#European federalism

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Go back to the top of this article and reread that transcript of Rep. Buddy Carter grilling TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. Now, Carter is a dunderhead, but he’s dunderheaded in a way that illuminates just how bad COPPA enforcement is, and has been, for 25 long years.

Carter thinks that TikTok is using biometric features to enforce COPPA. He imagines that TikTok is doing some kind of high-tech phrenology to make sure that every user is over 13 (“I find that [you aren’t capturing facial images] hard to believe. It is our understanding that they’re looking at the eyes. How do you determine what age they are then?”).

Chew corrects the Congressdunderhead from Georgia, explaining that TikTok uses “age-gating”: “when you ask the user what age they are.”

That is the industry-wide practice for enforcing COPPA: every user is presented with a tick-box that says “I am over 13.” If they tick that box, the company claims it has satisfied the requirement not to spy on kids.

But if COPPA were meaningfully enforced, companies would simply have to stop spying on everyone, because there are no efficient ways to verify the age of users at the scale needed for general operation of a website.

-How To Make a Child-Safe TikTok: Have you tried not spying on kids?

[empirearchives]

Short video about Napoleon’s impact in Switzerland:

It includes things I forgot to mention in my other post. For example, he introduced the Swiss Franc in 1799, which is still in use to this day. He also introduced freedom of religion. He introduced equality before the law. One really interesting fact from the video: Adrian Vatter, Professor of political science at the University of Bern, said that the Act of Mediation (1803) was actually the birth of modern federalism. It made all the cantons equal for the first time, and each got their own constitution. The cantons remain equal to this day.

André Holenstein, Professor of Swiss history at the University of Bern, said Napoleon “turned the former subject territories into new, sovereign cantons.” So, he was very important in the making of the modern map of Switzerland.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Like Brazil, the European Union also has an X problem

Elon Musk's woes are hardly limited to Brazil as he now risks possible EU sanctions in the coming months for allegedly breaking new content rules.

Access to X has been suspended in South America's largest country since Saturday after a long-running legal battle over disinformation ended with a judge ordering a shutdown.

But Brazil is not alone in its concerns about X.

Politicians worldwide and digital rights groups have repeatedly raised concerns about Musk's actions since taking over what was then Twitter in late 2022, including sacking many employees tasked with content moderation and maintaining ties with EU regulators.

Continue reading.

[mockingnerd]

A silly little design I made for my historical fencing club! We’d been discussing mental health in HEMA and my clubmate said this banger of a quote and I had to immortalize it. You can get it on stuff here!

Turns out I do love drawing swords

[iamsigningmylifeaway]

i did tag the Roger/Andy ship name, which is the ship name of all time, namely "anger murderer" 😅

ANGER MURDERER HELPPPPPP

this is the metaphysical combination of rogers icing out handling of drama and andys dry unwilling to hold back bluntness

[chicago-geniza]

Someone tagged one of my old Worf posts and it reminded me why I relate to his character so much. It's because we're Same Hat.png in this regard

[rakkuntoast]

really hoping for the last debate to let the international members to be able to talk in their mother language cuz admit it or not, its a HUGE handicap that they're not able to get themselves across as they'd like to cuz of the language barrier. they're trying their best and im glad the team is working to better the translator but my god, even if its more convenient for them to talk english its def affecting some of the candidates

this is mostly directed @ insaneduo cuz holy shit im so tired of people that keep missinterpreting them, they wont start a dictatorship go and actually watch their povs

[yuri-for-businesswomen]

unless you are a usamerican person of colour living in a european country i dont want to hear it! stick to your own shit! i promise there are plenty of issues and nothing the usa do better! 🇺🇸❌

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 After Russian authorities tried to stop a white Renault sedan, the same vehicle the terrorists that attacked Crocus City Hall were seen escaping in, the vehicle refused to stop, after which Russian police opened fire on and overturned the vehicle. After pulling one of the suspects out of the sedan, tying the man up, he is interrogated, telling local authorities that he was offered half a million rubles to engage in the attack.]

🇷🇺 🚨

AS THE U.S. BLAMES ISIS FOR TERRORIST ATTACK AT CROCUS CITY HALL, RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES ARREST MERCENARIES TRYING TO ESCAPE TO UKRAINE

As the United States tries to pin the blame for the terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall on the ISIS extremist group, Russian authorities arrested 11 men in relation to the event, including the four gunmen responsible for the carnage at the concert hall as they attempted to cross into Ukrainian territory.

Recently, the ISIS extremist group, which has a history of working on and off with the Intelligence agencies of the United States, and have been accused of acting as proxy for the U.S., claimed responsibility for the attack through its associated news agency Amaq on its Telegram channel.

However, in a recent address to the Russian people, newly reelected Russian President, Vladimir Putin, told the country's population that the attackers made arrangements with Ukrainian authorities to open a window for which the attackers would escape over the border into Ukraine.

According to Russian media, on the morning of March 23rd, a white Renault sedan, the same vehicle the suspects were seen escaping from the Crocus City Hall in, was seen heading towards Ukraine, about 100km (62mi) from the border.

The suspects refused to stop for local police, after which, police forces opened fire on the vehicle, overturning the sedan and wounding one of the suspects.

After pulling one of the suspects out of the vehicle, police tied the man up and attempted to interrogate him on camera.

The video, published online by local authorities, shows the suspect being interrogated on his knees, shaking and barely able to answer the authorities questions.

During the short interrogation, the suspect tells Russian authorities that he received the task of the terrorist attack after following a "preacher" on Telegram. At some point, the "preacher's assistant" assigned him the attack on Crocus, offering him half a million rubles to shoot up the concert hall, even paying half the sum before hand.

“I listened to the preacher... His assistant wrote to me... about a month ago,” the detainee said.

He goes on say to Russian authorities that after a conversation with the "preacher's assistant," he received the task of "killing people."

Russian news outlet Ria Novosti described the information extracted from the suspect as follows:

"After some time, he admits that through an Internet resource where he listened to sermons, recruiters contacted him and offered to commit mass murder for 500 thousand rubles. Half was transferred in advance to the card, the rest was promised after completing the task. They also provided weapons. Who exactly it was is still unknown. According to the terrorist, he flew to Russia from Turkey on March 4."

Meanwhile, another suspect said that he met a man named "Abdullah" on Telegram, after which he was offered a job.

"We went to Dmitrovskoe Highway and bought a car from the relatives of a new friend. We are probably talking about the same Renault vehicle," the suspect is quoted as saying.

The suspects have since been taken for questioning by the Investigative Committee.

According to the Russian intelligence services, known as the FSB, the suspects have contacts in Ukraine and intended to cross the border where the Ukrainian authorities had opened a window for the attackers to escape into the warring country.

The FSB says the attack was carefully planned, with a cache of weapons that were hidden for the attackers to use.

Russian authorities have since detained a total of 11 suspects, four of whom have been shot by Russian forces.

According to some Russian reports, at least some of the attackers were natives of Tajikistan, however the authorities have not confirmed this information and asked that journalists "refrain from disseminating unverified and unreliable information."

The death toll in the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack rose today to 137 people killed, while another 180 were injured in the attack.

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#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[sonodaten]

We really could’ve had a Sweden v Australia final now that’s the 3rd place match and instead we have to watch two dickheads play for 1st

[mostlysignssomeportents]

In 1998, Congress passed the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which prohibits online service providers from collecting the data of children under the age of 13 without parental consent.

COPPA is remarkable, first because it is one of the very, very few federal privacy guarantees enacted by Congress, an exclusive club whose founding member is the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988, passed by Members of Congress panicked at the thought of video-store clerks leaking their porn rental histories.

But the other remarkable thing about COPPA is how poorly it is enforced.

In this regard, COPPA is very similar to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the EU’s 2016 landmark privacy law. The GDPR has many more moving parts than COPPA, as befits a general data-protection regulation, but at core, the GDPR seeks to incinerate the absurd fiction at the root of commercial surveillance: namely, that we “consent” to commercial surveillance by clicking “I agree” on long, unreadable terms of service.

Under the GDPR, companies that want to collect, sell or process your data need to explain themselves, clearly: they have to tell you what they’re collecting and how they plan on using it.

-How To Make a Child-Safe TikTok: Have you tried not spying on kids?

[empirearchives]

Will Durant on Napoleon’s dream of a peaceful Federation of European States:

“In that Association Européenne, all the component states would have the same money, weights, measures and basic laws, with no political barriers to travel, transport and trade. When Napoleon reached Moscow in 1812, he thought that only a just peace with Alexander remained in the way of realizing his dream. He had underestimated the centrifugal power of national differences.”

[cealesti]

another day, another usamerican making an ass of themselves.

[zingaplanet]

You know you truly broke all couples' goals when they had to ask an anthropologist about your PDA Fedal edition:

[kyouka-supremacy]

WAIT YOU AREN'T AMERICAN???

[remcocoa]

no norway at tour de l’avenir oh fuck that