Five Years Ago This week in 2018, Ajit Pai was trying to pretend that everybody supported repealing net neutrality, while ISP lobbyists were trying and then succeeding at derailing California’s own net neutrality law. Pai was also pushing for rule changes that would benefit Sinclair Broadcasting, while being under investigation for his relationship with the […]
Any investigative report of any police department in the United States composed by the DOJ’s Civil Rights division can be described as “scathing.” Bad cops doing bad things trigger these investigations, which invariably find evidence of biased policing, excessive force deployment, and a general disregard — if not actual disdain — for the people these […]
We’ve noted for years how the steady, mindless consolidation by telecom monopolies has resulted in patchy broadband access, slow speeds, and high prices. But another longstanding trademark of the industry has been its abysmal customer service, created by mindless growth and a subsequent refusal to scale customer service to match. The latest customer satisfaction rankings […]
It’s hardly a secret that the Chinese government is obsessed with controlling everything that its citizens see or do online — Techdirt has written dozens of stories on the topic over the years. But control within China’s borders isn’t enough, it seems: the authorities there now want the ability to censor material globally. The latest […]
Two weeks ago, Canada’s Heritage Minister, Pablo Rodriguez, who has been the main Canadian government official pushing for C-18, the bullshit link tax bill, that is just a corrupt wealth transfer from one disliked industry to a favored industry, insisted that it was “unacceptable” that Meta might stop allowing links to news if the bill […]
Things are getting heated in the city that never sleeps stops bitching. Private business owners don’t much care for the city telling them how to run their business, even when said business involves perhaps careless use of problematic tech. Grocery store owners in New York City oppose a bill that would limit use of facial recognition software, […]
MagPRO Smartwatch is a tracker with multiple features that make your daily life easier. Customize the face of the watch with hundreds of different custom backgrounds to fit your needs or make your own. It comes with a magnetic no-buckle wraparound band that’s sweatproof and waterproof. It’s available in four different colors and is on sale […]
The lawyers who ridiculously did not check the citations ChatGPT gave them, and when called on it, doubled down with having ChatGPT make up the matching opinions, have now been sanctioned: they have to pay $5k. That may seem light, but with all of the details, it kinda makes sense. So, yes, by now you’ve […]
We’ve noted for several years how the “race to 5G” was largely just hype by telecoms and hardware vendors eager to sell more gear and justify high U.S. mobile data prices. While 5G does provide faster, more resilient, and lower latency networks, it’s more of an evolution than a revolution. But that’s not what telecom giants […]
Actions, as they say, have consequences. Or potential consequences, at least, in the case of Microsoft battling with the FTC. In the ongoing drama that is Microsoft’s attempted purchase of Activision, the FTC filed for a temporary restraining order barring the consummation of the purchase while its lawsuit remains unresolved. The first trial date in […]
Some more great reporting based on public records has emerged from ProPublica. This one shows how willing cops are to exploit the system they’re supposed to be protecting and upholding. Now former officer Jeffrey Kriv certainly isn’t one of Chicago’s worst cops. There’s simply too much competition, given the PD’s long history of internal corruption […]
If you’re a Techdirt reader, a Reddit user, or both, then you probably know all about the chaos engulfing the site as users and moderators of popular subreddits protest CEO Steve Huffman’s recent changes to the site’s API. This week, we’re joined by Jay Peters from The Verge to talk about the situation, the protests, […]
We talk a lot about the concept of “trust & safety” at internet companies, but the entire concept is relatively new, and still very confusing to many, including some who work in the field! Over the last few years we’ve seen a growing movement to organize and somewhat “professionalize” the space, with very important and […]
The “smart” internet of things era was supposed to usher forth a new era of convenience. Instead, it often manages to advertise how dumber technology can be the smarter option, and you’re not being particularly innovative if your product actually makes life harder. From “smart” door locks that are easily hackable to hackable “smart” TVs that are […]
Microsoft Office 2021 Professional is the perfect choice for any professional who needs to handle data and documents. It comes with many new features that will make you more productive in every stage of development, whether it’s processing paperwork or creating presentations from scratch. To help you master Microsoft Office, the Microsoft Training Bundle is […]
The enshittification of Reddit continues. Yesterday we wrote about the next move from protesting mods to switch their subs to NSFW, which strips those subreddits of ads, and how Reddit was experimenting with removing the mods who did that. For what it’s worth, just a few days ago, Reddit insisted in a comment that it […]
By now we’ve well established that the series of mergers that began with AT&T’s doomed acquisition of Time Warner and ended with Time Warner’s subsequent spin off and fusion with Discovery was some of the dumbest, most pointless “business” exercises ever conceived by man. The idiotic saga burned through hundreds of billions in debt, saw […]
To say that developments in the realm of artificial intelligence are coming fast at this point is a wild understatement. There’s a ton going on in the space, some of it showcasing amazing things we can now do using AI, some of it showing where humans are still very much needed, and much of the […]
The recently released files of the late Associate Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens reveal interesting details concerning some of the Court’s significant copyright decisions, but leave important questions unanswered. Justice Stevens (1920-2019) left his papers to the Library of Congress, which opened them to the public in May 2023. (See here for a blog post on Justice […]
Terrible people who represent terrible people are making terrible laws. Catering to the base is never a good idea because all it does is elevate the lowest common denominator. Utah isn’t an outlier. It has competition from several other state governments that aren’t necessarily as subordinate to the unofficial state religion. The separation of church […]
stLouIST