TechDirt 🕸

Five Years Ago This week in 2020, we looked at how the DHS was surveilling journalists who published leaked documents and how they obtained the encrypted messages of protestors. The FCC was trying to pretend Trump’s executive order about social media wasn’t ridiculous, and one commissioner who suggested it was unconstitutional was rapidly withdrawn from […]

Disney spent 18 months negotiating to create a digital version of Dwayne Johnson for the live-action Moana film. Johnson agreed. The technology was ready. Then Disney’s lawyers killed the whole thing—not because of privacy concerns or actor rights, but because they worried parts of the film might end up in the public domain. This is […]

It’s funny just how often the actions of so-called “strong men” actually show just how scared and fragile they are. And if you want a more specific example of what I’m talking about, you can typically tell when a national government is feeling scared or weak, because that usually comes along with restrictions on a […]

This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Two weeks into President Donald Trump’s second presidency, and just days after he pardoned hundreds of Capitol rioters, officials Trump had placed in charge of the Justice Department made a sweeping demand. They wanted the names of the thousands of FBI employees who had played a role […]

Arrest/ticketing quotas have almost always been found illegal by courts. They used to be commonplace, but courts (at all levels) have generally ruled that quotas pervert incentives so much they encourage open, deliberate abuse of constitutional rights. Enter the Trump administration, which only considers the Second Amendment to be sacrosanct. Trump deputy Chief of Staff […]

Equipped with a 1.2mm fine tip, the Digi Pen for iPad and Tablets provides durability, sensitivity, and pixel precision. No lagging, no skips, no scratches. Perfect for drawing, sketching, painting, and writing. With palm rejection technology, you can use it directly without wearing gloves and write on the screen as if you’re writing on paper. […]

We’ve talked plenty about how Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) was always more about performative cruelty than actual efficiency. But a new Senate report reveals just how spectacularly DOGE failed at its supposed core mission while causing immeasurable human suffering in the process. The entire concept blew up more spectacularly than one of […]

We’ve well documented how the AOL–>AT&T->Warner Brothers->Discovery series of mergers were among some of the most destructive and pointless “business deals” ever conceived by modern man. Just decades of “savvy deal-making” that resulted in an increasingly shittier product. The mergers resulted in bottomless layoffs, the closure of numerous valuable and popular brands and shows, and much worse product as incompetent, fail-upward […]

We’ve well documented how the AOL–>AT&T->Warner Brothers->Discovery series of mergers were among some of the most destructive and pointless “business deals” ever conceived by modern man. Just decades of “savvy deal-making” that resulted in an increasingly shittier product. The mergers resulted in bottomless layoffs, the closure of numerous valuable and popular brands and shows, and much worse product as incompetent, fail-upward […]

For no less than 25 years now, Techdirt has been writing about how the tax preparation industry, especially Intuit, has spent gobs of money bribing lobbying government to keep relatively low-earners from simple methods for filing their tax returns. The series of posts you can find in that link, particularly those in the last 5-10 […]

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.

This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. One afternoon in mid-September, a group of middle school girls in rural East Tennessee decided to film a TikTok video while waiting to begin cheerleading practice. In the 45-second video posted later that day, one girl enters the classroom holding a cellphone. “Put your hands up,” […]

We’ve seen some pretty ridiculous attempts by government officials to intimidate judges over the years, but the Department of Justice’s new misconduct complaint against D.C. Chief Judge James Boasberg might take the cake for sheer absurdity. As Steve Vladeck breaks down in exhaustive detail, the DOJ is essentially arguing that a federal judge committed “misconduct” […]

The Ultimate UX/UI Designer Bundle has 8 courses that will get you creating sites that look good and are a joy to use. This beginner-friendly bundle is designed to help you to build modern, beautiful, fully functional websites with absolutely zero experience required. Courses cover Bootstrap 4, Adobe XD, HTML5, JavaScript, and more. It’s on […]

First, the Trump administration gutted the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, probably because it was too concerned about protecting constitutional rights. Whoever still remained was “allowed” to do whatever Trump’s DOJ (now headed by yet another regrettable Trump pick, Pam Bondi) wanted it to do… like go to bat for the Second Amendment, which has never […]

The Trump administration is once again warning states that they risk losing billions of dollars in historic infrastructure bill grants — if they attempt to make the taxpayer-subsidized broadband actually affordable. That’s the updated guidance coming out of the Trump National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is tasked with coordinating the looming $42.5 billion […]

One of the more frustrating parts of the RFK Jr. experience is nailing down his views. Part of that is because he tends to keep quite vague about those views, especially when it comes to vaccines, depending on who he is talking to. When he’s running an anti-vaxxer organization, his views are specific and clear. […]

Young people should be able to access information, speak to each other and to the world, play games, and express themselves online without the government making decisions about what speech is permissible. But in one of the latest misguided attempts to protect children online, internet users of all ages in the UK are being forced to prove […]

Last fall, heavily influenced by Jonathan Haidt’s extremely problematic book, Australia announced that it was banning social media for everyone under the age of 16. This was already a horrifically stupid idea—the kind of policy that sounds reasonable in a tabloid headline but crumbles under any serious scrutiny. Over and over again studies have found […]

The recently passed budget bill throws nearly $200 billion at something that doesn’t actually seem to be that much of a problem: undocumented migrants. Law-abiding, hardworking taxpayers are the targets of choice for ICE, which has a 3,000-per-day arrest quota it will never meet, even though it’s now spending most of its time raiding large […]