Technology

Reddit will start requiring people to be logged into Reddit to use old.reddit.com.

The new requirement will take effect “over the next month,” a Reddit employee going by the username boat-botany announced on the social media platform today. The person claimed that the change is part of an ongoing effort to “tighten how automated systems access Reddit.”

The Reddit employee wrote:

Old Reddit’s logged-out experience is a significant source of abusive scraping and automated traffic on the platform. It’s also an important interface for many long-time mods and Redditors. To strike the right balance between preserving your access to Old Reddit while preventing abusive scraping and automated traffic, over the next month we will start requiring everyone to log in.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1231775/reddit-will-require-you-to-log-in-to-use-old-reddit-com

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Hi there, u/boat-botany here working on Community Safety. 

A few weeks ago we shared some of the work we’re doing to tighten how automated systems access Reddit while preserving the tools that help moderators and communities thrive. As a continuation of that work, we’ll be rolling out changes to how Old Reddit can be accessed. 

Old Reddit’s logged-out experience is a significant source of abusive scraping and automated traffic on the platform. It’s also an important interface for many long-time mods and redditors. To strike the right balance between preserving your access to Old Reddit while preventing abusive scraping and automated traffic, over the next month we will start requiring everyone to log in. All logged-in users will continue to have access to Old Reddit, and this change will not impact logged-out browsing on reddit.com.

Henrico County is a major hub for data centers in Virginia. Its officials said it expects a 25% rise in electricity costs next year, and advised workers to close the blinds and turn off their computers to make up for it.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1230279/us-house-passes-the-kids-internet-and-digital-safety-kids-act-which-would-basically-requ

Full Bill Text.

This bill requires specified online platforms to establish safeguards for minors. The safeguards include (1) limiting access to specified sexual material, (2) providing parental controls on social media and online video game platforms, and (3) requiring artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to disclose certain information to users who are minors.

First, publicly available online platforms on which more than one-third of the content is considered sexual material harmful to minors under the bill must adopt technology to identify minors and prevent them from accessing such material.

Next, social media platforms must (1) implement default settings for minors that limit compulsive usage features and the ability of other users to communicate with minors, and (2) provide tools for parents to manage the privacy and account settings of a minor. Social media platforms may not allow ephemeral messaging features for minors.

The bill also requires online video game platforms to provide tools that allow parents to (1) limit communication between a minor and other users of the platform, and (2) restrict purchases by a minor on the platform.

Further, providers of AI chatbots must disclose to users who are minors (1) that the chatbot is an AI system and not a human, and (2) suicide and crisis intervention hotline information.

Finally, the bill requires specified studies and reports about the effects of social media platforms on minors and provides for enforcement of the bill's requirements by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general.

On Monday, the US Supreme Court decided in Trump v. Slaughter that the US Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) may not be independent anymore. Since 2000, the EU has relied on the “independent” FTC as the enforcer of EU-US deals on personal data. According to EU treaty law, such oversight must be independent. In the current EU-US deal, the European Commission relies on the independent FTC 259 (!) times.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1229912/sony-is-deleting-551-movies-and-tv-shows-you-bought-on-playstation-because-you-don-t-rea

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1229436/tidal-to-automatically-tag-ai-generated-music-and-block-it-from-earning-royalties

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/onion/p/1229982/feds-want-to-drop-requirement-for-autonomous-cars-to-have-a-brake-pedal

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1230062/us-supreme-court-limits-use-of-location-data-upholds-firing-of-ftc-s-slaughter-two-u-s-s