Cindy Harper
Cindy Harper blogs mostly about social media censorship and culture stories. [email protected]
X Challenges EU’s $140 Million Digital Services Act Fine in Court
No outside arbiter, no independent review, no appeal before the fine lands; just the Commission, its definitions, and a $140 million bill. X is pushing back.
FBI Wins Court Ruling to Keep Twitter Payments Secret
A federal judge just ruled that the public can’t know exactly how much the FBI paid Twitter during the years it was also telling Twitter which Americans to censor.
Berlin Court Orders X to Hand Over Hungarian Election Data to Researchers
The court gave researchers what they asked for, but the same institution that fined X for refusing is also the largest funder of the group that sued to make it comply.
Spanish Court Orders NordVPN and Proton VPN to Block Piracy Streams
The same blocking system that once took down Amazon, GitHub, and Cloudflare is now targeting the tools Spaniards used to get back online.
Macron Calls Online Free Speech Argument “Pure Bullshit”
The pro-censorship French president is now the most eloquent voice in the West for the idea that free speech, unregulated, is a problem to be solved.
Germany’s CDU Pushes Real-Name Social Media Mandate and ID Checks
The party could ask Germans to show their papers before they can post a tweet.
Australian States Expand Facial Recognition and Biometric Digital ID Systems
The framing obscures the architecture underneath: a permanent biometric database that expands with every new service it touches.
Ring Cancels Flock Safety Integration After Public Backlash
The cancellation is real, but the infrastructure that made the partnership feel plausible in the first place is still very much running.
Russia Blocks WhatsApp Nationwide, Pushing 100 Million Users Toward Kremlin-Backed App Max
Russia’s 100 million WhatsApp users are being nudged toward Max, a Kremlin-friendly app that doesn’t offer end-to-end encryption.
UK Fines US Platform Imgur For Lack of Age Verification
Britain is trying to extend its regulatory reach to force digital ID-style age checks onto global platforms.
Brazil Charges Woman for 2020 Social Media Posts Under Court-Defined “Transphobia”
The country’s Supreme Court created the crime she’s accused of without asking Congress, and now a veterinary student faces a decade in prison for arguments she made on Twitter in 2020.
California Wants Gun Blueprints Treated Like Weapons
California is betting that code and blueprints can be treated as contraband by not calling it speech.