For years and years, Congress has been pushing a parade of horrible “protect the children online” bills that seem to somehow get progressively worse each time. I’m not going through the entire list of them, because it’s virtually endless. One of the most frustrating things about those bills, and the pomp and circumstance around them, […]
In a haste to do something about the growing threat of AI-fueled disinformation, harassment, and fraud, lawmakers risk introducing bills that ignore some fundamental facts about the technology. For California lawmakers in particular, this urgency is compounded by the fact that they preside over the world’s most prominent AI companies and are able to pass […]
The Supreme Court has made it pretty clear that age verification laws for websites violate the First Amendment. It’s had a couple of shots at this and really seemed to indicate that such laws are unconstitutional because age verification would block First Amendment-protected content from people who should be allowed to see it. So, it […]
The best response to speech you don’t like is more speech. It definitely isn’t whatever the hell happened here. And that not only includes the Seattle Police Department’s decision to go after the person being physically harassed by other protesters, but the actions of the protesters themselves, whose physical aggression somehow encouraged police officers to […]
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Donald Trump, who has demanded both that we “open up our libel laws” and that we “repeal Section 230,” was just protected from a defamation claim thanks to Section 230. How about that? One thing that many people forget (or deliberately ignore?) regarding Section 230 is that it not only protects “Big Tech” as some […]
For several decades, major wireless carriers AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile collected vast troves of sensitive user location and movement data, then sold access to any random nitwit with two nickels to rub together. The result was a parade of scandals wherein everybody from stalkers to law enforcement (or pretending to be law enforcement) abused the […]
I talk quite a bit about video game preservation efforts for a couple of reasons. First, I’m just a huge gaming nerd and it is almost physically painful to think that the cultural output of this artform can be lost to history at the whim of publishers that have the ability to shutdown backend servers […]
Cops will apparently beat their own, especially if they’re bigoted cops and willing to beat the next black person they see. St. Louis police officer was working undercover during protests following the acquittal of Officer Jason Stockley, who had been charged with murder for the killing of a black St. Louis resident, Anthony Lamar Smith. […]
We’ve got one more cross-post episode for you today, then next week we’re back with a brand new discussion. Recently, Mike joined the Daily Beast’s The New Abnormal podcast with host Andy Levy for a conversation about the big news from last week: Biden signing a bill that will ban TikTok in the US if […]
It’s been a long two years since the Dobbs decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Between May 2022 when the Supreme Court accidentally leaked the draft memo and the following June when the case was decided, there was a mad scramble to figure out what the impacts would be. Besides the obvious perils of stripping away half the […]
The most populous city in the United States has a crime problem. What kind of problem depends on who you ask. The DEA will say it’s fentanyl. The NYPD will claim it’s terrorism. The former Manhattan DA will say it’s device encryption (not actually a crime!). But the Metropolitan Transit Authority — which oversees the […]
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Well, hey, let’s start this article by noting that Techdirt has no paywall, no annoying or intrusive advertising. And we almost never even bug people about the fact that there are many ways to support the site, including getting early access to some articles, the ability to join our Insider Discord, and other features as […]
The FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), part of the 2021 infrastructure bill, provided 23+ million low-income households a $30 broadband discount every month. But the roughly 60 million Americans benefiting from the program are poised to soon lose the discount because key Republicans — who routinely dole out billions of dollars on far dumber fare — refuse to fund a […]
It’s a drum I’ve been beating for some time now: the only reason cord-cutting hasn’t led the traditional cable television market into full capitulation has been television rights for live sports broadcasts. While major sports leagues and college conferences have certainly been trending into the streaming market like the rest of traditional television, it’s typically […]
When it comes to Backpage.com, the truth has been buried beneath a mountain of political grandstanding and legal theatrics. There’s the public narrative about Backpage.com, and then there’s the real story. We’ve discussed this before, but if you’re not familiar with the details, you might think that Backpage was a huge sex trafficking operation that […]
The European government has spent a few years trying to break encryption. The results have been, at best, mixed. Of course, the EU government claims it’s not actually interested in breaking encryption. Instead, it hides its intentions behind phrases like “client-side scanning” and “chat control.” But it all just means the same thing: purposefully weakening […]
The Effective Altruism movement Effective Altruism (EA) is typically explained as a philosophy that encourages individuals to do the “most good” with their resources (money, skills). Its “effective giving” aspect was marketed as evidence-based charities serving the global poor. The Effective Altruism philosophy was formally crystallized as a social movement with the launch of the […]
The Raspberry Pi and Arduino Bootcamp Bundle has 5 courses to help you dive into the world of hands-on programming. Courses cover Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and ROS2. It’s on sale for $30. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt Deals helps support Techdirt. The […]
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