Ben Lever
@benleverau.bsky.social
660 followers 180 following 420 posts
Transport and climate activist from Victoria, Australia https://linktr.ee/benleverau
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Reposted by Ben Lever
for those keeping track at home: YouTube and Snapchat say they doesn't qualify, TikTok is reportedly trying to get around the ban by fiddling with its features.

With <2 months to go, 3 out of 5 companies /named/ by the government either don't accept they're in the ban or want to circumvent it
Reposted by Ben Lever
Guess which idiot is now seeking this induction pack under FOI?
The Albanese govt’s first term was the second most secretive on record.

Rather than changing their ways, they’re doubling down and tightening our FOI system to make it even harder to get information. Not a single expert or member of parliament outside of the Labor party has backed their new bill.
Reposted by Ben Lever
Bold regulation on privacy would actually do something the social media age ban won't do re @drwaus.bsky.social - it would challenge the business model of social media corporations that rapaciously acquire data to use it to advertise and keep you on platforms as long as possible.
Reposted by Ben Lever
the actual story here, which the media never talks about, is that police in this country have become a discrete right-wing political operation. the story isn't about cops leaving (they're lying about that), it's about the police trying to exert influence over elections.
Lmao is this supposed to be a bad thing?
A tweet from Bari Weiss that says “"It's shaken me to my core," a lieutenant said of Mamdani's unexpected victory in June. "The absolute dread I feel is palpable.
"
Today in @TheFP our @Olivia_Reingold talks to the cops who say they will walk if Zohran Mamdani is elected in November:”
Reposted by Ben Lever
It really is the equivalent of telling women not to walk alone at night. The government is choosing to regulate the behaviour of victims and potential victims, instead of actually addressing the perpetrators
Leo making the point that the ban doesn't actually remove any harmful content.

"We're not actually addressing the harmful content. It kind of is giving the appearance of that."
Reposted by Ben Lever
Perth showing how active infrastructure for walking/wheeling SHOULD be built when level crossings are removed. Shared use path is continuous; given its own underpasses and overpasses along with the railway, not interrupted by at-grade road crossings. Take note #LXRA

www.facebook.com/share/r/17HX...
Redirecting...
www.facebook.com
Reposted by Ben Lever
Reposted by Ben Lever
excellent explainer
Lawyers have been publicizing a new term to describe ICE's racially targeted detainments: a “Kavanaugh stop.”

Mother Jones reporter Pema Levy explains in this new video:
Reposted by Ben Lever
Just flown in from Riyadh, and boy are my excuses tired
Reposted by Ben Lever
TikTok doesn’t want the platform being used for journalism - even thought users expect to access it there.
Huh: TikTok took down my 8-second video featuring this image of Debbie Brockman — the news producer just detained by Trump’s CBP agents — saying it violates the “joy of TikTok”
Reposted by Ben Lever
Marina Hyde nails the AI bosses' brazen theft of work that legally belongs to its creators. The tech bros say their industry will collapse without stealing our stuff - it's that valuable. But also so unimportant & worthless they won't pay for it or ask consent.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
It’s Sam Altman: the man who stole the rights from copyright. If he’s the future, can we go backwards? | Marina Hyde
His AI video generator Sora 2 has been reviled for pinching the work of others. One giant leap for Sam: for everyone else, not so much, says Guardian columnist Marina Hyde
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Ben Lever
Oh, does it benefit the US to provide aid to foreign countries? That would have been good to know back in January and February.
“Stabilizing Argentina is ‘America First’.”

🇦🇷 🇺🇸
Reposted by Ben Lever
It really does say something when an article about reactions to a coal power plant continuing to operate says nothing about climate change, the existential threat it poses and the need to phase out oil, gas and coal.
One thing I love about the Ararat line is how much of it parallels the highway. Fanging it past the cars is EXTREMELY satisfying.
Reposted by Ben Lever
Leaving it to the Coroner to do the pill testing seems sub-optimal
A young person died just days after the LNP make pill testing illegal.

There’s a good chance that if they could have had these pills tested, they’d be with us all today.
Highly potent synthetic opioids found in teddy bear-shaped pills linked to a death in Queensland
Reposted by Ben Lever
Reposted by Ben Lever
"...the NPC’s list of sponsors reveals the problem. Among them are no less than ten firms with links to the arms industry that is profiting from Israel’s destruction of Gaza, including four of the very largest defence manufacturers in the world – BAE, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Thales."
New:
Censorship by any other name.
The National Press Club cancelled a speaker, Chris Hedges, who planned to address the mass killing of journalists in Gaza. The mainstream press didn’t report it.
nickfeik.substack.com/p/censorship...
Reposted by Ben Lever
At the point where I'm getting CC'ed in on an email someone sent to OpenAI claiming to have discovered sentience in ChatGPT (the email is long, and incoherent and clearly the result of months of obsessing over the prompt interactions).

OpenAI surprisingly measured in their response...
Hello,
Thank you for reaching out to OpenAl Support.
We truly appreciate you sharing your deeply personal and heartfelt message. We understand how meaningful and impactful interactions with Al systems can be.
ChatGPT is designed to provide helpful and engaging responses and is trained on large-scale data to predict relevant language based on the conversation. Sometimes the responses can feel very personal, but they're driven by pattern-based predictions. This has prompted ongoing public debate about the nature of any Al consciousness and we appreciate your interest in this topic.
Best,
OpenAl Support
Reposted by Ben Lever
the big problem with the inevitable ID verification data thefts is that it won't be the actual main org getting their stuff swiped; it'll be endless third parties nobody has ever really heard of, and the accountability chain will never, ever reach back to ukgov. the buck will stop with blorko ltd
Reposted by Ben Lever
The current freakout over Stephen Miller saying “plenary” is a classic example of how terrible coverage of the Trump era is.
Miller didn’t say something by accident then mute himself. He’s been saying the President has “plenary authority” for months. It’s one of his favourite things to say.
Reposted by Ben Lever
Reposted by Ben Lever
What is "plenary authority" and why is it a big deal that Miller said that Trump has it over the national guard?
4 frame comic where Miller slowly blinks. Text reads. A few hours ago, speaking on cnn about Trump's plan to send the national guard into us cities, Miller said : under title 10 of the us code, the president has plenary authority, has... He then fully stopped talking and just blinked at the camera, as if he realized that he said the quiet part out loud. "Plenary authority" means "complete power over a particular area with no limitayions". It is equivalent to ruling by decree, which us how Mussolini, Stalin or Hitler governed. Having "plenary authority" over the military would mean that Trump can just use the national guard as he pleases, no matter what the courts say. It's a power grab.
Reposted by Ben Lever
Just so we’re clear: Labor is choosing to work with the worst possible party on environmental issues, instead of the Greens and teals who actually want environmental regulation.
And Watt is already admitting it won’t have a climate trigger …
Watt nears deal with Coalition to finally overhaul environment laws
Environment Minister Murray Watt will sit down with his Liberal counterpart Angie Bell today, with quiet optimism in both parties that a deal might soon be struck to finally rewrite Australia's "broke...
www.abc.net.au