This Week In Techdirt History: March 16th – 22nd
Five Years Ago This week in 2020… oh, right. The COVID-19 pandemic dominated our coverage, as it sparked a huge variety of news: patent lawsuits to block testing that morphed into claims of royalty-free licenses that turned out to be bogus, ISPs dropping usage caps and entertainment giants embracing faster home video release windows, YouTube […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/22/this-week-in-techdirt-history-march-16th-22nd/
Justin Baldoni’s Lawsuit Against The NY Times Appears Destined For Dismissal
As we’ve been following along to some degree with the whole Blake Lively versus Justin Baldoni legal mess, the more recent stories have been about Baldoni’s attempt to go after protected creative speech in a Deadpool movie, the choice of waging a PR war before the trial even starts, and the Streisand Effect nature to […]
Talking About Bluesky And Putting Power & Choice Back Into Users’ Hands At SXSW
When 1,700 people pack a room at SXSW (with hundreds more relegated to overflow spaces) to hear about a decentralized social media protocol, it’s clear something interesting is happening. The crowd that showed up for my conversation with Bluesky CEO Jay Graber this week wasn’t just there for another social media platform — they were […]
DHS Buries Its Last Election Security Review Because With Trump In Charge, No One Cares About Election Integrity
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) now exists in name only. Not only did Trump’s band of Musk-led pillagers dismantle the infrastructure side of the agency by disbanding the CISA group investigating a massive China-based hack of US phone systems, but the administration terminated ongoing election security and disinformation-thwarting efforts by the agency roughly […]
First Porn, Now Skin Cream? ‘Age Verification’ Bills Are Out Of Control
I’m old enough to remember when age verification bills were pitched as a way to ‘save the kids from porn’ and shield them from other vague dangers lurking in the digital world (like…“the transgender”). We have long cautioned about the dangers of these laws, and pointed out why they are likely to fail. While they may be well-intentioned, the growing proliferation of age verification schemes […]
Daily Deal: The Ultimate Adobe CC Training Bundle
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 Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/14/daily-deal-the-ultimate-adobe-cc-training-bundle-12/
Saudi Arabia Buys Everybody’s Sensitive Pokémon Go Location Data
During the great TikTok moral panic of 2022-2025 we noted repeatedly how it was very weird for the public, press, and lawmakers to singularly hyperventilate about the privacy and propaganda impacts of one specific Chinese-owned app while just completely refusing to do anything about the much broader problems that TikTok (and a thousand other companies) […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/14/saudi-arabia-buys-everybodys-sensitive-pokemon-go-location-data/
Trump Claims Boycotting Tesla Is Illegal, Which It Very Much Is Not
Elon Musk’s companies aren’t having the best couple of weeks, it seems. ExTwitter suffered from several outages this week, some lengthy, while Musk claimed that it was the result of a DDoS attack and hinted that Ukraine might be to blame. The story of SpaceX thus far in 2025 has mostly been one filled with […]
It Is Long Past Time For Democrats To Start Pounding The Impeachment Drum
The big deal today is Democrats’ threatened capitulation to the GOP on the continuing resolution to keep the government open—but entirely on Trump’s terms, no matter who it bankrupts (hello, DC police and fire departments!). But the larger point made here stands, because the cowardice on display in this budget showdown is the cowardice that […]
Ctrl-Alt-Speech: The TAKE IT DOWN Takedown
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 roundup of the latest news in online […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/13/ctrl-alt-speech-the-take-it-down-takedown/
Meta, Apparently, Really Wants Everyone To Read This Book (By Trying To Ban It)
Thank you, Mark Zuckerberg, for giving me yet another exhibit in my museum of those who fail to understand the Streisand Effect. Meta is so desperate to silence a former employee’s book that it’s doing everything possible to ensure maximum publicity for the allegations within it. You might think that a company like Meta would […]
DHS Ensures The Leaks Will Continue By Rolling Out Lie Detectors In Hopes Of Finding Leakers
If there’s anything guaranteed to increase the number of leaks emanating from an entity, it’s letting people know you’re trying to track down leakers. The public sector knows this. The private sector knows this. And yet, the same thing happens again and again: a deterrent appears and everyone treats it like an instigator. Even Trump […]
Daily Deal: Curiosity Stream Standard Plan
Whether you’re a science enthusiast, history buff, or technology geek, Curiosity Stream has something for everyone. Unleash the power of on-demand streaming that allows you to choose what you want to watch, when you want to watch it, and where you want to watch it. From the comfort of your living room to the remote […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/13/daily-deal-curiosity-stream-standard-plan-5/
Judge To Trump: No, You Can’t Just Declare ‘Off With Their Heads’ To Political Enemies
Generally speaking, if a judge says this to you, your client is unlikely to succeed in their case: “This may be amusing in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ where the Queen of Hearts yells ‘Off with their heads!’ at annoying subjects… but this cannot be the reality we are living under.” That was Judge Beryl Howell yesterday, […]
More Washington Post Staffers Resign Over Bezos’ Mismanagement And Authoritarian Ass Kissing
Last month U.S. oligarch Jeff Bezos gutted what was left of the paper’s op-ed section, declaring that they’d only publish pieces that supported “personal liberties and free markets” (read: kinder to right wing, corporatist ideals). As Mike noted at the time, it was an obvious trampling of editorial discretion by billionaire owner Jeff Bezos that […]
Appeals Court: ‘Plain View” Also Includes Using iPhone Camera Options To See Through Tinted Car Windows
As tech advances, the law mutates. In some cases (Riley, Carpenter) we get more protections. In other cases, we get fewer protections. This case dates back to 2022. Christopher Poller was a suspect Waterbury, Connecticut police officers were seeking to arrest. While surveilling his residence, officers approached his parked car. Poller wasn’t in it at […]
My New Podcast ‘Otherwise Objectionable’ Explains Why Everyone’s Wrong About Section 230
At a moment when it feels like everyone is racing to “reform” Section 230, while fundamentally misunderstanding the law, and often in pursuit of conflicting goals, it’s more important than ever that people actually learn about Section 230. To that end, we’re excited that the first episode of the new podcast series I’m doing with […]
Utah Legislature Passes Completely Unworkable App Store ‘Age Verification’ Bill
It’s not like we need any more of this sort of thing. COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) pretty much deters any app maker or social media service from catering to a very underage crowd. Compliance is difficult, if not impossible. But, all the same, it has deterred plenty of the worst developers in the […]
RFK Jr. Blames Malnutrition For Measles Outbreak’s Severe Illnesses And Deaths
Let’s stipulate something before we dive into this post so that there is no misunderstanding: the rise of the anti-vax movement did not begin with Donald Trump’s foray into American politics. It’s been around since well before 2016, slowly but surely gaining momentum among a strange combination of West Coast liberal elites and a certain […]
Daily Deal: Babbel Language Learning (All Languages)
Become a language expert with the Babble 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 […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/12/daily-deal-babbel-language-learning-all-languages-16/