Snapchat accused of reinstating banned teen accounts, stonewalling complaints
Parents say Snapchat is the weak link in Australia’s social media ban, with age checks easily bypassed and reporting limited to a child’s own family. ⌘ Read more

Snap Settles Social media Addiction Lawsuit Ahead of Landmark Trial
Snap has settled a social media addiction lawsuit just days before trial, while Meta, TikTok, and Alphabet remain defendants and are headed to court. “Terms of the deal were not announced as it was revealed by lawyers at a California Superior Court hearing, after which Snap told the BBC the parties were ‘pleased to have been able to resolve … ⌘ Read more

Era of ‘Global Water Bankruptcy’ Is Here, UN Report Says
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: The world has entered an era of “global water bankruptcy” that is harming billions of people, a UN report has declared. The overuse and pollution of water must be tackled urgently, the report’s lead author said, because no one knew when the whole system could collapse, with implications for peace and social coh … ⌘ Read more

UK Mulls Australia-Like Social Media Ban For Users Under 16
The UK government has launched a public consultation on whether to ban social media use for children under 16, drawing inspiration from Australia’s recently enacted age-based restrictions. “It would also explore how to enforce that limit, how to limit tech companies from being able to access children’s data and how to limit ‘infinite scrolling,’ as well as … ⌘ Read more

Ocean Damage Nearly Doubles the Cost of Climate Change
A new study from Scripps Institution of Oceanography finds that factoring ocean damage into climate economics nearly doubles the estimated global cost of climate change, adding close to $2 trillion per year from losses to fisheries, coral reefs, and coastal infrastructure. “It is the first time a social cost of carbon (SCC) assessment – a key measure of economic ha … ⌘ Read more

Nearly 5 Million Accounts Removed Under Australia’s New Social Media Ban
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: Nearly five million social media accounts belonging to Australian teenagers have been deactivated or removed, a month after a landmark law barring those younger than 16 from using the services took effect, the government said on Thursday. The announcement was the first re … ⌘ Read more

#ptpol #sondagens

Ainda na minha saga de leitura de sondagens (sim, há malucos para tudo…):

Nas “letras pequininas”, isto é, naquilo que é depositado na ERC e só porque a Lei manda, lê-se na sondagem do ISCTE de Dezembro que o número de “votos simulados” que três das possibilidades tiveram foram: Cardoso, 1 voto (0.1%), Joana Amaral Dias, 9 votos (1.0%), Jorge Pinto, 10 votos (1.1%). Estes valores a cru são depois ponderados e distribuídos, o que é normal… o que não se entende é o resultado depois da ponderação.

Em princípio, a ponderação distribui, e portanto devia dar mais para toda a gente, mas na realidade não foi isso que foi parar à comunicação social… Porquê? Ora, no documento para os resultados ponderados, eles começam por pegar na tabela de votos por ponderar, para depois fazer a ponderação. Saber como a ponderação foi feita é coisa que não vamos descobrir neste toot - lamento - mas é que o documento em questão é um documento de 66 páginas, que apresenta os dados por ponderar na página 33, e depois apresenta as páginas 34 e seguintes todas em branco… o que também me leva a perguntar se a ERC faz o mínimo de validação dos documentos que lhe são entregues.

½

Study Finds Weak Evidence Linking Social Media Use to Teen Mental Health Problems
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Screen time spent gaming or on social media does not cause mental health problems in teenagers, according to a large-scale study. […] Researchers at the University of Manchester followed 25,000 11- to 14-year-olds over three school years, tracking their s … ⌘ Read more

Widespread Verizon Outage Prompts Emergency Alerts in Washington, New York City
Verizon said on Wednesday that its wireless service was suffering an outage impacting cellular data and voice services. From a report: The nation’s largest wireless carrier said that its “engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly.” Verizon’s statement came after a swath of social me … ⌘ Read more

Trump Says Microsoft To Make Changes To Curb Data Center Power Costs For Americans
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: President Donald Trump said in a social media post on Monday that Microsoft will announce changes to ensure that Americans won’t see rising utility bills as the company builds more data centers to meet rising artificial intelligence demand. “I never want Americ … ⌘ Read more

• @kirschner@kirschner ’s “Ada & Zangemann: A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice Cream” was a wonderful surprise – I knew I’d like this book since I’ve heard he had written it, but I’ll admit I only actually read it once I had the actual physical book in my hands… and ended up being surprised by it a couple of times, the book has plenty more depth than I assumed! Sure, it is what I thought it would be, “a book for children about free software”, but it is so much more than that…

• @o_sarilho@o_sarilho is a webcomic - and fortunately it is also collected in physical format. There are versions in Portuguese and English, but this is a SciFi comic book from a Portuguese author, and that alone would get my attention… the fact that part of the action happens on the region where I actually live just made it even more interesting! So, well, I knew I would need to read it, and I bought the books, but only in 2025 did I actually started reading it… and, well - all I can say is that I glad I have the rest of the series so far, so I can catch up!

The modern world seems to want to separate the concepts of beauty and utility. We’re fine with having things that are aesthetic but don’ do anything useful, while the tools of society that get work done are often very ugly–visually, socially and metaphorically. Beauty without utility is worthless; utility without beauty is meaningless. We can’t treat them independently.

US President Calls for 10% Credit Card Interest Cap, Banks Push Back
President Donald Trump revived a campaign pledge Friday night by calling for a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a proposal that banking groups immediately opposed despite the industry’s heavy donations to his 2024 campaign and support for his second-term agenda.

Trump posted on Truth Social that he hoped the cap would be in … ⌘ Read more

AI-Powered Social Media App Hopes To Build More Purposeful Lives
A founder of Twitter and a founder of Pinterest are now working on
“social media for people who hate social media,” writes a Washington Post columnist.

“When I heard that this platform would harness AI to help us live more meaningful lives, I wanted to know more…”

Their bid for redemption is West Co. — the Workshop for Emotional and Spiritual … ⌘ Read more

Iran in ‘Digital Blackout’ as Tehran Throttles Mobile Internet Access
An anonymous reader shares a report: Internet access available through mobile devices in Iran appears to be limited, according to several social media accounts that routinely track such developments. Cloudflare Radar, which monitors internet traffic on behalf of the internet infrastructure firm Cloudflare, said on Thursday that IPv6 (Inte … ⌘ Read more

Vieira sobre a saúde quer proibir a doença. Ventura tapa a cara para não se rir do qie Vieira disse. Quer o direito à felicidade para todos os portugueses inscritos na constituição. O vinho canalizado é uma metáfora, admite. Resolvia o racismo pintando toda a gente.

3 - Crescimento Económico, imigração e legislação laboral:

Ventura diz que o problema da saúde e da habitação é culpa da geringonça porque aceitou imigrantes. Seguro está de trombas, e é acusado de ter deixado entrar criminosos em Portugal. Crescimento não é mais importante que parar a imigração.

Seguro quer disciplinar a imigração, a economia precisa de imigrantes, relembra a Ventura que isto não são as eleições legislativas.

Catarina Martins acha que é precisa integração. Quer uma economia de salários dignos, transição climática justa.

Cotrim é quem crescer mais que todos os outros, segundo ele próprio. Chama o jornalista de ingénuo quando os níveis de crescimento actuais são citados. Quer pensões mais altas(!), ah, mas é só quando tivemos a economia a crescer ainda mais, e a natalidade for maior, e a segurança social for “regenerada” (seja o que isso for).

Jorge Pinto começa por se virar a Ventura para dizer “fraude é o Senhor”. Diz que o Jorge Sampaio foi o melhor presidente e que quer ser como ele.

5/n

‘NY Orders Apps To Lie About Social Media Addiction, Will Lose In Court’
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has signed S4505, a law that requires websites to display warnings claiming that features like algorithmic feeds, push notifications, infinite scroll, like counts, and autoplay cause addiction – despite, as TechDirt argues, the absence of scientific consensus supporting such claims.

State Senator Andr … ⌘ Read more

Influencers and OnlyFans Models Dominate US ‘Extraordinary’ Artist Visas
The O-1B visa, a work permit reserved for individuals deemed to possess “extraordinary ability” in the arts, has become the pathway of choice for social media influencers and OnlyFans models seeking to build careers in the United States. Immigration attorneys told the Financial Times that influencers now make up more than half their … ⌘ Read more

Reddit Surges in Popularity to Overtake TikTok in the UK - Thanks to Google’s Algorithm?
Reddit “has overtaken TikTok as Britain’s fourth most-visited social media service,” reports the Guardian:

The platform has undergone huge growth over the last two years, with an 88% increase in the proportion of UK internet users it reaches. Three in five Brits online now encounter the site, up from … ⌘ Read more

NYC Phone Ban Reveals Some Students Can’t Read Clocks
New York City’s statewide smartphone ban that went into effect this fall has been largely successful at getting students to focus in class and socialize at lunch, but teachers across the city have discovered an unexpected side effect: many teenagers cannot read analog clocks. “The constant refrain is ‘Miss, what time is it?’” said Madi Mornhinweg, a high school English … ⌘ Read more

Ghana Tries To Regulate Online Prophecies
Ghana has decided to deal with the viral spread of prophetic content on social media by setting up an official reporting mechanism for sensitive predictions, a move triggered by the August 2025 helicopter crash that killed the country’s defence and environment ministers along with six others.

After the accident, TikTok clips circulated showing pastors who claimed to have foreseen the disast … ⌘ Read more

France Targets Australia-Style Social Media Ban For Children Next Year
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: France intends to follow Australia and ban social media platforms for children from the start of the 2026 academic year. A draft bill preventing under-15s from using social media will be submitted for legal checks and is expected to be debated in parliament early in the new year. … ⌘ Read more

I can track users’ feeds now

@prologic@twtxt.net I’d happily write API documentation for go.yarn.social/client

@movq@www.uninformativ.de the ‘writing a Yarn client’ thought goes all the way back to my ‘novaburst’ days in Yarn.social, but with the other pod apparently being gone, there’s no proof of it, except on everyone’s minds.

Life in a Shrinking Japan
Japan’s demographic transformation is no longer a distant forecast but an accelerating reality, and the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research now estimates the country’s population will fall to roughly 100 million by 2050 – more than 20 million fewer people than today.

The share of residents aged 65 and over stood at 29.4% as of September and is expected to reach 37.1% by midcentury. The dependenc … ⌘ Read more

VC Sees AI-generated Video Gutting the Creator Economy
AI-generated video tools like OpenAI’s Sora will make individual content creators “far, far, far less valuable” as social media platforms shift toward algorithmically generated content tailored to each viewer, according to Michael Mignano, a partner at venture capital firm Lightspeed and who cofounded the podcasting platform Anchor before Spotify acquired it.

Speaki … ⌘ Read more

New York To Require Social Media Platforms To Display Mental Health Warnings
Social media platforms with infinite scrolling, auto-play and algorithmic feeds will be required to display warning labels about their potential harm to young users’ mental health under a new law, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Friday. From a report: “Keeping New Yorkers safe has been my top priority since taki … ⌘ Read more

Chinese Social Media Users Criticize Authorities in Rare Sign of Dissent
An anonymous reader shares a report: Chinese social media users criticized two key government policies, rare signs of public dissent in the country where the internet is heavily censored. The death of the former head of China’s one-child policy agency – which for decades forced women to carry out abortions and sterilizations – s … ⌘ Read more

#ptpol #presidenciais

Já é mais fácil as pessoas saberem quem são 8 dos candidatos: a comunicação social até lançou 2 ou 3 deles, entrevistou-os, providenciou debates entre eles - os oito. Mas os candidatos são onze, e nada leva a crer que - nem mesmo depois da crítica feita pela CNE - a comunicação social esteja interessada em falar dos outros. Não se preocupem, há sempre um maluco nas intermetes a querer colmatar as falhas dos outros. Assim sendo… Quem são os “outros três”?

1. André Pestana - ficou conhecido dos Portugueses durante uns tempos em que os professores andavam na rua a protestar, durante o Governo do Costa. Já antes disso tinha protestado contra o amianto nas escolas. É o líder do sindicato STOP, e diz que “é a altura de abrir a pestana”. É contra as subvenções partidárias. Quer “Mais Saúde, Educação, Justiça; menos corrupção E ganância”.

2. Manuel João Vieira - Vocalista dos Ena Pá 2000, só desiste se for eleito. Quer vinho canalizado em todas as casas, e é o candidato do gozo, mas curiosamente não goza com o povo nem com o cargo - ao contrário de outros.

3. Humberto Correia - vai percorrer país vestido de Afonso Henriques em campanha, “ir descendo até ao Algarve, tal como D. A. Henriques na conquista de Portugal.” Quer combater a crise na habitação fazendo casas de 30m².

Garmin Emergency Autoland Has First Save
“Garmin’s Collier Trophy award-winning Autonomi emergency Autoland, a system designed to safely land an aircraft in the event of pilot incapacitation, made its first real-world use and save on Saturday,” writes Slashdot reader slipped_bit. AvBrief.com reports: Social media posts from flight tracking hobbyists reported a King Air 200 squawked 7700 about 2 p.m. local time today. The Autoland sy … ⌘ Read more

‘Confused’ Waymos Stopped in Intersections During San Francisco Power Outage
“On Saturday, videos shared widely on social media showed Waymo vehicles stopped mid-intersection with hazard lights flashing, forcing other cars to maneuver around them,” reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Independent notes that “Without working traffic lights, the driverless cars were seemingly left confused, with m … ⌘ Read more

Agora que a comunicação social já sabe que afinal há 14 candidatos nas presidenciais, vamos ter o calendário de debates alargado para que os que até agora foram ignorados tenham igualdade de oportunidades, não é?

Eu espero sentado.

Trump’s Social Media Business Is Merging With a Nuclear Fusion Company
Tony Isaac shares a report from CNN: President Donald Trump’s social media and crypto company is making a huge bet on a far different industry – nuclear fusion, a potentially lucrative albeit commercially unproven energy technology that could help power a suddenly electricity-starved economy. Trump Media and Technology Group Thursday … ⌘ Read more

World-Beating 55,000% Surge in India AI Stock Fuels Bubble Fears
The world’s best-performing stock is turning into a cautionary tale for investors chasing outsized returns from the AI boom. From a report: Little-known until recently even within its home market of India, RRP Semiconductor Ltd. became a social-media obsession as its shares surged more than 55,000% in the 20 months through Dec. 17 – by far the big … ⌘ Read more

Doublespeed Hack Reveals What Its AI-Generated Accounts Are Promoting
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Doublespeed, a startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) that uses a phone farm to manage at least hundreds of AI-generated social media accounts and promote products has been hacked. The hack reveals what products the AI-generated accounts are promoting, often without the required d … ⌘ Read more

Senators Count the Shady Ways Data Centers Pass Energy Costs On To Americans
U.S. senators are probing whether Big Tech data centers are driving up local electricity bills by socializing grid upgrade costs onto residents. Some of the tactics they’re using include NDAs, shell companies, and lobbying. Ars Technica reports: In letters (PDF) to seven AI firms, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ch … ⌘ Read more

Meta Tolerates Rampant Ad Fraud From China To Safeguard Billions In Revenue
A Reuters investigation found that Meta knowingly tolerated large volumes of scam and illegal ads from China worth billions in revenue. Reuters reports: Though China’s authoritarian government bans use of Meta social media by its citizens, Beijing lets Chinese companies advertise to foreign consumers on the globe-spanning pl … ⌘ Read more

US Threatens Penalties Against European Tech Firms Amid Regulatory Fight
U.S. officials excoriated the European Union for discriminating against American technology companies and threatened to penalize European tech companies in return, in a social media post on Tuesday. From a report: The pronouncement appeared to signal a rockier period for U.S.-E.U. trade relations, as the two governments work to fi … ⌘ Read more

Got a nice conspiracy theory for you:

https://mastodon.social/@mcc/115670290552252848

Actually wait I just thought about this and realized that the precise timing of the ACTUAL GitHub seed bank, by which I mean the Arctic Code Vault, on 2020-02-02, makes it more or less a perfect snapshot of pre-Copilot GitHub. Also precisely timed before we all got brain damage from COVID. This is the only remaining archive of source code by people with a fully working sense of smell

(Bonus points because the Arctic World Archive is located in Svaldbard and that’s the name of the AI in Stacey Kade’s “Cold Eternity”.)

Fake hero, wrong suspect: Misinformation floods social media after Bondi shooting
Elon Musk’s chatbot said Edward Crabtree – a fictional 47-year-old IT professional – was the hero who tackled one of the attackers and seized his weapon. ⌘ Read more

Russian Ban On Roblox Gaming Platform Sparks Rare Protest
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Several dozen people protested on Sunday in the Siberian city of Tomsk against Russia’s ban on U.S. children’s gaming platform Roblox, a rare show of public dissent as popular irritation over the ban gains some momentum. In wartime Russia, censorship is extensive: Moscow blocks or restricts social media platform … ⌘ Read more

Like Australia, Denmark Plans to Severely Restrict Social Media Use for Teenagers
“As Australia began enforcing a world-first social media ban for children under 16 years old this week, Denmark is planning to follow its lead,” reports the Associated Press, “and severely restrict social media access for young people.”

The Danish government announced last month that it had secured an agreement b … ⌘ Read more

“If COP30 cannot deliver the mechanisms for decarbonisation or social protection, then the hope must lie in movements of people: workers, peasants, indigenous people, women, youth, and the urban poor. Outside of a global mass movement rooted in national realities, the necessary steps to confront the climate crisis will not occur. Yet such a movement cannot be built if it fails to address the immediate needs of the working classes and the poor. The fight for climate protection and ecological justice must therefore begin with the fight for life itself — for clean water, decent housing, jobs, food, and security against the elements.

Right-wing climate denialists exploit the desperation of the poor to drive a wedge between ordinary people and climate action. They present environmentalism as a threat to livelihoods rather than the path to survival. To win the majority, our movement must link ecological transformation with social justice. We must demand the redistribution of wealth and power away from the billionaire class, big tech, and ruling elites who plunder the planet for profit.”

#climatecrisis

Desperate vibes as under-16s crowd into Yope and Lemon8
Lemon8, Coverstar and Yope are social media hiding places for Australian under-16s, but for how long? ⌘ Read more

I learned about GreenHost some time ago, but today I also leaned about Uberspace ( @ubernauten@ubernauten ): turns out that if you have a #VPS or an online service somewhere, there is no reason why you can’t have it running using exclusively green energy! 💚 🔋

The great scroll off: Inside Australia’s world-first teen social media ban
How grieving parents, media campaigns, and political opportunism collided to create the world’s most ambitious - and contentious - experiment in digital regulation. ⌘ Read more

Reddit Launches High Court Challenge To Australia’s Under-16s Social Media Ban
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Reddit has filed a challenge against Australia’s under-16s social media ban in the high court, lodging its case two days after implementing age restrictions on its website. The company said in a Reddit post on Friday that while it agreed with protecting people under 1 … ⌘ Read more

‘Missing the mark’: Reddit files High Court bid to overturn teen social media ban
The platform says banning under 16s from social media silences young Australians and makes them less safe online. ⌘ Read more

Reddit files High Court bid to overturn teen social media ban
The platform says banning under-16s from social media silences young Australians and makes them less safe online. ⌘ Read more

2/2

Ventura diz que o Livre é um partido de corruptos, fala de “escumalha dos vossos partidos” e chama ao JPinto de pirralho. O debate deve estar para acabar daqui a 2 minutos e sem ser a alteração da constituição ainda não se falou de presidenciais.

JP tem as assinaturas todas, entrega-as a 17 de Dezembro, e anuncia que a sua mandatária é a advogada que processou o Ventura. Ventura fica nervoso, fala da mama de Abril e que vai acabar com o país de Abril qdo ganhar.

Desinformação: JP diz que não se pode ter uma visão de um mundo só com dois lados (Trump ou Putin), porque ambos os lados são maus. AV acha que grave não é o discurso de ódio que leva miúdos a cortar dedos aos outros, mas sim conteúdos LGBT na net.

-

Comentário pessoal: Este debate teve mais 4 minutos do que o previsto, deve ser para dar razão ao Jorge Pinto que diz que Ventura é o menino querido da comunicação social. Não se aprende nada a assistir este debate: Pinto estâ bem como esperado, Ventura é o vilão que já sabíamos. Coisas como LGBT ser pior que dedos decepados já nem choca, nem a troca de posições e catavento, nem o querer acabar com o país de Abril. Igual em todos os debates com AV: qualquer opção é a melhor que o fascismo.