Calder Briggs
@calderbriggs.bsky.social
Writing about tech, power, and the systems that shape public discourse.
Longform analysis on Substack: https://shillnet.substack.com/
Longform analysis on Substack: https://shillnet.substack.com/
Pinned
Calder Briggs
@calderbriggs.bsky.social
· May 17
Censorship With a Smile: How Meta Rebranded Control as Community: carelesscronyism.substack.com/p/censorship...
Beware the cheerleaders and ambassadors for eliminating your rights. Particularly those paid to post.
January 24, 2026 at 8:03 PM
Beware the cheerleaders and ambassadors for eliminating your rights. Particularly those paid to post.
Truly sad and shameful day for America (again)
January 24, 2026 at 7:53 PM
Truly sad and shameful day for America (again)
Haul DHS, ICE, and CBP leadership in front of Congress to explain this out of control operation.
January 24, 2026 at 7:36 PM
Haul DHS, ICE, and CBP leadership in front of Congress to explain this out of control operation.
Reposted by Calder Briggs
To repeat: Abolish ICE.
January 24, 2026 at 4:09 PM
To repeat: Abolish ICE.
Pathetic to see people drink up every bit of the state narrative dumped down their throats.
January 24, 2026 at 7:17 PM
Pathetic to see people drink up every bit of the state narrative dumped down their throats.
EFF, Taylor Lorenz, and others are right: gov’t age checks = surveillance.
But here’s what’s missing from the conversation: Meta, Snap, and Roblox are backing laws that turn app stores into checkpoints as well - pushing ID checks, age gates, and “safety” standards they control.
But here’s what’s missing from the conversation: Meta, Snap, and Roblox are backing laws that turn app stores into checkpoints as well - pushing ID checks, age gates, and “safety” standards they control.
August 29, 2025 at 7:57 PM
EFF, Taylor Lorenz, and others are right: gov’t age checks = surveillance.
But here’s what’s missing from the conversation: Meta, Snap, and Roblox are backing laws that turn app stores into checkpoints as well - pushing ID checks, age gates, and “safety” standards they control.
But here’s what’s missing from the conversation: Meta, Snap, and Roblox are backing laws that turn app stores into checkpoints as well - pushing ID checks, age gates, and “safety” standards they control.
Meta isn’t “struggling” with child safety. It’s managing perception.
They built a narrative machine to gaslight the public while their platforms hook kids, feed predators, and fry attention spans.
This isn’t safety. It’s strategy.
www.techtransparencyproject.org/articles/ins...
They built a narrative machine to gaslight the public while their platforms hook kids, feed predators, and fry attention spans.
This isn’t safety. It’s strategy.
www.techtransparencyproject.org/articles/ins...
August 29, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Meta isn’t “struggling” with child safety. It’s managing perception.
They built a narrative machine to gaslight the public while their platforms hook kids, feed predators, and fry attention spans.
This isn’t safety. It’s strategy.
www.techtransparencyproject.org/articles/ins...
They built a narrative machine to gaslight the public while their platforms hook kids, feed predators, and fry attention spans.
This isn’t safety. It’s strategy.
www.techtransparencyproject.org/articles/ins...
Reposted by Calder Briggs
It sucks when platforms pre-comply with fascism and implement their own ID check policies. It sucks even more when the government requires them to spy on you. @fightforthefuture.org is running one of the largest national campaigns against "age verification" laws. join us www.stoponlineidchecks.org
ONLINE ID CHECKS WILL RUIN THE INTERNET
www.stoponlineidchecks.org
August 23, 2025 at 12:47 AM
It sucks when platforms pre-comply with fascism and implement their own ID check policies. It sucks even more when the government requires them to spy on you. @fightforthefuture.org is running one of the largest national campaigns against "age verification" laws. join us www.stoponlineidchecks.org
Reposted by Calder Briggs
The U.K.'s scramble to find an effective age verification method underscores that there isn't one, & politicians around the world must take that seriously– especially those pondering similar laws in the U.S., EFF’s Paige Collings writes for @TheRegister.com. www.theregister.com/2025/08/21/...
EFF: UK Online Safety Act is about censorship, not safety
opinion: US policymakers should take heed, says the Electronic Frontier Foundation
www.theregister.com
August 21, 2025 at 9:56 PM
The U.K.'s scramble to find an effective age verification method underscores that there isn't one, & politicians around the world must take that seriously– especially those pondering similar laws in the U.S., EFF’s Paige Collings writes for @TheRegister.com. www.theregister.com/2025/08/21/...
Reposted by Calder Briggs
Use VPNs. Teach your children to use VPNs. Use encryption. Teach your children to use encryption.
Don’t let age verification or identity verification become the norm. That’s the road to authoritarian hell.
Don’t let age verification or identity verification become the norm. That’s the road to authoritarian hell.
August 21, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Use VPNs. Teach your children to use VPNs. Use encryption. Teach your children to use encryption.
Don’t let age verification or identity verification become the norm. That’s the road to authoritarian hell.
Don’t let age verification or identity verification become the norm. That’s the road to authoritarian hell.
Reposted by Calder Briggs
"The Latest Government Gift to Big Tech and Corporate Power"
Lawmakers claim new age verification laws are about ‘child safety’ – but, in reality, they expand surveillance and silence dissent, writes for @taylorlorenz.bsky.social for Zeteo.
Lawmakers claim new age verification laws are about ‘child safety’ – but, in reality, they expand surveillance and silence dissent, writes for @taylorlorenz.bsky.social for Zeteo.
The Latest Government Gift to Big Tech and Corporate Power
Lawmakers claim new age verification laws are about ‘child safety’ – but, in reality, they expand surveillance and silence dissent.
zeteo.com
August 17, 2025 at 10:12 PM
"The Latest Government Gift to Big Tech and Corporate Power"
Lawmakers claim new age verification laws are about ‘child safety’ – but, in reality, they expand surveillance and silence dissent, writes for @taylorlorenz.bsky.social for Zeteo.
Lawmakers claim new age verification laws are about ‘child safety’ – but, in reality, they expand surveillance and silence dissent, writes for @taylorlorenz.bsky.social for Zeteo.
Reposted by Calder Briggs
this is nuts: www.404media.co/how-teas-fou...
How Tea’s Founder Convinced Millions of Women to Spill Their Secrets, Then Exposed Them to the World
A 404 Media investigation reveals how the man who started Tea, the ‘women dating safety’ app, tried to hire a female ‘face’ for the company and then hijack her grassroots community.
www.404media.co
August 19, 2025 at 3:51 PM
this is nuts: www.404media.co/how-teas-fou...
UK Reddit users now have to hand over a photo ID or biometric scan just to browse. This is what “child safety” laws look like in practice — a permanent checkpoint between you and the internet.
August 13, 2025 at 6:52 PM
UK Reddit users now have to hand over a photo ID or biometric scan just to browse. This is what “child safety” laws look like in practice — a permanent checkpoint between you and the internet.
The endgame is ID checkpoints at every layer of the internet — platform, app store, device, OS. Sold as “safety” and “patriotism,” draped in the flag. It’s not protection. It’s control.
Age verification has arrived in the UK and, to no one’s surprise, users hate it. We cannot accept these censorship regimes as our new norm. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
Americans, Be Warned: Lessons From Reddit’s Chaotic UK Age
Age verification has officially arrived in the UK thanks to the Online Safety Act (OSA), a UK law requiring online platforms to check that all UK-based users are at least eighteen years old before
www.eff.org
August 13, 2025 at 6:40 PM
The endgame is ID checkpoints at every layer of the internet — platform, app store, device, OS. Sold as “safety” and “patriotism,” draped in the flag. It’s not protection. It’s control.
The AI boom isn’t “clean.” It’s a power grab — literally.
Data centers are set to jack up electricity demand, drive higher bills, and strain grids nationwide.
Meta gets the profits. You get the blackout risk.
AP: apnews.com/article/elec...
Data centers are set to jack up electricity demand, drive higher bills, and strain grids nationwide.
Meta gets the profits. You get the blackout risk.
AP: apnews.com/article/elec...
August 10, 2025 at 1:20 AM
The AI boom isn’t “clean.” It’s a power grab — literally.
Data centers are set to jack up electricity demand, drive higher bills, and strain grids nationwide.
Meta gets the profits. You get the blackout risk.
AP: apnews.com/article/elec...
Data centers are set to jack up electricity demand, drive higher bills, and strain grids nationwide.
Meta gets the profits. You get the blackout risk.
AP: apnews.com/article/elec...
Politicians aren’t regulating #BigTech, they’re co-opting apps and app stores into building pipelines that feed the surveillance state's data machine. Age verification is the con.
August 4, 2025 at 1:22 PM
Politicians aren’t regulating #BigTech, they’re co-opting apps and app stores into building pipelines that feed the surveillance state's data machine. Age verification is the con.
Congrats, Texas.
You now need to verify your identity to download apps.
Spotify. Google Maps. All of them.
They’re calling it "safety."
It’s surveillance infrastructure.
Period.
If you aren't paying attention, WAKE UP!
gov.texas.gov/news/post/go...
You now need to verify your identity to download apps.
Spotify. Google Maps. All of them.
They’re calling it "safety."
It’s surveillance infrastructure.
Period.
If you aren't paying attention, WAKE UP!
gov.texas.gov/news/post/go...
August 3, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Congrats, Texas.
You now need to verify your identity to download apps.
Spotify. Google Maps. All of them.
They’re calling it "safety."
It’s surveillance infrastructure.
Period.
If you aren't paying attention, WAKE UP!
gov.texas.gov/news/post/go...
You now need to verify your identity to download apps.
Spotify. Google Maps. All of them.
They’re calling it "safety."
It’s surveillance infrastructure.
Period.
If you aren't paying attention, WAKE UP!
gov.texas.gov/news/post/go...
Pay attention to what is going on around the world with online freedoms in the name of "safety"
Silence leads to surveillance leads to police state. All made possible by a complicit #BigTech
Silence leads to surveillance leads to police state. All made possible by a complicit #BigTech
July 31, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Pay attention to what is going on around the world with online freedoms in the name of "safety"
Silence leads to surveillance leads to police state. All made possible by a complicit #BigTech
Silence leads to surveillance leads to police state. All made possible by a complicit #BigTech
When everyone agrees, and the system doing the harm stays untouched —
It wasn’t policy.
It was preservation.
It wasn’t policy.
It was preservation.
May 28, 2025 at 5:27 PM
When everyone agrees, and the system doing the harm stays untouched —
It wasn’t policy.
It was preservation.
It wasn’t policy.
It was preservation.
A law passes.
A platform celebrates in silence.
And the ones who claim independence repeat the script.
This isn’t protection.
It’s preservation.
The Algorithm of Safety carelesscronyism.substack.com/p/the-algori... #Meta
A platform celebrates in silence.
And the ones who claim independence repeat the script.
This isn’t protection.
It’s preservation.
The Algorithm of Safety carelesscronyism.substack.com/p/the-algori... #Meta
May 28, 2025 at 12:10 AM
A law passes.
A platform celebrates in silence.
And the ones who claim independence repeat the script.
This isn’t protection.
It’s preservation.
The Algorithm of Safety carelesscronyism.substack.com/p/the-algori... #Meta
A platform celebrates in silence.
And the ones who claim independence repeat the script.
This isn’t protection.
It’s preservation.
The Algorithm of Safety carelesscronyism.substack.com/p/the-algori... #Meta
Safety laws are passing.
In Texas. In Louisiana. Pending in California, Ohio, New York.
Everyone says it’s about protecting kids.
But somehow… the real system never gets touched.
In Texas. In Louisiana. Pending in California, Ohio, New York.
Everyone says it’s about protecting kids.
But somehow… the real system never gets touched.
May 27, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Safety laws are passing.
In Texas. In Louisiana. Pending in California, Ohio, New York.
Everyone says it’s about protecting kids.
But somehow… the real system never gets touched.
In Texas. In Louisiana. Pending in California, Ohio, New York.
Everyone says it’s about protecting kids.
But somehow… the real system never gets touched.
Some safety campaigns weren’t built to protect anyone.
They were built to protect the system that says it’s keeping you safe.
They were built to protect the system that says it’s keeping you safe.
May 25, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Some safety campaigns weren’t built to protect anyone.
They were built to protect the system that says it’s keeping you safe.
They were built to protect the system that says it’s keeping you safe.
You can trace a narrative by its silences.
Especially when every “advocate” speaks in perfect rhythm.
That’s not conversation.
That’s coordination.
Especially when every “advocate” speaks in perfect rhythm.
That’s not conversation.
That’s coordination.
May 25, 2025 at 4:01 PM
You can trace a narrative by its silences.
Especially when every “advocate” speaks in perfect rhythm.
That’s not conversation.
That’s coordination.
Especially when every “advocate” speaks in perfect rhythm.
That’s not conversation.
That’s coordination.
Most people don’t need to be lied to.
Just distracted long enough to blame the wrong enemy.
Just distracted long enough to blame the wrong enemy.
May 24, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Most people don’t need to be lied to.
Just distracted long enough to blame the wrong enemy.
Just distracted long enough to blame the wrong enemy.