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Vic or Vikki (they/them)

@vicvikki

Deaf, disabled, autistic; agender, panromantic, asexual; navigating the world with my partners, allies, cats and dogs; and trying to be a good ally. https://partner-and-ally.com https://patreon.com/vickelly https://youtube.com/@victorkelly476

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21.02.2025
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Latest posts by Vic or Vikki (they/them) @vicvikki

I'm still stunned that the pedophiles have been the only ones preaching anti-LGBT politics this whole time...and people are choosing to defend pedophiles instead of LGBT people.

There's no sugar coating it, every conservative, republican and maga voter is an accomplice pedophile.

02.03.2026 09:13 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Magdalene is a brilliant writer and musician. If you have the means, please support her through these tough times.

03.03.2026 02:43 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

πŸ‘‹ Former State Department War Powers lawyer here.

This statement by Rubio is false.

As @tessbridgeman.bsky.social and I wrote in January:
www.justsecurity.org/128517/war-p...

02.03.2026 23:55 πŸ‘ 806 πŸ” 388 πŸ’¬ 25 πŸ“Œ 17

Well said. It looks like a knock-off... and in a way it is. A knock-off of movies based on books that were a knock-off of a bunch of existing fiction by a writer whose hatred is a knock-off of right-wing talking points. It's knock-offs all the way down.

03.03.2026 02:40 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Truth:

01.03.2026 00:38 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

When a cis man devotes his life to obsessing over trans children, something is very wrong and he should not be enabled in his access to them and to platforms at which he can ensure their oppression and thus their availability to him.

26.02.2026 16:07 πŸ‘ 294 πŸ” 46 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 3

It absolutely does.

01.03.2026 00:08 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

If you have the means, please donate to the Trans Continental Pipeline right now. They are a Colorado based org that helps trans people relocate and they are overwhelmed with requests. Colorado borders Kansas, and TCP has the infrastructure to help get people out.

tcpipeline.org

26.02.2026 04:17 πŸ‘ 7893 πŸ” 8574 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 107
Preview
Hackers Expose Age-Verification Software Powering Surveillance Web Three hacktivists tried to find a workaround to Discord’s age-verification software. Instead, they found its frontend exposed to the open internet.

Oops. Turns out Persona, Discord’s age-verification service, was secretly screening selfies against government watchlists AND accessible by the feds. It's backed by Peter Thiel.

β€œThe state wants to see everything. The corporations want to see everything. And they've learned to work together.”

21.02.2026 22:57 πŸ‘ 6087 πŸ” 3892 πŸ’¬ 71 πŸ“Œ 270
Age verification vendor Persona left frontend exposed, researchers say

Age verification vendor Persona left frontend exposed, researchers say

To demonstrate the privacy implications, researchers took a closer look and found a publicly exposed Persona frontend on a US government-authorized server, with 2,456 accessible files.
You read that right. According to researcher
"Celeste" the exposed code, which has now been removed, sat at a US government-authorized endpoint that appears to have been isolated from its regular work environment.
In those files, the researchers found details about the extensive surveillance Persona software performs on its users. Beyond checking their age, the software performs 269 distinct verification checks, runs facial recognition against watchlists and politically exposed persons, screens "adverse media" across 14 categories (including terrorism and espionage), and assigns risk and similarity scores.
Persona collects β€”and can retain for up to three years β€”IP addresses, browser and device fingerprints, government ID numbers, phone numbers, names, faces, plus a battery of "selfie" analytics like suspicious-entity detection, pose repeat detection, and age inconsistency checks.

To demonstrate the privacy implications, researchers took a closer look and found a publicly exposed Persona frontend on a US government-authorized server, with 2,456 accessible files. You read that right. According to researcher "Celeste" the exposed code, which has now been removed, sat at a US government-authorized endpoint that appears to have been isolated from its regular work environment. In those files, the researchers found details about the extensive surveillance Persona software performs on its users. Beyond checking their age, the software performs 269 distinct verification checks, runs facial recognition against watchlists and politically exposed persons, screens "adverse media" across 14 categories (including terrorism and espionage), and assigns risk and similarity scores. Persona collects β€”and can retain for up to three years β€”IP addresses, browser and device fingerprints, government ID numbers, phone numbers, names, faces, plus a battery of "selfie" analytics like suspicious-entity detection, pose repeat detection, and age inconsistency checks.

According to The Rage, Discord has stated it will not continue to use Persona for age verification.
However, other platforms reported to use Persona include:
β€’ Roblox: Uses Persona's facial age estimation and ID verification as the core of its "age checks to chat" system.
β€’ OpenAl / ChatGPT: OpenAl's help center explains that if you need to verify being 18+,
"Persona is a trusted third-party company we use to help verify age," and that Persona may ask for a live selfie and/or government ID.
β€’ Lime: The ride-sharing service deploys custom age verification flows with Persona to meet each region's unique requirements.
We don't just report on threats - we help protect your social media
Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your social media accounts by using Malwarebytes Identity Thett Protection.

According to The Rage, Discord has stated it will not continue to use Persona for age verification. However, other platforms reported to use Persona include: β€’ Roblox: Uses Persona's facial age estimation and ID verification as the core of its "age checks to chat" system. β€’ OpenAl / ChatGPT: OpenAl's help center explains that if you need to verify being 18+, "Persona is a trusted third-party company we use to help verify age," and that Persona may ask for a live selfie and/or government ID. β€’ Lime: The ride-sharing service deploys custom age verification flows with Persona to meet each region's unique requirements. We don't just report on threats - we help protect your social media Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your social media accounts by using Malwarebytes Identity Thett Protection.

Persona, the age verification company used by Roblox & Discord was hacked.

And despite the company & platforms claiming Persona utilised β€œzero knowledge” methodologies to verify age, they are gathering user data.

Palantir is one of Persona’s main investors.

www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...

22.02.2026 14:34 πŸ‘ 580 πŸ” 344 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 22

Well done, excellent choice of song and lyrics.

25.02.2026 00:01 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

This is precisely the problem with these AI pushing tech billionaires and those that prop them up: they don’t value people. They have lost the very innate human art of empathy. Humans are just a means to an end, a stat in their annual turnover report

They do not care about you & don’t want to help

22.02.2026 11:10 πŸ‘ 29 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I’ve sung the praises of this before but hey why not, again. This should be in discussion for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. If Sandman ever meant anything to you (it either does, or influenced something that you care about), then this is a must read.

05.02.2026 05:45 πŸ‘ 29 πŸ” 11 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

That's quite an introduction β€” high-octane action!

24.02.2026 15:15 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Decades of feminism may have paved the way for some of us to talk a bit more honestly about him and many many other abusers; but his arrest was purely because of his financial crimes. Should he have been arrested sooner as an abusive POS? Absolutely. But that was never going to happen.

24.02.2026 14:06 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Yes, this about the bloody BAFTAs.

Not excusing the harm the fellow may have genuinely done to folks. But look at yerselves and see what you're doing with your opining.

23.02.2026 01:00 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Whole bunch of people (including disabled folks who know better) opining about the disability of another person that THEY DON'T HAVE.

"This person has Tourettes and did X, in my opinion he should have done Y"

Cool story. Do you have Tourettes, or understand the condition intimately?

23.02.2026 00:51 πŸ‘ 13 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
Avoiding unintended consequences: science of reading policies may harm deaf children - PubMed Many U.S. policies inspired by the Science of Reading rest on two assumptions: (1) skilled reading always involves automatic mapping between written words and speech sounds, and (2) all children benefit from systematic instruction of phonological awareness and phonics. These assumptions are not whol …

Bloop! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41712465/

23.02.2026 01:02 πŸ‘ 19 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
The challenges of making videos #deaf #cats #funny
The challenges of making videos #deaf #cats #funny YouTube video by Vic Kelly-Victor

Sometimes it's difficult to film videos. I can't put my finger on the reasons.

(timeline cleanse)

youtube.com/shorts/uGJY7...

#Deaf #Cats #Kittens

20.02.2026 19:15 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

An excellent choice!

20.02.2026 19:11 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

This wasn't as common at my school (in Ireland), but I remember being shown Police Academy (the one with two BJ scenes), Police Academy 2 (which probably had a BJ scene) and Teen Wolf (no BJs). I don't think the idea of "is Police Academy suitable for 12-year olds?" crossed anyone's mind.

20.02.2026 19:06 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

transphobia is not 'the smallest potential sign of trouble'.

transphobia is a cornerstone, an absolute bedrock, of modern fascism.

it's like being an antisemitic politician in nazi germany. it's not 'just an opinion'. it's a dangerous, genocidal, conspiracy theory based bigotry.

20.02.2026 17:48 πŸ‘ 75 πŸ” 18 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1
Community meme: I CAN EXCUSE FASCISM.
BUTI DRAW THE LINE AT MERCANTILISM.

Community meme: I CAN EXCUSE FASCISM. BUTI DRAW THE LINE AT MERCANTILISM.

The Supreme Court:

20.02.2026 15:32 πŸ‘ 23762 πŸ” 4855 πŸ’¬ 175 πŸ“Œ 118

Not the key point, but all the 'Andrew Mountbatten Windsor' coverage shows how quickly and easily the entire UK media complex can switch to someone's new name/title, even after using their old one for decades, when it's an incredibly pampered white male deviant. So, you know, it's not *that* hard...

20.02.2026 10:05 πŸ‘ 563 πŸ” 186 πŸ’¬ 11 πŸ“Œ 3

This post is going around again so I will add this excellent resource: leavesubstack.com

20.02.2026 01:10 πŸ‘ 1184 πŸ” 860 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 14

Across many years as a parenting columnist, I've written about vaccine heistancy multiple times. Each time, I've tried to be sensitive and empathetic to these people but, if I'm honest, nothing has ever gotten closer to my true feelings about them than this meme from a decade ago.

17.02.2026 16:23 πŸ‘ 349 πŸ” 103 πŸ’¬ 13 πŸ“Œ 2

Good. They should take that "Dr" away from her. She claims expertise of things she knows nothing about and she makes up narratives, then ignores evidence that doesn't support her views. And I guarantee that her funding includes some shady money.

19.02.2026 03:21 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Good. She and whoever decided to interview her as if she were an expert deserve to be raked over the coals for this. She doesn't deserve any platform, she's not an expert in anything she's talking about.

19.02.2026 03:19 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Rep. James Talarico On Confronting Christian Nationalism, And Strange Days In The Texas Legislature
Rep. James Talarico On Confronting Christian Nationalism, And Strange Days In The Texas Legislature YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert had Democrat James Talarico (running for Senate in Texas) on The LateShow. Trump's FCC goon called CBS and told them they couldn't air that interview. CBS pulled the interview out of fear/fealty. So Colbert put the whole interview up on Youtube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiTJ...

17.02.2026 16:26 πŸ‘ 326 πŸ” 127 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 9