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A good old fashioned blog that has been covering tech, law, policy, and democracy for almost three decades now.
This Week In Techdirt History: November 9th – 15th

Five Years Ago This week in 2020, we looked at election polls as an example of the challenges involved in defining and handling misinformation. We noted how Trumpland seemed to have entirely forgotten about its own manufactured TikTok hysteria, at…
This Week In Techdirt History: November 9th – 15th
Five Years Ago This week in 2020, we looked at election polls as an example of the challenges involved in defining and handling misinformation. We noted how Trumpland seemed to have entirely forgotten about its own manufactured TikTok hysteria, at which point the Commerce Department suddenly remembered it was supposed to ban the app. Following Trump's election loss, there was pressure on Ajit Pai to…
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November 15, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Nut Huggers Apparel Plans To Battle Back Against Bullshit Buc-ee’s Bullying

We've written about Buc-ee's a couple of times recently, given the famed convenience store chain of the south's aspirations to become the Monster Energy of convenience stores when it comes to nonsense trademark bullying.…
Nut Huggers Apparel Plans To Battle Back Against Bullshit Buc-ee’s Bullying
We've written about Buc-ee's a couple of times recently, given the famed convenience store chain of the south's aspirations to become the Monster Energy of convenience stores when it comes to nonsense trademark bullying. Buc-ee's has gone after all kinds of other companies, almost always for the crime of having a cartoon animal in their logos. The company appears to think that it somehow has the exclusive right to such imagery, which is obviously bullshit.
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November 15, 2025 at 3:39 AM
Details Of DHS Agreement Reveal Risks Of Trump Administration’s Use Of Social Security Data For Voter Citizenship Checks

This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. This year, when states began using an expanded Department of Homeland Security…
Details Of DHS Agreement Reveal Risks Of Trump Administration’s Use Of Social Security Data For Voter Citizenship Checks
This story was originally published by ProPublica. Republished under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. This year, when states began using an expanded Department of Homeland Security system to check their voter rolls for noncitizens, it was supposed to validate the Trump administration’s push to harness data from across federal agencies to expose illicit voting and stiffen immigration enforcement. DHS had recently incorporated confidential data from the Social Security Administration on hundreds of millions of additional people into the tool, known as the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, system.
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November 14, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Clearance Sale! Grab One Of The (Very Few) Remaining Copies Of Our Social Media Card Game

A couple months ago we offered up the few remaining copies of our social media card game, One Billion Users, after fulfilling orders from our Kickstarter backers. Quite a few of you took the chance to snag…
Clearance Sale! Grab One Of The (Very Few) Remaining Copies Of Our Social Media Card Game
A couple months ago we offered up the few remaining copies of our social media card game, One Billion Users, after fulfilling orders from our Kickstarter backers. Quite a few of you took the chance to snag one, and now we're down to an extremely small number remaining: at time of writing, we only have ten undamaged copies of the game, and a few dozen of the damaged copies that we are offering at a deeper discount.
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November 14, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Investigation Shows Trump’s Boat Strikes Aren’t Killing ‘Narco-Terrorists’

The Trump administration has been ramping up its rhetoric against Venezuela since Day 1. Efforts to arrest up to 3,000 migrants a day focused on Venezuelans, many of whom had fled to the United States seeking a land with…
Investigation Shows Trump’s Boat Strikes Aren’t Killing ‘Narco-Terrorists’
The Trump administration has been ramping up its rhetoric against Venezuela since Day 1. Efforts to arrest up to 3,000 migrants a day focused on Venezuelans, many of whom had fled to the United States seeking a land with actual freedom. Those who weren't simply locked up in ICE's many forever prisons were sent to places even worse than the autocratic government they had fled.
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November 14, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Copyright Is The Wrong Tool To Deal With Deepfake Harms

A key theme of Walled Culture the book (free digital versions available) is that copyright, born in an analogue age of scarcity, works poorly in today’s digital world of abundance. One manifestation of that is how lawmakers struggle to adapt…
Copyright Is The Wrong Tool To Deal With Deepfake Harms
A key theme of Walled Culture the book (free digital versions available) is that copyright, born in an analogue age of scarcity, works poorly in today’s digital world of abundance. One manifestation of that is how lawmakers struggle to adapt the existing copyright rules to deal with novel technological developments, like the new generation of AI technologies. The EU’s AI Act marks a major step in regulating artificial intelligence, but it touches on copyright only briefly, leaving many copyright-related questions still open.
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November 14, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Judge Dismisses Bullshit Lawsuit Claiming Pollster Committed Fraud By Being Wrong

Last year, we wrote about Donald Trump's bullshit lawsuit against Iowa pollster Ann Selzer for releasing surprising polls right before the 2024 election suggesting that Kamala Harris might actually beat Donald Trump…
Judge Dismisses Bullshit Lawsuit Claiming Pollster Committed Fraud By Being Wrong
Last year, we wrote about Donald Trump's bullshit lawsuit against Iowa pollster Ann Selzer for releasing surprising polls right before the 2024 election suggesting that Kamala Harris might actually beat Donald Trump in Iowa. The polls turned out to be wrong—as polls sometimes are—and Trump decided this was grounds for a lawsuit. That case continues with a bunch of n…
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November 14, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Daily Deal: The Complete IT Exams Training Bundle

The Complete IT Exams Training Bundle covers five platforms -- Cisco, AWS, CompTIA, Microsoft, Google, and Linux -- with expert-led courses, labs, and exam prep. The bundle comes with access to multiple exam preparation platforms including…
Daily Deal: The Complete IT Exams Training Bundle
The Complete IT Exams Training Bundle covers five platforms -- Cisco, AWS, CompTIA, Microsoft, Google, and Linux -- with expert-led courses, labs, and exam prep. The bundle comes with access to multiple exam preparation platforms including LinuxPath, DojoLab, CodeDirect, and ExamsDigest. You’ll be able to train for CompTIA Security+, AWS Solutions Architect, Cisco CCNA, Linux+, and others (exams and certification not provided in this bundle).
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November 14, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Border Patrol Commander Locks Down Another Injunction After Admitting To Lying About Being Attacked

Gregory Bovino's star will continue to rise. Admitting you lied to a court no longer matters when the entire administration does it on a daily basis. All that matters is that you serve the fascist…
Border Patrol Commander Locks Down Another Injunction After Admitting To Lying About Being Attacked
Gregory Bovino's star will continue to rise. Admitting you lied to a court no longer matters when the entire administration does it on a daily basis. All that matters is that you serve the fascist cause. And the Border Patrol commander sent to handle things in Chicago certainly has the right look for the job. Between the alt-right hairdo and the wave the looks a lot like a Nazi salute, the guy who used to patrol the southern border in California is now the face of Trump's federal invasion of Chicago, Illinois.
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November 14, 2025 at 5:27 PM
After Destroying Federal Regulators, AT&T Wages War On Industry ‘Self-Regulation’ Regimes Like NARB, NAD

It's not hyperbole to say that after decades of hard work and lobbying, companies like AT&T have effectively destroyed whatever was left of federal U.S. consumer protection and corporate…
After Destroying Federal Regulators, AT&T Wages War On Industry ‘Self-Regulation’ Regimes Like NARB, NAD
It's not hyperbole to say that after decades of hard work and lobbying, companies like AT&T have effectively destroyed whatever was left of federal U.S. consumer protection and corporate oversight. It's a "victory" that's going to result in concussive harms that resonate for a generation. Under Trump 2.0, the company has not only seen the complete lobotomizing of agencies like the FCC…
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November 14, 2025 at 1:32 PM
‘No One Lives Forever’ Turns 25 & You Still Can’t Buy It Legitimately

One of my favorite things in all of professional sports is the unofficial holiday referred to as "Bobby Bonilla Day." The short version of it is that Bonilla played for the New York Mets decades ago and eventually bought out his…
‘No One Lives Forever’ Turns 25 & You Still Can’t Buy It Legitimately
One of my favorite things in all of professional sports is the unofficial holiday referred to as "Bobby Bonilla Day." The short version of it is that Bonilla played for the New York Mets decades ago and eventually bought out his contract in 2000 when they decided they were done with him. Rather than pay the $5.9 million buyout of the contract up front, the team instead made the bonkers decision to negotiate a deferred payment schedule for that amount…
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November 14, 2025 at 4:11 AM
Ctrl-Alt-Speech: Deviation From The Teen

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…
Ctrl-Alt-Speech: Deviation From The Teen
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 speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Ben is joined by Kenji Yoshino, who has the excellent title of Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law and the Director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging.
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November 13, 2025 at 11:30 PM
A Love Letter To America

I love America. You’re so fucked up. But I love you. You’re built upon a beautiful and preposterous idea: that ordinary people—you and I—can govern ourselves. Together. Not through superior intelligence. Not through noble birth. Not through accumulated wealth. But through…
A Love Letter To America
I love America. You’re so fucked up. But I love you. You’re built upon a beautiful and preposterous idea: that ordinary people—you and I—can govern ourselves. Together. Not through superior intelligence. Not through noble birth. Not through accumulated wealth. But through the messy, difficult, glorious work of reasoning together when no one has final answers and everyone has standing to speak.
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November 13, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Furloughed Employees Sue Administration For Adding Partisan Wording To Their Out-Of-Office Messages

Here comes more pathetic, childish bullshit from an administration that has made petty bullshit its brand. The just completed government shutdown caused problems everywhere. The Trump administration…
Furloughed Employees Sue Administration For Adding Partisan Wording To Their Out-Of-Office Messages
Here comes more pathetic, childish bullshit from an administration that has made petty bullshit its brand. The just completed government shutdown caused problems everywhere. The Trump administration knew its refusal to compromise on the budget bill was going to hurt it, so it did everything it could to reshape the narrative, even as it somehow retained the funding to argue…
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November 13, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Judge Orders OpenAI To Give Lawyers 20 Million Private Chats, Thinks ‘Anonymization’ Can Keep Them Private

A federal magistrate judge just ordered that the private ChatGPT conversations of 20 million users be handed over to the lawyers for dozens of plaintiffs, including news organizations. Those…
Judge Orders OpenAI To Give Lawyers 20 Million Private Chats, Thinks ‘Anonymization’ Can Keep Them Private
A federal magistrate judge just ordered that the private ChatGPT conversations of 20 million users be handed over to the lawyers for dozens of plaintiffs, including news organizations. Those 20 million people weren't asked. They weren't notified. They have no say in the matter. Last week, Magistrate Judge Ona Wang ordered OpenAI to turn over a sample of 20 million chat logs…
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November 13, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Daily Deal: MagStack Foldable 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station with Floating Stand

MagStack is the perfect on-the-go wireless charging station that also transforms into a floating stand for smartphone FaceTime or video playback while charging. This 3-in-1 foldable design featuring 3 wireless…
Daily Deal: MagStack Foldable 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Station with Floating Stand
MagStack is the perfect on-the-go wireless charging station that also transforms into a floating stand for smartphone 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 Bluetooth earbuds. MagStack also folds into a space-saving single-device charger.
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November 13, 2025 at 6:38 PM
GOP Threatened To Keep The Government Shut Down If 8 GOP Senators Couldn’t Profit From Being Investigated

Last night the House passed, and then Donald Trump signed, the funding bill that reopened the government after the longest government shutdown in history. Amazingly, the Republican's sketchy…
GOP Threatened To Keep The Government Shut Down If 8 GOP Senators Couldn’t Profit From Being Investigated
Last night the House passed, and then Donald Trump signed, the funding bill that reopened the government after the longest government shutdown in history. Amazingly, the Republican's sketchy demands to fill their personal bank accounts with undeserved taxpayer money almost scuttled the deal. But, don't worry: those Senators got their corrupt boondoggle and they plan to enrich themselves. The…
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November 13, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Sinclair Broadcasting Posts Huge Quarterly Loss After Jimmy Kimmel Censorship

You might recall that right wing propaganda broadcaster Sinclair Broadcasting recently tripped over its own ass after working with the Trump administration to try and censor Jimmy Kimmel for criticizing the President.…
Sinclair Broadcasting Posts Huge Quarterly Loss After Jimmy Kimmel Censorship
You might recall that right wing propaganda broadcaster Sinclair Broadcasting recently tripped over its own ass after working with the Trump administration to try and censor Jimmy Kimmel for criticizing the President. The flood of outrage at the Disney/FCC/ABC collaborative effort ultimately forced the company to retreat and put Kimmel back on the air. Even after ABC retreated, Sinclair tried to push its luck and extend the "pre-emption,"
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November 13, 2025 at 1:29 PM
RFK Jr.’s FDA Is Now Also In Turmoil Over Corrupt Drug Regulator

While we've talked quite a bit about the horror show that is RFK Jr.'s position as Secretary of HHS, most of the focus of those posts has been around what is happening at the CDC. And for good reason, too. The ongoing measles…
RFK Jr.’s FDA Is Now Also In Turmoil Over Corrupt Drug Regulator
While we've talked quite a bit about the horror show that is RFK Jr.'s position as Secretary of HHS, most of the focus of those posts has been around what is happening at the CDC. And for good reason, too. The ongoing measles outbreak, the quick hiring/firing of Susan Monarez, and all the anti-vaxx bullshit going on at ACIP have all occurred at the CDC, which is itself suffering from defunding, staffing shortages, and a morale problem that Kennedy personally appears to occasionally look at from afar while wondering, "Hm, how can I make this…
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November 13, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Trump Administration Still Trying To Send Kilmar Abrego Garcia To Anywhere But Where He Wants To Go

For all its talk about trimming down government spending, an untold amount of money has been blown just to keep one person from getting one over on the Trump administration. That man would be Kilmar…
Trump Administration Still Trying To Send Kilmar Abrego Garcia To Anywhere But Where He Wants To Go
For all its talk about trimming down government spending, an untold amount of money has been blown just to keep one person from getting one over on the Trump administration. That man would be Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He became the poster boy for the regime's bigotry when he fought back against his sudden deportation to El Salvador's most infamous prison.
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November 12, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Techdirt Podcast Episode 438: Saving Democracy From Fascism

Support us on Patreon » Three years ago, Mike Brock joined us on the podcast to discuss a decentralized web project, and more recently we've published several cross-posts from his Substack about the horrifying goings-on in American…
Techdirt Podcast Episode 438: Saving Democracy From Fascism
Support us on Patreon » Three years ago, Mike Brock joined us on the podcast to discuss a decentralized web project, and more recently we've published several cross-posts from his Substack about the horrifying goings-on in American politics and media. Today, Mike joins the podcast once again for a far-ranging conversation about the state of democracy and what recent elections can tell us about how to save it from fascism…
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November 12, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Cowardice And Capitulation At Cornell

On Friday it was announced that my alma mater, Cornell, had caved to the Trump administration and agreed to a “deal” the federal government had offered them to get back the funding it had illegally cut off from Cornell as part of its authoritarian efforts to…
Cowardice And Capitulation At Cornell
On Friday it was announced that my alma mater, Cornell, had caved to the Trump administration and agreed to a “deal” the federal government had offered them to get back the funding it had illegally cut off from Cornell as part of its authoritarian efforts to bully top universities into submission. This capitulation came just days after the American electorate showed that…
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November 12, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Federal Court Issues Injunction Permanently Blocking Deployment Of Military Troops To Portland

We'll see where this goes from here, but for the moment, this order , issued by federal judge Karin Immergut still stands: For the above reasons, this Court concludes that Plaintiffs have demonstrated…
Federal Court Issues Injunction Permanently Blocking Deployment Of Military Troops To Portland
We'll see where this goes from here, but for the moment, this order , issued by federal judge Karin Immergut still stands: For the above reasons, this Court concludes that Plaintiffs have demonstrated that Defendants violated 10 U.S.C. § 12406 and the Tenth Amendment and satisfy the requirements for a permanent injunction. Therefore, this Court PERMANENTLY ENJOINS Defendants Pete Hegseth, the U.S.
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November 12, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Daily Deal: Costco 1-Year Gold Star Membership + a $40 Digital Costco Shop Card

Costco is your one-stop shop with a wide range of merchandise that will likely cover all of your shopping needs! With hundreds of locations across the country, Costco is the ideal place to shop without the hassle of…
Daily Deal: Costco 1-Year Gold Star Membership + a $40 Digital Costco Shop Card
Costco is your one-stop shop with a wide range of merchandise that will likely cover all of your shopping needs! With hundreds of locations across the country, Costco is the ideal place to shop without the hassle of having to run numerous errands around town. Purchase a 1-Year Costco Gold Star Membership for $65 and get a $40 Digital Costco Shop Card (delivered directly from Costco via email after activation of membership).
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November 12, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Conservative Judge Resigns Rather Than Stay Silent On Trump’s Constitutional Assault

Reagan-appointed federal judge Mark Wolf has resigned from the bench in Massachusetts, and his explanation is blunt: he can no longer bear the ethical constraints that prevent judges from speaking out publicly…
Conservative Judge Resigns Rather Than Stay Silent On Trump’s Constitutional Assault
Reagan-appointed federal judge Mark Wolf has resigned from the bench in Massachusetts, and his explanation is blunt: he can no longer bear the ethical constraints that prevent judges from speaking out publicly while Trump dismantles the rule of law. This doesn't happen. Federal judges—especially Reagan appointees—don't quit to become activists. They stay in their robes and let careful rulings speak for themselves.
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November 12, 2025 at 5:36 PM