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I don’t disagree, but I’ll observe that governments used to be much less friendly with tech incumbents, at least in public. Ten years ago it was a scandal that
by benreesman 2y ago
I don’t disagree, but I’ll observe that governments used to be much less friendly with tech incumbents, at least in public.
Ten years ago it was a scandal that big tech interacted with the surveillance state at all: Zuckerberg drove an initiative around cross-DC encryption at ruinous expense because of the mere accusation that the NSA might have a tap.
Today they’re giving us the finger with NSA board members. It’s flagrant, arrogant, and anti-hacker anything: you will do nothing, because you can do nothing.
- supriyo-biswas 2y agoPoliticians have been largely able to convince that it's tech that it's evil, with their actions always being colored through a political lens, whether it's "helping pedophiles" or "spreading misinformation" or what have you. The vassalization of these companies was imminent, and now, it is complete.
- benreesman 2y agoI don’t expect much from politicians, in my lifetime the political class has mostly seemed to be pretty nakedly self-serving. I’m sad because so many of my personal heroes, the hackers I’ve admired, are just on board past any possible argument that it’s in the public welfare. I learn in the same month that OpenAI is satisfying their voracious appetite for data with an NSA partnership as I do that the old-school FB infra braintrust is taking the money. I’m embarrassed by all of this. I want to be remembered as part of something else.
- thereddaikon 2y agoThis isn't binary. They are both evil. Neither group is your friend nor do they have your best interests at heart.
- giancarlostoro 2y agoToday they're paying for the right to have social media companies do their bidding, according to the Twitter Files Drop a little while back.