This Week In Techdirt History: August 9th – 15th
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The Fake Free Speech President Has Unleashed ICE On Its Critics
It still amazes me that there are people out there who think that Donald Trump is a supporter of free speech. It has never been true. Anyone who looks will note that the Trump…
Pro Se Plaintiff Caught Hiding Prompt Injections In Court Filings; Responds By Hiding More
There have now been dozens of stories of bad lawyers using AI results in filings, most of which show up in the form of fake case citations. That’s old hat at this point. But how…
Dev Kills Cloud Version Of Game On Switch, Offers Discount To Rebuy It For Switch 2
We’ve talked a great deal about the Stop Killing Games movement and those discussions have typically traveled along two paths of importance. On the one hand, the movement is very…
Judiciary Committee Dems Open Investigation Into DOJ’s Reflecting Pool Revenge Prosecutions
The current president continues to self-destruct. Fortunately for us, he insists on doing this publicly. After handing a donor and an unproven company the massive job of redoing…
ICE Is Buying Stun Gloves For Officers Because They’re Just Not Injuring/Killing Enough Migrants
The administration has no legitimate justification for this action. It’s all about inflicting as much literal pain as possible on anyone ICE officers happen to encounter.…
Fifth Circuit Cites A Ruling Calling Mail-In Ballots “Vital” To Falsely Claim They “Jeopardize Democracy Itself”
You may have seen news of the recent Fifth Circuit decision, with an opinion written by Judge Andrew Oldham, overturning a lower court ruling, and reinstating highly questionable…
Paramount Promises Meaningless CNN ‘Oversight Board’ To Try And Gain Merger Approval
It’s always the same routine. Before each giant merger the companies promise that the new combined entity will deliver the sea, moon, and stars. We’re told the consolidation will…
Ninth Circuit Rewrites Section 230 To Remove The Part That Actually Mattered
For all the talk of “reforming” or “repealing” Section 230 in Congress, the fact is that the courts over the past three or four years have effectively chipped away so steadily at…
John Oliver Doubles Down After Latest Buc-ee’s Trademark Bullying Lawsuit
The Buc-ee’s trademark bullying saga continues! The company, once best known for building ridiculously enormous gas station and convenience store combinations has more recently…
Texas Prosecutors Are Trying To Turn A Teenage Shooting Spree Into A Terrorism Case
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. For decades, terrorism researchers have generally distinguished…
‘Trump Said A Thing’ Journalism Must Stop
One obvious byproduct of letting what’s left of U.S. journalism consolidate in the hands of a bunch of giant corporations is the end result winds up being a feckless mess.…
Doctors, Medical Associations Already Giving A Giant Middle Finger To Trump’s Vaccine EO
As expected, this didn’t take very long. Earlier this week we pointed out that Donald Trump supplanted RFK Jr. as the world’s most infamous anti-vaxxer when he vomited out a…
Flock (Again!) Activates A Camera System A Town Had Voted To Shut Down
The easiest way to tell that Flock Safety doesn’t really care that its massive network of ALPR (automatic license plate reader) cameras is being abused by cops to stalk their exes…
Donald Trump Just Became The World’s Most Famous Anti-Vaxxer Nonsense Peddler
When it comes to the bullshit, batshit-crazy anti-vaxxer movement that currently has the United States in its un-scientific grip, I’ve focused most of my attention on RFK Jr. And,…
Zuckerberg Is Right About Open, Decentralized AI. He’s Also The Last Person You Should Trust To Deliver It
The reaction to Mark Zuckerberg’s 6,500 word AI manifesto, “The Future is for Everyone,” has been all over the map. Given the messenger and the topic, there’s plenty of reasonable…
Not Ready For Prime Time: The Current State Of Legal Ethics And AI
I’ve been presenting at UC Law San Francisco Lexlab Law and AI certificate program its past several sessions, as well as some law school classes, on whether lawyers’ use of AI…
The Censorship Industrial Complex Didn’t Exist Until The People Who Invented It Took It Over
For many, many years now we’ve been calling out how the entire narrative around the “censorship industrial complex” was absolute bullshit, made up by a group of either deliberate…
Trump Wants The DOJ To Go After Olympian David Hearn Again In Reflecting Pool Vandalism Case
This is why having a case dismissed with prejudice is important. Trump’s cronies/donors — who were paid millions to do a job they’d never done before — failed to bring the Lincoln…
Minnesota Is Trying To Talk Texas Into Extraditing An Arrested ICE Officer To Face Assault Charges
Will anyone ever hold an ICE officer accountable for shooting or killing someone? Maybe, but it won’t be anyone from this administration — one that has actively blocked state…
Trump Rushes To Stock FCC With Personal Lackeys, Refuses To Seat Dem Commissioners
When Trump FCC Boss Brendan Carr isn’t trampling free speech or harassing major networks for platforming comedians, he’s been illegally taking a hatchet to whatever’s left of…
Elon Musk Wants To Get Into Wireless Phones And He’s Probably Not Going To Have A Good Time
There have been rumblings for a while that America’s richest and most annoying white supremacist, Elon Musk, really wants to get into the wireless phone business. His lobbyists…
16 Groups Warn FCC’s New ‘Robocall Plan’ Is Really About Dramatically Undermining Privacy
Back in May I noted how the Trump FCC had unveiled a brand new plan to “stop robocalls.” I also noted how the plan doesn’t actually stop robocalls because a well-lobbied U.S.…
Another Federal Judge Says Cell Tower Dumps Are Unconstitutional
Well, it looks like investigators better go back to doing actual investigations in the Fifth Circuit, rather than just assuming a little paperwork and a whole lot of assistance…
Brendan Carr’s FCC Rewrites Media Ownership Law Only Congress Can Actually Change
There are many ways to describe the Trump Era, but the executive branch’s conviction that it can simply ignore the legislative branch’s entire existence has become something close…
Buc-ee’s Shies Away From John Oliver Challenge, Sues Tiny Ohio Convenience Store Instead
Buc-ee’s trademark bullying ways continue! This company that has long been famous for its enormous gas station and convenience stores practically dripping in Americana is quickly…
Erica Schwartz Confirmed As CDC Director Right After She Ruined Her Reputation
When Erica Schwartz was first nominated for Director of the CDC, you could almost hear both a gasp of surprise and a collective sigh of relief from healthcare providers throughout…
Elon Musk’s Grokipedia Quietly Stopped Updating In April. Basically No One Noticed.
As perhaps a few Elon Musk fans may remember, he got really annoyed at Wikipedia last year and tasked his second-rate LLM, Grok, with recreating it as “Grokipedia.” Grokipedia,…
Trump’s AI Framework Is So Bad They Won’t Show You What’s In It
For a while now we’ve been mocking the Trump White House’s plans for an “AI framework” that would have the frontier AI labs hand over their top models for an initial review. After…
This Week In Techdirt History: August 2nd – 8th
This Week in 2016 This Week in 2011 This Week in 2006
Daily Deal: The 2026 Data Engineering Bundle featuring Databricks
The 2026 Data Engineering Bundle has 7 online courses designed to help learners build skills that align directly with industry expectations. The focus is on practical tools and…
Fauci’s Senate Hearing Shows How Conspiracy Theories Have Become Political Weapons
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Dr. Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer…
SpaceX’s Earnings Show Elon Wiped Out Two-Thirds Of Twitter’s Ad Business
When SpaceX filed for its IPO, we went through the S-1 to point out just how far off the mark Elon Musk’s predictions about his Twitter takeover turned out to be. Indeed, the…
Trump Doubles Down On Conspiracy Theories After DOJ Drops Reflecting Pool Vandalism Charges
We’ll see how long US Attorney (and, of course, former Fox News personality) Jeanine Pirro gets to keep her job. I would guess the exit door is only inches away from hitting her…
New Mexico Judge Appoints Himself Meta’s New Product Manager
Earlier this year, following the initial verdict in the state of New Mexico’s case against Meta (arguing that Meta caused harm to children by doing things like encrypting…
Ctrl-Alt-Speech: In The Modi For Takedowns
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,…
It’s Official: Flock Is For Stalking
Flock Safety is happy it’s the go-to choice for tons of law enforcement agencies. While it does suffer some occasional bleeding, its supercharged automatic license plate readers…
Comcast Sued For Punishing Employees With Pies To The Face
There are so many shitty U.S. companies across tech, energy, and AI that criticism of our massively-unpopular telecom monopolies has fallen out of fashion. It’s easy to forget,…
Daily Deal: The Ultimate Unity Game Development Bundle
The Ultimate Unity Game Development Bundle has 44+ hourse of video training designed for aspiring developers. Dive deep into Unity Engine and C# fundamentals, master player…
Daily Deal: The AWS Certification Paths Bundle
If you’re looking for a career in cloud computing, there’s no better place to start than with the AWS certification. Whether you want to be an Architect or a Developer, these…
Daily Deal: The 2026 Complete Linux Certification Learning Paths
Learn Linux from the ground up. LinuxPath training is a fun and interactive learning platform that lets you experience real-world applications in a highly qualified environment.…
Daily Deal: Retropian Color Retro Handheld Gaming Console
Rediscover the thrill of classic gaming with the Retropian Color, the pocket-sized powerhouse designed to revive your favorite retro titles in vibrant detail. This handheld…
Daily Deal: flowkey Piano Learning App
flowkey is a fun, interactive piano learning platform that helps anyone go from absolute beginner to confident player — at their own pace. It combines step-by-step courses with…
Ctrl-Alt-Speech: Watermark My Words
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,…
Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Thad with a comment about Capital One’s stated reasons for shutting down Trump accounts: Would be nice to have some…
Techdirt Podcast Episode 453: Meet The EFF’s New Executive Director
Support us on Patreon » If you know anything about Techdirt, you know we’re big fans of the EFF and its decades of advocacy for digital rights and the open internet. Recently, the…