Frustrating that this is the second time in the same year.

“I was so focused on whether I could, I didn’t stop to consider whether I should.” —inventor of the Steam Brick

It would have to be repealed by Congress. The main problem is enforcing it against a regime that regularly flouts the law, especially when there’s not a lot of oversight to ensure they’re fully in compliance when they do “comply.”

They don’t have to repeal it. They only need to pretend to participate.

The people who frequent Facebook are likely:

• Over the age of 60
• Fed a steady diet of Conservative disinformation.

Moderation or not, Facebook is not a space for progressive ideas, because you can’t moderate all of Facebook or the monster that is Mark Zuckerberg.

It’s not illegal. The problem is that there’s no court that could meaningfully adjudicate such a suit. International law doesn’t have almost any teeth. If you’re not a US citizen, you don’t have standing to sue the US government from within the US. If you try to sue the US in another country, there’s no punishment they can hand down that the US has to abide.

Hmm, maybe I need to upgrade my Tuta subscription. Seems like they might deserve it.

That’s the idea.

Seems like it. To summarize, they’re making a driver for a specific chip on a specific board. Weird news, imo.

Major Chinese ODM Inspur has been working on this Yhgch DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) driver for the Linux kernel. Yhgch is for an Inspur SoC/BMC chipset but details beyond that are light.

Tldr

Yep, and I think there’s a third option that I can’t recall at the moment (not Matrix), but no matter what, there’s alternatives that work and could be made to fit people’s chat needs.

Hi, what about gnu linux xz utils backoor scenario?

This was caught by the community thanks to it being FOSS, and it was somewhat distinct from the scenario we’re talking about here, since the repository was wholly taken over by a bad actor who tricked the original (burnt out) maintainer to hand over the repo.

Could a bad actor get their claws in and take over the repo? Possibly, but given the fact that it’s maintained by a foundation with lots of devs and not just one thankless hobbyist, that likelihood is probably small.

Also is there any regular auditing of signal by third party auditing company?

Regular? I don’t know. They have been audited, iirc, and they have received numerous legal requests to turn over data to courts, to which they’ve been able to reply “what data?” Bear in mind that they would almost certainly not do this if it meant jeopardizing their entire business. No business is going to go to jail for us, after all.

You do what you feel is appropriate for your threat model, but as far as general threats to privacy or Signal’s existence go, I’m not currently concerned about their future.

Signal Foundation is a nonprofit in California, and they are the ones that operate the relays and maintain the FOSS app. Since they’re a regular 501©3 and not a religious org, you can look into how their money is spent (to see if it’s going to any suspicious recipients) and whether they’re getting suspiciously large sums of money.

On top of that, they don’t have access to the communication data itself. It’s all E2EE, and the app being FOSS means you can inspect how that data is encrypted and sent (and even build your own from source, if you’re paranoid). Even if they’re unknowingly hiring covert bad actors, it’s unlikely their activities would stay hidden for long.

So while it’s certainly a concern that it’s still centralized messaging, it’s probably one of the best options due to the easy access for most people. Other than a billionaire buyout or government laws that force backdoors into encryption, the only real existential threat they currently face is operation costs. They were fortunate to have wealthy philanthropists in the beginning, but if they have an explosion in users (unlikely), it might bring the organization to its knees.

I don’t find your particular scenario to be worrisome. And if it turns out that it’s compromised in the future, there’s other good apps out there, like SimpleX.

Linux Vendor Firmware Service

Seems fair to me to ask for help paying for costs, especially if you’re some kind of business that regularly uses the service.

Big tech never had net-zero goals. They had PR campaigns, and they no longer have to pretend they care, because AI is the potential payday they’re putting all their effort into making a reality.

If it weren’t for regulation and financial incentives from governments, they wouldn’t have done almost any of what little they have.

Exactly. You can’t just go off of vibes or self-reporting.

It sucks that the data needed to be collected at all, but it’s not the fault of people who actually cared that fascists are now taking their work and using it to further fascism.

It cannot be overstated the damage that Leonard Leo has done to the rule of law and society in general in the US. I hope his “contributions” do not escape the notice of future historians.

And somewhere between 30-50% of the US believe him.

Laws only apply if you get caught.

I’m old enough to remember when that wasn’t the norm people were used to. It’s hot, and people have either forgotten or never knew differently.

You need to cite specific people, because right now, your post reads like the screed from an Alex Jones’s rant. Vaguely gesturing towards some shadow organization isn’t useful information, and it can lead to being manipulated by people who know how to weaponize that vaguery. You can’t act against the unknown.

There’s certainly bad actors at work, but they operate out in the open. Everybody who hovers in Trump’s orbit, everybody who worked on P2025, the Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society, fundigelical churches, every billionaire…

If they currently have money or power (often both), they’re almost definitely part of the current problem.