Back in 2016 we noted how U.S. power utilities like Florida Power & Light created entirely fake consumer groups to try and derail legislation that would have brought more competition to market. Six years later and the company has again found itself in the middle of another scandal, this time for buying favorable news coverage […]
Law enforcement officers really enjoy performing warrantless searches. To get to that point, however, they need to be in certain places (airports, roadsides) and have one certain thing: “reasonable suspicion.” But what seems “reasonable” to someone like you or me is nowhere near what seems “reasonable” to a law enforcement officer. For instance, behold the […]
Several sources familiar with the nomination process tell me that the Biden Administration is not only planning to re-nominate Gigi Sohn to the FCC in 2023, but that Sohn still has the full support of the Administration and of Biden personally. At points in 2022 it wasn’t entirely clear that team Biden had the political […]
In one of Mike’s recent posts about the radical reshaping of the social media landscape currently underway, he noted that Mastodon/ActivityPub might have a “Gmail moment“, when bigger players enter and boost the sector. Although that could be good in terms of broadening the appeal of Mastodon, the emergence of huge, dominating “instances” (Mastodon servers) […]
Very few issues have generated as much ridiculous legislation as preventing minors from accessing pornography. Almost everyone agrees something must be done. And most seem to agree that doing anything — no matter how stupid — is better than doing nothing. Extremely stupid versions of “something” have cropped up around the nation, most of them […]
A new Congress has begun, but in the waning days of the last one, we got one final bipartisan bill to “amend” Section 230. It officially died with the last Congress, but it sure is a sign of what to expect from this new one (introducing it at the very end of the session with […]
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Oh, man. This is just dumb as fuck. There’s no way around it. The New York Times seems extremely willing to suffer fools (especially its own!) Here’s yet another fool given prime internet/printed real estate to push bad ideas, worse arguments, and absurd conclusions. This time it’s Reid Blackman, a self-described “ethicist” who focuses on […]
We’ve noted for decades how, despite all the political lip service paid toward “bridging the digital divide,” the U.S. doesn’t actually have any idea where broadband is or isn’t available. The FCC’s past broadband maps, which cost $350 million to develop, have long been accused of all but hallucinating competitors, making up available speeds, and excluding a key […]
Sign up for the Public Domain Game Jam on itch.io » A new year has begun, and with it, a new edition of our annual public domain game jam! This year, it’s Gaming Like It’s 1927! There’s a host of exciting new works that just entered the public domain in the US, and we’re calling on […]
Happy new year, everyone! 2022 has ended, and that means it’s time for a look at the funniest and most insightful comments of the year at Techdirt. As usual, we’ll be honoring the top three winners in both categories, as well as taking a rare look at the list of comments that performed best when […]
Five Years Ago This week in 2017, people were still discovering that their dead loved ones had been used for fake comments supporting the death of net neutrality, while New York State was considering its own net neutrality law, and we wondered if Verizon would give back the taxpayer subsidies it got under Title II. […]
Long term readers of Techdirt know that, since 2008, I’ve written a final post of the year on reasons to remain optimistic. It started when some people kept telling me that when they read what I wrote I sounded angry and frustrated, but when they’d meet me in person, I always seemed optimistic about the […]
New York State has finally passed a landmark “right to repair” bill proving American consumers some additional protection from repair monopolies. After some annoying delays created by lobbyists, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul signed the legislation on December 29. The legislation gives New York consumers the right to fix their electronic devices themselves or […]
Pretending that you’re actually fixing the world’s privacy and national security issues by banning TikTok is just so very hot right now. Numerous states have passed new rules banning TikTok on government employee devices. And Marco Rubio has proposed a federal law that would ban TikTok unless ByteDance is willing to sell the popular app […]
NSO Group isn’t the only phone malware firm to draw international attention. Sure, NSO’s decision to sell to human rights abusers and aid/abet surveillance of journalists, lawyers, government critics, and political leaders drew the most attention, but there were others. And all of these malware purveyors seem to have sprung from the same source: spies […]
It’s been interesting to watch over the last few months as tons of people have migrated from Twitter to Mastodon (or similar compatible ActivityPub-based social media platforms). I’ve noticed, however, that some people keep running into the same issues and challenges as they discover that Mastodon is different than what they’re used to with Twitter. […]
Sam’s Club is a membership warehouse club, a limited-item business model that offers members quality products at an exceptional value unmatched by traditional retail. From groceries and kitchen supplies to electronics and furniture, Sam’s Club has great deals on the items you want! By redeeming and signing up as a member, you’ll be paying just […]
Telecom and media giants are running a sleazy year-long smear campaign against Biden FCC nominee Gigi Sohn aimed at miring the agency in perpetual consumer protection gridlock. The attacks have been carefully seeded across the US press through various think tanks and nonprofits, and falsely accuse Sohn of everything from hating police to being an enemy of rural […]
I know, I know. Some of the more angry commenters around here keep insisting that I should stop talking about Elon Musk and Twitter, and I want to do exactly that. I planned to do exactly that and not write another post about it all until next week. And then… Twitter crashed hard last night. […]
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