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After Backlash From Its Dumb Password Sharing Crackdown, Netflix Lowers Prices In 100 Countries (Just Not In The U.S.)

1 year 2 months ago
So we’ve noted more than a few times that Netflix’s password sharing crackdown is a dumb cash grab. The company had already raised prices, it had already monetized the thing it was worried about (it already charges you extra if you want more simultaneous streams), and its hard 180 from encouraging password sharing to demonizing […]
Karl Bode

Yet Another Former Israeli Intelligence Officer Linked To Yet Another Shady Company Offering Hacking Tools

1 year 2 months ago
I’m not sure what’s happening inside Israel’s intelligence services, but it’s not sending the world its best when it’s done with them. For months, we’ve been covering tons of negative news generated by tech companies started up by former Israeli government employees. Most of this has been focused on NSO Group, a malware merchant with […]
Tim Cushing

FCC ‘Investigating’ Repeated Broadband Industry Coverage Lies

1 year 2 months ago
After years of criticism about their inaccuracy, the FCC recently spent another $50 million (on top of the $350 million they’d already spent) on supposedly better broadband maps. But the end result is still a bit of a mess, with entrenched telecom monopolies like Comcast being repeatedly caught claiming to deliver broadband in areas that […]
Karl Bode

Daily Deal: Scrivener 3, The Go-To App for Writers

1 year 2 months ago
Scrivener is the go-to app for writers of all kinds, used every day by best-selling novelists, screenwriters, non-fiction writers, students, academics, lawyers, journalists, translators, and more. Scrivener won’t tell you how to write—it simply provides everything you need to start writing and keep writing. Scrivener makes it easy to structure ideas, write a first draft, […]
Gretchen Heckmann

Getting Kicked Off Social Media For Breaking Its Rules Is Nothing Like Being Sent To A Prison Camp For Retweeting Criticism Of A Dictator

1 year 2 months ago
It’s become frustrating how often people insist that losing this or that social media account is “censorship” and an “attack on free speech.” Not only is it not that, it makes a mockery of those who face real censorship and real attacks on free speech. The Washington Post recently put out an amazing feature about […]
Mike Masnick

Signal: If UK Government Undermines Encryption It Can Kiss Messaging Service Used By Its Employees Goodbye

1 year 2 months ago
If anyone can call a government’s bluff, it’s Signal. It’s a nonprofit, which means it doesn’t need to make a bunch of shareholders happy by capitulating to ridiculous government demands in order to retain market share. Governments really can’t threaten Signal. It doesn’t collect or retain user information, so it can’t hand this data over […]
Tim Cushing

Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

1 year 2 months ago
This week, our both our winners on the insightful side come in response to our post about attempts to censor and control the internet “for the children”. In first place, it’s Stephen T. Stone with the first comment on the post: Wow, it’s almost as if a bunch of moralizing busybodies want to control what […]
Leigh Beadon

This Week In Techdirt History: February 19th – 25th

1 year 2 months ago
Five Years Ago This week in 2018, the FCC’s broadband availability data was being derided as inaccurate and “shameful”, while the agency was relaunching its map that hallucinates broadband competition. We got a clear idea of when net neutrality protections would formally end, while more than half of US states were pushing their own net […]
Leigh Beadon

Chinese Government To Censor AI Chatbots Out Of Fear Of Their Speech

1 year 2 months ago
At this point it should be common knowledge that if it has to do with any kind of speech, there is nothing that China won’t try to control and/or censor. It’s something of an amazing self-contradiction: in order to be large and powerful, the Beijing government believes it has to behave as though it is […]
Dark Helmet

Cops Talk Council Member Into Changing Her Mind On ShotSpotter With Data That Doesn’t Actually Show It’s Worth Paying For

1 year 2 months ago
ShotSpotter claims its gunshot detection tech is something cities battling gun violence just can’t (almost literally) live without. Data generated by cities paying millions for the tech often says otherwise. On multiple occasions over the past few years, cities have terminated their contracts with ShotSpotter, citing the tech’s overall uselessness. Cops in Newark, New Jersey […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: MagStack Foldable 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station with Floating Stand

1 year 2 months ago
MagStack is the perfect on-the-go wireless charging station that also transforms into a floating stand for smartphone 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, […]
Gretchen Heckmann