It’s been two years since the government attempted to launch a “disinformation board” helmed by the overtly partisan operative Nina Jankowicz, who refers to herself as a “disinformation researcher.” Now, our would-be Chief Censor is running a new nonprofit dedicated to more of the same (propaganda). In honor of this momentous occasion, the New York Times spun out a glowing profile of its favorite democratic operative, misframed her as politically neutral, and lamented the abuse she received from a nation of nasty, info-warring “conservatives,” thus revealing their alarming intention: a defense, once again, of federal information cops. Unfortunately, the conflict here is asymmetric. No single victory against the speech police will stop them, but if they win even once the fight against them will itself be outlawed. Not an inch.

Following a successful Senate vote, yesterday President Biden signed the bill requiring TikTok’s divestiture from its Chinese parent company into law. Libertarians and supporters of the CCP have since framed the bill as a ban, while folks in favor of divestiture as well as the casual observer have largely moved onto the question of “what happens now?” Which lucky American bastard gets to buy the spy app? Who wins?! The answer, of course, is TikTok’s legal team, which is about to make more money fighting this in court than the nation of China has made stealing American IP. Since America is not a totalitarian country — like China, for example, which has shut down dozens of our major tech and media companies, and all of them overnight — ByteDance has about 12 months to sell. So buckle up for 12 months of chaos.

A new report from activist Chris Rufo sheds light on beleaguered NPR CEO Katherine Maher’s apparent involvement in a wave of U.S.-backed revolutions in North Africa in the early 2010s. The details are strange — Maher appears to have collaborated closely with regime-change activists in Tunisia, Syria, and Libya, under the auspices of increasing digital freedom — and they lend credence to speculation that Maher is (or at some point was) a CIA op. But more interesting is the fact, implicit in Rufo’s reporting, that the behavior of intelligence agents and progressive NGO workers at home and abroad is now essentially indistinguishable. The latter are just assets — useful idiots, perhaps — for our ruling Blob.

google concludes (they promise!) a decade of unhinged activism, brian armstrong’s advice for sundar, DHH on his path to mission-first, and the end of tech’s silent winter

a san francisco anti-math zealot's recent attempt to cancel software tutor startup mentava backfired spectacularly — ceo niels hoven is here to tell the complete story

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