Liz Truss Announces 'Uncensorable' Social Media Venture (thetimes.com) 73
databasecowgirl writes: [Liz Truss will launch an "uncensorable" social media platform this summer.] The shortest-serving prime minister, who was quickly shown the door after crashing the UK economy, claims the platform is needed to take on the Deep State. Truss has worked diligently to earn comparisons to Trump with appearances at American political rallies sporting a red MAGA cap. The effort has paid off with Trump's recent tariff announcement and resulting market meltdown, resulting in the two brands combined in the neologism Liz Trump to mark the unprecedented economic policy disasters of the two politicians.
Truss' continuing in Trump's footsteps is creating her own uncensored social media platform for the UK to talk about important matters, which apparently is unable to be achieved without censorship on Musk's X or Trump's Truth Social. While a name has yet to be announced, Lettuce Talk has been suggested as appropriate for a platform run by a prime minister whose term was famously outlasted by a head of lettuce.
Truss' continuing in Trump's footsteps is creating her own uncensored social media platform for the UK to talk about important matters, which apparently is unable to be achieved without censorship on Musk's X or Trump's Truth Social. While a name has yet to be announced, Lettuce Talk has been suggested as appropriate for a platform run by a prime minister whose term was famously outlasted by a head of lettuce.
Lettuce Speak! (Score:5, Funny)
Should be the name of this social media platform
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Leaf it out mate! Why? Kos Liz sez! Caesar the truth! Buy cabbagecoin!
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"You thought my premiership was a disaster?" (Score:2)
"You ain't seen nothin' yet!"
Any bets? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Indeed. That said, I wonder why nobody has crashed a crapcoin that way yet. In fact, I have discussed that type of attack with other security experts a few years back.
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Haven't gotten one in a few hours. Maybe a User-Agent: override could be useful. Try making sure your OS and browser look like something that CF likes. They presumably do more than just sniff user-agent, but if your browser is as capable of doing the Javascript, it can pass for one of the browsers that CF prrefers.
Measurable Uncensorability (Score:5, Insightful)
So 'uncensorable' and announced at a 'blockchain' event; do we think that they'll go the route of actually being on chain
I've no idea but I do know that we'll be able to directly measure how "uncensorable" it is by the number of lettuce posts that do not get censored.
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I can certainly see why Truss would want to get in on that. I think "Lettuce Talk" may be a little too clever though. This is not the venue for witticisms.
Starting a social media platform (Score:5, Interesting)
At the moment.
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Yet Kevin Rose can't restart Digg without per-funnded accounts going for $5 each?
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There's a huge difference between trying to make a website profitable in the long-term and making a "website" that is hardly more than a cardboard cutout designed to trick investors into making bad investments.
The social media startups and AI startups of today are eerily similar to the dot-com startups of the late 90s.
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The social media startups and AI startups of today are eerily similar to the dot-com startups of the late 90s.
The company is the product. The investors are the customers. Users are fuel.
Re:Starting a social media platform (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, it's not technically difficulty; you just do what Trump did and slap your branding on Mastodon or something like that.
I think the reason it's news is that Liz Truss has a 14% positive and 64% negative rating, so the idea investors backing *her* slapping her branding on something to sell it is something of a head scratcher.
Re:Starting a social media platform (Score:5, Insightful)
To be fair, her accepting the PM position shows clearly that she has a completely unrealistic picture of her skills. Hence this idiocy nocely firts the picture. And, again to be fair, she would probably have had a real chance at some higher office in the Trump administration if she was a US citizen.
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All she needs is a small loan of $5M to get that gold card.
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Whoops. Didn't see your comment until after I commented, but I think it should be described as the "orange green card". No actual gold in them thar cards, though you reminded me of a recent blather from the YOB about the market demand for gold-colored paint that looks less fake.
And I'd like to see the sales figures for that orange-greed-card scam. Broken down into categories for the types of crime each orange-green cardholder is hoping to evade. Perhaps with intelligence test scores to see how dumb a crook
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To be fair, her accepting the PM position shows clearly that she has a completely unrealistic picture of her skills. Hence this idiocy nocely firts the picture. And, again to be fair, she would probably have had a real chance at some higher office in the Trump administration if she was a US citizen.
Can't she afford an orange green card? You'd think that would make her eligible for something. Perhaps she could become American ambassador to Ireland? Just spitballing some ideas here...
At this point it's hard to imagine any "significant" so-called "conservative" politician who hasn't "accidentally" pocketed a few million "currency units" in the course of their "public service". We are so screwed and it's gonna be a long four years for thems whats lives so long. [sic]
A Titanic Success (Score:5, Funny)
the idea investors backing *her* slapping her branding on something to sell it is something of a head scratcher.
Well people pay insane sums of money for items recovered from the wreck of the Titanic and that was something that was launched with great fanfare only to taken out by an iceberg a few days later - just like Liz Truss.
Working name (Score:4, Interesting)
Liz Truth
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Truss SociaLiz.
Re: UK arrests 30 people a day for social media po (Score:2)
What position will she have? (Score:5, Funny)
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Isn't that false advertising? I'm trying to make tacos, you insensitive clod!
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You'll enjoy a lettuce wrap better.
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Re: What position will she have? (Score:2)
Spam (Score:5, Insightful)
If it is precisely as she claims, "uncensorable", then it will quickly fill up with spam, she will claim the "deep state" is flooding the network and shut it down.
Forget prime minister, she will have the record for having the shortest lived social media network.
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If it is precisely as she claims, "uncensorable",
/b/ is back!
Re: Spam (Score:2)
Re: Spam (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly. It's hilariously sad that someone who has no idea how social media works is about to start a new social media site.
There will be child porn. Then she'll censor that, and say, "well obviously we need some censorship."
Then it will get flooded with bigotry and swastikas. Then, everyone who isn't a big fan of bigotry and swastikas will leave. Including, of course, her advertisers.
Then she'll understand why censorship is a thing.
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Spot on.
I don't know why this censorship card is so popular. Most countries let you say pretty much what you want, only limiting harmful stuff like incitement to violence etc.
I personally liken it to a hypothetical criminal spouting that their rights to crime are being infringed by all this legal nonsense.
Re: Spam (Score:4, Insightful)
Close to 100% scams. Everything is bots. They replace people.
Any thing "free" or unlimited is consumed for spamming somehow. Generated AI content is choking anything of interest to death with un-attributed copies.
You either go viral or fizzle in the next news cycle, so this has less appeal than even the hawk tuah chick and her cryptocoin.
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Site gets launched
Site gets flooded with far right hate speech
Site gets flooded with legal take down requests - that they have to ignore because "uncensorable"
Site gets shutdown by OFCOM (the UK's regulator) using the UK's anti-hate speech laws
Truss & Trump both blame the "deep state" and decry the lack of free speech in the UK[1][2]
1. Which is probably the whole point, especially since any funding will no doubt disappear at this point too. 2.
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2. As a reminder, the UK does not *have* any legally codified right to free speech; at best there's a tacit "gentleman's agreement" type thing that you are free to voice your opinion, but there are absolutely a whole bunch of things that you legally cannot say while doing that.
Bullshit. The right to free speech was codified in the European Convention of Human Rights in 1950 after centuries of common law, starting with the Bill of Rights in 1689. The ECHR was later copied as a formal act of parliament only because it made it easier and cheaper for people to bring cases under it.
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Nah, she's angling for Elmo to buy it out and add it to the rest of his vomit holdings.
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If it is precisely as she claims, "uncensorable", then it will quickly fill up with spam, she will claim the "deep state" is flooding the network and shut it down.
Forget prime minister, she will have the record for having the shortest lived social media network.
I'm seeing it either as the spam honeypot for the universe, or as a good way for the more nefarious law enforcement agents to honeypot disgruntled folks into being active terrorists so they can up their arrest list.
Well, I suppose I should look at this fairly. It could do both at the same time. "Come to the new social network, and be indoctrinated into violence while having ads shoveled at you faster than you can read!"
The trump path dont work so well anymore (Score:5, Interesting)
We have an election coming up in a month in australia and the leader of the opposition Liberal Party (Which is our equivelent to the Republican party, yes its confusing and yes theres a history behind it*) who was trying to run the "I''ll be australias trump" line and turned his lead over a Labor party that has been decidedly anemic into a loss that doesnt SEEM to be recoverable. And while he's been trying to walk it back that hasnt stop idiots in his party getting into the press promising to "Make Australia Great Again!".
The problem for them is Trump has made it abundantly clear that while Australia use to be a close friend, apparently we aren't anymore, and he's called us abusive names in the press , imposed sanctions on us, and repeatedly lied about us. We're a country that buys more of americas stuff than they buy of ours. We've fought almost every war they've fought since WW2 , kitted our army in stupidly expensive stuff we've brought from them, in winter we send our firefighters over to help out and train american firefighters (Australian, Canadian and Californian firefighters are easily the best in the world) and followed their voting in *almost* every election. And we get treated like this.
People are looking at the chaos in the US and thinking "Nah mate, we'll be right, lets do something thats not that".
I imagine the Brits, particularly after the trumpian excesses of Boris and his sucessors would be thinking pretty similar things.
Re: The trump path dont work so well anymore (Score:2, Interesting)
No doubt he's got Trump holding Zuckerberg 's feet to the fire encouraging him to get the band back together and do a reunion tour playing the populist setlist from their Cambridge Analytica greatest hits album.
Trump is still planning on returning to the UK this September in glory to negotiate the Commonwealth deal. We kno
Re: The trump path dont work so well anymore (Score:3)
Re: The trump path dont work so well anymore (Score:2)
Don't take offense lads, it's just bantz. He's no aspiring fascist, just an everybloke saying his peace and standing back as his entourage do his bidding.
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"We're a country that buys more of americas stuff than they buy of ours. We've fought almost every war they've fought since WW2 , kitted our army in stupidly expensive stuff we've brought from them, in winter we send our firefighters over to help out and train american firefighters (Australian, Canadian and Californian firefighters are easily the best in the world) and followed their voting in *almost* every election. And we get treated like this."
This is an argument that la Presidenta does not understand b
Re: The trump path dont work so well anymore (Score:2)
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kitted our army in stupidly expensive stuff we've brought from them
I think Trump 2 will also do very substantial damage to the American arms industry. Owners of American military kit are at the mercy of America. When America was busy pretending to be a reliable ally, and when the big common enemy was Russia and the smaller non common ones were countries that American did not broadly speaking care about, this kind of worked.
Thing is America has always been an unreliable ally. Their extensive soft power someh
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The problem for them is Trump has made it abundantly clear that while Australia use to be a close friend, apparently we aren't anymore, and he's called us abusive names in the press , imposed sanctions on us, and repeatedly lied about us
Just ignore him. Australia is cool, we like it, and Trump is a liar. Even people who like Trump admit he lies.
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Well said.
Playing the game of ancient Roman vs. American civilizational parallels:
"However, Trump is probably an anomaly."
Some Roman politicians thought the same about Caesar--"He's a singular person", with his death we can go back to being a Republic."
"the potus only controls a third of the federal government and the other two branches are viciously guarding their turf, although theyre doing it quietly."
Some people have complained since about the beginnings of the US that the President continually obtains more and more power. I think Congress, f'rinstance, gave up a major part of their assigned powers as a result of the nuclear age and the Cold War, since there are no longer days or weeks to decid
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The power of the potus fluctuates. It climbed for a long time up till Nixon, who got so publicly abusive and criminal that congress and the courts took a bunch of power b
Well that says something (Score:2)
She's too looney even for twitter.
Don't look now, but their deep state (Score:2)
seems to have lost patience with the "i am a woman because i say so" nonsense.
Might not all be bad.
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A couple things make more sense, others less.
Uncensorable, but.. (Score:2)
Anonymous platforms with no regulation (Score:3)
Finally, a place where pedophiles and fascists can feel safe and validated by their like-minded peers in a comfortable little echo chamber. This won't backfire at all!
aka 4chan (Score:2)
Sounds like a platform (Score:2)
... for word salad.
Censor = stopping crap (Score:3)
Any media that is really 'uncensorable' by definition fills up with things that are disgusting.
That is, if you can't stop people from saying things you dislike, then you also cannot stop people from posting:
1) Underage Porn.
2) Videos of Murder.
3) Literally satanic speeches.
4) Nasty vile racist comments.
5) Hateful false accusations (pictures of X raping Y - with claims they are not AI generated)
If you can stop this from happening, then you can censor the media. In fact, these are the excuses why people censor stuff.
Re:Censor = stopping crap (Score:4, Funny)
- Lucifer M.
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Nah, there is more fun stuff.
Making accounts that are just posting torrent links to Disney movies. Watch how fast they have to start censoring their service.
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"Literally satanic speeches"
If they have speeches that are "literally" by satan, then I'd say that's news and should be censored.
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You seem over optimistic. SPAM is what you are going to see, in deluges so large that it will be impossible to find child porn even if you look for it.
More likely this is not "uncensorable" unless she really is stupid.
Dunning Kruger at work ! (Score:2)
Not possible (Score:2)
First, uncensorable isn't possible, because ultimately governments can just demand that it be blocked. Sure, you can VPN around it, but your average citizen isn't going to do that. Second, uncensorable isn't useful without effective anonymity, which is also beyond the capabilities of your average citizen.
Authoritarian governments will nail people who say stuff they don't like.
Consider the German politician Nancy Faeser, who had a journalist prosecuted and sentenced to 7 months in jail for publishing a me [europeanconservative.com]
Lol (Score:2)
Imagine being desperate to drum up interest in some shitty social media platform that you'd hire Liz Truss to promote it. Anyway this "uncensorable" platform will turn into a cesspit of child porn, racism, abuse etc. and will die an ignominious death. And the content might be "uncensorable" but the operators and even Truss might be legally liable for any shit that happens because of their actions. Pavel Durov discovered the hard way that countries have laws and they're none too happy with platforms that act
Trump is trying to emulate truss (Score:2)
Truss came within a hairs breadth of bankrupting the UK. It doesn't get a huge amount of noise outside of the specialist press but many UK pension funds were highly leveraged using LDI. The huge spike in the bond rate caused many funds to be dumping equities at any price in order to meet margin calls due at the end of the day.
You can argue that the use of LDI, and the leveraging was bad and the pension funds should not have been doing it, but if Truss
I get the idea from the summary ... (Score:2)
What do you mean, uncensorable? (Score:2)
Liz Truss crashed the UK economy ? (Score:2)
The Mini Budget was never implimented. The bond market stepped in and crashed the economy. The Civil Service, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and the Bank of England then conspired to have her ejected.