#third party liability

[syrtissolutions]

MEDICAID DATA IS COSTING THE PROGRAM BILLIONS

Medicaid currently fails at providing a system that efficiently and accurately stores and utilizes member data. As Medicaid is a joint state and federally run program, there are many problems with coordinating data platforms. Different states have their own unique data processing and storing, and while federal Medicaid data can reveal a clearer picture of consistent issues across state lines, lack of communication and data sharing creates considerable barriers. While technology has advanced, gaps in existing data or inaccuracies in computation have direct consequences to the swift identification of third party liability (TPL), leading to costly reimbursement practices for Medicaid. The lack of uniformity in these systems prevents Medicaid from operating smoothly. One of the significant challenges facing Medicaid is the lack of quality TPL data. In testimony before Congress in 2012, HHS Regional Inspector General Ann Maxwell delivered an alarmingly negative analysis relating to the reliability of data federal and state governments use to detect overpayments and fraud in the Medicaid program. She specified, "much of the data used to identify improper payments is not current, available, complete, [or] accurate." Ten years later, the exact same issues with TPL data that Maxwell described in her testimony to congress exist today. Aside from simple mistakes at the point of service with providers, there are fundamental problems in the health care data used by the Medicaid program that result in the loss of literally billions of dollars a year.

STATE DATA PROBLEMS

Each state Medicaid agency (SMA) is responsible for delegation of funds and discovering TPL through their own databases. However, states have differing policies and benefits for Medicaid enrollees, generating inconsistent results. State policies may have existing gaps in information or may be so complex that they are nearly impossible to navigate, leading to administration frustration. The Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) works to centralize information and uses patient identification numbers to assist with payment delegation. However, because of the large Medicaid population, in addition to continual churn, these datasets can be cumbersome and create missing information that causes difficult identification of TPL. Moreover, Medicaid information is not communicated across state lines, creating repetitive errors that could be avoided. Health care organizations may share patient data with Medicaid for payment purposes, but the different types of data management could be an issue when trying to translate to Medicaid-specific forms.

FEDERAL DATA PROBLEMS

While states may provide regular reports to federal Medicaid agencies, a functioning federal database may have a hard time deciphering the varying information from different SMAs. Data can be lost, infrequently collected, or inaccurate across state lines. A person in one state could move to an adjoining state and lose specific Medicaid benefits. Data might only show a small piece of the big picture and can not adequately address the nuances of a social program and the problems that persist across states. Federal guidelines may only guide overarching procedures, and not have control over individual states' Medicaid programs and policies. This disjunction of administration proves difficult when trying to accurately find TPL data for not only individuals, but also states and federal overview. Data sharing is therefore an efficient and effective way to decrease the number of discrepancies between states and local organizations that require Medicaid payment. Nevertheless, a multitude of issues stem from data sharing in totality. Even within states, health care organizations are hesitant to share patient data. Sacred protected health information (PHI) delegates immense responsibility to hospitals, providers, and care coordinators to handle data cautiously. Even if healthcare organizations are willing to share patient data, unique technology systems across health care do not always capture the same data or translate it in the same way. SMAs are responsible to intake this information and identify TPL, which increases difficulty when trying to smooth operations. This reluctance to share information translates to state and federal Medicaid agency issues. Sharing large amounts of diverse data has been troublesome and causes inconsistent data and high costs to the Medicaid program. For years Medicaid has struggled to store and utilize program beneficiary data because of disparate data platforms and the inability to accurately share Medicaid data between states and the federal government. Furthermore, much of the healthcare data that Medicaid plans do have access to is leading to billions of dollars in improper payments each year. Without reliable, complete, and accurate TPL data, Medicaid plans will continue to make claims payments in error and rely on costly reimbursement strategies. Plan administrators should look to true TPL technology solutions for additional efficiency and cost avoidance opportunities to protect the program's valuable resources and ensure that plan members receive the care they need.

Click this link to read more. 

[featuresofinterest]

god i hope the cpsc takes the shot. i think this would dramatically change their entire business model. amazon makes so much money by selling defective or mislabeled or just plain dangerous products and then faces little liability because this stuff is actually being sold by random third-party sellers that don't get vetted at all and can be hard to prosecute because they're in china or wherever. this is a big part of what makes amazon so powerful and it would be good for everyone if they were forced to bear more responsibility for the damages caused by the crap available on their website

[lucasjack11]

Explore the comprehensive guide to third party liability insurance in Dubai with our detailed overview, brought to you by NGI (National General Insurance). Understand the importance of securing this essential coverage to protect your business against unforeseen liabilities. This article delves into various types of liability insurance, including professional indemnity insurance in Dubai, general third-party liability, cyber liability, employers liability, and directors and officers liability.

[promtad]

Car Insurance: Get Affordable Coverage for Your Vehicle

Navigating the complex world of automobile insurance can be daunting, but it’s a crucial step in protecting your most valuable asset – your vehicle. Whether you’re a seasoned driver or just starting out, understanding the different types of car insurance coverage and finding the right policy to fit your needs can save you time, money, and countless headaches down the road. But what if you could…

[omarmomani]

Choosing between comprehensive and third-party liability car insurance hinges on several crucial factors that can significantly impact your coverage and expenses.

For more information visit: https://medium.com/@hasnazameer579/choosing-the-right-shield-comprehensive-vs-third-party-insurance-for-your-vehicle-85605b4f8fec

[walks-the-ages]

[ID: a link preview of a stock image coffee table with a laptop with the facebook logo on the screen with text on top that says 'anyone who used facebook in the last 16 years can now get settlement money. here's how." end ID]

-USA Residents Only-

Time Sensitive- Apply before August 25th, 2023 (8/25/23)!

Filing a claim takes less than ten minutes, and can be done HERE

Excerpt from article:

Anyone in the U.S. who used Facebook in the last 16 years can now collect a piece of a $725 million settlement by parent company Meta tied to privacy violations — as long as they fill out a claim on a website set up to pay out money to the social network's users. 

The settlement stems from multiple lawsuits that were brought against Facebook by users who claimed that the company improperly shared their data with third-party sources such as advertisers and data brokers. The litigation began after Facebook was embroiled in a privacy scandal in 2018 with Cambridge Analytica, which scraped user data from the site as part of an effort to profile voters.

Meta denied any liability or wrongdoing under the settlement, according to the recently created class-action website. However, the agreement means that U.S. residents who used Facebook between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022, can file a monetary claim as long as they do so before August 25, 2023. 

Please reblog to signal boost this! As many people as possible should know about this to make their claim, if you don't do anything you don't get anything. It takes less than ten minutes to file and pick your payment option including pay/pal and ven/mo .

-USA Residents Only-

This ended August 25th, 2023!

[future-generali]

Future Generali Car Insurance: Protect Your Car and Your Finances

Future Generali Car Insurance offers comprehensive coverage for your car, protecting you from financial losses due to accidents, theft, and damage. With features such as cashless claim settlement, 24x7 roadside assistance, and coverage for third-party liabilities, this policy is the ideal choice for car owners. Choose Future Generali Car Insurance and enjoy worry-free driving.

[pebblegalaxy]

Liability Protections for Third-Party Sellers on E-commerce Websites: An Overview

E-commerce Websites and Liability Protections for Third-Party Sellers E-commerce websites have become ubiquitous in recent years, with millions of people buying and selling goods online every day. One of the unique features of these websites is that they enjoy a legal exemption from liability for products sold by third-party sellers. This exemption is not available to brick-and-mortar stores,…

[libraford]

I have a lot to say about the decision our BOE made about Lifewise, but I'm going to go over the useful information here first and then the shitshow in a later reblog.

Last night, the board of education in my city decided to rescind allowance of Lifewise in our public schools.

Lifewise is a non denominational Christian youth group that operates during school hours, and only during school hours. Their mission is to bring Jesus to public schools, and they are able to do this legally because the education happens off-campus. They typically do this during lunch, recess, or electives. The program is voluntary.

They were allowed in our school system through a former board member, two years ago. The program has come under some scrutiny, which I will cover in a reblog. So the topic of rescinding their decision came up this year.

This was a huge debate. I will get into it later.

But I wanted to state the reasons why our board chose to rescind the decision and end business with LifeWise, so that if they (or others of this type) come to your school system and you don't want them there, you have a model for what has worked in debate.

1. An important aspect of the decision to rescind this particular decision does not restrict religious learning before or after school, or on weekends- and only applies to religious programs during school hours.

2. Unlike accommodations made for Ramadan (an example that was brought up in debate), LifeWise is not a core observance of religion.

3. The social times of school, such as lunch or recess, are just as much part of the learning process as structured class time. Play is imperative for a growing mind, and playing with kids from other religious backgrounds is especially important.

4. While Lifewise supplies their own buses to and from locations, transition times in schools (getting children to and from lunch, recess, bathrooms, electives) are some of the most stressful times for teachers. Adding another, for which only some of the students are part of, is a strain on resources.

5. Entrusting your students to a third party who has not been vetted by the schools is an intense liability. Not just the obvious danger of a dangerous person, but- are the trained in first aid? What do they know about seizures, autism, allergies, diabetes...what are their policies on conflict resolution... there are a lot of variables to think of when you leave your students in someone else's care, even for just an hour.

That's all the notes I have for that meeting. If one of these programs is courting your school board, it's probably a good idea to have these points in mind now, rather than later.

I'll talk about the rest later.

[floral-ashes]

Canada’s First Trans Healthcare Ban

Alberta’s anti-trans bills have dropped. A few observations. 🧵

The first thing I notice, and which is cause for hope, is that the bills do not invoke the notwithstanding clause. They can thus be challenged in Court, and struck down as unconstitutional. 

The healthcare ban is worse than they announced, at least in its present form. They ban all gender-affirming surgeries until 18, as expected. They also ban puberty blockers and hormones for minors. So far, the same as we expected. 

However, the bill is set up so that the ban is total for all minors *unless* the Minister creates an exception for some. This means that even 16-17 year olds whose parents consent cannot receive puberty blockers or hormones. They may plan to allow it, but it’s not in the law. 

There is also no clause that allows youth who are alreadyon puberty blockers or hormones to continue. This is especially concerning because it means they’ll lose access if there’s any delay with planned Ministerial orders—if they even plan to make an order. 

Unsurprisingly, it seems that the law wasn’t drafted by someone who is knowledgeable about trans realities. As a result, transition-related surgeries are defined as those that “treat gender dysphoria or gender incongruence.” 

While the loophole is unlikely to work, a literal reading would allow transition-related surgeries that are motivated by gender euphoria, framed as cosmetic, or understood through a depathologizing lens. The fact slightly amuses me, but again it’s unlikely to actually help. 

The name and pronouns policy is as expected. Trans minors will be forcibly outed to their parents if they request a change of name or pronouns that is related in some way to their gender identity. Parental consent isn’t required for those aged 16-17, but they still get outed. 

There is no exception to the outing requirement, even if it poses a grave risk. All it says is that schoolboards must give counselling or other assistance before outing the kids, in such a case. 

This creates a small loophope—willing schools could delay outing for some time and argue that it still respects the law. However, they still can’t respect under-16 trans youth’s name or pronouns without parental consent, and they must still out them eventually. 

If the law is applied negligently or unreasonably, and a child ends up seriously hurt or dead? Too bad—the law strongly protects people from liability if they believe they’re applying the law and are doing so in good faith. 

For an overview of why these rules are dangerous and unconstitutional, here is my recent Alberta Law Review article on the topic:

How about sexual education? Well, it’s basically dead. The law makes it mandatory for schools to receive Ministerial approval for any material primarily and explicitly related to gender identity, sexual orientation, or human sexuality. 

In addition to the material needing approval, any third-party who delivers the material must be separately approved by the Minister. 

Even if the material is approved, teachers must (a) notify parents at least 30 (!) before teaching it, and (b) ensure alternative instruction for students whose parents didn’t consent. 

This isn’t really an opt-in system. While it’s superficially opt-in, the requirements are so absurdly onerous that nobody will teach materials related to gender identity, sexual orientation, or human sexuality.

It’s as simple as that—sexual education is dead in Alberta. 

The only small comfort is that only regulating materials “primarily and explicitly” about these topics could serve as a good loophole for rebellious teachers. Incidental and indirect discussions of gender identity, sexual orientation, and human sexuality are expressly allowed. 

Lastly, the sports ban. To my surprise, there’s actually no ban on trans women in sports. One less thing on my plate!

Now there is indeed a law about sports, it just doesn’t quite reach the level of a ban. Instead, the bill tells schools and sports bodies to create a policy on fairness and safety in sports, including eligibity requirements and procedures for verifying eligiblity. 

The law also creates a mandatory reporting mechanism for any complaints related to that policy or to (more or less) trans inclusion in sports. This is unsurprisingly hypocritical—conservatives love surveillance states as much as they love to complain about ‘big government.’ 

This bill doesn’t so much ban trans women from sports as provide a cover for any organization that wants to do so. That they should ban trans people is a thinly-veiled subtext, but it’s legally-speaking only a subtext. 

The law also includes broad protection from liability for mostly anyone—including sports participants—who is trying to implement the act ‘in good faith.’ If racists decide to harass a Black woman and claim that she’s not a woman, as we have seen all-too-often in elite sports? If an adult decides to do ‘genital verifications’ on a child? They’re effectively protected from civil liability, so long as they claim it’s in good faith. Scary stuff...

That’s a wrap, but I’m happy to answer any questions about the bills!

[syrtissolutions]

THIRD-PARTY LIABILITY DIFFICULTIES IN MEDICAID

Third-party liability, also referred to as TPL, is the legal requirement of third parties to pay part or all of the expenditures for medical assistance under a Medicaid state plan. Simply put, if a beneficiary has other forms of health insurance, those primary payers are mandated to pay their legal liability first, and Medicaid pays for any remaining liability as the payer of last resort. This policy has been in place since the Employee Retirement Income Security Act changed the Social Security Act in 1974. Nevertheless, state Medicaid agencies face ongoing challenges in meeting TPL requirements, and it is costing the program billions of dollars every year.

This October, the OIG released an updated report that highlighted the particular problems states are facing in meeting third-party liability requirements and in making sure that Medicaid functions as the payer of last resort. The OIG performed its audit by sending questionnaires to State agency officials to determine how each state collects OHI, detects TPL, processes claims with TPL, and reports TPL cost avoidance and recoveries. While there has been progress, the OIG's auditing initiatives suggest that billions of dollars are still at risk. Here is a high-level overview of the report's findings and recommendations.

DIFFICULTIES THAT STATES FACE TO MEET TPL REQUIREMENTS

According to States, the primary challenges in their attempts to meet TPL requirements are related to:

difficulties acquiring complete, accurate, and up-to-date coverage information from Medicaid enrollees and providers;

difficulties obtaining timely and reliable coverage information from third parties;

difficulties coordinating TPL with out-of-State third parties;

technical issues linked to third-party coverage information received and electronic billing of Medicaid claims with third parties;

a lack of Federal prompt payment requirements and penalties for third parties that do not cooperate with States' attempts to satisfy TPL requirements;

difficulties with third parties that reject Medicaid claims for procedural reasons;

difficulties coordinating TPL with TRICARE and;

difficulties coordinating TPL with Medicare.

OIG RECOMMENDATIONS TO ADDRESS THIRD-PARTY LIABILITY CHALLENGES

The OIG made the following recommendations to CMS to help address TPL difficulties:

use the information we obtained from States about the problems they are still facing and develop an action plan for helping States more easily identify liable third parties and recover Medicaid payments;

work with States, as appropriate, to encourage better cooperation from third parties that repeatedly resist States' TPL identification and recovery efforts;

for the four States we identified as not having fully complied with the DRA's TPL provisions: (1) verify whether the States have since come into compliance and (2) pursue corrective actions for States that have not fully complied;

verify whether Virginia has returned the $1.25 million Federal share of the Medicaid TPL collections underreported during two fiscal quarters and, if not, require Virginia to refund any remaining amount owed;

provide guidance to States to assist them with developing processes that improve the reporting of Medicaid TPL amounts on the form 64.9 A;

ensure that States have current guidance on completing the form 64.9 A;

ensure that States correctly report TPL amounts on the form 64.9 A; and

remove or disable lines from the form 64.9 A that States are supposed to leave blank.

MEDICAID PAYERS NEED INNOVATIVE TPL DATA SOLUTIONS

States' TPL challenges stem mostly from bad-quality data. Medicaid payers are unable to determine primary coverage on pharmacy and medical claims because the majority of data that they have access to is not current, available, complete, or accurate. Consequently, plans have no choice but to pay claims in error and then chase reimbursement once other primary coverage is found. To make matters even worse, the actual monies recovered from these improper payments remain around twenty cents on the dollar.

Without good quality data, Medicaid will not have the ability to overcome its TPL challenges, and the program will continue to lose billions in improper payments. Syrtis Solutions realized this, and in 2010, they introduced ProTPL. Their solution was a real-time point-of-sale cost avoidance service for payers of last resort that provides powerful and accurate eligibility data that plans can act on. ProTPL gives payers of last resort the ability to cost avoid pharmacy and medical claims in addition to the associated costs of recovery. Syrtis Solutions identifies active health coverage that no other vendors can find by checking claims against the nation's largest and most comprehensive active healthcare coverage information database. Customers implementing ProTPL see an average twenty-five percent increase in OHI discovery. With ProTPL, Medicaid plans can save on claims that are the liability of other primary payers and effectively be the payer of last resort.

In July, Medicaid enrollment climbed to 84.5 million people. Due to the size of the program's population, Medicaid plans need to focus on innovative ways of identifying third-party liability, improving efficiency, and lowering costs. Presently, one of the best ways for Medicaid payers to do that is to adopt technology solutions like ProTPL, which will allow them to identify active third-party payers and satisfy TPL requirements.

Click here to learn more.

[iwanderthroughthesenights]

Something that stood out to me a lot from this album is the intentional de-personalization of extremely personal feelings and stories. She seems to have decided for this project that in order to be free to be completely honest in her art (which tbf she always has been but never as much as this album), she needs to visualize herself, and thus her stories, as a third party, an external entity on which she's conducting a post-mortem examination. Her 2016 self and the hate train she suffered after Snakegate is reimagined as Cassandra, a character from Greek mythology who had visions in her dreams but no one believed her and instead she was punished. Her anxiety of holding her lover's career back is instead described as The Albatross, this girl who everyone has been warned to stay away from bc she causes problems and is a liability. Her sweet, innocent childhood self is depicted as a robin, a feisty little bird full of life, dreams, and potential who has yet no clue of the cruelty of the world.

Consequently, the characters in her life are, too, bestowed upon fictional characters from stories that have been told before and/or are familiar in some way to the listener (aIMee the girl from this allegorical high school which is actually Kim Kardashian, Peter the boy who never grew up and stayed forever in Neverland who actually is her long-term ex partner, both her and her lover's separate romantic involvements imagined as Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus, her real life therapist referred to as The Professor etc). By using the representation of well-known characters from widely popular stories and myths with names and all, she creates an even deeper line of emotional connection with the listener. Then, the 4th wall is delightfully broken in Clara Bow, where she refers to Clara Bow and Stevie Nicks as the inherent precedents to Taylor Swift. But what's even more brilliant about this is that in this way, she is making Taylor Swift into a character in and of itself. She is actually attempting to externalize Taylor Swift from Taylor the real-life woman. By narrating her stories through tangible entities presented as completely external to herself, she is inhibited by the safety of this fictional/allegorical lense through which she's allowing her stories to be consumed, and as a result, she has unlimited freedom to be more personal than she has ever been in her art before.

[trans-axolotl]

"Much ink has already been spilled on Harris’s prosecutorial background. What is significant about the topic of sex work is how recently the vice president–elect’s actions contradicted her alleged views. During her tenure as AG, she led a campaign to shut down Backpage, a classified advertising website frequently used by sex workers, calling it “the world’s top online brothel” in 2016 and claiming that the site made “millions of dollars from trafficking.” While Backpage did make millions off of sex work ads, its “adult services” listings offered a safer and more transparent platform for sex workers and their clients to conduct consensual transactions than had historically been available. Harris’s grandiose mischaracterization led to a Senate investigation, and the shuttering of the site by the FBI in 2018.

“Backpage being gone has devastated our community,” said Andrews. The platform allowed sex workers to work more safely: They were able to vet clients and promote their services online. “It’s very heartbreaking to see the fallout,” said dominatrix Yevgeniya Ivanyutenko. “A lot of people lost their ability to safely make a living. A lot of people were forced to go on the street or do other things that they wouldn’t have otherwise considered.” M.F. Akynos, the founder and executive director of the Black Sex Worker Collective, thinks Harris should “apologize to the community. She needs to admit that she really fucked up with Backpage, and really ruined a lot of people’s lives.”

After Harris became a senator, she cosponsored the now-infamous Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), which—along with the House’s Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA)—was signed into law by President Trump in 2018. FOSTA-SESTA created a loophole in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the so-called “safe harbor” provision that allows websites to be free from liability for user-generated content (e.g., Amazon reviews, Craigslist ads). The Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that Section 230 is the backbone of the Internet, calling it “the most important law protecting internet free speech.” Now, website publishers are liable if third parties post sex-work ads on their platforms.

That spelled the end of any number of platforms—mostly famously Craigslist’s “personal encounters” section—that sex workers used to vet prospective clients, leaving an already vulnerable workforce even more exposed. (The Woodhull Freedom Foundation has filed a lawsuit challenging FOSTA on First Amendment grounds; in January 2020, it won an appeal in D.C.’s district court).

“I sent a bunch of stats [to Harris and Senator Diane Feinstein] about decriminalization and how much SESTA-FOSTA would hurt American sex workers and open them up to violence,” said Cara (a pseudonym), who was working as a sex worker in the San Francisco and a member of SWOP when the bill passed. Both senators ignored her.

The bill both demonstrably harmed sex workers and failed to drop sex trafficking. “Within one month of FOSTA’s enactment, 13 sex workers were reported missing, and two were dead from suicide,” wrote Lura Chamberlain in her Fordham Law Review article “FOSTA: A Hostile Law with a Human Cost.” “Sex workers operating independently faced a tremendous and immediate uptick in unwanted solicitation from individuals offering or demanding to traffic them. Numerous others were raped, assaulted, and rendered homeless or unable to feed their children.” A 2020 survey of the effects of FOSTA-SESTA found that “99% of online respondents reported that this law does not make them feel safer” and 80.61 percent “say they are now facing difficulties advertising their services.” "

-What Sex Workers Want Kamala Harris to Know by Hallie Liberman

[omarmomani]

Choosing between comprehensive and third-party liability car insurance hinges on several crucial factors that can significantly impact your coverage and expenses. Understanding the nuances of each policy type is vital.

To know more visit: https://www.sukoon.com/individuals/car-insurance 

[mostlysignssomeportents]

CDA 230 bans Facebook from blocking interoperable tools

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TONIGHT (May 2) in WINNIPEG, then TOMORROW (May 3) in CALGARY, then SATURDAY (May 4) in VANCOUVER, then onto Tartu, Estonia, and beyond!

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is the most widely misunderstood technology law in the world, which is wild, given that it's only 26 words long!

https://www.techdirt.com/2020/06/23/hello-youve-been-referred-here-because-youre-wrong-about-section-230-communications-decency-act/

CDA 230 isn't a gift to big tech. It's literally the only reason that tech companies don't censor on anything we write that might offend some litigious creep. Without CDA 230, there'd be no #MeToo. Hell, without CDA 230, just hosting a private message board where two friends get into serious beef could expose to you an avalanche of legal liability.

CDA 230 is the only part of a much broader, wildly unconstitutional law that survived a 1996 Supreme Court challenge. We don't spend a lot of time talking about all those other parts of the CDA, but there's actually some really cool stuff left in the bill that no one's really paid attention to:

https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/supreme-court-decision-striking-down-cda

One of those little-regarded sections of CDA 230 is part (c)(2)(b), which broadly immunizes anyone who makes a tool that helps internet users block content they don't want to see.

Enter the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and their client, Ethan Zuckerman, an internet pioneer turned academic at U Mass Amherst. Knight has filed a lawsuit on Zuckerman's behalf, seeking assurance that Zuckerman (and others) can use browser automation tools to block, unfollow, and otherwise modify the feeds Facebook delivers to its users:

https://knightcolumbia.org/documents/gu63ujqj8o

If Zuckerman is successful, he will set a precedent that allows toolsmiths to provide internet users with a wide variety of automation tools that customize the information they see online. That's something that Facebook bitterly opposes.

Facebook has a long history of attacking startups and individual developers who release tools that let users customize their feed. They shut down Friendly Browser, a third-party Facebook client that blocked trackers and customized your feed:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/once-again-facebook-using-privacy-sword-kill-independent-innovation

Then in in 2021, Facebook's lawyers terrorized a software developer named Louis Barclay in retaliation for a tool called "Unfollow Everything," that autopiloted your browser to click through all the laborious steps needed to unfollow all the accounts you were subscribed to, and permanently banned Unfollow Everywhere's developer, Louis Barclay:

https://slate.com/technology/2021/10/facebook-unfollow-everything-cease-desist.html

Now, Zuckerman is developing "Unfollow Everything 2.0," an even richer version of Barclay's tool.

This rich record of legal bullying gives Zuckerman and his lawyers at Knight something important: "standing" – the right to bring a case. They argue that a browser automation tool that helps you control your feeds is covered by CDA(c)(2)(b), and that Facebook can't legally threaten the developer of such a tool with liability for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or the other legal weapons it wields against this kind of "adversarial interoperability."

Writing for Wired, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University speaks to a variety of experts – including my EFF colleague Sophia Cope – who broadly endorse the very clever legal tactic Zuckerman and Knight are bringing to the court.

I'm very excited about this myself. "Adversarial interop" – modding a product or service without permission from its maker – is hugely important to disenshittifying the internet and forestalling future attempts to reenshittify it. From third-party ink cartridges to compatible replacement parts for mobile devices to alternative clients and firmware to ad- and tracker-blockers, adversarial interop is how internet users defend themselves against unilateral changes to services and products they rely on:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

Now, all that said, a court victory here won't necessarily mean that Facebook can't block interoperability tools. Facebook still has the unilateral right to terminate its users' accounts. They could kick off Zuckerman. They could kick off his lawyers from the Knight Institute. They could permanently ban any user who uses Unfollow Everything 2.0.

Obviously, that kind of nuclear option could prove very unpopular for a company that is the very definition of "too big to care." But Unfollow Everything 2.0 and the lawsuit don't exist in a vacuum. The fight against Big Tech has a lot of tactical diversity: EU regulations, antitrust investigations, state laws, tinkerers and toolsmiths like Zuckerman, and impact litigation lawyers coming up with cool legal theories.

Together, they represent a multi-front war on the very idea that four billion people should have their digital lives controlled by an unaccountable billionaire man-child whose major technological achievement was making a website where he and his creepy friends could nonconsensually rate the fuckability of their fellow Harvard undergrads.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/02/kaiju-v-kaiju/#cda-230-c-2-b

Image: D-Kuru (modified): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MSI_Bravo_17_(0017FK-007)-USB-C_port_large_PNr%C2%B00761.jpg

Minette Lontsie (modified): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Facebook_Headquarters.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

[budzikthejester]

I promised myself that I would start using tumblr. But the truth is that too much time has passed and it's hard for me to switch to it from other social media. I don't know how the algorithm works here, I don't know how to reach new people. I'll be very grateful for a sign that you were here, maybe you will stay longer. I don't make content based on one topic, maybe this push people away from me. There will be a lot of third-party liability insurance. There will be a lot of OC here, lots of random things. And when I'm obsessed with a fandom, there's going to be a lot of drawings related to it.

Now, as you can see, a lot of sketches from Call of Duty, so if you like it, you can stay, cuz there's gonna be more.

If you wanna ask, me something, go ahead, I like to have contact with you.