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The Fake Government ‘Efficiency’ Agency Known As DOGE Already Faces Multiple Lawsuits

4 hours 48 minutes ago
One of the many new executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on Monday was the long-hyped creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE is portrayed as a sort of government efficiency and innovation office, but it’s primarily flimsy cover for the extraction class as they eliminate corporate oversight, consumer protection, labor rights, and the social […]
Karl Bode

The TikTok Ban Was Jawboning, And Yet Another Example Illustrating Why Jawboning Is Bad (And Unconstitutional)

6 hours 4 minutes ago
This post was written on Sunday. By the time you read it there may have been 12,492 further unconstitutional TikTok-related hijinks since then, but because this particular kind of unconstitutional violation might well rear its ugly head again, if not with respect to TikTok then with respect to something else, it’s still worth pointing out […]
Cathy Gellis

Daily Deal: Babbel Language Learning (All Languages)

6 hours 9 minutes ago
Whether you’re a seasoned traveler, an international business professional, or simply language enthusiast, the Babbel Language Learning Deal is your passport to fluency. Covering a range of topics that are actually valuable on the road and using time-tested strategies proven by academics from Yale University, City University of New York, and Michigan State University, Babbel […]
Daily Deal

Verizon Class Action Nets Piddly Payouts Over Company’s Completely Bogus Fees

11 hours 27 minutes ago
Last year U.S. broadband giant Verizon faced yet another class action lawsuit for sleazy, misleading fees. This latest $100 million class action alleged that Verizon for years ripped off its customers via a $3 (and up) “Administrative and Telco Recovery Charge” that it tacked at the bottom of user bills to help the company falsely […]
Karl Bode

Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

2 days 4 hours ago
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side Stephen T. Stone with a comment about platforms systematically removing a user for making a deck of Most Wanted CEO playing cards: The same people who celebrate this will whine their asses off if someone gets banned from Twitter for saying a racial slur. Can’t […]
Leigh Beadon

This Week In Techdirt History: January 12th – 18th

3 days 4 hours ago
Five Years Ago This week in 2020, an excellent piece in the New York Times looked how years of copyright maximalism were killing pop music. AG William Barr was sparring with Apple over the DOJ’s ability to crack iPhones, and Devin Nunes was extending his legal threats to fellow congressional representatives. We looked at the […]
Leigh Beadon

FTC Bans GM From Selling Driver Location Data For 5 Years

4 days 1 hour ago
Last year, Kashmir Hill at the New York Times published a major story confirming that automakers collect all sorts of driver behavior data then sell it to a long list of companies — without making that clear to car owners or getting consent. That includes insurance companies, which are now jacking up insurance rates if they see […]
Karl Bode

Italian Legislators Rekindle Decade-Long Grudge Match Against Tripadvisor And Its Reviewers

4 days 3 hours ago
Italy remains pretty fucking weird when it comes to all things Italian. From top prosecutors taking aim at vendors who “debase” respected Italian art by, say, offering products featuring Michelangelo’s “David” (mainly the naked bits, which is all of it) or fining government entities (even those engaged in promoting tourism) for using any other language […]
Tim Cushing

SCOTUS: TikTok’s China Connection Is So Scary & Urgent, We Can Ban An Entire App. Biden Admin: Just Kidding, We Won’t Enforce It

4 days 5 hours ago
It seemed pretty obvious from the way the Supreme Court’s oral arguments went regarding the TikTok ban that this would be the outcome: a 9-0 per curiam decision saying “eh, it’s fine to ban TikTok.” There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, […]
Mike Masnick

Daily Deal: Fuse Vint Vintage Retro Radio

4 days 5 hours ago
Fuse Vint is a retro radio, speaker, and charger all in one! Indulge in the nostalgia of traditional radio broadcasts. Fuse Vint comes equipped with a built-in AM/FM radio tuner. Tune in to your favorite local radio stations and immerse yourself in the charm of traditional frequency-based broadcasting. It also works as a standalone speaker […]
Daily Deal

FTC Finally Sues John Deere Over Years Of ‘Right To Repair’ Abuses

4 days 11 hours ago
A few years ago agricultural equipment giant John Deere found itself on the receiving end of an antitrust lawsuit for its efforts to monopolize tractor repair. The lawsuits noted that the company consistently purchased competing repair centers in order to consolidate the sector and force customers into using the company’s own repair facilities, driving up costs and […]
Karl Bode

Ctrl-Alt-Speech: Bullshit In A China Shop

4 days 21 hours ago
Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderation‘s 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 […]
Mike Masnick

The NHL Just Can’t Get Social Media Right

5 days ago
The NHL keeps doing this kind of crap to itself. Of all the major American sports leagues, I’d say it’s pretty clear that the National Hockey League trails all the others in terms of getting things right with the internet. The league finally piggybacked onto the MLB Advanced Media platform several years ago to power […]
Dark Helmet

Platforms Systematically Removed A User Because He Made “Most Wanted CEO” Playing Cards

5 days 3 hours ago
On December 14, James Harr, the owner of an online store called ComradeWorkwear, announced on social media that he planned to sell a deck of “Most Wanted CEO” playing cards, satirizing the infamous “Most-wanted Iraqi playing cards” introduced by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency in 2003. Per the ComradeWorkwear website, the Most Wanted CEO cards would offer “a critique […]
Mike Masnick