As the saying goes, the arc of morale judgment is long, but it does bend towards justice. And even if we accept such an optimistic worldview is relevant in this year of our lord, 2024, that certainly doesn’t mean we can’t bitch about how long that damned arc is. It’s been over two years since […]
The case against Backpage was built on lies, innuendo, and a willful misunderstanding of how the internet works. But that didn’t stop the government from destroying the company and its founders’ lives. Over the last few years, we’ve written about how the entire case against Backpage was a travesty of justice. The company actually worked […]
As Techdirt stories attest, Wikipedia has been attacked in the past for publishing true information that somebody doesn’t like. As well as wanting articles to be censored, those behind such attacks often also demand the names of those who worked on the article. Something similar is now happening in India, where the Indian news agency […]
Never underestimate the amount of effort law enforcement officers will expend to dispense as much cruelty as possible. And never forget these are the people we are expected to believe are actually there to protect and serve. While it’s great there’s a settlement payment on the way, the fact is that this extremely vindictive and […]
You probably already know the benefits of learning a language, so let’s focus on the app. Right off the bat, let’s be clear about one thing: When we say “app” we don’t mean that you’re limited to using Babbel on your phone. You can use Babbel on desktop, too, and your progress is synchronized across […]
The first shot to use Section 230 to force adversarial interoperability on platforms has hit a setback. Earlier this year, we wrote about an absolutely fascinating lawsuit that was an attempt to activate a mostly-ignored part of Section 230 in a really interesting way. Most people know about Section 230 for its immunity protections for […]
Streaming video still provides some meaningful advantages to traditional cable: it’s generally cheaper (assuming you don’t sign up for every service under the sun); customer satisfaction ratings are generally higher; and users have more power to pick and choose and cancel services at a whim. But the party simply isn’t poised to last. Thanks to […]
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Arianity with a comment about Bezos’s endorsement gambit backfiring: In second place, it’s an anonymous reply to someone defending Trump’s lawsuit against CBS: Alright. Let’s see every trump interview over his life released in full and uncensored. For editor’s choice on the insightful side, […]
Five Years Ago This week in 2019, we noted how the FCC’s freakout about Huawei was out of step with the way it ignored the internet of broken things. We were not shocked to learn ISPs were cutting back 2020 investment plans despite all the tax breaks and the death of net neutrality, and not […]
If you’ve followed along with our coverage on the hit video game Palworld, developed by Pocketpair, you will know that Nintendo and the Pokémon Co. has sued Pocketpair for patent infringement. Prior to the suit, there had been a ton of speculation that a lawsuit would be filed, but that it would be a copyright […]
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. In this week’s round-up of the latest news in online […]
The narrative for years has been that social media companies — most of them headquartered in California — have it in for conservatives. While the real problem tends to be actual Nazis, conservatives who feel their bigoted views have been “censored” continue to pretend West Coast liberals and the Biden Administration are to blame for […]
If the government passes a law that infringes on the public’s free speech rights, how should one challenge the law? As recent events have shown, the answer is more complex than many realized. A few years ago, both Texas and Florida passed “social media content moderation” laws, which would both limit how social media platforms […]
Demand for Python is booming in the job market and it is a skill that can help you enter some of the most exciting industries, including data science, web applications, home automation, and many more. The 2024 Python for Software Engineering Bootcamp Bundle has 7 courses to take you from beginner to expert in no […]
It’s the sort of thing we see a lot of: a government gets caught doing something wrong and decides it’s the public that needs to suffer for the government’s sins. So it goes in the African island nation of Mauritius, which got caught engaging in presumably illegal surveillance. The only reason residents know this is […]
We’ve well established that the AT&T–>Time Warner–>Discovery series of media mergers were some of the dumbest, most pointless “business” exercises ever conceived by the extraction class. The utterly senseless saga burned through hundreds of billions in debt, saw more than 50,000 people lose their jobs, killed off numerous popular brands (like Mad Magazine and HBO), created oceans of animosity […]
I won’t pretend like I’m not a huge fan of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF has done great work representing clients on matters of free speech and technology innovation. Whether it’s defending anonymous speech from being unmasked or fighting back against the use of intellectual property laws merely to hide content from daylight, this […]
The die is cast. Donald Trump is heading back to the White House – a remarkable victory. But a lot of people who work in the adult entertainment industry are understandably scared. From the concerns for LGBTQ+ rights under the new Trump presidency to access to reproductive care at a state and national level, the […]
In 2022, three companies with strange names and no clear business purpose beyond patent litigation filed dozens of lawsuits in Delaware federal court, accusing businesses of all sizes of patent infringement. Some of these complaints claimed patent rights over basic aspects of modern life; one, for example, involved a patent that pertains to the process of […]
The 2024 Business & Leadership Skills Bundle has 5 courses to help you learn skills you need to advance your career. Courses cover strategic planning, leadership styles, marketing communications, the art of professional poise and politeness, office politics, and more. It’s on sale for $25. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. […]
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