Despite the best efforts of automakers and companies like Apple, states continue to push forward with popular “right to repair” reforms that make it easier and more affordable for consumers to repair tech they own. While they vary in potency, New York, Oregon, California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Maine, and Minnesota have all now passed some flavor […]
The Fifth Circuit Appeals Court has a particularly antagonistic relationship with long-held constitutional rights. It is, without argument, the most cop-friendly circuit in the nation — one that has managed to surpass even the generous immunity-or-else guidelines set down by the Supreme Court often enough that the nation’s top court has had to roll back […]
If you were to ask someone to state the birthday of someone else, and the person asked just made up a date, which was not the actual birthday, would you argue that the individual’s privacy had been violated? Would you argue that there should be a legal right to demand that the person explain how […]
Well, things certainly suck for cops looking to hassle minorities and/or engage in roadside fishing expeditions in California. And the cops have no one to blame but themselves. Five hundred thirty-five agencies conducted a total of 4,575,725 stops from January 1, 2022 toDecember 31, 2022. Black individuals were stopped 131.5 percent more frequently than expected, […]
MagStack is the perfect on-the-go wireless charging station that also transforms into a phone stand for FaceTime or video playback while charging. This 3-in-1 foldable design featuring 3 wireless charging spots, enables charging for up to 3 devices simultaneously, including iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods Pro, AirPods with Wireless Charging Case, other Qi-compatible Android phones, and […]
We keep pointing to research that suggests the narrative around “social media is bad for kids” is simply not supported by the data. Over and over again, we see studies that suggest that adults are overreacting to a few limited cases. Sometimes, problematic social media use seems to be due to a lack of systems […]
For years, big ISPs have made it abundantly clear that they dream of being able to abuse their gatekeeper power over telecom markets to tilt the playing field in their favor. Whether it was Verizon’s early attempts to force you to buy their GPS apps and mapping services, to AT&T’s later-year efforts with “sponsored data” […]
While I’m still waiting for TikTok to release its 30-second long dancing interpretation of why the TikTok ban is unconstitutional, at least it’s now going to court to make the argument for real. It took maybe a week or so longer than expected, but TikTok and ByteDance have now officially filed their lawsuit challenging the […]
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children‘s CyberTipline is a central component of the fight against child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online, but there have been a lot of questions about how well it truly works. A recent report from the Stanford Internet Observatory, which we’ve published two recent posts about, provides an extremely […]
Editor’s Note: This post was written before TikTok & ByteDance filed a lawsuit challenging the law this morning. So, while it says that no lawsuit has been filed, that’s no longer the case. The rest of the article is still relevant, though. We’ll have an analysis of the actual lawsuit later (probably tomorrow). Over the […]
Wars, conflicts, domestic dust-ups, whatever you want to call them… they’re sensitive situations, easily made worse by even the most mild fluctuations in the political climate or the public temperament. And while I’m completely aware there’s no enshrined rights protecting journalism on par with the First Amendment in Israel, this latest turn of events does […]
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Jann Wenner, the creator of Rolling Stone magazine, was certainly an early supporter of free speech. But he seems to have reached grumpy old man status, that allows him to whine about free speech online, mostly by not knowing shit about anything. Writing for Air Mail, a publication by Graydon Carter (another Grumpy Old Man […]
As the streaming sector has consolidated and new subscriber growth has slowed, it has increasingly started chasing the bad habits of the industry it once disrupted: cable TV. Gone is stuff like encouraged password sharing and risk-taking programming. In its place is endless price hikes, weird efforts to nickel-and-dime users, lower-quality programming, annoying new consumer […]
I think it best to start this post off with an admission: I had no idea that “broccolini” was not the name of an actual vegetable, but rather a trademarked brand name. I can’t see your faces, obviously, but I imagine some sizable percentage of them also have a look of mild surprise on them. […]
The harms of deepfakes have been evident for a while. Recent examples include a Biden deepfake designed to influence voters, and the rising use of AI “nudification” apps to produce deepfake nudes of students, often female minors. But alongside the application of sophisticated AI programs to produce deepfakes there are other, lower-tech scams, often known […]
A companion bill to the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) was introduced in the House last month. Despite minor changes, it suffers from the same fundamental flaws as its Senate counterpart. At its core, this bill is still an unconstitutional censorship bill that restricts protected online speech and gives the government the power to target services and content […]
This is the sort of dumb shit you do when you feel the only people who will bother responding to your hateful dog whistle are a bunch of dogs (with valid voting registration!) that constantly have one ear cocked towards their master’s voice. You leave a web form for comments almost completely unsecured and pretty […]
You probably already know the benefits of learning a language, so let’s focus on the app. Right off the bat, let’s be clear about one thing: When we say “app” we don’t mean that you’re limited to using Babbel on your phone. You can use Babbel on desktop, too, and your progress is synchronized across […]
Whose job is it to provide consequences when someone breaks the law? It seems like this issue shouldn’t be that complicated. We expect law enforcement to deal with it when someone breaks the law. Not private individuals or organizations. Because that’s vigilantism. Yet, on the internet, over and over again, we keep seeing people set […]
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