OG App is the coolest app you never heard of. Back in 2022, two teenagers unilaterally disenshittified Instagram by making an "alt-client" that restored all the parts of Insta that made it a success and blocked all the antifeatures that Meta crammed down users' throats after they had them locked in.
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An EU flag; the stars have been replaced with a ring of Threads logos, tinted yellow. In the center floats the disembodied head of Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar. It has been modified: a black bar scrawled with grawlix covers the mouth.
This represents a hell of an opportunity for the EU and Eurostack. Meta's ads are wildly illegal in the EU, violating Europe's landmark privacy law, the GDPR. The only reason Meta gets away with its flagrant lawbreaking is that it has captured the Irish state, and uses legal tricks to force all GDPR enforcement into Irish jurisdiction:
Digital flat color illustration of an African lion, drawn in a simple cartoony style. His fur is white, his mane and the tip of his tail are dark blue and his paw pads and nose are bluish purple. He is sitting on the floor, squeezing his eyes shut and listening to music with grey headphones. The background is greyish pink.
Ireland is a tax haven. In the 1970s and 1980s, life in the civil-war wracked country was hard - between poverty, scarce employment and civil unrest, the country hemorrhaged its best and brightest. As the saying went, "Ireland's top export is the Irish."
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All over the world, for all of this decade, governments have been trying to figure out how to rein in America's tech companies.
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These companies will not voluntarily stop stealing our data. That's the lesson of nine years under the EU's GDPR, a landmark, strong privacy law that US tech companies simply refuse to obey. And because they claim to be headquartered in Ireland (because Ireland lets them cheat on their taxes) and because they have captured the Irish state, they are able to simply flout the law:
Look, I'm not trying to say that new technologies never raise gnarly new legal questions, but what I am saying is that a lot of the time, the "new legal challenges" raised by technology are somewhere between 95-100% bullshit, ginned up by none-too-bright tech bros and their investors, and then swallowed by regulators and lawmakers who are either so credulous they'd lose a game of peek-a-boo, or (likely) in on the scam.
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A modified FBI badge. It now reads 'Federal Wallet Investigators.' It is made out to 'Timothy J Shotspotter.' It is held in the three-fingered, gloved grip of a cartoon character. Around its edges, we see a cartoon room from a public domain Betty Boop cartoon.
But that's not because the GDPR is flawed, it's because Ireland is a tax-haven that has lured in the world's worst corporate privacy-violators, and to keep them from moving to another tax haven (like Malta or Cyprus or Luxembourg), it has to turn itself into a crime-haven. So for the entire life of the GDPR, all the important privacy cases in Europe have gone to Ireland, and died there:
One of the most surprising professional/creative developments of my middle-age has been discovering my love of collage. I've never been a visual person. I can't draw, I can't guess if a piece of furniture will fit in a given niche, I can't catch a ball, and I can't tell you if a picture is crooked.
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An artist at an easel, wearing a smock and holding a palette. The head of the artist and the subject in the oil painting have been replaced with the poop emoji from the cover of the US edition of 'Enshittification,' which has angry eyebrows and a black, grawlix-scrawled bar over its mouth.
Meta's new top EU regulator is contractually prohibited from saying mean things about Meta
Mark Zuckerberg's ghastly Metaverse avatar is such a gift to his critics. I can't believe his comms team let him release it! The main image is an H Armstrong Roberts classic of a beat cop wagging his finger at a naughty lad on a bicycle. The Wachowskis' 'code waterfall' comes from this generator:
"Regulatory capture" is one of those concepts that can seem nebulous and abstract. How can you really know when a regulator has failed to protect you because they were in bed with the companies they were supposed to be regulating, and when this is just because they're bad at their job. "Never attribute to malice," etc etc.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
Guten Morgen! Es ist Dienstag und damit #DNIPBriefing-Tag mit dem subjektiv digitalpolitisch Wichtigsten der letzten Tage.
1️⃣ Dass die Nachfrage nach KI-Infrastruktur allen Bubble-Bedenken zum Trotz weiter steigt, dürfte nicht überraschen. Überraschen dürfte hingegen, mit welcher Geschwindigkeit dies offenbar geschieht. Massgebend dabei sind für einmal nicht die Zahlen mit den vielen Nullen, welche sich OpenAI, Oracle, NVIDIA, Microsoft etc. gegenseitig überweisen.
3️⃣ «Die Auslagerung von sensitiven Personendaten durch öffentliche Organe in #Cloud-Lösungen internationaler Anbieter ist in den meisten Fällen unzulässig,» liess #Privatim, die Konferenz der schweizerischen Datenschutzbeauftragten, verlautbaren.
A cute reindeer with large eyes is surrounded by fluffy clouds and colorful baubles. Blue and orange hues enhance the magical ambiance.
A sweet baby reindeer sits nestled in a dreamy winter wonderland, surrounded by soft clouds and candy-colored trees that sparkle under a golden and twilight sky. With big, gentle eyes and a tuft of soft fur curling between its antlers adorned with pastel pom-poms, this little reindeer seems to embody the very spirit of Christmas magic. The air glows with starlight and wonder, wrapping the scene in warmth and innocence. It’s a tender reminder of the joy and love that fill the season — truly a moment of “Merry Christmas to All — Big and Small!”
In a land where snowflakes sparkle like tiny stars, a little reindeer sits happily among fluffy white clouds and sugar-puff trees. His bright eyes shine with joy, and his tiny antlers are decorated with colorful pom-poms that twinkle in the light. The sky glows with soft shades of pink, gold, and blue, as if Christmas magic itself is painting the world around him. This cheerful reindeer is ready to share smiles, love, and a wish that everyone—big and small—has the merriest Christmas of all!
A feel a greeting card or product of this image would be suitable for small children.
THE FINE ART AMERICA LOGO WILL NOT APPEAR ON PURCHASED PRINTS OR PRODUCTS.
Threads' margin is the Eurostack's opportunity ( pluralistic.net )
https://i0.wp.com/craphound.com/images/30Jan2026.jpg?w=840&ssl=1 ...
The world needs an Ireland for disenshittification ( pluralistic.net )
https://i0.wp.com/craphound.com/images/17Jan2026.jpg?w=840&ssl=1 ...
Predistribution vs redistribution (Big Tech edition) ( pluralistic.net )
https://i0.wp.com/craphound.com/images/10Jan2026.jpg?w=840&ssl=1 ...
Federal Wallet Inspectors ( pluralistic.net )
https://i0.wp.com/craphound.com/images/12Dec2025.jpg?w=840&ssl=1 ...
Elon Musk's Blue Tick scam ( pluralistic.net )
https://i0.wp.com/craphound.com/images/08Dec2025.jpg?w=840&ssl=1 ...
A year in illustration (2025 edition) ( pluralistic.net )
https://i0.wp.com/craphound.com/images/03Dec2025.jpg?w=840&ssl=1 ...
Meta's new top EU regulator is contractually prohibited from hurting Meta's feelings ( pluralistic.net )
https://i0.wp.com/craphound.com/images/01Dec2025.jpg?w=840&ssl=1 ...