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In February 2024, AT&T bungled a network update causing a massive outage that it took AT&T twelve hours to fix. DownDetector lit up with 70,000 problem reports. The outage impacted an estimated 125 million wireless devices,...

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Well, I’ll give the Ninth Circuit this much: at least when the court is wrong, it is wrong fast. It was just a few weeks back that we discussed Molson Coors’ appeal for both the rulings and damages over its trademark fight with Stone...

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Last April, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a law designed specifically to make it easier for cops to arrest people who film them. While it’s generally accepted (without Supreme Court precedent… for some weird reason) by most courts...

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Senator Richard Blumenthal is at it again. The long-time Connecticut Senator, who never met an internet regulation he didn’t like, is eager to reintroduce his Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) — a bill that would trample all over the First...

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The 2025 Microsoft Essential Tools Training Bundle will 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...

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Having lost twice in a row, a handful of Missouri state clerks will now be using taxpayers’ money to pay a former government employee who had the temerity to recommend a mask mandate during the height of the COVID pandemic. (via Short...

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On Monday, Taylor Lorenz posted a telling story about how Meta has been suppressing access to LGBTQ content across its platforms, labeling it as “sensitive content” or “sexually explicit.” Posts with LGBTQ+ hashtags including #lesbian,...

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For decades now, U.S. wireless carriers have sold consumers “unlimited data” plans that actually have all manner of sometimes hidden throttling, caps, download limits, and restrictions. And every few years a regulator comes out with a...

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Is it too much to ask for cops to be better? When other government employees get the address wrong, it may mean mail delivery delays or incorrect property tax assessments. But when cops get it wrong, people end up dead. If officers are...

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Gravy Analytics, the parent company of Venntel, is like many dodgy data brokers. The company gleans vast troves of sensitive U.S. behavior and location cellphone data, then generally sells access to that data to a long line of folks....

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As Michael McGrady pointed out in his recent guest post for Techdirt, nearly 41 percent of Americans subject to age verification laws targeting porn and, of course, porn consumers. An emboldened pseudo-theocratic wing of the Republican...

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A lot of people dunked on the amicus brief Donald Trump filed at the Supreme Court in the constitutional challenge of the law effectively banning TikTok. And there is plenty that is dunkable about it, especially in his tone of entitlement....

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Prepare to sit a various CompTIA certification courses with the Complete 2025 CompTIA Certification Training Super Bundle by IDUNOVA. Over 17 courses, you’ll learn about penetration testing, network security, IT fundamentals, and more....

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When the NY Times declared in September that “Mark Zuckerberg is Done With Politics,” it was obvious this framing was utter nonsense. It was quite clear that Zuckerberg was in the process of sucking up to Republicans after Republican...

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Now that streaming subscriber growth has slowed, we’ve noted repeatedly how the streaming TV sector is falling into all of the bad habits that ultimately doomed traditional cable TV. That has involved chasing pointless “growth of...

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Well, there are two possibilities here. Either I’ve been doing this for too long or all cops are, indeed, bastards. Let me explain. When this rolled through my hundreds of feeds recently… DOJ enters agreement with California police...

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Surveillance of students that continues even after they’ve left the campus is nothing new. School-issued tech comes preloaded with spyware meant to prevent students from cheating, accessing inappropriate content, or introducing malware of...

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Every New Year’s Eve, the Chief Justice releases his year-end report, which used to include things like what the court would like to see Congress do. However, Justice Roberts now uses it more as a way to blog post whatever is on his mind....

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It seems unfathomable that we’re even here. The First Amendment is one of our clearer constitutional provisions. “Make no law,” it says, “abridging the freedom of speech.” And yet, with the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary...

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The Ultimate Adobe CC Training Bundle has 12 courses to help you get the most out of the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite. Courses cover Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, After Effects, and more. It’s on sale for $40. Note: The...

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I know it’s no surprise that the modern MAGA world is incredibly hypocritical. They speak of free speech while making every effort to suppress speech they dislike. But the latest example of this hypocrisy is glaring. Those who screamed to...

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Last week a corrupt court system bought and paid for by corporations effectively made it illegal for the federal government to protect broadband consumers from widely despised regional telecom monopolies. That, as we wrote at the time, is...

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They’re going to have to change the nickname. For years, cops have referred to drug dogs as “probable cause on four legs.” But over the last half-decade or so, jurisprudence has been leaning the other way. One of the first rulings to knock...

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A little over a year ago, Maine residents voted overwhelmingly (83 percent) to pass a new state right to repair law designed to make auto repairs easier and more affordable. More specifically, the law requires that automakers...

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Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos wants you to believe he’s on a noble mission to restore trust in media. His solution? Muzzling his own paper by blocking it from endorsing Kamala Harris in the runup to the election, a decision he defended...

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The Ultimate Python and Artificial Intelligence Bundle has 9 courses to help you take your Python and AI knowledge to the next level. You’ll learn about data pre-processing and visualization, artificial neural networks, how to use the...

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Never let a tragedy go unexploited. That’s the political rule and it applies to both sides of the partisan divide. Of course, the divide has been Oval Office top heavy for a majority of this century, so we’re hearing more from one side...

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When Elon Musk took over Twitter, one of his primary stated goals was to “bring back free speech” to the platform. He was particularly critical of how Twitter had briefly blocked links to a New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop...

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Back in 2023 Mozilla issued a report indicating that automakers have some of the worst privacy and security standards in all of tech, routinely hoovering up oceans of consumer behavior and phone data then failing to adequately secure it....

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This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is a simple anonymous comment about the fact that 41% of Americans now live under age verification laws: Such “small government” In second place, it’s That One Guy with a comment...

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Five Years Ago This week at the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, a new study shed light on just how racially biased facial recognition algorithms are, while we looked at how tracking college students everywhere they go on campus had...

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Bethesda, for any other faults you might find with the company, has built a reputation for itself as a gaming publisher that is not just tolerant of its modding community, but one which embraces that community. While not every attempt at...

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It has long been acknowledged by federal courts that firing off a one-finger salute to law enforcement officers is not only not a crime, but protected speech. That means that the appearance of the “bird” cannot alone be the basis for stops...

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For the past few years, I’ve used Cronometer as a nutrition app. It’s pretty good for tracking food, exercise, and much more. I appreciate that it has very detailed nutritional data, and even when it doesn’t, I’m able to upload nutritional...

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Embark on the journey of language learning with the Rosetta Stone lifetime subscription for all languages. Trusted by top-tier organizations like NASA, Calvin Klein, and TripAdvisor, Rosetta Stone has been the go-to software for language...

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In what will sadly come as no surprise to anyone, an Arizona prosecutor has decided no cops should be punished for partnering up with a different Arizona prosecutor to portray anti-police violence protesters as gang members for the sole...

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The telecom industry (with the help of the recent Trump Supreme Court), has been drooling for months at the prospect that the Trump-stocked courts would soon finally deliver the killing blow to FCC net neutrality protections (read:...

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Like far too many legislators, Arkansas politicians have decided it’s time to codify irrational hatred. To do this, they pretended they had a sudden and urgent new obligation to protect “the children” harder than they’ve ever been...

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On October 27, 2024, Oklahoma City police officer Joseph Gibson violently assaulted a 71-year-old Vietnamese man while investigating [checks notes] a “non-injury traffic accident.” The man, Lich Vu, was definitely much smaller than the cop...

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When Apple unveiled its AR/VR Vision Pro headset early last year the product was met with just an absolute ocean of tech press hype. You couldn’t spend thirty seconds online without reading about how the expensive ($3,500-$4,600 depending...

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There are no winners here. There are only varying levels of losses. The government sustains the most. As it should. When there needs to be an adult in the room, the government bears that responsibility, no matter how irritating the...

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To completely understand computer security, it’s vital to step outside the fence and to think outside the box. Computer security is not just about firewalls, Intrusion Prevention Systems, or anti-viruses. It’s also about tricking people...

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Elon Musk is once again threatening to sue over speech he dislikes — this time, over factual headlines about a deadly explosion involving a Tesla Cybertruck. But not liking how a story is framed doesn’t make it defamatory. For a statement...

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With the exception of ABC News being weird and just throwing cash at Trump for no apparent reason, every libel lawsuit filed by Donald Trump (or his various business holdings) has failed. This is another one for the loss column. And,...

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Another day, another major privacy scandal we’ll likely do nothing about. Health care giant Ascension — which owns 140 hospitals and assisted living facilities — says that a May cyberattack compromised the sensitive data of more than 5.6...

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It’s a new year, and that means new works are entering the public domain, and that means it’s time for the latest installment of our public domain game jam, Gaming Like It’s 1929! If you’ve been itching to get started on your entry, now’s...

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As is the tradition on Techdirt, my final post of the year is about optimism and how I continue to be optimistic about innovation and online community, even in the midst of whatever other nonsense may be happening around the globe. This is...

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A couple of weeks back, we discussed the implosion of startup company Embodied and the resulting bricking of its $800 “emotional support” robots designed for children. Like many other stories about IoT-type products, the post focused on...

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Last December, we published a recap, “2023: The Year of AI Panic.” Now, it’s time to ask: What happened to the AI panic in 2024? TL;DR – It was a rollercoaster ride: AI panic reached a peak and then fell down. Two cautionary tales: The EU...

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The inevitable has happened and Elon has started banning and suppressing the speech of folks who were “on his team,” leading to many suddenly realizing that maybe he wasn’t such a free speech supporter after all. Look, we’ve spent the...