Google's Youtube video service has made the editorial decision to cut entire categories of content in a move that follows other anti-social media platforms transitioning from "platforms" to old fashioned publisher operating models (archived). In Google's chosen jurisdiction this shift should remove a number of statutory protections offered to platforms and open the firm to numerous torts from which it had been previously insulated though common law courts in the US are notoriously indeterministic in their rulings.
Category Archives: News
Chinese Ministries Issue Advisories Cautioning Against Travel To US Over Crime And Law Enforcement Hazards To Chinese Citizens
The Chinese foreign ministry and ministry of culture and tourism have issued travel advisories for Chinese citizens considering visits to the US (archived, archived, archived). Both advisories list many of the normal reasons other countries advise caution when traveling to the US including dangers presented by defects of culture and high urban crime rates. The culture and tourism ministry's advisory however goes further in highlighting the hazards posed by US "law enforcement" including the arbitrary application of laws.
Charges Dropped Against Members Of US Dissident Group That Refused To Plea Out
In Los Angeles, U.S. District Judge Carmac J. Carney dropped charges against members of the nationalist Rise Above Movemment (RAM) for violations of the 1968 Anti-Riot act on the grounds the act and its application in the case is too unconstitutionally broad (archived). The three men were charged with travelling with intent to riot and conspiracy to commit rioting for their attendance at a 2017 free speech rally that turned violent with the arrival of combatant antiFa activists. Carney determined the activity charged under the law was too far removed from the start of the violence and rioting for the Anti-Riot act to be consitutionally relevant.
Each charge carried a potential 5 year prison sentence. One other RAM member was charged, but they fell for the plea bargain scam. Four other RAM members similarly fell for the plea bargain scam in a another 2017 case.
Australians Shocked After 3 Chinese Naval Vessels Make Port Call In Sydney
Australians are shocked after three Chinese Navy vessels returning from the Gulf of Aden docked in Sydney for a reciprocal port call after years of Australian vessels visiting Chinese Ports (archived). The group consisted of one Type-054A frigate, a landing platform dock, and a smaller support craft. China has commisioned 30 Type-054A frigates into their Navy since the first entered service in 2007 and is currently producing more for export to select clients (archived, archived).
Amazon Moving Into "Built In" Market With Their Spyware, Google Drama Shows "Voice Computing" Largely Human Powered
The "voice computing" surveillance scheme appears to be gaining further forced promotion as Amazon partners with firms to build their "Alexa" spyware into new multi-family apartment buildings and hotels (archived). This emerging trend stands to still further raise the cost of privacy for captives of the United States well beyond what they already could not afford.
Meanwhile unrest inside of the Google bring further light to that USG intelligence gathering firm's fraudulent marketing of human labor as "artificial intelligence" (archived). The firm which once dominated search through algorithmic superiority increasingly depends on hand curation and a six figure number of heads indirectly employed as "mechanical turk"1 contractors to meet the needs of its customers.
Not to be confused with Amazon's Mechanical Turk(TM)(R) service ↩
California Public Utilities Commission Approves Measure Allowing Utilities To Initiate Mass "Fire Prevention" Blackouts
As the People's Republic of KKKalifornia continues its progressive deindustrialization, the local Public Utilities Commission has decided to allow electric utilities to implement mass blackouts during period of high fire risk in order to insulate themselves from liability should a fire break out (archived). As much of this People's Republic is a precariously irrigated desert, this means locales including San Francisco, San Jose, and the "ritzy" suburbs of Los Angeles are all candidates for preventative power outages, depending how the wind blows.
Certain special classes of utility determined by the composition of their ownership had been granted this authority as early as 2007. Calistoga in the Napa Valley enjoyed a prophylactic service outage last year that was surely sold as entirely for the people's own protection.
50,000 Microsoft SQL Servers Captured And Sent To Altcoin Mines
More than 50,000 machines running Microsoft SQL server have been captured through a piece of malware calling itself Nanshou (archived). The captured machines have pressed into service of their new masters and made to slave away in the altcoin mines. Microsoft SQL server software listening on a port open to the attacker provides all the opening Nanshou needs to capture root on affected boxes.
ProtonMail Caught Cooperating With "Law Enforcement"
Protonmail, notable for featuring "privacy" in its marketing and being a being a "private" email service commonly recommended outside the republic, is facing serious allegations of cooperating with criminal organizations styling themselves as "law enforcement" in various fiat jurisdictions (archived). A spokesperson has tried to mitigate the criticism by suggesting the don't "voluntarily" cooperate and are "obliged" to cooperate with criminal demands.
Such derpy weaseling ignores the example of Ladar Levison, who when faced with criminal FBI demands supported by the local courts circus against his Lavabit email service did the right thing. Rather than break the contract he was marketing to customers, Levison shuttered Lavabit when the forces of evil made continuing under the conditions he marketed to customers impossible.
Huawei Document Deliveries From Japan Via Fedex Routed Through US, IEEE "Professional" Association Cuts Ties With Huawei Affiliated Persons, And More
Several packages in transit from a vendor in Japan to Huawei in China have been routed through the US state of Tennessee despite the substantial milage involved in the detour (archived). This malicious misrouting raises serious concerns of organized industrial espionage in light of FedEx's history of extra-legal collaboration with USG organs.
Meanwhile the US based "Professional" organization has depersoned its Huawei affiliated members. Employees of Huawei and academics affiliated with Huawei are being barred from participating in peer review, editing of the organization's journals, and anything else that involves access to papers before their publication (archived). This is merely yet another demonstration of the way USG affiliated "international" organs aren't in fact very international at all.
Looming over the entire situation is that outside of the market for infrastructure gear where the USG is making noise about Huawei's increasing dominance over Cisco spyware, Huawei and fellow Chinese giant Xiaomi are increasingly eclipsing US based Apple and Lower Korea based Samsung in the high (archived) and low end (archived) of the consumer device market. This development critically endangers the position of USG affiliated firms to draw rent seeking income from owning a brand they apply to devices manufactured for them in east Asia while Chinese firms strengthen the brand they apply to devices they manufacture themselves. Sorry for your loss.
Balkan Tensions Rise With Serbian Military On Alert After Kosovo Police Persecute Ethnic Serbs
The Serbian military has gone to "combat alert" after US/UN backed Kosovo forces operating in police uniforms carried out raids against ethnic Serbs in a majority Serb border region (archived). twenty-three prisoners were taken and two UN staff members were wounded while attempting to "peacekeep" during the raid (archived). The NATO occupation force KFOR, which allows Kosovo to have a border, issued a statement calling for "calm" as they "investigate" what appears to be statally organized ethnic violence carried out by Albanians against Serbs with the aggressors gifted protection by NATO.