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We've noted how Republicansare rewriting the 2021 infrastructure bill(they voted against) to ensure that billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded broadband grants wind up in the back pocket of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos (and their low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite broadband ventures, Starlink and Project Kuiper). This is billions of taxpayer dollars being paid to billionaires [...]

There are lots of good reasons to call for the impeachment or ouster or RFK Jr. He's flatly unqualified for the role. He's introducing all kinds of health risks for diseases we shouldn't even have to worry about any longer because he's an anti-vaxxer con-artist. He's so bad at his job that high level administrators [...]

This story wasoriginally publishedby ProPublica.Republished under aCC BY-NC-ND 3.0license. After years of struggling to find enough workers for some of the nation's toughest lockups, the Federal Bureau of Prisons is facing a new challenge: Corrections officers are jumping ship for more lucrative jobs at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This is one of the unintended consequences [...]

Support us on Patreon The relationship between journalism and AI has been off to an antagonistic start, with multiple court cases underway and plenty of discourse about what should happen next. There are various proposed approaches to setting up a better interplay between the two, but one person with an especially unique idea is Professor [...]

Although the field of artificial intelligence (AI) goes back more than half century, its latest incarnation - generative AI - is still very new: ChatGPT was launched just three years ago. During that time a wide variety of issues have been raised, ranging from concerns about the impact of AI on copyright, people's ability to [...]

The President of the United States is currently promising to spend the same pot of money on at least nine different things. The pot in question: revenue from all the random and fluctuating tariff duties that are almost certainly unconstitutional, which means he's likely going to have to pay some or all of it back. [...]

The 2025 AI Super Skills Bundle has 8 courses to help you get familiar with how to use some of the latest and coolest artificial intelligence tools out there. Courses cover ChatGPT, DALL-E 3, Leonardo AI, Quillbot, and more. It's on sale for $30. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. [...]

There is no doubt that fentanyl is a dangerous drug. It has long since surpassed heroin on the list of drugs people only do once. That its prevalence has more to do with pharma companies irresponsibly pushing opioids than drug pushers pushing a new drug often goes ignored during this heated, ongoing debate that is [...]

We've already explored at length how Bari Weiss was hired by the billionaire Ellison family to make CBS even more friendly to billionaires and authoritarians after their embarrassing capitulation to (and bribery of) U.S. autocrats. This isn't really a pivot real people were actually asking for, it's simply extension of the right wing extraction class's [...]

On the topic of artificial intelligence, like far too many topics these days, it seems that the vast majority of opinions out there are highly polarized. Either you're all about making fun of AI not living up to the hype surrounding it, and there are admittedly a zillion examples of this, or you're an AI [...]

In late September, the United Kingdom's Prime Minister Keir Starmerannouncedhis government's plans to introduce a new digital ID scheme in the country to take effect before the end of the Parliament (no later than August 2029). The scheme will,according tothe Prime Minister, cut thefaff" in proving people's identities by creating a virtual ID on personal [...]

When Hollywood legend Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner were murdered Sunday evening-allegedly by their son, who was arrested-you might (had you been living in another time with a different President) have expected the President of the United States to either stay silent or offer condolences. Instead, Donald Trump saw an opportunity to [...]

The Trump Administration's murder-in-international-waters program debuted far ahead of its legal rationale. Many people inside the administration were blindsided by this sudden escalation. Those expected to stay on top of these things - military oversight, congressional committees, etc. - found they were even further behind the curve than the late-arriving justification" for extrajudicial killings of [...]

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 [...]

We've talked about the Australian social media ban that went into effect last week, how dumb it is, and why it's already a mess. But late last week, some additional news broke that makes the whole thing even more grotesque: turns out the campaign pushing hardest for the ban was run by an ad agency [...]

In the enshittification era, companies rushing to profit off the gold mine of mass commercial surveillance are routinely intent on pushing their luck. Automakers spy on your driving habits (without telling you) to sell that data to insurance companies that raise your rates. Your ISP, phone, and even electrical meter all report on your every [...]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is drew repeating an important point about how ICE keeps deporting people while blowing off court rulings: Nothing will change Until the courts charge some people with contempt and issue some prison time. In second place, it's MrWilson with thoughts on the assertion that calling [...]

Five Years Ago This week in 2020, the ACLU told congress not to add a terrible copyright bill to the must-pass government funding bill, Senator Tillis was trying to slide a dangerous felony streaming bill in as well (the details of which showed it was a weird gift to Hollywood at the expense of taxpayers), [...]

I'm certain some people are getting tired of this refrain, but I'm going to keep repeating it to make the point: we shouldn't have to talk about measles in this country in 2025. This is a disease that had been officially put in elimination status for America over two decades ago. We were done with [...]

It's no secret that 2025 hasgivenAmericansplentytoprotestabout. But as news cameras showed protesters filling streets of cities across the country, law enforcement officers-including U.S. Border Patrol agents-were quietly watching those same streets through different lenses: Flock Safety automated license plate readers (ALPRs) that tracked every passing car. Through an analysis of 10 months of nationwide searches [...]

The mainstream media just failed a basic civics test so badly that you'd think their brains have been pickled by the kinds of folks who spend all their time on X (oh, wait...). Headlines across major outlets are breathlessly reporting that Donald Trump blocked states from passing AI laws" with an executive order. Except, that's [...]

This week Representative Al Green (Texas) filed another set of impeachment articles against Trump. They didn't move forward; in fact, they failed an initial vote for Congress to decide to even think about moving them forward. But that impeachment didn't move forward this time is not the story, because even though it didn't, pursuing it [...]

This 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Pad integrates three charging modules for cell phones, headphones, and watches-a maximum power of 15W for cell phone charging, 5W for Airpods charging, and 2.5W for Apple Watch charging. This charging pad can be folded and used as a phone stand. It's slim and compact, easy to put in your [...]

The government of India - especially under Prime Minister Narendra Modi - has never been shy about wanting to know what every one of its billion-plus citizens are up to at any given time. Not only does the government apparently have access to pretty much every bit of internet traffic generated by its citizens, it [...]

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 [...]

Explore an incredible world of documentaries with a Curiosity Stream Standard Plan. This top-tier streaming service offers unlimited access to thousands of films, series, and shows to satisfy your thirst for knowledge. Discover a vast library of content with Curiosity Stream's standard plan, spanning science, technology, history, nature, and art. Delve into an array of [...]

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 [...]