In a bizarre turn of events over the past few weeks, Spain’s high court ordered a ban on Telegram because some users (gasp!) used the tool to share copyright-protected content. The judge then suspended his own order a few days later after receiving a lot of criticism. Then, the judge asked the police to investigate […]
Last week we noted how AT&T was being rather cagey about the leak of the personal data of 73 million AT&T customers to the open web. The data, which includes customer social security addresses, names, phone numbers, and email addresses, first popped up back in 2021 after a hacker somehow obtained the data, encrypted it, […]
Remember Nick Sandmann? He was the dude who became something of a Rorschach Test for how much your political beliefs (in any direction) influence your views of a short video, when EVERYONE HAD OPINIONS on his MAGA-hat wearing encounter with a Native American demonstrator, Nathan Phillips. Also, everyone magically became experts in reading body language […]
Just recently, we covered a case involving a bogus raid of someone’s home based on nothing more than a ping from Apple’s ‘find my device’ feature. The Denver (CO) PD’s SWAT team raided the home of 77-year-old Ruby Johnson, destroying her garage door and some ceiling panels (?) in the process. The raid was predicated […]
It’s been a few years since I last did a “Let me rewrite that for you” post. This idea was first suggested by the brilliant press critic Dan Froomkin. Basically, when he finds a bit of journalistic malpractice, he rewrites it the way a good journalist would, to show why the original was so wrong. […]
The FCC has announced that it will vote to restore the net neutrality rules stripped away by the Trump administration during an agency meeting on April 25. A reminder: net neutrality rules prevent giant telecoms from abusing their market power to disadvantage competitors and consumers alike. Either by degrading the performance of a service that […]
I’m going to kick this post off by stipulating to a couple of facts. First, the primary subject of this post is YouTuber Andrew Callaghan. Callaghan has both something of a checkered past as a YouTuber, having had his most recent channel briefly taken down over claims of spreading COVID-19 misinformation, but in which he’s […]
It appears the New Jersey Department of Health still believes the state’s residents are better served by giving law enforcement another way to dodge the Constitution. The Department of Health was sued two years ago by the state’s Office of the Public Defender (OPD). That lawsuit targeted the state’s peculiar practice of holding on to […]
We’ve written a lot about the Murthy case at the Supreme Court, and especially how poor of a job the states did in making their argument. Now, as we await the ruling, there are a lot of questions about what it will look like and how consequential it will be. This week, we’re joined by […]
After several years of litigation across the federal appellate courts, the U.S. Supreme Court in a unanimous opinion has finally crafted a test that lower courts can use to determine whether a government official engaged in “state action” such that censoring individuals on the official’s social media page—even if also used for personal purposes—would violate the First […]
Flock Safety — a relatively recent entrant to the surveillance tech arena — is branching out. It’s courting cops with cheap ALPR cameras, unproven claims about crime reduction, and a little lawbreaking of its own. But it hasn’t abandoned its roots. It first hit the scene with plate readers it pitched to the Fun Police: […]
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 […]
Forget Mars colonies and self-driving cars. Elon Musk’s greatest challenge yet? Defeating Twitter’s relentless ‘pussy in bio’ spam army. And let’s just say, it’s not going well. It has really been quite incredible to watch Elon rediscover some of the basics of trust & safety best practices (though while consistently messing it up) as ExTwitter […]
There’s an historic $50 billion in broadband subsidies currently heading to the states courtesy of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). There are plenty of potential hiccups on stuff like mapping that could screw things up, but, any way you slice it, this money should still have an amazing, […]
Nearly seven years ago, we discussed a copyright dispute between Riot Games and a Chinese game publisher, Moonton. At issue were mobile games published by Moonton, such as Mobile Legends, that sure looked like fairly straight clones of Riot Games titles, chiefly League of Legends. We don’t typically cover what look like legit copyright disputes, […]
On the Neglected Books site, there is a fine meditation on rescuing forgotten writers and their works from oblivion, and why this is important. As its author Brad Bigelow explains: I have been searching for neglected books for over forty years and the one thing I can say with unshakeable confidence is that there are more great […]
Apparently, the one thing that can unite Democrats and Republicans in 2023 is a shared desire to destroy the internet’s legal framework. Hillary Clinton is the latest to jump on the ‘Repeal Section 230’ bandwagon. It’s truly stunning how Section 230 has switched from being a crowning achievement of US tech policy to something that […]
No matter who’s pitching the system, gunshot detection just doesn’t seem to be having any affect on crime rates or clearing investigations. The biggest player in the business — ShotSpotter (now known as SoundThinking) — has seen some major contracts cancelled because it can’t live up to the promises it made. Chicago is dumping the […]
The Complete 2024 CompTIA Certification Training Super Bundle by IDUNOVA has 15 courses to help you prepare for various CompTIA certification exams. Courses cover everything from the fundamentals to cloud essentials to cybersecurity. The bundle is on sale for $59.97. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all […]
For the last eight years or so, one thing has become quite clear: the media has been effectively unable to deal with Donald Trump and Trumpism. He is unique to our political system. He has no shame, is willing to lie without concern, convince himself that his lies are true, and will stop at nothing […]
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