Almost everyone I’ve seen talking about this new Insider article about how Elon had a special layoff just of trust and safety employees has shared it with the line “wait, there are still trust & safety employees?” Elon Musk recently laid off more Twitter employees working on the platform’s trust and safety efforts, roles typically […]
Note: Since the publication of this article, the iBorderCtrl website has disappeared. We have updated the links in the post to point to an archived version of the site. Four years ago, Techdirt wrote about iBorderCtrl, a research project funded by the EU under the Horizon 2020 framework. According to the project’s Web site: iBorderCtrl […]
So, for all of the nonsense about what level of coercive power governments have over social media companies, it’s bizarre how little attention has been paid to the fact that TikTok is apparently proposing to give the US government control over its content moderation setup, and the US government is looking at it seriously. As […]
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The First Amendment doesn’t just protect what you say. It also protects your right to hear what others say. It guarantees a right to published information. It protects a whole lot of stuff certain politicians sincerely wish it didn’t because it gets in the way of pushing their bigoted ideals. Right now, there’s a wave […]
Apple has never looked too kindly upon users actually repairing their own devices, or using lower cost independent repair services. The company’s ham-fisted efforts to shut down, sue, or otherwise imperil third-party repair shops are legendary. As are the company’s efforts to force recycling shops to shred Apple products (so they can’t be refurbished and re-used). Recently, Apple […]
It should be pretty well established by now that you just can’t go around arresting people for expressing their displeasure with their fingers. It’s not like it’s a new issue or even an uncommon issue ([extremely laconic cowboy voice]: least not round these parts). It’s something we’ve seen quite a bit of here at Techdirt. […]
Almost exactly seven years ago, we discussed the absolute silliness that was Boise State University somehow getting the USPTO to grant it a trademark for a football field that is “non-green.” If you’re not a college football fan, some context is in order. Decades back, the school didn’t want to pay to have its field […]
I mean, that’s what we all were thinking, right? When you carve out a niche selling to outlaws, there’s a good chance your product will be used illegally, no matter who’s buying it. That’s how it all plays out for NSO Group and its infamous Pegasus zero-click phone exploit — one capable of fully compromising […]
It can always get dumber. And when we’re talking about the 5th Circuit, you have to assume it will always get dumber. And that’s what has happened now with the 5th Circuit issuing a stay on an injunction that had blocked an obviously unconstitutional law. But we’ll get to those details in a moment. Just […]
It’s hard to keep your devices clean. And if you have any AirPods, you’ll know how difficult it can be to clean the nooks and crannies of the device—especially when they’re so tiny! Now it’s a whole lot easier with the Multi-Use AirPods Cleaning Pen. It helps you clean hard-to-reach areas or any other corners. […]
Former president Donald Trump has been engaged in plenty of questionable litigation. And not just during and following his mercifully short-lived stint as the supposed leader of the free world. But this still remains one of the weirdest lawsuits Trump has filed. This lawsuit — which he has already lost — claims the Democratic Party […]
With the Biden FCC now having a full slate of commissioners and a full voting majority, the net neutrality debate has already started to heat back up. That means a renewed effort by broadband giants to try and downplay the need for net neutrality rules, usually via lazy op-eds run in lazy publications like The […]
So, the fact that Microsoft would be taking the next game in the Elder Scrolls series, the 6th game, to Xbox and PC exclusively isn’t the world’s biggest surprise. Xbox chief Phil Spencer made waves back in 2021 (before all the drama surrounding Microsoft’s future acquisition of Activision Blizzard) noting that he saw advantages to […]
As has been noted here before, it’s often the worst people that generate the best case law. People staring down the barrel of several years in prison are extremely motivated to find any reason to have the evidence against them dismissed. People not faced with the same reality rarely find a reason to trouble the […]
We’ve got a slightly unusual (at first glace) crosspost episode for you this week! Recently, Mike joined Dave Cooper, CEO and Founder of brand protection agency IPSecure, on the company’s Owning The Buy Box podcast. As you probably know, we’re pretty skeptical of brand protection companies here at Techdirt, but Dave has a history of […]
So, remember when Elon first announced his plans to buy Twitter, and he claimed that it was “the de facto town square” and his top priority was to eliminate spam and scam bots? “A top priority I would have is eliminating the spam and scam bots and the bot armies that are on Twitter. They […]
Last week Techdirt wrote about an important development in the long-running saga of the UK’s Online Safety Act, which has just become law. The UK government said at that time it would not use controversial powers in the new law to break end-to-end encryption until it was “technically feasible” to do so while preserving users’ […]
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Some good news! Federal Judge Beth Labson Freeman has recognized what some of us have been screaming about for over a year now: California’s Age Appropriate Design Code (AB 2273) is an unconstitutional mess that infringes on the 1st Amendment. We can add this to the pile of terrible moral panic “protect the children!” laws […]
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