iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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michael veale @michae.lv · 01/10/2026

The proposed social media ban, the EU KIDS Act, is perhaps the most chaotic law I have ever read! New paper: Are EU Kidding Me? Notes from a Poorly Drafted Social Media Ban. files.michae.lv/papers/veale_areEUkiddingme.pdf In the spirit of the proposal I have stayed offline and read no takes.

In September 2026, the European Commission published a proposed EU KIDS Act, responding to the demand for restrictions and further design obligations applying to digital services accessible to children, including social media. This Article argues that regardless of what one believes about the merits of this policy direction, the EU KIDS Act is not the legislative text we need. The scope and drafting are little short of chaotic, full of holes, enormous ambiguities, and unintended consequences. Recitals contradict articles. The use of scope borrowed from other pieces of legislation not designed for this purpose brings services into scope that should not be subject to the relevant provisions, like book-recommendation websites, music services, or exercise trackers. The infrastructural requirement for assurance of age and parental responsibility attestation simply omits enormous issues of complex families and childhoods. Complex design obligations are written in ways that can be plausibly interpreted as implicitly prohibiting entire swathes of products, such as voice assistants. This Article outlines these issues, and many more. The Commission should withdraw this proposal and reissue a workable and realistic text.

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Kim Zetter @kimzetter.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Exclusive: Israeli spyware maker Paragon positions itself as more responsible than competitor NSO Group. But company's new US CEO says in candid interview that while they will cut off customers who misuse their spyware they have no ability to detect or investigate customer misuse, nor want ability

wired.com

The Secrets of a US Spyware King

In an exclusive interview with WIRED, Paragon Solutions CEO Andrew Boyd reveals the limits of the company’s promise to keep bad actors from abusing its powerful espionage tool.

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Andres Guadamuz @technollama.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Looking back at some old slides. Man, 2021 was wild!

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Liberty @libertyhq.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

NEW: Liberty Investigates and The Guardian discover British Transport Police’s initial six-month trial of live facial recognition tech in London’s railway stations: - cost more than £320,000 - took nearly 100 hours of police time - resulted in no arrests www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

theguardian.com

Trial of live facial recognition in London stations ends with a false positive and no arrests

Freedom of information request finds six-month trial cost £320,000, used almost 100 police hours and led to just one – incorrect – alert

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Kate Leader @leader-kate.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

🚨 BOOK LAUNCH Domestic Violence in Pakistan: The Legal Construction of "Bad" and "Mad" Women by @daanika.bsky.social in conversation with Dr Zoe Asser and Dr Mohsin Bhat 📆.Thursday 1 October 6-8 pm 📍QMUL Mile End, Room 313 and ONLINE Further details and RSVP here www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launc...

eventbrite.co.uk

Book Launch: Domestic Violence in Pakistan: The Legal Construction of Mad..

Book Launch: Domestic Violence in Pakistan: The Legal Construction of Mad and Bad Women

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Last Will and Testament Moss @williammoss.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

American CEO: “We can’t control it!” American CEO 2: “It will destroy us all!” American CEO 3: “The apocalypse!” French CEO [hitting a Gauloise, exhaling slowly]: “C’est une issue de skill.”

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

while the British Academy is using partial randomisation on its small grants -- and awarding more women/and POC researchers than ever before -- UKRI is feeding your painstakingly-developed proposal into an AI. But it's okay because they then get *two* AIs to debate whether you get the money.

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The Questionable Authority @questauthority.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

At this point, with the AI companies admitting they cannot always predict or control the products, the default should be that the user and company are jointly and severally strictly liable for harms to third parties.

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TJ McIntyre @tjmcintyre.com · 24/09/2026

This is a wonderful little story about children’s creativity in getting around Internet bans.

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Kate Bevan @katebevan.com · 24/09/2026

*extremely tired voice*AI agents don't "go rogue". They are not sentient; they don't have agency. They work within guardrails set by humans. If the humans are so shit at building secure sandboxes for the agents to work within, that's on the humans. Stop using this framing.

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Jessica Shurson @jessicashurson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Also I am too tired to look up the CFAA to say for sure about the US, but these are pretty clearly offences under the CMA if any of this happens in the UK. Please someone charge these guys with some cybercrimes so they take this shit seriously

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Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Mmmm, feel the judicial diversity.

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Caroline Dodds Pennock @carolinepennock.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Ditto 30,000 roles in universities in the past three years.

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Jessica Shurson @jessicashurson.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

This is so true! "One of the things about people who don't use AI is that they have no idea what AI sounds like." In particular, I find Claude's writing style is so obvious at this point that it's almost as easy to spot as bad AI writing was in 2023

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JUSTICE @justicehq.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The UK is safer & stronger with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). New paper sets out how ECHR membership supports national security, international cooperation & UK influence abroad. Ft. foreword by Lord Carlile, @bricksilk.bsky.social & Sir Max Hill. justice.org.uk/news/former-...

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Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

“Don’t bring a union rep” is one of those sentences that always means your employer is going you treat you with respect and dignity

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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Well, there you are: official UK govt figures confirm it costs £3,000 a year more to teach the average undergraduate than they're willing to pay us. www.gov.uk/government/p... Now, they'll explain how that's our fault for greedily having almost no pay-rises for a decade...

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Privacy International @privacyinternational.org · 16/09/2026

Tomorrow, our legal challenge with @libertyhq.bsky.social against the UK government’s secret surveillance powers is back before the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. privacyinternational.org/long-read/55...

privacyinternational.org

About our challenge against the UK's secret powers: Q&A on TCNs and Apple

In March 2025, PI (together with three co-claimants including Liberty) filed a

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Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Solidarity with this Piddington resident ♥️✊ #Newsnight

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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 14/09/2026

The fun thing about living under a common law legal system is having to explain to people that we don’t have set laws that you just look up, we just have an overarching series of contradictory narrative fallacies that are all semi-load bearing.

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April Glick Pulito @aprilglick.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

If somehow you, reader, don’t know why we all fucking hate Zverev, aside from his totally uninteresting tennis, it’s because he’s a piece of shit.

espn.com

Alexander Zverev domestic abuse charges: What to know

As Alexander Zverev plays in the French Open, his domestic abuse trial began on Friday. Here's what to know about the case.

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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

it's horribly dispiriting to continually watch abusive men not just escape accountability, but thrive.

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Dr Juliette McIntyre 🩷💚 🏳️‍🌈 @drnajimagi.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Went all the way to The Hague to watch Nicaragua v. Germany may as well write about it too t.co/o3CB9sPSU0

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Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

NEW: The San Francisco City Attorney has hit Meta with a cease-and-desist telling it to stop publishing ads with AI-generated child sexual abuse. The letter asks Meta why the same ads keep running. Meta says the ads didn’t run in San Francisco and they are outside the city attorney's jurisdiction

wired.com

San Francisco Orders Meta to Stop ‘Allowing’ AI Child Abuse Ads

The City Attorney’s Office has asked Meta to explain how the harmful ads repeatedly ran on Facebook and Instagram. The company claims the ads are not under the city’s jurisdiction.

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

One reason England does so well is our second generation immigrants outperform their peers which is not true in most OECD countries. We are also very good at integration. And it's v sad that this is never acknowledge in debates on immigration.

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Rachel Coldicutt @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Protecting democracy is such an important component of "online safety", but this kind of stewardship isn't readily understood by the Online Safety Act's focus on illegal content. Taking action on illegal content is ofc v difficult (esp w/ AI slop) but a companion focus on "safety by design" would...

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The Arthur C. Clarke Award @clarkeaward.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Some scams are easier to spot than others. That said, we get these semi-regularly and they are only getting more focused and custom-tailored, so be careful writers! And, no, we didn’t reply, but it was super-tempting.

Text from a scam email message which reads:

Hi Arthur C. Clarke,

I recently came across 2001: A Space Odyssey, the 25th Anniversary Edition, and wanted to reach out.

I’ve been connecting with authors whose books are available to readers but may not be reaching as many new audiences as they could.

I’m curious how has your experience been with book visibility and reaching new readers? And have you considered exploring new ways to promote your book or expand its reach to additional platforms?

I’d genuinely be interested in hearing your thoughts and experience.

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Kate Devlin @drkatedevlin.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Ha! This is exactly the kind of "your research output changed our practice" confirmation academics need for REF impact case studies.

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evacide @evacide.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Is Flock the only mass surveillance tool/network that people should be worried about? No. But it is an entry point for people from all walks of life to the fight against mass surveillance and I'm glad people are paying attention and taking action.

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Jessica Shurson @jessicashurson.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I joked with friends recently that we only needed to wait a couple years for private schools to go tech-free to signify as elite. I wonder if this will extend to UK unis, but think the race to expand student numbers to deal with funding crisis here might prevent it, at least in the short term?

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Alan Greene @alangreene.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

This but with student essays.

Archetypal AI-generated flier but saying "Stop using AI Flyers"

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Jim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · 28/08/2026

Oh well! Thanks Meta. Link to ad: www.facebook.com/share/v/19TT...

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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 27/08/2026

This is an impressively bad take from the NYT when viewed from almost any angle, which is harder than you'd think to do.

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lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

It's being treated as a policy victory that we have less of the world's smart young people coming to learn from us, participate in our society and economy. This is just so depressing to me, it feels like a complete victory for know-nothing ignorant bigotry over enlightened sensibilities.

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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I have not been able to read my full timeline in a while but I see today is an excellent day to remind people that "social media addiction" is a made up thing and accepting that framing and using that term is actively harmful www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Overestimates of social media addiction are common but costly - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Overestimates of social media addiction are common but costly

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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Anyone using the term "social media addiction" has fallen for a manufactured narrative that is contrary to every actual finding of reputable scientists working without an agenda. It not only does not exist, framing it in that way *actively* harms people's mental health and ability to self-regulate.

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 27/08/2026

"for all the people “celebrating” this as a win “against” Meta, you’ve been fooled. Meta just cut a deal to put itself in charge of how social media works going forward. this is Meta taking a “please regulate me Daddy” approach to the government, & getting exactly what it really has been asking for"

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Jessica Shurson @jessicashurson.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I miss Peak Blog... RIP Google Reader

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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 19/08/2026

well gee golly gosh what a huge surprise. no-one could possibly have predicted that this noble assistive technology would be used in this way i wonder if perchance we should maybe... BAN THESE DAMN THINGS

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Jessica Shurson @jessicashurson.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I have been saying the same for a while, at least since the Apple-UK encryption order saga in 2025 when their reporting was consistently the most accurate. (Also like their Daily Briefing podcast for a short dose of news in the morning)

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Joanna Bryson @j2bryson.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

I really think this could be huge. Both sides of it. The decline of our ability to do law enforcement, and the increase of accessibility of all communications to any sufficiently rich bad actor (including semi-beloved countries transiently run by autocrats.) #cybersecurity #AIEthics #backdoors

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Alan Greene @alangreene.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Me minding my own business:... The British Gov through the insanely loud emergency alert on my phone: 🚨DON'T LIGHT ANY FIRES YOU STUPID F**KING BASTARDS!!🚨

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Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai @lorenzofb.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

NEW: U.S. courts will start publishing data on how many times the feds do wiretaps using spyware and hacking tools, starting in 2029. As of now, we knew the FBI and others used spyware, but we had no idea how many times that was happening. Change comes after several requests from Sen. Ron Wyden.

techcrunch.com

US courts will start publishing how often the government uses spyware | TechCrunch

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts told TechCrunch that it will start disclosing how many times judges authorized the use of spyware to wiretap suspected criminals.

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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 14/08/2026

it's hard for non-perverts to understand how many perverts are out there. My daughter, now 20, gets a lot LESS hassle in the street from ADULT MEN now that she's NOT wearing a school uniform. When she did, it was a daily occurrence, multiple times a day in a walk to school that took c 90 seconds

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