#internetculture — Public Fediverse posts

[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 […]

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 […]

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

Found in my Calishat Snaps: Buddy Icon Archive. From the site’s short history of AIM buddy icons: “The canvas was so small that every decision became emphatic. Surviving client documentation describes images between 48×48 and 50×50 pixels. A face needed a close crop; text needed blunt contrast; an idea often had to survive in a single glance. Animated GIFs turned that square into a tiny […]

https://tuhat.net/@onefootintheother/p/the-world-wants-to-sell-you-clean-answers

The creator economy is born and people are no longer making art, they are making content. Slop pushed out online on consistent schedules onto platforms inundated with competing and yet eerily similar slop. Everyone is posting “consistently” even when they have nothing to say.

We are already overloaded with information, do we ever stop to consider if the world really needs more?

#internet #internetculture #philosophy #creativity #writing #socialmedia #creatoreconomy

Deadline: SXSW Launching Podcast Festival In 2027. “SXSW is expanding with the addition of a dedicated podcast festival in 2027, festival organizers announced on Tuesday. This positions Podcasts a core element of the SXSW experience, alongside Film & TV, Music, Comedy, and the Innovation Conference.”

Roblox to face external audits to prove it's safe for Australian children

Australia's eSafety Commissioner will be able to take the gaming platform to court if it finds Roblox is not honouring its commitments to keep Australian children safe.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-20/roblox-esafety-court-enforceable-undertaking/107056294

#ConsumerProtection #ChildCare #Children #InformationandCommunication #InternetCulture #LawCrimeandJustice

New York Times: After 31 Years, a Quirky Gay Gossip Website Shuts Down. This link goes to a gift article. “At around 5 p.m. on July 30, one day ahead of schedule, the DataLounge, a long-running online forum that became a gathering spot for (mostly) gay men, went dark. Just like that, tens of millions of posts spanning more than three decades simply disappeared.”

Associated Press: YouTube sensation Ms. Rachel announces debut album with Mr. Aron, ‘I’m So Happy’. “Parents of toddlers everywhere, prepare yourselves. YouTube sensation and music teacher Ms. Rachel and her husband, Aron Accurso, will release their debut album, the 23-track ‘I’m So Happy,’ on Sept. 25…. Ms. Rachel launched her mega popular YouTube channel in 2019 with her husband, […]

🚀 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

World Wide Web Day

La Giornata Mondiale del Web (World Wide Web Day) cade ogni anno il 1º agosto e celebra la nascita e l’impatto planetario del World Wide Web, il sistema di navigazione inventato da Tim Berners‑Lee tra il 1989 e il 1991 al CERN. È un’osservanza non ufficiale, senza un fondatore riconosciuto né un organismo che l’abbia istituita formalmente: esiste perché la comunità del web ha iniziato spontaneamente a celebrarla.

La Giornata Mondiale del Web, nasce… senza che nessuno abbia mai ammesso di averla inventata. Una festa spontanea, anarchica, globalissima, che ogni 1º agosto ci ricorda quanto il Web abbia rivoluzionato le nostre vite — dal primo “Ciao mondo” su un forum al meme che ci ha fatto ridere alle 3 di notte.

La data è curiosa: non coincide con nessuno dei momenti storici documentati del Web, che invece sono tutti registrati con precisione svizzera. Il primo sito è del 6 agosto 1991, la proposta originale del Web è del 12 marzo 1989, la liberazione del software in pubblico dominio è del 30 aprile 1993. Ma il 1º agosto? Un mistero. Nessun documento, nessun annuncio, nessun atto ufficiale. Eppure, eccola lì: celebrata ogni anno.

Chi ha deciso questa giornata?

La risposta più chic è: nessuno, e quindi tutti. Non esiste un fondatore registrato, né un’organizzazione che l’abbia proclamata. È una festa nata dal basso, come una pagina web che diventa virale senza SEO, senza sponsor, senza pianificazione. Una celebrazione collettiva, democratica, perfettamente in linea con lo spirito del Web stesso.

Quando si è festeggiata la prima volta?

Qui la storia diventa ancora più intrigante: non esistono tracce della ricorrenza prima del 2008. Il Web, che documenta tutto, non documenta la nascita della sua festa. Una vera ironia cosmica.

💡 Perché proprio il 1º agosto?

Le teorie più divertenti che circolano tra gli internauti:

• La teoria del “post estivo”: agosto è il mese in cui il mondo rallenta, e forse qualcuno ha pensato: “Festeggiamo il Web quando tutti hanno tempo per navigare senza sensi di colpa”.
• La teoria del bug: qualcuno avrebbe confuso la data del primo annuncio pubblico del Web (6 agosto 1991) con il 1 agosto. Una svista? Un refuso? Un errore di copia-incolla? Possibile.
• La teoria del romanticismo digitale: il Web è stato reso pubblico gratuitamente nel 1993. Forse il 1 agosto è stato scelto per ricordare la generosità di CERN, che ha regalato al mondo la tecnologia più rivoluzionaria del secolo.

Nessuna teoria è confermata. E questo, ammettiamolo, rende la festa ancora più affascinante.

🧬 Un Web nato “vague but exciting”

Il Web nasce ufficialmente nel 1989, quando Tim Berners‑Lee consegna al suo manager un memo intitolato “Information Management: A Proposal”. Il manager annota: “Vague but exciting”. E aveva ragione: da quella vaghezza è nato il sistema che oggi muove miliardi di persone, idee, aziende, sogni e gattini.

Tra il 1990 e il 1991 Berners‑Lee e Robert Cailliau sviluppano:

• HTML
• HTTP
• URL
• il primo browser/editor
• il primo server
• il primo sito: info.cern.ch (6 agosto 1991)

Il resto è storia — e una storia che continua a scriversi ogni giorno.

🌍 Curiosità dal mondo

• In Giappone, alcuni programmatori celebrano il 1º agosto creando mini‑siti effimeri che durano solo 24 ore: “come il Web, ma in versione origami”.
• In Brasile, gruppi di sviluppatori organizzano maratone di coding in spiaggia. Tastiere, sabbia e caipirinhas: la triade perfetta.
• In Germania, c’è chi festeggia visitando il primo sito della storia, restaurato da CERN, come fosse un museo digitale.
• In Italia, molti web designer celebrano la giornata aggiornando il proprio portfolio — perché il Web è eterno, ma il design no.
• Negli Stati Uniti, alcuni nostalgici passano la giornata navigando solo siti anni ’90: GIF sgranate, sfondi stellati e font improbabili. Una vera esperienza vintage.

🎉 Come festeggiare oggi (alla maniera Perfettamente Chic)

• Crea una pagina web minimalista e poetica, dedicata a un ricordo digitale.
• Pubblica il tuo primo meme autoprodotto.
• Naviga un sito che non hai mai visitato.
• Ringrazia mentalmente Tim Berners‑Lee per aver reso possibile tutto questo.
• E soprattutto: concediti un momento di meraviglia davanti al fatto che il Web, nato da un memo “vague but exciting”, oggi è il luogo dove viviamo metà delle nostre vite.

✨ In Conclusione?

La Giornata Mondiale del Web è una festa senza fondatore, senza regole, senza protocollo. È la celebrazione di un’idea che ha cambiato il mondo e che continua a farlo ogni giorno. È una ricorrenza spontanea, libera, aperta — proprio come il Web.

E forse è questo il suo vero significato: ricordarci che la bellezza del Web sta nella sua capacità di unire, sorprendere, divertire e, sì, anche confondere un po’.

Autore: Lynda Di Natale
Fonte: web
Immagine: AI

Doc Pop: Chuck Tingle at the Internet Archive in SF. “Chuck writes erotica, horror, and comedy books with titles like Space Raptor Butt Invasion and Pounded in the Butt by My Handsome Sentient Library Card Who Seems Otherworldly but in Reality Is Just a Natural Part of the Priceless Resources Our Library System Provides. I haven’t read any of his books yet, but I can’t help loving […]

TechCrunch: The ‘Father of the Internet’ is finally retiring. “Vinton Cerf will step down from his role as Google’s chief internet evangelist next week, marking the conclusion of one of the most influential careers in technology history.”

Hollywood Reporter: ‘Backrooms’ Sends Hollywood Running to Reddit for New Ideas. “As Hollywood appears poised to pivot to digitally native creatives like Parsons and Obsession director Curry Barker, Reddit is emerging as a focus point (alongside obvious suspects like YouTube and TikTok) for agents and execs seeking the Next Big Thing.”

Hollywood Reporter: ‘Backrooms’ Sends Hollywood Running to Reddit for New Ideas. “As Hollywood appears poised to pivot to digitally native creatives like Parsons and Obsession director Curry Barker, Reddit is emerging as a focus point (alongside obvious suspects like YouTube and TikTok) for agents and execs seeking the Next Big Thing.”

Hollywood Reporter: ‘Backrooms’ Sends Hollywood Running to Reddit for New Ideas. “As Hollywood appears poised to pivot to digitally native creatives like Parsons and Obsession director Curry Barker, Reddit is emerging as a focus point (alongside obvious suspects like YouTube and TikTok) for agents and execs seeking the Next Big Thing.”

Hollywood Reporter: ‘Backrooms’ Sends Hollywood Running to Reddit for New Ideas. “As Hollywood appears poised to pivot to digitally native creatives like Parsons and Obsession director Curry Barker, Reddit is emerging as a focus point (alongside obvious suspects like YouTube and TikTok) for agents and execs seeking the Next Big Thing.”

Hollywood Reporter: ‘Backrooms’ Sends Hollywood Running to Reddit for New Ideas. “As Hollywood appears poised to pivot to digitally native creatives like Parsons and Obsession director Curry Barker, Reddit is emerging as a focus point (alongside obvious suspects like YouTube and TikTok) for agents and execs seeking the Next Big Thing.”

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.

CNN: YouTubers are setting box office records. It could change the future of moviemaking. “The biggest two movies in America right now, ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession,’ come from twentysomething filmmakers who honed their craft on YouTube. Their films were made with relatively low budgets and were marketed online. Now that they’re filling theaters with teens and young adults who rarely show up at […]

CNN: YouTubers are setting box office records. It could change the future of moviemaking. “The biggest two movies in America right now, ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession,’ come from twentysomething filmmakers who honed their craft on YouTube. Their films were made with relatively low budgets and were marketed online. Now that they’re filling theaters with teens and young adults who rarely show up at […]

CNN: YouTubers are setting box office records. It could change the future of moviemaking. “The biggest two movies in America right now, ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession,’ come from twentysomething filmmakers who honed their craft on YouTube. Their films were made with relatively low budgets and were marketed online. Now that they’re filling theaters with teens and young adults who rarely show up at […]

CNN: YouTubers are setting box office records. It could change the future of moviemaking. “The biggest two movies in America right now, ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession,’ come from twentysomething filmmakers who honed their craft on YouTube. Their films were made with relatively low budgets and were marketed online. Now that they’re filling theaters with teens and young adults who rarely show up at […]

CNN: YouTubers are setting box office records. It could change the future of moviemaking. “The biggest two movies in America right now, ‘Backrooms’ and ‘Obsession,’ come from twentysomething filmmakers who honed their craft on YouTube. Their films were made with relatively low budgets and were marketed online. Now that they’re filling theaters with teens and young adults who rarely show up at […]

The Guardian: Colbert launches YouTube channel less than a week after late-night show ends. “Stephen Colbert hasn’t even been off the air for a week, but is already causing some hubbub with the launch of a new YouTube channel that has garnered more than 120,000 subscribers.”

For all of you screaming to the rafters about how Substack is a Nazi platform, why aren't you also screaming about Cloudflare? I'm genuinely curious.

---

"Last week I saw a post on Medium where some guy said he’s leaving Substack because Andrew Tate hit the bestseller list and because they host Nazis and he just can’t, anymore. Can’t support a company who profits off hate and abuse.

I wanted to say dude, you better get off the internet.

Because more irony. Medium runs on Cloudflare. lol.

Substack, too. Do a whois search on Substack.com, you’ll see it right in their whois. Nameservers; cloudflare.com. We’re all feeding Cloudflare profits and supporting the companies that prop up everything from the rape academy to AI generated porn and every other abuse whether it’s Amazon, Google, Cloudflare, Grok, or any Ai company."

#cloudflare #cloudflareisevil
#StopCloudflare
#cloudflareisnotanoption
#internetculture
#InternetGovernance
#protectwomenandgirls
#amazon #google #grok
#mediumwriters #medium
#substack

https://open.substack.com/pub/historyofwomen/p/tech-giants-make-profit-from-the

Tubefilter: On new channel, Technoblade’s dad will sustain his son’s lasting impact. “To meet the ongoing demand for more content, Alex’s father is taking ‘Technoblade never dies’ literally. The man known as Technodad has launched a new channel called Team Technoblade, which he will use ‘as a way of keeping my boy’s memory alive.'”

The legend of John Titor
https://negativepid.blog/the-legend-of-john-titor/

#timeTravel #johnTitor #conspiracies #hoaxes #internetMysteries #scienceFiction #internetCulture #science #politics #USwar #onlineLegends #onlineLore #negativepid

The legend of John Titor
https://negativepid.blog/the-legend-of-john-titor/

#timeTravel #johnTitor #conspiracies #hoaxes #internetMysteries #scienceFiction #internetCulture #science #politics #USwar #onlineLegends #onlineLore #negativepid

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 […]

What’s On Netflix: Stranger Things Radio Station ‘WSQK: The Squawk’ Archived by Fan After Going Offline . “Missed out on the live broadcast from Hawkins? A dedicated fan has archived the entire run of the Stranger Things Season 5 promotional radio station, WSQK, ensuring the 80s tunes and some hidden lore updates live on.”

Mashable: AI-generated animals in fake surveillance videos are fooling the internet. “You might’ve seen a recent viral video featuring bunnies jumping on a trampoline, seemingly captured via a home surveillance camera. It’s adorable. And fake. Completely and totally fabricated via artificial intelligence.”

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/08/04/mashable-ai-generated-animals-in-fake-surveillance-videos-are-fooling-the-internet/

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

NBC News: Virginia teenager shot and killed by homeowner while recording TikTok prank video. “Virginia teenagers said they were recording a ding-dong ditch prank for a TikTok video when a homeowner opened fire, killing an 18-year-old boy. The homeowner, Tyler Chase Butler, was arrested on charges of second-degree murder, malicious wounding and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/05/13/nbc-news-virginia-teenager-shot-and-killed-by-homeowner-while-recording-tiktok-prank-video/

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/

Amid controversy, Dispo confirms Series A funding, high-profile advisors, and investors - It’s only been nine months since Dispo rebranded from David’s Disposables. But the... - http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/aDthEC27BbY/ #nationalbasketballassociation #digitalphotography #mobileapplications #unshackledventures #internetculture #annieleibovitz #venturecapital #andreiguodala #sparkcapital #unitedstates #worldwideweb #daviddobrik #kevindurant #socialmedia #advisors

Triller owner gets a new CEO with acquisition of Amplify.AI; also acquires live streaming service FITE TV - Would be TikTok competitor Triller, operated by parent company TrillerNet, is gain... - http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/82svE2aDw7U/ #bidenadministration #financialservices #internetculture #operamediaworks #fundings&exits #operasoftware #digitalmedia #unitedstates #videohosting #co-founder #computing #executive #president #chairman #software #verisign #amplify #triller