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APPLE HELPS AT&T MISLEAD CONSUMERS WITH FAKE 5G

(Mis)Uses of Technology

FROM THE DOUBLE-HEAD-FAKE DEPT

Thu, Feb 7th 2019 06:49am - Karl Bode

Last month we noted how AT&T had pissed off competitors and consumers alike by
pretending its existing fourth generation wireless network (4G) was actually 5G.
More specifically, AT&T has been changing the “4G” icon on its customers phones
to say “5G E,” despite the fact that actual 5G service at scale is still
probably several years away. Technically, AT&T simply took some of the
improvements it recently added to its 4G networks (like better MIMO antennas and
more efficient 256 QAM technologies), and decided to call this “5G Evolution” in
a bid to pretend it was the first to launch actual 5G.

Over-hyping your product’s capabilities and availability isn’t a particularly
bright idea, since you’re only associating your brand and the 5G standard with
disappointment. Despite being widely criticized for the practice, AT&T appears
to have learned very little from the process, only responding by expressing glee
at the amount of consternation created among consumers and competitors alike:

> “Every company is guilty of building a narrative of how you want the world to
> work, and I love the fact that we broke our industry’s narrative two days ago,
> and so they’re frustrated and they’re going to do what they do,” Donovan said.
>
> I think the result of last month, beating the industry out [with the 5G
> hotspot], and this 5G E launch a couple of days ago, our competitors are
> frustrated,” Donovan said. “if I have now occupied beachfront real estate in
> my competitors’ heads, that makes me smile.”

The problem for AT&T is its launch of actual 5G was just as misleading. The
company proclaimed it was the first carrier to “launch” 5G in 12 cities as of
last December, but a closer examination finds the service is only available in a
few areas, and at pricing that fails to impress ($500 for a mobile hotspot
that’s not widely available, $70 for just 15 GB of usage, plus network access
fees).

Meanwhile, AT&T’s seeing no real market or regulatory punishment for misleading
customers about that fake 5G E label popping up on phones. The company had
already made the change on Android, and last week Apple was happy to roll out an
update that applied the inaccurate label on iPhones as well.

> I guess Apple's unlimited power to be a force for good is no match for carrier
> marketing dollars during a phone sales slump https://t.co/DniDtoGk5c
>
> — nilay patel (@reckless) February 4, 2019

> “Multiple users on Twitter are now reporting that they?re seeing the new 5G E
> icon on devices running the latest iOS 12.2 beta 2, which was released earlier
> today. The new icon isn?t there for everyone, presumably because it will only
> appear in cities where AT&T?s 5G Evolution network ? the company?s
> intentionally misleading name for its LTE network that it seems to hope
> customers will confuse for actual, next-generation 5G networks ? is active.”

Nifty. Of course Apple isn’t even planning to offer a real 5G-capable phone
until at least 2020, so they similarly have an incentive to try and fool
customers into thinking their phone has suddenly received an incredible new
upgrade. Cumulatively there are a lot of companies busy overstating the
availability and capability of a technology that, in reality, barely even
exists. That’s going to operate in the exact opposite way as it’s intended,
since it teaches customers to see 5G itself (which really does deliver some
modest evolutionary improvements in both speed, reliability, and latency) as
little more than another empty promise.

Filed Under: 5g, 5ge, fake 5g, iphone, marketing, mobile data
Companies: apple, at&t

28 CommentsLeave a Comment

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COMMENTS ON “APPLE HELPS AT&T MISLEAD CONSUMERS WITH FAKE 5G”

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28 Comments Collapse all replies

This comment is new since your last visit.

Anonymous Coward says:
February 7, 2019 at 7:05 am

Ajit Pai will not last forever and unfair competition practices like that along
withe the shamelessly gleeful responses to criticism could result in antitrust
action once Ajit Pai is finally out of the FCC. Seems AT&T didn’t learn anything
from Ma Bell’s breakup so many decades ago.

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Threaded [2]
Anonymous Coward says:
February 7, 2019 at 7:17 am

RE: RE:

Sure they did. They learned that in just a few short years, you can, in fact,
put Humpty Dumpty back together, and make more money than ever.

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Threaded [2]
Thad (profile) says:
February 7, 2019 at 8:05 am

RE: RE:

I’m not sure if this falls under the FCC’s purview. This looks like deceptive
trade practices to me; might this be the rare case where "the FTC should handle
this, not the FCC" is actually a correct statement?

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Anonymous Coward says:
February 7, 2019 at 7:07 am

Ajit Pai will not last forever and unfair competition practices like that along
with the shamelessly gleeful responses to criticism could result in antitrust
action once Ajit Pai is finally out of the FCC. Seems AT&T didn’t learn anything
from Ma Bell’s breakup so many decades ago.

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Anonymous Coward says:
February 7, 2019 at 7:15 am

What is news worthy about AT&T running another cheating lying scam?

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Threaded [2]
Thad (profile) says:
February 7, 2019 at 8:04 am

RE: RE:

"It’s cold in February" isn’t surprising either, but I still checked the fucking
weather report this morning.

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Threaded [3]
Prinny says:
February 7, 2019 at 10:40 am

RE: RE: RE:

I checked a normal weather report this morning, dood, but whatever floats your
boat I guess!

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Threaded [2]
TFG says:
February 7, 2019 at 9:46 am

RE: RE:

The specifics of which scam they are running.

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Jinxed Violynne (profile) says:
February 7, 2019 at 7:22 am

It’s unlikely the majority consumer base gives two cares of "4G" vs. "5G".

To them, so long as it works, they’re fine with it.

This article is no different than a company releasing a "new and improved"
product, which is contradictory as it cannot be both new and improved.

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Threaded [2]
Mason Wheeler (profile) says:
February 7, 2019 at 7:44 am

RE: RE:

> This article is no different than a company releasing a "new and improved"
> product, which is contradictory as it cannot be both new and improved.

Why not? It can be a new version of an older idea that improves upon it; I don’t
see anything contradictory there. (Not to defend AT&T or anything; just as a
general principle, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this claim.)

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Threaded [2]
Anonymous Coward says:
February 8, 2019 at 8:05 am

RE: RE:

Even when it makes no diff to the consumer, the industry needs to be honest.
Lying about your product/service is fraud. Law enforcement has an obligation to
pursue violators without regard for social status or wealth. Let’s not give them
any excuses.

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Anonymous Coward says:
February 7, 2019 at 7:48 am

Must have been the marketing people who came up with this silliness.

Reminds me of when the transistor radios first hit the market, manufacturers
would claim to have more transistors in their product than the competition,
implying that it was better.

Inspection of these radios revealed that some transistors were being used as
diodes so they could jack up the count.

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Anonymous Coward says:
February 7, 2019 at 7:56 am

RE: RE:

I’d say a closer approximation is "HD" in everythingc a few years ago.

That HD became a go-to marketing term for every single piece of tech out there.
Even when the product never actually changed at all, they just changed the box.

Or the "digital transition" that cable went through a decade or so ago that only
resulted in poor signals, expensive forced cable box purchases, and downgraded
user experiences.

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Threaded [3]
Anonymous Coward says:
February 7, 2019 at 10:22 am

RE: RE: RE:

… and the digital antenna – LOL

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Anonymous Coward says:
February 7, 2019 at 7:53 am

SHORT TERM THINKING

> Of course, Apple isn’t even planning to offer a real 5G-capable phone until at
> least 2020, so they similarly have an incentive to try and fool customers into
> thinking their phone has suddenly received an incredible new upgrade.

Curious how Apple will spin their 2020 5G "upgrade" when many of their users
already think they have 5G and it is just as slow and bothersome as LTS/4G was.

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Threaded [2]
Anonymous Coward says:
February 7, 2019 at 11:41 am

RE: SHORT TERM THINKING

Apple doesn’t have to worry about this; the upgrade will come with their new
phones, that now have upgraded tech over the older phones.

Since Apple doesn’t tend to sell their phones based on network speed, the
marketing will be easy. It’s a new phone! It has things the old ones don’t!

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Anonymous Coward says:
February 7, 2019 at 8:52 am

HOW ABOUT THIS:

My new phone service will offer "5G Awesome" which is clearly better than "5G
Evolution" and just as meaningful in terms of what it actually offers.

What now, AT&T?

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Anonymous Coward says:
February 7, 2019 at 11:55 am

RE: HOW ABOUT THIS:

They’ll release Super Awesome 5G Evolution Extreme of course.

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Anonymous Coward says:
February 8, 2019 at 8:44 am

RE: RE: HOW ABOUT THIS:

Ah, I see you’re familiar with the "Street Fighter II" marketing strategy.

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Anonymous Coward says:
February 7, 2019 at 9:44 am

I wish Apple wasn’t going to do this. I’m going to assume AT&T is demanding this
from Apple. If you want to be certified to be used on OUR network, you have to
support our fake 5GE B.S. type of thing.

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Threaded [2]
Mason Wheeler (profile) says:
February 7, 2019 at 11:24 am

RE: RE:

I’m not, simply because… when has the post-iPhone Apple ever needed someone to
twist their arm as an excuse to be evil?

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Threaded [3]
Sam says:
February 7, 2019 at 2:11 pm

RE: RE: RE:

The humancentipad comes to mind

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Anonymous Coward says:
February 8, 2019 at 10:21 am

RE: RE:

> I’m going to assume AT&T is demanding this from Apple.

Of course. So what? Do you think AT&T will make themselves the Apple-Free
Network if Apple say no?

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Anonymous Coward says:
February 7, 2019 at 11:37 am

> That’s going to operate in the exact opposite way as it’s intended, since it
> teaches customers to see 5G itself (which really does deliver some modest
> evolutionary improvements in both speed, reliability, and latency) as little
> more than another empty promise.

The thing is, while the 5G spec does deliver modest evolutionary improvements,
most of those will never be seen by anyone except those who use their 5G capable
phones near one of the expensive hotspots (within line of sight) or outside in
dense urban areas with 5G line of sight repeaters everywhere.

The rest of the improvements in the 5G spec are essentially things that can
already be accomplished with LTE; they just aren’t required for LTE.

So what AT&T has done is taken those "nice to have" features in LTE that are
required for 5G and re-branded them as 5G Evolution.

While this is extremely misleading, the truth is that for most use cases, 5G E
will be indistinguishable from first generation 5G when it is finally rolls into
broadcast and consumer hardware. The fact that it’s also indistinguishable from
LTE (because that’s what it is) is something else to ponder.

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Anonymous Coward says:
February 8, 2019 at 8:45 am

RE: RE:

> The thing is, while the 5G spec does deliver modest evolutionary improvements

Wait, you’ve seen a spec? Please share, ’cause so far nobody’s been able to
explain what "5G" actually is.

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Anonymous Coward says:
February 7, 2019 at 10:53 pm

So: Yet-not-quite-really-even-4G is labeled as 5G again.

I am so surprised, in a world where it is uas been contemporarily popular to
"make things happen" by simply declaring them to be so. Fait accompli!

It’s just too bad that burdensome regulations and a lack of mergers are holding
back the high-quality telco R&D and deployment that would allow the US to be a
world leader in 5G by executives and marketing departments simply declaring "nao
we haz teh 5Gz".

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Riders on the storm says:
February 8, 2019 at 9:46 am

..AND IN A RELATED NOTE...

"..and it wasn’t long after ATT’s 4G to 5G logo switcheroo that T-Mobile
one-upped them by changing all their customers icons to 6G. Shocking the
experts, Verizon beat Sprint by a hour to claim 7G supremacy, Tiny carrier
Cincinnati Bell reigned world champion by lunchtime 312-G. In a surprising show
of honest candor, ATT’s Donovan remarked, "We, as in all of us carriers, should
have learned our lesson after Sprint’s latest investment after lunch in
232,567,555-G. We certainly did not see the effect of on the marketplace of
Comcast announcing Xfinity Infinity G,and then MetroPCS betting the company on
‘Infinity Infinity Double Fingers Crossed Behind my Back but No-Backs
Ninny-Ninny-Woo-Woo-G’, known now as IIDFCBmbNBnnww-G." It was during this
interview in which Donovan’s phone chirped. The disconcerting look on is face
told the story non-verbally, Memphis Municipal Communication had beaten them all
with the well timed stock market closing announcment that they have moved past
G,…into H. And a + version would be on your phone by dinner.

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Luke A says:
February 9, 2019 at 12:27 am

$70 for 15 gigs?

F**k that.

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of the platform being affected, this prevents Microsoft ad customers from
buying ad space on twitter?
* Mike Masnick: No, it is basically a tool for managing corporate tweets AND
ads. So it is tweetdeck like.
* Lol. That's funny. There are always some folks like that. There was a
congressional staffer who sent a good friend of mine a long rambling
complaint about how i was a big tech shill when my friend suggested he read
an article by me. But the bizarre thing was, the article in question was one
where I was explaining how problematic a policy proposal was because it would
strengthen big tech
* pyrex: oof!!
* that's a confusing take to me! i feel like the blog is pretty monofocused on
legal thuggery, which tends to make it pretty opposed to big tech, even if
like superficially it sides with one tech company over another tech company
sometimes
* John Roddy: I'm still waiting for my check.
* Every time I suggested that Copyright maximalist policies were less than
ideal, I was accused of being a Google shill.
* mildconcern: I have literally worked for George Soros and not once did I get
read into his secret plot to take over the US government for the UN world
cabal in return for millions for my silence. I felt a lot of FOMO.
* Samuel Abram: @Timothy Geigner Regarding this article in the Crystal Ball:
[link]
https://www.techdirt.com/2030/01/01/red-cross-continues-to-want-to-pretend-that-video-game-wars-are-irl-wars/
I actually think the Red Cross is onto something: Maybe there should be a
game (or mod or whatever) where people adhere to IRL rules of engagement
instead of having a typical FPS free-for-all!
* I think the Red Cross just became game designers!
* Candescence: Oh welp Elon straight up deleted all "state-affiliated" and
"government-funded" labels, probably throwing a tantrum:
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/21/1...
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/21/1171236695/twitter-strips-state-affiliated-government-funded-labels-from-npr-rt-china
* John Roddy: 10 years ago: "We see you just purchased a new washing machine.
Would you like to consider purchasing one of these other washing machines?"
* Today: "We see you purchased this video card. Would you like to consider
purchasing these other $1k+ video cards?"
* pyrex: as a walking bitcoin, this makes sense to me!
* mildconcern: https://twitter.com/CooperCodes/...
https://twitter.com/CooperCodes/status/1649559104627834880
* Tomac: It'd be neat if we all just stopped giving traffic to the bird site.
* Let it become the new AM radio.
* Samuel Abram: Everybody: I want to announce that I read Chapter II:
Subchapter VII of the Penguin edition of the Upton Sinclair tome _OIL!_ at my
local Barnes & Noble without paying for it. I'm awaiting a lawsuit from
Penguin any second now…
* Candescence: Uh, Tucker Carlson is gone from Fox News??
* https://twitter.com/axios/status...
https://twitter.com/axios/status/1650524593923260416
* BentFranklin: It's too bad that FO comes so long after FA but it'll have to
do.
* Candescence: https://twitter.com/srl/status/1...
https://twitter.com/srl/status/1650527565671542784
* Something happened _all of a sudden_ that caused Fox to yeet him
* The lawsuits might've been a factor at least but nobody knows what the hell
is going on
* Definitely not an amicable parting tho
* Tomac: He's such a big fan of them, maybe he tried to stage a coup at fox
* mildconcern: Maybe he was due to make exactly $780 million in the next 10
years and they did the math
* Bode: i suspect they've discovered some nasty messages or tapes tethered to
that sexual harassment lawsuit that will be revealed in time. can't imagine
what he said or did to cause king propagandist murdoch to implement actual
accountability
* Candescence: The MS Activision merger is dead at least for now, the UK CMA
has announced they're blocking the merger.
* But not for the reasons you'd think - apparently the sticking point is *cloud
gaming* of all things.
* Which is baffling considering how small and irrelevant cloud gaming is atm
* mildconcern: The MS response is also downright angry. Threatening, even.
* I wonder if they'd just pull up stakes and leave the UK gaming market if it
stands. Another Brexit Benefit!
* Candescence: I'd be genuinely surprised if they actually were desperate
enough to do that
* Tomac: I read that response as a threat as well. Interesting path to take
when you're trying to persuade them.
* mildconcern: Right. Means they think they have leverage I suspect. I wonder
what their UK numbers are like. the UK is a lot more bully able lately, but
I'd not have thought it had gone that far.
* Samuel Abram: If that were the case, it makes me think of the principle as to
why Google pulled out of markets due to things like link taxes. The main
differences are that Google was pulling out due to impossibility of doing
business, and Microsoft would (theoretically) pull out for prevention of
getting bigger, so technically, different principles.
* Candescence: I'm noticing conversations about Bluesky are being tainted by
the fact that Jack Dorsey is the face of it as people think it'll just be
another libertarian techbro pipedream because of that
* BentFranklin: One bright side to this Wizards of the Coast / Hazbro debacles
is millions of young adults are getting a history lesson about the brutality
of the capitalists resisting unionization and waking to the reality that it's
not over.
* Mike Masnick: yeah, it's a bit frustrating, especially since jack has
basically written off bluesky, has made it clear he disagrees with the
direction they're going in, and the bluesky team has publicly described how
they're moving in a different direction than jack wanted. People freaking out
about it because of Jack don't realize that it's not a jack project
* The bluesky team is incredibly thoughtful in how they're going about things.
they'll make mistakes, but it's not going to be a "libertarian techbro
pipedream"
* Candescence: Oh, interesting, I didn't know that - what's got Jack's feathers
ruffled in this instance?
* Or is it just a case of vague disagreement with no publicly known reasons
* Mike Masnick: No, he's been pretty clear that he (1) doesn't think bluesky
should be so much like Twitter and that it should be more different and (2)
he disagreed with the idea that they should build out content moderation
tools before launching
* mildconcern: So he was in the "let a thousand Nazis bloom" school?
* I suppose that's not surprising
* pyrex: i realize this isn't a thing everyone cares about, but has bluesky
hinted at a pivot towards cryptocurrency features?
* Candescence: I'm pretty sure they've ruled out any kind of crypto integration
* pyrex: i wouldn't be that offended by their existence, but i would be if the
platform decided to move into that only after getting a captive userbase and
i guess i'm looking for foreshadowing
* mildconcern: that could also be part of what turned Dorsey off
* if I remember right he is/was into crypto
* pyrex: i definitely wanna clarify, i wouldn't use the service if it had
crypto features, but like, i probably won't use it anyways and it's ok for
things to exist that aren't for me
* suddenly springing it on people and hoping platform lock-in keeps people
there would be pretty unethical though, IMHO
* Mike Masnick: bluesky has no crypto. jay has been clear from the very start
(from before she was hired, actually) that even though she's worked in
crypto, it makes no sense to build a social network on crypto.
* but because she worked in crypto, and because of jack's "involvement" many
people assume that it's a crypto project
* pyrex: thanks, that's what i was hoping to hear!
* Mike Masnick: before she was hired, i was actually in a meeting with her and
some other folks, including a group that is trying to build a crypto-based
social network, and she was quizzing them on why, and asking what benefits
they thought it brought, and just kept pushing them when they tried to
handwave around things. so she's not anti-cryptocurrency by any stretch, but
she's one of the most practical and thoughtful people i know on this stuff.
she's very focused on building a good service, not based on ideology, but on
what's actually good
* pyrex: that's pretty reassuring! i briefly used uh, i think steemit? like, in
at least one case i saw jack dorsey float the idea of using crypto-based cash
tipping instead of likes. i understand why this is appealing to people and at
the same time i don't like the kind of content this incentivizes people to
make
* Mike Masnick: jack was floating that idea on nostr, which is also interesting
(to me) but i doubt will go mainstream
* pyrex: it's in "i probably won't use it, it should definitely be allowed to
exist, maybe i will like it in four years" territory to me
* i don't really understand nostr's fixation on censorship, which is very
frequently a dogwhistle
* i kinda like their protocol design, it looks to me like it does not attempt
to do very many things and would probably scale pretty well. with standard
cryptographic protocol problems like "if you lose your key, heaven help you"
* John Roddy: Wait... He *disagreed* on moderation tools being built out before
launch?
* Cathy Gellis: I don't understand that. But I also don't understand how anyone
could have volitionally decided to be a minority shareholder in a platform
Musk was about to take over, so I have already been perplexed by his
judgment.
* John Roddy: Especially right after so many other ones launched and
immediately slammed into exactly the same problem of bad moderation policies
* mildconcern: It would save them not at all if the network were not explicitly
aimed at crazy right wingers like so many of those were, too. Maybe that
would delay the pain by a day.
* Candescence: I think the only other main competitors that are worth watching
so far are Mastodon, Post and Hive
* Mike Masnick: Yeah, I'm perplexed a bit by that as well, but...
* there's also T2 and spoutible. spoutible seems... very questionable to me. T2
is... fine. But, it just looks like a twitter clone. I think if they were
smart, they'd quickly adopt the AT Protocol once bluesky releases federation
details
* BentFranklin: Is there a way to get techdirt in dark mode?
* Mike Masnick: not currently, no
* Candescence: So the Writer's Guild of America has started striking, and this
was one of their demands that the studios rejected:
https://twitter.com/pmiscove/sta...
https://twitter.com/pmiscove/status/1653249330239909888
* According to the guild, the counteroffer was "annual meetings to discuss
advancements in technology".
* Even though it's quite obvious to everyone what the end goal the studios have
with AI is, aka eventually reduce as much involvement of writers in the
actual writing process as possible
* MSR4: [link]
https://www.techdirt.com/2023/05/02/pornhub-says-no-more-porn-for-folks-in-utah-unless-they-know-how-to-use-a-vpn/
This is so stupid. You can not legislate morality. Just like attempts to ban
Usenet in the 90s because some teen could take a few text messages, mush them
together, and get a nude photo. Or heading over to a friends house to view
his dads playboy, there is nothing going to stop people from seeking out this
material. What is the end game, ban all porn in the US. Great, everyone will
move their opeations overseas. Then what, block internet connections to those
countries? Even North Korea and Iran is accessable from the Internet, not to
mention Tor. It is stupid virtual signaling to get around parents not wanting
to monitor what their kids are doing online and take responsibility for their
actions.
* Mike Masnick: yup.
* Samuel Abram: I would say this is as copyrightable as Naruto's selfie:
https://twitter.com/depthsofwiki...
https://twitter.com/depthsofwiki/status/1653093584042614792
* Actually, I wouldn't mind this monkey script replacing Lorem Ipsum...
* BentFranklin: “material harmful to minors” Today it means porn. Tomorrow it
means information on guns and climate change.
* Maybe Nintendo should hire the Pinkertons.
* Samuel Abram: I chuckled. https://twitter.com/amatsujanait...
https://twitter.com/amatsujanaito/status/1653518113697144832
* Happy Bandcamp Friday! Today, I have released a single I had long finished
but didn't have the cover art done until now: Lo, a track by the band Genesis
on the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive outside of North America), Mama (with the
vocaloid MEIKO)! [link]
https://ironcurtain.bandcamp.com/album/mama-feat-meiko
* Mike Masnick: i want to delete this spam, but the response is so good that i
feel like i have to leave it.
* Samuel Abram: [video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7GdDLbm55U
* mildconcern: I'm going to be hiking in the Canadian rockies this summer for a
couple weeks. This video was a good chance to practice my Canadian language
skills.
* "Abooot.....aboooooooot....."
* Samuel Abram: @mildconcern I swear, I've been to Canada many, many times, and
J. J. is the only one I know who does that.
* mildconcern: I've met a couple others who do, but yeah for the most part
these days we're all raised by the same TV

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