Twitter quietly edited its hateful conduct policy to drop transgender protections by Ashley Belanger
Musk says his own tweets might be labeled under new hateful conduct policy.

The guy who, a week and a half ago, was blocking links from Substack and who suspended journalists in December for talking about his jet’s location would really like us to know that “free speech is paramount” and so that’s why there are no longer protections for trans people as part of Twitter’s policies.

If you believe Elon still cares anything about free speech you deserve to be lied to and taken advantage of, at the very least.

Advertisers See Elon Musk As A Liability As They Avoid Twitter by Mike MasnickMike Masnick

Elon Musk keeps talking about how he’s saving Twitter, but it’s difficult to see how. He’s made the site much more unstable, has been messing up basically every part of “trust & safety 101,” is now facing a growing number of lawsuits (including many over unpaid bills), has no idea how the site actually works, […]

The GOP Is Getting Creamed on Abortion. But They Still Don’t Get How Badly. by Jay Kuo
With a Supreme Court case looming this week that could strip away the right to mifepristone, an abortion medication used in nearly half of abortions nationwide, the GOP is at a crossroads. At issue is whether the party will hew to the most extreme of positions: outlawing abortion with few to no exceptions, not even in cases of rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother. The few moderates left within the GOP are wringing their hands and warning of electoral catastrophe, while the presidential candidates weave and dodge the issue to ensure they can still appeal to the base while not alienating centrist voters.
“This Is A Hate Crime”: Kansas City Black Family Demanding Justice After A White Man Shoots Black Boy, Ralph Yarl, In The Head Twice For Ringing Doorbell Of The Wrong Home, White Man Released By Police Hours Later by KC Defender StaffKC Defender Staff
Community members are demanding justice after a white man in Kansas City shot a black boy, Ralph Yarl, twice for ringing the doorbell of the wrong home.

I’m not holding my breath, but I hope the family receives justice and that the man who did this ends up serving some time.

My Fediverse Decision Crossroads: On Friendica
I’ve had a Friendica account on the fediverse almost since day one, even if I didn’t actively use it initially. In 2018 I started heavily using Diaspora and Mastodon instead of it since I preferred their simpler UIs. It wasn’t until early 2019 that I revisited Friendica since it tied together all of the Fediverse into one experience. It has been my primary portal into all of those networks ever since. Despite a lot of effort by a lot of people it hasn’t been all roses though. As I want to adopt a social media system that I could recommend to my dad the warts of the system still weigh on me. As I host my own I see some big ones there too. What I need to decide is if I want to do the leap to help trying to fix them, if they are fixable, or do the leap off of the platform into something else.
A Firehose of Insanity and The Republican Cycle of Radicalization by Teri KanefieldTeri Kanefield

There was an explosion of news this week with a theme: The increasing radicalization of the Republican Party. First, we have the abortion pill mifepristone debacle in which a federal judge in Texas attempted to outlaw mifepristone for the entire nation. Here’s the timeline (I find that a bullet point timeline is the best tool …

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Twitter is broken. Thanks, Elon...
About six months ago, Elon Musk bought your favorite neighborhood bar. Then he fired veteran bouncers and bartenders, tried to stiff the landlord and at least one vendor, and demanded that regulars pay a cover charge. He has frequently struggled to serve his customers, yet he has penalized them for mentioning the competition. He has tamped down the revelry in general, really — a lot of conversation at his watering hole has been drowned out by Musk’s own never-ending stage act, which consists mainly of him yelling dad jokes at customers through a bullhorn. Pour one out for Twitter, then. I had been open to Musk’s purchase of the social network, but half a year in, it has been an unmitigated disaster. Musk moved fast and broke nearly everything — the speed and totality with which he has ruined the site has been almost impressive. By Musk’s own reckoning, the company is now worth less than half of what he paid for it. It has lost many large advertisers, most of its employees and, with them, much of its functionality.
The End of Computer Magazines in America by Harry McCracken

The April issues of Maximum PC and MacLife are currently on sale at a newsstand near you—assuming there is a newsstand near you. They’re the last print issues of these two venerable computer magazines, both of which date to 1996 (and were originally known, respectively, as Boot and MacAddict). Starting with their next editions, both […]