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The Trump Administration Is Deliberately Destroying The Democratic Process

1 week 2 days ago
It’s no surprise that Donald Trump thinks El Salvador president Nayib Bukele is a fun hang. After all, Bukele has already referred to himself as the world’s “coolest dictator” — two descriptors Trump definitely aspires to. (Although he’ll take the latter in the lieu of the former…) Bukele — the recent recipient of (apparently illegal) […]
Tim Cushing

HBO Max To Get Even More Obnoxious About Password Sharing

1 week 2 days ago
The sort of executives who fail upward into positions of prominence at major media and streaming companies are all out of original ideas. So as the Wall Street pressure for impossible, perpetual quarterly growth mounts, they’ve increasingly resorted to the same tactics we’ve long seen at major shitty cable companies like Comcast. For streaming video […]
Karl Bode

Is It Still ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ If All The Predictions Were Accurate?

1 week 3 days ago
“Hysterical.” “Alarmist.” “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” “He’ll be constrained by institutions.” “There are adults in the room.” “You’re overreacting.” “The generals won’t let him.” “Stop being so dramatic.” Every single person who said we were being hysterical about Trump being an existential threat should be forced to explain how the President seizing control of the capital’s police force […]
Mike Brock

Techdirt Podcast Episode 426: The Media Capitulation Index

1 week 3 days ago
Support us on Patreon » One of the most troubling things about this era in American history is the number of institutions that have caved to Trump’s bullying and given him what he wants, especially when it comes to media organizations. The folks over at the non-profit Free Press have done a lot of research and […]
Leigh Beadon

Another Look At The STOP CSAM Act

1 week 3 days ago
Amidst the current batch of child safety bills in Congress, a familiar name appears: the STOP CSAM Act. It was previously introduced in 2023, when I wrote about the threat the bill posed to the availability of strong encryption and consequently to digital privacy in the post-Roe v. Wade era. Those problems endure in the […]
Riana Pfefferkorn

Daily Deal: Babbel Language Learning (All Languages)

1 week 3 days ago
Become a language expert with the Babbel Language Learning deal. However you choose to access your 10K+ hours of online language education, you’ll be able to choose from 14 languages. Want to try your hand at all of them? Knock yourself out — you’ll have a lifetime to get it done. And you can tackle […]
Daily Deal

Trump FCC Installs Babysitter At CBS To Ensure The Network Kisses King Donald’s Ass

1 week 3 days ago
With the cowards at CBS/Paramount having paid their $16 million bribe, Trump’s FCC was quick to rubber-stamp its approval to the company’s $8 billion merger with Skydance (owned by Trump’s billionaire friends in the Ellison family). Part of that deal involves installing a Trump babysitter to ensure what’s left of the media giant’s journalism division is […]
Karl Bode

Seventh Circuit Shuts Down Indiana’s Unconstitutional Police Buffer Zone Law

1 week 4 days ago
Although the Supreme Court has yet to say so itself (and probably won’t any time soon, given its current composition), it’s generally accepted that citizens have the right to film public officials performing their public duties. Law enforcement officers, however, seem to feel this should never be a right and that their actions in full […]
Tim Cushing

Why False Equivalence Is One Of Democracy’s Most Dangerous Lies

1 week 4 days ago
There’s a trick at the center of American political discourse—so deeply embedded that even well-meaning people don’t realize they’re performing it. It goes like this: if you’re a fair-minded individual, you must believe that both political parties are fundamentally the same. To assert a meaningful difference in their commitment to truth, democracy, or constitutional governance […]
Mike Brock

NY Appeals Court: Lol, No Of Course You Can’t Sue Social Media For The Buffalo Mass Shooting

1 week 4 days ago
When politicians immediately blamed social media for the horrific 2022 Buffalo mass shooting—despite zero evidence linking the platforms to the attack—it was obvious deflection from actual policy failures. The scapegoating worked: survivors and victims’ families sued the social media companies, and last year a confused state court wrongly ruled that Section 230 didn’t protect them. […]
Mike Masnick

Daily Deal: Stone River eLearning

1 week 4 days ago
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 […]
Daily Deal

Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

1 week 5 days ago
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Arianity with a comment about how RFK Jr. approaches things: He is literally a eugenicist. If you dig down into his beliefs, he consistently thinks that if you die to something, it’s because you were “weak” and deserved it. In second place, it’s MrWilson […]
Leigh Beadon

This Week In Techdirt History: August 3rd – 9th

1 week 6 days ago
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 […]
Leigh Beadon