2w ago

Platforms Systematically Removed a User Because He Made "Most Wanted CEO" Playing Cards

www.eff.org Platforms Systematically Removed a User Because He Made "Most Wanted CEO" Playing Cards

On December 14, James Harr, the owner of an online store called ComradeWorkwear, announced on social media that he planned to sell a deck of “Most Wanted CEO” playing cards, satirizing the infamous “Most-wanted Iraqi playing cards” introduced by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency in 2003. Per the....

chapotraphouse @hexbear.net

geese_feces [comrade/them, love/loves] @hexbear.net

2w ago

Platforms Systematically Removed a User Because He Made "Most Wanted CEO" Playing Cards

www.eff.org /deeplinks/2025/01/platforms-systematically-removed-user-because-he-made-most-wanted-ceo-playing

111 10

United States | News & Politics @midwest.social

BrikoX @lemmy.zip

2w ago

Platforms Systematically Removed a User Because He Made "Most Wanted CEO" Playing Cards

www.eff.org /deeplinks/2025/01/platforms-systematically-removed-user-because-he-made-most-wanted-ceo-playing

1 0

Technology @beehaw.org

chobeat @lemmy.ml

2w ago

Platforms Systematically Removed a User Because He Made "Most Wanted CEO" Playing Cards

www.eff.org /deeplinks/2025/01/platforms-systematically-removed-user-because-he-made-most-wanted-ceo-playing

7 18

86 comments

Really highlights the fact that any free speech and naive western sense of freedom in these walled garden is just a button press away from being taken away and that there are no rules or standards. Whenever the owners or their friends feel even slightly displeased, annoyed or god forbid afraid the masks go off and the hammer falls.
- Protocols not platforms are the future.
  
  Sadly look at email. Technically you can host it yourself but if you're not one of the 15 or so big providers, good luck not being marked as spam before you even do anything.
  The real problem is with the oligarchy controlling everything, service or protocol. This is why Threads was/is dangerous.
  
  Do protocols solve the problem of every hop in between you and the destination has to pass through what amounts to someone else's private property? Some private servers owned by who knows who on the way between that we have no idea whether they're inspecting every packet that comes through or not.
  Because that's the bigger issue, and I'm not even sure it's one we can solve, because it's pretty important to how the internet functions.
  A protocol still has to be supported and passed through private corporations walled gardens.
  Who else remembers Comcast illegally using Sandvine to throttle bittorrent traffic specifically? Pepperidge Farm 'members.
  https://torrentfreak.com/comcast-throttles-bittorrent-traffic-seeding-impossible/
- They've been getting away with their class-war for so long any deviation from norms is alarming. Usually we just talk about black vs white, right vs left, etc.
- It seems like this is not a case of "no rules or standards". These platforms do have rules and standards. The article mentions them, in fact.
  
  .. and then goes on to point out how they are arbitrarily applied.
  
  Do you happen to work in HR? You'd fit right in considering you defend arbitrarily applied rules at the behest of management.
- Except freedom of speech only applies to the government. You can't yell from your neighbor's front lawn either if they don't want you to.
  That said, the fact police were sent is BS.
- That is a fair point. I've said it to numerous people talking about this subject: Americans are the most propaganda inundated people on the planet. There's some quote about about how in China people know to not believe in the gov propaganda and here it's just called the news lmao
  
  I mean, North Korea exists. But yeah, Americans are extremely propagandized.

Here's an image of the playing cards, for anyone who just came to the comments.
- Having the suit one corner and the rank in the other is going to make these a bastard to play games with. How would you hold them in your hand so's that you can see both?
  
  Maybe the user was banned because of bad design?
  
  If all the suits have their own color then it would be OK to play with I think. A little annoying at first but playable
- With the target on the back, no shit this was removed lmao

No idea why nobody linked it yet, but you can buy them here: https://www.comradeworkwear.com/products/the-playing-cards

Honestly? That very much feels like a "fuck around and find out" situation and a GREAT way to piss off rich people in the event someone else gets blue shelled.
Also: Free speech doesn't apply to social media. You can and will be banned for no reason other than someone with the power was bored.
- Oh man blue shelled is perfect

Thankfully no one cares when Forbes posts their hit list every year.
https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/
- Man, there's way more than 52.
  He's gonna need a Magic: The Gathering like system for all those fuckers.
  
  Yeah, but I don’t think you’d even need to take out 52. After the first dozen or so, they’ll be more inclined to surrender their wealth and get off the list.

The fucking banks refused to let him take payments.
- They'll do that at the drop of a hat these days. It's been a slippery slope since WikiLeaks.
- That's fucking bullshit.
  Another reason why crypto is the future: to free us from the control of banks.

I think the cards are hilarious but they have something the other referenced sets (Iraqi, COVID) do not: silhouette targets on the back.
I am by no means defending their removal but cards but maybe don't give them a plausible excuse to remove them by implying that these cards are for shooting??
- Yeah. Threats are speech that attracts repercussions.

So just out of abstract curiosity, where can one acquire these cards?
- https://www.comradeworkwear.com/products/the-playing-cards

Well, yeah, platforms (unless otherwise specified) are for-profit. Anything that would impede their profit stream is naturally going to be censored so that profit can continue uninterrupted.
Can’t have some idiot poor going around making richoids uncomfortable, they’d just pull their money, and that would mean less money going to the platforms.
Step 1: profit. Step 2: profit. All other steps: profit. EZPZ
- This story goes way beyond that. The police have been harassing him as well.
  It’s one thing to ban him from your own platform. It’s another to make sure no one else can choose to do business with him either.

CEOs are all the rage these days, but hear me out here - shareholders?
- I agree... What is it like 10% own 90% of the stock market, 1% own 50% or something like that? Major shareholders are the real evil oligarchy... CEOs are just shills they hire to take the bullet, same as politicians but paid better... I'd love to see some playing cards for the real oligarchy... But it's pretty hard to really track them because they hide behind corporations and shit
- Really just anyone with a certain amount of wealth should be forced to redistribute that wealth or face dire consequences.

So where can these be purchased rn? I got crypto
- The site comrade workwear opens with them on the front page, i was curious what type of workwear they had after this article.
  I'm looking for a replacement for dickies and another one, their quality has been absolute ass lately. €100 work jeans that get holes in them in a matter of days, those are not work jeans anymore.
  
  Thanks, that's what I get for skimming the post
  
  I'm looking for a replacement for dickies
  Maybe check out Duluth Trading Company?

Just highlights once more that we are ruled and suppressed by the rich.

Damn I would buy those too

Oof, the back of those cards is designed as a shooting target. So much for plausible deniability.
Probably technically falls under free speech regardless.
- No different from the dozens of other targets made as targets with the face of political figures centered as the bullseye, imo. If one is fine, it's all fine.
- And yet the card maker's website says "we do not condone violence".
  
  Just as credible as social media platforms claiming they protect free speech, or corporations that claim they care about anything other than shareholders profits. Or Trump claiming he doesn't support project 2025.
  
  The theory is that you could stretch it to fall under incitement, not sure if something quite like it has ever been prosecuted, but near everyone includes similar disclaimers if they want to do something like this.