Christian de Larrinaga

Information you provide to verify your age online is shared with intermediaries that collect and process your information, EFF’s David Greene told @csmonitor. “That raises very serious privacy and speech concerns both for young people and for adults.” csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pac…

Apple just banned several VPN apps from the Russian App Store — targeting those that helped users bypass Russia’s DPI-based censorship. That’s not cool, Apple. techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privac…

In the UK, you have to go through age checks just to use the uncensored web on your iPhone. No, this isn't a joke.

@Matt_Pinner Reik Remrats given everything he's doing needs reversing.

Be Creative…Who would be a better Prime Minister than Keir Starmer?

The FTC is warning payment processors: stop cutting people off from financial services over their beliefs. People are losing access to their own money with no explanation and no appeal. Note: no investigations opened have opened. No penalties have been announced. Just letters...

🚨The UK's push for mandatory age-verification is threatening the very foundation of the open internet. Under the Online Safety Act, platforms like Wikipedia could soon be forced to ID check their users, effectively being anonymous editing. This would not just destroy the world's largest encyclopedia - it would expose volunteer contributors to data breaches, harassment, and even imprisonment by authoritarian regimes. Wikipedia relies on a diverse and often anonymous pool of editors to challenge bad actors and keep information accurate. We cannot let the government strangle the digital public square in the name of "safety". Read the full piece by @edtarnowski in @spectator below ⤵️ spectator.com/article/age-ve…

@NoToDigitalID This centralised IT fetishism needs to be scrapped. It's the product of snake oil sales preying on techno illiterate politicians and bureaucrats by promising nirvana whilst delivering any old hell. They don't care. I do!

The world just had its largest ever data breach. Affecting 70% globally.

@AylmerTH @X His pontification is neither liberal nor democratic.

British MP Max Wilkinson: @x is a "massive problem" because it allows critics of mass immigration to "have their voice heard in a really easy way that they couldn't in the past".

@BigBrotherWatch The laws and STIs must be repealed.

🚨NEWS: The Government is "SCRAPPING" police recording of non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) "We were pleased that our calls for a review were heard, and we welcome the outcome today that “non-crime hate incidents” (NCHIs) will be scrapped, but this must be real reform, not just a rebrand. Given what a disaster NCHIs have been, the public deserves greater clarity and higher standards from the Government.  Ministers must introduce the strongest safeguards to ensure police can get on with their jobs and defend rather than undermine freedom of speech in Britain. The principle should be simple. Police should only deal with speech where there is a real link to crime, and records of lawful speech should never appear on enhanced criminal record checks." - Silkie Carlo [@silkiecarlo]

@ukhomeoffice @jimmy_wales Never repeat this please. The legislation and STI powers that enable this must now be repealed. So no Ministry or Official or quango or Regulator can dictate against and penalise legitimate conversations again.

Police time will no longer be wasted investigating legal social media posts, freeing up officers to patrol the streets and tackle real crime. By scrapping Non‑Crime Hate Incidents, we are balancing the protection of vulnerable communities while respecting free speech.

@SpeechUnion @ClareCraigPath Ofcom or a free country?

Ofcom accused of an ‘Orwellian’ assault on free speech after launching three probes into alleged climate-sceptic comments — the first such action since 2017. The regulator originally decided not to investigate remarks made on two TalkTV programmes last year, but has U-turned after being lobbied by the Good Law Programme (GLP), a pro-trans rights and climate activist group. General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, Lord Young of Acton, has said: “I'm astonished Ofcom has U-turned on this. “These are clearly complaints submitted by climate activists seeking to weaponise the regulator to silence people with opposing points of view. “The pretence that the science of global warming is 'settled' and anyone who challenges any aspect of the environmentalist agenda, including Net Zero, is a 'denier', has long been a tactic of climate alarmists to silence dissent. “Ofcom should continue to treat these complaints as vexatious and dismiss them, as it has done since 2017.” Read more below 👇

The Government is about to unleash the “largest ever” roll out of live facial recognition. If we don’t set clear limits now, our rights & freedoms are at risk. Over 35,000 people have signed our petition to #StopFacialRecognition. Help us get to 40,000⤵️ you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop…

@PhilosophyOfPhy I remember that panel very fondly. Feynman's hands on demonstration is a rare moment of how to expose PR bullshit. Something we are today buried in.

After the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in January 1986, killing its seven crew members, President Reagan appointed a commission to investigate. Richard Feynman, already battling cancer and reluctant to join, accepted because a former student asked. He quickly grew frustrated with the slow, formal hearings and NASA’s optimistic safety claims (1 in 100,000 chance of failure). Instead, he talked directly to engineers, who revealed far higher risks. The night before a key televised hearing, Feynman bought a C-clamp from a hardware store. During the session, he took a sample of the rubber O-ring material from the solid rocket boosters, clamped it, and dropped it into a glass of ice water (mimicking the cold launch temperature that day). After a moment, he removed it and showed how the rubber had lost its elasticity, it no longer sprang back. He explained simply: at low temperatures, the O-rings couldn’t seal properly, allowing hot gas to leak and cause the disaster. His live demonstration cut through layers of management denial and became one of the most iconic moments in engineering accountability. In his personal appendix to the report, he famously wrote: “For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.”

@DalrympleWill @MichaelRosenYes @sikingofficial You're both great and much loved. Happy reading ahead.

Thank you @sikingofficial for choosing my collected works as your reading on Desert Island Discs: “He is a remarkable mind... I just love the way he weaves history & narrative together and I think he’s one of our national treasures. A remarkable man” share.google/syky876EeZnzdy…

Apple, Google, Meta, Bluesky, Ring, Telegram—all these companies could offer stronger protections for our chats and our data. encryptitalready.org

This point by EFF is both correct technically and for whether there's a future for democracy. Politicians don't want to admit that digital authoritarianism even justified for a problem case damages good things to everyone everywhere. We need a grown up politics in the UK digital

@GrapheneOS Good to see graphene protecting devices and users from surveillance and exploits from 3rd parties as well as standing up for free speech and connectivity.

Brazil's authoritarian age verification law became active this month. It won't be implemented by GrapheneOS. Complying would require integrating a mandatory process for each user where a third party service checks government identification and confirms a match using the camera.

@DaveAtherton20 Did Nigel Havers do the voice over?

It seems the old adverts are popular. So for your amusement, probably the funniest Hamlet cigar one. The Bobby Charlton comb over just only adds to it. The ad was based on a sketch from the BBC Scotland show Naked Video, & the ad debuted in 1986.

@InsideLucysHead How many hail Mary's between his puffs, swigs and sanctimonious sermon?

I, being an Irish Catholic, decided it was time to cleanse my soul... I went into the confessional box after many years of being away from the Catholic Church. Inside, I found a fully equipped bar with Guinness on tap. On one wall, there was a row of decanters with fine Irish whiskey and Waterford crystal glasses. On the other wall was a dazzling array of the finest cigars and chocolates. When the priest came in, I said to him, "Father, forgive me, for it's been a very long time since I've been to confession, but I must first admit that the confessional box is much more inviting than it used to be." He replied, "You moron, you're on my side."