[lemme_tell_ya]

> It has been falsely claimed that the measure undertaken by MCMC is a draconian measure. We reiterate that Malaysia’s implementation is for the protection of vulnerable groups from harmful online content.

That's how it _always_ starts out, the "its for your own good, trust me" excuse.

[mensetmanusman]

Has anyone built the AI web browser yet? The one that redraws any image you might find offensive, rewords advertisements, and rephrases comments to be positive?

That would be cool?

[dudeinjapan]

Startup idea #72831: Build "Nostalgia" browser which uses AI to convert every page to Web 1.0, complete with "Under Construction" banners and CGI visitor counters.

[linotype]

+1, I’d pay for a license.

[TacticalCoder]

> The one that redraws any image you might find offensive, rewords advertisements, and rephrases comments to be positive?

You're kidding but I've already toyed with using AI models to analyze browsers' screenshots and determining if it's likely phishing or not and it works very well.

[jay-barronville]

> […] I've already toyed with using AI models to analyze browsers' screenshots and determining if it's likely phishing or not and it works very well.

Assuming the AI is comparing screenshots of real versus phishing, it can only figure it out for poorly done phishing websites.

As phishing scams get more sophisticated with scam websites that look exactly like the real ones, the only things that truly matter are protocols (i.e., HTTP versus HTTPS), domains, URL’s, certificates, etc.

[keeda]

Very interesting, I'm working on exactly the same problem from a couple different angles, but I'm not having much luck. I have negligible background in AI/ML or computer vision however, so I'm most certainly Holding it Wrong (TM). My general approach has been trying to generate embeddings using smaller models like MobileNet and ResNet (not trained or finetuned or anything) and using similarity metrics like Cosine distance, but there's too many false positives. If you can disclose it, would you be willing to expand on what has worked for you?

[krona]

I would call it Soma in reference to Brave New World.

[talldayo]

Yes: https://github.com/alganzory/HaramBlur

[UristMcPencil]

Issue#92: boycott GitHub for Zionism

Given the repo name, I shouldn't have been surprised

[aguaviva]

Unfortunately there is a very pertinent context to the concerns raised by that user:

  Microsoft has invested in a startup that uses facial recognition to surveil Palestinians throughout the West Bank, in spite of the tech giant’s public pledge to avoid using the technology if it encroaches on democratic freedoms.

  AnyVision, which is headquartered in Israel but has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore, sells an “advanced tactical surveillance” software system, Better Tomorrow. It lets customers identify individuals and objects in any live camera feed, such as a security camera or a smartphone, and then track targets as they move between different feeds.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/why-did-microsoft-fund-isra...

[thelittleone]

They seriously called this app Better Tomorrow. Just wow.

[jay-barronville]

> Yes: https://github.com/alganzory/HaramBlur

No. This is more similar to an ad blocker, but focused on helping Muslims respect their religious standards while they browse the web. I’m not a Muslim, but it makes perfect sense to me. Good for them—I see no problem with it.

[stoperaticless]

Mixed feelings.

Somebody installs it for him/her-self. Sure, power to you!

Neibhour in non-muslim state installs it for their children: their right, but feels fishy regarding child right to truth.

[jay-barronville]

> […] their right, but feels fishy regarding child right to truth.

I’m not sure what’s fishy about it. Parents have always controlled what their children should have access to and consume. The entire concept of “parental controls” exists for this reason—we’ve always understood a parent’s rights over their children and none of that was at all controversial until like 5 minutes ago.

This is a digression anyway, so I’ll just stop there…

[umbra07]

Yes, let's encourage gender divides and backwards thinking.

[jay-barronville]

> Yes, let's encourage gender divides and backwards thinking.

I’m sorry that everyone in the world doesn’t think the way you’d like them to.

I know lots of Muslims, both male and female, and they’re perfectly normal to me. In fact, some of them are some of the most wholesome folks I know: Humble and hardworking humans who build and love their families, and of course, believe in something much greater than themselves. I see nothing “backwards” about that.

[Log_out_]

just dont seem to produce much art ,innovation and working institutions in any region they are culturally dominant. and when asked why that is digress fast into antisemitism and conspiracy babble.

[BlueTemplar]

There have been a bunch of more or less jokey browser extensions over the years replacing some specific words by others.

[AStonesThrow]

"Guys, I am just pleased as punch to inform you that there are two thermo-nuclear missiles headed this way... if you don't mind, I'm gonna go ahead and take evasive action." -- Eddie, the Shipboard Computer (Douglas Adams)

[causality0]

In the past I've had fun with extensions that randomize genders and ethnicities.

[A4ET8a8uTh0]

Hah. It is still early morning so I let my mind run wild for a while. I am not aware of any public facing projects that do that, but in my minds eye I saw polymorphic browser adjusting its code to meet the new AI web that is constantly in flux.

You want privacy? It stamps out any attempts at fingerprinting by attempting to be the most common browser (and config) out there, it spoofs any and all identifying data, it redraws pages without paywalls, without cookie notices and puts all pages in simple text output mode removing all other ads in the process, but keeps pictures for fora that use them.

You want 1984? It won't let you see anything that is not approved by the party.

Onwards, to our glorious future.

edit:

Valuemaxx edition. Store pages with discounts have bruteforced discounts found and added for maximum value.

It already is crazy. I can't even begin to imagine it being more crazy.

[mensetmanusman]

This should exist. You could get to such low bandwidth with such a system. Every image could be replaced by a description. Etc.

[echelon]

This would kill Google if it caught on.

[kylebenzle]

This IS Google.

[kylebenzle]

That is 100% what Facebook and Google are doing now with targeted ads and search results.

Most people already only see the web the way Google wants them to see it.

[brookst]

True, but to be fair this isn’t Google being ideological. They’re just responding to customer signals that customers prefer content to be shaped. If there was more CLV in one-size-fits-all search results, Google would do that.

There’s an argument that Google should not cater to our preferences, but I don’t think I buy it.

[Hizonner]

Google's customers are advertisers, not you.

[rvba]

There was an article here 2 or 3 months ago about the person responsible for making google search so much worse.

So arguably google does not respond to customers anymore. Shareholders? Maybe. But probably those who prefer short term gain, not long term value.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40133976

[lincon127]

Well, that sounds horrifying.

[zarzavat]

Malaysia famously banned the movie Babe because a talking pig might offend religious sensibilities. It’s a safe to say that freedom of expression is not a high priority over there.

[fasa99]

It's completely insane. "We have been blessed by the Lord above to have the superhuman ability to predict what will cause harm, please take our blessings onto you, we shall altruistically protect you from harm".

The whole precedent of the language is also insane. Imagine if words COULD in reality cause harm. Monty Python satirized the concept here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qklvh5Cp_Bs The "online words cause harm" is as absurd as that skit. Really the damage is in people claiming to have been harmed, emotionally, by a word, them wielding that as victim-power aka crybullying - that can translate into school/career/legal problems that are more of a quantifiable harm. Further, if words were so damaging, as Monty Python shown us, they would immediately be weaponized, the sensitivity to this topic is extreme hyperbole.

Since the premise of works causing harm is nonsense, the definition of harm is equally superfluous. Talk to any student council president or HOA president who only did it for the power, about some initiative they alone are driving against the wishes of the group, and you will find hand waves and sugarcoats everywhere, their selfish intent somewhat easy to see behind the well-sounding good-intending reasons. Politics at the national scale is the same exact game, just that the power hungry people waving hands are much skilled and experienced.

[cebert]

It’s for the children! Don’t you love children?

[chaostheory]

This is also coming from a country that’s implemented apartheid

[vondur]

Malaysia has an apartheid policy?

[ImJamal]

Yes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketuanan_Melayu

[vondur]

Wow, didn't know this. I have a friend from Indonesia, who is of Chinese descent. They were forced to take Indonesian names and ditch their Chinese names.

[madbkarim]

To compare “Ketuanan Melayu” to apartheid is a bit of stretch, no?

Apartheid was implemented by the non-natives (i.e. white colonialists) towards the natives, while this is a different concept.

[ImJamal]

I don't know the veracity, but according to Wikipedia the British encouraged the system. So while the British may not have directly caused it they let it fester while they controlled Malaysia.

Regardless, when I look up the definition of apartheid it doesn't seem to require the non-natives being the ones to implement it.

[chaostheory]

Yes, for anyone not part of the majority Malaysian population, specifically against Indian and Chinese people.

[1oooqooq]

"think of the children" is never out of style.

but remember we have this (widespread from 90s to 2010) to this day in the USA, and they don't even bother with excuses. just shove advertising and hijack searches right on your face.

google didn't force httpsdns on your browser for nothing. it was digging in THEIR pockets.

[pipes]

Not exactly the same thing, as it isn't a law.

[speedchess]

Which makes it worse in many ways. The entire tech, business, etc world has adopted the same censorship regime without government orders. So who is giving out the orders?

[linotype]

Shareholders.

[spacemanspiff01]

Why does Google benefit from httpsdns?

[em-bee]

httpsdns in the chrome browser will by default go to googles dns servers allowing them to collect all the tracking data.

[selcuka]

They could've done that without httpsdns too.

[em-bee]

yes, but then they would have upset local admins for bypassing the local resolver. that is still an issue with httpdns, but now they have a better argument against using the local resolver as default.

the ideal situation would actually be to implement httpdns on the OS/router level and allow the user/local admin choose the policy. i expect that this is going to happen soon in most linux distributions.

[brookst]

Surely they could just as easily report all DNS queries to Google under the guise of telemetry or search optimization or whatever. And of course let people disable that, which about 0.001% would do.

Httpdns is too complex of a solution to the business goal you’re suggesting. There are much simpler / less expensive ways of doing it.

[1oooqooq]

Before it, typing "hawaii Hotels" on the addresa bar and pressing enter would generate a dns search... Verizon et al woule intercept and send you to THEIR search engine.

It's the main reason google google pushed httpdns and chrome. So you go to google.com. google current money cow is literally AOL keywords.

[protomolecule]

Every power can be used for good or for evil.

[Aerbil313]

No power used by humans exists in a vacuum. In the hands of human beings, most powers are heavily biased towards one extreme in the spectrum. Man doesn't shape the world with the tools of the time - technology shapes the world and the man.

Jacques Ellul and/or Ted Kaczynski might be a starting point on this matter.