Sorry it's been a few weeks since I've done one of these, just...with everything going on. Wait. What do you mean it's only been one week? I don't know if that makes it better or worse. Maybe it's just cause I haven't been writing every day now I'm back at work.

Well I guess without any further ado, let's see what's been going on the past week.

1. An internet of many autonomous communities

Last week (damn it was only last week?) I linked out to recordings of talks from ATmosphere Conf '25. This week, several of the speakers have put up blog posts summarizing and/or buiding upon their talks. This has been helpful for me, as after watching the talks I came away with a vague feeling of what they talked about, but reading actually lets me put it in my brain in a more permanent way.

Anyway, my favorite of the posts I've been has been this one from Rudy Fraser of Blacksky. I don't think it's controversial or hyperbolic to call Blacksky one of the most important and influential communities and projects as far as pushing the limits of what ATproto's building blocks can do now, and charting a course what it will be able to do in the future.

I of course appreciate all of the various ATproto projects building "[whatever] but for ATproto" or the solo devs building neat little projects and proofs of concept. But Rudy and Blacksky are doing incredible work around putting some of those sorts of proofs of concept into real practice and seeing how they work. And some really great thinking around different ways communities can exist alongside and within larger communities.

Anyway, it's a good read. And a good reminder that I have one more Terra Ignota book to read still.

2. TikTok deal put on hold after China objets over tariffs, sources say

The strange tale of TikTok's fate in the US continues. From Donald Trump trying to ban it or force a sale during his first term, to Congress passing a law that Joe Biden signed during his term, to Trump's second administration refusing to enforce the law until it has brokered a sale. You can see a partial history here, though it doesn't include this latest extension or any of the particulars of sales bids.

Bizarrely, some reports are saying that an American TikTok may license their algorithm from ByteDance. Which, if part of the issue to begin with was national security and propaganda concerns related to the algorithm...

Well, it all just shows that all of this heavily-airquoted "constitutional" BS is more about an international power struggle between the US and China, protecting US-owned social media, and - now - leveraging this incredibly popular platform to distribute right-wing propaganda. You know, as opposed to any of the privacy or national security excuses that they've been using.

Because there's still no sign of comprehensive (or even minimal) consumer privacy or data protection legislation that would actually help protect Americans' privacy from social media companies, advertisers, foreign (and domestic!) governments and law enforcement, and the massive network of data brokers that facilitate everything.

3. Site-Blocking Legislation Is Back. It's Still a Terrible Idea.

Speaking of banning apps, the Democrats are still on their "business as usual" BS with another attempt at allowing copyright holders to arbitrarily take sites off the Internet if they are operated outside of the US and they can get a judge to agree that it's causing the rightsholder harm.

Look, I'm not someone who habitually engages in copyright infringement or piracy (at least anymore). I don't use weird foreign sites to watch, like, live hockey games that are locked to a particular network in my region or anything. So I'm not here about "oh no my precious free content."

But I am here about "oh no overly-broad legislation that allows the government to direct ISPs to block sites only on their say-so," providing an absolute minimum of anything that could be called "due process" for no real benefit, as these sorts of blocks are trivial to circumvent both on the user and operator side.

I've never been one for handing the government help in silencing speech on the Internet, but - as I've written to all of my congressfolks recently - now's definitely not the time to give the government any more help suppressing speech.

4. Trump administration argues judge cannot order return of man mistakenly deported to El Salvador

I know I said in the first issue that I'd be less likely to talk about general US politics and news outside of my usual tech-and-adjacent wheelhouse. But I'm going to suspend that for a moment if you'll allow me.

A lot of what the Trump administration is doing is bad for the country and for the world. But the absolutely most monsterous thing has been their gleeful approach to rounding up noncitizen immigrants and deporting them (often to a hell-hole prison in El Salvador) without due process via wartime powers from 1798.

Rounding people up in the street is sickening, denying them due process is sickening, sending them off to a country that is neither the US nor where they came from is sickening, the conditions of the specific prison they're sending them to is sickening. But learning that they mistakenly deported someone (you know because of denying them due process) and just going "¯\_(ツ)_/¯"? That is absolutely fucking monstrous.

There are a lot of reasons to be ashamed of being an American these days, but this is pretty high up there on the list.

5. Angry protesters from New York to Alaska assail Trump and Musk in 'Hands Off!' rallies

Okay, while we're on the topic of the general condition of America, please allow me one more, a more positive one this time.

Yesterday was an organized series of protests around the country about [gestures broadly]. I guess about 1,200 locations around the country drew just absolute tons of people.

I know this is only the beginning and I know these protests alone will not change anything, but it still felt good. My wife and I went to one in a nearby city and there are was sizeable turn-out despite the cold and, eventually, the rain.

It was nice to see that all kinds of people are pissed off. Nice to see that it's not just terminally-online Internet leftists that are seeing and caring about what's happening. I'm conscious that I live in a little bubble online inside of a bigger bubble in solid-blue-state Massachusetts. So while it was nice to see all the folks coming out near me, it's also been great to see folks coming out all over the country.

Again, I don't think this is enough to scare any Republican congresspeople. But...I mean you take hope from what you can these days, I guess.