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The rushed integration of half-cooked automation into the already broken U.S. journalism industry simply isn't going very well. There have been justcountless exampleswhere affluent media ownersrushed to embrace automationand LLMs (usually to cut corners and undermine labor) withdisastrous impact, resulting inlots of plagiarism, completelyfalse headlines, and a giant, completely avoidable mess. Earlier this year, we [...]

We've obviously done a ton of coverage on RFK Jr. as the head of Health and Human Services because, well, he's an unmitigated disaster. Between all the chaos he's created with his hiring/firing practices at HHS and its child agencies, the mass exodus of talent from those agencies, and all the anti-vaxx bullshit he's pulled [...]

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderations Ben Whitelaw. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice - or go straight to the RSS feed. In this week's round-up of the latest news in online [...]

We've already written several times about the danger posed by adding AI to law enforcement incident/arrest reports. There are a lot of obvious problems, ranging from AI misinterpreting what it's seeing to it adding so much unsupported gibberish it isn't the time-saver companies like Axon (formerly Taser) claim it will be. The cost-effectiveness of relying [...]

Eric Migicovsky, who basically invented the smartwatch category with the original Pebble, just announced something much simpler: a $99 ring with one button that records voice memos. That's it. No internet connection required, no cloud storage, no subscription fees, no wake words. Press the button, talk, release. Your note is saved locally-either on the ring's [...]

The SunFounder GalaxyRVR Mars Rover Kit is your gateway to hands-on learning on robotics, coding, and Mars-like adventures! Its durable aluminum frame and rocker-bogie suspension easily handle tough terrains, while smart sensors ensure smooth navigation. It's compatible with the Arduino UNO R3, runs on solar power, and includes real-time FPV with app-based control for day [...]

ICE continues to be increasingly awful as it chases arrest and deportation quotas it will never meet. The administration's desire to rid this nation of as many migrants as possible is generating new nastiness on a daily basis. This bit of hideousness will likely have been subsumed several times over by the time you read [...]

We've covered how there'sa real push afootto implement statewide right to repair" laws that try to make it cheaper, easier, and environmentally friendlier for you to repair the technology you own. Unfortunately, whileall fifty states have at least flirted with the idea, only Massachusetts, New York, Minnesota, Colorado,California, andOregon, and Washington have actually passed laws. [...]

We here at Techdirt have longed complained about the DMCA takedown process being wide open for all kinds of fraud and abuse. At one point years ago, Google reported that nearly 100% of the takedown requests it receives are not the sort of targeted takedowns the creators of the DMCA imagined, but rather more of [...]

This story wasoriginally publishedby ProPublica.Republished under aCC BY-NC-ND 3.0license. For months, the Trump administration has been accusing its political enemies of mortgage fraud for claiming more than one primary residence. President Donald Trumpbranded one foe who did sodeceitful and potentially criminal." He called another CROOKED" on Truth Social and pushed the attorney general to take [...]

Australia's social media ban for kids is now in effect. As we've discussed, this is a monumentally stupid plan that will do real harm to kids. It's based on a moral panic and a wide variety of faulty assumptions, including that social media websites are inherently bad for kids, something that none of the evidence [...]

The administration that is busy erasing history from any federal entity tasked with preserving it has an additional ally in the burying-the-bad-news business: Donald Trump, the former president. Yes, it's all stupid and weird and incredibly dangerous, but the guy who used to be president has been sued by multiple litigants over his tacit involvement [...]

Microsoft Project 2024 Professional is the ultimate project management tool, designed to help professionals plan, execute, and complete projects with precision and efficiency. With its robust features and user-friendly interface, this software is perfect for project managers, team leaders, and executives who need a reliable solution to manage their projects from start to finish. It's [...]

Last week, we launched our monthlong fundraiser with a commemorative Techdirt / 30 years of Section 230 coin for donations of $100 or more. The initial response has been great, but we need more support to hit our targets. We're still far below our goal of making Techdirt funded primarily by reader donations. That matters [...]

Back in 2008, Chattanooga, Tennessee decided to build its own city-owned fiber broadband network on the back of its existing electrical utility, EPB. In the years since, the network has become one of the most popular in the nation, offering affordable, 25 gigabits per second fiber access to local residents. It almost struggled to be, [...]

Aquarter of a century ago, I wrote a book called Rebel Code". It was the first - and is still the only - detailed history of the origins and rise offree softwareandopen source, based on interviews with the gifted and generous hackers who took part. Back then, it was clear that open source represented a [...]

When most people think about immigration enforcement, they picture border crossings and airport checkpoints. But the new front line may be your social media feed. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has published arequest for informationfor private-sector contractors to launch around-the-clock social media monitoring program. The request states that private contractors will bepaid to comb throughFacebook, [...]

The new year is approaching fast, and you know what that means: new material is entering the public domain in the US, and we'll be celebrating it with the eighth installment of our public domain game jam. What's more, this is an extra special year because the ever-growing public domain is hitting a new decade: [...]

Lindsey Halligan - a former personal lawyer for Trump who specialized in insurance law - was suddenly propelled to the top of the DOJ heap after better, more qualified lawyers refused to engage in Trump's revenge prosecutions. The exit of prosecutors unwilling to engage in politically motivated, completely mismanaged prosecutions of Trump enemies like former [...]

We've spent years calling out what a hypocrite Elon Musk is on free speech. But sometimes the universe Elon hands you a gift: three tweets in the span of a little over a week that demonstrate the entire con more clearly than any deep dive ever could. Let's start with this one: That's Elon announcing [...]

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The president, who drapes himself in the flag so inappropriately you'd think it would be filing HR complaints on a daily basis, is now preventing some the best potential US citizens from becoming US citizens. Ever since Trump's unexpected second appearance in the Oval Office began, it was immediately clear the bigoted efforts he fired [...]

Last week Netflix announced a $82.7 billion acquisition of Warner Brothers, after elbowing out rival acquisition bids (for now) by Comcast/NBC and Paramount/CBS. But as we noted then, the deal still needs regulatory approval from Trump, who has already stated several times that he'd prefer it if his billionaire bestie new owner of CBS, Larry [...]

In mid-November, we talked about yet more chaos occurring under RFK Jr., this time at the FDA. At issue was George Tidmarsh, who joined the FDA in July as the agency's chief drug regulator. Tidmarsh had been accused of using his position to exact a vendetta campaign against a former business partner, Kevin Tang, and [...]

This story wasoriginally publishedby the Texas Tribune and the Texas Newsroom and co-published with ProPublica.Republished under the Texas Tribune's republish feature. Months after fighting to keepsecret the emailsexchanged betweenTexas Gov. Greg Abbott's office and tech billionaireElon Musk's companies, state officials released nearly 1,400 pages to The Texas Newsroom. The records, however, reveal little about the [...]

Last week Netflix announced a $82.7 billion acquisition of Warner Brothers, elbowing out rival acquisition bids (for now) by Comcast/NBC and Paramount/CBS. But the deal still needs regulatory approval from Trump, who has already stated several times that he'd prefer it if his bestie new owner of CBS, right wing billionaire Larry Ellison, comes away [...]

You want to see actual government censorship in action? And have it done by people claiming they're doing it to stop censorship? Check out last week's revelation (originally reported by Reuters) that the US State Department will now start denying H-1B visas for anyone who has anything to do with trust & safety, fact checking, [...]

Now that congressional members on both sides of the aisle have decided it might be worth taking a look at the Defense Department's murder people in boats" program, we're finally learning more than the Trump administration has been willing to share about these extrajudicial killings. The administration's lawyers have cobbled together justifications for these actions [...]

Looking for a holiday gift? Bring the luxuriously soft touch of cashmere to their wardrobe with Lavisha Cashmere-Blend Shawl. Made cashmere wool, this shawl will feel superbly comfortable draped over their shoulders and will serve as the perfect accessory for any winter outing. Its soft fringe enhances any outfit, and with an impressive six feet [...]

Elon Musk is now calling for the dissolution of the European Union because it fined him $140 million for violating a law he once said was exactly aligned" with his vision for (what was then called) Twitter. And he's doing it by lying about what the fine is actually for. The EU hit X with [...]

All out of original ideas and facing market growth saturation, we've noted repeatedly how streaming companies are increasingly looking like the stodgy old traditional cable TV giants they once disrupted. That means a lot of pointless mergers, endless price hikes, a steady erosion of quality, and the slow paring back of useful features (like going [...]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is rkhalloran with a comment about keeping kids safe online: The correct answer is ACTUALLY PARENT YOUR KIDS. This is the digital version of finding nudie mags" under your kid's bed then trying to sue Playboy/Penthouse/... for the kid getting ahold of them (yes I [...]

Five Years Ago This week in 2020, Donald Trump got angry about a trend on Twitter and went full force calling for a repeal of Section 230, renewing the effort to slip this into the must-pass military spending bill. Trump promised he was willing to defund the entire military if Congress didn't agree, but Congress [...]

The fucking maniacs did it. We talked yesterday about how newborn vaccinations for hepatitis B were on the agenda for this latest meeting at ACIP, the CDC's immunization advisory panel. You likely know all this already, but RFK Jr. fired all ACIP panel members earlier this year, replacing them with hand-picked anti-vaxxer quack-jobs who are [...]

So Netflix has announced that it's buying Warner Brothers Discovery (including HBO) for a whopping $82.7 billion. As we've well covered, it's the latest in a long series of pointless Warner mergers stretching back to the 2001 AOL acquisition, which all resulted in oodles of chaos, price hikes, layoffs, and generally a steady erosion in [...]

Support us on Patreon Earlier today, we joined in announcing the Resonant Computing Manifesto: a call for restoring a culture of technology that empowers users and enriches their lives. The manifesto was created by a group led by Alex Komoroske, and today Alex joins the podcast for a deeper dive into what resonant computing" means [...]

A cofounder of a Bay Area Stop AI" activist group abandoned its commitment to nonviolence, assaulted another member, and made statements that left the group worried he might obtain a weapon to use against AI researchers. The threats prompted OpenAI to lock down its San Francisco offices a few weeks ago.In researching this movement, I [...]

The Trump administration is so sure it can get away with anything that it's willing to try anything. That misapprehension of the situation has resulted in at least 200 rulings against the administration's anti-immigrant efforts. Still, the regime persists with its attempts to brute force constitutional rights out of existence. Like it or not, MAGA [...]

Learn Raspberry Pi and start building Amazon Alexa projects with The Complete Raspberry Pi and Alexa A-Z Bundle. Catered for all levels, these project-based courses will get you up and running with the basics of Pi, before escalating to full projects. Before you know it, you'll be building a gaming system to play old Nintendo, [...]

Everyone's pissed at the tech industry. And for good reason. The term enshittification is super popular for many valid reasons. Companies that used to provide real value, are now focused on extracting more value from users, rather than improving their products and services. People used to be excited by new innovations. There was a time [...]

Not that long ago, John Oliver's Last Week Tonight did a good bit on why public broadcasting is important. The segment features a lot of insight from UPenn media professor Victor Pickard, whose work on the (many) problems with modern consolidated U.S. corporate media has always been essential reading: But Oliver also walked the talk. [...]

ACIP is meeting this week, which means we all get to clench our sphincters as we await whatever small, medium, or large sized horrors will come out of this panel of clowns. It wasn't always this way. ACIP, and the larger CDC, used to be the world standard when it came to government bodies dedicated [...]

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderations Ben Whitelaw. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice - or go straight to the RSS feed. In this week's roundup of the latest news in online [...]

Despite all the recent hype about AI," the technology still struggles with very basic things and remains prone to significant errors. Which makes it maybe not the best idea to rush the nascent technology into widespread adoption in industries prone to all sorts of deep-rooted problems already (like say, health insurance, or journalism). We've already [...]

A newbillsponsored by Sen. Hawley (R-MO), Sen. Blumenthal (D-CT), Sen. Britt (R-AL), Sen. Warner (D-VA), and Sen. Murphy (D-CT) would require AI chatbots to verify all users' ages, prohibit minors from using AI tools, and implement steep criminal penalties for chatbots that promote or solicit certain harms. That might sound reasonable at first, but behind [...]

The Court of Justice of the EU-likely without realizing it-just completely shit the bed and made it effectively impossible to run any website in the entirety of the EU that hosts user-generated content. Obviously, for decades now, we've been talking about issues related to intermediary liability, and what standards are appropriate there. I am an [...]

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A recent shooting involving a former Afghani US counter-terrorism asset who worked with the CIA (!!!) has become the tragedy the Trump administration apparently needed to go from consistently racist" to openly racist." The wounding of two National Guard troops led directly to the president spending the holiday doing what he always does on holidays: [...]

Earlier this year we noted how the Trump administrationhad cooked up a half-assed wireless phone company. Even calling it a phone company" was being generous: the branding deal was basically just a licensing agreement and a lazy coat of paint on another, half-assed, MAGA-focused, mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) named Patriot Mobile, which itself just [...]

Part of what makes it difficult for the importance of so much of what is happening in the Trump administration to break through to the public mind is that it's all chaos, all the time. Moving layers deeper to get at specifics can actually make the problem worse, in fact. Take all of our coverage [...]