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Yesterday we posted our latest podcast, with guest Don McGowan, former board member at NCMEC (the National Center on Missing and Exploited Children) and former general counsel or chief legal officer at Bungie and the Pokemon Company (where he would sometimes disagree with our coverage). In the podcast, he goes into great detail about why [...]

We just noted how several Trumplican lawmakers recently killed a popular program that helped deliver a $30 discount off of the broadband bills of low income Americans. The FCC's Affordable Care Program (ACP) was implemented during peak COVID, and proved immensely helpful to 22 million Americans, many of whom are now being booted off the [...]

Michigan has long been terrible in terms of asset forfeiture. I mean, it's a problem everywhere, but in Michigan, cops took cars as often as they took cash. Cars were taken from people simply because they happened to pass through areas known for prostitution." Cars were taken from people simply because passengers or other drivers [...]

As you will no doubt be aware, on July 19th cybersecurity company CrowdStrike did an oopsie in an update it pushed to its Falcon Sensor software that took down millions of computers around the world. The result was chaos, with everything from hospitals to airlines to banks impacted by computers and servers that went into [...]

We've had several episodes and posts lately all about NCMEC, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, looking at both the great work it does and some of the problems that plague it. One thing we've often been especially concerned about is the center's advocacy efforts, such as pushing for FOSTA and KOSA. This [...]

Remember when Elon told advertisers not to advertise on ExTwitter? Remember how he told them to go fuck" themselves? Well, now he's suing those companies for the serious crime (he claims it might be RICO) of not wanting to advertise on his site. Oh, and it's even dumber than that. Because, as we detailed, just [...]

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One of the things that's supposed to separate us from the animals is the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. Supposedly, that's also one of the traits that puts cops on one side of the Thin Blue Line and the rest of us on the other side. But, when given the opportunity, it often [...]

While it tends to get buried by the press, one thing is very true: the U.S. is too corrupt to pass a federal privacy law. For as long as the internet has existed, policymakers have prioritized making money over the common good and public safety. The end result is exactly what you'd expect: a steady [...]

Well this is a real punch in the gut. For years, we have been talking about a strange lack of interest within the video game industry when it comes to game preservation. In far, far too many cases, both single player and multiplayer video games that rely on backend checks to start the game, or [...]

It hasn't been a fun few years for once-respected tech news outfit CNET. After being purchased by private equity backed marketing firm Red Ventures in 2020, the company has been in a downward spiral due to brunchlord mismanagement, facing scandal after scandal surrounding everything from softening its coverage to please advertisers, to using fake AI" [...]

What began as an attempt to challenge the constitutionality of the DMCA's terrible anticircumvention provision has now backfired. A court ruling will limit our rights to fair use and free expression in favor of Hollywood's ability to lock stuff down with digital locks. It's not great. I had thought we had gotten past the era [...]

Election security is still an issue that demands close attention. Unfortunately, the political rhetoric in this country has been controlled by Republicans who continue to insist the last election was stolen," despite a complete lack of evidence. This isn't helping anything. And raiding the Capitol to overturn election results accomplished little else than allowing people [...]

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I am excited to announce that I am joining the board of Bluesky, where I will be providing advice and guidance to the company to help it achieve its vision of a more open, more competitive, more decentralized online world. In the nearly three decades that I've been writing Techdirt I've been writing about what [...]

We recently noted how the telecom industry,with the help of the recent Chevron ruling, was gearing up to deliver what it hoped would be the killing blow to popular net neutrality protections (read: broadly popular FCC rules designed to prevent telecom monopolies from abusing their market power to screw customers and competitors). AT&T, Comcast, Verizon [...]

Here's yet more anecdotal evidence demonstrating why we're be better off routing mental health calls to mental health professionals, rather than to people who tend to respond to things they can't immediately control with violence. The good news is more cities are experimenting with multiple options for 911 response. The better news is that those [...]

There's nothing more self-congratulatory than a government announcing it's DOING SOMETHING ABOUT SOMETHING. That's the New York City government at the moment, lauding its efforts to reduce crime in the city's subways by installing tech even the tech manufacturer has stated isn't capable of doing what's being asked of it. In mid-May, Mayor Eric Adams [...]

Well, here's something unexpected. Apparently Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has a new book coming out this week called Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law." And, one of the examples in the book is about the ridiculous criminal case against Aaron Swartz and his eventual tragic decision to take his own life [...]

It is almost impossible to believe, as the nation stands on the precipice of one of the most important elections in our lifetime, if not the nation's history, that Democrats would want to stick it to young people, whose enthusiasm and activism they desperately need to prevail in November. But in trying to ram through [...]

MagStack is the perfect on-the-go wireless charging station that also transforms into a phone stand for 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, and [...]

If you're a swing state voter who thought AmericaPAC was helping you register to vote, think again. The Elon Musk-backed SuperPAC seems more interested in your personal info than your civic participation. It appears to be misleading visitors in order to collect all sorts of data, specifically on swing state voters, according to an incredible [...]

There's been significant progress, but many popular consumer electronics brands are still building hardware that's often impossible to repair despite a flood in new state right to repair" laws around the country. That's at least the conclusion of this new report by the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). PIRG examined 21 different mainstream tech [...]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Thad with a comment on our post about Democrats moving from fact-checking to vibe-checking: I think describing it as vibes" is reductive. The vibe is certainly part of it, but it's not just about vibes. It's about substance, too. When we talk about how [...]

Five Years Ago This week in 2019, the New York Times stood up for Section 230 and called out the politicians who were lying about it, like Rep. Gosar who had previously been sued for blocking constituents on social media, while we tried to put an end to the myth that big tech was censoring [...]

We've mentioned a few times that there are more than $42 billion in broadband subsides about to drop in the laps of state leaders thanks to the 2021 infrastructure bill. Since the bill gives individual states leeway on how this money is spent, a lot of states (like Pennsylvania) are simply throwing the money in [...]

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. IIn this week's round-up of the latest news in online [...]

It turns out the internet was one Sam Alito petulant tantrum away from being a total disaster. In two key First Amendment cases, Alito was given the majority opinion to write. And, in both of them, his insistence on obliterating the old boundaries of the First Amendment caused other Justices to switch sides - and [...]

The state of New Jersey has been sued twice over its infant DNA program. Like the rest of the nation, New Jersey hospitals collect a blood sample from newborns to test them for 60 different health disorders. That part is normal. But New Jersey is different. Rather than discard the samples after the testing is [...]

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Remember last month when ExTwitter excitedly rejoined GARM" (the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, an advertising consortium focused on brand safety)? And then, a week later, after Rep. Jim Jordan released a misleading report about GARM, Elon Musk said he was going to sue GARM and hoped criminal investigations would be opened? Unsurprisingly, Jordan has [...]

Broadband providers poised to receive $42 billion in taxpayer broadband subsidies from the infrastructure bill are ramping up complaints about a small requirement affixed to the massive handout: they have to try to make broadband affordable to poor people. Earlier this month we noted that the GOP, in lockstep with the telecom industry, had launched [...]

Say what you will about the roster of Trump apologists being hosted by the Volokh Conspiracy (and I will say plenty if given the chance), but at least Eugene Volokh continues to surface truly interesting cases. (Ilya Somin remains worth reading as well.) And this one is one for the record books. Possibly the first [...]

One of the arguments sometimes made in defense of copyright is that without it, creators would be unable to compete with the hordes of copycats that would spring up as soon as their works became popular. Copyright is needed, supporters say, to prevent less innovative creators from producing works that are closely based on new, [...]

Donald Trump is no stranger to filing vexatious, speech-chilling SLAPP suits. For a guy whose supporters pretend he is a big free speech" supporter, it's kind of astounding how frequently Trump sues people and companies over speech he dislikes. Unfortunately, judges have allowed the cases to move forward in two separate recent SLAPP suits. It [...]

Broken clocks may be accidentally correct twice a day, and sometimes those broken clocks save the internet. The House GOP has killed KOSA over unclear concerns" about the version of KOSA that was approved earlier this week. There were rumors this might happen, but in a note at the bottom of a Punchbowl News Congressional [...]

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Another anomaly has popped up, which has the chance to create enough of a circuit split that the Supreme Court will need to weigh in on this issue. The good news (albeit undercut a bit by good faith") is that another federal court has ruled the Riley warrant requirement applies at the nation's borders. Here's [...]

Back in March we noted how the GOP killed a popular program (the Affordable Connectivity Program, or ACP) that provided a $30 discount off of low-income users' broadband bills. At the time, 22 million Americans were enrolled in the FCC effort to bring down broadband access prices for the most vulnerable. But after House leader [...]

It's been a decade or so since one of the silliest ways to combat the symptom of a broken copyright system came to be: safe streaming settings in video games. Because of the way licensing works for the musical compositions in video games, and because some games include mainstream music a la Grand Theft Auto, [...]

The FCC has announced that it's taking more direct aim at prison phone and videoconferencing monopolies that have a long history of ripping off inmates and their families. According to an agency announcement, the FCC has voted to further lower price caps on prison phone calls and closed a loophole allowing companies to charge exorbitant [...]

I've spent many years trying to explain to people the impossibility of doing content moderation well at scale. I've created dozens of case studies on impossible decisions. I've made two separate video games about content moderation and trust & safety. I've written so so so many articles. But I think I've now found just a [...]

It's 2016 all over again. The FBI can't get everything it wants from a dead person's phone, so it has decided to start revving up its anti-encryption engine. The DOJ took Apple to court in hopes of securing precedent compelling tech companies to crack encrypted devices for it after it recovered the San Bernardino shooter's [...]

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The 2024 Paris Olympics is drawing the eyes of the world as thousands of athletes and support personnel and hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the globe converge in France. It's not just the eyes of the world that will be watching. Artificial intelligence systems will be watching, too. Government and private companies will [...]

We've noted repeatedly that in the wake of the Sprint T-Mobile merger, wireless carriers immediately stopped trying to compete on price (exactly what deal critics had warned the Trump administration would happen when you reduce sector competition). Recently, T-Mobile imposed another $3-$5 per month price hike on most of its plans - including customers who [...]

The asset forfeiture playing field is still far from level, but it at least got a little bit better in Virginia, thanks to a recent state appeals court decision. Here's Graham Moomaw with more details for the Virginia Mercury: A Virginia court erroneously ruled authorities could keep $35,293 seized from a Chesterfield County auto repair [...]

One of the central ideas of Walled Culture the book (free digital versionsavailable) is that there is a fundamental difference between analog and digital, and that copyright fails to recognize that. Instead, it seeks to impose what is an inherently analog approach based on scarcity to the online world where abundance is the norm. The [...]

Apparently, Congress only listens to the children" when they agree with what the kids are saying. As soon as some kids oppose something like KOSA, their views no longer count. It's no surprise given the way things were going, but the Senate today overwhelmingly passed KOSA by a 91 to 3 vote. The three no [...]

Good news for free speech enthusiasts. And that should be everyone in this nation, especially those living in Florida. And that goes for everyone who supports Governor Ron DeSantis and dumbass legislation like the Stop WOKE Act." Whether you like it or not, the First Amendment protects speech you disagree with, not just the stuff [...]