1951
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 13,064 posts.
1952
You can't censor away extremism or any other problem
Should we stop hate speech? What makes you think we can?
1953
Apple Will Not Reinstate Epic’s Fortnite Developer Account
Accounts that have never been disabled include the accounts for Rocket League (a game whose Mac support [Epic discontinued in January 2020][rl]), and separately, Unreal Engine. My understanding is that none of those accounts are affected by Apple’s decision not to reinstate the Fortnite developer account.
1954
Not an Amazon Problem
The NY Times profile quotes me saying “We don’t really have an Amazon problem. What we have is a deep, societal problem with an unacceptable imbalance of power and wealth.” But the URL contained the string “amazon-critic-tim-bray” and the HTML <title> says “Tim Bray Is Not Done With Amazon”. I feel like I’m being…
1955
1956
FDA grants Breakthrough Therapy designation to MDMA for treatment of PTSD
The non-profit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation to MDMA for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). MAPS and the FDA have also reached agreement under the Special…
1957
DOOMscrolling: The Game
Can a game work where all you do is scroll?
1958
German Parliament says: Stop Granting Software Patents
The German Parliament, the Bundestag, has introduced a joint motion against software patents. The resolution urges the German government to take steps to l...
1959
Rant: Year of Linux on the desktop
A rant about "year of Linux on the desktop" from a tired old man. I've been part of the Linux community since before Linux was called Linux. Over the years there's been many people telling me directly that Linux is silly or wrong or imperfect, or that free and open source software is foolish or pointless. A lot more…
1960
Why is every rationalist blog post way too long?
For my piece on Catholic miracle apologetics , I read (correction: skimmed) a 25,000-word post by rationalist blogger Scott Alexander. My piece, which cited (but does not focus on) his, ended up being a cool 2,700 words. I don't think it would benefit from being longer, and it was the result of me cutting around 70%…
1961
MIT to no longer consider SAT subject tests in admissions decisions
Archived MIT Admissions blog post 'A special announcement about SAT Subject Tests,' published March 20, 2020. Preserved for historical context; not maintained as current admissions policy.
1962
1963
Kids who get smartphones earlier become adults with worse mental health
New global study from Sapien Labs finds consistent links, stronger for girls
1964
1965
Windows 11 system components use the default browser to open links in Europe
Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23531 to the Dev Channel. Changes and Improvements [General] [REMINDER] Insider Pr
1966
Thomas Piketty: “Germany has never repaid.”
My translation of DIE ZEIT’s interview with Thomas Piketty is now hosted by TheWire.in. Read it here.
1967
The Closed, Unfriendly World of Wikipedia
Right now, Wikipedia is busy asking for donations to stay afloat. Here’s a thought. If it wants donations, maybe open things up so that outsiders feel like they can contribute expert knowledge without wasting their time.
1968
1969
Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place
Personal blog of Stephen Diehl - Software engineer writing about technology, programming, and the future
1970
1971
What happened to TheNumbers.com
If you work in or around the film industry, there is a decent chance you have used the work of The Numbers this month, whether you realise it or not.
1972
1973
Privacy Is a Human Right
Every donation between now and December 31 will be matched, 1:1, by Friends of Tor. Stand up for the human right to privacy and donate to the Tor Project today. Plus… new swag!
1974
Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites
Russia's government has escalated its use of its Internet censorship law to target news sites, bloggers, and politicians under the slimmest excuse of preventing unauthorized protests and enforcing house arrest regulations. Today, the country's ISPs have received orders to block a list of major news...
1975
Platforms want to be utilities, self-govern like empires
Whether it’s “bringing the world closer together” (Facebook), “organizing the world’s information” (Google), to be a market “where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online” (Amazon) or “to make personal computing accessible to each and every individual” (Apple), the founding missions of…
1976
1977
The hypocrisy of cyberlibertarianism
I like the Internet. I am old enough to remember the pre-Internet era and despite the younger generations pining for those simpler days, I was there. Paper maps were absolutely horrible, just you and a compass in your car on the side of the road in the middle of
1978
1979
What really happens inside a dating app
I have been working inside a dating app for a few months and there are a lot of interesting things. This article is going to be without any structure as there are many things to say. I will mostly ignore homosexual interactions. Not because they don't exist, just because it …
1980
The time has come to stand up for the GPL
The Software Freedom Conservancy provides a non-profit home and services to Free, Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) projects.