A warrant canary is a method by which a communications service provider aims to implicitly inform its users that the provider has been served with a government subpoena despite legal prohibitions on revealing the existence of the subpoena
this post was submitted on 08 May 2026
234 points (100.0% liked)
Flippanarchy
2467 readers
1039 users here now
Flippant Anarchism. A lighter take on social criticism with the aim of agitation.
Post humorous takes on capitalism and the states which prop it up. Memes, shitposting, screenshots of humorous good takes, discussions making fun of some reactionary online, it all works.
This community is anarchist-flavored. Reactionary takes won't be tolerated.
Don't take yourselves too seriously. Serious posts go to !anarchism@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Rules
-
If you post images with text, endeavour to provide the alt-text
-
If the image is a crosspost from an OP, Provide the source.
-
Absolutely no right-wing jokes. This includes "Anarcho"-Capitalist concepts.
-
Absolutely no redfash jokes. This includes anything that props up the capitalist ruling classes pretending to be communists.
-
No bigotry whatsoever. See instance rules.
-
This is an anarchist comm. You don't have to be an anarchist to post, but you should at least understand what anarchism actually is. We're not here to educate you.
-
No shaming people for being anti-electoralism. This should be obvious from the above point but apparently we need to make it obvious to the turbolibs who can't control themselves. You have the rest of lemmy to moralize.
Join the matrix room for some real-time discussion.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Yes, all the canaries in today's discussion are metaphorical references to the literal birds, the "canary in a coal mine."
Coal miners were often killed by suffocation when they would accidentally release or encounter pockets of carbon monoxide, which was odorless and invisible. (Edit: also possibly other toxic gases) So they began carrying a canary in a cage with them. Being little, it was more susceptible than they. If the canary keeled over, you knew to get the hell out of there! Of course many canaries died. But the miners grew fond of their little yellow chirpers, and started to be more vigilant against the effects of the carbon monoxide. Like if the bird stopped singing. This was a win-win, because fewer miners died as well.
Edit to add: And they sometimes even attached a little O2 tank to the cage to save the canary. WWI tunnel mine exploding teams sometimes used canaries as well for the same thing.