#internetculture — Public Fediverse posts

Tech giants know honesty can cost billions. Do we trust them with the truth?
By Cam Wilson

Mandating disclosure rather than trusting the AI companies behind the technology could save them from their own worse impulses. And maybe it'll save us, too.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-07/meta-facebook-mark-zuckerberg-ai-safety-disclosure/107122950

#SocialMedia #InternetCulture #Internet #InformationandCommunication #MentalHealth #ComputerScience #ScienceandTechnology #CommunityandSociety #Health #MobilePhones #CamWilson

ABC News: White House launches Arcade.gov with computer game that lets players ‘deport’ migrants. “The White House announced the launch of what it called “Arcade.gov,” a website of five versions of classic computer games promoting the president’s agenda. The games include ‘Flappy Bill,’ ‘Build the Wall,’ ‘Rio Run,’ ‘Supply Line’ and ‘Trump Savings Tycoon.’ One of the games, ‘Rio Run,’ a […]

I was addicted to optimising my life, but it didn't make me happier

I was hooked by the idea that my lack of happiness and fulfilment in the present moment could be fixed if I just got better at my life.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-07/optimising-perspective-lifestyle/106962380

#MentalWellbeing #InternetCulture

[Tech Thoughts] The tightrope walk between online safety and draconian laws

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.rappler.com/technology/features/tech-thoughts-tightrope-walk-online-safety-draconian-laws/

TechCrunch: Judge blocks X rival from using Twitter name, but allows ‘Tweet’ for now. “The story of the Virginia-based startup isn’t really about building something unique; it’s about a company trying to get its hands on abandoned trademarks that X relinquished. Even the homepage for the company clearly states its purpose is to go back and pick up what Elon Musk dropped when he renamed […]

Retail Gazette: Lush launches campaign highlighting harm caused by social media. “Lush is looking to spotlight the harm caused by big social media platforms in its new campaign, which is now live across all of its stores in the UK, EU, USA and Canada. The retailer left the major social media platforms, Snapchat, X, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook almost five years ago. And since then, the […]

Retail Gazette: Lush launches campaign highlighting harm caused by social media. “Lush is looking to spotlight the harm caused by big social media platforms in its new campaign, which is now live across all of its stores in the UK, EU, USA and Canada. The retailer left the major social media platforms, Snapchat, X, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook almost five years ago. And since then, the […]

Retail Gazette: Lush launches campaign highlighting harm caused by social media. “Lush is looking to spotlight the harm caused by big social media platforms in its new campaign, which is now live across all of its stores in the UK, EU, USA and Canada. The retailer left the major social media platforms, Snapchat, X, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook almost five years ago. And since then, the […]

Retail Gazette: Lush launches campaign highlighting harm caused by social media. “Lush is looking to spotlight the harm caused by big social media platforms in its new campaign, which is now live across all of its stores in the UK, EU, USA and Canada. The retailer left the major social media platforms, Snapchat, X, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook almost five years ago. And since then, the […]

Retail Gazette: Lush launches campaign highlighting harm caused by social media. “Lush is looking to spotlight the harm caused by big social media platforms in its new campaign, which is now live across all of its stores in the UK, EU, USA and Canada. The retailer left the major social media platforms, Snapchat, X, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook almost five years ago. And since then, the […]

Spotted in my RSS feeds: a Chrome extension called Retake the Lake. (This link goes to a GitHub repository. Here is the extension in the Chrome Web store.) “This is a (hopefully temporary) extension for Chrome browsers that corrects ‘Lake America’ to ‘Lake Ontario’ in two ways.”

Spotted in my RSS feeds: a Chrome extension called Retake the Lake. (This link goes to a GitHub repository. Here is the extension in the Chrome Web store.) “This is a (hopefully temporary) extension for Chrome browsers that corrects ‘Lake America’ to ‘Lake Ontario’ in two ways.”

Spotted in my RSS feeds: a Chrome extension called Retake the Lake. (This link goes to a GitHub repository. Here is the extension in the Chrome Web store.) “This is a (hopefully temporary) extension for Chrome browsers that corrects ‘Lake America’ to ‘Lake Ontario’ in two ways.”

Spotted in my RSS feeds: a Chrome extension called Retake the Lake. (This link goes to a GitHub repository. Here is the extension in the Chrome Web store.) “This is a (hopefully temporary) extension for Chrome browsers that corrects ‘Lake America’ to ‘Lake Ontario’ in two ways.”

Spotted in my RSS feeds: a Chrome extension called Retake the Lake. (This link goes to a GitHub repository. Here is the extension in the Chrome Web store.) “This is a (hopefully temporary) extension for Chrome browsers that corrects ‘Lake America’ to ‘Lake Ontario’ in two ways.”

Gothamist: TikTok is the new 311: New Yorkers tag Mayor Mamdani on social media for help. “Mamdani is being inundated with online requests for IRL fixes. The videos, which have become a meme on TikTok, show people begging Mamdani to take action on everything from mundane nuisances — like potholes and leaky subway stations — to more existential challenges like finding love. The requests have […]

if you call yourself a golden retriever, people may say sit

https://tacobout.online/2026/09/05/golden-retriever-boyfriend-dating-profile-archetype/

CNBC: South Korea’s AI rally is reshaping romance, reality shows and academic preferences. “South Korea’s AI stock rally is rapidly transforming different corners of the country’s society ranging all the way from romance to academics. In Korea’s dating scene, professionals such as physicians, lawyers and judges, have traditionally been the most sought-after. Now the preferences are […]

youtube is quietly becoming the weirdest streaming service

https://tacobout.online/2026/09/02/youtube-quietly-becoming-weirdest-streaming-service/

I sometimes think that some executive came up with the idea of getting perfectly reasonable people to behave like imbeciles as a wager — and then everyone forgot to remove the requirement.

#YouTube #Clickbait #YouTubeCreators #ContentCreators #CreatorEconomy #SocialMedia #DigitalMedia #OnlineContent #MediaCriticism #InternetCulture #YouTubeThumbnails #ContentMarketing #Humour #Satire #TTMO

Distributed Denial of Secrets: Tate Media Library. “The files include individual clips, media from their AI Library, Editing Sandbox, Promos, Stock Video Archive, Video snippet files, and productions including Heroes of Wudan, Tales of Wudan, Immortal Dragon, Money Glitch, and Real Life Tate.” Not public; available to researchers and journalists only.

Despite Myself, I'm Obsessed With This Irish Language Food Influencer Drama

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://aftermath.site/irish-tiktok-nasti-instagram/

ABC News (Australia): The manosphere continues to suck young men in as study reveals troubling findings. “Flynn Martin is one who says he was radicalised by the manosphere. He was 20 years old. A uni student. A self-professed doomscroller. But once the anti-women algorithm infiltrated his social media, it took just months for the hobby content creator to become another online prophet of […]

🚀 Oh boy, 1998 called and wants its "revolutionary" insight back. Apparently, keeping #URIs unchanged is the pinnacle of digital innovation, because who knew that #stability was a thing? 🙄 Spoiler alert: People change URIs, not the internet gods. 🌐✨
https://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI #digitalinnovation #HackerNews #1998insights #internetculture #HackerNews #ngated

British Film Institute: Chronically online criticism: how we’re archiving the video essay boom. “Pithy, playful, provocative – video essays have emerged as a major form of cultural commentary since the dawn of online video sites in the mid 2000s. Here we introduce the five video essay makers whose work we’ve selected for preserving in the BFI National Archive.”

OM: Om Malik, 1966-2026. “Om Malik passed away on June 24, 2026, at Stanford Hospital after a long health journey with his heart. He was surrounded by family and friends.”

Gizmodo: Snap’s AR Glasses Aren’t Even Out Yet, and They’re Already Getting Roasted to Death . “… the only thing most people can think about is how they look on your face—or more specifically, how ridiculous they look on your face. On social media, people have wasted absolutely zero time skewering Snap’s Specs for being bulky and generally dorky-looking, and Snap’s CEO Evan […]

In AI-made video, Trump mimics Naruto, but misses the point entirely

http://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/inside-track/donald-trump-ai-naruto-video-misses-point-entirely/

The Guardian: ‘Mogging’ is suddenly everywhere. Is that a problem?. “This word for outdoing or outshining others originated in the manosphere, but is now thoroughly mainstream. Why is it so popular – and should we be worried about slang that arises from toxic subcultures?”

Hey, Dumbass — You’re Supposed to Be Paying Attention

By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News
Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — June 6, 2026, 07:00 PHST

This Is Not Subtle, and It Isn’t New

Let’s dispense with politeness. What’s happening right now is not complicated, mysterious, or “algorithmic fate.” It is willful inattention trained into people over years.

For more than two years, WPS News has published sustained, sourced, historically grounded analysis on authoritarian drift, economic precarity, geopolitics, and institutional failure. The work is not fringe. It is not speculative. It is not vibes. And yet it is routinely ignored—across the United States, the EU, and even here in the Philippines.

That isn’t an accident. It’s learned behavior.

The Internet Trained You to Stop Thinking

The modern internet does not exist to inform you. It exists to manage you.

Platforms reward:

• emotional reflex instead of judgment
• speed instead of accuracy
• tribal signaling instead of synthesis
• repetition instead of memory

Anything that requires sustained attention, historical context, or second-order thinking is quietly pushed aside. Not banned. Not censored. Just ignored.

That’s worse.

Silence Is Not Neutral — It’s Cowardice with a UX

When peers, professionals, or “informed” readers say nothing, it’s tempting to assume disagreement. Most of the time, it’s simpler than that: they don’t want the responsibility that comes with understanding.

Engaging seriously with analysis means:

• admitting prior assumptions were wrong
• acknowledging complicity
• accepting that problems are structural, not personal
• recognizing that fixes are costly and uncomfortable

So people scroll. Silence becomes a lifestyle choice.

Younger Generations Aren’t Stupid — They’re Drowned

This is not a generational insult. It’s an observation.

Many younger readers are trapped in survival mode: debt, insecure work, housing stress, constant alerts, infinite feeds. When life feels unstable, long-range analysis feels abstract—even when it directly explains why life is unstable.

That doesn’t make the analysis wrong. It means the system is hostile to understanding.

The Death of Judgment as a Social Skill

Once upon a time, judgment was learned—through mentorship, institutions, and consequence. That pipeline is gone.

The internet flattened authority but replaced it with volatility. Experience is treated as irrelevance. Memory is framed as nostalgia. Long-view thinking is labeled elitism.

The result is a culture that reacts constantly and understands nothing.

This Isn’t an American Problem. It’s a Human One.

The same disengagement appears everywhere: the U.S., Europe, Southeast Asia, the Philippines. Different politics, same pattern.

If information doesn’t flatter, reassure, or entertain, it is filtered out—not by governments alone, but by habits cultivated over years of platform design.

People will later claim they “never saw this coming.” The archive will prove otherwise.

Being Ignored Does Not Mean Being Wrong

History is unkind to the argument that relevance equals immediacy.

Work that documents corruption, names power honestly, and refuses spectacle is often ignored until events force recognition. Archives exist for that reason.

WPS News is not built for dopamine. It is built for record.

Read or Don’t — But Stop Pretending This Is Invisible

The information is there. The connections are there. The patterns are obvious to anyone willing to look longer than a scroll.

If you choose not to pay attention, that’s your right. But stop pretending ignorance is imposed on you.

You were warned. Repeatedly.

For more social commentary, please see Occupy 2.5 at https://Occupy25.com

This article will be archived as part of the ongoing WPS News Monthly Brief Series available through Amazon.

References

Carr, N. (2020). The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. W. W. Norton & Company.
Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. PublicAffairs.
Postman, N. (1985). Amusing Ourselves to Death. Viking Penguin.

How My Debut Book “Wonderment Within Weirdness” Won a 4-Star Literary Titan Award

https://jaimedavid.blog/2026/05/22/23/18/18/analysis/jaimedavid327/10928/how-my-debut-book-wonderment-within-weirdness-won-a-4-star-literary-titan-award/

Q&A: Ditto says social media became sterile and the internet should be fun again

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://nerds.xyz/2026/05/ditto-qa-social-media-sterile/

Ah, yes, the groundbreaking scientific revelation: #trees in Costa Rica have become upscale restrooms for the animal kingdom. 🌳💩 What a captivating read—right after you adjust your browser settings, because apparently this discovery's too avant-garde for the unprepared internet user. 🌐🙄
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.72964 #scientificdiscovery #wildlife #restroomsonnature #avantgarde #internetculture #HackerNews #ngated

Some Filler Is Good Shit, Actually

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://aftermath.site/good-anime-filler-episodes-dagon-ball-z-naruto-bleach-one-piece/

Tubefilter: A new hybrid model is coming to the VTuber world. Say hello to the “XTuber.”. “Before we go any further, let’s clear a few things up: XTubers are not tied to the platform formerly known as Twitter, nor are they delivering adult content. In this case, the X represents the word ‘cross,’ and the full term refers to the idea that the typical XTuber is a crossover between a VTuber […]

Digg shuts down (again)

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://nerds.xyz/2026/03/digg-shuts-down-again/

“Each of us is sometimes a cretin, a fool, a moron, or a lunatic. A normal person is just a reasonable mix of these components.” — Umberto Eco

2025 feels like an Eco novel: Normal persons everywhere.

Meet Schmalk’s patron saint — the man, the myth, the legend.

#Schmalk #UmbertoEco #Culture #Philosophy #MediaCritique #Postmodernism #InternetCulture #CulturalTheory

🚫🙄 Ah, the rich tapestry of modern journalism: an article that tells us absolutely nothing except that, apparently, the internet is still a place where '403 Forbidden' is the only thing reliably delivered. Maybe next time, Palo Alto can ban its own websites from being this hilariously uninformative. 🖥️🤣
https://sanjosespotlight.com/she-puts-the-lord-in-vanlord-palo-alto-wants-to-ban-her-business/ #modernjournalism #internetculture #PaloAlto #403Forbidden #uninformativecontent #HackerNews #ngated

Some mods use DARVO tactics—triggering users, exploiting impulsive reactions, then justifying bans while escaping accountability. This cycle of manipulation not only silences voices but also protects those abusing their power in online spaces.

#DARVO #onlinemoderation #accountability #toxicmods #internetculture #socialmediajustice #powerabuse #digitalethics #communitymanagement #manipulationtactics #truthonline #banpower #userprotection #digitalrights #onlineaccountability #internetfreedom

Some mods use DARVO tactics—triggering users, exploiting impulsive reactions, then justifying bans while escaping accountability. This cycle of manipulation not only silences voices but also protects those abusing their power in online spaces.

#DARVO #onlinemoderation #accountability #toxicmods #internetculture #socialmediajustice #powerabuse #digitalethics #communitymanagement #manipulationtactics #truthonline #banpower #userprotection #digitalrights #onlineaccountability #internetfreedom

https://youtube.com/shorts/r-ToXvkQihs?si=IF2ZQ5hFywppouMv

Andrew Tate says Free Greta Thunberg
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#AndrewTate #GretaThunberg #ViralMoments #InternetHistory #Controversy #SocialMedia #ClimateActivism #OnlineInfluence #LegalTroubles #2022Recap #InternetCulture #ViralTweets #SarcasmWins #InfluencerDrama #DigitalAge

Gizmodo: Screamboat‘s Director Breaks Down the Ins and Outs of Public Domain Horror. “Winnie the Pooh. Popeye. Steamboat Willie. These days, it seems the instant a recognizable character becomes public domain, someone immediately turns them into a horror movie. Why is that, and what is it like behind the scenes? To get those answers, io9 spoke with Steven LaMorte. He’s the co-writer and […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/03/gizmodo-screamboats-director-breaks-down-the-ins-and-outs-of-public-domain-horror/

#onlinefriends #internetfriends #virtualfriends #friendshipgoals #bondedthroughsin #sinfulfriends #onlinecommunity #relatablememe #comedy #animememe #animefriends #weirdfriends #closefriends #truefriends #internetculture #darkhumor #quirkyfriends #mypeople #makingmemories #partnerincrime #goodtimes #badinfluences #IYKYK #friendshiphumor #sinfullyclose #besties #onlinebesties #meme #memes #funnyimage #funnyimages #funnymemes #funnymeme #funnypicture #funnypictures #funnypic #funnypics #funny

The Verge: The future of the internet is likely smaller communities, with a focus on curated experiences. “Our research makes one thing clear: power is shifting back to the consumer (the fediverse signals this). Consumers crave community, but on their own terms — seeking deeper, more meaningful connections with those who truly matter (something we identified in 2014). Authenticity is at the […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/03/11/the-verge-the-future-of-the-internet-is-likely-smaller-communities-with-a-focus-on-curated-experiences/

Rolling Stone: ‘World of Warcraft’ Roleplay Is the Twitch-Era Soap Opera We Need. “…this is World of Warcraft, a now 20-year old online RPG. Instead of actors parading in front of green screens, this story’s cast are streamers that occupy a virtual world. Tensions are high not because they’re scripted, but because in World of Warcraft’s Hardcore mode, death is permanent.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/01/04/rolling-stone-world-of-warcraft-roleplay-is-the-twitch-era-soap-opera-we-need/

Discord buys Sentropy, which makes AI moderation software to fight online hate and abuse - The online chat platform Discord is buying Sentropy, a company that makes AI-power... - http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/uLOmXTbvLlM/ #artificialintelligence #initializedcapital #horizonsventures #kingrivercapital #onlineharassment #playgroundglobal #internetculture #alexisohanian #johnredgrave #sentropy #software #discord #social #reddit #tc