We are being led by deeply unserious people. Not only that, but people who are manufacturing cruelty upon their very own constituents. That’s how bad this has gotten. This week, the DOJ arrested three people in Minnesota for protesting ICE’s goonish activity in a local church, where the pastor there also heads up the local […]
It will be to the everlasting shame of all Americans that impeachment has not yet been accomplished to formally remove Trump from office. Not in his previous term, and not this one, at least not so far. In fact, this term it has hardly even been attempted. If it weren’t for Representative Green honoring his […]
CBS News still exists, despite a president doing all he can to turn it into his own Baghdad Betty. Journalists are still demanding answers from this administration, even while the Baghdadest Betty of all — Bari Weiss — does everything she can to strip mine the long-running news agency for abusable parts. (That refers to […]
Register here for our Growing the Open Social Web Un-Workshop. For over three years now, since Elon Musk decided to spend $44 billion turning Twitter into his personal playground, we’ve been watching the open social web slowly, sometimes painfully, come into its own. Bluesky. Mastodon. The broader ATmosphere and fediverse along with a few other […]
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Trump’s version of ICE has always assumed that if your skin shade is anything darker than right-wing podcaster translucent, your ass needs to be gone from this country. Obviously, that’s not how things are supposed to work here in America, which proudly considered itself to be a melting pot (albeit belatedly and after a lot […]
The hype and madness surrounding 5G has always been pretty wild to watch. On one hand, wireless carriers spent years implying that 5G was some type of cancer curing miracle technology (it’s not). At the same time, oodles of conspiracy theorists, celebrities, and various grifters tried to claim 5G was a rampant health menace (it’s not). In reality, 5G’s not […]
It’s been nearly a decade since Mike wrote about the strange trademark approval the New England Patriots received on the term “Perfect Season.” The story rang as odd for several reasons, not the least of which being that the team applied for the mark in 2008 just before that year’s Super Bowl and at a […]
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. In this week’s round-up of the latest news in online […]
Utah’s budding theocracy continues unimpeded as we head into the new year. On top of its other unconstitutional laws (like the oft-challenged social media ban) and legislative proposals, there’s its book ban law that has seen it become the first state to actually remove certain books from all public schools across the state. The targeted […]
Rand Paul is furious. That’s because someone posted a video falsely accusing the Kentucky senator of taking money from Venezuela’s Maduro regime. Paul should know that the First Amendment sets a deliberately high bar for defamation of public officials like him. Under New York Times v. Sullivan, he must show not just falsity, but that the speaker knew […]
The thing afforded the highest protections of the Fourth Amendment is a person’s home. This isn’t even a controversial statement. It has been that way ever since this amendment was ratified. But, under Trump, we’re constantly seeing that the administration considers all rights to be privileges — something only granted to people this administration likes. […]
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We spent a lot of time last year calling out how dangerous it was that Elon Musk and his inexperienced 4chan-loving DOGE boys were gaining access to some of the most secure government systems. We also highlighted how it seemed likely that they were violating many laws in the process. One specific point of concern […]
Last week we noted how the Trump FCC, at the direct request of wireless phone giants, destroyed popular rules making it easier and cheaper to switch wireless carriers. The rules, applied via spectrum acquisition and merger conditions, required that Verizon unlock your phone within 60 days after purchase so you could easily switch to competitors. […]
America is broken and it seems like nobody is bothering to try to repair it. That’s a general statement, to be sure, so if you need some marking point to serve as a specific example of our national malfunction, the return of measles to our country can fit the bill. It’s not quite as flashy […]
Lawmakers in Washington are once again focusing on kids, screens, and mental health. But according to Congress, Big Tech is somehow both the problem and the solution. The Senate Commerce Committee recently held a hearing on “examining the effect of technology on America’s youth.” Witnesses warned about “addictive” online content, mental health, and kids spending too much time […]
Support us on Patreon » Last month, we dedicated an episode of the podcast to discussing our recently announced project to push for a better internet, The Resonant Computing Manifesto. This week, we’ve got a cross-post episode that serves as a followup to that discussion. Mike recently joined Charlie Warzel’s Galaxy Brain podcast along with manifesto […]
For years now, we’ve been repeatedly pointing out that the “social media is destroying kids” narrative, popularized by Jonathan Haidt and others, has been built on a foundation of shaky, often contradictory research. We’ve noted that the actual data is far more nuanced than the moral panic suggests, and that policy responses built on that […]
Do you still want to cling to this pretense, Trump supporters? Do you still want to pretend ICE efforts are targeting “the worst of the worst?” Are you just going to sit there and mumble some incomprehensible stuff about “respecting the laws?” Go ahead. Do it, you cowards. This is exactly what you voted for, […]
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