A few years ago I wrote about a project to revive the early 3D virtual community Cybertown, and yesterday, I got an alert that Cybertown is “back and fully restored” as of this month. There’s a bit more detail on the Facebook page, including info about its mayoral race.
Today’s 2500-plus scheduled anti-Trump protest events — a followup to the ones that drew an estimated 4 to 6 million participants earlier this year — are underway, and if you’re looking for somewhere besides social media to follow along, States Newsroom has a liveblog of photos, crowd vibe-checks, and interviews from across the country.
[News From The States]
It’s an expected consequence of the ongoing shutdown, which was already impacting the legal system. Federal judges are still going to serve and online case files will remain functional, but workers are being furloughed and some — though not all — civil cases involving the government are being delayed.
[United States Courts]
SB 2420 takes effect next year, but with app stores already complying, the First Amendment challenges are cropping up: one by trade group CCIA, another by a student advocacy group. California recently got its own app store verification law, so a legal showdown seems inevitable in America’s two most populous states.
Spitfire has a good check-in on the inevitable collision of hyper-documented influencers and hyper-realistic AI video:
Even if people don’t believe or trust this AI-generated video content of influencers and other public figures, some people will, because a lot of people already really struggle to identify when media is AI-generated and it’s constantly getting harder to tell. And even fake media can be part of a bullying or smear campaign.
[Spitfire News]
A good story about digital navigators who received federal funds to help kids, seniors, and other people learn to use services like telehealth portals and classroom resources in rural Alabama — until their mission was deemed “woke.”
