Remember: on Facebook, you are the product. Eli Sanders Via Ars Technica: This past week, a New Zealand man was looking through the data Facebook had collected from him in an archive he had pulled down from the social networking site. While scanning the information Facebook had stored about his contacts, Dylan McKay discovered something […]
Eli Sanders
Eli Sanders is The Stranger's associate editor. His book, "While the City Slept," was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He once did this and once won this, but he also once crashed his bike into a parked car while on his way to a staff meeting, never mind this, so… His website, which probably hasn't been updated in a while, is www.elisanders.net.
Posted inTech
What You Need to Know About the Facebook Data “Breach”
A Facebook data center. According to recent reports, another repository of Facebook data is Cambridge Analytica, a firm that worked for the Trump campaign and managed to buy personal data on 50 million Facebook users. Rainier Ehrhardt / Getty Images If you missed it over the weekend, The New York Times and The Guardian have […]
Posted inHistory
Ruth Bader Ginsburg on #MeToo: “It’s About Time”
RBG has some things to say about #MeToo Robin Marchant / Getty Images No surprise, older feminists don’t always see things the exact same way—or speak in support of things the exact same way—as younger feminists. See, for example, Margaret Atwood, now considered by some to be a “bad feminist.” So it’s worth noting that […]
Posted inMovies & TV
The Final Year Review: This Nostalgic Film About Obama Doesn’t Address the Fierce Urgency of Now
A Documentary About the Way Things Were
A documentary about the way things were.
Posted inPolitics
Treason! Insanity! (And Other Remarkable Accusations from Today’s Trump-Bannon Feud)
Donald Trump and Steve Bannon are having a big ‘ol fight over a book. Getty Images Michael Wolff’s new book, Fire and Fury, has touched off a wild, statement-heavy feud between the President of the United States and his former aide, Steve Bannon. Let’s recap the last few hours. The Guardian: Donald Trump’s former chief […]
Posted inTech
In Today’s Edition of Former Tech Insiders Denouncing Social Media…
Chamath Palihapitiya, Facebook’s former vice president for user growth, said he feels “tremendous guilt” about helping to create tools that “are ripping apart the social fabric.” Mike Windle / Getty Images This video of former Facebook vice president Chamath Palihapitiya is worth checking out. It’s only the latest example of major tech insiders turning against […]
Posted inPolitics
“Shadowy” Online Ads Are Targeting an American Election Again, This Time in Alabama
Just one of many, many pieces of election disinformation that spread on social media during the 2016 presidential election. Drew Angerer / Getty Images The Daily Beast reports: Three months after Mark Zuckerberg pledged to stop external forces from disproportionately affecting U.S. elections, targeted ads are bombarding voters in a pivotal Senate race. Those ads […]
Posted inPolitics
The Republican “Win” on Taxes Is Already Helping Democrats
Oops. Mark Wilson / Getty Images There’s been a lot said on Twitter about why it’s wrong for headline writers to boil down the Republican tax plan vote into a simple “win” for the GOP. Well, today brings a brand new reason why it’s wrong: All those breaking news alerts that the tax bill was […]
Posted inHealth
Watch Out: Zombie Obamacare Repeal Is Back, On the Move, and May Be Close to Having the Votes to Pass
TrumpCare is back. REPEAT: TrumpCare is back.
Posted inPolitics
Donald Trump Said He Had “No Deals” In Russia, But His Trump Organization Certainly Wanted One
The art of parsing the meaning of the deal. Getty Images Remember this? Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA – NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017 Well, now we learn—via newly released e-mails from the Trump Organization—that at […]
Posted inPolitics
The Conundrum of the Left and the Antifa
Antifascist demonstrators (one apparently wearing a “Fly Emirates” shirt) waiting outside Emancipation Park in Charlottesville on Saturday. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images It’s true that Ann Coulter tweeted out a link to this new Atlantic article. Even so, the piece, which was obviously written before the events in Charlottesville, is worth a read if you’re […]
Posted inPolitics
Former Republican Majority Leader Admits Obamacare Repeal Was a Long Con
Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Mark Wilson / Getty Images As flagged by Paul Waldman in the Washington Post, there’s an important—if too late—confession in this Washingtonian article. The confession is that Republican leaders knew years ago that their promise to repeal Obamacare was not an achievable goal, just a way of firing up […]