💳 Who should decide what content is acceptable online? Banks?

In TRANSACTION DENIED, author Rainey Reitman joins Annalee Newitz to discuss why content moderation decisions shouldn't be made by financial institutions. 💵💷💴

As banks, payment processors, and credit card networks gain influence over who can participate online, questions of speech become questions of financial power. ⚖️

🎧 Listen & subscribe to the Future Knowledge #podcast ⤵️
https://futureknowledge.transistor.fm/episodes/transaction-denied

@annaleen #DigitalRights

I'm appalled to see the European Commission apparently embracing closed source, commercial, ID and age verification mandatory, social media today - in the very face of the technology sovereignty and online freedoms debates.

I think they've just thrown away the greatest opportunity to be the champion of all things open and collaborative, and to live and demonstrate their own values. Incredibly disappointed.

🔥 🔥 from @_elena who nails it, and asks crucial questions.

https://blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-public-institutions-and-the-theater-of-european-digital-sovereignty/

EDIT to add: It's been pointed out by alarmed parties that this was likely generated BY AI, which I sort of find hilarious... someone hated AI data centers so much that they used one to generate anti-AI propaganda.

That's... poetry.

I'd normally delete it, but it's not like deleting it is going to magically put those 1s and 0s back into the data center, so think of this as... quasi-ethical upcycling? Using all the parts of the slop.

Also also, while I'm doing edits, it's been pointed out that bamboo is ACTUALLY super invasive and might be damaging to what's left of the actual surrounding wildlife that have not already succumbed to the data center itself,

so I guess... be sure to get with your local wildlife experts in your area to find out what bamboo-equivalent plants you can safely not plant near the data center in order to cause them the least amount of inconvenience or damage WINK WINK