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This Week In Techdirt History: November 16th – 22nd

18 hours 37 minutes ago
Five Years Ago This week in 2020, we featured a guest post about the many problems with the idea of upload filters, while Poland was trying to get them excluded from the EU Copyright Directive. Twitch was continuing to trip over itself in response to its DMCA apocalypse, and we dug into just how bad […]
Leigh Beadon

Clown Show: CDC Website Changed To Suggest Vaccines May Indeed Cause Autism

1 day 11 hours ago
I knew this was coming but this still is absolutely maddening. In all of our coverage of RFK Jr., particularly since his vile appointment and confirmation as head of Health and Human Services, it’s been abundantly clear that he’s an anti-vaxxer. While that may seem obvious to most of our readers, it’s important to note […]
Timothy Geigner

Why People Don’t Demand Data Privacy, Even As Governments & Corporations Collect More Personal Info

1 day 15 hours ago
When the Trump administration gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement access to a massive database of information about Medicaid recipients in June 2025, privacy and medical justice advocates sounded the alarm. They warned that the move could trigger all kinds of public health and human rights harms. But most people likely shrugged and moved on with their day. Why is that? It’s […]
Rohan Grover and Josh Widera

Defense Contractor Lobbyists Are Trying To Kill Army ‘Right To Repair’ Reforms With A Bunch Of Lies And Bullshit

1 day 18 hours ago
So we’ve noted repeatedly how there’s a real push afoot to 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, while all fifty states have at least flirted with the idea, only Massachusetts, New York, Minnesota, Colorado, California, and Oregon, and […]
Karl Bode

Trump Says Democratic Lawmakers Should Die For Telling The Military To Obey Their Oath

1 day 20 hours ago
The President of the United States is calling for the execution of six Democratic lawmakers—all military veterans or former intelligence officers—because they reminded US service members of their oath to the Constitution. That’s not hyperbole or exaggeration. That’s an actual thing that happened yesterday. Donald Trump spent hours on social media demanding that Senators Elissa […]
Mike Masnick

Daily Deal: Linux/UNIX Certification Training Bundle

1 day 20 hours ago
Linux and UNIX operating systems have become increasingly popular in commercial computing environments. Due to their rapid growth in today’s businesses, Linux/UNIX administrators have also become very much in demand. The Linux/UNIX Certification Training Bundle will help you prepare for the CompTIA Linux+ and the Novell Certified Linux Professional certification exams. The 2-course bundle is […]
Daily Deal

September Arrest, Deportation Of Firefighter Shows The Administration Just Wants Brown People Gone

1 day 21 hours ago
I’ve expended far too many words stating the obvious: the Trump administration’s deportation program isn’t interested in removing criminals. It’s only interested in removing people who aren’t white. That’s why it vets visa applicants for “anti-American” social media posts while throwing the immigration door wide open for any white people seeking to escape the “persecution” […]
Tim Cushing

Trump Attacks Leave U.S. Cybersecurity Agencies Hollowed Out And Managed By Useless Zealots

2 days 1 hour ago
We’ve noted time and time again that Trump’s attack on U.S. cybersecurity defenses and oversight are utterly indistinguishable from a foreign attack. Perhaps with the exception of more lip filler, spray tans, diabetes, bogus efficiency, and fake piety. That’s been particularly true for Trump’s attack on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which has […]
Karl Bode

Ken Paxton’s Tylenol Lawsuit Is Off To A Terrible Start

2 days 10 hours ago
Ken Paxton’s bullshit lawsuit against the makers of Tylenol, built on Trump and RFK Jr.’s bullshit press conference in which they pretended that science says acetaminophen causes autism, is off to a predictably bad start. I had a bit of a laugh shortly after this turd was filed, mainly because Kennedy himself came out after […]
Timothy Geigner

Ctrl-Alt-Speech: You Can’t Antitrust Anyone These Days

2 days 14 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.
Mike Masnick

Why The Trump Administration’s Comparison Of Antifa To Hamas, ISIS, And MS-13 Makes No Sense

2 days 17 hours ago
When Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem compared antifa to the transnational criminal group MS-13, Hamas and the Islamic State group in October 2025, she equated a nonhierarchical, loosely organized movement of antifascist activists with some of the world’s most violent and organized militant groups. “Antifa is just as dangerous,” she said. It’s a sweeping claim that ignores crucial distinctions […]
Art Jipson

Cities Shut Down Flock Camera Networks Following Improper Access By Federal Agencies

2 days 20 hours ago
“Flock Safety” may be the brand name, but this company’s earliest sales successes had nothing to with safety. Its target audience was homeowners associations and people running gated communities in upscale neighborhoods. The purpose of the cameras (and, eventually, the attached license plate reader tech) was to make sure people who were plenty safe already […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: EDU Unlimited by StackSkills

2 days 20 hours ago
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 […]
Daily Deal

Brendan Carr Launches Baseless ‘Investigation’ Into PBS, NPR, And BBC To Try And Silence Criticism Of His Weird, Unpopular Boss

2 days 21 hours ago
Donald Trump’s FCC boss Brendan Carr is opening a fake new “investigation” into PBS, NPR, and BBC in the hopes of suppressing journalistic criticism of the country’s increasingly unmoored and unpopular President. Carr first leaked word of the fake investigation to right wing propaganda website Breitbart. In a letter to all three outlets (pages 1, […]
Karl Bode

How Trademark Ruined Colorado-Style Pizza

3 days 15 hours ago
You’ve heard of New York style, Chicago deep dish, Detroit square pans. But Colorado-style pizza? Probably not. And there’s a perfectly ridiculous reason why this regional style never spread beyond a handful of restaurants in the Rocky Mountains: one guy trademarked it and scared everyone else away from making it. This story comes via a […]
Mike Masnick

Fans Of Open Access, Unite: You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Chained Libraries

3 days 17 hours ago
When books were rare and extremely expensive, they were often chained to the bookcase to prevent people walking off with them, in what were known as “chained libraries”. Copyright serves a similar purpose today, even though, thanks to the miracle of perfect, zero-cost digital copies, it is possible simultaneously to take an ebook home and […]
Glyn Moody

The Misleading Story Fox News Told About Portland Before Trump Sent Troops

3 days 19 hours ago
This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. When President Donald Trump told reporters on Sept. 5 he’d started looking at sending the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, he said it was because of something he saw on television. He said the city was being destroyed by paid agitators. “What they’ve done to that […]
Rob Davis