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No, Twitter Doesn’t Want To ‘Censor’ Anyone, It Just Wants Everyone To Stop Attacking Each Other

2 years 10 months ago
Last month I wrote about how, contrary to the weird narrative, Twitter has actually been among the most aggressive companies fighting for free speech online. While many people criticize it, they are wrong, or just uninformed. Mostly, they think (falsely) that because Twitter doesn’t want some speech that you like on their site, it somehow […]
Mike Masnick

Report Shows ICE’s Massive Surveillance Apparatus Is All Up In Americans’ Everything

2 years 10 months ago
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has long made its own case for abolishment. Before ICE earned its current reputation as a fake-school running, report-altering, rogue agency interested in ejecting as many non-white people from America as possible, ICE ran interference for entrenched industries. This led to things like ICE officers raiding small repair shops to […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: The 2022 Cisco Certified Technician Training Prep Bundle

2 years 10 months ago
The 2022 Cisco Certified Technician Training Prep Bundle has 4 courses to help you pass the Cisco and CompTIA Network Exams. You’ll learn about the latest networking technologies, IPv4 and IPv6, advanced routing, switching, and more. It’s on sale for $35. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of […]
Gretchen Heckmann

If You Think Free Speech Is Defined By Your Ability To Be An Asshole Without Consequence, You Don’t Understand Free Speech (But You Remain An Asshole)

2 years 10 months ago
One of the more frustrating things about the various “debates” regarding “free speech” lately, is how little they are actually about free speech. Quite often, they are actually about people who are quite upset about having to face social consequences for their own free speech. But facing social consequences has always been part of free […]
Mike Masnick

Clearview Settles Lawsuit, Agrees To Stop Doing Business In Illinois

2 years 10 months ago
Clearview’s facial recognition AI business model has always been “fuck everything.” The company scraped the open web of all the data it could find, working its way towards a 100 billion image database that alchemizes social media posts into “intel” gold for Clearview. Not giving a damn about anything is starting to eat into Clearview’s […]
Tim Cushing

Homeland Security Once Again Demonstrates Its Own Incompetence, ‘Pauses’ Orwellian Named Disinfo Board

2 years 10 months ago
All of this was easily predictable for, well, basically anyone. The already Orwellian-named Department of Homeland Security last month announced the even more Orwellian-named Disinformation Governance Board, with no details, no explanation, and no nothing, other than naming a somewhat controversial researcher to lead it. We called out just how ridiculous the whole thing was […]
Mike Masnick

Following Supreme Court Precedent, Federal Court Says Unexpected Collection Of Data Doesn’t Violate The CFAA

2 years 10 months ago
Last summer, the Supreme Court finally applied some common sense to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). The government has long read this law to apply to pretty much any computer access it (or federal court litigants) doesn’t like, jeopardizing the livelihood of security researchers, app developers, and anyone who might access a system […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows

2 years 10 months ago
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 – whatever your needs are. You’ll also get 3 courses teaching […]
Gretchen Heckmann

NY Launches Ridiculous, Blatantly Unconstitutional ‘Investigations’ Into Twitch, Discord; Deflecting Blame From NY’s Own Failings

2 years 10 months ago
I recognized that lots of people are angry and frustrated over the mass murdering jackass who killed ten people at a Buffalo grocery store last weekend. I’m angry and frustrated about it as well. But, the problem with anger and frustration is that it often leads people to lash out in irrational ways, and to […]
Mike Masnick

Lawsuit Attempts To Hold TikTok Responsible For Death Of 10-Year-Old Girl Who Engaged In A ‘Blackout Challenge’

2 years 10 months ago
When a tragedy happens, lawsuits tend to follow. This is no exception. And while it’s understandable that grieving survivors often seek justice — whether it’s closure or compensation — through the legal system, the legal system is not there to provide solace. It’s there to determine whether anyone was legally culpable for the death. This […]
Tim Cushing

White Deputies Search Bus Full Of Black College Students Just Because, Lie About It Later

2 years 10 months ago
Will racism ever be over in the United States? Nah. We’re just too damn good at it. Sheriff’s deputies in Georgia stopped a bus carrying a mostly Black women’s lacrosse team under the apparent assumption there was marijuana on board, and the players and their coaches were humiliated and angered by the experience. The Delaware State University team was […]
Tim Cushing

FCC Wants To Put WiFi On School Busses

2 years 10 months ago
The FCC has announced that it would be backing a plan to put WiFi on school busses in an attempt to bridge that pesky rascal ambiguously called the “digital divide.” According to the plan, the proposal would use the dwindling money available in the FCC’s E-Rate program to deploy hotspots on busses, allowing them to […]
Karl Bode

Tech Companies Oppose ‘Reverse Warrants,’ Say Surveillance Of User Location Data Should Be Limited To Tech Companies

2 years 10 months ago
Google’s market share and capacity to gather billions of data points has made it the most popular target for so-called warrants that seem to elude both particularity requirements and the Supreme Court’s decision in the Carpenter case. To be a reasonable search, law enforcement is supposed to be able to show the information it seeks […]
Tim Cushing

Daily Deal: The Coding From Scratch Bootcamp Bundle

2 years 10 months ago
The Coding From Scratch Bootcamp Bundle has 4 courses with 57 hours of hands-on content on Python, Java, CSS, and Sass. You’ll learn how to make web applications, how to style websites, and more. It’s on sale for $25. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales […]
Gretchen Heckmann

Blaming Video Games For Mass Shootings Is Ridiculous; Stop It

2 years 10 months ago
Mike just wrote about how, in the wake of the abhorrent mass shooting that occurred in upstate New York over the weekend, some of our leaders have begun the normal cleansing ritual: blame the things we already hated for the new bad thing that happened whether that makes any sense at all or not. In […]
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