just saying Hi from #PoliticoTechSummit, a 2-day panel event on #EU tech #regulation kindly and entirely altruisticly paid for by #Google. 🆒

Ping me if you're here and want to chat. #lobbying #bigtech

The US understands the threat of foreign tech companies/apps gathering data on US citizens and manipulating their behaviour and is looking to ban TikTok.

Dear @EU_Commission, here’s an incomplete list of foreign tech companies/apps gathering data on EU citizens and manipulating their behaviour:

- Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc.)
- Alphabet, Inc. (Google, YouTube, etc.)
- Twitter, Inc.
- Microsoft (Windows, etc.)
- Snap, Inc.

Thoughts?

#SiliconValley #BigTech #us #eu

#AI #GenerativeAI #LLMs #BigTech #PoliticalEconomy: "If AI systems become the site of articulating social visions, a dominant factor in the make-up of the public sphere, or even a political infrastructure themselves, there is much to be said for actually subjecting them to public control as well. If this is taken to its logical conclusion, the last resort would be, horribile dictu, communization – in other words, expropriation.

Seen in this way, the open letter appears in a different light. Not merely as the technological catastrophism of a group of hysterical “longtermists,” but as an attempt to divert attention from the political consequences of this technology. For those are much more concrete than the dictatorship of the machines – but regulating them is much more dangerous for the companies and individuals who profit most from the hype around AI."

https://hannesbajohr.de/en/2023/04/08/whoever-controls-language-models-controls-politics/

#BigTech #Layoffs #Capitalism: "These layoffs have nothing to do with "trimming the fat" or correcting the hiring excesses of the lockdown. They're a project to transfer value from workers, customers and users to shareholders. Google's layoff of 12,000 workers followed fast on the heels of gargantuan stock buyback where the company pissed away enough money to pay those 12,000 salaries…for the next 27 years.

The equation is simple: the more companies invest in maintenance, research, development, moderation, anti-fraud, customer service and all the other essential functions of the business, the less money there is to remit to people who do nothing and own everything."

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/21/tech-workers/#sharpen-your-blades-boys

@Gargron while I'm with both you & @gruber on rolling out welcome mat for #Zuckstick + #Meta in #Fediverse serious concerns remain re: establishing “Digital Self Defence” tools, strategies, policies & laws re: persistent #PersonalData harvesting by #BigTech everywhere Zeros & Ones exist. Where's the balance between Open Web & Privacy? We have TONS of great #digital stuff precisely because there’s NO law or BAD law (especially in #AI).
Asking for citizens, individuals families & #democracy ?

Bye bye old fedi ? thx for all the Free Beer!

With #Facebook plans to test decentralized waters after #Cloudflare and others, we'll see resilience of #Fediverse to remain of-the-people.

Does it matter if they'll be #ActivityPub-based or not? Stuff depends on levels of investment and products launched.

Was thinking #BigTech would only add AP endpoints a bit naive?

Will slick open core products, sdk's, quality semi-open specs and docs, launch the #CorpoVerse?

Keep the #FOSS free beer coming ?

@atomicpoet @timbray
The ‘social media' phenomenon was about capturing & monetizing (+leveraging for political purposes) digital exhaust of human behaviours. What's to stop or thwart that same model - on #mastodon / in #fediverse / or #activitypub ? – asking for a planet.

#SiliconValley
#SocialMedia
#BigTech
#VC #USPoli
#Privacy
#Surveillance
#SurveillanceCapitalism

Ya think? ??♂️

"New research suggests that privacy in the #metaverse might be impossible:
https://venturebeat.com/virtual/new-research-suggests-that-privacy-in-the-metaverse-might-be-impossible/

??

#Privacy
#Surveillance
#SurveillanceCapitalism
#BigTech
#VR #AI #ML
#BigData

Danish pension fund sells its stock in #amazon and boycuts the company for not accepting staff to unionise. Just one good among many reasons to boycut the data giant
#bigtech
https://mediawatch.dk/Medienyt/Web/article15015616.ece

I’ll probably run out of air before folks get this but, hey, one more time for those in the back:

If you’re creating “alternatives to #BigTech” that scale vertically, you’re doing it wrong. You’ll never beat Big Tech at vertical scale. They invented the game. They’ll destroy you at it every time. And say you somehow do manage it… congratulations, you’ve just become *checks notes* Big Tech. *golf claps*

So what do you do?

You limit vertical scale and #design for horizontal scale.

#SmallTech

Folks in Silicon Valley: We’re so glad some poor schmuck created Mastodon on his own dime and time while we were busy making mint festering the Twitters of the world. Isn’t it great? We’re really enjoying it… Now, how do we enclose, exploit, and monetise the shit out of this thing?

#SiliconValley #BigTech #peopleFarmers #fediverse #mastodon #enclosure #embraceExtendExtinguish #ventureCapital #vc #billionaire #douchebags

Tech Bro Hypocrisy #451: Consent

“If you make something freely available on the web, we can take it and do whatever we like with it.”

– Oh, so I can just take your company’s logo and the copy from your site and use it? Download your app and redistribute it?…

“No, those are protected by trademarks, copyright, and licenses.”

?

#consent #tech #technology #techBros #BigTech #SiliconValley #peopleFarmers #optIn #optOut #hypocrisy #copyright #trademarks #licenses