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Dan Gillmor

@dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
1K followers 3 following 2.2K posts

Bio and disclosures: dangillmor.com/about/ Boosts mean I think you should see this -- usually but not always an endorsement. Bay Area, Nara · dangillmor.com 🌉 bridged from ⁂ mastodon.social/@dangillmor, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 1h
Ordered a new laptop battery from IFixIt. It was below spec out of the box and after calibration. I told them and provided backing data. They said, Sorry! We're sending you a replacement! No need to return the one we sent; just dispose of it carefully. Now you know why I trust IFixIt.
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026
All corruption, all the time in Trump world -- nothing comes remotely close to this level of sleaze in American history. www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-is-the-p…
thebulwark.com
‘Trump Is the Picasso of Corruption’
The grift is relentless, the conflicts are everywhere, and the public keeps getting stuck with the tab.
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026
Corporate America's offloading of customer "support" to mistake-prone bots is nearly complete, it seems. Getting a human on the phone becomes more and more difficult -- a deliberate strategy. Even non-monopoly/cartel businesses are doing this, which is amazing to me.
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026
The pro-crypto legislation didn't pass after all, and some of the credit for this surely must go to Molly White. She is without question doing the best, most relentless coverage of that irredeemably slimy and corrupt industry -- joined at the hip with the irredeemably corrupt Trump world. And […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Reposted by Dan Gillmor
IFTAS @iftas.mastodon.iftas.org.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026
⚠️ #SW_ISAC_ADVISORY A series of ongoing phishing campaigns are actively targeting people using fake verification and support accounts. Admins will never contact you publicly for verification or access issues. Never open links from unsolicited posts […] [Original post on mastodon.iftas.org]
Example of a phishing post, including the text "ᴀᴜᴛᴏᴍᴀᴛᴇᴅ ꜱʏꜱᴛᴇᴍꜱ ᴅᴇᴛᴇᴄᴛᴇᴅ ɪʀʀᴇɢᴜʟᴀʀ ᴀᴄᴛɪᴠɪᴛʏ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴀᴄᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ.

ᴛᴏ ʀᴇꜱᴛᴏʀᴇ ꜰᴜʟʟ ᴠɪsɪʙɪʟɪᴛʏ ᴀɴᴅ ᴀᴄᴄᴇꜱꜱ, ᴘʟᴇᴀꜱᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴘʟᴇᴛᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴠᴇʀɪꜰɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ᴘʀᴏᴄᴇꜱꜱ."
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026
A carpenter friend in California told me today that the price of copper has gone through the roof -- e.g. $100 for a short section of pipe. He said the data centers are hoovering up raw materials in such a frenzy that the cost of essentially all construction materials is insane. I haven't seen […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026
Just noticed the new bookmark feature here. Fantastic. Now, how do I find old bookmarks?
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Reposted by Dan Gillmor
MrAlanCooper @mralancooper.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026
I still remember the day in 1976 when Gary Kildall typed in "dir" to an "A>" prompt on his hazeltine green-screen character display to show me a directory listing on his 8080-based, eight-bit computer running the first release of CP/M, the first real microcomputer operating system (that Gary […]
hachyderm.io
Original post on hachyderm.io
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026
Filled out an online form, and to get a copy of my answers I am required to sign into Microsoft. Hell, no. One more reason I despise the greedy control freaks who run Big Tech at this point.
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026
The bi-annual dilemma has arrived: Do I install the latest Ubuntu LTS (26.04) as an upgrade on top of 24.04 or do I wipe out the current (backed-up) drive and install from scratch and do the tedious reinstallation and tweaking of applications, scripts, settings, etc?
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026
More and more it looks like the big "AI" companies are ripping off their customers. It's the American way, of course, but this stuff looks egregious -- and it's going to push people with common sense toward the open-source local models […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026
The past tells you a lot about the future: Larry Ellison and his nepo-mogul son have a long record of making promises they don't keep. www.levernews.com/the-ellisons-have…
levernews.com
The Ellisons Have Made This Movie Before
With Paramount, you don’t need a catalog of failed consent decrees to understand what is to come. You only need the record of the family making the promises.
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
The tech oligarchs are rallying around Elon Musk to block a filmmaker from advertising a deeply reported documentary that lays bare what a slimy -- and dangerous -- person Musk is […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
Succinct metaphor for sky-high stock market while regular people's lives worsen: "Watching the stock market and declaring the economy healthy is like watching the growing python [strangling its prey] and declare that everything inside its coils must be thriving." […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
All corruption, all the time in Trump world: U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill for Trump-praising advertisements running on right-wing media. It's a transfer of our money to media scumbags that are effectively part of the regime […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026
Susan Collins isn't just a pretend-moderate Republican who's supported almost every catastrophic Trump policy and nominee (including all the current radical-right Supreme Court "justices"). She's also corrupt as hell […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026
Latest reminder that you should assume the following about any statement from Trump's ICE/DHS goons claiming to exonerate the regime of bad acts: They're probably lying. www.ctinsider.com/news/article/dabu…
ctinsider.com
Client Challenge
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026
Today's "AI" uh-oh: I was inquiring with two chatbots (Claude and Gemini) about best techniques -- to the extent possible -- for removing data from an SSD I plan to sell. Both of them suggested command line (Linux) scripts that would have erased my main laptop drive. Oh sure I trust this stuff...
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026
All corruption, all the time in Trump world: "World Liberty’s Crypto Ties Enriched Trump as Investors Lost Out" […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026
Ridiculous spam of the day warns me that "Every month you live with tinnitus [ringing in the ears], roughly 3% of your brain cells die off." If so, I've been making do with zero brain cells for at least 30 years. A miracle!
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/09/2026
So California AG Bonta and his colleagues from other states were engaging in antitrust theater. Their "settlement" with the soon-to-be media giant Paramount -- that is, Larry Ellison and his sock-puppet son (and three Arab-oil dictatorships) -- is a pathetic cave-in […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026
No one covers the pernicious, pervasive reality of American racism than Nikole Hannah-Jones, and this is a must-read example of her work: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/magazine…
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026
Serial liars like Trump and his apparatchiks have a huge advantage over people who tell the truth, because they can count on journalists to parrot the lies in their coverage, thereby giving equal weight to reality and bullshit. Example: Trump spokesperson quote in this story […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026
This is a worthy essay about the "This isn't who we are" trope, involving a white Texas businessman who suddenly awoke -- when it affected him and his fiance -- to our fascist reality. (The piece is somewhat repetitive, but I recommend it anyway.) […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026
If you use Fastmail for your email, you can now select to have your data reside in the EU rather than the US. If a nation state is out to spy on you, this won't fix much. But it does add a layer of surveillance protection in some ways […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2026
Another fraud-slop empire thrives -- in part because Google lets it thrive (and profits in the meantime): futurism.com/artificial-intelligenc…
futurism.com
How Three Brothers Built an AI Slop Empire by Buying Legitimate News Sites and Turning Them Into Zombie Content Farms That They Say Get 50 Million Page Views per Month
Brown Brothers Media is the biggest media company you've never heard of — powered by AI, fake writers, and plagiarism. When we started asking questions, it started deleting massive amounts of content. The post How Three Brothers Built an AI Slop Empire by Buying Legitimate News Sites and Turning Them Into Zombie Content Farms That They Say Get 50 Million Page Views per Month appeared first on Futurism.
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2026
The AI panic looks like an orchestrated con: The bosses of these rapacious, sleazy, and infinitely sloppy companies are angling for government permission to be a cartel. This would be followed, as certain as day follows night, by the bailout they all know they'll need when their bubble deflates.
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Reposted by Dan Gillmor
Ernie Smith @ernie.writing.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2026
Good news or bad news depending on your POV: Usenet archives are suddenly easy to dig through, thanks to a new service. It’s built by a big data guy, and it’s packed with every awkward thing you ever wrote in a newsgroup in 1997. My deep dive […]
writing.exchange
Original post on writing.exchange
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2026
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/15/arts/mus… Once again, Trump regime tells a federal court, "Up yours." And almost certainly, the judge will emit a few stern words and leave it at that. Rule of law? Please.
nytimes.com
Trump Fights Back After Judge Says Name Must Stay Off Kennedy Center
President Trump threatened to cancel a $257 million renovation of the performing arts venue if the judge’s ban was not overturned.
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2026
Sheeran's capitulation to right-wing arena owners has so outraged other musicians that they're pulling out -- at great financial cost to themselves -- of his tour. www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-cul…
nbcnews.com
Finneas and other acts exit Ed Sheeran tour to protest Macklemore being dropped over pro-Palestinian remarks
All of Sheeran’s listed openers have left the tour after New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft worked to have Macklemore removed.
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/09/2026
Putin-connected Russian oligarch's megabucks gift to Trump Jr. distills Trump world sleaze: flagrant graft and contempt for everyone not connected to by far the most corrupt crew ever in American business/politics […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026
Constantly, when I read articles on the NY Times website (Firefox in Android), the site pops up annoying "upgrade" offers and demands that I use the app. Is there any way to remove these vandalisms permanently?
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2026
The Trump regime's war on mail voting has so thoroughly corrupted the Postal Service that it will take years to restore any trust in an institution that has been a bedrock for countless communities around the nation. Today's example […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Reposted by Dan Gillmor
Gil Durán @gilduran.com · 11/09/2026
JD Vance is a THIEL-billy, not a hillbilly. He’s a wholly-owned subsidiary of Peter Thiel. He’s had many names and religions. He hated Trump, now he loves Trump. He’s a “carbon lifeform wearing khaki pants,” a servant of Silicon Valley—and a heartbeat away from the presidency.
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026
Con man Musk is one of our age's most monumental sleazes, and his hugely deceptive -- and dangerous to your privacy-- "votesafe" website is just one more egregious example. popular.info/p/the-hidden-dangers-o…
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Reposted by Dan Gillmor
George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
80 year-olds with pro-Palestine signs: arrested as terrorists. Greens planning to block a road, to highlight an existential crisis: sent down for years. Masked far-right thugs blocking roads and ports, using intimidation, obstruction & threatening behaviour: no arrests. The real two-tier policing.
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/09/2026
If you support "age verification" online, you are supporting a system that GUARANTEES privacy meltdowns -- endangering all of us -- because the giant databases of scanned IDs are perpetually hacked by criminals who sell private data […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Reposted by Dan Gillmor
emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
DHS is stealing Haitians money while they deport them. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/06/w...
nytimes.com
Haitians Deported From U.S. Are Left Broke and Stranded (Gift Article)
Hundreds have been deported to Haiti in recent weeks, and some say they have been left with no money, no protection from gangs and no place to go.
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/09/2026
The Bulwark (among other sites) is, increasingly a bunch of podcasts. I don't have time to listen to them. I would read transcripts. Yes, I know that chatting with cronies and guests is easier than, you know, reporting and writing. Just not for me....
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/09/2026
Google has become an enemy of the open web, and it's increasingly locking down Android to dominate (with Apple) mobile computing. keepandroidopen.org A once-principled company gets more and more control-freakish, for money and power. Nothing Google does now is surprising, just predictable.
keepandroidopen.org
Keep Android Open
Your phone is about to stop being yours. In 2027, Google will block every Android app whose developer hasn't registered with them.
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/09/2026
The Trump-infected US Postal Service isn't just threatening to wreck mail-in voting. It's under way. So we have to take our ballots to a dropbox or cast them in person. In other words, the regime's election fuckery has worked, while the press ho-hummed as usual […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/09/2026
The odious surveillance company Flock has been teaching police how to spy on Americans who are exercising their First Amendment rights. www.404media.co/r/beaca1b1?m=ea6b4c…
404media.co
Flock Taught Cops How to Surveil No Kings Protesters
A Flock webinar teaches police how to surveil protests, fireworks shows, parades, bike races, and more.
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/09/2026
As Cory Doctorow notes, "Big Tech has proved that its only principles are not paying taxes, invading your privacy, and not being broken up by antitrust enforcers." So they've effectively joined the Trump regime, and any nation that dares challenge them risks a a great deal […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/09/2026
After Trump took office in 2025, a technology industry friend I've known and respected for a long time flagged the naming of former Microsoft exec Doug Burgum as Interior Secretary as a sign that real grownups would be in top posts. Yeah, right. Burgum has turned out to be one of the worst […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/09/2026
The Trump regime routinely ignores and/or breaks laws it doesn't care for. Republicans in Congress routinely approve of the lawbreaking. Judges often say no, but don't enforce their rulings. And the press says "So interesting how they break the law..." […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/09/2026
How deep are tech reporters into Apple's reality-distortion field? When a report compares an actual product to an apparently upcoming Apple product this way -- the existing "Z Fold 8 appears to be quite similar to the rumored iPhone Ultra" -- you know it's really, really deep.
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026
Yet another example of the Trump regime and its minions openly defying a court order: www.npr.org/2026/09/02/nx-s1-595221… Also yet another example of a judge doing absolutely nothing about it. The regime is winning its war on the rule of […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/09/2026
“People who have no reverence will destroy a mountain to get the coal out of it or destroy a field to get a crop out of it. They’ll make extravagant assumptions about their own competence and intelligence, and they’ll make extravagant mistakes." -- Wendell Berry. Blog post […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 31/08/2026
California law-to-be purports to support local journalism when its main result will be to reward the looters -- hedge funds and private equity -- who have turned the already difficult problems into a disaster […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2026
Google escalates its quisling ways. Contemptible. blog.google/products-and-platforms/…
blog.google
How the GNIS Lake Ontario/Lake America name change in the U.S. will appear in Maps
The U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has formally changed the name for "Lake Ontario" to "Lake America" in the United States. Since we update Google Maps …
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