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I think lots of people know the kind of person who thinks they’re more clever than they really are. The kind of person who thinks that they can outwit the system by playing stupid games. The kind of person who thinks that this kind of beating the system is because they’re smart. This kind of […]

Now that subscriber growth has slowed, streaming TV giants have taken the predictable turn of making their services shittier and more expensive to deliver Wall Street (impossibly) unlimited quarterly revenue growth. That means higher prices, annoying new surcharges, greater restrictions, more layoffs, more cut corners, worse customer service, more limited catalogs, lower quality engagement-bait content, and […]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Bloof with a response to the latest accusation that Bluesky is a liberal echo chamber: Sorry republicans, you don’t get to use the N-word and still get invited to parties, that’s not how life works. You made the ‘marketplace of ideas’ a thing to […]

Five Years Ago This week in 2020… oh, right. The COVID-19 pandemic dominated our coverage, as it sparked a huge variety of news: patent lawsuits to block testing that morphed into claims of royalty-free licenses that turned out to be bogus, ISPs dropping usage caps and entertainment giants embracing faster home video release windows, YouTube […]

The only silver lining in just how stupid this supposed anti-DEI purge of government records has become is that it appears the stupids doing the stupid are now finally starting to realize just how stupid it has become. Stemming from one of Trump’s many executive orders, one which instructed the government to essentially purge its […]

At the exact moment when Donald Trump and his MAGA allies are actively dismantling democratic institutions and working to silence critics, a group of Democratic Senators have decided to collaborate with Trump’s supporters to make it easier to censor speech online. As reported in The Information (paywalled), several Democratic Senators are teaming up with some […]

This didn’t work last time. But neither did a lot of things the first Trump administration tried. This time, though, the federal government is at war with itself, attacked from all sides by the rabid DOGE in its midst. Given that novel development, the chances of information damaging to the Trump administration being leaked to […]

It is nearly impossible to keep up with all the litigation challenging all the terrible, if not also lawless and unconstitutional, things the Trump Administration is doing. But one group of cases is particularly interesting: the cases involving Musk and DOGE. In part because they are the lawless mercenaries Trump has been sending to do […]

In what may be one of the most shameful displays of institutional cowardice we’ve seen, law firm Paul Weiss has completely capitulated to Donald Trump’s ridiculously unconstitutional executive order targeting the firm. This cave-in comes mere days after another targeted firm, Perkins Coie, successfully obtained a court order blocking an almost identical order. The contrast […]

The Complete Microsoft Windows, 365, and Teams Training Bundle has 7 courses to help you become more adept at using various Microsoft applications. Courses cover implementing Teams, utilizing Microsoft Azure, learning about security in Microsoft 365, and more. It’s on sale for $60. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A […]

Update: After the NY Times reported this story last night, Donald Trump denied that Musk would be getting the China war plan, and now the NY Times is reporting that, while that was the original plan, it was scrapped because of the public outcry The Wall Street Journal is similarly reporting that the nature of […]

I think the Biden FCC under the leadership of Jessica Rosenworcel engaged in a lot of regulatory theater that made for good press clippings, but was ultimately hollow. While indisputably better than the corrupt and bizarre authoritarian zealotry we’re seeing now under Brendan Carr, the Biden FCC routinely failed to take direct aim at the […]

Last month a BBC study found that “AI” assistants are terrible at providing accurate news synopses. The BBC’s study found that modern language learning model assistants introduced factual errors a whopping 51 percent of the time. 19 percent of the responses introduced factually inaccurate “statements, numbers and dates,” and 13 percent either altered subject quotes […]

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.

Editor’s note: Mike Masnick is on the board of Bluesky, and took no part in editing or reviewing this piece. Here it is: the dumbest take to date on Bluesky v. xTwitter. There’s been plenty of stupid offered up before by bitter xTwitter users who are trying to pretend they’re not still splashing around in […]

Let me start this off with a brief confession: while I’m not particularly into conspiracy theories in general, the JFK assassination is an outlier for me. I’ve been fascinated with JFK since I was a child and I don’t believe the official version of the story is the entire story, at a minimum. That throat […]

A startling government surveillance program that involved government investigators embedded in AT&T offices was accidentally released in response to an FOIA request (seeking documents about something else entirely) more than a decade ago. But, since 2013, there’s still plenty that’s unknown about the DEA’s Hemisphere program. What’s known is this: the DEA was able to […]

The Database Administration Super Bundle has 9 courses to help you go from data novice to expert administrator. You’ll discover how to build and manage databases with MySQL and MongoDB. Courses also cover Microsoft SQL Server, Informatica, Minitab, Tableau, and regression modeling. It’s on sale for $60. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and […]

Dear Senator Schumer: There is no question that you are a dedicated public servant. You believe in our democracy. You believe in the norms that maintain it. You believe in its mission of bringing us together to promote the general welfare. There are many, many favorable things that can be said about you, your service, […]

Just so we’re very clear up front: despite a lot of bullshit to the contrary, the Trump administration is completely dismantling whatever’s left of U.S. consumer protection and corporate oversight. That’s not hyperbole; between recent Supreme Court rulings, Trump executive orders, and the actions of radical agency bosses like Brendan Carr, they’re not being at […]