onfocus

"The business choices of internet platforms have enabled an explosion not only of white supremacy but also of Covid denial and antivax extremism, which have variously undermined the nation’s pandemic response, nearly sabotaged the presidential election, and played a foundational role in the violence at the Capitol. A huge industry has evolved on the platform giants to raise money from and sell products to people in the thrall of extreme ideologies."

Also, their monopoly power means no meaningful alternatives can exist for businesses who want to advertise or people who want to socialize on platforms that act ethically.

"Americans voted Trump out of office, but instead of accepting that result, he has sought to overturn it. By inciting the violent occupation of the US Capitol, Trump has given up any legitimate claim to power. In 14 days, barring catastrophe, he will be out of office. The only question is how much damage he will do in the meantime — and we know, based on long experience, that his Twitter and Facebook accounts will be among his primary weapons."

Taking away some ability to incite violence would be a good step.

Update (1/7): Facebook bans Trump for his remaining time in office right after congress confirmed the electoral college votes and the Georgia election determined Democrats would control Congress.

Update (1/9): Twitter permanently bans Trump. And all attempts to use related accounts.

"The employees were scared and frustrated, and some came to the realization that the platform they had helped build and operate had contributed to the wave of fear, disinformation, and chaos that flooded Congress."

Facebook had to stop their employees from discussing the coup attempt today.

"The president is unfit to remain in office for the next 14 days. Every second he retains the vast powers of the presidency is a threat to public order and national security."

I agree with the Washington Post Editorial Board. Time for quick action before he does more damage.

"As senior Defense Department leaders have noted, 'there’s no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of a U.S. election.' Efforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory. Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic."

The fact that all living former defense secretaries felt the need to send this warning is chilling.

Today in Tabs was THE newsletter before newsletters knew how to newsletter. Five years later we still have tabs to ignore and Rusty is going to summarize them for us again. This is a big get for Substack in the email newsletter platform wars. Subscribe now while email is still an open platform!

So it turns out I subscribe to ~30 Substack newsletters and their new inbox tool is helpful. You can also add arbitrary RSS feeds into the mix if you want, but with no organization tools you probably aren't going to use this as a full-time feed reader. Neat though!

Facebook has spent much of the past four years kowtowing to conservatives, treating right-wing news outlets with kid gloves even as they flouted its rules and spread disinformation, while bending over backward to avoid offending the Trump administration.

What if the real value Zuckerberg bought with his fealty was the friends he made along the way?

"Legal efforts by Trump and his allies filed in states he lost have been stunningly unsuccessful — one minor win compared with more than 50 losses in state and federal courts at both the trial and appellate levels."

[jazz hands] The Aristocrats!

Nice explanation of why CSS is different from other types of programming. It's a positive feature of the Web that we don't have the same control as the printed page. (I keep telling myself.)

"The U.S. president is trying to steal the election, and, crucially, his party either tacitly approves or is pretending not to see it. This is a particularly dangerous combination, and makes it much more than just typical Trumpian bluster or norm shattering."

We need to call a coup attempt what it is, even if it’s shoddy. A stupid attempted robbery is still a crime.

"...another 222 GOP members of the House and Senate — nearly 90 percent of all Republicans serving in Congress — will simply not say who won the election."

It’s a whole Republican party problem, not a few bad actors problem. Also why we’re seeing no covid relief.