Several social media tech execs including Mark Zuckerberg went to Washington for their annual flogging today. The issue this time around is child safety, or more directly, "Big Tech and the online child sexual exploitation crisis." Longtime readers will note that I've never shied away from criticizing the social platforms and their make-believe attempts at self regulation on issues from children to privacy to democracy. I've criticized these platforms here, I criticized them in my book, I spent years writing a blog on the damage technology is doing to society. So I'm glad to see pressure on the platforms to be safer, especially for kids. It was good to see Zuckerberg apologize to the families who have been harmed by Meta's lax oversight. I hope Congress surprises us and gets a decent law passed. But it's just a compete farce to watch some of these Congressional clowns using the hearing to make themselves go viral on the very same platforms they're attacking—and the ones they use to spread the lies, disinformation, and personal attacks that are destroying the fabric of our country. It's nauseating to listen to some of these dysfunctional blowhards, enablers, insurrection supporters, and democracy sellouts who can barely keep the nation's lights on much less pass legislation spending the day trolling the heads of the social networks they've utterly failed to regulate.
+ Families and victims were a massive force in today’s hearing. They deserve a serious Congress. We all do.
2
Head Games
"In seven years since the settlement opened, the NFL has paid out nearly $1.2 billion to more than 1,600 former players and their families — far more than experts predicted during settlement negotiations. The league points to these figures as evidence of the settlement’s fairness. But behind the scenes, the settlement routinely fails to deliver money and medical care to former players suffering from dementia and CTE, a Washington Post investigation found, saving the NFL hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more." WaPo (Gift Article) investigates how the NFL has handled it concussion payouts in the years since they reached a settlement with players. The Concussion Files. It's been interesting to see the impact that the concussion revelations have had on the sport. Participation at the youth level has diminished somewhat. But the NFL is bigger than ever, and the upcoming Super Bowl will certainly set viewership records.
3
Conducting War
"The United States on Wednesday attributed the drone attack that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias, as President Joe Biden weighs his response options to the strike." The response will likely be severe enough to send a clear message but contained enough to avoid a wider war. The whole incident might make you wonder: What the hell is Iran thinking? They're loving the chaos and anti-America/Israel fervor in the region. But they certainly don't want an all out war with the US. A reasonable follow-up question would be whether Iran is actually giving orders or if the terror groups they support are taking the initiative. Iran puts the bands together and provides the instruments. But are they always leading the orchestra? Arash Azizi in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Iran’s Proxies Are Out of Control. "The ideas of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s revolutionary leader, and Khamenei, its current leader, run deep in the Iraqi militias. But this ideological fervor makes them, ironically, hard for Tehran to control, because they are not always prone to be convinced by the strategic calculations of the Iranian establishment’s more pragmatic sections."
4
Alienation Nation
"They talked about money lost to investment scams or products that claimed to reverse aging or cure COVID-19. They talked about a mounting sense of paranoia and distrust as they began to lose faith in their community and their fellow Americans. Former believers said conspiracy theories offered them meaning when they felt empty, even if those promises proved to be hollow themselves." Social media and political disinformation make this a really bad time to feel alienated, sad, hollow, and lonely. There are plenty of groups looking to fill the void. AP takes a deep look at conspiracy theories and the people who believe them. Days of Darkness: How one woman escaped the conspiracy theory trap that has ensnared millions.
5
Extra, Extra
Stick Figures: "For decades, single young men, mainly from Mexico and later Central America, did their best to sneak past U.S. border agents to reach Los Angeles, Atlanta and other places hungry for their labor. Today, people from around the globe are streaming across the southern border, most of them just as eager to work. But rather than trying to elude U.S. authorities, the overwhelming majority of migrants seek out border agents, sometimes waiting hours or days in makeshift encampments, to surrender." NYT (Gift Article): One Big Reason Migrants Are Coming in Droves: They Believe They Can Stay.
+ Dealer's Choice: "Years before Andrés Manuel López Obrador was elected as Mexico’s leader in 2018, U.S. drug-enforcement agents uncovered what they believed was substantial evidence that major cocaine traffickers had funneled some $2 million to his first presidential campaign." Did Drug Traffickers Funnel Millions of Dollars to Mexican President López Obrador’s First Campaign? (Do we know if someone can be elected in Mexico without cutting a deal with cartels?)
+ Darkness Visible: "Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked his most senior military commander, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, to step down on Monday but the popular general refused, triggering speculation that he will be dismissed instead." The cracks are starting to show and the US failure to fund isn't helping. This is not a good spot for a new, fragile democracy. Masha Gessen in The New Yorker: Ukraine’s Democracy in Darkness.
+ Disney Loses, Goofy Wins: "The lawsuit, which was filed by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts in April, accused DeSantis of weaponizing his political power to punish the company for exercising its right to free speech." Judge dismisses Disney’s lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his allies.
+ Pro Tip: Interested in the new Apple Vision Pro? John Gruber has you covered.
6
Bottom of the News
"Japan is an innovative country that leads the way on many technological fronts. But the wheels of bureaucracy often turn incredibly slowly there. So much so, that the government still requires businesses to provide information on floppy disks and CD-ROMs when they submit certain official documents." But progress is coming. Japan will no longer require floppy disks for submitting some official documents.
+ "Living funerals, which are also known as pre-funerals, offer a chance for people to say goodbye to their friends and families on their own terms and to celebrate their life while they are still alive."
What happened to the facebook hyperlinks?
Dave, thanks for calling attention to the WaPo article about the NFL,which I'm planning to read. I am a guilty football fan-I know CTE is real and awful and I try not to think about it. I just listened to a podcast about Aaron Hernandez, who suffered from shockingly advanced CTE by his twenties, and his terrible crimes and subsequent suicide. It was horrifying and very, very sad.