Follow-up

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America’s EARN IT Act attacking Section 230 is back – and once again threatening the internet, critics say

The EARN IT Act, a legislative bill intended “to encourage the tech industry to take online child sexual exploitation seriously” has been revived in the US Senate after it died in committee back in 2020.

And advocacy groups have once again decried the bill for threatening free speech and access to encryption, and for imperiling the liability protection that allows online service providers to host third-party content. In other words, the bill’s reception has been much the same as it was two years ago.

US Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) on Tuesday reintroduced the bill [PDF] claiming that online service providers are disinterested in keeping child sexual abuse material (CSAM) off their platforms.

[…]

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February 3, 2022

A snowplow in southwestern Minnesota will soon be named “Betty Whiteout.”

The moniker is a nod to the actress and comedian Betty White, who died in December at age 99. It received the most votes during the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s second “Name a Snowplow” contest, in which the agency sought clever names for eight of its large orange trucks it sends out to clear snow and ice from the roads.

After plowing through the votes, “Betty Whitetout” cruised to victory with more than 40,000 votes. That was far less than last year’s top vote-getter — Plowy McPlowFace received 65,292 — but double the number of the second-place winner, Ctrl Salt Delete, with just over 21,000 votes.

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That reminds me of this…

And I used to know the guy who suggested the name, as I used to work for his dad!

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Dammit!
Adult Swim GIF by The Boondocks

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That sucks! Maybe someone else will pick it up…

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I can’t decide if my favorite runner up is “Scoop Dog” or “Crtl Salt Delete.”

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A positive development, but I would much rather have this ended by actually bothering to police the criminal element of this “protest” rather than depend on a tech company choosing how to enforce its terms of service.

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Regina King—who voiced Huey Freeman

I did not know that :open_mouth:

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This article provides more details on Whoopi Goldberg’s comments about identifying the “other” as targets of persecution:

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US military efforts to plan for Afghanistan evacuation faced resistance from White House, records show

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…and it’s gone.

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This story gets more and more unsettling with each new development.

Quote: “Sexual assault? I never said that anyone made me submit to a sexual assault,” Peng [said], according to L’Equipe. Of her since-deleted November social media post detailing her allegations against former Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli, Peng said, “This post resulted in an enormous misunderstanding from the outside world. My wish is that the meaning of this post no longer be skewed.”

When asked about why she had deleted the post, Peng replied, “I erased it. Why? Because I wanted to.”

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Journalists targeted during BLM protests in Minnesota won their case and are sending a message to police about respecting freedom of the press:

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