Techdirt

It's a familiar playbook. When Donald Trump receives backlash from the public or the press for some action he's taken, say barring AP News from White House press briefings and events because it won't bow to his desire to rename parts of a large body of water, he doesn't shrink. He doubles down. Every single [...]

Look, sometimes you make mistakes. Maybe you send an email to the wrong person. Maybe you accidentally buy the wrong kind of pasta sauce at the grocery store. Maybe you accidentally dismantle critical global health infrastructure. These things happen! At least, that's what Elon Musk wants us to believe. At yesterday's first official Musk/Trump administration [...]

Lots of states have been passing performative, rights-violating bills that mandate sites hosting porn start performing age verification or suffer the consequences. The consequences can be severe, with fines being multiplied per access by unverified users on top of legal actions brought by state prosecutors. Most of these follow the same problematic blueprint. Even if [...]

Be the boss of any project with Microsoft Project Professional 2021. This powerful yet easy-to-use app lets you stay on track, from small tasks to larger projects. Manage your projects more efficiently with the right timelines, budgets, and resources. You'll get automated scheduling tools as well as built-in reports to help you reduce inefficiencies and [...]

Look, when Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post a decade ago, people worried that a billionaire owner might interfere with the paper's editorial independence. For years, those fears seemed overblown - Bezos appeared content to let journalists do journalism while he focused on more pressing matters (like building rockets and not paying taxes). But it [...]

It's understandably not going to get the same attention as thedismantling of numerous government agencies at the hands of rich unelected manbabies, but the Trump administration is also taking aim at all the promising parts of the 2021 infrastructure bill. Especially as it relates to broadband. TheInfrastructure Investment and Jobs Act(IIJA) contained a whopping $42.5 [...]

Here's another appellate anomaly. Most circuits (including this one!) have concluded destroying someone's home and property while engaging in law enforcement activity is just the sort of thing citizens are supposed to abide with good grace in exchange for living in a society. The Ninth Circuit isn't most circuits. It covers a lot of ground [...]

We've seen this sort of thing before, but it never really works. One of the symptoms of the permission culture we've built for ourselves, largely in the Western world, is that people or organizations think they can game otherwise legitimate systems in order to silence others. Intellectual property is one of those systems, where we've [...]

How do you win the global AI race? If you asked Elon Musk or his supporters in the Trump administration, they'd probably talk about deregulation, or getting government out of the way, or maybe something about GPU clusters and massive power consumption. What they probably wouldn't mention is USAID, the US government's primary foreign aid [...]

Every day Donald Trump seems to implement yet another of the key schemes of Project 2025, despite claiming last summer that I know nothing about Project 2025." According to the Project 2025 Web site, it is organized by the Heritage Foundation, which is also working on what it calls its Oversight Project": The Oversight Project [...]

California taxpayers are now on the hook for $345,576 in legal fees to... Elon Musk. Why? Because Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta ignored warnings about the obvious Constitutional problems with AB 587, their social media transparency" law. The law, which Google and Meta actually supported (knowing full well that they could comply [...]

The Complete 2025 Penetration Testing & Ethical Hacking Training Bundle has 9 courses to help you learn to fight back against cyber threats. Courses include hands-on lessons on penetration testing for AWS, IoT, and web apps, along with hacking basics and a few certificate exam prep courses. It's on sale for $50. Note: The Techdirt [...]

This stupid state. These stupid legislators. This goddamn constituency. This is my current home state. And it is painful to be here. Kristi Noem is now the head of the DHS, presumably because she never asked what this country could do for her, but instead asked what can I do for Donald Trump?" She kept [...]

We've noted repeatedly how new Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr is a Trump bootlicker of the highest order. He's also busy illegally leveraging FCC power to trample the First Amendment and bully media companies that aren't kissing Trump's ass. At least when he isn't busy attacking FCC civil rights reforms or dismantling whatever's left of [...]

While I have no interest in celebrating the demise of a company, one in which very real people had and have jobs that are going to go away, this was also a long time coming. The five year story about how EV trucking company Nikola ended in bankruptcy started in spectacular fashion in 2020, when [...]

I am, unabashedly, a Humean emotivist. Like David Hume, I hold that emotions-notabstract reason-form the foundation of our ethics. Cold logic alone doesn't guide our moral compass; it is shaped by the deep wellspring of human feeling. This isn't a rejection of reason, but a recognition of its limits and its partnership with emotion in [...]

I realize that using the word racist" to describe an ExTwitter account is pretty much redundant at this point, but there's something more to this story. It's not that a racist is using ExTwitter to make racist posts. It's that a prosecutor working for ICE is, and has been, posting racist content for years on [...]

In a stunning display of government overreach, the UK has effectively forced Apple to disable its iCloud encryption for British users. Earlier this month, we wrote about the UK wielding the Investigatory Powers Act - aka The Snooper's Charter" - to demand Apple create a backdoor in its iCloud encryption for all users globally. Despite [...]

It really doesn't seem like too much to ask that legal representatives who are specifically trained to handle legal work actually know what the fuck they're doing when they engage in legal representation. While I understand that not every lawyer's competence will be equal, I don't believe we should be expected to put up with [...]

This DevDojo Pro subscription gives you access to a set of tools to help you build your next great idea. Start with the Page Creator, where you'll find Tailwind CSS Page Builder, a tool for crafting beautiful landing pages. Then, move on to Wave SAAS Starter Kit, where you'll learn how to build your Software [...]

Last Friday brought two seemingly unrelated stories: the Associated Press suing White House officials over retaliatory press access restrictions, and Trump's interim DC US Attorney Ed Martin launching what appears to be a personal intimidation campaign against Trump/Musk political rivals - precisely the kind of unconstitutional lawfare" that Trump and Musk themselves have previously denounced. [...]

Last October,Trump sued CBSclaiming (falsely) that a 60 Minutes interview of Kamala Harris had been deceitfully edited" to her benefit (they simply shortened some of her answers for brevity, as news outlets often do). AsMike explored, the lawsuit was utterly baseless, and tramples the First Amendment, editorial discretion, and common sense. CBS/Paramount is looking for [...]

We have been talking about the problem of ownership in the modern world for some time, particularly as it revolves around how digital or internet-reliant products are sold. It's become such a prevalent problem that there's something of a generic mantra for it: You don't actually own the thing you bought. There's a spectrum to [...]

You might recall Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti as the guy who gutted Buzzfeed's talented news division and fired oodles of human beings back in 2023. As part of that transition, Peretti heavily embraced half cooked AI' technology in the form of generative and interactive AI chatbots he insisted would dramatically boost the site's traffic and [...]

Here was a fun surprise last night. John Oliver just delivered what might be the most accessible and accurate mainstream takedown of content moderation myths we've seen yet. The latest episode of Last Week Tonight" tackled content moderation head-on, while systematically dismantling Mark Zuckerberg's increasingly dubious justifications for Meta's policy changes. In this era where [...]

Blithely ignoring decades of jurisprudence, Mississippi Chancery Judge Crystal Wise Martin issued a temporary restraining order directing a small local paper, the Clarksdale Press Register to remove an op-ed that criticized the city for holding a meeting that was supposed to public without notifying the public about the upcoming meeting. This order was crafted and [...]

Look, there are different ways to manage people. You could, for instance, have regular performance reviews, set clear expectations, and provide constructive feedback. Or... you could send an email late on a Saturday to the entirety of the federal government workforce (even those outside the executive branch) demanding that everyone list five things they did [...]

StackSkills is the premier online learning platform for mastering today's most in-demand skills. Now, with this exclusive limited-time offer, you'll gain access to 1000+ StackSkills courses for life! Whether you're looking to earn a promotion, make a career change, or pick up a side hustle to make some extra cash, StackSkills delivers engaging online courses [...]

This post was written on Saturday before news broke that Elon Musk had commanded every single federal employee-including those in the judiciary!-to send a five things I did last week" email to hr@opm.gov. But even that episode, where Musk and DOGE once again flexed power they don't lawfully have, and in contact with computer systems [...]

The 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) continues to quietly help fund a number of extremely popular community-owned, open access fiber deployments that are challenging entrenched U.S. monopoly power, and driving super cheap, community-owned and operated fiber networks into long neglected towns. New York State, for example, just leveraged ARPA funds to give a $26 [...]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is an anonymous comment about DOGE's supposed savings: It's easy to afford a car and house when you don't do any maintenance on it. I've come to the conclusion that right wingers have no concept of short term vs long term costs. In second place, [...]

Five Years Ago This week in 2020, the fight around Section 230 was heating up with Mark Zuckerberg suggesting it should go away, Tom Wheeler disappointingly getting it all wrong, and the News Media Alliance coming out against it, while Ron Wyden stepped up to explain why modifying it would give more censorship power to [...]

The Trump DOJ retribution tour has begun, as Ed Martin, Trump's interim US Attorney for the District of Columbia, launches a series of politically motivated investigations targeting critics of Trump and Elon Musk. Martin, a former talk radio host and Stop the Steal" supporter with no prosecutorial experience, is transforming what should be an independent [...]

The Trump administration's dumbest saga so far just got a bit more serious, thankfully. For the past couple of weeks, we have been talking about how, after Donald Trump ordered the government to change the name of the continental shelf extending from American land be renamed from the all-encompassing Gulf of Mexico," as the whole [...]

Republican senators have seen the mass graves. They've met Zelensky. They've walked through bombed cities and witnessed firsthand the evidence of Russian atrocities. Yet now, faced with Trump's embrace of Putin and denunciation of Ukraine, they can't even muster the courage to state simple truths they know from direct personal experience. While Trump openlydeclaresthe Ukrainian [...]

Across the United States, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has already begun increasing enforcement operations, includinghighly publicized raids. As immigrant communities, families, allies, and activists think about what can be done to shift policy and protect people, one thing is certain: similar tofilming the policeas they operate, you have the right to film ICE, as [...]

While an unelected tech billionaire is effectively orchestrating a coup of the US government, violating federal law with apparent impunity, and disclaiming all responsibility for the chaos he's causing, the Democrats have identified their top priority: repealing Section 230. You might think - in a moment when democracy itself seems to be unraveling and the [...]

The 2025 Graphic Design for Beginners Bundle has 4 courses to help you learn about graphic design. Courses cover working with Adobe Illustrator, using your iPhone for filming, and starting your own graphic design business. It's on sale for $30. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all [...]

Utah state Rep. Trevor Lee is not going to like this headline. Too bad. It's accurate, even if he'd like to pretend it isn't. Trevor Lee is again pushing a bill that would ban government agencies from displaying pride flags, but would allow Nazi and Confederate flags to be displayed in classrooms, so long as [...]

Welcome to the golden age of corruption. Last year I warned repeatedly how a concussive series of Supreme Court rulings like Loper Bright were poised to dismantle already shaky regulatory authority and corporate oversight, turning most U.S. regulators into the legal and policy equivalent of decorative seasonal gourds. It was the ultimate victory in a [...]

For twenty years, a great war has raged. A console war, between the two great powers, Sony and Microsoft. Sure, there were other regional powers in play, such as Nintendo. And it's true that Sony won nearly every campaign in this war, to varying degrees. But the war raged on right up until this week, [...]

Donald Trump spent the four years between presidential terms complaining about a stolen" election. He - and his enablers - made multiple baseless claims about election fraud and claimed the entire system was rigged against him. His lawyers and supporters suggested voting machines were so insecure that the Venezuelan government itself might have been involved [...]

Automation can be helpful, yes. But the story told to date by large tech companies like OpenAI has been that these new language learning models would be utterly transformative, utterly world-changing, and quickly approaching some kind of sentient superintelligence. Yet time and time again, data seems to show they're failing to accomplish even the bare [...]

Here's another win for free speech that probably isn't going to please most people. But that's how it goes. Fourth Amendment rulings reinforce protections while coming down on the side of accused criminals. First Amendment jurisprudence tends to be generated by people who seem to have nothing worthwhile to say. That's the way it goes. [...]

There's a peculiar form of blindness that comes from prolonged safety. Like a frog in slowly heating water, people who have known only stability become incapable of recognizing existential threats until they're already overwhelmed by them. This isn't just normal human shortsightedness-it's a specific kind of cognitive failure bred by generations of relative peace and [...]

Unlock a world of knowledge with a Headway Premium subscription. This exclusive deal gives you unlimited access to Headway's massive library of1500+ book summaries, with30-50 new ones added monthly. Cover any topic you can imagine, from personal development and business strategies to health and wellness. It's on sale for $60 and use code LEVELUP20 to [...]

Trump's first presidency brought a lot of latent human ugliness to the surface. It stayed there during the four years he sat, sulked, broke laws, lost lawsuits, and continued to stoke the fires of hate. Now, he's leveraging the hatred his last term in office turned into part of everyday politics to inflict further misery [...]

We've long noted how the race to 5G" was largely just hype by telecoms and hardware vendors eager tosell more gear and justify high U.S. mobile data prices. While 5G does provide faster, more resilient, and lower latency networks, it's more of an evolution than a revolution. But that's not what telecom giants like Verizon, [...]

The phrase no harm, no foul" doesn't apply to law enforcement personnel, whether they're patrol officers or the chief local prosecutor. Instead - thanks to the qualified immunity doctrine - the phrase is: whatever amount of harm, no foul." As long as the harm isn't something specifically covered by precedent, the general feeling of courts [...]

America, which used to be a serious country run by adults, has since devolved into something else. We were just talking about how the White House had made the brilliant decision to bar AP News reporters from all kinds of official briefings. Why? Well, because the AP refused to update its influential Stylebook to refer [...]