I think it's more China wants an excuse to say, "but Apple, you already bend over for the United States! You should do the same for us!" more than anything else.
The good news: An archiving service designed to call out politicians when they shoot themselves in the foot in 140 characters or less, helping ensure that the "Internet never forgets".
The (potential) for abuse is: Politiwoops could start acting like Twitter's support staff when it comes to enforcing its ToS and doling out punishment (apparently if you're part of a certain clique/ideology or friend's of Twitter staff, you can get things which blatantly violate the site's ToS, while those the staff doesn't like/disagree with their 'friends' are often suspended or banned on... questionable grounds), and any mistakes/incendiary tweets politicians from Politiwoops' staff likes would be conveniently memory-holed by the service, leaving them looking squeaky-clean compared to the rest of the politicians using Twitter.
Potential abuse aside: the idea of being able to go through a 'Best Hits of Trump's Outrage Tweets' does sound amusing.
Oddly enough, a 'wall' is pretty close to how some people see this app. "A bathroom wall with words of passion and hate scrawled all over it", to paraphrase the article I read awhile back about Yik Yak.
Seriously, this is worse than the old RIAA "sue everyone who MIGHT have downloaded a music file, even if isn't ours!" mentality back in the early 2000s.
...we are advised to contact the police and children’s social care as it is neglectful.
I had heard rumblings about this lunacy a couple days ago, but I was too busy playing old-school violent video games like Shadow Warrior and Duke Nukem to pay it much thought at the time.
But Christ on a motorcycle, I didn't realize it was that absurd. Contacting child care services over some kid playing an 18+ game like Call of Duty, GTA Halo? I know the UK's been a bit of a nanny-state for years now, but this is even by their standards.
That being said, I suspect a sizable chunk of the COD community probably wouldn't mind if there were less foul-mouthed primary-schoolers trash-talking them over Xbox Live because of this.
Honestly, I'd be inclined to believe that's more likely what happened, and Google decided to use the hammer instead of the scalpel by taking down the vids altogether instead of removing individual comments.
Well, I suppose now we have reason #10246 on why Youtube's current takedown system is about as useful as a pie made from steaming cow turds.
I own the first 'The Expendables', illegally streamed the second (was still amusing, will probably buy if I run across the DVD and have spare change), and will probably do the same after Expendables 3 goes to DVD.
What can I say? Sometimes I just enjoy watching a few hours of mindless violence. Kinda annoyed got knocked down to PG-13, but whatever.
Don't films like these usually have a mediocre box office performance and then hit the motherload with DVD sales anyway?
Not to mention the movie was competing against Guardians of the Galaxy, Bay's incarnation of TMNT, and Let's Be Cops, the latter two films being worse than Expendables 3, if we treat the Tomatometer Critics' opinions as the gospel truth, so it feels to me like Hollywood's just bitching about the movie being leaked more than anything else.
I have a sudden urge to commit physical harm against all the lawyers who helped drive school districts into such paranoia about getting sued that a 4th grader get suspended for bringing a literal children's toy to school.
GCHQ using the same tactics as the legendary trolls of 4chan doesn't seem all that surprising, to be honest.
It's just that while most of the trolling 4chan does is just make somebody's life hell in the name of 'teh lulz' (or as the tumblr crowd are currently learning the hard way, teaching idiots that starting a fight with the biggest hornet's nest on the internet is the worst idea in the history of bad ideas.), GCHQ's use of those same tactics can have decidedly more nefarious goals.
Want a heavily pro-GCHQ/NSA/surveillance state candidate to look like he's winning in the polls in a lame attempt to demoralize "your enemies"[everyone against the illegal actions of the NSA/GCHQ/Five Eyes]? Juice the polls in your candidate's favor with UNDERPASS!
Want to DDOS an anti-surveillance activist website servers? Use PREDATORS FACE!
I'm actually kinda surprised that government use of LOIC programs (or as the Ministry of Silly Codenames call it, PREDATORS FACE) didn't come up in earlier Snowden Revelations.
They didn't have direct access to the servers to delete the original infringing file, but MU was providing the most access in comparison to the rest of the file storage services on the web at the time.
I doubt it'll end up getting raided like what happened to Dotcom though. That seemed like the US was trying to make an example out of the founder more than anything (which has backfired spectacularly, btw).
So these LECs are supposed to be like Blackwater or Xe (or whatever it's calling itself these days) kind of 'corporations', otherwise known as mercenaries? Oh that's just bloody wonderful.
Yeah, I don't see MA's SWAT Teams coming out of this on top. Claiming to be a private corporation just to get out of transparency requests doesn't seem to have many benefits besides getting out of transparency requests.
I wouldn't go that far. Does it have the potential to be used as a slur? Depends on the intent, imo. Although last I checked, the team name was never intended as such.
Frankly I'm with AC on asking why they're so obsessed with the Washington Redskins' name of all things and not going after the Braves/Indians instead, since the mascots of those two teams are clearly comical caricatures of Native Americans and could be interpreted as the equivalent of the racist depictions of Asians in early comics/cartoons (think 1940s for reference).
It'll be interesting to see how this goes in court.
And hey, assuming (for the sake of argument) that evil spirits/demons exist and the children weren't mentally disturbed from the get-go, demons impersonating Slenderman actually makes more sense than the "Slenderman/Creepypasta made the children do it!" bull the media keeps pushing.
Hey now, Seattle's not LA or New York. We don't people here... most of the time.
The officers are just going to repeat the same advice that the folks doing the survey are going to give the impaired drivers ("call a cab or check into a motel" for the most part), just with a little more 'implied weight' behind their words.
Only if the impaired driver disregards both the volunteer and the officer's advice and STILL tries to drive away while impaired will they get incarcerated (and frankly, they'd deserve a kick or five in the rear for being so blatantly stupid).
I'd rather they not show up in my home state at all, frankly. Why can't they go bug Colorado instead? Hell, we haven't even finished setting up all the "required bureaucracy" for weed distribution here in Washington yet.
The "CreepyPasta community" and the "Slenderman community" are supposedly separate groups (although the two have a ton of overlap fan-wise because of the popular creepypastas written about the character).
Sorry, I'm just part of the CreepyPasta writers/artists/narrators crowd, and generalizing all of CreepyPasta as part of the "Slender Man community" )and vice versa) kinda bugs me.
That said, the media needs to shut up about Slendermann and find something else to blame. I mean, they were trying to attach Slenderman to the Las Vegas shootings because one of the shooters had dressed up as Slenderman for Halloween. It's annoying and rather disconcerting for the Creepypasta community, since we don't have the support (or lobbying power) of a powerful industry like the violent video games or heavy metal/rock did.
Creepypasta did not originally create Slenderman. This is true.
However, Slenderman has effectively been the unofficial 'face'/mascot of Creepypasta for the common person for at least the last few years, thanks to the various pastas written about him getting so much approval within the community, along with all the ARGs[EMH, Marble Hornets, TribeTwelve, etc] and Slender: the Eight Pages. He's pretty much got the most staying power and name recognition within the Creepypasta genre, despite not originally being part of the Creepypasta world.
Re:
The Good news... and Potential for Abuse
The (potential) for abuse is: Politiwoops could start acting like Twitter's support staff when it comes to enforcing its ToS and doling out punishment (apparently if you're part of a certain clique/ideology or friend's of Twitter staff, you can get things which blatantly violate the site's ToS, while those the staff doesn't like/disagree with their 'friends' are often suspended or banned on... questionable grounds), and any mistakes/incendiary tweets politicians from Politiwoops' staff likes would be conveniently memory-holed by the service, leaving them looking squeaky-clean compared to the rest of the politicians using Twitter.
Potential abuse aside: the idea of being able to go through a 'Best Hits of Trump's Outrage Tweets' does sound amusing.
Re: Doh
Re:
What the hell Pokemon Company International?
(untitled comment)
I had heard rumblings about this lunacy a couple days ago, but I was too busy playing old-school violent video games like Shadow Warrior and Duke Nukem to pay it much thought at the time.
But Christ on a motorcycle, I didn't realize it was that absurd. Contacting child care services over some kid playing an 18+ game like Call of Duty, GTA Halo? I know the UK's been a bit of a nanny-state for years now, but this is even by their standards.
That being said, I suspect a sizable chunk of the COD community probably wouldn't mind if there were less foul-mouthed primary-schoolers trash-talking them over Xbox Live because of this.
Re:
Well, I suppose now we have reason #10246 on why Youtube's current takedown system is about as useful as a pie made from steaming cow turds.
Honestly
What can I say? Sometimes I just enjoy watching a few hours of mindless violence. Kinda annoyed got knocked down to PG-13, but whatever.
Don't films like these usually have a mediocre box office performance and then hit the motherload with DVD sales anyway?
Not to mention the movie was competing against Guardians of the Galaxy, Bay's incarnation of TMNT, and Let's Be Cops, the latter two films being worse than Expendables 3, if we treat the Tomatometer Critics' opinions as the gospel truth, so it feels to me like Hollywood's just bitching about the movie being leaked more than anything else.
(untitled comment)
Re:
But 4chan & /b/ use their powers "responsibly"
It's just that while most of the trolling 4chan does is just make somebody's life hell in the name of 'teh lulz' (or as the tumblr crowd are currently learning the hard way, teaching idiots that starting a fight with the biggest hornet's nest on the internet is the worst idea in the history of bad ideas.), GCHQ's use of those same tactics can have decidedly more nefarious goals.
Want a heavily pro-GCHQ/NSA/surveillance state candidate to look like he's winning in the polls in a lame attempt to demoralize "your enemies"[everyone against the illegal actions of the NSA/GCHQ/Five Eyes]? Juice the polls in your candidate's favor with UNDERPASS!
Want to DDOS an anti-surveillance activist website servers? Use PREDATORS FACE!
I'm actually kinda surprised that government use of LOIC programs (or as the Ministry of Silly Codenames call it, PREDATORS FACE) didn't come up in earlier Snowden Revelations.
Re:
I doubt it'll end up getting raided like what happened to Dotcom though. That seemed like the US was trying to make an example out of the founder more than anything (which has backfired spectacularly, btw).
Corporations huh?
Yeah, I don't see MA's SWAT Teams coming out of this on top. Claiming to be a private corporation just to get out of transparency requests doesn't seem to have many benefits besides getting out of transparency requests.
Re: Re:
Frankly I'm with AC on asking why they're so obsessed with the Washington Redskins' name of all things and not going after the Braves/Indians instead, since the mascots of those two teams are clearly comical caricatures of Native Americans and could be interpreted as the equivalent of the racist depictions of Asians in early comics/cartoons (think 1940s for reference).
It'll be interesting to see how this goes in court.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
You'll have that kingdom then... as soon as I can take it back from the Lannisters.
Re: Re:
MY KINGDOM FOR AN EDIT BUTTON!
Re: Re:
And hey, assuming (for the sake of argument) that evil spirits/demons exist and the children weren't mentally disturbed from the get-go, demons impersonating Slenderman actually makes more sense than the "Slenderman/Creepypasta made the children do it!" bull the media keeps pushing.
Re:
The officers are just going to repeat the same advice that the folks doing the survey are going to give the impaired drivers ("call a cab or check into a motel" for the most part), just with a little more 'implied weight' behind their words.
Only if the impaired driver disregards both the volunteer and the officer's advice and STILL tries to drive away while impaired will they get incarcerated (and frankly, they'd deserve a kick or five in the rear for being so blatantly stupid).
Gah...
One minor correction for the article
Sorry, I'm just part of the CreepyPasta writers/artists/narrators crowd, and generalizing all of CreepyPasta as part of the "Slender Man community" )and vice versa) kinda bugs me.
That said, the media needs to shut up about Slendermann and find something else to blame. I mean, they were trying to attach Slenderman to the Las Vegas shootings because one of the shooters had dressed up as Slenderman for Halloween. It's annoying and rather disconcerting for the Creepypasta community, since we don't have the support (or lobbying power) of a powerful industry like the violent video games or heavy metal/rock did.
Re: creepypasta did not create slenderman
However, Slenderman has effectively been the unofficial 'face'/mascot of Creepypasta for the common person for at least the last few years, thanks to the various pastas written about him getting so much approval within the community, along with all the ARGs[EMH, Marble Hornets, TribeTwelve, etc] and Slender: the Eight Pages. He's pretty much got the most staying power and name recognition within the Creepypasta genre, despite not originally being part of the Creepypasta world.
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