Tootfinder

"Our government is being run by aggrieved elites who were thrown onto social platforms with everyone else in the 2010s, where they could finally read what we all think about them. And it caused them so much psychic damage that they have decided to destroy both the internet and democracy to make sure nothing like it will ever happen again."
(Original title: Petty, powerful, and pathologically online)

Petty, powerful, and pathologically online
Read to the end for an academic paper on puppygirls

The 21st century is at once direly serious and completely unserious.
Leader of Albania Pelted With Trash for Appointing AI-Powered Minister to Cabinet 🗑️🤖
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/leader-albania-pelted-trash-appointing-143049965.ht…

Leader of Albania Pelted With Trash for Appointing AI-Powered Minister to Cabinet
The world's first AI government official is going about as well as you could expect.

Reddit says it has started verifying UK users' ages before letting them "view certain mature content", in order to comply with the country's Online Safety Act (Jon Brodkin/Ars Technica)
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20

Reddit’s UK users must now prove they’re 18 to view adult content
Reddit hires company to verify user age with selfie or photo of government ID.

I guess that whole DOGE cost cutting exercise has reaped some benefits for some folks.
https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/fbi-gov-email-accounts-are-being-sold-onl…

FBI.gov email accounts are being sold online, could be used to spread malware on an industrial scale - here's what you need to know
FBI.gov and other government email accounts being sold on the dark web

Imagine if a candidate for US President had a workable program to ban sludge, that bureaucratic hell companies and the government put us through on support lines, in endless phone menus, and online to make us give up. They'd win 50 states!
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/

That Dropped Call With Customer Service? It Was on Purpose.
Endless wait times and excessive procedural fuss—it’s all part of a tactic called “sludge.”