The Chompsky Weekly #53

In which Slack is repurposed as a comrade.

Hello!

This week I have been mostly reading about the ongoing union-busting at the New York Times.

Union-busting is illegal, so from pretty much any perspective, that’s cool of them.

Even the capitalists are like WHOA, mate… chill out:

FORTUNE @FortuneMagazine

The investment management firm Trillium Asset Management sent a letter to New York Times Company CEO Meredith Levien urging management to take a more neutral stance toward unionization efforts.

bit.lyThe Gray Lady has the union bluesThe New York Times Company’s anti-union behavior has led a coalition of investors to send a letter to the paper’s CEO urging management to take a more neutral stance on organized labor.

So here’s the funny part: NYT management woefully underestimated their tech staff, who they hired to be better than them at tech, by delivering anti-union messaging via a read-only Slack channel that tech staff proceeded to tech the hell out of:

NYT Tech Staff Use 'Slack Hack' to Fight Union Busting

It’s Sunday Feb 6th, 2022

Media News

• The UK’s upcoming Online Safety Bill will include “joining digital pile-ons, sending threatening social media posts and deliberately posting hoax bomb threats among the new criminal offences that could result in jail sentences.” In addition, where previously platforms were required to take content down, they will now be legally bound to prevent exposure at all. They will also “be required to prevent users from being exposed to content such as revenge porn, fraud and the sale of illegal drugs, or face the threat of substantial fines”. In response to Jimmy Carr’s jokes about the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community in his latest Netflix special, culture secretary Nadine Dorries also said this week that the bill will contain laws to hold streaming sites to account for offensive content. This is in contrast to previous comments she has made saying that “leftwing snowflakes are killing comedy”. (The Guardian)