Techdirt Podcast Episode 420: The FTC’s Quixotic Social Media Inquiry
Support us on Patreon » We’ve got a cross-post episode for you this week, courtesy of the Tech Policy Podcast by TechFreedom, hosted by Corbin Barthold. Both TechFreedom and The Copia Institute submitted comments on the FTC’s inquiry into social media censorship, Corbin invited Mike and TechFreedom’s Santana Boulton for a discussion all about what’s going […]
How I Built A Task Management Tool For Almost Nothing
This is part two of my series on using AI tools to fight back against tech company control. Part one explained why we can get beyond just begging billionaires to fix our tools. This part shows exactly how I built my own tool — with zero coding skills and almost no money. A few weeks […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/03/how-i-built-a-task-management-tool-for-almost-nothing/
Stop Begging Billionaires To Fix Software — Build Your Own
This is part one of a two-part series on using AI tools as one piece to fight back against tech company control of our lives. Part two shares the details of how I built my own task management tool in a few days for next to no money and without any coding skills. But first, […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/03/stop-begging-billionaires-to-fix-software-build-your-own/
Daily Deal: iOS UX & UI Design Course
User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design are two very different fields that work toward the same goal: create a functional product that’s a breeze for users to use and interact with. The iOS UX & UI Design Course breaks down the differences between both and helps you apply this knowledge to your app-building […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/03/daily-deal-ios-ux-ui-design-course-2/
State Dept. Says Any Foreigner Seeking To Visit Harvard Must Be Vetted For ‘Hostile Attitudes Towards US Culture’
Here are your options as a foreigner, whether you live in the US already or are just seeking a chance to enter the country: support Israel’s actions against Palestine or GTFO. The Trump Administration continues to pretend supporting Palestine is the same thing as being racist against Israel. And it’s using this false dichotomy to […]
What’s Left Of CBS Just Can’t Stop Kissing Donald Trump’s Ass
Let’s be clear: CBS/Paramount, like many corporate U.S. media outlets, initially responded to the threat of authoritarian rule by kissing Republican ass in a bid to curry favor. CBS management has long made it clear that access and ad engagement are significantly more important than the truth. But the company’s looming acquisition by Skydance has […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/03/whats-left-of-cbs-just-cant-stop-kissing-donald-trumps-ass/
CDC Decides America’s Children Could Do With More Lead In Their Blood
With all the conversations we’ve had in the past few months about the decline of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the leadership, or lack thereof, of RFK Jr. and Donald Trump, you might have been left with the impression that everything at HHS is broken beyond repair. But that’s not entirely […]
Texas Cop Used Flock ALPR Cameras To Track A Woman Who Had An Abortion
Here’s yet another worrying development in the world of privately-owned security cameras. Flock Safety has made aggressive in-roads in both the private and public sector, something aided greatly by the company’s ability to blend the two. Much like Ring before it, Flock is pitching cheap cameras with local law enforcement buy-in, nudging residents towards leaving […]
Daily Deal: The Modern Tech Skills Bundle
Bring your tech skills up to 21st-century snuff with the Modern Tech Skills Bundle. This 2,000+ class series combines subject areas that every aspiring tech pro needs to know to get ahead and stay ahead. Broken out into cybersecurity, AI and machine learning, and information technology and cloud computing, you’ll be able to zero in […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/02/daily-deal-the-modern-tech-skills-bundle/
A 23-Year-Old Crypto Bro Is Now Vetoing NSF Grants While Staring At His Water Bottle
Picture this: You’re a researcher who has spent years developing a grant proposal, gone through layers of expert review, and received National Science Foundation (NSF) approval. Then some kid barely out of college — whose main qualification appears to be founding a company that puts ads on the blockchain — logs into a Zoom meeting, […]
AT&T Claims It Won’t Scale Back Its ‘DEI Initiatives’ To Please Trump, Despite Having Just Scaled Back Its DEI Initiatives To Please Trump
We recently noted how U.S. telecom giant Verizon was more than happy to kiss Trump’s ass in exchange for FCC approval of its $20 billion merger with Frontier. That included quickly kowtowing to the administration’s demands that it do its best to be more racist and sexist. For its part, Verizon counterpart AT&T claims it’s […]
Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is PB&J with a straightforward reaction to one of the more stunning details about oppressive laws pushing people out of Idaho: TWO-FUCKING-THIRDS of the doctors have left already?!?! In second place, it’s an anonymous comment about the apparent decline in support for free speech among […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/06/01/funniest-most-insightful-comments-of-the-week-at-techdirt-161/
Trump Makes NPR’s Legal Case Extra Easy By Admitting Retaliatory Motives In Executive Order Title
When NPR sued Donald Trump Tuesday, it had an easy argument to go with. Normally, in First Amendment retaliation cases against the government, you have to pull together a bunch of disparate strands to prove the retaliatory intent of the actions. But as NPR noted in its filing, and as Justice Scalia once wrote about […]
Copyright Absurdity: School Play Canceled Over Copyright Due To Minor Performance Changes
There’s a great deal that is absurd about copyright law in America, but its most basic absurdity remains the length of time for which the copyright monopoly applies. The length of copyright protection a work gets depends on a number of factors. Was the work published before or after 1978? Was it renewed, if the […]
This Week In Techdirt History: May 25th – 31st
Five Years Ago This week in 2020, there was something of a spat between Donald Trump and Twitter. Trump announced a panel to study “anti-conservative bias” on social media, and went on some crazy Twitter tirades that raised complicated content moderation questions, and we wrote about what a mess the whole thing was. Then, Trump […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/31/this-week-in-techdirt-history-may-25th-31st/
From Defenders To Skeptics: The Sharp Decline In Young Americans’ Support For Free Speech
For much of the 20th century, young Americans were seen as free speech’s fiercest defenders. But now, young Americans are growing more skeptical of free speech. According to a March 2025 report by The Future of Free Speech, a nonpartisan think tank where I am executive director, support among 18- to 34-year-olds for allowing controversial or […]
When Half The Supreme Court Has Book Deals With The Same Publisher, Who Decides Its Cases?
When five Supreme Court Justices recuse themselves from a single case, that’s news. When they do it because most of them have book deals with the same publisher, that’s potentially a problem. Last week’s Monday order list included this unusual admission: five Justices recused from Baker v. Coates, a silly plagiarism case involving Ta-Nehisi Coates […]
Daily Deal: The Ultimate Software Testing Bundle
Get the skills you need to become a software tester with the Ultimate Software Testing Bundle. Software testing is performed to identify differences between given input and expected output and to verify that software products function according to pre-defined requirements. Courses cover the basics, Bugzilla, JIRA, testing techniques, Java TestNG, and more. It’s on sale […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/27/daily-deal-the-ultimate-software-testing-bundle-6/
Federal Judge Benchslaps DOJ For Arrest Of Newark Mayor During Visit To ICE Detention Facility
Earlier this month, the federal government — multiple wings of it — went apeshit when dealing with routine oversight of ICE detention facilities. Three New Jersey Congressional reps (of the federal variety) made an unannounced visit to inspect an ICE detention center run by inappropriately gleeful private prison contractor, GeoGroup. As the Congressional reps tried […]
The U.S. Digital Divide Got Measurably Worse After Republicans Killed A Popular Low-Income Broadband Program
Last year Trumplicans killed a popular program that provided poor people with $30 off of their monthly broadband bill. The FCC’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) was, unsurprisingly, very popular, with more than 23 million Americans benefitting at its peak. At the time, the GOP claimed they were simply looking to save money. The real reason the program was killed, of […]
Funniest/Most Insightful Commets Of The Week At Techdirt
This week, both our winners on the insightful side come in response to our post about the head of ICE saying journalists should stop asking questions about ICE officers. In first place, it’s Justinfinity with a comment about the fear of officers being targeted: That’s especially wild when held up next to the very common […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/25/funniest-most-insightful-commets-of-the-week-at-techdirt/
Game Jam Winner Spotlight: This Is Not A Game About A Pipe
We’ve now arrived at the end of 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, Best Visuals, Best Adaptation, the honorable mentions, and the Best Digital Game. Today, we wrap things up with a look at […]
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/05/24/game-jam-winner-spotlight-this-is-not-a-game-about-a-pipe/
The Baldoni/Lively Case Is Still Going And Getting Much, Much Sillier
We talked about the celebrity fight du jour between actors Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively when it started, as it seemed for all the world like your typical Streisand Effect story. What began as a workplace harassment complaint of sorts, with Lively initially alleging several instances of inappropriate workplace behavior by Baldoni, has now exploded […]
Homeland Security Defies Orders, Engages In More Human Trafficking
Eight men were put on a plane from Texas, bound for South Sudan — a country the State Department warns Americans not to travel to because of “crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict.” None of these men were from South Sudan. The Trump administration shipped them there anyway, in direct violation of a federal court order. […]
VPNSecure Lifetime Subscriptions: Now You Didn’t License What You Licensed, Either
We’ve talked about how, in the digital space at least, the concept of “ownership” has undergone a massive philisophical shift. It used to be that you would go out somewhere, buy a thing, and own that thing. When the product is digital, however, or if it is connected to the internet and subject to firmware […]
DHS Secretary Thinks Habeas Corpus Is The Power To Deport People With No Due Process
Our Secretary of Homeland Security, tasked with overseeing the detention of thousands of people, doesn’t understand one of the most fundamental protections against unlawful imprisonment in our legal system. And we’re not talking about some obscure technical detail — we’re talking about habeas corpus, a basic right that’s been around since the Magna Carta. Kristi […]
DEA Ditches Body Cam Program In Response To Trump’s Rollback Of Biden Reform Efforts
The DEA may not be an early adopter of forward-looking policies, but it certainly leads the pack when it comes to shedding accountability like a teen ditching an ill-fitting sports coat the instant a family portrait session has wrapped up. Federal law enforcement agencies definitely trailed the trends when it came to body cam use […]
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/2025/05/20/daily-deal-curiosity-stream-standard-plan-8/