Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: Bluesky creates the world's weirdest, hardest-to-understand binding arbitration clause; and more!
Archived at: pluralistic.net/2025/08/15/dog…
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Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Bluesky creates the world's weirdest, hardest-to-understand binding arbitration clause: What, and I cannot stress this enough, the FUCK does this mean?!
mamot.fr/@pluralistic/11503464…
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Cory Doctorow
2025-08-15 20:22:55
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Hey look at this
* Sabot in the Age of AI algorithmic-sabotage.github.io… (h/t JWZ)
* Bestselling author Karen Joy Fowler offers character naming rights in fundraiser clarionwriteathon.com/prizes/a…
* LLMs’ “simulated reasoning” abilities are a “brittle mirage,” researchers find arstechnica.com/ai/2025/08/res…
* Pank-a-Squith neatorama.com/2025/08/14/Pank-… (h/t Neatorama)
* Ray’s Day, what is it? raysday.net/en/
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LLMs’ “simulated reasoning” abilities are a “brittle mirage,” researchers find
Kyle Orland (Ars Technica)Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
#20yrsago Babies on the no-fly list web.archive.org/web/2005091018…
#10yrsago AT&T was the NSA’s enthusiastic top surveillance partner nytimes.com/2015/08/16/us/poli…
#10yrsago Miami police union smears woman who posted video of cop beating handcuffed suspect in police cruiserhttps://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/police-union-smears-woman-who-posted-video-of-police-beating-on-facebook-7823262
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Babies Caught Up in 'No-Fly' Confusion
web.archive.orgCory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
#10yrago Pre-crime: DHS admits that it puts people on the no-fly list based on “predictive assessment” theguardian.com/us-news/2015/a…
#5yrsago AI, 1A and Citizens United pluralistic.net/2020/08/15/wis…
#1yrago Apple vs the "free market" pluralistic.net/2024/08/15/pri…
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No-fly list uses 'predictive assessments' instead of hard evidence, US admits
Spencer Ackerman (The Guardian)Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Yesterday's threads: "Privacy preserving age verification" is bullshit; and more!
mamot.fr/@pluralistic/11502820…
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Cory Doctorow
2025-08-14 17:05:49
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
My latest novel is "Picks and Shovels," a historical technothriller set in the Weird Era of the PC, about Ponzi schemes, techbros, and the dawn of enshittification:
us.macmillan.com/books/9781250…
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My next nonfiction book is "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," out from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux on October 7:
us.macmillan.com/books/9780374…
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Book details - Macmillan Publishers
MacmillanCory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
My ebooks and audiobooks (from Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon, Verso and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."
craphound.com/shop/
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Shop | Cory Doctorow's craphound.com
craphound.comCory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Upcoming appearances:
* #Ithaca: AD White keynote (Cornell), Sep 12
deanoffaculty.cornell.edu/even…
* #DC: Enshittification at Politics and Prose, with Rohit Chopra, Oct 8
politics-prose.com/cory-doctor…
* #SanFrancisco: Enshittification at Public Works (The Booksmith), Oct 20
app.gopassage.com/events/docto…
* #NewOrleans: DeepSouthCon63, Oct 10-12
contraflowscifi.org/
* #Chicago: Enshittification with Kara Swisher (Chicago Humanities), Oct 15
oldtownschool.org/concerts/202…
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Booksmith presents: Cory Doctorow Enshittification
Passage - Your event. Your fans. Your mobile box office.Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):
* #SanFrancisco: Enshittification at Public Works (The Booksmith), Oct 20
app.gopassage.com/events/docto…
* #Miami: Enshittification at Books & Books, Nov 5
eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-wi…
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Booksmith presents: Cory Doctorow Enshittification
Passage - Your event. Your fans. Your mobile box office.Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Recent appearances:
* The Utopias Podcast
buzzsprout.com/2272465/episode…
* Tariffs vs IP Law (Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons)
youtube.com/watch?v=LFABFe-5-u…
* ORG at 20: In conversation with Maria Farrell
youtube.com/watch?v=M9H2An_D6i…
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Cory Doctorow - Utopias with Dr. Ramesh Srinivasan
BuzzsproutCory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
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Pluralistic: Bluesky creates the world’s weirdest, hardest-to-understand binding arbitration clause (15 Aug 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.netMastodon Migration
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Kevin Russell
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •It means they are evil and we should block them better and ask people stop posting links to it, tell people to get off it.
Get the hell off bluesky, its evil.
Evil is going down. Stop participating.
#bluesky #evil
Laurens Hof
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Laurens Hof • • •Sensitive content
Fitz Bushnell
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Cory Doctorow reshared this.
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Fitz Bushnell • • •Jon Sullivan
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Cory Doctorow reshared this.
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Jon Sullivan • • •@joncounts Thank you! I *love* making these collages. They're all open access/CC and you can get high-rezzes of them on Flickr:
flickr.com/photos/doctorow/alb…
Pluralistic collages
Cory Doctorow (Flickr)Jon Sullivan
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •eLearningTechie
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Silly TTS voices!
TGIF
Cory Doctorow reshared this.
Cory Doctorow
in reply to eLearningTechie • • •jonathankoren™
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •«Class actions are the only way that corporations can be held to account for actions that victimize vast numbers of people in relatively small ways. If you've been injured to the tune of less than, say, $500, you probably won't hire a lawyer to get it back. Bluesky has 36 million users, meaning – thanks to the ban on class actions – it could steal about $18 billion from them all without having to worry about a gigantic, business-destroying lawsuit.»
I have a new business idea
Medea Vanamonde
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Clockwork ☃️✒️
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Concerning class actions against enshittifying companies, I've recently watched this video:
youtube.com/watch?v=w_UF_4gZcl…
TLDW: Swedish gamer sues Mojang because they quote made-up ToS on in-game gun prohibition (but allow gambling and lootboxes), and because they threatened to delete users' accounts if they refused to migrate to Microsoft.
We’re Suing Minecraft in a Class Action Lawsuit
YouTubeCory Doctorow reshared this.