Adi Robertson

Senior Editor, Tech & Policy

Pornhub is under new ownership

Adi Robertson and Sean HollisterMar 16, 2023

The System Shock remake is (hopefully) finally coming on May 30th

Adi RobertsonMar 14, 2023

Adi RobertsonMar 13, 2023

“There are more Discords than you realize, and more lore pouring into them than anyone can truly comprehend.”

Discord is an information apocalypse waiting to happen — its servers host huge amounts of obscure expert knowledge with very few ways to preserve it if they shut down. I’ll let digital archivist Jason Scott explain why that’s so alarming.

I have no disputes as the popularity of the places, the things that happen there, and the unquestioned vivaciousness of being the party that never seems to end and everyone wants to join. I just happen to be the sort of person who notices there’s no decent fire exits and most of the structure is wood and there’s an… awful lot of pyrotechnics being set off.

Discord, or the Death of Lore

[ASCII by Jason Scott]

Adi RobertsonMar 8, 2023

“It is not an ‘I read it on the internet so don’t blame me!’ statute.”

We’ve written about the dicey legal situation around AI-generated text and images. Now, Public Knowledge’s John Bergmayer makes a thoughtful (if, given how new these tools are, I think still debatable) argument against granting Section 230 liability protections to bots like Microsoft’s new Bing:

Content that a service helps develop “in whole or in part” is outside Section 230’s scope.
Section 230 also does not allow services to use uprooted facts or data and then escape liability by saying the data came from somewhere else. It is not an “I read it on the internet so don’t blame me!” statute.

Sorry Sydney: Generative AI Doesn't (and Shouldn't) Have a Liability Shield

[Public Knowledge]

Twitter just let its privacy- and security-protecting Tor service expire

Adi RobertsonMar 7, 2023

Adi RobertsonMar 6, 2023

Twitter is working again, but Mastodon.social’s having problems today too.

Mastodon.social is one of the biggest Mastodon servers and a popular choice for Twitter exiles — particularly today, when Twitter links and images started breaking. But some people have had trouble using it too, and admin Eugen Rochko confirms a “massive” denial-of-service attack has impacted service. I’ve still been able to reach my feed, but some people might just have to take the day off from posting.