Techmeme
August 31, 2024, 7:25 PM

Top News

Associated Press:
Brazil blocks X, following an order from Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes after Elon Musk refused to name a legal representative in the country  —  The blocking of social media platform X in Brazil divided users and politicians over the legitimacy of the ban, and many Brazilians …
More: BBC, Bloomberg, Benzinga, The Guardian, Associated Press, The Verge, Boston Herald, CNN, Bitcoin Insider, Truthout, Axios, Android Headlines, The Post Millennial, Washington Post, iThinkDifferent, Game Rant, Digital Journal, Trying to make sense of Brazil, Agence France-Presse, American Greatness, Cointelegraph, DevX, Washington Examiner, The Desk, SlashGear, Cryptopolitan, Mashable, The Crypto Times, The Hill, CoinGape, DNyuz, The Gateway Pundit, TechCrunch, CNBC, The Sun, Human Events, Wired, The National Pulse, The Daily Caller, Reuters, PCMag, MEDIANAMA, The Atlantic, Advanced Television, and Financial Times
New York Times:
How Brazil's experiment to fight fake news during the 2022 elections, giving a justice broad power to order social media content removal, led to the ban on X  —  To combat disinformation, Brazil gave one judge broad power to police the internet.  Now, after he blocked X, some are wondering whether that was a good idea.
Nick Burns / Americas Quarterly:
A profile of Alexandre de Moraes as even some supporters wonder if the Brazilian Supreme Court judge has become too powerful and gone too far by banning X  —  An escalating clash with Elon Musk and damaging revelations in the press are intensifying a long-running debate about whether Alexandre de Moraes is too powerful.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
X is right to stand up to Brazil's unjust “hostage laws,” but Musk's fight highlights his cynical free speech stance after he caved to Modi's censorship demands  —  In the battle between Elon Musk and Brazil, there are no heroes — only two sides engaged in an epic display of hypocrisy and overreach.
New York Times:
Bluesky reports a record spike in usage as many X users in Brazil move to Bluesky and Threads; Brazil is X's fifth-largest international market, with 20M+ users  —  The platform went dark across Brazil on Saturday, sending online commentators to new digital town squares.
New York Times:
Matt Stoller / BIG:
Social media companies' reliance on Section 230 protections is in jeopardy after a US court ruled TikTok's algorithmic curation is not protected by Section 230  —  “TikTok reads 230 of the Communications Decency Act to permit casual indifference to the death of a ten-year-old girl.”  - Judge Paul Matey
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
A reporter tries fixing his reputation with AI chatbots, including by adding a “strategic text sequence” to data sources, and via an AI optimization startup  —  When I set out to improve my tainted reputation with chatbots, I discovered a new world of A.I. manipulation.
More: Digital Journal, Longreads, and Axios
Threads: @kevinrooseBluesky: @g026r.leftblank.orgX: @ashleevanceForums: r/technology
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
A Texas federal judge who held Tesla stock denies a motion to dismiss X's lawsuit accusing Media Matters of misrepresenting the amount of extremist content on X  —  Judge says Musk critic “targeted” advertisers in Texas, denies motion to dismiss.  —  A federal judge in Texas yesterday ruled …
The Information:
Coatue founder Philippe Laffont has left the board of ByteDance following a report that Coatue was considering selling a portion of its ByteDance stake  —  Coatue Management founder Philippe Laffont has left the board of ByteDance, the parent of TikTok, according to the company's website.

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More News

Ed Newton-Rex / Music Business Worldwide:
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Earlier Picks

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
New York Times: