Olives @olives@qoto.org

Gauging the presence of content based on search results is silly considering that a search result can linger for weeks after something is deleted.

One of my Substack pet peeves is having to click through that thing welcoming someone to the blog rather than just taking you to a list of posts.

Additionally, as far as politics goes, Substack is only a small part of the discourse. At the end of the day, it's just a fancy blog hosting platform. There's nothing that special about it. #FreeSpeech

It also exposes the lack of ideological consistency on Mike's part. Taking fancy to whatever floats up from the seas of an echo chamber. Mike has argued for years that platforms should be free to strike whatever balance of #FreeSpeech they want.

If you are unfamiliar with the tale, a year ago, a few noisy people got mad about Substack's policies. The story got a bit of attention and Mike picked it up, even though it was hardly notable. And it seems that he is still in that mindspace, even though the world has moved on. #FreeSpeech

https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/11/a-newsletter-writer-reflects-on-leaving-substack/
Mike's obsession with Substack, essentially a clone of Medium, just comes off as *strange*. Like, why does he care? And it's ironic considering he is mad about people suppressing #FreeSpeech.

https://ncac.org/news/in-tennessee-rutherford-county-public-libraries-vote-to-remove-materials-that-promote-transgender-themes Rutherford County Public Libraries vote to remove books containing transgender themes. #FirstAmendment #FreeSpeech #Tennessee

The U.K's proposed terrorism law is being criticized for impinging on free expression.

As a developer, I'm just going to say that I am familiar with *those* kinds of projects where someone promises that there will be something interesting developed, then it just drags on forever and goes nowhere.

The company distancing itself from the U.S. was actually the correct thing to do, even if they might still have a relationship with a U.S. entity.

This was a very stupid decision.

COSL's partner undermining their own independence so as to promote COSL's launch does not inspire confidence.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/18/hungary-bans-pride-events-and-plans-to-use-facial-recognition-to-target-attenders Hungary bans pride events and plans to use #FaceRecognition. An attack on #FreeSpeech, #HumanRights and #privacy.

https://www.redartgames.com/games/822-1917-the-alien-invasion-remastered-dx-ps5-deluxe-edition.html
https://www.refused-classification.com/censorship-timelines/game-iarc/
#RedArtGames' 1917 - The Alien Invasion DX Remastered was banned in #Australia. It's a bullet hell game. #games #FreeSpeech

Looking closer at Taiwan's government's decision against being puritanical (after deciding to be so), it's quite flimsy when looking into the details.

ECPAT Taiwan appears to be promoting puritanism internationally.

While there might be countries which are more puritanical than Ireland, the number of companies there is particularly troublesome.

https://note.com/uguisu_ribbon/n/n8b28650a152f The new talk in Japan on financial censorship.

Too much DSA discourse ignores that many companies are based in Ireland and that Ireland is a puritanical country. #FreeSpeech

Also took the opportunity to improve the wording of the post.