Heather Burns
@heatherburnstech.bsky.social
freelance tech policy x digital rights / human rights / good trouble / midlife MPhil student @ Strathclyde / IANAL / https://heatherburns.tech / 💬 on Signal / open to work / 🇺🇦 / "bad ass Glaswegian" apparently
Pinned
Queen of the hill – Hi, I'm Heather Burns
I somehow managed to not fling myself off my chair.
heatherburns.tech
Some personal news. I've had such good fun doing a midlife masters @lawstrath.bsky.social that I'm going to stick around for another two years and do an MPhil in technology regulation and human rights. Huge thanks to everyone who got me up that hill.
heatherburns.tech/2025/08/21/q...
heatherburns.tech/2025/08/21/q...
Reposted by Heather Burns
Does anyone want a survivorship bias shortbread
November 29, 2025 at 4:50 AM
Does anyone want a survivorship bias shortbread
Reposted by Heather Burns
Finally getting some theological clarity on the ethics of reclining in one’s plane seat
November 29, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Finally getting some theological clarity on the ethics of reclining in one’s plane seat
A term overheard on a podcast: “Schrödinger’s Douchebag”: a guy (and it’s always a guy) who says disgusting / racist / sexist / etc things in public, then waits for the public response to determine whether he accelerates, or declares he was just kidding and it was your fault you didn’t get the joke.
November 29, 2025 at 9:43 AM
A term overheard on a podcast: “Schrödinger’s Douchebag”: a guy (and it’s always a guy) who says disgusting / racist / sexist / etc things in public, then waits for the public response to determine whether he accelerates, or declares he was just kidding and it was your fault you didn’t get the joke.
A thread for your Black Friday shopping for yourself. Je ne regrette rien.
You know, I want to read more utopian fiction. Something has changed in me. What are some of your favourite reads imagining a future where we all survive this, and build something together?
November 28, 2025 at 6:22 PM
A thread for your Black Friday shopping for yourself. Je ne regrette rien.
Reposted by Heather Burns
🚨 REPORT 🚨 Breaking encryption is legally and practically unworkable. Today, we publish a report outlining why the government must not break end-to-end encryption and the straightforward steps @ofcom.bsky.social can take to protect our safety & security ⬇️
www.indexoncensorship.org/2025/11/new-...
www.indexoncensorship.org/2025/11/new-...
November 28, 2025 at 11:10 AM
🚨 REPORT 🚨 Breaking encryption is legally and practically unworkable. Today, we publish a report outlining why the government must not break end-to-end encryption and the straightforward steps @ofcom.bsky.social can take to protect our safety & security ⬇️
www.indexoncensorship.org/2025/11/new-...
www.indexoncensorship.org/2025/11/new-...
Having read a lot of space sci-fi, I would highly encourage these people to stop digging right now www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
'Extraordinary discovery' at Orkney's Ness of Brodgar Neolithic site
Archaeologists are to resume digging at the site after 3D radar technology uncovered a mystery find.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Having read a lot of space sci-fi, I would highly encourage these people to stop digging right now www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
This saga has been an unexpected but entertaining bridge between my postgraduate research studies and my teenager's need for daily trashy gossip. 🍿
My prediction:
1. Usha Vance will convert
Or
2. Erika Kirk and JD will find a way to make it happen
youtu.be/hg3U2JxsDWU
1. Usha Vance will convert
Or
2. Erika Kirk and JD will find a way to make it happen
youtu.be/hg3U2JxsDWU
Erika Kirk is Running for First Lady
YouTube video by Straight White American Jesus Podcast
youtu.be
November 27, 2025 at 7:41 AM
This saga has been an unexpected but entertaining bridge between my postgraduate research studies and my teenager's need for daily trashy gossip. 🍿
Reposted by Heather Burns
Founders on LinkedIn still seem to be struggling with the difference between telling people about their humble beginnings and admitting to straight up committing fraud.
November 24, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Founders on LinkedIn still seem to be struggling with the difference between telling people about their humble beginnings and admitting to straight up committing fraud.
It has been exasperating to live through years of moral panic over "the children" when the very people pushing the worst hatred and racism are their own grandparents sitting across from them at the same table. It has been equally exasperating how that fact is taboo because "the pensioners".
God it's so cool that so much of British and European nationalist politics has broadly been shaped by warehouse clickfarms rented by guys in South Asia running "how to make money from racist old people" workshops, and that this has had more influence on media and politics than any grassroots group
November 25, 2025 at 6:26 AM
It has been exasperating to live through years of moral panic over "the children" when the very people pushing the worst hatred and racism are their own grandparents sitting across from them at the same table. It has been equally exasperating how that fact is taboo because "the pensioners".
Reposted by Heather Burns
Seen a lot of people wondering why X, The Everything App would have a feature that gives away how much of the popular right wing accounts are foreign actors and this is why. They thought every left wing account would be that way because every accusation is also a confession.
Planned Parenthood uses a VPN so its twitter location is shown as Germany and now all of MAGA twitter thinks Planned Parenthood is a fake organization based in Europe.
November 24, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Seen a lot of people wondering why X, The Everything App would have a feature that gives away how much of the popular right wing accounts are foreign actors and this is why. They thought every left wing account would be that way because every accusation is also a confession.
Fortnite, IN SPRINGFIELD.
A group of immigrant rights organizers are helping people use Fortnite to practice what to do if they encounter ICE agents in the wild.
Inside an ICE Defense Training on Fortnite
A group of immigrant rights organizers are helping people use Fortnite to practice what to do if they encounter ICE agents in the wild.
www.404media.co
November 24, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Fortnite, IN SPRINGFIELD.
Everywhere I go on my travels, I stumble onto stolpersteine (that being the point of them), so this makes me very happy.
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2564320...
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2564320...
First Stolperstein in Scotland to be unveiled for woman who died in Auschwitz
Scotland’s first brass Stolperstein memorial plaque for a Scottish Holocaust victim will be unveiled on Monday as 'we must never forget the…
www.heraldscotland.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:12 AM
Everywhere I go on my travels, I stumble onto stolpersteine (that being the point of them), so this makes me very happy.
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2564320...
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2564320...
Reposted by Heather Burns
Twitter accounts are based in Russia. BlueSky accounts are based in homes with, frankly, too many books, plants, obsolete cables, and pieces of rustic pottery, that could do with a bit of a tidying up, to be honest.
November 23, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Twitter accounts are based in Russia. BlueSky accounts are based in homes with, frankly, too many books, plants, obsolete cables, and pieces of rustic pottery, that could do with a bit of a tidying up, to be honest.
Reposted by Heather Burns
But "child safety" is so important to this and previous governments that the whole population must be forbidden confidential conversations and encrypted backups or cloud storage.
November 24, 2025 at 12:30 AM
But "child safety" is so important to this and previous governments that the whole population must be forbidden confidential conversations and encrypted backups or cloud storage.
In which an MP is genuinely ~shocked~ that six years of allowing pearl-clutching white saviours and Christian fundamentalists to craft the rules of content regulation is resulting in the censorship of discussions about menstruation and lady gardens.
www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...
www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...
Big tech's sexism is jeopardising women's health
An internet on which you can’t say the word “vagina” in its proper context feels like something out of The Handmaid’s Tale. But it’s here, and it’s...
www.politicshome.com
November 23, 2025 at 4:24 PM
In which an MP is genuinely ~shocked~ that six years of allowing pearl-clutching white saviours and Christian fundamentalists to craft the rules of content regulation is resulting in the censorship of discussions about menstruation and lady gardens.
www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...
www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...
In a first for me, I gave up on a book from a major publisher and publicity tour, requested a refund, and happily watched it disappear from my Kindle, after trudging through page after page of histrionic, clichéd, chatGPT-generated word vomit. I don’t DNF lightly, but GTF.
November 23, 2025 at 7:20 AM
In a first for me, I gave up on a book from a major publisher and publicity tour, requested a refund, and happily watched it disappear from my Kindle, after trudging through page after page of histrionic, clichéd, chatGPT-generated word vomit. I don’t DNF lightly, but GTF.
As visual metaphors go, looking up into the dark starry Scottish sky and seeing one person’s toys, all over the place, stomping through the heavens, is a bit much.
November 22, 2025 at 6:59 AM
As visual metaphors go, looking up into the dark starry Scottish sky and seeing one person’s toys, all over the place, stomping through the heavens, is a bit much.
Reposted by Heather Burns
in case you missed this hideous effort by trump's eeoc to force penn to disclose names of jewish students, faculty, staff & many others, here's @penamerica.bsky.social's statement
Trump Administration’s Legal Effort to Compel Disclosure of Jewish Names at the University of Pennsylvania is a “Shocking Abuse of Power”
PEN America today called on the federal court in Philadelphia to deny the Trump administration’s attempt to enforce a subpoena against the University of Pennsylvania to disclose the names and other id...
pen.org
November 21, 2025 at 11:56 PM
in case you missed this hideous effort by trump's eeoc to force penn to disclose names of jewish students, faculty, staff & many others, here's @penamerica.bsky.social's statement
Reposted by Heather Burns
BIG: FBI spied on Signal group chat of immigration activists CourtWatch, classifying them as violent terrorist extremists for quietly sitting in on court cases, as revealed in intel bulletin we obtained & shared w/ @samtlevin.bsky.social @us.theguardian.com. #FOIA www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
The FBI spied on a Signal group chat of immigration activists, records reveal
Exclusive: Agency accessed private conversations of New York ‘courtwatch’ group that was observing public hearings
www.theguardian.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:13 PM
BIG: FBI spied on Signal group chat of immigration activists CourtWatch, classifying them as violent terrorist extremists for quietly sitting in on court cases, as revealed in intel bulletin we obtained & shared w/ @samtlevin.bsky.social @us.theguardian.com. #FOIA www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
This. Is. Glorious.
omg they made Jeffrey Epstein Inbox Simulator '25 jmail.world
Jmail, logged in as [email protected]
You are logged into [email protected], Jeffrey Epstein's email. Sourced from the November 2025 House Oversight Committee data release.
jmail.world
November 21, 2025 at 5:17 PM
This. Is. Glorious.
Reposted by Heather Burns
Roses are red,
And so are my dearests.
They’re
And so are my dearests.
They’re
November 21, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Roses are red,
And so are my dearests.
They’re
And so are my dearests.
They’re
Reposted by Heather Burns
From the Department of Tragic Irony:
On the day the Harvard Law School releases a digital archive of the Nuremberg Trials, the President threatens the lives of members of Congress who utter its most basic truth: That everyone, especially soldiers, must follow the law.
nuremberg.law.harvard.edu
On the day the Harvard Law School releases a digital archive of the Nuremberg Trials, the President threatens the lives of members of Congress who utter its most basic truth: That everyone, especially soldiers, must follow the law.
nuremberg.law.harvard.edu
Nuremberg - Explore the Nuremberg Trials!
The Harvard Law School Library's Nuremberg Trials Project is an open-access initiative to create and present digitized images and full-text versions of the Library's Nuremberg Trials documents,…
nuremberg.law.harvard.edu
November 21, 2025 at 1:24 PM
From the Department of Tragic Irony:
On the day the Harvard Law School releases a digital archive of the Nuremberg Trials, the President threatens the lives of members of Congress who utter its most basic truth: That everyone, especially soldiers, must follow the law.
nuremberg.law.harvard.edu
On the day the Harvard Law School releases a digital archive of the Nuremberg Trials, the President threatens the lives of members of Congress who utter its most basic truth: That everyone, especially soldiers, must follow the law.
nuremberg.law.harvard.edu
Reposted by Heather Burns
The comments on this post are illuminating.
Bellingcat’s contact email has always been a magnet for people with fairly unusual views; paranoid delusions, sprawling conspiracies, the works. But recently, the pattern has shifted, we’re seeing more and more emails clearly written with ChatGPT.
November 21, 2025 at 6:27 AM
The comments on this post are illuminating.
Reposted by Heather Burns
