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It's no secret that Donald Trump has been waging an Orwellian war on knowledge and information for most of his second term thus far. While purging history of American racism, slavery, and anything else that makes us look less than perfect has been the primary focus in this war, so too has Trump attempted to [...]

Several U.S. states are pushing to ban young people from social media entirely. This marks the latest wave of censorship bills masquerading as children's online safety" measures, with states likeMassachusetts,Idaho,Minnesota,North Carolina,South Carolina,Illinois, and EFF's home state ofCalifornialeading the charge. Just a few years ago, lawmakers supporting age-gating lawsinsistedtheir efforts were narrowly targeted at limiting young [...]

Back in July of 2024, when two of the biggest big shots in venture capital, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, explained why they had decided to go all in to back Donald Trump's campaign for re-election, they talked up a good game about how they would support any candidate who supported their little tech" agenda. [...]

It just wasn't enough to pardon hundreds of people who raided the Capitol building to overturn Trump's 2020 election loss - people who assaulted police officers, smashed windows to gain entrance, shut down election proceedings for several hours, stole stuff from federal offices, and generally acted liked they intended to kill Vice President Mike Pence [...]

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 [...]

A month ago, I wrote that the Supreme Court's six conservative Justices have exactly one consistent rule on whose votes count: Black people's votes shouldn't count. The pattern was simple. If a ruling would help Black votes count, the Court - led by Justice Samuel Alito - found a reason to block it. If it [...]

When right wing billionaire Larry Ellison hired trolling blogger Bari Weiss to run CBS News, Weiss arrived with the promise of balanced, fact-based news," independent, principled journalism," and a unique entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision" that would completely modernize the network and reach the everyday Americans" she claimed were being ignored by mainstream media." In [...]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is MrWilson with a reply to another comment about the charges against the guy who just got 30 years in prison for moving a box of zines: First I was just going to excoriate you for taking an FBI agent's sworn testimony at face value [...]

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When we talk about the scourge of anti-vaxxer philosophy within the federal government, we naturally spend a great deal of that time talking about RFK Jr. He's the Secretary of Health and Human Services and perhaps the most infamous anti-vaxxer on the planet, after all. But if you thought HHS was the only part of [...]

Within the next week, Congress is preparing to vote on theKIDS Act, a sprawling package of legislation that seeks to control Americans' web browsing and private messaging. The package includes a revised version of theKids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, combined with a collection of other internet bills, study bills, reporting requirements, and new regulations. [...]

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. To get extended episodes with additional coverage, support us on [...]

Just a couple weeks ago, the European Commission put out its plan for European tech sovereignty." It's not surprising that Europeans are looking at their internet platform options and seeing a choice between US companies and Chinese companies as something that isn't that appealing. Of course, Europe has mostly itself to blame for this mess. [...]

Dive into Godot - a rising star in the game engine world - with the 2026 Complete Godot Stack Development Bundle. You'll learn to create platformers, RPGs, strategy games, FPS games, and more as you master this free and open-source engine with easily expandable systems. Plus, you'll also explore techniques for game design and game [...]

This is not the only administration to engage in corruption. Most administrations have to some extent. It's that corruption is the everyday, front-page business of this administration. It's so brazen, it's insulting. It demands Americans pretend nothing matters but what Trump wants and, to a lesser extent, whatever his current roster of obliging subservients want. [...]

You might recall that one of the conditions of the FCC's approval of The Ellison family's $8 billion acquisition of CBS was that the agency wouldinstall a ombudsman" at the networkto ensure CBS journalism was appropriately feckless and deferential to our mad, idiot king. This was particularly ironic given decades of whining by Republicans about [...]

Well, perhaps the demise of the Stop Killing Games movement in the EU was overstated. We were just talking about how the attempt to introduce new legislation to support the goals of the movement were defeated, despite a petition with over a million signatures and a parliamentary hearing that reportedly went very well. Given that [...]

The ability to access publicly available information using automated tools is a central value and benefit of a free and open internet. Automated access-often called crawling or scraping-powers important, useful tools for locating, preserving, and analyzing online information. For example, crawling and scraping helpsjournalists, researchers, and watchdog organizationsreport the news, find security flaws, and investigate [...]

One of ICE's largest detention centers is conveniently located only miles from the US border in El Paso, Texas. Erected on an apparently unused section of the Ft. Bliss military base, the detention center was crafted to hold up to 5,000 detainees at a time. Camp East Montana has already earned the reputation as one [...]

Earlier this week we noted how ABC has been asking its audience to give the Trump FCC an earful about its clumsy efforts to censor journalists, comedians, and daytime talk show hosts: The ad only hints at the fact that FCC boss Brendan Carr has launched a fake investigation" of ABC because The View hosted [...]

flowkey is a fun, interactive piano learning platform that helps anyone go from absolute beginner to confident player - at their own pace. It combines step-by-step courses with thousands of songs you know and love, tailored for every skill level, from first-time learners to advanced pianists. The app listens as you play and gives instant [...]

Remember a few years ago when both Texas and Florida passed laws trying to tell social media companies they couldn't moderate political content? Those cases eventually made their way to the Supreme Court, where the Court (as it's been known to do) kinda punted: sending the cases back to the lower courts on technical legal [...]

It's absolutely irritating to be living under the thumb of an administration filled to the brim with facile subservients who think they're the biggest and best people to ever walk the earth. It's a bunch of boys pretending to be men, right up until they have to talk to the boss, at which point they [...]

Here's something no one but cops and the tech firms that love cops wanted: an ALPR that can scoop up pretty much any information being broadcasted by cars and the devices carried by the people inside them. As if ALPRs weren't already controversial enough, here comes a tech company offering that makes most ALPRs (including [...]

We've been pointing out for years that the supposedly free speech absolutist" Elon Musk is one of the most aggressive abusers of state power to create chilling effects against his critics. So it should come as little surprise to anyone paying attention, that he's at it again: threatening to sue Rep. Ro Khanna for Khanna's [...]

In Trump's America, the First Amendment is a dead letter. If you're seen as anti-Trump, you apparently no longer have any rights at all. We'll get to the man who moved a box of zines and got thirty years - he wasn't even at the protest, but the judge claimed he was aiding a terrorist [...]

There aren't many governments out there actually trying to be more transparent. Every so often, a law gets passed that benefits the public more than its benefits the government, but these are the exceptions, not the rule. California experienced one of these anomalies fairly recently. In 2019, a law was passed that finally made police [...]

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 [...]

In theory, there's a way to build a prediction market that actually provides valuable insight on issues through the wisdom of the crowds. But that's not at all what we have with the current crop of prediction markets, mainly Kalshi and Polymarket, which seem to have leap-frogged FanDuel and DraftKings as the deservedly hated gambling [...]

Earlier this year America's idiot king offered a no-bid contract to one of his ex-con Mara Lago donors to fix" the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. It... did not go well. Said pool is now full of algae and peeling paint, and it's created an interesting attention flashpoint for the press and another perfect metaphor for [...]

I recognize that when we talk about AI generally, and specifically AI in the gaming industry, there are some people out there who will simply dogmatically insist that this technology doesn't have a place in the industry and never will. This typically comes along with two chief concerns: concerns about artistic expression if AI is [...]

Afew weeks ago,Walled Culture wrote about Hadopi, France's infamous copyright enforcement mechanism. The so-called graduated response" - aka three strikes and you are out" - has been around for over 15 years now, has cost French taxpayers a fortune, and has never achieved any of its aims. As the Walled Culture post suggested, the latest [...]

Last week the FTC decided to file an obviously censorial, legally baseless lawsuit against an educational non-profit in an attempt to punish the organization for its speech in a manner that is clearly way outside the bounds of the FTC's authority. The case serves no purpose other than to punish an organization for its speech... [...]

Yeah, that's a shame. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy bigger asshole. It's as if Trump asked his underlings to generate the perfect metaphor for his second administration and they fucking nailed it. Trump has tried to impose his self-gratification on an event even he can't possibly hope to destroy: the 250th anniversary [...]

The Modern No-Code Creator Bundle is an extensive online curriculum specifically developed to enable individuals to construct professional websites, applications & automated workflows without the necessity of writing any code. It has five courses, covering leading no-code platforms and tools like ChatGPT, Mendix, and Tabnine. It is ideally suited for novices and non-technical professionals, empowering [...]

England imposing the Stamp Act on the American colonies back in 1765 was one of the final moves that pushed those colonies into open revolt for their independence. The law sought to tax printed communications, and England justified it by saying it was needed to pay for British soldiers in the colonies. That it also [...]

ABC continues to send signals that it actually intends to fight back against Brendan Carr's clumsy efforts to censor the network's comedians and journalists. As Mike noted last week, the public had until Monday, June 22 to file public comment with the FCC about the agency's ongoing censorship efforts. Part of those efforts have involved [...]

Well, this is very disappointing. Over the first half of this year, we've talked about the resurgence of the Stop Killing Games movement, which aims to push various governments to legislate out the practice of video game publishers sunsetting their games and making them unplayable afterwards. The aims of the movement are simple: publishers can [...]

What do EFF staffersSarah Chen,Javier Morales,Caitlin Chin,Emma Rodriguez, andMikko Kopponenhave in common? For one thing, they don't exist. For another, all have been quoted as EFF experts in articles published in the past two months on a site calledNews-USA Today, whichdescribes itselfas an independent news publisher focused on clear, accurate, and useful journalism." Uh... (Please [...]

In mid-May, the Todd Blanche-run DOJ agreed to settle" the fake case Donald Trump had brought against his own IRS. The settlement"? A $1.776 billion fund to pay reparations to the MAGA faithful. Much of that money was expected to flow to January 6th insurrectionists - many of them convicted of actual crimes that Trump [...]

The Trump Organization still hasn't shipped their promised Trump made in America" phone to most of the customers who laid down a $100 deposit a year ago. But they did recently start to ship early review copies to a handful of outlets and preferred cultists. What outlets generally found wasn't surprising: it's a pretty substandard [...]

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, [...]

The Sixth Circuit just handed Ohio a win on its social media law restricting minors, and reading the majority opinion, it's immediately obvious why: the court fell hook, line, and sinker for the moral panic that social media is inherently poisonous to children. The first few pages of the decision are nothing but cherry-picked, out-of-context [...]

It's no secret ICE officers are using their phones and their tech toys to do way more than they'll openly admit to doing. Tech tools that can be abused will be abused. And ICE has plenty of those, including an app that's supposed to be used for verification" of migrant status, but is just facial [...]

This week, MrWilson takers both top spots on the insightful side. In first place, it's a comment about the growing global threat of internet age gates: One of the biggest benefits of the internet is the ability to talk to people outside your personal sphere. It's similar to the exposure to diversity that a lot [...]

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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. To get extended episodes with additional coverage, support us on [...]

I can't say I know for sure that Stephen Colbert is a Techdirt reader, but I very much believe he is. His interests align somewhat with ours, he often comments on some of the same topics we do, and, it turns out, he decided to troll his previous employer during his last show in a [...]

In a voice vote last week, the House of Representatives passedH.R. 6028, the Legislative Branch Agencies Clarification Act." The legislation is presented as a technical reorganization of some government agencies, but it's much more than that. H.R. 6028 would fundamentally change the U.S. Copyright Office, and not in a good way. The bill removes the [...]

Senators Ron Wyden and Ted Cruz have released the JAWBONE Act (Justice Against Weaponized Bureaucratic Overreach to Networked Expression Act") as a way to prevent government suppression of speech. While some of the premises behind it are silly and nonsensical, the actual law is not bad. Of course, if it became law, the Trump admin [...]