YunoBlog

Author: tio

  • ‘Like a scene out of a horror movie’: UN report warns of war crimes in Sudan’s El Fasher

    Paramilitary forces in Sudan unleashed “a wave of intense violence…shocking in its scale and brutality” during their final offensive to capture the besieged city of El Fasher last October, committing atrocities that amount to war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, according to a report released on Friday by the UN human rights office, OHCHR. 

  • Syria transition gains ground with Kurdish deal, but violence and humanitarian strain persist

    Syria’s fragile political transition has gained fresh momentum with a landmark agreement between Damascus and Kurdish authorities in the northeast, but renewed violence in the south, Israeli incursions and deep humanitarian needs underscore how precarious the path to stability remains, senior UN officials told the Security Council on Friday.

  • Gaza: Lifesaving aid operations continue despite restrictions

    Humanitarians in the Gaza Strip continue to face impediments in their efforts to deliver lifesaving aid to the population. 

  • World News in Brief: Deadly strikes in Sudan, health systems in South Sudan near the brink, Guterres calls for unity ahead of Ramadan.

    A sharp increase in drone attacks across the Kordofan region in the centre of Sudan is endangering civilians and damaging critical infrastructure.   

  • Weekly Roundup: Feb 13

    On Monday, Vincent Joralemon explained how, a decade after Martin Shkreli became the most hated man in America, life-and-death drug pricing decisions are still being made by businesspeople who owe patients no legal duty and face every incentive to extract value. On Tuesday, Eamon Coburn argued that the recent “no tax on overtime” provision is fundamentally anti-worker. By encouraging people to…

    Source

  • Brazil Charges Slain Paraguayan Congressman’s Son With Drug Trafficking

    Brazil has brought drug trafficking charges against Alexandre Rodrigues Gomes, the son of a former congressman with Paraguay’s ruling party who was killed in a police raid in 2024.

    The Brazilian prosecutors office, known as the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), has charged Gomes with transnational drug trafficking aggravated by the use of a firearm, according to a February 9 indictment obtained by OCCRP. 

    Gomes also faces charges of money laundering linked to drug trafficking in Paraguay, where his case has been the subject of considerable media attention, and he has been in custody since 2024. The charges have not yet been tried in court.

    He was charged alongside his father, Eulalio “Lalo” Gomes, who was a congressman and deputy in Paraguay’s ruling Colorado Party before he was shot and killed in a shootout during an August 2024 police raid on a family home. The younger Gomes had initially escaped during the operation, but turned himself in later. 

    Gomes’ lawyer, Noelia Núñez, told OCCRP that neither Paraguayan nor Brazilian authorities have gathered sufficient evidence to show he was involved in any crimes.

    The Brazilian embassy in Paraguay’s capital, Asuncion, has requested Gomes’ extradition and asked that he be kept in “preventative detention” in the meantime. The MPF alleges that he coordinated regular cocaine flights to Brazil, according to files from the investigation obtained by OCCRP.

    The MPF alleges in its indictment that Gomes, “in addition to leading his own criminal organization, was responsible for transporting drugs from production sites in Andean countries to their destination in Paraguay or Brazil.”

    Prosecutors claim he “coordinated the aircraft fleet and recruited narco-pilots.”

    Gomes allegedly oversaw two clandestine airstrips — one in Paraguay and another in Brazil — according to prosecution files. Cocaine was flown from Bolivia and Colombia to Paraguay, put on another plane, and from there flown to Brazil. The drugs were then shipped out of Brazilian ports to Europe.

    The MPF investigation is code named “Balkans,” and investigators claim that a man working with Gomes was in contact with members of a Balkan organized crime group, which managed drug shipments from Brazilian ports to Europe.

    The Balkans investigation follows up on a 2021 MPF investigation named “Hinterland,”uncovered an alleged international drug trafficking scheme involving Paraguay and Brazil. Investigators said they found at least 11 tonnes of cocaine moved from South America to Europe between 2020 and 2021.

    In Hinterland, Brazilian investigators say they were able to unravel the drug trafficking scheme by seizing “shielded” phones and devices using encrypted applications such as Sky ECC. Gomes was not charged in the Hinterland investigation. However, investigators working on the Balkan case later discovered his name among the Sky ECC chats.

    Núñez, Gomes’ lawyer, told OCCRP the Sky chats alone do not constitute enough evidence to prove her client was guilty.   

    “Basically, there are no witnesses, nor documentary proof, nor suitable means to link Alexandre to the case, beyond the messages contained in the Sky system,” Núñez said.

    According to Brazilian prosecutors, Gomes used a shell company called FRG Constructora S.A. to launder drug money into luxury real estate projects like the Tetryz Palace in Pedro Juan Caballero, a Paraguayan city on the border with Brazil.

    Núñez said her client had testified in a previous hearing in Paraguay that the purchases were legitimate.

    “I understand that all the properties he had were justified,” she said.

  • The FDA:  Promoting Quack Nostrums Based on “Incredible Stories” While Rejecting Vaccines Despite Successful RCTs

  • Pluralistic: Trump antitrust is dead (13 Feb 2026)

    Today’s links


    An altered version of a Gilded Age editorial cartoon titled 'Who controls the Senate?' which depicts the Senate as populated by tiny, ineffectual politicians ringed by massive, bloated, brooding monopolists. A door labeled 'people's entrance.' is firmly locked. A sign reads, 'This is a senate of the monopolists, by the monopolists and for the monopolists.' The image has been altered: an editorial cartoon of Boss Tweed, portrayed as a portly man in a business suit with a money-bag for a head, stands in the foreground. He is wearing a MAGA hat. On his shoulder perches a tiny, 'big stick' swinging FDR from another editorial cartoon. The logos of the monopolists in the background have been replaced with logos for Chevron, Coinbase, Google, Microsoft, WB, PGA, Apple, Comcast, Realpage and KKR.

    Trump antitrust is dead (permalink)

    Remember when the American right decided that it hated (some) big businesses, specifically Big Tech? A whole branch of the Trump coalition (including JD Vance, Matt Gaetz and Josh Hawley) declared themselves to be “Khanservatives,” a cheering section for Biden’s generationally important FTC commissioner Lina Khan:

    https://www.fastcompany.com/91156980/trump-vp-pick-j-d-vance-supports-big-tech-antitrust-crackdown

    Trump owes his power to his ability to bully and flatter a big, distrustful coalition of people who mostly hate each other into acting together, like the business lobby and the grievance-saturated conspiratorialists who hate Big Tech because they were momentarily prevented from calling for genocide or peddling election disinformation:

    https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/18/winning-is-easy/#governing-is-harder

    The best framing for the MAGA war on Big Tech comes from Trashfuture’s Riley Quinn, who predicted that the whole thing could be settled by tech companies’ boards agreeing to open every meeting with a solemn “stolen likes acknowledgment” that made repentance for all the shadowbanned culture warriors whose clout had been poached by soy content moderators.

    And that’s basically what happened. Trump’s antitrust agencies practiced “boss politics antitrust” in which favored courtiers were given free passes to violate the law, while Trump’s enemies were threatened with punitive antitrust investigations until they fell into line:

    https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/29/bondi-and-domination/#superjove

    Trump’s antitrust boss Gail Slater talked a big game about “Trump Antitrust” but was thwarted at every turn by giant corporations who figured out that if they gave a million bucks to a MAGA podcaster, they could go over Slater’s head and kill her enforcement actions. When Slater’s deputy, Roger Alford, went public to denounce the sleazy backroom dealings that led to the approval of the HPE/Juniper merger, he was forced out of the agency altogether and replaced with a Pam Bondi loyalist who served as a kind of politburo political officer in Slater’s agency:

    https://abovethelaw.com/2025/08/former-maga-attorney-goes-scorched-earth-with-corruption-allegations-in-antitrust-division/

    Bondi made no secret of her contempt for Slater, and frequently humiliated her in public. Now it seems that Bondi has gotten tired of this game and has forced Slater out altogether. As ever, Matt Stoller has the best analysis of how this happened and what it means:

    https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/trump-antitrust-chief-ousted-by-ticketmaster

    Stoller’s main thesis is that the “conservative populist” movement only gained relevance by complaining about “censorship of conservatives” on the Big Tech platforms. While it’s true that the platforms constitute an existential risk to free expression thanks to their chokehold over speech forums, it was always categorically untrue that conservatives were singled out by tech moderators:

    https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/10/e2e/#the-censors-pen

    Conservative populists’ grievance-based politics is in contrast with the progressive wing of the anti-monopoly movement, which was concerned with the idea of concentrated power itself, and sought to dismantle and neuter the power of the business lobby and the billionaires who ran it:

    https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/20/we-should-not-endure-a-king/

    The problem with conservative populism, then, is that its movement was propelled by the idea that Big Tech was soy and cucked and mean to conservatives. That meant that Big Tech bosses had an easy path out of its crosshairs: climb into the tank for MAGA.

    That’s just what they did: Musk bought Twitter; Zuck ordered his content moderators to censor the left and push MAGA influencers; Bezos neutered his newspaper in the run up to the 2024 elections; Tim Cook hand-assembled a gold participation trophy for Trump live on camera. These CEOs paid a million dollars each for seats on Trump’s inauguration dais and their companies donated millions for Trump’s Epstein Memorial Ballroom.

    Slater’s political assassination merely formalizes something that’s been obvious for a year now: you can rip off the American people with impunity so long as you flatter and bribe Trump.

    The HP/Juniper merger means that one company now supplies the majority of commercial-grade wifi routers, meaning that one company now controls all the public, commercial, and institutional internet you’ll ever connect to. The merger was worth $14b, and Trump’s trustbusters promised to kill it. So the companies paid MAGA influencer Mike Davis (who had publicly opposed the merger) a million bucks and he got Trump to overrule his own enforcers. Getting your $14b merger approved by slipping a podcaster a million bucks is a hell of a bargain.

    HP/Juniper were first, but they weren’t the last. There was the Discover/Capital One merger, which rolled up the two credit cards that low-waged people rely on the most, freeing the new company up for even more predatory practices, price-gouging, junk-fees, and strong-arm collections. When the bill collectors are at your door looking for thousands you owe from junk fees, remember that it was Gail Slater’s weakness that sent them there:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/business/dealbook/capital-one-discover-merger.html

    Slater also waved through the rollup of a string of nursing homes by one of the world’s most notoriously greedy and cruel private equity firms, KKR. When your grandma dies of dehydration in a dirty diaper, thank Gail Slater:

    https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/09/dingo-babysitter/#maybe-the-dingos-ate-your-nan

    Slater approved the merger of Unitedhealth – a company notorious for overbilling the government while underdelivering to patients – with Amedisys, who provide hospice care and home health help:

    https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-requires-broad-divestitures-resolve-challenge-unitedhealths-acquisition

    The hits keep coming. Want to know why your next vacation was so expensive? Thank Slater for greenlighting the merger of American Express Global Business Travel and CWT Holdings, which Slater challenged but then dropped, reportedly because MAGA influencer Mike Davis told her to.

    Davis also got Slater to reverse her opposition to the Compass/Anywhere Real Estate merger, which will make America’s dysfunctional housing market even worse:

    https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/real-estate-brokerages-avoided-merger-investigation-after-justice-department-rift-e846c797?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqdSXg4z1XPl2UpqdHR4V2-sNj9M7oDcWHscPIXuSU-5n0gtYEv8Q5XZG7qtzfY%3D&gaa_ts=698e44a6&gaa_sig=IO7tWGaHZSYER64YyUzyoiVtrOKR77ZsYMMOdwN1P7koRt9zXYRJ1hxw2oDU9cD40-aGgHHVfwMWg14olFwNaw%3D%3D

    It’s not just homebuyers whose lives are worse off because of Slater’s failures, it’s tenants, too. Slater settled the DoJ’s case against Realpage, a price-fixing platform for landlords that is one of the most culpable villains in the affordability crisis. Realpage was facing an existential battle with the DoJ; instead, they got away with a wrist-slap and (crucially) are allowed to continue to make billions helping landlords rig the rental market against tenants.

    So Slater’s defenestration is really just a way of formalizing Trump’s approach to antitrust: threaten and prosecute companies that don’t bend the knee to the president, personally…and allow companies to rob the American people with impunity if they agree to kick up a percentage to the Oval Office.

    But while Slater will barely rate a footnote in the history of the Trump administration, the precipitating event for her political execution is itself very interesting. Back in September, Trump posed with Kid Rock and announced that he was going after Ticketmaster/Live Nation, a combine with a long, exhaustively documented history of ripping off and defrauding every entertainer, fan and venue in America:

    https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/ftc-sues-ticketmaster-saying-it-uses-illegal-tactics-to-make-fans-pay-more-for-live-events

    At the time, it was clear that Trump had been prodded into action by two factors: the incredible success of the Mamdani campaign’s focus on “affordability” (Ticketmaster’s above-inflation price hikes are one of the most visible symptoms of the affordability crisis) and Kid Rock’s personal grievances about Ticketmaster.

    Kid Rock is the biggest-name entertainer in the Trump coalition, the guy Trump got to headline a MAGA halftime show that notably failed to dim Bad Bunny’s star by a single milliwatt. Trump – a failed Broadway producer – is also notoriously susceptible to random pronouncements by celebrities (hence the Fox and Friends-to-Trump policy pipeline), so it’s natural that Kid Rock’s grousing got action after decades of documented abuses went nowhere.

    Ticketmaster could have solved the problem by offering to exempt Trump-loyal entertainers from its predatory practices. They could have announced a touring Trumpapalooza festival headlined by Kid Rock, Christian rock acts, and AI-generated country singers, free from all junk fees. Instead, they got Gail Slater fired.

    Mike Davis doesn’t just represent HPE/Juniper, Amex travel, and Compass/Anywhere – he’s also the fixer that Ticketmaster hired to get off the hook with the DoJ. He’s boasting about getting Slater fired:

    https://x.com/gekaminsky/status/2022076364279755066

    And Ticketmaster is off the hook:

    https://prospect.org/2026/02/12/trump-justice-department-ticketmaster-live-nation-monopoly/

    What’s interesting about all this is that there were elements of the Biden coalition that also hated antitrust (think of all the Biden billionaires who called for Lina Khan to be fired while serving as “proxies” for Kamala Harris). And yet, Biden’s trustbusters did more in four short years than their predecessors managed over the preceding forty.

    Stoller’s theory is that the progressive anti-monopoly movement (the “Brandeisians”) were able to best their coalitional rivals because they did the hard work of winning support for the idea of shattering corporate power itself – not just arguing that corporate power was bad when it was used against them.

    This was a slower, harder road than dividing up the world into good monopolies and bad ones, but it paid off. Today the Brandeisians who made their bones under Biden are serving the like of Mamdani:

    https://pluralistic.net/2025/11/15/unconscionability/#standalone-authority

    And their ideas have spread far and wide – even to other countries:

    https://lewisforleader.ca/ideas/public-options-full-plan/

    They lit a fire that burns still. Who knows, maybe someday it’ll even help Kid Rock scorch the Ticketmaster ticks that are draining his blood from a thousand tiny wounds. He probably won’t have the good manners to say thank you.

    Hey look at this (permalink)


    A shelf of leatherbound history books with a gilt-stamped series title, 'The World's Famous Events.'

    Object permanence (permalink)

    #20yrsago Google Video DRM: Why is Hollywood more important than users? https://memex.craphound.com/2006/02/13/google-video-drm-why-is-hollywood-more-important-than-users/

    #20yrsago Phishers trick Internet “trust” companies https://web.archive.org/web/20060222232249/http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/02/the_new_face_of_phishing_1.html

    #15yrsago With a Little Help: first post-publication progress report https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/cory-doctorow/article/46105-with-a-little-help-the-early-returns.html

    #15yrsago Nokia’s radical CEO has a mercenary, checkered past https://web.archive.org/web/20100608100324/http://www.siliconbeat.com/2008/01/11/microsoft-beware-stephen-elop-is-a-flight-risk/

    #15yrsago Scientology’s science fictional origins: thesis from 1981 https://web.archive.org/web/20110218045653/http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/opendissertations/126/

    #10yrsago I was a Jeopardy! clue https://memex.craphound.com/2016/02/13/i-was-a-jeopardy-clue/

    #10yrsago Liberated Yazidi sex slaves become a vengeful, elite anti-ISIS fighting force https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-yazidi-sex-slaves-take-up-arms-for-mosul-fight-to-bring-our-women-home-a6865056.html

    #10yrsago Listen: a new podcast about science fiction and spectacular meals https://www.scottedelman.com/2016/02/10/the-first-episode-of-eating-the-fantastic-with-guest-sarah-pinsker-is-now-live/

    #10yrsago Politician given green-light to name developer’s new streets with synonyms for greed and deceit https://web.archive.org/web/20160213001324/http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2016/02/8590908/staten-island-borough-president-gets-approval-name-new-streets-gre

    #5yrsago $50T moved from America’s 90% to the 1% https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/13/data-protection-without-monopoly/#inequality

    #5yrsago Broad Band https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/13/data-protection-without-monopoly/#broad-band

    #5yrsago Privacy Without Monopoly https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/13/data-protection-without-monopoly/#comcom

    #1yrago Premature Internet Activists https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/13/digital-rights/#are-human-rights

    Upcoming appearances (permalink)

    A photo of me onstage, giving a speech, pounding the podium.


    A screenshot of me at my desk, doing a livecast.

    Recent appearances (permalink)


    A grid of my books with Will Stahle covers..

    Latest books (permalink)


    A cardboard book box with the Macmillan logo.

    Upcoming books (permalink)

    • “The Reverse-Centaur’s Guide to AI,” a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2026

    • “Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It” (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026

    • “The Post-American Internet,” a geopolitical sequel of sorts to Enshittification, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2027

    • “Unauthorized Bread”: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2027

    • “The Memex Method,” Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2027


    Colophon (permalink)

    Today’s top sources:

    Currently writing: “The Post-American Internet,” a sequel to “Enshittification,” about the better world the rest of us get to have now that Trump has torched America (1016 words today, 28750 total)

    • “The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to AI,” a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux about being an effective AI critic. LEGAL REVIEW AND COPYEDIT COMPLETE.

    • “The Post-American Internet,” a short book about internet policy in the age of Trumpism. PLANNING.

    • A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

    This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

    How to get Pluralistic:

    Blog (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):

    Pluralistic.net

    Newsletter (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):

    https://pluralistic.net/plura-list

    Mastodon (no ads, tracking, or data-collection):

    https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic

    Medium (no ads, paywalled):

    https://doctorow.medium.com/

    Twitter (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising):

    https://twitter.com/doctorow

    Tumblr (mass-scale, unrestricted, third-party surveillance and advertising):

    https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/tagged/pluralistic

    “When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla” -Joey “Accordion Guy” DeVilla

    READ CAREFULLY: By reading this, you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies (“BOGUS AGREEMENTS”) that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer.

    ISSN: 3066-764X

  • Discord Voluntarily Pushes Mandatory Age Verification Despite Recent Data Breach

    Discord has begun rolling out mandatory age verification and the internet is, understandably, freaking out.

    At EFF, we’ve been raising the alarm about age verification mandates for years. In December, we launched our Age Verification Resource Hub to push back against laws and platform policies that require users to hand over sensitive personal information just to access basic online services. At the time, age gates were largely enforced in polities where it was mandated by law. Now they’re landing in platforms and jurisdictions where they’re not required.

    Beginning in early March, users who are either (a) estimated by Discord to be under 18, or (b) Discord doesn’t have enough information on, may find themselves locked into a “teen-appropriate experience.” That means content filters, age gates, restrictions on direct messages and friend requests, and the inability to speak in “Stage channels,” which are the large-audience audio spaces that power many community events. Discord says most adults may be sorted automatically through a new “age inference” system that relies on account tenure, device and activity data, and broader platform patterns. Those whose age isn’t estimated due to lack of information or who are estimated to not be adults will be asked to scan their face or upload a government ID through a third-party vendor if they want to avoid the default teen account restrictions.

    We’ve written extensively about why age verification mandates are a censorship and surveillance nightmare. Discord’s shift only reinforces those concerns. Here’s why:

    The 2025 Breach and What’s Changed Since

    Discord literally won our 2025 “We Still Told You So” Breachies Award. Last year, attackers accessed roughly 70,000 users’ government IDs, selfies, and other sensitive information after compromising Discord’s third-party customer support system.

    To be clear: Discord is no longer using that system, which involved routing ID uploads through its general ticketing system for age verification. It now uses dedicated age verification vendors (k-ID globally and Persona for some users in the United Kingdom).

    That’s an improvement. But it doesn’t eliminate the underlying potential for data breaches and other harms. Discord says that it will delete records of any user-uploaded government IDs, and that any facial scans will never leave users’ devices. But platforms are closed-source, audits are limited, and history shows that data (especially this ultra-valuable identity data) will leak—whether through hacks, misconfigurations, or retention mistakes. Users are being asked to simply trust that this time will be different.

    Age Verification and Anonymous Speech

    For decades, we’ve taught young people a simple rule: don’t share personal information with strangers online.

    Age verification complicates that advice. Suddenly, some Discord users will now be asked to submit a government ID or facial scan to access certain features if their age-inference technology fails. Discord has said on its blog that it will not associate a user’s ID with their account (only using that information to confirm their age) and that identifying documents won’t be retained. We take those commitments seriously. However, users have little independent visibility into how those safeguards operate in practice or whether they are sufficient to prevent identification.

    Even if Discord can technically separate IDs from accounts, many users are understandably skeptical, especially after the platform’s recent breach involving age-verification data. For people who rely on pseudonymity, being required to upload a face scan or government ID at all can feel like crossing a line.

    Many people rely on anonymity to speak freely. LGBTQ+ youth, survivors of abuse, political dissidents, and countless others use aliases to explore identity, find support, and build community safely. When identity checks become a condition of participation, many users will simply opt out. The chilling effect isn’t only about whether an ID is permanently linked to an account; it’s about whether users trust the system enough to participate in the first place. When you’re worried that what you say can be traced back to your government ID, you speak differently—or not at all.

    No one should have to choose between accessing online communities and protecting their privacy.

    Age Verification Systems Are Not Ready for Prime Time

    Discord says it is trying to address privacy concerns by using device-based facial age estimation and separating government IDs from user accounts, retaining only a user’s age rather than their identity documents. This is meant to reduce the risks associated with retaining and collecting this sensitive data. However, even when privacy safeguards are in place, we are faced with another problem: There is no current technology that is fully privacy-protective, universally accessible, and consistently accurate. Facial age estimation tools are notoriously unreliable, particularly for people of color, trans and nonbinary people, and people with disabilities. The internet has now proliferated with stories of people bypassing these facial age estimation tools. But when systems get it wrong, users may be forced into appeals processes or required to submit more documentation, such as government-issued IDs, which would exclude those whose appearance doesn’t match their documents and the millions of people around the world who don’t have government-issued identity documents at all.

    Even newer approaches (things like age inference, behavior tracking, financial database checks, digital ID systems) expand the web of data collection, and carry their own tradeoffs around access and error. As we mentioned earlier, no current approach is simultaneously privacy-protective, universally accessible, and consistently accurate across all demographics. 

    That’s the challenge: the technology itself is not fit for the sweeping role platforms are asking it to play.

    That’s the challenge: the technology itself is not fit for the sweeping role platforms are asking it to play.

    The Aftermath

    Discord reports over 200 million monthly active users, and is one of the largest platforms used by gamers to chat. The video game industry is larger than movies, TV, and music combined, and Discord represents an almost-default option for gamers looking to host communities.

    Many communities, including open-source projects, sports teams, fandoms, friend groups, and families, use Discord to stay connected. If communities or individuals are wrongly flagged as minors, or asked to complete the age verification process, they may face a difficult choice: submit to facial scans or ID checks, or accept a more restricted “teen” experience. For those who decline to go through the process, the result can mean reduced functionality, limited communication tools, and the chilling effects that follow. 

    Most importantly, Discord did not have to “comply in advance” by requiring age verification for all users, whether or not they live in a jurisdiction that mandates it. Other social media platforms and their trade groups have fought back against more than a dozen age verification laws in the U.S., and Reddit has now taken the legal fight internationally. For a platform with as much market power as Discord, voluntarily imposing age verification is unacceptable. 

    So You’ve Hit an Age Gate. Now What?

    Discord should reconsider whether expanding identity checks is worth the harm to its communities. But in the meantime, many users are facing age checks today.

    That’s why we created our guide, “So You’ve Hit an Age Gate. Now What?” It walks through practical steps to minimize risk, such as:

    • Submit the least amount of sensitive data possible.
    • Ask: What data is collected? Who can access it? How long is it retained?
    • Look for evidence of independent, security-focused audits.
    • Be cautious about background details in selfies or ID photos.

    There is unfortunately no perfect option, only tradeoffs. And every user will have their own unique set of safety concerns to consider. Amidst this confusion, our goal is to help keep you informed, so you can make the best choices for you and your community.

    In light of the harms imposed by age-verification systems, EFF encourages all services to stop adopting these systems when they are not mandated by law. And lawmakers across the world that are considering bills that would make Discord’s approach the norm for every platform should watch this backlash and similarly move away from the idea.

    If you care about privacy, free expression, and the right to participate online without handing over your identity, now is the time to speak up.

    Join us in the fight.

  • Argentina Blocks Pirate Streaming Services Magis TV and Xuper TV, VPN Usage Skyrockets

    Argentina Blocks Pirate Streaming Services Magis TV and Xuper TV, VPN Usage Skyrockets

    In September 2024, we reported on an unprecedented anti-piracy measure handed down in Argentina.

    Judge Esteban Rossignoli required local ISPs to block 69 domains linked to the pirate IPTV service Magis TV. More controversially, the judge also ordered Google to remotely uninstall sideloaded Magis TV apps from all Android devices with Argentine IP addresses.

    “What was achieved is an unprecedented court order, which is in the process of being analyzed by Google – we understand that they cannot deny it – which is to uninstall, through the Android operating system update, the application on all devices that have an IP address in Argentina,” prosecutor Alejandro Musso said at the time.

    While the Magis TV crackdown has some effect, the brand wasn’t gone. New IPTV services continued to pop up, including an apparent rebrand: XuperTV. This week, these two services are both targeted in a new high-profile court order.

    70+ Domains Blocked, Apps Go Dark

    On February 10 and 11, thousands of Argentine users discovered that Magis TV and its successor Xuper TV had stopped working entirely. Channel lists wouldn’t load, connections timed out, and in some cases, the apps completely vanished from smart TVs and mobile devices.

    This is the result of Judge Rossignoli’s new court order, which covers more than 70 domains. The order requires ISPs to block domains and IP-addresses and, similar to the earlier version, orders Google to disable the applications on Android devices connecting from Argentina.

    Users attempting to open the apps are greeted with a blunt message:

    “Due to policy limitations, the account cannot be used in your area. Contact your retailer.”

    The court order is part of a broader enforcement action, led by Argentina’s Specialized Unit on Cybercrime (UFEIC) under prosecutor Musso. According to La Nación and Cadena 3, the investigation included raids and the seizure of hundreds of TV Boxes. Those identified as responsible face up to six years in prison.

    Before the full block hit, the platforms reportedly tried to limit their exposure by deleting all Argentine channels. However, that clearly didn’t work.

    Operación 404

    The Argentinian enforcement is part of Operación 404, an international anti-piracy operation led by Brazil’s Ministry of Justice that has previously coordinated raids and domain seizures across Latin America.

    TVs

    Coinciding with the Argentinian actions, Chile’s Department of Telecommunications ordered ISPs to block all sites using the brands Magis Tv, Flujo TV, Xuper TV or their variants. That includes “any domain, subdomain, IP address, link, redirect or mirror” that reproduces the content. The dynamic blocking order gives ISPs five days to comply.

    The Chilean action was triggered by a complaint from Warner Bros. Discovery. ISPs must display a notice stating the sites were blocked for intellectual property infringement.

    The Milei/Trump IP Agreement

    The timing of the anti-piracy actions might not be coincidental. On February 5, Argentina and the United States signed a trade and investment agreement that includes explicit commitments on intellectual property enforcement.

    Argentina committed to “establish a robust standard of protection for intellectual property” and to create “effective systems for enforcement in civil, criminal, and border areas” that “combat and deter the infringement or misappropriation of intellectual property, including in the digital environment.”

    The United States reportedly lodged more than 100 copyright-related demands in the negotiations. Article 1.10 specifically commits Argentina to “investigate and bring criminal proceedings against operators of Argentina-based websites that engage in commercial-scale copyright piracy.”

    That language goes well beyond Magis TV. It also targets sites like Fútbol Libre and Pelota Libre, which stream Argentine football without authorization.

    VPN Interest Spikes

    In addition to blocking pirate sites, the actions had an immediate side effect: a surge in VPN usage.

    On February 10, Proton VPN’s account on X posted a graph showing a sharp spike in Argentine connections, asking: “Is everything okay in Argentina?”

    Apparently, pirates quickly began sharing workarounds on social media. A common one involves installing ProtonVPN, connecting to a Mexican server, then reopening Magis TV or Xuper TV. In some cases, the apps work again via the VPN.

    Others are changing DNS settings on their smart TVs manually, though this is reportedly becoming less effective. According to FayerWayer, rights protection systems are now using AI to identify pirate IPTV traffic in real time, leaving users who reconnect with constant interruptions and degraded quality.

    What’s Next

    The search for workarounds in response to blocking efforts is not new. We have seen this countless times already, dating back more than a decade ago. It doesn’t only apply to users either; the operators of pirate services and apps also have to get creative.

    Whether Google actually complied with the removal order and, if so, what actions it took precisely remains an open question. Magis TV apps were distributed mostly as sideloaded APK files from third-party websites. For Google to remotely disable such an app, it would need to intervene on the users’ devices directly.

    App developers could likely find ways to work around it by rebranding again, simply continuing the game of whack-a-mole. But that’s nothing new, of course.

    From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.