Those were Russia and the Russia-backed “separatists” doing that in the areas the controlled. There’s not a shred of evidence of Ukraine doing anything like that, and plenty of evidence of Russia doing this.

If you were told otherwise, you were lied to. Putin loves telling these sort of lies in order to mislead people lile you.

SO used to be really good in the past, but these days when I’m looking for an answer to a problem, I only unanswered closed questions.

Ah, is that the way to address that? I don’t run into incorrect error highlighting often, and it’s mostly great, but when it gets it wrong, it can be very stubborn about it.

Removed by mod

Of course not. That big government warehouse with all the boxes. I’m sure “museum” is a nickname they use for it.

Same with Indiana Jones. Maybe he’s slightly less terrible about it than Lara Croft, but the fact that he cares only about that golden idol and not about the entire temple complex around it with apparently still active traps, makes him a terrible archaeologist.

They’re both very effective adventurers and tomb robbers, though. And at least Lara Croft doesn’t pretend to be any better than that.

Or is xAI paying for access to Telegram conversations to train Grok?

Over 60?! Can we please classify Friendica as over 50? I feel old enough as it is.

It’s worth remembering that there was a time when the highest US tax bracket was taxed at 90%, and that didn’t stop the US’s longest period of sustained economic growth.

Ridiculously high tax rates for ridiculously high incomes have been done before and are entirely feasible.

There are a few exceptions. JK Rowlings became a billionaire simply by writing some really popular books, and even stopped being a billionaire by giving much of her wealth away. As far as I can tell, she didn’t become an asshole until later.

I’m willing to say more positive things about him. His dedication to Linux is great of course, but I’ve also heard that people working for him get a lot of freedom to choose what to work on. And no crunch. In the games industry, that’s pretty good.

So yeah, he seems to me to be one of the better among the tech billionaires. But in the end, he’s still a billionaire, and he’s god that ridiculous fleet of super yachts.

There was a time the same was true for Elon Musk, before he suddenly decided to jump the queue. I really hope Gabe isn’t going down that path.

Not “the EU”, but one particular group in the EU. This sort of thing pops up every couple of years, and unlike in the US, it always gets shot down. The current law says the exact opposite.

EU law prevents any government from accessing your email or other data, whereas the US demands easy access to your data. That’s what I’m referring to.

But I’ve also never heard of them blocking anyone’s email, and certainly not in retaliation for investigating war crimes.

I am not the one forgetting that. You are forgetting that the EU is not the US, and EU law is the polar opposite of US law on this issue.

Are you intentionally trying to miss the point? Don’t you think it matters what the law is? Harmful laws are absolutely newsworthy. Your data not being safe in the biggest data platforms in the world is absolutely newsworthy. I don’t understand how you can be so apathetic about that.

It doesn’t matter that they’re forced by law. That just means no US company is safe. It still means you need to get your stuff out of there.

And yes, your data and email can be safe, because EU law requires your data to be safe. It is becoming impossible for international tech companies to obey both US and EU law, and if you want your stuff to be safe, you should choose one that obeys EU law.

Mind you, Microsoft is actually planning to do something about this; they’ve suggested (but not yet implemented, I think) separating their EU based servers into a separate daughter company under a European board. But until they actually implement that, your data isn’t safe.

And your data is even less safe with some other US tech companies which have a longer history of flaunting EU data protection rules in order to exploit your data.

And those laws currently serve to suppress the international rule of law, and to enable fascism.

Why would you possibly think this is no big deal, when you see the size of the deal right in front of you?

US companies are subservient to Trump and will hurt you when Trump demands that.

No, the fact that MS can and will be forced to shut down accounts of people Trump dislikes is newsworthy in itself, and warning for everybody to avoid entrusting US companies with your data or money. If they can do it to this guy, they can do it to anyone.

Doesn’t change the fact that they did it, though. Although “US govt forced MS to shut down prosecutor’s email” would indeed have been more accurate.

The question still remains to whether corporations should bow to tyrannical demands. I think they do so too eagerly and should fight it more. If they don’t, that’s a pretty clear sign to anyone that your data and email simply isn’t safe in their hands.