Techdirt

Earlier this month we noted how California was attempting to pass a new law ensuring that broadband would be affordable to poor people. The original law proposed that the biggest ISPs would need to make sure they offered speeds of at least 100 Mbps down, 20 Mbps up for $15 a month to California residents [...]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Stephen T. Stone with a comment about our call for the government to accept accountability for the power it wields: Bold of you to assume that Republicans will ever place responsibility for their actions on their own shoulders instead of on the backs of [...]

Five Years Ago This week in 2020, the DHS was going full gestapo in response to protests in Portland, then quickly expanding the tactics to other cities, starting with Chicago, and was also engaging in domestic surveillance to protect statues and monuments. We asked why the US was trying to punish hackers for accessing vaccine [...]

It seems to be part of human nature to try to game systems. That's also true for technological systems, including the most recent iteration of AI, as the numerous examples of prompt injection exploits demonstrate. In the latest twist, an investigation by Nikkei Asia has found hidden prompts in academic preprints hosted on the arXiv [...]

Thisseries of postsexplores how we can rethink the intersection of AI, creativity, and policy. From examining outdated regulatory metaphors to questioning copyright norms and highlighting the risks of stifling innovation, each post addresses a different piece of the AI puzzle. Together, they advocate for a more balanced, forward-thinking approach that acknowledges the potential of technological [...]

We've spent years documenting the challenges of crafting sensible AI policy, from Biden's misguided plan, to various state-level attempts at regulation. Now Trump's AI Action Plan has landed, offering a striking example of how even potentially useful policy ideas can be corrupted by political theater and special interests. The plan reflects the deep influence of [...]

So many pro-police lawmakers and city officials have always insisted the only way to bring down crime rates is to add more cops to the mix. This may work if you're mainly interested in racking up meaningless arrests or handing out broken windows" citations, but it doesn't address why certain areas have higher crime rates. [...]

The 2025 Data Center Infrastructure and Design Fundamentals bundle has 5 courses to teach about how modern data centers are built, powered, and maintained. Explore critical components, design considerations, and the step-by-step process behind building efficient and reliable data centers that support global digital operations. Courses cover HVAC design, electrical and power essentials, operation and [...]

Here's how you know the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case represents something fundamentally broken in government accountability: within hours of two federal judges ordering his release and explicitly warning the government not to play games with him, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin went on X to repeat laughably false claims about Abrego while declaring that he will [...]

With the cowards at CBS/Paramount having paid their $16 million bribe to the King, Trump's FCC has quickly ended its phony investigation" into the media giant, and given its rubber stamp approval to the company's $8 billion merger with Skydance (owned by Trump's friends in the Ellison family). In a press release, Trump FCC boss [...]

It should be uncontroversial at this point to say that the Russian government has waged a long but incremental war on both free speech and a free and open internet. Always couched in terms of preventing extremist content" to infiltrate the minds of its own people, the truth is that Russia denotes any content it [...]

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. Our second annual live at TrustCon recording of Ctrl-Alt-Speech! Ben [...]

The Trump administration iscontinuingitsdangerous pushto surveil and suppress foreign students' social media activity. The State Department recentlyannouncedan unprecedented new requirement that applicants for student and exchange visas must set all social media accounts to public" for government review. The State Departmentalso indicatedthat if applicants refuse to unlock their accounts or otherwise don't maintain a social [...]

Here we go. Again. Nonstop. The Racist Fucks Regime is at it again, leveraging every piece of data involuntarily collected by the government as a weapon to deploy against brown people. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will be given access to the personal data of the nation's 79 million Medicaid enrollees, including home addresses and [...]

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The Supreme Court's shadow docket has become a lawless mess. The justices are issuing extremely consequential rulings with either no explanation at all, or with barely a paragraph of reasoning. No full briefing. No oral arguments. Just vibes-based constitutional law that lower courts are somehow supposed to follow. Now the Court has made this chaos [...]

Last year you might recall that Vice Media suffered its final collapse after years of mismanagement by incompetent, fail-upward brunchlords. The new owners, Savage Ventures, quickly made it clear they were going to be even worse than past Vice management, firing a ton of talented writers and editors, and shifting Vice's focus even harder toward [...]

This saga of dumb began nearly a decade ago, in 2016, when a grocer named Iceland Foods," that was somehow granted an EU trademark for Iceland," began bullying other EU businesses using that word over supposed trademark infringement. Iceland, the country, caught wind of all of this when the company had the stones to oppose [...]

As numerous Walled Culture posts attest,site blockingis in the vanguard of the actions by copyright companies against sites engaged in the unauthorized sharing of material. Over the past few months, this approach has become even more pervasive, and even more intrusive. For example, in France, the Internet infrastructure company Cloudflare was forced togeoblock more than [...]

On July 8, an expanded coalition of library associations, civil society organizations, journalist groups, and other advocates for information access sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee explaining their opposition to the Pro Codes Act. This coalition has grown significantly from the original group that opposed the bill, now including major organizations like the [...]

Peter Shane'sdevastating analysisinThe Atlantichas performed the invaluable service of documenting what many suspected but few could prove: that Chief Justice John Roberts has systematically dismantled American constitutional government while claiming to restore it. But Shane's meticulous account of Roberts's proto-authoritarian canon" reveals something even more damning-the entire Unitary Executive Theory project is essentially an exercise [...]

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 [...]

When you're shooting for 3,000 arrests a day, it seems kind of pathetic to complain about being mildly bruised a few times a week. DHS and ICE have constantly used a supposed massive increase in assaults on ICE officers to justify ICE's tactics: the masks, the unmarked vehicles, the refusal to present IDs or warrants, [...]

Earlier this month, CBS wimped out and paid Donald Trump a $16 million bribe to settle a completely baseless lawsuit - and to buy regulatory approval of their $8 billion merger with Skydance. The result is now going to be a CBS owned by Trump's close billionaire friends, the Ellison family, who are clearly signaling [...]

I recognize that trademark law is a nuanced thing and I don't expect the average person to be familiar with all of its intricacies. Hell, I write about trademarks all the time and I could probably fill a law school gymnasium with what I still don't know about it. But I honestly am often surprised [...]

Ring founder Jamie Siminoff isback at the helmof the surveillance doorbell company, and with him is thesurveillance-first-privacy-lastapproach that made Ring one of the most maligned tech devices. Not only is the company reintroducing new versions of old features which would allow police to request footage directly from Ring users, it is also introducing a new [...]

Judge Loren AliKhan knows exactly how this story ends, but she's going to make the Supreme Court write the final chapter themselves. Her ruling reinstating illegally fired FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter reads like judicial theater-a careful performance of applying precedent everyone knows is doomed. We discussed this a bit when Trump first illegally fired [...]

Trump and his loyalists crave actual martial law. DHS head Kristi Noem has - out loud! - threatened to liberate" Californians from the democracy they currently enjoy in the state of California. Plenty of idiots and idiot newscasters continue to pretend Los Angeles is under siege when, in reality, protests against ICE have been limited [...]

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Democratic politicians have a chronic problem: they keep accepting Republican framing instead of creating their own. They run scared of Fox News, moderate their positions to appease the unappeasable, and let political consultants convince them that authenticity is dangerous. They are so worried about how Fox News will portray anything they say, they try not [...]

Authoritarian assholes really don't like public broadcasting. They don't like it because, in its ideal form, it untethers journalism from the often perverse financial incentives inherent in our consolidated, billionaire-owned, ad-engagement based corporate media. If we bolsteredrealindependent media or public broadcasting, you might see journalism more interested intelling people the truth and challenging wealth and [...]

It was over a decade ago that Mike wrote about the state of New York's trademark bullying ways when it comes to enforcing its trademarks for I NY." Now, it should be obvious just how absurd it is for the state to even hold onto a trademark designed to promote the state, nevermind the [...]

To be sure, the DHS is just going to blow off Senator Wyden's demands for answers, just as it has blown off congressional oversight, court orders, and pretty much the entirety of the US Constitution. (We're all just waiting to be told we're obligated to house National Guard troops sent by the administration to whatever [...]

We've seen some pretty ridiculous lawsuits here at Techdirt, but the one that Donald Trump filed on Friday against Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal over the article about the birthday card he was alleged to have given Epstein is so legally incompetent that it reads like a masterclass in how not to file [...]

No matter what the DHS and ICE say about the justification of ICE officers remaining masked during raids, it's all about avoiding public accountability. DHS boss Kristi Noem says alarmist things about ICE officers being targeted" or doxxed," but it's all about inflicting America with its own secret police while it undergoes the process of [...]

Whether you're a science enthusiast, history buff, or technology geek, Curiosity Stream has something for everyone. Unleash the power of on-demand streaming that allows you to choose what you want to watch, when you want to watch it, and where you want to watch it. From the comfort of your living room to the remote [...]

I've been warning people since the beginning of the year to expect the Trump regime to use the Twitter Files playbook on the US government and now we're seeing exactly that play out. Trump is facing a bunch of pushback over the Jeffrey Epstein nonsense, so he needed some big new distraction quickly. Director of [...]

In a lead up to the last Presidential Election, one of the lies circulated by the Trump camp to befuddle plebs and rubes was that Trump 2.0 was going to be serious about antitrust reform." You didn't have to look far for some baseless claims in the press (or by supposed experts like Matt Stoller) [...]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is n00bdragon with a comment about the behavior of Grok and LLMs in general: LLMs are just bias engines. That's literally what they do. That's how they work. They find patterns (biases) and replicate them. Not all biases are bad. Sometimes you want a machine [...]

Five Years Ago This week in 2020, we saw a new breed of scammers start abusing the DMCA on YouTube, and a new evolution of copyright trolls abusing the DMCA to take down social media accounts and demanding money to reinstate them. We also saw the debate following the Harper's letter reach new heights of [...]

Back when the COVID-19 vaccines were first rolled out, to the surprise of nobody intelligent, fraud schemes around vaccination cards began to pop up. Groups, including some doctors, were illegally handing out vaccination cards without actually vaccinating anyone. One of those doctors, according to charges brought by the DOJ, was Michael Kirk Moore Jr. in [...]

Donald Trump admitted yesterday that he called Rupert Murdoch and demanded the Wall Street Journal kill its story about Trump's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. When Murdoch couldn't deliver, Trump promised to sue the media company and gleefully looked forward to putting Murdoch on the witness stand. Update: Just as this story was going live, it [...]

Thisseries of postsexplores how we can rethink the intersection of AI, creativity, and policy. From examining outdated regulatory metaphors to questioning copyright norms and highlighting the risks of stifling innovation, each post addresses a different piece of the AI puzzle. Together, they advocate for a more balanced, forward-thinking approach that acknowledges the potential of technological [...]

The DHS has been hyping assault stats for weeks, making it sound like there's an actual war on ICE officers. The reality was much more underwhelming: the 700% increase touted in press releases reflected a mere 69 more assaults on officers than during the same period in 2024. Hardly worth remarking on, especially since ICE [...]

We've written before about how attacks on free speech often start with unpopular speakers who lack political power. That's why a new dissenting opinion from Trump-appointed Judge Paul Matey should set off alarm bells for anyone who cares about the First Amendment. In a case involving an imam's immigration status, Judge Matey penned a remarkable [...]

Embedded systems are at the heart of modern innovation, powering everything from smart devices to automotive technology. This Embedded Systems Engineer Mastery Bundle has 10 courses to help equip you with the skills to design, program, and implement microcontroller-based solutions. Gain hands-on experience with Arduino, PIC, and ESP32, master C programming for embedded applications, and [...]

The Trump administration's maximum cruelty version of immigration enforcement has sent swarms of masked officers to anywhere someone looking kind of foreign might be found. Due process has been eliminated, with the administration relying on its invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to do its dirty, unconstitutional work for it. To make things even worse, [...]

When last we checked with CBS/Paramount, company executives had just paid Trump $16 million in bribe money to settle a completely baseless lawsuit, effectively purchasing regulatory approval of their $8 billion merger with Skydance. It was arguably one of the biggest acts of corporate cowardice in recent memory, resulting in many CBS journalists and executives [...]

Nobody who has read any of my posts about RFK Jr., particularly since his vulgar appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services, will be under any misunderstandings about my opinion of the man. I have made it clear that I believe he is a health crackpot, dealing in wildly dangerous conspiratorial theories, the adoption [...]

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 [...]