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New York City Sues Instagram Rather Than Teach Kids Filters Aren’t Real

1 year ago
When a school district sues social media companies claiming they can’t educate kids because Instagram filters exist, that district is announcing to the world that it has fundamentally failed at its core mission. That’s exactly what New York City just did with its latest lawsuit against Meta, TikTok, and other platforms. The message is unmistakable: […]
Mike Masnick

Flock’s Gunshot Detection Microphones Will Start Listening For Human Voices

1 year ago
Flock Safety, the police technology company most notable for their extensive network of automated license plate readers spread throughout the United States, is rolling out a new and troubling product that may create headaches for the cities that adopt it: detection of “human distress” via audio. As part of their suite of technologies, Flock has been pushing Raven, […]
Matthew Guariglia

Daily Deal: Nix Mini 3 Color Sensor

1 year ago
Instantly become a color expert with the Nix Mini 3 Color Sensor. This portable device puts all paint fan decks in your pocket, offering access to over 200,000 brand-name paint colors and essential color codes like RGB, HEX, and CMYK. Perfect for designers, contractors, and homeowners. The Mini 3 features Bluetooth connectivity, Debris and splash […]
Daily Deal

The Federal Police Are Rioting: Chicago Edition

1 year ago
Almost every time people protest the government, the government decides to get on the wrong side of the law. This is something every administration is guilty of, but under Trump, attacking protesters and journalists has become the rule, rather than the exception. Plenty of litigation has arisen from the protests greeting Trump’s uber-aggressive pursuit of […]
Tim Cushing

Study: The World’s Satellite Data Is Massively Vulnerable To Snooping

1 year ago
For many many years, experts have warned about massive longstanding flaws in Signaling System 7 (SS7, or Common Channel Signaling System 7), a series of protocols used by cellular networks hackers can exploit to track user location, dodge encryption, and even record private conversations. Governments and various bad actors routinely exploit the flaw to covertly spy on wireless users around […]
Karl Bode

Research: Italy’s Piracy Shield Is Just As Big A Disaster As Everyone Predicted

1 year ago
Walled Culture first wrote about Piracy Shield, Italy’s automated system for tackling alleged copyright infringement in the streaming sector, two years ago. Since then, we have written about the serious problems that soon emerged. But instead of fixing those issues, the government body that runs the scheme, Italy’s AGCOM (the Italian Authority for Communications Guarantees), has extended it. The […]
Glyn Moody

The Criminal Enterprise Masquerading As A Political Party

1 year ago
The Republican Party is no longer a legitimate political organization. It has transformed into a corrupt, immoral, and criminal enterprise that serves the interests of one man’s power while systematically destroying the constitutional principles this nation was founded upon. What we’re witnessing isn’t political competition but organized crime wrapped in patriotic rhetoric. When the President […]
Mike Brock

Techdirt Podcast Episode 434: The New Generation Of Independent Journalists

1 year ago
Support us on Patreon » Techdirt recently passed its 28th anniversary as an independent online media outlet. Once, it looked like such outlets might take over, but then most were scooped up by traditional media or grew into more traditional companies themselves. But now we’re seeing a new generation emerge, especially via newsletters on platforms like […]
Leigh Beadon

Justice Barrett’s Tone-Deaf Defense Of The Shadow Docket Comes As Federal Judges Revolt Against Supreme Court’s “Mystical” Orders

1 year ago
When 47 out of 65 federal judges tell The New York Times that the Supreme Court is mishandling its emergency docket and creating a “judicial crisis,” you might think a Supreme Court Justice would show some humility about the criticism. Instead, Justice Amy Coney Barrett decided to go on Fox News Sunday to dismiss the […]
Mike Masnick

Daily Deal: Cisco CCNA 200-301 Exam Course with Practical Labs

1 year ago
Networks are all around us and you are using one right now to access this course. The Internet is extremely important in modern life today and this reliance is only predicted to continue with the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) in the next few years. The Cisco CCNA 200-301 Exam Course will teach […]
Daily Deal

Musk Promised To Cut $2 Trillion. Government Spending Went Up Instead

1 year ago
Elon Musk’s promises on government spending cuts have followed a predictable trajectory: slash $2 trillion, then $1 trillion, then a mere $150 billion. Now we have the final accounting from the Congressional Budget Office: DOGE didn’t just fail to cut spending—it presided over spending increases that exceeded even pre-DOGE projections. The CBO’s fiscal year 2025 […]
Mike Masnick

Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

1 year ago
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Stephen T. Stone with a reply to someone pushing back on calling the Trump administration fascist: In second place, it’s That Anonymous Coward with a comment on Tim Cushing’s post about incorrect assumptions in his earlier post on the Iowa school superintendent arrested by […]
Leigh Beadon

This Week In Techdirt History: October 5th – 11th

1 year ago
Five Years Ago This week in 2020, Reps. Gabbard and Gosar brought out the ridiculous House companion to one of the Senate’s anti-Section 230 bills, while Donald Trump got on board the “repeal 230” bandwagon even though it was copyright that kept getting his content removed. A federal judge made a ridiculous free speech ruling […]
Leigh Beadon

Supreme Court’s ‘Go Ahead And Round Up All The Brown People’ Decision Is Being Challenged In Court

1 year ago
In July, a California federal court handed down what should have been considered an obvious decision: of course it violates constitutional rights to consider skin color, spoken language, “accent,” or place of employment sufficient to support a stop, much less arrest and detainment. In August, the appeals court affirmed that ruling following the government’s absolutely […]
Tim Cushing