Author: April Cowels

After this weekend’s Twitter Blue drama, debacle, guerilla marketing campaign – whatever you want to call it – Elon Musk shifted gears on Monday to promote Twitter’s other paid subscriptions feature called, well, Subscriptions. Tweet may have been deleted (opens in a new tab) “Content creators may wish to enable subscriptions on this platform,” tweeted Musk. “Just tap on Monetization in settings.”Subscriptions allows users to subscribe directly to a specific Twitter creator that has opted into the program. In turn, the creator can provide subscribers with exclusive tweets, subscriber-only Twitter Spaces, and other paywalled content.Included in Musk’s tweet, is a screenshot showing the sidebar navigation menu on Twitter’s mobile app. Ostensibly, Musk included this to show interested users where they could sign up. But, there’s another bit of information included in that screenshot: It shows just how many users are directly paying Elon Musk for his Subscriptions-only content.Next to Musk’s followers and following counts is another number: Subscriptions, which is actually a private metric only shown to the specific creator so they can see how many users have Subscribed to their paywalled content.Musk’s subscriber count shows at 24.7k, or somewhere between 24,700 and 24,799 paying subscribers. Twitter’s owner charges $4 for subscriptions to his account, which puts the amount of money he’s making from the Subscriptions feature at nearly $100,000 per month. That’s just under $1.2 million a year, which would be quite a successful outcome for the average content creator. Musk enabled Subscriptions on his account on April 15,…Nearly 25,000 Twitter users pay to subscribe to Elon Musk's exclusive tweets

Acclaimed author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, has issued a stark warning that the US’s possible launch of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) could lead to a surveillance state akin to George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984. Kiyosaki shared his concerns in a recent episode of The Rich Dad podcast, suggesting that a Federal Reserve-backed CBDC would enable an unprecedented level of government surveillance on citizens. Related: Biden signals support for CBDCs Kiyosaki expressed his apprehension regarding the potential loss of privacy that would accompany the introduction of a CBDC. He fears that with the “FedCoin,” authorities will have the ability to monitor every transaction, purchase, and financial interaction, effectively erasing any semblance of privacy. In drawing parallels to Orwell’s 1984, Kiyosaki highlights the potential for a “Big Brother” scenario, where people’s lives are constantly scrutinized through their monetary activities. The author’s comments have emerged at a time when the Federal Reserve is actively investigating the advantages of implementing a CBDC. “The major apprehension with FedCoin, the CBDC, is that it erodes our privacy. By tracking every financial transaction, they will have access to every detail of our spending, the recipient of our money, and how we allocate our resources. In essence, it replicates George Orwell’s dystopian society depicted in 1984. Big Brother will be constantly monitoring our financial activity, and this is precisely the problem with central bank digital currency, or the Fed Coin. “As an individual, I become nervous at the thought of this. I do…Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki warns of “dystopian” CBDCs

Worth the read, and worth a bookmark. Why Silicon Valley is bringing eugenics back Elon Musk has been warning about population decline and smaller families for years. In his 2015 biography, he’s quoted as saying, “if each successive generation of smart people has fewer kids, that’s probably bad.” Musk is explicit that “smart” people need to be having more kids — he has nine living children, that we know of — but doesn’t go so far as to say that other people should be having fewer. After all, he does want the population to grow.Paris Marx, April 21, 2023, disconnect.blog The post Paris Marx: Why Silicon Valley is bringing eugenics back appeared first on Mason Pelt.Paris Marx: Why Silicon Valley is bringing eugenics back

Earlier today I published the article BuzzFeed News And Twitter Blues. I mention a list of Famous Twitter users who received a blue check from Elon Musk and publicly denounced it. Here’s a longer list, with citations of Tweets. These are in no order, and the links are to the Internet Archive or Archive.is with the exception of LeBron James. Some screenshots do not display the blue checkmark, due to name changes. This list doesn’t include the dead celebrities Twitter claims subscribed to Twitter Blue. Paul Krugman Chrissy Teigen Lil Nas X Stephen King Neil Gaiman LeBron James The Auschwitz Memorial Dril Ian McKellen Riyad Mahrez Trixie Mattel Massachusetts Institute of Technology Jon Favreau (not director) Hasan Piker Matt Binder Bette Midler Jason Alexander Larry Madowo Stephen A Smith An account called PopCulture2000s Anonymous (an unorganized hacker group) Lauren Jauregui Alyssa Milano Liam Gallagher The post Partial List Of Famous People Unhappy About Their Forced Blue Checks appeared first on Mason Pelt.Partial List Of Famous People Unhappy About Their Forced Blue Checks

Twitter users have been taken for quite the ride over the past few days when it comes to the site’s verification system.On Thursday, Elon Musk removed the “legacy verified” blue checkmarks from users who received them prior to his acquisition. Then he started “gifting” Twitter Blue verified badges to specific celebrities who publicly said they wouldn’t pay $8 to keep their checkmarks. Over the weekend, he began to apply Twitter Blue subscriptions to prominent users talking about #BlockTheBlue (including the author of this piece). Then he went ahead and just gave them out to almost every Twitter user with more than 1 million followers.And that’s just the blue ticks. During this whole debacle, Twitter had accidentally removed gold checkmarks, a Musk-introduced badge for organizations and companies, from business accounts. The company quickly let these businesses know they’d be restoring these gold checkmarks – which cost some of these users $1,000 per month – as quickly as possible.Well, it seems in the process of doing that, Twitter verified the wrong account. And not just any wrong account. Twitter verified a fake Disney account that appears to be created specifically for trolling.On Monday morning, Twitter users noticed that the @DisneyJuniorUK account had received a gold checkmark, a sign that Twitter had verified a business-owned account as being official on the platform. One problem: @DisneyJuniorUK is not an official Disney account. According to the owner of the account, Twitter user @7virtues_, they had set it up back in 2021 and mostly used it for…Twitter verified a fake Disney account created by a troll

Tom Brady threatened to sue comedians who posted an AI-generated comedy special featuring his likeness and AI generated voice. According to the comedians, Chad Kultgen and Will Sasso, the threat of a lawsuit forced them to take the video down. The hour-long video featured the NFL star as a stand-up comedian telling jokes. It was removed a few days after it was posted on the comedians’ Patreon page. On their “Dudesy” podcast, the comedians explained that shortly after posting the video, they received a letter from Brady’s lawyer asking them to cease and desist from publishing the video. The lawyers said that the AI-generated video of Brady was a blatant violation of Brady’s rights and that if they did not comply with their demands, including removing the video, they would file a lawsuit. Although they removed the video, Kultgen and Sasso did not agree with the lawyers. On their podcast, they wondered how their video was any different from comedians doing impressions of celebrities. They said the letter would not discourage them from making AI comedy in the future, and hinted at making one featuring President Joe Biden. If you’re tired of censorship, cancel culture, and the erosion of civil liberties subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Tom Brady threatens to sue comedians over AI parody video appeared first on Reclaim The Net.Tom Brady threatens to sue comedians over AI parody video

On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the weaponization against Americans of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows surveillance of foreigners considered a threat to the national security of the US, but has also been accused of use against US citizens. The hearing’s notice states: “The hearing, ‘Fixing FISA: How a Law Designed to Protect Americans Has Been Weaponized Against Them,’ will examine the FBI’s abuses of its Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) authorities, discuss the FBI’s failures to implement meaningful reforms to prevent its abuses, and address the broad issue of warrantless mass surveillance on American citizens.” Witnesses will include Michael Horowitz, the Inspector General of the Justice Department, and chair and board member of the US Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, Sharon Bradford Franklin and Beth Williams. A routine audit of the use of Section 702 found that FBI agents used political overtones in their FISA database search queries, like “the names of a local political party” to find links to foreign intelligence. Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL, also a member of the House Intelligence Committee, revealed that he was surveilled by the FBI under Section 702. In its defense, the FBI said that it was investigating if the lawmaker was the victim of a foreign influence operation. The Justice Department also claimed that GBI agents “misunderstood” search procedures and they had to be “subsequently reminded of how to correctly apply the query rules.” The FBI has also been…Hearing to look at how FISA surveillance laws became “weaponized” against Americans

Nostr (Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays) is an open-source protocol that enables decentralized and censorship-resistant social media without relying on a central authority. Damus is a popular client for interacting with the Nostr protocol that’s available on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS (the latest Macs with the M series of chips.) This post will show you how to set up a Nostr account in Damus and start using the app. Creating your account 1. Visit the Damus website and download the Damus app. 2. Open the app and select Create Account. 3. Read the EULA and if you’re happy with them, click or tap Accept. 4. Enter a username. 5. If you want to enter a display name, upload a profile pic, or add information about your account, enter it in the relevant fields. 6. Click or tap Create. 7. Copy your Public Key and save it somewhere. This key is similar to a username and can be shared with people that you want to follow your Nostr account. 8. Copy your Private Key and save it somewhere secure such as a password manager or an encrypted drive. This key is like a password and can be used to log in to your Nostr account. However, it can’t be changed or recovered so you need to keep it safe and for your eyes only. 9. Click or tap Let’s go! 10. Choose whether you want to receive Damus notifications. That’s it. Your Nostr account has been created and is…Getting started with Damus: a censorship-resistant, Nostr social media app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac

If you’re tired of Big Tech platforms scooping up your data and mass censoring the posts on their platform, Nostr (Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays) is a great alternative. It’s an open-source protocol that makes social media decentralized and resistant to censorship. It also gives users full control of their account and data. Amethyst is a full-featured Android app that lets you connect to Nostr, create an account, and start exploring this decentralized social media protocol. Keep reading to discover how to set up your Nostr account in Amethyst, find some accounts to follow, and explore what Nostr has to offer. Creating your account 1. Visit the Amethyst GitHub and download the Amethyst app. It has links for downloading Amethyst from  the Google Play Store, F-Droid, or directly as an APK. 2. Open the app and read the terms of use. If you’re happy with them, check the I accept the terms of use box. 3. Tap Generate a new key to create your account. Backing up your keys Nostr uses public key cryptography to generate a unique public and private key for each account. The public key is like a username and you can share it with those who you want to follow your Nostr account. The private key is similar to a password and is your log in to your Nostr account. However, you can’t change or recover it, so make sure you keep it safe and private. Here’s how to find your Nostr account keys…How to use Amethyst: a Nostr Android app that enables censorship-resistant social media

The quest for censorship-resistant social media platforms, but also for their viability in terms of reach, continues and one of the new contenders being talked about is an open and decentralized protocol called Nostr. Decentralization is ensured by allowing the use of self-owned accounts and identities. Follow our tutorial on how to get started with Nostr on Android. Follow our tutorial on how to get started with Nostr on iPhone. Other than protecting users from what’s become rampant censorship on major centralized social media, Nostr is also seen as a possible way to deal with some of the shortcomings of most, if not all decentralized alternatives: a smaller number of users, and no easy way to also transfer followers and content to a new platform. As a protocol, Nostr is supposed to be used in creating a network that shares data around the world, based on user clients rather than centralized servers. However, the “use and feel” element is meant to allow people to use it much like they do platforms like Twitter: posting, liking posts, following, unfollowing others, and reposting their content (“notes”). Much of the protocol’s goals and nature are revealed in its “full” name, of which Nostr is only an acronym; it is, “Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays.” It is precisely these replays that are put to use as a way to transmit censorship-resistant and secure messages between users. But it isn’t a peer-to-peer (P2P) network. Relays are described as “dumb” and lightweight, but also…What is Nostr and is it the future of decentralized social media?