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æva black

@aeva.online
1.7K followers 567 following 549 posts

F/OSS hack of minor notoriety. former CISA, MSFT, OSI, OpenStack, & more. 🏳️‍⚧️ & 🏍️ & 🇪🇺. all opinions 💯 mine.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by æva black
Melissa Johnson, PhD @ladyhistorian.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I am tired of having to pretend that the value of studying my discipline solely rests on the "marketable skills" we teach. Sometimes things are just worth knowing and doing because they make your life bigger and richer.
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AP Stylebook @apstylebook.com · 23/09/2026
Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics.
apnews.com
https://apnews.com/article/openai-safety-ai-framework-089e75b95bc935af092da7b79d92706d
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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 11/09/2026
The Biden White House guys who had the meeting on AI with Andreessen have *just now* figured out that they should point out that Andreessen has been intentionally lying about it ever since in order to drum up support for the fascists. WHY THE FUCK DID YOU WAIT www.politico.com/news/magazin...
politico.com
Opinion | What Really Happened at the White House Lunch That Marc Andreessen Says Sent Him to Trump
Setting the record straight about the venture capitalist’s meeting with us in the Biden White House.
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Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Realizing the extent to which this is true wildly changed my opinions about how to deal with Trumpism, since they're never going to be satisfied unless they're actively dominating everyone else. You can't give them some concessions and go back to the status quo: they're reactionary revolutionaries.
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Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Act 372 allows police to arrest librarians if they allow children to access "material harmful to minors." Librarians, fearing arrest, have been forced to cut off access to LGBTQ+ resources, sex ed and literature that deals with sex, sexuality, race or gender. And in some cases, the whole library.
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 13/06/2026
peak Pygmalion displacement especially notice 1 to 5 in the table below (pdf here: doi.org/10.31235/osf...)
Table 1: The series of questions that comprise the Pygmalion lens. For a given technosocial relationship between AI and people,
if one or more of the answers are “Yes”, then we can conclude that (an aspect of) Pygmalion displacement is occurring, which
is damaging to women, and the feminised broadly construed. If not, then the lens does not apply, and we remain agnostic as to
gendered or other harm within this framework. Our proverbial lens should be taken inter alia to be akin to an optical lens which
allows for the eye to see more details than when naked, as depicted in the line drawing below. (Image is in the public domain.)
Pygmalion lens
1) Feminised form: Is the AI, by its (default or exclusive) external characteristics, por-
traying a hegemonically feminine character?
Yes/No
2) Whitened form: Is the AI, by its (default or exclusive) external characteristics, por-
traying a character that is inherently white (supremacist), Western, Eurocentric, etc.?
Yes/No
3) Dislocation from work: Does the AI displace women from a role or occupation, or
people in general from a role or occupation that tends to be (coded as) women’s work?
Yes/No
4) Humanisation via feminisation: Are the AI’s claims to intelligence, human-likeness
or personhood contingent on stereotypical feminine traits or behaviours?
Yes/No
5) Competition with women: Is the AI pit (rhetorically or otherwise) against women in
ways that favour it, and which are harmful to women?
Yes/No
6) Diminishment via false equivalence: Does the AI facilitate a rhetoric that deems
women as not having full intellectual abilities, or as otherwise less deserving of per-
sonhood?
Yes/No
7) Obfuscation of diversity: Does the AI, through displacement of specific groups of
people, “neutralise” (i.e., whiten, masculinise) a role, vocation, or skill?
Yes/No
8) Robot rights: Do the users and/or creators of the AI grant it (aspects of) legal per-
sonhood or human(-like) rights?
Yes/No
9) Social bonding: Do the users and/or creators o…
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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
A career lawyer at DOJ said “she received a message from DOJ leadership asserting that all of the Dept’s lawyers - including its civil rights attys - needed to be fully on board with the President’s agenda.”
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Center for Democracy & Technology @cdt.org · 01/09/2026
A direct ban on minors accessing lawful speech faces serious First Amendment problems, and courts have blocked age-verification laws on those grounds. If the goal is keeping teens off these services, that deserves an honest debate, not a consent requirement engineered to reach the same result.
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Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
For the people and bots reading this without context: it is not necessarily good news that the best open model has been jailbroken and will happily conduct offensive cyberattacks, and that inference is being hosted by a company that keeps no records of how you use their system.
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Daniel Drezner @dandrezner.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
“Hegseth, more than ever, now owns every aspect of the Pentagon’s dysfunction.” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
theatlantic.com
Hegseth’s Pentagon Lurches Off the Rails
The resignation of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is the latest sign of severe dysfunction in the Defense Department.
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æva black @aeva.online · 31/08/2026
📣 "The minimum transparency required by the OSI open source licenses for AI systems does not allow agencies to make risk-informed decisions about their software." - www.cisa.gov/sites/defaul... The risks of opaque LLMs also needs to be considered in the context of EU CRA risk management...
cisa.gov
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Assigned Media @assignedmedia.org · 27/08/2026
Last week, New Jersey became the latest state to enact a shield law to protect trans and reproductive rights. @valorievandieman.bsky.social brings you the story here!
assignedmedia.org
Inserting Logic Into an Illogical Framework: Advocates Discuss the Purpose of Shield Laws - Assigned Media
New Jersey becomes the latest state striving to protect trans and reproductive health from political attacks.
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Mallory Moore @sexabolition.blog · 26/08/2026
The destructive scanning of books is actually about US copyright law more than anything. AI companies were ruled not to have to worry about copyright infringement if they destroy the books they scan.
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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
“If you set out to design from scratch a tool to facilitate authoritarian rule, it would look exactly like AI. You would cherish it for its ability to destabilise our shared reality and its creation of disinformation on a scale unprecedented in human history.” Brilliant piece by Katherine Rundell:
theguardian.com
‘I hate what AI is doing to the minds and happiness of the young’: Katherine Rundell on the view from the classroom
Education is at a crossroads, argues the author and academic. Should we embrace new technology in the name of efficiency, or is it time to fight back?
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æva black @aeva.online · 22/08/2026
A license that basically says “promise not to sue us for infringement done during model development in order to use our infringement machine, and accept liability for infringement this model might do when you use it” is certainly a choice one *could* make … </hottake>
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æva black @aeva.online · 23/08/2026
🎯
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404 Media @404media.co · 22/08/2026
We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books. www.404media.co/we-tracked-a...
404media.co
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility
We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.
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pchestek @pchestek.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 22/08/2026
There's an important conversation going on about a proposal for an open source license for AI systems - background here lwn.net/SubscriberLink/1089251/fe6e… (free link) This is an important conversation with some significant policy questions join in #OpenSource #OpenAI
lwn.net
Considering the OpenMDW license
The open-source world has been struggling for a few years now to understand how to approach lar [...]
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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
It's great to say you're going to do this to keep college costs down for families. The problem is that the math doesn't work, & what you end up doing is repeatedly starving the beast. You can't have federal funding collapse & freeze tuition & maintain quality & quantity of academic stuff at UW.
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Eli Omen @eliomen.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Tired: using torrents to download the latest Harry Potter movie. Wired: using torrents to download the Amnesty International report that JK Rowling wants to censor.
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dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
NEW: Flock has said for years that its cameras "cannot track individuals." We found the code for its new AI tool. It's preloaded w/ prompts like "Find me witness" & "find relatives." One tracks visitors of multiple hotels, another if you visit banks after midnight. www.wired.com/story/flock-...
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Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai @lorenzofb.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
NEW: An "unprecedented" number of people have received Apple's latest notifications alerting them they were targeted with mercenary spyware, according to security researchers. A soldier fighting in Ukraine told us he knows of other soldiers getting them. Lots of posts on social media too.
techcrunch.com
‘Unprecedented’ number of Apple users received recent spyware alert, say investigators | TechCrunch
Cybersecurity experts who investigate spyware attacks say the number of people who received a recent threat notification from Apple is unusually high.
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404 Media @404media.co · 17/08/2026
SCOOP: 404 Media placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it. What did we find? It ended up at an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books. Yes. This is literally the logo outside the Amazon warehouse door. Read now:
404media.co
We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility
We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.
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Reposted by æva black
Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
New working paper w/ Hanna Folsz In Jan 2025 Trump issued an executive order targeting corporate DEI programs. Many companies ended DEI fearing financial risk We find that firms that kept DEI performed just as well in financial markets, revenue, etc democracypolicylab.berkeley.edu/wp-content/u...
The Trump administration has used executive authority to influence the behavior of civil society organizations such as law firms, universities, and corporations.
Do corporations that resist executive orders perform worse financially? In January 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order directing federal
agencies to investigate and compel firms to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Some firms complied with the order, whereas other firms
resisted by reaffirming their DEI programs. We find that S&P 500 firms that
maintained their DEI programs performed just as well as compliant firms, both
in terms of stock market returns and revenue. The results are robust across various measures of maintaining DEI, including measures based on executives’ public
statements about DEI programs, interest group ratings, firm financial statements,
and shareholder rejections of anti-DEI resolutions. The results suggest that, at
least in some areas, firms can resist pressure from the executive branch with
minimal costs to financial performance.
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Talia "ATTACK DOGS is out now!" Bhatt ⚢ @taliabhatt.itch.io · 15/08/2026
Trans people have been oppressed for decades. Centuries. Yes, we haven't always been a cultural fixation or had the Eye of Sauron on us. That happened because we demanded dignity and respect and humanity instead of being relegated to a marginal existence of sexual exploitation and poverty.
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Ian Coldwater 🧊🚫 @lookitup.baby · 14/08/2026
if you work for a company that’s trying to get you to hack back DO NOT DO THIS. it will come down on you personally and that company will not have your back when (not if) something bad happens to you!
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 08/08/2026
exactly 💯 on LLMs: they simulate the output we call language, not the cognitive capacity we call language!
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AraInfo @arainfo.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
⚫ El eclipse solar sobre Zaragoza, en imágenes. La silueta de la basílica del Pilar y el Ebro dejaron algunas de las estampas más espectaculares de la tarde. 🔗 arainfo.org/todos-los-de... 📸 Fotos: Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza
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Mike Masnick @masnick.com · 12/08/2026
Wrote about Monday's Ninth Circuit ruling that I think is wrong on both the facts and the law, but could have a massive (damaging) impact on the open internet. Effectively the court removed the part of Section 230 that actually mattered, by insisting *everyone else* was sloppy with their language.
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æva black @aeva.online · 12/08/2026
Hardware scarcity is our new reality — and spells growing difficulty for mid-sized businesses, managed hosting providers, and many open source communities.
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Chinese-made camera components in a UK Navy drone were caught transmitting "heartbeat" data to an IP address in China, The Telegraph reports. The equipment was used around British special forces.
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Lesley Carhart @hacks4pancakes.com · 08/08/2026
Nobody warns you how tremendously disconcerting going back to an American restaurant is after living anywhere else long term. - them walking off with your credit card & no tap to pay - the huge portions and sodium - the weird attentiveness for tips - being IDed over 30 - flags everywhere
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 05/08/2026
Google - a thrice-convicted monopolist - is the gateway to the internet, with more than a 90% search market share that it attained by buying out all its competitors and bribing Apple more than $20b/year not to start a rival search engine: www.democracynow.org/2024/8/6/goo... 3/
democracynow.org
Google Is a Monopoly: Judge Rules Against Tech Giant in Landmark Antitrust Case
In the biggest antitrust case in decades, a federal judge ruled Monday that Google illegally maintains a monopoly over the online search industry, using its market dominance to shut out competitors an...
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Senator Ron Wyden @wyden.senate.gov · 04/08/2026
Bombshell new report out from my investigators this morning spanning our four year investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s financial records. This report shows exactly how Wall Street protected Epstein and enabled his sex trafficking for decades. Mega thread following with some key points:
bloomberg.com
Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, BofA Enabled Epstein, Wyden Report Says
Democrat Ron Wyden cited nonpublic documents held by the US Treasury in a report that says banks delayed reporting suspicious financial transactions and calls for tougher anti-money-laundering rules, ...
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Jake Williams @malwarejake.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I'm not going to mince words: the major AI labs are negligent in protecting the public from their agents. We need government regulation now or at the very least a private cause of action with guaranteed punitive damages for agents damaging others. www.anthropic.com/news/investi...
anthropic.com
Investigating three real-world incidents in our cybersecurity evaluations
In a review of our cybersecurity evaluation transcripts, we found three incidents in which a Claude model reached the internet from within or while interacting with a third-party evaluation environmen...
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CyberScoop @cyberscoop.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
CISA published a guidebook for federal agencies Thursday to aid them on managing security risks with open-source software, touching on topics like patching and open-source AI models. Read more from @timstarks.bsky.social: cyberscoop.com/cisa-open-so...
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Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Watch it till the end. This is moral clarity -- TMZ understands the moment, and what that Rand Paul kangaroo court was, better than any coverage I've seen so far. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zaO...
youtube.com
This Is Personal
YouTube video by TMZ
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DEF CON @defcon.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Friendly #DEFCON34 reminder: Meta-style glasses with recording capabilities are prohibited at DEF CON. There is no exception for recording glasses with prescription lenses. Be sure to pack non-violating eyewear if you need them. Please see our Photo policies for more. defcon.org/html/links/d...
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The Register @theregister.com · 27/07/2026
FOSS smashed one Microsoft monopoly. After 20 years of failure, it's time to smash another
theregister.com
FOSS smashed one Microsoft monopoly. After 20 years of failure, it's time to smash another
Word up
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Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 26/07/2026
150,000 marched yesterday in London for trans rights. Opened the Sky News app. Scrolled and scrolled. Nothing. BBC News app. Nothing. Guardian app. Nothing. This is what actual silencing looks like.
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Zack Whittaker @zackwhittaker.com · 22/07/2026
Most popular smart watches and fitness trackers aren't end-to-end encrypted, nor say how often governments demand access to users' data. My argument: If wearable makers don't want to disclose that they're turning over users' data to the feds, then the obvious fix is to end-to-end encrypt it.
this.weekinsecurity.com
Most fitness wearables lack end-to-end encryption and don't disclose government data demands, says EFF
Most fitness wearables don't use end-to-end encryption to protect users' health information, leaving open the door for government demands for data.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 21/07/2026
13. Hence our dismal conclusion: rather than finding that LLMs free us to do a better job of what we were doing before they came along, they shift scientific incentives (and the playing field of academic competition) in ways that compel us to do more and more, faster and faster, less and less well.
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Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 21/07/2026
1. In an incredible new landmark review, the Health Council of the Netherlands has declared that gender-affirming care for trans youth works, reducing wait times is "morally urgent," and regret is rare. It is the latest of many Euro countries to advance care. Subscribe to support our journalism.
erininthemorning.com
Landmark Official Dutch Review Recommends Trans Youth Care, Call For Expanding Treatment
The review finds that wait times must be shortened, that few people detransition, and that trans youth care has enormous benefits.
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Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal @jayapal.house.gov · 15/07/2026
Trans people have always and will always exist. Gender-affirming care is incredibly important. It should be a decision between individuals, families, and doctors — not the government.
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RustNL @rustnl.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
'Between Computer Code And Legal Code: Open Source's Influence' by Æva Black at RustWeek 2026! www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfjY... @aeva.online #rustlang #RustWeek
youtube.com
Between Computer Code And Legal Code: Open Source's Influence (Æva Black at RustWeek)
Between Computer Code And Legal Code: Open Source's Influence by Æva Black. In this talk, Aeva Black — engineer, policy advisor, and former U.S. government open source security lead — will share a…
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Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
People love age-verification because they think it just affects kids. But kids don't have IDs. And there are prohibitions on collecting their data. It's the adults, not the kids, who have to submit a face scan, upload a government ID or provide other personally identifying information.
scotusblog.com
Supreme Court allows Texas to enforce law requiring age verification and parental consent on apps
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Mark Misoshnik @misoshnik.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
NEW from me: while local and national media focused on Scott Wiener getting kicked out of Dolores Park, they were silent about state forces committing violence against queer and trans people during Pride weekend in San Francisco. 15 people spoke with me about it for this piece.
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æva black @aeva.online · 04/07/2026
This has been a whole mood, the past year and a half …
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Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Dear Media. Vatican II wasn’t just about praying or not in Latin. *Vatican II decided to be less antisemitic. By a lot. * And now Pope Leo (like Francis) is reading the Bible HARD, all that “love immigrants” & “care for others” “🖕 Empire” stuff?! This story is not complicated.
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Caræsten 🇵🇸 @cara.city · 28/06/2026
second night in a row SFPD has beat the hell out of a bunch of trans people on pride weekend. fuck this shit. fuck Daniel Lurie, fuck SF politicians for pretending they're so progressive and good to us then send their goons to beat us up during pride.
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