“An Amsterdam court on Thursday ordered Elon Musk’s Grok to stop generating non-consensual nude pictures and child sexual abuse material. The company xAI, which owns the artificial intelligence chatbot, is ordered to pay damages of €100,000 per day for each day it fails to comply, up to a maximum of €10 million. … The platform took steps to restrict features in January after Grok was found to be generating [fake] pictures of real people in bikinis or nude. Estimates have said that around 3 million pictures were generated in 11 days.” (03/26/26)
“It is reasonable to imagine a wave of unease washing over the members of the Imperial Legislative Council in Delhi on 18 March 1919. The council had just rushed through the passing of what would be known as the Rowlatt Act, named after the chair of its producing committee, which extended the wartime powers of the police to make use of normally extra-judicial measures to curb civil unrest. Indian soldiers played a decisive role in the British imperial forces, and there was a widespread expectation that India ought to become more self-governing as part of the settlement in the postwar period. However …” (03/26/26)
“An appeals court has paused lower court rulings in Oregon that restricted federal officers’ use of tear gas during protests at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland. A three-judge panel at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the Trump administration’s request for temporary administrative stays in two cases on Wednesday. The 2-1 decision came from two judges appointed by President Donald Trump, with the dissenting judge appointed by former President Joe Biden. One of the lawsuits was filed by the ACLU of Oregon on behalf of protesters and freelance journalists, while the other was brought by residents of an affordable housing complex across from the Portland ICE building. The lawsuits argue that federal officers’ use of chemical and projectile munitions has violated the rights of protesters and residents.” (03/26/26)
“Rich & Riley discuss which propaganda to believe when hearing news of the Iran War, the Jones plantation and other allegories, and the Troll who couldn’t keep his mouth shut.” (03/26/26)
“My main qualification for talking about personal identity is that I have been around for long enough to have thought quite a lot about my own identity. I hope that what I have to say will interest other people. In any case, writing this podcast script should also help me to remember what I have learned about myself. Rather than meander through the circuitous history of my thinking, I will focus here on what I now consider to be a sensible approach to the topic. I will begin by discussing the most superficial aspects of personal identity and will end up considering whether your identity would be retained if your consciousness was uploaded into a machine.” (03/26/26)
It’s a FIREHOSE FRIDAY at the freedom movement’s daily newspaper — we’ve got at least 125 news stories, opinion pieces, and audio/video links for you today at our web edition (maybe more by the time you read this).
Why? Three reasons:
First, to remind our email digest subscribers of a change, effective a month or so ago, that you might have missed: EVERY day is now a “drink from the firehose” day, with extra content above and beyond the 60-70 items in the email edition. We usually have AT LEAST 15-20 extra links for you, sometimes more. So after you’ve looked at the digest, come on over for a visit at the web if you want more!
Second, to remind our web readers that we DO offer a daily email digest. It’s one, and only one, email message a day — no spam, and we never sell, rent, or share our subscriber list — with 60-70 handy summaries and links.
And third, of course, to remind our readers that we’re a reader-supported publication. We try to go easy on fundraising nine months out of the year (we run one real “fundraiser” in the fourth quarter), but we do have to occasionally bring it up. You can help out at:
