Summers spent at my grandparents’ house in Tennessee were hot and humid. With enough cousins piled into the porch swing, you could stir up a bit of a breeze. But when that was no longer effective, we would retreat to…
‘A deal with the devil’: Religion motivates data center opponents in Texas
When Matt Long stood before the Granbury, Texas, city council zoning meeting back in April to oppose the influx of proposed data centers in Hood County, he likened them to a spiritual abomination.
AI is being used to abuse children, and we can do something about it
Last May, congress passed the Take It Down Act, requiring websites to remove “nonconsensual intimate visual depictions” of identifiable individuals. This includes both real and AI-generated content. But this law only addresses content publication, not the various ways in which…
Black Baptist pastor in Arkansas suspended from Facebook
A Black Baptist pastor in Arkansas was suspended from Facebook May 30 without explanation. Wendell Griffen, however, believes he was removed from the social media platform because of proposing a 12-month moratorium on permitting data centers, AI campuses and cryptocurrency…
AI goes to war, and schoolchildren are dead
The U.S.-Israel war against Iran entered its third week amid political confusion and mixed messaging. The Trump regime initially told the press the attacks would last around four weeks. On March 9, Trump told CBS News the war was “very…
Zuckerpunched: Meta silences MAGA resistance
Editor’s note: After this column was written, historian Heather Cox Richardson reported that some of her daily posts on American history and life have mysteriously disappeared from Facebook. About a month ago, Presbyterian Outlook, the magazine of the Presbyterian Church…
The death of truth
Remember way back in 2017, when it felt sort of quaint for Kellyanne Conway, then special adviser to President Donald Trump, to introduce the term “alternative facts” as a euphemism for the lying that characterized Trump and those around him?…
Senators grill social media execs about child safety ‘crisis’
Republicans and Democrats came together Wednesday to criticize executives from Meta, X, TikTok, Snap and Discord for creating a nationwide “crisis” by putting profits ahead of protecting children and teens from bullying, harassment, exploitation, mental illness, sexual trafficking and even…
As Facebook evolves to Meta, what is the future of consciousness and control?
On the heels of the recent whistleblower accusations against Facebook, the social media company has decided to change its primary organizational name and logo. Founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted the irony of the name-change timing during the launch of Meta, Facebook’s new parent…