It appears my post last month about the temporary issues with some of the #twitter #apis was only jumping the gun by a few weeks. I guess cross-posting will stop by the end of next week: techcrunch.com/2023/02/01/tw…

Whilst The Black and White Minstrel Show and It Ain't Half Hot Mum are clearly racist by modern standards: I dont think even back in the 70s it was ever acceptable to praise Hitler, mock gas chambers, or hurl racist abuse. Farage's press conference yesterday smacked of desperation. What a horrid little turd this man is.

The Emulation and Virtualisation team attended the #KVMForum last week, here’s your chance to re-watch the QEMU keynote presented by Alex Benne. 👉 Find it more here: youtube.com/watch?v=i-A4YKAB….

Don't mind the unfollows - it just means I've found you in one of the other places (#fediverse for those that know, #bsky for the normies).

Robin Williams would’ve turned 74 today This thread will brighten up your day 🧵 1. His improvised scene in Good Will Hunting made the cameraman laugh so hard the camera started shaking. Matt Damon's reaction is authentic.

🎙️PODCAST ALERT: Linaro's #virtualization expert Alex Bennée recently featured on the #OpenSource Way podcast where he talked about the emulator project #QEMU and how it helps the open source #software ecosystem. Check out the podcast here 👉 ow.ly/Wzc750Wtc30

If your snooping in my feed to see why I'm unfollowing people its just book keeping so I can keep track of who has migrated to the #fediverse and who's still to go. It's not like I'm reading anyone here anyway.

Just passing by and I noticed Grok is now integrated even for non-paid accounts. It does seem to have some blind spots though.

VOX POPULI VOX DEI

Among those currying favour with Elon Musk, it has become an article of faith that the “mainstream media” ignored the UK’s grooming gangs scandal until the brave truth-tellers of X uncovered it, er, last week. Give over. Feminist writer Julie Bindel first wrote about the disappearance of Charlene Downes in 2004, a year after the Blackpool teenager went missing. And if anyone deserves credit for bringing this story to wider attention, it’s Andrew Norfolk of the Times, who doggedly reported on cases across the north of England, starting in 2011, despite legal pressure and accusations of racism. He won Private Eye’s Paul Foot Award for investigative journalism in 2012, with the citation pointing out at the time — almost thirteen years ago — that his work “has prompted two government-ordered inquiries, a parliamentary inquiry and a new national action plan on child sexual exploitation”. Norfolk then bagged the Orwell Prize for Journalism in 2013. Subsequent cases, including those in Rotherham, Telford, Huddersfield, Oxford and Oldham, also received widespread coverage. The news even made it to America, with the liberal New York Times running typically ponderous headlines like “Life in an English Town Where Abuse Flourished” and “Indifference to Child Rape” in 2014. That year, columnist Ross Douthat wrote that “what happened in Rotherham was rooted both in left-wing multiculturalism and in much more old-fashioned prejudices about race and sex and class”. Full story in the new Private Eye, out now.

Elon Musk has had a lot to say about the grooming gangs scandal. We looked at 24 hours on Musk's X timeline and found a range of false and misleading information being amplified. Produced by Catherine Karelli, Shayan Sardarizadeh and Jake Horton. Graphics by Jacqueline Galvin.

I'm not here to advocate for Starmer or Labour, but this from the @FT counters the nonsense that Musk and Ackman are spreading about a country that they know nothing about. Source here: on.ft.com/421zL2S

Some people seem to have forgotten how bad a president Trump was, so I made a list of the 100 Worst Things About the Trump Presidency, in no particular order. Please share and add anything I missed. 🧵

It's amazing that given I hardly post here nowadays I always have notifications about new followers when I visit. I can't quite put my finger on the reason they might be following me though. #bots #botseverywhere

Getting sick of repeating this so I’m going to just put it into one long post/maybe thread that I can share with people. No-one has been jailed for harmless social media posts during the riots. Every single person who was jailed broke the law. They were not jailed for ‘jokes’ or ‘silly posts after a couple of glasses of wine’. They were jailed for publishing written material online to stir up racial hatred, for inciting violence, or for breaking other related laws. In the UK, free speech is protected, but there are clear limits when it comes to posting violent threats or inciting racial hatred online. Several laws ensure that this kind of harmful content isn’t just shrugged off as "free speech”. Under section 18 of the public order act 1986, it’s a crime to use "threatening, abusive, or insulting words" with the intent to stir up racial hatred, or even if it’s likely to do so. This means you can be arrested for posting something that could incite hatred, even if no one actually acts on it. It’s still a crime. Then there’s the serious crime act 2007 (specifically sections 44 and 45), which makes it illegal to encourage or assist a crime online, including violence. Again, the key here is that your intent or the likelihood of causing a crime is enough to get you into legal trouble, even if the crime doesn’t actually happen. It’s still a crime. The communications act 2003 (section 127) also plays a role, making it an offense to send messages that are “grossly offensive” or “menacing”. So, if you post something that’s threatening or meant to harass, you can face charges regardless of whether the threat is carried out. It’s still a crime. Lastly, the new online safety act put in place in 2024 (before Labour were in power, for you ‘two-tier Keir’ lot) ramps up accountability, requiring platforms to remove harmful content and holding people responsible for posting it. Elmo doesn’t seem to care about this right now, but it’s still in UK law. Here are three examples of people locked up, and why they were locked up: 1) Jordan Parlour: 28 year old from Leeds, jailed for 20 months after he posted on Facebook urging people to attack a hotel housing asylum seekers. His posts were intended to incite racial hatred and violence, leading to his arrest and conviction under the public order act 1986. He pleaded guilty. 2) Wayne O’Rourke: 35 year old from Lincoln, sentenced to three years in prison for using his large social media following to stir up racial hatred. He posted inflammatory content encouraging others to join in anti-immigrant violence, which led to his arrest and then sentencing. His arrest was not for anti-establishment content, that was simply mentioned in the case. The charges were very clear and he also pleaded guilty. 3) Tyler Kay: 26 year old from Northampton, sentenced to 38 months for his social media activity. He reposted messages calling for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set on fire, which the court found to be a clear attempt to incite racial violence. He initially contested the charges, but evidence shown in court proved his guilt, and he was convicted. The first two were not forced to plead guilty, the evidence was clear. It’s nothing to do with discounted sentences, and there’s no evidence to suggest it was, they just didn’t have a leg to stand on. In the UK, free speech doesn’t mean you can say anything without consequences. The law draws a line when speech becomes harmful, especially when it threatens violence or incites hatred. The law in the US is different because the first amendment offers more protection, even for hate speech, unless it directly incites imminent lawless action. The UK focuses more on preventing harm before it happens, recognising that words can have serious real world consequences.

Can I find the @TheNewsAgents on the #fediverse? It would be nice if I could follow @Maitlis, @jonsopel and @lewis_goodall as well! Maybe after a while you won't want to be on #twitter as much?

Elon Musk seems to be struggling to construct concise, articulate questions for Donald Trump. It’s almost as though he hasn’t really thought about what he wants to ask or how to structure the interview and is instead just revelling in being with his hero…

A question for @campbellclaret and @RoryStewartUK for the next @RestIsPolitics #questions : what would it take for you two to dip your toes in the #fediverse as an alternative to #twitter/#x? There are even mainstream platforms that will federate openly (unlike X).

Came to twitter^H^H^H^H^H^H^HX to see if things have improved over the last month. So I guess that's a no then....