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One of my favorite things in all of professional sports is the unofficial holiday referred to as Bobby Bonilla Day." The short version of it is that Bonilla played for the New York Mets decades ago and eventually bought out his contract in 2000 when they decided they were done with him. Rather than pay [...]

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 [...]

I love America. You're so fucked up. But I love you. You're built upon a beautiful and preposterous idea: that ordinary people-you and I-can govern ourselves. Together. Not through superior intelligence. Not through noble birth. Not through accumulated wealth. But through the messy, difficult, glorious work of reasoning together when no one has final answers [...]

Here comes more pathetic, childish bullshit from an administration that has made petty bullshit its brand. The just completed government shutdown caused problems everywhere. The Trump administration knew its refusal to compromise on the budget bill was going to hurt it, so it did everything it could to reshape the narrative, even as it somehow [...]

A federal magistrate judge just ordered that the private ChatGPT conversations of 20 million users be handed over to the lawyers for dozens of plaintiffs, including news organizations. Those 20 million people weren't asked. They weren't notified. They have no say in the matter. Last week, Magistrate Judge Ona Wang ordered OpenAI to turn over [...]

MagStack is the perfect on-the-go wireless charging station that also transforms into a floating stand for smartphone FaceTime or video playback while charging. This 3-in-1 foldable design featuring 3 wireless charging spots, enables charging for up to 3 devices simultaneously, including iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods Pro, AirPods with Wireless Charging Case, other Qi-compatible Android phones, [...]

Last night the House passed, and then Donald Trump signed, the funding bill that reopened the government after the longest government shutdown in history. Amazingly, the Republican's sketchy demands to fill their personal bank accounts with undeserved taxpayer money almost scuttled the deal. But, don't worry: those Senators got their corrupt boondoggle and they plan [...]

You might recall that right wing propaganda broadcaster Sinclair Broadcasting recently tripped over its own ass after working with the Trump administration to try and censor Jimmy Kimmel for criticizing the President. The flood of outrage at the Disney/FCC/ABC collaborative effort ultimatelyforced the company to retreatand put Kimmel back on the air. Even after ABC [...]

While we've talked quite a bit about the horror show that is RFK Jr.'s position as Secretary of HHS, most of the focus of those posts has been around what is happening at the CDC. And for good reason, too. The ongoing measles outbreak, the quick hiring/firing of Susan Monarez, and all the anti-vaxx bullshit [...]

For all its talk about trimming down government spending, an untold amount of money has been blown just to keep one person from getting one over on the Trump administration. That man would be Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He became the poster boy for the regime's bigotry when he fought back against his sudden deportation to [...]

Support us on Patreon Three years ago, Mike Brock joined us on the podcast to discuss a decentralized web project, and more recently we've published several cross-posts from his Substack about the horrifying goings-on in American politics and media. Today, Mike joins the podcast once again for a far-ranging conversation about the state of democracy [...]

On Friday it was announced that my alma mater, Cornell, had caved to the Trump administration and agreed to a deal" the federal government had offered them to get back the funding it had illegally cut off from Cornell as part of its authoritarian efforts to bully top universities into submission. This capitulation came just [...]

We'll see where this goes from here, but for the moment, this order [PDF], issued by federal judge Karin Immergut still stands: For the above reasons, this Court concludes that Plaintiffs have demonstrated that Defendants violated 10 U.S.C. 12406 and the Tenth Amendment and satisfy the requirements for a permanent injunction. Therefore, this Court [...]

Costco is your one-stop shop with a wide range of merchandise that will likely cover all of your shopping needs! With hundreds of locations across the country, Costco is the ideal place to shop without the hassle of having to run numerous errands around town. Purchase a 1-Year Costco Gold Star Membership for $65 and [...]

Reagan-appointed federal judge Mark Wolf has resigned from the bench in Massachusetts, and his explanation is blunt: he can no longer bear the ethical constraints that prevent judges from speaking out publicly while Trump dismantles the rule of law. This doesn't happen. Federal judges-especially Reagan appointees-don't quit to become activists. They stay in their robes [...]

You might recall that not that long ago Trump managed to get CBS to pay him a $16 million bribe based entirely on a lie: that the network's 60 Minutes program had unfairly edited an interview with Kamala Harris. In reality it was a minor, ordinary edit, and CBS could have easily fought the case [...]

Earlier this year, I wrote about how ICE had decided to publish a horrifying recruitment video that mixed in footage of ICE raids, including one that got Kristi Noem in some hot water, along with the introduction to the Pokemon animated series, complete with the theme music behind it. The video itself wasn't terribly surprising. [...]

After forty days. Forty days of the longest government shutdown in American history. Forty days of Democrats sayingthisis the line-healthcare for twenty-two million Americans. Forty days of holding firm while Republicans bet Democrats would break first. Chuck Schumerjust taughtDonald Trump that hostage-taking works. Not because he had to. Because the framework he operates within cannot [...]

This story wasoriginally publishedby ProPublica.Republished under aCC BY-NC-ND 3.0license. The Department of Homeland Security says it intends to add state driver's license information to a swiftly expanding federal system envisioned as a one-stop shop for checking citizenship. The plan, outlined in apublic notice posted Thursday, is the latest step in an unprecedented Trump administration initiative [...]

Over the weekend, the President of the United States fell for obvious satire from a website literally called The Dunning Kruger Times." Donald Trump-a man with access to the best, most accurate information on basically any subject-posted to Truth Social a screenshot claiming that DOGE halts yearly payments of $2.5 million to Barack Obama for [...]

Upgrade your workspace with the Turonic TP1 - a wireless touchpad designed for seamless navigation, precision gestures, and multi-device flexibility. Whether you're working on a laptop, desktop, or tablet, the TP1 offers smooth, intuitive control across Windows, Android, and Linux devices. With both Bluetooth 5.0 and 2.4GHz wireless connectivity, you can switch between devices in [...]

This administration isn't content to be normal awful. It insists on being ghastly awful as often as possible. Not content to eject hundreds of migrants into foreign torture prisons, the administration has decided it's time to start killing foreign people in boats just because. That's not me using a worn-out turn of phrase. That was [...]

For the last decade or so, U.S. cable TV customers have been plagued by a steady parade of content blackouts as cable providers and broadcasters bicker over new programming contracts. For the end user, so-called retransmission feuds" usually go something like this: a TV broadcaster demands a cable company pay significantly more money to carry [...]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is That One Guy with a comment on our post about receiving a bogus DMCA takedown from CyberGhost over our previous post about receiving a bogus DMCA takedown from CyberGhost: Sometimes the cover-up's worse than the crime I'm really struggling to think of a non-damning [...]

Five Years Ago This week in 2020, we featured a guest post about why most complaints about Section 230 are really just complaints about the First Amendment, and another with a deep dive into the implications of the presidential election for various issues in tech. As the votes from said election poured in, we noted [...]

Thankfully, the Stop Killing Games movement isn't stopping this time. YouTuber Ross Scott kicked the movement off in 2024 to generate political action around the disappearance of games that people had bought purely because the company that sold them decided to no longer support them or run backend infrastructure needed play them. While the movement [...]

When Congress eventually reopens, the 2026National Defense Authorization Act(NDAA) will be moving toward a vote. This gives us a chance to see the priorities of the Secretary of Defense and his Congressional allies when it comes to the military-and one of those priorities is buying technology,especially AI, withless of an obligation to prove it's effective [...]

Within twenty-four hours of Republicans getting crushed in elections they'd convinced themselves were winnable,Fox Newsdeployed the counter-move. Not denial-the losses were too visible for that. Bret Baier had already explained toFox & Friendsviewers how bad it was. It's a big loss," he said. Not just the results, but the spreads are surprising." Not acceptance-that would [...]

VPN company CyberGhost just sent Cloudflare a bogus DMCA takedown demand, claiming that our article about their last bogus copyright takedown demand, somehow violates their copyright. I'm not sure I'd trust a VPN company that fucks up this badly. There are a lot of sketchy VPN companies out there, and it's sometimes tricky to tell [...]

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This news should be far more heartening than it is. In any normal version of the United States, it might have been. The administration's willingness to perpetrate immoral and illegal evil on a daily basis has outpaced efforts by citizens and the judicial branch to stem the tide. Still, maybe this is hopeful? I mean, [...]

Last year almost a dozen major U.S. ISPs were the victim ofa massive, historic intrusion by Chinese hackerswho managed to spy on public U.S. officials for more than a year. The Salt Typhoon" hack was so severe, the intruders spent much of the last year rooting around the ISP networkseven after discovery. AT&T and Verizon, [...]

We knew this was coming, but it doesn't make it any less stupid. The road to the IRS' Direct File program was long and hard-fought. We here at Techdirt have been talking about, and advocating for, something like the Direct File program for at least 15 years. The concept behind the program is a simple [...]

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 [...]

This story wasoriginally publishedby ProPublica.Republished under aCC BY-NC-ND 3.0license. This story contains videos showing violence. President Donald Trump and officials in his administration say National Guard troops are needed in War ravaged" Portland, Oregon, to protect a local Immigration and Customs Enforcement office that he described as being under siege. But a ProPublica review [...]

Last week, I wrote about how the Trump administration has replaced any sort of concept of governance with governance-by-trolling-a government optimized purely for making a huge segment of the country angry while the base cheers them on. The entire apparatus of federal power has been repurposed into a machine for generating engagement through cruelty, with [...]

Tuesday, Republicans got crushed in elections across New Jersey, Virginia, and New York. Not close races. Not razor-thin margins. Massive defeats in states they'd convinced themselves were winnable after Trump's 2024 victory. Bret Baier-onFox News, toFox & Friends-had to explainto his audience how bad it was. It's a big loss," he said. Not just the [...]

The Complete Big Data and Power BI Bundle has 5 courses to help you learn how to effectively sort, analyze, and visualize all of your data. Courses cover Power BI, Power Query, Excel, and Access. It's on sale for $40. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all [...]

Nothing survives a purge. Especially not the truth. The DOJ secured a conviction for Washington state resident Taylor Taranto. According to the DOJ's May 21, 2025 press release, Taranto had committed several federal crimes, including carrying two guns without a license and engaging in false information and hoaxes." Here are the details: On June 28, [...]

U.S. media mergers always follow the same trajectory. Pre-merger, executives promise all manner of amazing synergies and deal benefits. Post-merger, not only do those benefits generally never arrive, the debt from the acquisition spree usually results in significant layoffs, lower quality product, and higher rates for consumers. The Time Warner Discovery disasterwas the poster child [...]

Well, this is actually pretty fascinating. We've been discussing the somewhat bizzare patent lawsuit Nintendo is waging against PocketPair in Japan for some time now. PocketPair is the company behind the hit game Palworld, which has obviously drawn inspiration from the Pokemon franchise, without doing any direct copying. Powering this attack were several held or [...]

We've long established that modern smart" devices aren't always all that smart. Whether it's smart" door locks that are easily hacked to gain entry, smart" refrigerators that leak your Gmail credentials, or smart" vehicles that sell data to insurance companies without your permission, the act of modernizing something with internet access and a CPU isn't [...]

We've always been wary of putting cops in schools. Putting cops in schools just means administrative issues (i.e., student discipline) get the law enforcement treatment, which turns misbehavior into criminal acts and generates exactly the sort of school cop overreactions you'd expect. Adding AI-assisted tech was never going to improve anything. Administrators were certainly told [...]

The faux party of free speech" strikes again. For years, the MAGA GOP has insisted that it is the true party of free" speech even as all evidence suggests this administration is the most censorial and the most dismissive of the First Amendment in modern history. Over and over and over and over and over [...]

The Ultimate AWS Data Master Class Bundle has 9 courses to get you up to speed on Amazon Web Services. The courses cover AWS, DevOPs, Kubernetes Mesosphere DC/OS, AWS Redshift, and more. It's on sale for $40. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt [...]

The FBI is currently flying at half-staff. A bunch of its field agents are now just immigration officers, thanks to this administration's desire to eject as many brown people from countries south of our border from the US as possible. But there are enough people left in the FBI to go after the brown people [...]

As we've documented, Trump's right wing billionaire friend Larry Ellison (and his nepobaby son, David) recently acquired CBS and likely co-ownership of TikTok. Like Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, the goal isn't really subtle: Rich right wingers want to own the entirety of U.S. new and old media, then convert it into a giant propaganda [...]

If I had to pick one iconic line spoken by Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, it would be this one. The confident evil of a villain who calmly acknowledges that the deal struck with him is changing and there is nothing that can be done about it strikes a chord. What's odd is [...]

Knowledge production doesn't happen in a vacuum. Every great scientific breakthrough is built on prior work, and an ongoing exchange with peers in the field. That's why we need to address the threat of major publishers and platforms having an improper influence on how scientific knowledge is accessed-or outright suppressed. In the digital age, the [...]

Support us on Patreon For two decades, the landscape of social media has been constantly changing, and the discourse about free speech" has been changing alongside it. This week, we've got a bit of an open-ended discussion with TechFreedoms Corbin Barthold, host of the Tech Policy Podcast, about social media's history and future, and the [...]