Local politicians across the political spectrum are trying to force websites to moderate their content in a manner the politicians want. Some (mainly Democrats) are trying to push for companies to remove more content. Some (mainly Republicans) are pushing companies to stop removing certain kinds of content. In both cases, trying to force specific editorial […]
We’ve noted for a while that Trump’s alternative social media platform, Truth Social, isn’t doing particularly well. Being a Trump product, the platform (surprise!) began with a lot of money slushing around that wasn’t spent in any coherent way. It’s also just generally glitchy and terrible. And it’s not helped much by the fact that […]
Cops lie. That’s just the way it is. It shouldn’t be this way. Cops are given an incredible amount of power and expected to handle it responsibly. But when they start doing things they shouldn’t be doing, out come the lies. Accountability may as well be a foreign term of legal art because cops understand […]
In the U.S., politicians are itching to disrupt Big Tech. In January, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, introduced by Senator Klobuchar in October 2021, which would prohibit large technology companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google from preferencing their own products and services. Senator Grassley celebrated the bill […]
This seems to be becoming a thing here in America, this desire by those in power to punish private companies for their stances and speech on controversial topics. Mike recently wrote about how this effort to exert legislative influence on private actors is one of the few bits of bi-partisanship we have these days. And, […]
Encryption is under attack from all over the world. Australia already has a law on the books trying to force companies to backdoor encryption. The UK is pushing its Online Safety Bill, which would be an attack on encryption (the UK government has made it clear it wants an end to encryption). In the US, […]
Despite a massive amount of spending and tactical maneuvering to derail the effort, Amazon factory workers just successfully voted to form the company’s first union on Staten Island, New York. Much like Starbucks, years of grueling working conditions, weak benefits, and low pay directly contributed to the workers’ feeling they needed to organize. And, much […]
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We’ve covered a variety of recent copyright lawsuits against songs that sound vaguely similar, noting this ridiculous war on genres, and basically outlawing the idea of an homage. Even in cases where the lawsuits fail (which is frequently, though not always), it’s still an extremely costly waste of time that can still have massive chilling […]
For decades the U.S. newswires have been peppered with stories where somebody bought a house after being told by their ISP it had broadband access, only to realize the ISP didn’t actually serve that address. Generally, the homeowner then realizes they have to spend a stupid amount of money to pay the local telecom monopoly to extend service… […]
Long, long time readers here may remember that I have had something of a fascination in the past with subjects such as conspiracy theories and UFOs. Not that I’m much of a believer in the former, mind you, but I consider these forays into the occult to be wildly interesting on a variety of levels. […]
There was a case I remember reading in law school, about intentional torts, that stuck with me, for reasons that will probably be obvious once I tell you about it here. But first a word about what we mean by the policy building block “intentional torts.” In general, torts are laws that help people be […]
Cops who thought they could just be cops and that would be enough to let them get way with excessive force deployment and other misconduct have just received a rude awakening. The public — which includes very carefully selected jury members — is sick of law enforcement’s shit. A federal jury Friday awarded $14 million in […]
I feel like I keep needing to write this, but once again, no matter who does it and no matter which company they’re targeting, it’s wrong for politicians to promise to punish companies for their speech. For some reason, many people’s position on this point changes based on whether or not they like or dislike […]
It was a hard-fought battle, but in the end, the 1st Amendment has been crowned champion as the most misunderstood legal concept in the inaugural Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding March Madness: Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding March Madness Finals. Which of the following is the *most* misunderstood legal concept. — techdirt (@techdirt) April 4, 2022 Check out the […]
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The Texas government has passed a law that places a lot of restrictions on those operating drones. The law (passed in 2013 and amended in 2015) also creates a cause of action for residents who feel their privacy has been violated by UAV operators. There’s a single carve out: one for researchers operating drones “on […]
Back in January DirecTV announced it would be kicking the fantasy and conspiracy channel One America News (OAN) off of its satellite TV lineup, removing the biggest distribution avenue for the “news” channel. Despite the endless coverage the channel gets for its baseless conspiracies, it’s a channel relatively few people actually watch. DirecTV executives simply didn’t […]
Normally when discussing a company that has appeared on our pages before for being a trademark bully, I like to list off and link to a few examples. Monster Energy, the company that makes fizzy caffeine bombs in liquid form, makes that all very silly. You need only look at all the stories we’ve done […]
If only Clearview had managed to remain under the radar. If it had, it could have been the stealth privacy assassin multiple entities (both public and private) desire, but are unwilling to admit to using publicly. Even the rest of the facial recognition tech field wants nothing to do with Clearview and the billions of […]
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