The conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruled 6-3 in favor of upholding an age verification measure targeting adult content platforms on the internet that the state legislature of Texas adopted during the 2023 legislative session. As a quick reminder, the case is Free Speech Coalition et al. v. Paxton and featured the parent companies of […]
The Trump Administration’s constant escalation of its mass deportation programs now means ICE, CBP, and other federal agencies must come up with thousands of arrests a day. This never had anything to do with removing criminals from the country and, even if you once believed that might be the case, an unending string of raids […]
Both New York and Minnesota just passed laws requiring social media platforms to slap warning labels on their sites—warning labels based on zero scientific evidence, likely to be struck down as unconstitutional compelled speech, and designed solely to let politicians pretend they’re “protecting children” while actually making their lives worse. You’d think lawmakers would learn. […]
Men in masks kidnapping people off streets or turning businesses into ghost towns is now nothing more than an everyday occurrence in the United States. The Trump administration never actually cared whether or not the people it ejected from the country due to their race, color, or creed were, in fact, criminals. All it ever […]
They say you should never stop learning, and at Stone River, that mantra is a way of life. Through this subscription, you’ll get full access to 800+ courses and 4,800 hours of online learning, covering everything from iOS mobile development to graphic design. Plus, you’ll get a range of VIP perks, including unlimited eBooks and […]
On Thursday, literally the day before flash flooding devastated Texas, the Texas Observer published an article warning that “Trump’s DOGE Cuts Are a Texas-Sized Disaster,” explaining how cuts to both the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would likely lead to disaster for Texas. Twenty-four hours later, those […]
You might recall that about half a decade ago news outlets began to whine endlessly about the poor old news comment section. Editors at many outlets didn’t like the way the comment section was used to prominently point out errors in stories and challenge newsrooms. They were also often too cheap to invest in moderating […]
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is MrWilson with a reaction to Kilmar Abrego’s story of the conditions inside CECOT: We’re funding this with taxpayer money. We’re living in Omelas, only it’s worse and there are millions more being tortured than just one child. There’s no walking away though. We have […]
Five Years Ago This week in 2020… remember Parler? The uncensored free speech social media platform? Well, it was changing its tune and starting to ban users as it embarked on a speedrun of the content moderation learning curve (and we also noted some striking clauses in its terms of service). Twitch and Reddit were […]
From the massive handout to already-wealthy Americans to the likely fatal cuts to Medicaid, there’s plenty to be disgusted by in the GOP Budget bill approved by Congress today. But there’s also a lot of little gifts in there to corporations that will likely fly under the radar, including a massive new handout of valuable […]
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.
All hail Jason Fyk, one of the most aggrieved “failure to monetize piss videos” dudes ever. In fact, he might be the only person angered about his inability to turn pee into cash with third-party content featuring people urinating. Anything that gives me a chance to embed this video (which also served as the ultimate […]
Back in the summer of 2020, RFK Jr. was leading the Children’s Health Defense organization, built on an anti-vaccination platform. The organization sued Facebook/Meta that year, along with several fact-checking organizations, for limiting the reach of, and otherwise fact-checking, its posts due to their inclusion of medical and scientific misinformation. CHD argued, in an incredibly […]
Way back in the day of EARLIER THIS YEAR, people could expect to be subjected to warrantless, invasive device searches only at US borders and international airports. Visa applicants, however, just needed to fill out some paperwork and wait for permission to head abroad to find work and/or continue their education. Now, you don’t even […]
The Microsoft Essential Tools Training Bundle has 4 courses to help you become a Microsoft expert in no time. Courses cover Microsoft 365, Excel, Word for beginners, and Word advanced. 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 […]
People have referred to CECOT, the Salvadoran gulag, as “The Prison that Nobody Leaves.” That’s one reason (of many) that it was so concerning that the Trump regime was renditioning people there with no due process. Indeed, most had no criminal record at all. This is why there were concerns that it would, in fact, […]
As predicted, CBS execs have folded like damp cardboard and decided to pay Donald Trump $16 million in an incredible and historic act of cowardice. CBS, seeking FCC regulatory approval for its $8 billion merger with Skydance, wanted to settle a completely baseless Trump lawsuit falsely alleging that 60 Minutes misleadingly edited an election season […]
Book bans are all the rage these days, as you likely well know. Far too many people, and folks in government more importantly, seem to have read Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 not as a lesson in the dangers of new media, but as some sort of instruction manual for how to treat literature. But the […]
A bill purporting to target the issue of misinformation and defamation caused by generative AI has mutated into something that could change the internet forever, harming speech and innovation from here on out. The Nurture Originals, Foster Art and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act aims to address understandable concerns about generative AI-created “replicas” by […]
According to the latest data on robocalls from the YouMail Robocall Index, the scale of the U.S. robocall problem has grown by another eleven percent year over year. U.S. consumers received just over 4.8 billion robocalls in May. We’ve normalized ceding our primary voice communications platforms to corporations, debt collectors, and scammers, and there’s every […]
stLouIST