RFK Jr.’s Measles Policy: Deaths Are Expected And It’s The Victim’s Fault
I’ve ranted and raved enough about how RFK Jr. and his Health and Human Services department are completely fucking up the response to the current measles outbreak enough that I’m confident you all don’t need me to rehash the entire thing in this opening. We can leave it at this: we’re probably going to lose […]
DOGE Aide Who Helped Gut CFPB Was Warned About Potential Conflicts Of Interest
This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Last month, a Department of Government Efficiency aide at the nation’s consumer watchdog agency was told by ethics attorneys that he held stock in companies that employees are forbidden from owning — and was advised not to participate in any actions that could benefit him personally, […]
Greek Authorities Fail In Their Attempt To Make VPN Founder Personally Responsible For The Action Of An Unknown User
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are not a privacy panacea, but they do empower Internet users in important ways. Proof of that can be found in the constant attempts by governments around the world to control who can use VPNs and for what purpose, most recently in Italy and Brazil. Hackread reports on another such move […]
Daily Deal: uTalk Language Learning
uTalk can help you start speaking like a native within minutes. Using the uTalk learning App you can listen to real native speakers to help you navigate through your next vacation or business trip. With more than 2,500 words and phrases to learn in each of our 140+ languages, the app gives you a running start […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/08/daily-deal-utalk-language-learning-7/
Here’s Everything Trump Is Doing To Protect Bad Cops, Make Things Worse For Crime Victims
Trump was never about law and order. He cozied up to cops and praised police brutality, but when push came to literal shove, he sat back and watched his supporters attack law enforcement officers and commit federal crimes for the sole purpose of destroying democracy itself. Now that he’s back in office, he’s back to […]
Texas’s War On Abortion Is Now A War On Free Speech
Once again, the Texas legislature is coming after the most common method of safe and effective abortion today—medication abortion. Senate Bill (S.B.) 2880* seeks to prevent the sale and distribution of abortion pills—but it doesn’t stop there. By restricting access to certain information online, the bill tries to keep people from learning about abortion drugs, or […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/07/texass-war-on-abortion-is-now-a-war-on-free-speech/
GOP: The IRS Should Never Target Organizations For Their Views… Until We’re In Power, Then Target Everyone
Remember the Lois Lerner scandal? For years, it was the Republican party’s Exhibit A of Obama administration overreach — proof that Democrats were weaponizing the IRS to target conservative groups. The outrage was endless. The GOP-led congressional investigations were relentless. The rhetoric about threats to democracy was breathless. Funny thing about that: it turned out […]
Daily Deal: The 2025 Complete Splunk Beginner Bundle
Splunk is a powerful data platform used to gather information from multiple sources and index it for efficient access. You can then use collected data to create visualizations, analytics, and a variety of automated and security-related functions. With its web-style interface, Splunk is easy to use and is utilized by many companies worldwide. The 2025 Complete […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/07/daily-deal-the-2025-complete-splunk-beginner-bundle/
Yet Again, The Data Shows Migrants Are More Law-Abiding Than US Citizens
This has always been the truth. And it has always been ignored by people like Donald Trump, who combine “if it bleeds, it leads” media narratives with the always-exploitable fear of “others.” Whether a migrant is in this country legally or illegally, the odds of them committing criminal acts are much lower than those for […]
Sales End Tonight! This Is Your Last Chance To Secure A Copy Of One Billion Users, The Social Media Card Game
This is it: we’re about to lock in our order quantity for One Billion Users, the competitive card game about running a social media network that we funded on Kickstarter last year. If you haven’t yet become a backer of the campaign, you can still make a late pledge to order as many copies as […]
Crumbl, One Time IP Bully, Hit With Massive Copyright Infringement Suit Over Music In Social Media Posts
You may have heard a mantra that is becoming more popular these days thanks to a certain presidential administration operating as a language-destroyer. It goes: “Every accusation is a confession.” The idea behind it is that when someone goes all firebrand accusing others of a thing, you often find the firebrand guilty of that very […]
Techdirt Podcast Episode 417: The Rise Of The Open Social Web
Support us on Patreon » Though the original promise of the internet has been twisted and distorted, today we’re seeing more and more people working to restore decentralization and user power online. One such person who sees the problem better than most is Flipboard founder and former Twitter board member (among many other things) Mike McCue, […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/06/techdirt-podcast-episode-417-the-rise-of-the-open-social-web/
National Insecurity: The Trump Administration’s NATSEC Boys Just Can’t Stop Fucking Up
If you feel this nation is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyrannies of evil men, you probably should be scared shitless that the clowns are running the circus. Of course, those backing Trump aren’t truly concerned about any of this, not even those running his agencies and/or repeating […]
Trump’s Aggressive Actions Against Free Speech Speak A Lot Louder Than His Words Defending It
Harvard University took the extraordinary step of suing the Trump administration on April 21, 2025, claiming that the pressure campaign mounted on the school by the president and his Cabinet to force viewpoint diversity on campus violated the Constitution’s guarantees of free speech. “Defendants’ actions are unlawful,” Harvard’s lawsuit states. “The First Amendment does not permit the […]
After Further Review, The Fourth Circuit Says Good Faith Applies To Bad Geofence Warrant
Last July, the Fourth Circuit Appeals Court handled a geofence warrant case, marking the first time this issue had been handled at the appellate level. The robbery suspect, Okello Chatrie, challenged the constitutionality of the warrant, arguing that its non-particular nature placed it outside the bounds of the Fourth Amendment. A half-decade ago, this argument […]
Comcast President Realizes How Their Bullshit Prices/Fees Have Them Losing Customers
It should be no secret that Comcast, as well as many other cable TV and internet providers, have a firm reputation for shoveling mountains of bullshit and calling it their base fees only to have a bunch of hidden or sneaky other fees attached to invoices that greatly inflate the price of services. These have […]
The War On Internet Phone Calls
Today Microsoft shut down Skype, a company that helped revolutionize phone calls online. To commemorate the death of Skype, we’re running a recent “Pessimist’s Archive” article on the history of internet calls, and how it almost wasn’t allowed. If you’re not already, you should subscribe to the Pessimist’s Archive. It used to cost money to […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/05/the-war-on-internet-phone-calls/
State Department Gadfly Looks To Use Twitter Files Playbook For Vengeance
Earlier this year, soon after Elon Musk began stripping away parts of the government he had no constitutional authority to destroy, we warned that it appeared officials in the White House were gearing up to use the Twitter Files playbook on the US government. The basics of the playbook are as follows: As Charlie Warzel […]
Daily Deal: EDU Unlimited by StackSkills
StackSkills is the premier online learning platform for mastering today’s most in-demand skills. Now, with this exclusive limited-time offer, you’ll gain access to 1000+ StackSkills courses for life! Whether you’re looking to earn a promotion, make a career change, or pick up a side hustle to make some extra cash, StackSkills delivers engaging online courses […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/05/daily-deal-edu-unlimited-by-stackskills-3/
Federal Court Says Cell Tower Dumps Violate The Fourth Amendment
Things continue to change thanks to the Supreme Court’s Carpenter decision. Prior to that, it was assumed the Third Party Doctrine justified all sorts of data dragnets, so long as the data was held by a third party. But that doctrine assumed the data being grabbed by law enforcement was being handed over knowingly and […]
Washington The Eighth State To Pass ‘Right To Repair’ Law
Washington will soon become the eighth state in the country to pass Right to Repair legislation. While U.S. consumer protection is generally an historic hot mess right now, the “right to repair” movement — making it easier and cheaper to repair the things you own — continues to make steady inroads thanks to widespread, bipartisan annoyance at […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/05/washington-the-eighth-state-to-pass-right-to-repair-law/
Funniest/Most Insightul Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Bruce C. with a reply to a comment that attempted to downplay the recent behavior of federal agents: Even plain clothes officers are required to carry their badge. If they were undercover officers they shouldn’t be presenting themselves as officers to civilians unless they […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/04/funniest-most-insightul-comments-of-the-week-at-techdirt/
Only A Few Days Left To Get A Copy Of One Billion Users
As we announced last week, our recently-Kickstarted card game One Billion Users is about to enter production, which means this is your last chance to secure a copy for yourself. The Kickstarter campaign is accepting late pledges from now through the end of Wednesday, May 7th. We recently received our proof copy, and it looks […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/04/only-a-few-days-left-to-get-a-copy-of-one-billion-users/
Game Jam Winner Spotlight: Calder’s Circus
This is the fourth in our series of posts about the winners of this year’s public domain game jam, Gaming Like It’s 1929! We’ve already covered the Best Remix, Best Deep Cut, and Best Visuals, and today we’re looking at the winner of the Best Adaptation category: Calder’s Circus by David Harris. Regular followers of […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/03/game-jam-winner-spotlight-calders-circus/
Even Better: Bethesda Gives Full Throat Endorsement Of ‘Skyblivion’
One of things we’ve talked about repeatedly is how much better it would be for content producers, instead of immediately defaulting to behaving like IP protectionists, to treat their fans in a human and awesome way. There are times when the need for protecting IP makes sense, but there are far more times when creative […]
Texas Bookstores Push Back Against Bill That Would Allow Them To Be Sued Over ‘Harmful’ Content
The free, independent state of Texas continues to make it clear it only respects certain rights and freedoms and only those that adhere to the Holy Trinity of guns, God, and, um… Nazi-adjacent Cybertruck manufacturers. A number of efforts have been made to remove books from schools and public libraries in recent years. None of […]
Trump Admits He Could Get Abrego Garcia Back, But Angrily Insists Non-Existent Tattoos Are The Reason He Won’t
Bizarrely buried near the bottom of NY Times article about the chaos behind the renditioning of people to a Salvadoran gulag is an important detail: the US and El Salvador have already brought back eight people who were “mistakenly” sent there: In Washington, the Trump administration was working to address Mr. Bukele’s confusion about whom […]
Colorado’s Social Media Moral Panic Bill Dies After Governor’s Thoughtful Veto
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a state legislature, caught up in the moral panic about social media, passes yet another clearly unconstitutional bill that will waste taxpayer money on doomed legal battles. This time it’s Colorado, whose legislature passed a ridiculously bad social media regulation bill (SB25-086) that looks suspiciously similar to […]
Trump Admin Freaks Out Over Report Amazon Planned To Be Transparent About Tariffs
Okay, there’s a lot to unpack in this story, so hang with me here. For the past month or so, Americans and American businesses have been stuck in tariff hell. Blanket and additional tariffs issued via executive order by Trump have been in a seesaw pattern for a month now. This tariff program was a […]
Techdirt Podcast Episode 416: How Tariffs Are Impacting One Small Business
Support us on Patreon » We probably don’t need to tell you that the current tariff situation is causing complete chaos in global supply chains, in large part due to the uncertainty — for all we know, the exact rules will have changed since this episode was recorded just yesterday. But we wanted to get some […]