[powyhour-abandoned]

Toma! Missed seeing you on my dash. How're you and Salem doing? Also here's a recent pic of Kita

Hi Dove and Kita! Nice to hear from you again :3 She looks so so cute <3 We're doing alright thanks for asking! I'm having a mobility flare up right now but should be back on my feet tomorrow. Salem's unfortunately started getting a reoccuring cough from his issues now but he doesn't let that stop him from living his best life, my uncle gifted me a lazer pointer for him and he goes crazy for it lol

[powyhour-abandoned]

Hey Sash! Thank you for the cute cat pics, love the dusty little paws and the teeth :3 in trade I offer you a Salem in return

[powyhour-abandoned]

Its so over. I was planning to delete everything on my blog when this happened but since deleted posts are still gonna get scraped theres no point. I'm not going to use this website anymore this is my final post. I'll set it to send me notifications if I get asks or DMs since this is where most people who've supported the fundraiser for Salem are from (PLEASE KNOW UNANSWERED ASKS GET SCRAPED FOR DATA TOO) so people invested can still be in contact about how he's doing.

[jv]

Well, see you, friends

https://www.404media.co/tumblr-and-wordpress-to-sell-users-data-to-train-ai-tools/

Tumblr and Wordpress to Sell Users’ Data to Train AI Tools

Internal documents obtained by 404 Media show that Tumblr staff compiled users' data as part of a deal with Midjourney and OpenAI.

Don't go after staff members because of this, for what I know they weren't even informed until later in the process. You know who this comes from.

[eriyu]

full article, for those who don't want to sign up for an account:

Tumblr and Wordpress are preparing to sell user data to Midjourney and OpenAI, according to a source with internal knowledge about the deals and internal documentation referring to the deals. 

The exact types of data from each platform going to each company are not spelled out in documentation we’ve reviewed, but internal communications reviewed by 404 Media make clear that deals between Automattic, the platforms’ parent company, and OpenAI and Midjourney are imminent.

The internal documentation details a messy and controversial process within Tumblr itself. One internal post made by Cyle Gage, a product manager at Tumblr, states that a query made to prepare data for OpenAI and Midjourney compiled a huge number of user posts that it wasn’t supposed to. It is not clear from Gage’s post whether this data has already been sent to OpenAI and Midjourney, or whether Gage was detailing a process for scrubbing the data before it was to be sent. 

Gage wrote:

“the way the data was queried for the initial data dump to Midjourney/OpenAI means we compiled a list of all tumblr’s public post content between 2014 and 2023, but also unfortunately it included, and should not have included:

- private posts on public blogs - posts on deleted or suspended blogs - unanswered asks (normally these are not public until they’re answered) - private answers (these only show up to the receiver and are not public) - posts that are marked ‘explicit’ / NSFW / ‘mature’ by our more modern standards (this may not be a big deal, I don’t know) - content from premium partner blogs (special brand blogs like Apple’s former music blog, for example, who spent money with us on an ad campaign) that may have creative that doesn’t belong to us, and we don’t have the rights to share with this-parties; this one is kinda unknown to me, what deals are in place historically and what they should prevent us from doing.”

Gage’s post makes clear that engineers are working on compiling a list of post IDs that should not have been included, and that password-protected posts, DMs, and media flagged as CSAM and other community guidelines violations were not included.

Automattic plans to launch a new setting on Wednesday that will allow users to opt-out of data sharing with third parties, including AI companies, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, and internal documents. A new FAQ section we reviewed is titled “What happens when you opt out?” states that “If you opt out from the start, we will block crawlers from accessing your content by adding your site on a disallowed list. If you change your mind later, we also plan to update any partners about people who newly opt-out and ask that their content be removed from past sources and future training.” 

404 Media has asked Automattic how it accidentally compiled data that it shouldn’t share, and whether any of that content was shared with OpenAI, but did not immediately hear back from the company. 404 Media asked Automattic about an imminent deal with Midjourney last week but did not hear back then, either.

Another internal document shows that, on February 23, an employee asked in a staff-only thread, “Do we have assurances that if a user opts out of their data being shared with third parties that our existing data partners will be notified of such a change and remove their data?”

Andrew Spittle, Automattic’s head of AI replied: “We will notify existing partners on a regular basis about anyone who's opted out since the last time we provided a list. I want this to be an ongoing process where we regularly advocate for past content to be excluded based on current preferences. We will ask that content be deleted and removed from any future training runs. I believe partners will honor this based on our conversations with them to this point. I don't think they gain much overall by retaining it.” Automattic did not respond to a question from 404 Media about whether it could guarantee that people who opt out will have their data deleted retroactively.

News about a deal between Tumblr and Midjourney has been rumored and speculated about on Tumblr for the last week. Someone claiming to be a former Tumblr employee announced in a Tumblr blog post that the platform was working on a deal with Midjourney, and the rumor made it onto Blind, an app for verified employees of companies to anonymously discuss their jobs. 404 Media has seen the Blind posts, in which what seems like an Automattic employee says, “I'm not sure why some of you are getting worked up or worried about this. It's totally legal, and sharing it publicly is perfectly fine since it's right there in the terms & conditions. So, go ahead and spread the word as much as you can with your friends and tech journalists, it's totally fine.”

Separately, 404 Media viewed a public, now-deleted post by Gage, the product manager, where he said that he was deleting all of his images off of Tumblr, and would be putting them on his personal website. A still-live post says, “i've deleted my photography from tumblr and will be moving it slowly but surely over to cylegage.com, which i'm building into a photography portfolio that i can control end-to-end.” At one point last week, his personal website had a specific note stating that he did not consent to AI scraping of his images. Gage’s original post has been deleted, and his website is now a blank page that just reads “Cyle.” Gage did not respond to a request for comment from 404 Media. 

Several online platforms have made similar deals with AI companies recently, including Reddit, which entered into an AI content licensing deal with Google and said in its SEC filing last week that it’s “in the early stages of monetizing [its] user base” by training AI on users’ posts. Last year, Shutterstock signed a six year deal with OpenAI to provide training data.

OpenAI and Midjourney did not respond to requests for comment. 

[hatestragedies]

who would even want to opt in anyway?

Like great on giving the option i guess but as soon as it drops I can't imagine that anyone is going to pick any other option but opt out.

[jv]

The rumour mill within ex-employees say they already sent the data to openAi, but I can't validate if that's exact or not

[the-pithy-aaaaah]

I feel like if there is/will be an opt out it violates the spirit of the option to not have even warned users this was coming.

[jv]

Yeah that's a pure damage control setting. Once they have sent your data to openAI and Midjourney, you opting out won't take your posts out of the LLMs. It's shit and they know it.

[jv]

Also, given how reblogs work in Tumblr, I suspect even if you opt-out, your new posts may end being sent anyway if someone who hasn't opted out reblogs you

[sumikatt]

the darling Glaze “anti-ai” watermarking system is a grift that stole code/violated GPL license (that the creator admits to). It uses the same exact technology as Stable Diffusion. It’s not going to protect you from LORAs (smaller models that imitate a certain style, character, or concept)

An invisible watermark is never going to work. “De-glazing” training images is as easy as running it through a denoising upscaler. If someone really wanted to make a LORA of your art, Glaze and Nightshade are not going to stop them.

If you really want to protect your art from being used as positive training data, use a proper, obnoxious watermark, with your username/website, with “do not use” plastered everywhere. Then, at the very least, it’ll be used as a negative training image instead (telling the model “don’t imitate this”).

There is never a guarantee your art hasn’t been scraped and used to train a model. Training sets aren’t commonly public. Once you share your art online, you don’t know every person who has seen it, saved it, or drawn inspiration from it. Similarly, you can’t name every influence and inspiration that has affected your art.

I suggest that anti-AI art people get used to the fact that sharing art means letting go of the fear of being copied. Nothing is truly original. Artists have always copied each other, and now programmers copy artists.

Capitalists, meanwhile, are excited that they can pay less for “less labor”. Automation and technology is an excuse to undermine and cheapen human labor—if you work in the entertainment industry, it’s adapt AI, quicken your workflow, or lose your job because you’re less productive. This is not a new phenomenon.

You should be mad at management. You should unionize and demand that your labor is compensated fairly.

[jv]

And about the AI opt-out setting Tumblr will deploy tomorrow, I’ll just let you with the words of the person in charge of the heist:

Andrew Spittle, Automattic’s head of AI replied: “We will notify existing partners on a regular basis about anyone who’s opted out since the last time we provided a list. […] I believe partners will honor this based on our conversations with them to this point.”

So Tumblr will notify openAi and Midjourney that you wish your posts to not be used and it’s entirely up to them to comply or not. And as we know, we are talking about some of the less ethical companies on the internet (which honestly is kind of a feat), so that cute little setting will most than probably do nothing and less.

[jv]

Not to mention that if it works the same as the search opt-out, the moment you are reblogged by someone who hasn’t opted out… Bam! You are in chatGPT, baebeeee!

[staff]

Hi, Tumblr. It’s Tumblr. We’re working on some things that we want to share with you. 

AI companies are acquiring content across the internet for a variety of purposes in all sorts of ways. There are currently very few regulations giving individuals control over how their content is used by AI platforms. Proposed regulations around the world, like the European Union’s AI Act, would give individuals more control over whether and how their content is utilized by this emerging technology. We support this right regardless of geographic location, so we’re releasing a toggle to opt out of sharing content from your public blogs with third parties, including AI platforms that use this content for model training. We’re also working with partners to ensure you have as much control as possible regarding what content is used.

Here are the important details:

We already discourage AI crawlers from gathering content from Tumblr and will continue to do so, save for those with which we partner. 

We want to represent all of you on Tumblr and ensure that protections are in place for how your content is used. We are committed to making sure our partners respect those decisions.

To opt out of sharing your public blogs’ content with third parties, visit each of your public blogs’ blog settings via the web interface and toggle on the “Prevent third-party sharing” option. 

For instructions on how to opt out using the latest version of the app, please visit this Help Center doc. 

Please note: If you’ve already chosen to discourage search crawling of your blog in your settings, we’ve automatically enabled the “Prevent third-party sharing” option.

If you have concerns, please read through the Help Center doc linked above and contact us via Support if you still have questions.

[katiritu]

Surprisingly, nowhere in this post, does Tumblr explicitly say that they've partnered with OpenAI and Midjourney to let them scrape your content unmitigated unless you opt out.

THE OPTION SHOULD BE TOGGLED OFF BY DEFAULT AND ENABLED BY THE USER. OPT-IN, NOT OPT-OUT.

Forcing within your site's settings that everyone is giving automatic consent until they notice and opt out is fucking unethical. DeviantArt already tried this and got their asses handed to them.

MAKING PEOPLE CONSENT BY DEFAULT AND FORCING THEM TO REVOKE IT IS NOT ETHICAL DATA USAGE.

Scream it from the fucking rooftops until these dumbasses get the picture.

[feriowind]

dungeon meshi print for ECCC! come find me at table C-27!

[guerrillatech]

[fridgebride]

because in cases of self immolation it is perhaps most important to amplify the cause for which they are committing the act, here’s what the protestor in dc had to say.

[ID: In a live stream video, the protestor stated, “I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it is not extreme at all.”

The protestor ended their statements to the camera with: “This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.” /End ID]

(protestor is currently in critical condition according to the dc metro police dpt)

[lirulin]

I feel like it is important not to allow news outlets to omit that this protester was US Airforce, active duty, in full uniform.

[heyndrix]

Do not look away. He livestreamed himself and wanted to be seen.

[heyndrix]

[everythingstarstuff]

[edwordsmyth]

Aaron Bushnell's final social media post before his self-immolation.

[nothazellevesque]

a man self immolated in front of the israeli embassy in washington dc yesterday. not just any man. an active member of the us air force. he live streamed his death, and said that he refused to be complicit in a genocide any longer. he said that compared to what palestinians were facing every day, setting himself alight was nothing.

let me reiterate. an active duty air force member burned himself alive because he was so disgusted by what the us government was openly supporting. he live-streamed his own suicide, so the whole world could bear witness as a man in his military uniform set himself on fire to protest his government’s complicity in the horrors that we have all been forced to watch happen in real time. he became a new horror. footage of the immolation blurs him out the moment the fire catches, but you can hear him. it is over in seconds, really, but you can hear him screaming. he shouts “free palestine” until his body physically cannot make any sounds other than guttural screams of agony. and then he falls silent. a police officer arrives and points a gun at his still burning body, shouting at him to get down on the ground. and it is over.

his name was Aaron Bushnell. he was twenty five years old. and he isn’t here anymore because the political ruling class has decided that genocide is perfectly fine as long as it preserves imperialism. in the coming days, people will try to discredit him. to say that he was mentally unstable. they will try to bury his actions to save face and defend israel’s propaganda. do not let them. aaron knew what he was doing. he knew what he was doing when he put on his military uniform, set up his twitch stream, and made his final walk up to the embassy. he knew what would happen to him when he flicked that lighter. do not let them forget. aaron’s blood is on the hands of the political ruling class.

[saintmarrow]

Sorry to put more of this on your dashboards but i need y'all to know. Aaron Bushnell was trying to get out of the military prior to his action on february 25th. He was sick of being complicit and was trying to get out. His contract was almost over and he was trying to leave the air force.

When you join the military you sign a contract for a fixed period of service. It is likely he opted for a 4 year contract. You cannot "just quit" like a normal job. Attempts to avoid finishing your contract can result in felony charges and jail time. appealing as a conscientious objector is possible, but extremely difficult for noncombat roles.

He was trying to utilize the skill bridge program the DoD offers, to work for a civilian company for the last 180 days of his contracted service period. That would have let him cease his complicity even sooner.

This was the last act of a desperate man trying to draw attention to the horrors he felt he was complicit in, complicity he was legally barred from stopping.

He felt complicit, he was trapped in the military, he was trying to get out, and he couldn't take it any longer.

[destery]

[yookikiku]

she has found... you!

[palipunk-deactivated20260328]

Aaron Bushnell died. The active duty US soldier who self immolated in front of the Israeli embassy died of his wounds - he died screaming “Free Palestine” as he burned. He said he no longer wanted to be complicit in genocide. This is the second person to self immolate because of Palestinian Genocide and I hope his story doesn’t get swept under the rug like the first.