Over the last few months, Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino keep trying to claim that exTwitter is actually growing and more used than ever. Yaccarino has talked about “largest usage days” without defining the term, and Elon says it’s “user-seconds per day of phone screentime as reported by iOS & Android” even though that’s not […]
As we noted last week, the Supreme Court put on hold the injunction issued by the 5th Circuit regarding the administration’s efforts to influence how social media companies deal with misinformation. As you’ll recall, Louisiana and Missouri and a variety of nonsense peddlers all sued the Biden administration, claiming that their 1st Amendment rights were […]
Charge more devices while saving space with Adam Element’s Mag 3 Magnetic 3-in-1 Foldable Travel Charging Station. This charging station replenishes your iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods in one shot. The foldable design minimizes the size for storage and traveling, while the included USB-C charging cable supports up to 15W of power. Charging both vertically […]
In 2018, the Supreme Court handed down the Carpenter decision. That decision built on the one declaring phones off limits without a warrant — one delivered four years earlier. The rationale was this: phones are always on, all-knowing, and everywhere all the time. Given the amount of data generated by everyday smartphone use, the Supreme […]
A few years ago we noted how a South Korean ISP named SK Broadband had sued Netflix, demanding that the streaming giant pay it more money simply because the hit series Squid Game was so popular. It was one small part of a global push by broadband providers to force streaming companies to pay them […]
As many of you are probably already aware, a massive leak of internal documents at Microsoft occurred this week, all of which came out of the FTC’s challenge to Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard. We discussed a small portion of that leak a few days ago when we talked about Microsoft’s decision to take the […]
The United States is already a global leader in traffic-related fatalities, with a thirty-percent jump in the last decade. That’s in contrast to every other developed country, which saw a decline. So of course it’s a perfect time to flood American highways with a parade of extremely heavy EVs with unprecedented acceleration. Some of which are extremely […]
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 […]
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