> We all forget that money is nice, but nation states have real power.

I remember something (probably linked from here), where the essayist was comparing Jack Ma, one of the richest men on earth, and Xi Jinping, a much lower-paid individual.

They indicated that Xi got Ma into a chokehold. I think he "disappeared" Ma for some time. Don't remember exactly how long, but it may have been over a year.

> We all forget that money is nice, but nation states have real power.

Elon has ICBMs, but France has warheads.

> Western liberal democracies just rarely use it.

Also, they are restricted in how they use it, and defendents have rights and due process.

> Sabu was put under pressure by the FBI, they threatened to place his kids into foster care.

Though things like that can happen, which are very serious.

Except when they have encryption, which should be the standard? I mean how much data would authorities actually retrieve when most stuff is located on X servers anyways? I have my doubts.

They do what they can. They obviously can't raid the American office.

It wasn't erasing as far I know, but locking all computers.

Covered here: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/jul/10/uber-bosses-tol...

This is a perfect way for the legal head of the company in-country to visit some jails.

They will explain that it was done remotely and whatnot but then the company will be closed in the country. Whether this matters for the mothership is another story.

>notorious

What happened to due process? Every major firm should have a "dawn raid" policy to comply while preserving rights.

Specific to the Uber case(s), if it were illegal, then why didn't Uber get criminal charges or fines?

At best there's an argument that it was "obstructing justice," but logging people off, encrypting, and deleting local copies isn't necessarily illegal.

It's sad to see this degree of incentives perverted, over adhering to local laws.

How do you know this?

Sure it might be on the device, but they would need a password to decrypt the laptop's storage to get any of the data. There's also the possibility of the MDM software making it impossible to decrypt if given a remote signal. Even if you image the drive, you can't image the secure enclave so if it is wiped it's impossible to retrieve.

If that training involves destroying evidence or withholding evidence from the prosecution, you are going to jail if you follow it.

That is very much illegal in the US

Holocaust denial is illegal in France, for one, and Grok did exactly that on several occasions.

It's voluntary

> Claim 4/20 is a holiday that he celebrates?

Given his recent "far right" bromance that's probably not a good idea ;)

420 is a stoner number, stoners lol a lot, thought of Elmo's failed joint smoking on JRE before I stopped watching

...but then other commenters reminded me there is another thing on the same date, which might have been more the actual troll at Elmo to get him all worked up

Sounds awesome, when do we start?

He was only going to the island to get rid of bots on Twitter. Just like OJ spent the rest of his life looking for the real killer.

Fixed. That period was one char too long but I used an "&" instead of "and" to fix it.

Some people are calling Twitter "X".

The second part of your question remains a mystery :-)

hold on, are you saying that you should be able to be jailed for manipulation? Where would that end? could i be jailed if i post a review for a restaurant if you feel it manipulated you? or anyone stating an opinion could be construed as manipulation. that is beyond a slippery slope, that is an authoritarian nightmare.

It's broader and mentioned in the article:

>French authorities opened their investigation after reports from a French lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms on X likely distorted the functioning of an automated data processing system. It expanded after Grok generated posts that allegedly denied the Holocaust, a crime in France, and spread sexually explicit deepfakes, the statement said.

I had to make a choice to not even use Grok (I wasn't overly interested in the first place, but wanted to review how it might compare to the other tools), because even just the Explore option shows photos and videos of CSAM, CSAM-adjacent, and other "problematic" things in a photorealistic manner (such as implied bestiality).

Looking at the prompts below some of those image shows that even now, there's almost zero effort at Grok to filter prompts that are blatantly looking to create problematic material. People aren't being sneaky and smart and wordsmithing subtle cues to try to bypass content filtering, they're often saying "create this" bluntly and directly, and Grok is happily obliging.

Given America passed PAFACA (intended to ban TikTok, which Trump instead put in hands of his friends), I would think Europe would also have a similar law. Is that not the case?

> fairly open platform where people can choose what to post and who to follow.

It is well known Musk amplifies his own speech and the words of those he agrees with on the platform, while banning those he doesn’t like.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/15/elon-m...

> could you clarify what the difference is between the near right and the far right?

It’s called far-right because it’s further to the right (starting from the centre) than the right. Wikipedia is your friend, it offers plenty of examples and even helpfully lays out the full spectrum in a way even a five year old with a developmental impairment could understand.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far-right_politics

This is obviously diversion but anyway: Bunch of "American and European" "patriots" that he retweets 24/7 turned out to be people from Iran, Pakistan, India and Russia. These accounts generate likes by default by accounts with "wife of vet" in bio and generic old_blonde_women.jpeg aka bots.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj38m11218xo

Elon fiddles with the algorithm to boost certain accounts. Some accounts are behind an auth wall and others are not. It’s open but not even.

> where people can choose

How true is this really?

We certainly have data points to show Musk has put his thumb on the scale

Far right to me is advocating for things that discriminate based on protected traits like race, sex, etc. So if you’re advocating for “white culture” above others, that’s far right. If you’re advocating for the 19th amendment (women’s right to vote) to be repealed (as Nick Fuentes and similar influencers do), that’s also far right. Advocating for ICE to terrorize peaceful residents, violate constitutional rights, or outright execute people is also far right.

Near right to me is advocating for things like lower taxes or different regulations or a secure border (but without the deportation of millions who are already in the country and abiding by laws). Operating the government for those things while still respecting the law, upholding the constitution, defending civil rights, and avoiding the deeply unethical grifting and corruption the Trump administration has normalized.

Obviously this is very simplified. What are your definitions out of curiosity?

In case you're not playing dumb, the term you're looking for would be centre right.

They will set their DNS servers to drop all incoming connections to X. That can be done in each country. They can use Deep Packet inspection tools and go from there. If the decision is EU wide then they will roll that out.

In fairness, AI-generated CSAM is nowhere near as evil as real CSAM. The reason why possession of CSAM was such a serious crime is because its creation used to necessitate the abuse of a child.

It's pretty obvious the French are deliberately conflating the two to justify attacking a political dissident.

Why do you think that? It can take a few years for national laws bring in place, but that also depends on how much certain countries push it. Regarding Internet traffic I assume a few specific countries that route most of the traffic would be enough to stop operation for the most part.

What do you mean with "this type of platform"? Platforms that don't follow (any) national laws have been banned in multiple countries over the years.

By itself this isn't extraordinary in a democracy.

> if you were to ban this type of platform you wouldn't need Musk to "move it towards the far right" because you would already be the very definition of a totalitarian regime

Paradox of tolerance. (The American right being Exhibit A for why trying to let sunlight disinfect a corpse doesn’t work.)