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SCOTUS Fast-Tracks TikTok Case; Trump Files Nonsense Amicus Brief
🕑 Added 2025-01-03 06:16:42 +0000 UTCOA1107 - Chief Justice John Roberts has used his annual end-of-the-year report to remind us that federal judges should not accept luxury vacations from billionaires, fly insurrectionist flags on any of their properties, or ever be criticized for any reason. Or, you know--at least one of those things. We also answer a patron question about what happens if Republicans can't get their House in order by the time that electoral votes are supposed to be certified on January 6th before getting to today's main story: the very real possibility that TikTok may not live to see the first day of the second Trump administration if the Supreme Court allows current law barring it from doing business in the US to take effect on January 19th. How could the US government shutting down one of our nation's favorite new ways to communicate not constitute a massive First Amendment problem? Why did a majority of Congressional Democrats, the Biden administration and pre-election Donald Trump all agree that TikTok is a threat to national security? And when is Matt going to finally release his signature TikTok dance video? We answer two of these questions before dropping a quick footnote to look back on a stupid Congressperson's idea of a smart person's legal argument in support of overturning a democratic election.
DC Circuit decision in Tiktok v. Garland (12/6/24)
“What If Free Speech Means Banning TikTok?,” Alan Rozhenstein, The Atlantic (12/13/24)
ACLU amicus brief in Tiktok v. Garland (12/27/24)
Donald Trump’s amicus brief in Tiktok v. Garland (12/30/24)
Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (signed into law 4/24/24)
“2024 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary,” John Roberts (12/30/24)
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Comments
get in the way!
great to hear this broken down as something with genuinely 'both sides' and I've no doubt it will have global implications. mr musky is trying to stir up shit in the UK at the moment, so I wish you guys would be able to do something about him. hoping our defamation laws kick in any minute now...
Mr. Wilt
Well, this aged poorly, unfortunately.
Bernese Mountain Dog
One ballot down now with no speaker elected. Will be interesting to see what they do for the rest of the day and over the weekend.
Gmork
It's more difficult, but becoming they're getting there. https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/cyber-attacks/unusual-ceo-fraud-via-deepfake-audio-steals-us-243-000-from-u-k-company
Gmork
Longshot prediction: Johnson pisses off enough self important RWNJs that he can't secure the speakership. "Moderate" Republicans reluctantly agree to Jim Jordan as temporary speaker for purpose of certifying Trump. Jordan suffers debilitating injury when he crushes his testicles in attempting to sit in Speakers chair. As he recuperates, GOP desperately tried to coalesce around a replacement, but at the last minute, Jordan triumphantly returns to certify Trump. This time, he walks into a chair that someone kicks into his path and Chuck Grassley becomes president as Jordan frantically begs for an icepack for his gnards.
Patrick Walker
I know this isn't a particularly popular take, but "people talking on video" is going to be the most difficult one for AI to generate convincingly. Text and image focused social media is relatively easy to game with bots now. Audio is slightly more difficult but generating a convincing voice is getting easier and easier but doing it at the speed of real time communication is difficult. Videos, especially videos of humans moving and interacting with objects, just aren't convincing yet and hopefully won't be for a while. I want to be clear I'm not saying you can't game a platform like TikTok. It does take more actual human effort, though. The longer we live in a world where text and images can be semi-convincingly faked easily and by anyone the more audio and especially video social media becomes the last bastion of actual human interactions with total strangers online.
Ashley V
Not sure if you're already aware of the term "fentanyl" as a dogwhistle but it's being used in that way, a lot like how "woke" is a dogwhistle. That's why he called it "digital fentanyl", it's a way to connect it to the republican crusade against drugs and foreigners. "Woke" is for the crusade against women and minorities.
