If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Privacy International’s campaign, “The End of Privacy in Public,” was launched as a way to allow UK citizens to ask members of parliament (MPs) about the ever-increasing use of facial recognition (FRT) in public spaces, and places in that country. All the more so, since this – and by no means only this organization – spells out the situation as the UK essentially “sleepwalking towards the end of privacy in public.” The campaign that sought to contribute to changing this mindset by allowing constituents to ask the MP representing them whether or not facial recognition tech is deployed in their area – has not returned results that can cause much optimism. The non-profit has come out with the responses, covering the period between November 2023 and June 2024. Spoiler: MPs are, by and large, ignoring or obviously skirting the issue. And even more bad news: Privacy International’s report released this week shows this is happening across party lines. In the group’s own words, the goal of the campaign was to bring awareness and shed light on the “unfettered” use of FRT in their country; and, it says the MPs’ responses to the questions asked during the campaign have been “inadequate.” From here on, it becomes the question of which comes first – the chicken or the egg? On the one hand, the Privacy International report points out that as many as 70 percent of UK MPs are unaware of the use (non-use, or misuse) of facial recognition in their constituency. And if the chicken – or the egg – is unaware, how are those who elected them supposed to have their civil rights properly represented in the UK’s parliament? Judging by the report, these politicians chose to act as politicians. Reads the article: “(…) Most of the responses from MPs acknowledged their constituents’ concerns with the deployment of FRT and showed a basic understanding of some general developments in this area. Some didn’t engage with the harms of FRT at all, however, and none of them provided specific answers about the actual use of FRT in their constituency.” So, politicians are simply doing some basic “politicking” – that’s further highlighted by Privacy International saying that the responses received by all the MPs covered by the report “ignored the questions that were actually put to them by their constituents.” Those were, in the context of facial recognition tech, reasonable questions: is FRT used in my constituency; are large retail operators in the area, and those responsible for other public spaces using it, and  – “contact the Chief Constable to demand information about the local police force’s deployment of FRT in local public spaces.” Instead of concrete answers, these questions seem to have generated “responses” from political representatives – that might as well have been generated by GhatGPT. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post UK Politicians Sidestep Public Concerns on Facial Recognition Privacy appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. In Cobb County Georgia’s otherwise serene suburbs, Sheriff Craig Owens has managed to embroil himself in a drama so absurd it feels scripted. Picture it: a sheriff, a Whopper, and a county Facebook page locked in a battle royale over free speech and mayo. It all began at Burger King in 2023. Sheriff Owens dressed not in the authority-granting uniform of his office but in civilian clothes, was on a mission of matrimonial devotion. His wife, a staunch mayo-hater, had ordered a Whopper sans the offending condiment. The king of burgers, however, had other plans. When the mayonnaise-laden monstrosity arrived, Owens—let’s call him a man of action—decided the situation required more than a manager’s apology. What do you do when the fast food chain of command lets you down? If you’re Sheriff Owens, you summon your deputies. Yes, lights flashing, deputies on scene, all for the egregious crime of a sandwich made wrong. A Whopper of a Campaign Gaffe Had this unfolded in another era, it might have faded into the annals of local oddities. But in the age of smartphone ubiquity and TikTok justice, the incident was catapulted into the digital stratosphere. The timing couldn’t have been worse for Owens—October, right before the Cobb County sheriff elections. By the time Election Day rolled around, voters weren’t only debating policies; they were replaying a viral video of Owens turning a drive-thru dispute into a campaign talking point. Owens still clinched victory, earning 56% of the vote against David Cavender’s 44%. But while the sheriff emerged with a shiny new term, his political capital was now garnished with a heaping dollop of public skepticism. From Mayo to Muzzling: The Facebook Fallout Then came the comments—or, rather, their disappearance. Critical voices questioning Owens’ fast food diplomacy and broader conduct began vanishing from the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. According to a lawsuit filed by Cavender, joined by residents Michael Dondelinger and Michele Beagle, this wasn’t about keeping things civil; it was an all-out assault on dissent and First Amendment-protected speech. We obtained a copy of the lawsuit for you here. The complaint accuses Owens of crossing a constitutional line. Instead of facing criticism like any elected official with a Facebook login and thick skin, he allegedly decided to “utilize the powers of his office to censor the speech of Plaintiffs, and others, based on viewpoint.” Translation: Don’t talk trash about the sheriff on the sheriff’s turf, or you’ll find yourself deleted faster than a Whopper with mayo. The lawsuit’s demands? A jury trial, an injunction against censorship, and a symbolic $3.50 in damages—a nod to the Whopper meal that started it all. Cavender and his co-plaintiffs aren’t just arguing about Facebook policies; they’re staging a showdown over free speech and government overreach. Shutting It Down: The Sheriff’s New Playbook By November 1, the Sheriff’s Office tried to stop the bleeding—not with transparency, but by disabling comments altogether. The official line was that this would keep discussions focused on “community safety and educational updates.” In practice, it felt like the sheriff had slammed the door on dialogue entirely. Meanwhile, Owens remained defiant. In an October interview with WSB-TV, he reflected on the Burger King debacle with something resembling regret—or, at least, PR-savvy damage control. “I thought the best thing to do was to call a deputy. In hindsight, I probably should have just driven off and taken the bad service and left and came back another day,” he said, as though the realization of “don’t weaponize law enforcement over a sandwich” had just dawned on him. The Bigger Bite: Free Speech in the Digital Era This story, on its surface, may seem like a small-town comedy—a sheriff, a sandwich, and some Facebook trolls. But it taps into something much deeper: the uneasy intersection of authority, accountability, and free expression in the online era. Elected officials are no strangers to criticism, but Owens’ response—censoring detractors on a public platform—raises serious constitutional questions. Can an official Facebook page be treated like a personal diary, where dissent is erased? Or is it a virtual town square, where citizens have the right to shout into the void about mayo and misconduct alike? Previous court rulings on similar cases have been mixed with the Supreme Court arguing that blocking individual constituents is a First Amendment violation in many cases. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Sheriff’s Viral Burger Blunder Becomes First Amendment Fight appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

A sweet Pitbull mix is going viral on TikTok and breaking thousands of hearts after he was found, abandoned by his owners, with nothing but his stuffed dog toy with him. The abandoned pooch, later named Squishy by the animal shelter that took him, was first discovered by TikTok user @devil_nyxx. The user then uploaded a video of Squishy on Friday, November 08. “Found this sweet boy abandoned outside my house with his stuffy, no tag, no collar, nothing,” TikTok user @devil_nyxx wrote in the caption. In the video, Squishy can be seen reluctantly walking towards the TikTok user, with a stuffed toy in his mouth while wagging his tail. “He was shy at first but slowly walked up and laid on me,” Nyxx wrote. “It shows he once had a home, this is cruel, my heart aches for him.” @devil_nyxx This hurts my heart ???#abandoneddog #sweetiepie #poorbaby ♬ son original – ???? The video uploaded was almost 6-minute long, and by the 2-minute mark, Squishy finally approached Nyxx – enjoying the pets and laying his head on her lap, without releasing the stuffed toy in his mouth. TikTok users were devastated with the situation Squishy was put through. But some were questioning Nyxx if the dog was truly abandoned because he looked clean and healthy. One user wrote, “His stuffy looks clean! Why are you assuming he’s abandoned? Maybe he was trying to go home.” However, another TikTok user pointed out how the dog kept on coming back in a certain spot. They explained, “He was not wanting to leave that spot he kept going back, which tells me he was dumped there and didn’t want to leave because he is waiting for his humans to come back.” Nyxx later reveals that after giving Squishy water and food, they brought him to the Pet Circle Waco. In a Facebook post, Pet Circle Waco wrote, “Never without his squishy!” with photos of Squishy and his stuffed dog toy and other toys. The animal shelter reveals that the pooch is bonded with the stuffed dog toy and that “He loves to play with all kinds of toys and loves good pets. He is very sweet and will make your heart melt!” Furthermore, according to the animal shelter’s website, Squishy is a two-year-old Pit Bull Terrier mix and he was brought to the shelter on November 08. Squishy is currently in a foster home and lives with another TikTok user, @brooke.reese, who stitched Nyxx’s video of Squishy. In the video uploaded by Brooke, Squishy can be seen taking his stuffed dog toy from her while she says “Oh my god! You’re famous!” Squishy is currently up for adoption. If you are interested to meet him, and possibly adopt him, you can contact Pet Circle Waco.

Fresh Off a Private Jet, Lurch Declares 'Climate Emergency Time' for Us Peasants

The material was thought to have been used as a medium of communication between heaven and Earth.

"The reason behind their evolutionary success is a true love for green and fresh plant shoots.”

Star systems leave behind trails of objects and the Solar System ends up slamming into them.

Research has shown that decades of groundwater pumping has had significant impacts on the planet's motion.

“We didn’t know what it was at first,” said one scientist.

A photographer attempting to capture the stars ended up photographing something far weirder.