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Aidan O’Brien

@aidanobrien.bsky.social
5.1K followers 1.3K following 426 posts

"The shitposting will escalate as the deadline encroaches". Researcher & Analyst with @edmoireland.bsky.social. Internet Governance, Tech Policy & Human Rights. Would honestly rather be talking about movies. (He/Him)

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Reposted by Aidan O’Brien
Jim Lokay @jimlokay.com · 6h
If you want to really know how the outrage machine gets fired up: 1. Schmitt plans to drop “bombshell” on Smith 2. Someone plants story that Schmitt is a Vance VP contender to run same day 3. Right-wing Twittersphere gets talking points 4. Schmitt steps in it 5. Scheduled tweets go out anyway
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 5h
Huge congratulations to our colleagues at @iccl.bsky.social on this win! In a landmark ruling on 25 Sep, the ICCL secured a precedent that will reshape how Big Tech companies defend themselves in GDPR class actions that impact their operations across the entire EU enforce.ie/digital-data...
enforce.ie
ICCL secures landmark precedent against Big Tech - Enforce
Landmark ruling will reshape how Big Tech companies defend themselves in court for EU-wide GDPR class actions
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Elizabeth Cantwell @eccantwell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Here to tell you that the chemistry and tension in this scene still hits for 2026 teenagers, as evidenced by the very vocal reactions of my students today
Dorothy Malone and Humphrey Bogart in the bookstore scene in 1946’s The Big Sleep
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Jen Keane @zenbuffy.bsky.social · 14h
Hey so in case you don't want to do the math, I've got you. 0.00006934% That's how much 150000 is of Zuck's estimated between worth of 254.4 billion.
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Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 12h
static.klipy.com
The Goldbergs Order Soup
Alt: The Goldbergs Order Soup
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Sean Jones KC @seanjones.org · 18h
The rush to speculate that asylum seekers are responsible for every crime in the news is a sort of opportunistic informational terrorism. Until it’s disproved it stokes fear and hatred. When it is disproved there are no adverse consequences and they know that they only have to be lucky once.
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Luca Tiratelli @lucatiratelli.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I await the first time a politician proposing some nuts new immigration restriction is asked what is otherwise the media’s favourite question: how are you going to pay for it??
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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 20h
This is why, every year, the whole of Ireland is required to celebrate the Puck Fair. We can’t just say that hauling a goat into the air for days on end is something just for Kerry. We are a united country, which is why we have airborne goats everywhere.
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David Flood @maoltuile.bsky.social · 20h
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Tyler King @tyleraking.com · 23h
It ALMOST feels like we’re just starting to reach the normies with “the federal government and Silicon Valley have joined forces to spy on every aspect of your life and it’s called Palantir” and it’s either going to be the turning point for radical privacy or cripple the concept forever.
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Johnny Ryan @johnnyryan.bsky.social · 20h
Google event in Brussels this evening “to celebrate Ireland’s Presidency” of the EU Council. “Google is delighted to bring together Irish policymakers…” rsvp.withgoogle.com/events/irish... (they have wisely now removed some of this text)
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Ash @queerash.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
one is about dumping a load in public, and the other is improper disposal of trash
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Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Yuge day for American Bluesky, as many are getting their first experience of the quaint and traditional British rural pursuits, "dogging" and "flytipping"
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Irish Council for Civil Liberties 🏳️‍🌈 @iccl.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
We need your help. As we mark 50 years of ICCL, we're launching an urgent campaign to protect our rights, liberty and democracy. We're looking for 100 people who share our belief in rights and liberties, and our determination to defend them, to donate €500 each. www.iccl.ie/the-fight-of...
iccl.ie
The fight of our lives.
The rights and liberties that we have worked so hard to gain and protect are under threat. This is the fight of our lives.
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Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Notes from the Apocalypse Number 18,780 in an occasional series: A crypto casino, Betbolt, has teamed up with Tommy Robinson to do a live fundraiser for Danno Tommo's "legal defence fund"...
To support the fight, all dealer tips on the Blackjack table today will be sent directly to Danny Tommo's cause. *
Tommy Robinson * • @TRobinsonNewEra • 4h
I was given this opportunity today & have decided to donate all the money I'm making from this to Danny tommo's family & his fight for freedom.To support the fight, all dealer tips on the Blackjack table today will be sent directly to Danny Tommo's cause. 🇬🇧
Quote
Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧

@TRobinsonNewEra
·
4h
I was given this opportunity today & have decided to donate all the money I’m making from this to Danny tommo’s family & his fight for freedom.Tommy Robinson at the blackjack table
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TJ McIntyre @tjmcintyre.com · 28/09/2026
Irish plans to exempt processing of your data for AI from the GDPR are "not in line with the Charter of Fundamental Rights"; they amount to an "illegal change of primary law"; they "exempt AI from the guarantees in the Treaties and render them largely meaningless". Damning, from the leading expert.
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Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Claims circulating on social media that the Garvaghy Road parade is a coordinated Sinn Fein/DUP psyops to distract from the "real issue" of uncontrolled migration.
static.klipy.com
Sister Michael: You Might Want To Wise Up
Alt: Sister Michael: You Might Want To Wise Up
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Johnny Ryan @johnnyryan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Important breakthrough in Europe's icebreaker Big Tech class action opens the path for class actions to hold Big Tech accountable using the GDPR. ICCL v Microsoft class action update... Full decision in link --> enforce.ie/digital-data...
enforce.ie
ICCL secures landmark precedent against Big Tech - Enforce
Class action will target “Real-Time Bidding” (RTB) data breach in Microsoft’s advertising system, and is anticipated to affect Microsoft’s operations across the EU
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IanMoore3000 @ianmoore3000.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Join a union jrnl.ie/7174957
jrnl.ie
Flahavan's workers win pay boost of up to 21.5% as unrest ends at porridge company
Unite said the new deal brings the pay terms of different workers in line with each other.
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This was an entirely predictable act of economic self-harm - both the Sunak and Starmer government decided that the priority was to cut migration *when it was already falling fast*. ukandeu.ac.uk/immigration-...
ukandeu.ac.uk
Immigration is falling but the economic cost may be high - UK in a changing Europe
Jonathan Portes analyses the latest immigration figures from the Home Office and Office for National Statistics.
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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
As unprofessional as it may be, I suspect I will be shouting "we have been saying this for years" a lot today. Harsher immigration policies don't just ruin individual lives, they damage the economy, reduce jobs, and generally harm the whole country.
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Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
People at the meeting are demanding the further extraction of fossil fuels. Repeating demands to remove the carbon tax get massive cheers.
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Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Fuel protests meeting going on. Gavin Pepper gets a huge roar when he says “The Carbon Tax had got to go, all of it”. The Fuel Price Blockade in Ireland, A Union of Fossil Capital and Racial Capital.
verfassungsblog.de
The Fuel Price Blockades in Ireland
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Tyron @tyron.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Just seen it's Wikipedia's 25th birthday. The greatest website online, and possibly the internet's greatest fruit
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Sarah Kay @k-interarma.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
“The old hatred still lingers in some areas” Just wow
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Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Sorry, the "we've (Loyalists) moved on further and quicker than (the Catholics) have" line is sending me.

securebritishfuture.com
MOVE TO ULSTER
Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Moving to Northern Ireland, But Were Afraid to Ask
Is There a British Future for Your Family? YES and here is HOW!
No. The mass of ordinary Catholic people would be OK with it, but the political minority are noisy, aggressive and strongly ‘anti-Brit’. Although the old sectarianism is in rapid decline, much more of it lingers among the nominal Catholic community than among the Prods. We’ve moved on much further and quicker than they have. Decent, ordinary Catholics are beginning to catch up, but the old hatred does linger in their areas, and especially among their political class.

Sinn Fein favours LGBTQ, abortion-on-demand and mass immigration – except by white Brits, All the surviving splinters of the IRA are 100% Marxist and support non-white and Muslim immigration. Recent media coverage about the so-called New IRA turning against it were fake stories put out to embarrass them.

These people pose no threat to the peace and stability of Northern Ireland as a whole, but they and lingering anti-British sentiment in the Republican population mean that you should avoid moving into a Catholic area.lthough the old sectarianism is in rapid decline, much more of it lingers among the nominal Catholic community than among the Prods. We’ve moved on much further and quicker than they have. Decent, ordinary Catholics are beginning to catch up, but the old hatred does linger in their areas, and especially among their political class.
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Heather Burns @heatherburnstech.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
In an age where “free speech” is a culture war issue warped and won by how much US dark money a side has, I implore you to listen to literally anyone from Northern Ireland (or the west of Scotland) to understand what cultural “free speech” debates feel like marching in front of your actual house.
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Serge Egelman @v0max.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
It’s probably a good reminder that Robert Morris was convicted of a felony under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for authoring a worm that broke into other systems.
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Nazim Hikmet @nhazimhikmet.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The European governments which are mostly sold to the American techno-oligarchs, wants to sell our private data.. Tell me again how 'good is AI' and how much it will 'help our lives' so I can laugh one more time.. This is about Irish government, but trust me many others wants to sell citizens data.
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Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Meta can ban: - Adverts for a Virginia Woolf play because of “feminism” - Ads for a documentary about Elon Musk. Meta seemingly cannot ban: - Generative AI Child Abuse and Child Sexual Abuse Material, adverts and content.
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Gavan Reilly @gavreilly.com · 27/09/2026
Don’t be at all surprised if Stormont collapses one way or another this week – SF because the present-day structures don’t serve the interest of nationalists; DUP because the First Minister participated in an unlawful protest gathering – and for another stalemate that last for *years*.
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Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The Irish government wants to allow AI companies to scrap EU citizen's private data. - An industry which business models is based on a unprecedented theft of intellectual property. - Consistently fail to prevent their product from causing serious harms, and hide the evidence when they do.
OpenAl halts training of latest models as reports mount of Al agents going rogue
Decision follows disclosures that OpenAl agents searching government websites had acted in unexpected waysMicrosoft and OpenAl raised concerns over Al training data in newly unsealed courtChatGPT Helped Tumbler Ridge Shooter Focus on Guns, Tactics, and Terror
OpenAI's chatbot fed the school shooter's violent fantasies and planning up to the massacre, our investigation reveals.
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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 24/09/2026
Just when I think I can’t hate OpenAI and Sam Altman any more, new details come out about how ChatGPT helped a shooter plan one of the worst mass shootings in Canadian history in Tumbler Ridge, BC. OpenAI made an explicit decision not to report the user to authorities.
motherjones.com
ChatGPT helped the Tumbler Ridge school shooter focus on guns, tactics, and terror, our investigation reveals
OpenAI’s chatbot fed the shooter’s violent fantasies and planning up to the massacre.
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Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The Garvaghy parade issue shows that no one, I mean *no one* does cultural warfare like the Orange Order.
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Sharrow 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇮🇪🦄💙📚🎃 @sharrow.eurosky.social · 26/09/2026
Great coverage of the amazing #March4Choice run by @freesafelegal.bsky.social today. www.rte.ie/news/dublin/... #abortionishealthcare #spéirgorm #repeal #freesafelegallocal
rte.ie
March hears call for removal of rule over abortion wait
Campaigners have called on the Government to remove the mandatory three-day wait for an abortion at the annual March for Choice in Dublin city centre.
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Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
On Sunday, July 12th 1998, Jason (aged 8), Mark (aged 9) and Richard Quinn (aged 10) were killed in their home in Ballmoney when it was petrol-bombed by Loyalists, rioting after the Drumcree parade was banned from travelling the Garvahy Road that year. 3 brutal sectarian murders.
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David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
if this is the actual argument, it's just frivolous. X not present or operating in europe? 😆 i also want to know - and think a democratic congress should inquire - how this particular intervention came about. 🤔
“The European Commission inappropriately attempted to expand its regulatory authority to reach American companies not present or operating within its jurisdiction,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We will not tolerate the European Commission engaging in regulatory overreach to try and control American engines of innovation and economic growth.”
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Wendy Lyon @wendylyon.eurosky.social · 25/09/2026
The extent to which this government seems determined to commit economic self-sabotage is really beyond all comprehension.
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Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Between June 7 & 10 Rupert Lowe posted about the assault in Belfast & subsequent pogroms over 20 times. His posts were incendiary & used a random act of violence as justification to call for ethnic cleansing in the UK. These posts received over 100 million views & earned Lowe thousands of pounds.
Millions must go@RupertLowe10
If a migrant comes to our country and attempts to saw a man's head off in the street, a Restore Britain Government will not deport.

With the British people's approval, that savage will be put to death. 

But that is not enough - these atrocities will keep happening. The barbarians are already inside the gates.

Immigration will end from countries that are proven to supply us with these monsters.

Third world migrants who hate our way of life will be removed from our country. Restore Britain will deport millions.

I have had enough. The British people have had enough.

We do not have to live like this - there is another way.

Death penalty, mass deportations, end mass immigration.

That is what Restore Britain will do.
@RupertLowe10
A Restore Britain Government will aim to prosecute officials and politicians who knowingly placed dangerous third world savages in our communities.

This will apply retrospectively. 

A great number of people will go to prison for what has been inflicted on our communities.We must stop harbouring those who wish to decapitate children.

A vast number of people need to be removed from our country - when I say vast, I mean it.

Millions and millions need to leave or be made to leave.
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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
New Gist: On (and On) Bullshit "Bullshitters are more dangerous to public discourse than liars. Liars are laser-focused on reality and must know the truth to successfully deceive the listener. Bullshitters don’t care, so don’t even have to acknowledge reality. " www.thegist.ie/the-gist-on-...
thegist.ie
The Gist: On (and On) Bullshit
I have been thinking about Bullshit, in its official categorisation. In his short and easy essay “On Bullshit”, the euphoniously-named American philosopher Harry J. Frankfurt posited that a person co...
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Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
TechBro: I have made Artificial intelligence

Angels: You fucked up a perfectly good Graphics Card is what you did. Look at it. It's got anxiety.
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Simon McGarr @tupped.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I think the relevant caselaw here is shaping up to be Rylands & Fletcher. If you collect up any inherently risky material or item on your property and it then escapes and causes damage, it creates strict liability. ie, you do not have to prove liability, you go straight to quantum of compensation.
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Alice-Mary Higgins @aliceeire.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Yesterday I demanded answers from the Minister about the Irish Government position on shocking proposals to give AI companies access to our personal data which are being negotiated right now on Ireland's watch. The public across EU want rights protected & more regulation of AI and big tech not less!
position.to
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(Dr) Rena Maguire @justrena.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Grateful for today. Grateful for each snd all of you rascals here. Yiu may not know it but you make the difference. Thank you.
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Nigel Monaghan @nigelmonaghan-nh.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Such sad news of the passing of Dr Rena Maguire @justrena.bsky.social who brought light, humour, horses in archaeology and simple humanity to us. She faced her short illness with dignity and courage #FuckCancer #SpeirGorm
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The Irish Times @irishtimes.com · 24/09/2026
Gardaí to take industrial action on five dates next month, including budget day
irishtimes.com
Gardaí to take industrial action on five dates next month, including budget day
Gardaí have agreed to refuse to take up overtime duties in the Dublin region on the dates, four of which are Saturdays
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Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
XKCD HERE'S A PAGE EXPLAINING THE TERMS OF YOUR NEW FIRE INSURANCE POLICY.
HEY, WHAT IF I-
AND HERE'S A PAGE EXPLAINING THAT THE "COOL HACK" YOU JUST THOUGHT OF IS CALLED 'INSURANCE FRAUD."
WE ALREADY KNOW ABOUT IT AND IT'S A CRIME.
OH. RIGHT. HOW DID-
I SEE A LOT OF PROGRAMMERS HERE.
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Ed Morrish @edmorrish.com · 24/09/2026
this is the guy i reposted the other day who interviewed meta employees with pervert glasses - meta have taken his video down for “harassment”. which makes it one of the most effective pieces of satire in recent memory
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Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This week we learned that the Irish government has proposed weakening Europeans citizens' fundamental right to privacy to favour AI companies. We also learned this week that 83% of Irish people under 25 want stronger government regulation of AI. Who *exactly* does our government work for?
AI: EU Member States plan "digital expropriation" of Europeans in the interest of Al companies
Artificial Intelligence / 21 September 2026
In a leaked document, the Irish Presidency proposes to EU Member States that the interest of OpenAl, Anthropic, Google, Meta and SpaceX to make profits should take precedence over the fundamental right to data protection. Use of personal data "in the context of Al" should automatically be lawful.
There seems to be wide informal agreement by many Member States. In particular, Big Tech would be able to use all personal data collected over the past decades with virtually no restrictions, as long as this happens "in the context" of Al. Schrems: "Under these proposals, the profits of Al companies would trump European's fundamental right to privacy. This is nothing but a digital expropriation of Europeans." All this is happening despite the key figures of Al corporations actively warn about the enormous risks associated with their own products.Transport costs and mental health also remain prominent concerns.
More than seven in ten adults believe Al will make it harder for young people to find secure employment over the next five years, while 83% support stronger government regulation of Al.
Just 17% of young adults said they believe the Government is doing enough to support them through the cost-of-living crisis.
"These findings should serve as a wake-up call," said Grace McManus, Policy and Campaigns Manager at NYCI.
"Too many young people feel that the chance to build a secure and independent life is slipping out of reach," Ms McManus said.
The polling was conducted by RED C, which surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,010 adults, including a cohort aged 18-24.
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Patrick Bresnihan @pbresnihan.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Myself, Seán Fearon and Pat Brodie have published a report today examining the exaggerated benefits and significant costs of data centres to Ireland. Below is a short thread on some of the key takeaways. Read the full report here: mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/21... 1/6
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