Knox County, TN Rolls Back ‘Roots’ Book Ban After Backlash
It was just a week or so ago that we were talking about the absurd situation in Knox County, Tennessee, where local government used Tennessee’s book-banning laws to remove the…
35 Former Federal Judges Call Trump’s Self-Settlement A Fraud On The Court
Thirty-five (thirty-five!) former federal judges are asking a current federal judge to reopen the case where Donald Trump sued his own IRS, and then “settled” the case on terms…
Trump FCC Proposes Vile New Trans Panic TV Warnings
Last month the FCC quietly issued a public notice saying the Brendan Carr run agency was demanding that the TV Oversight Management Board (TVOMB) create new TV ratings to alert…
Court Temporarily Freezes Trump’s $1.776 Billion ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Slush Fund To Figure Out WTF Is Going On
It’s been less than two weeks since the Justice Department created the obviously illegal and unconstitutional $1.776 billion slush fund to pay off MAGA loyalists and January 6th…
Enemies Are Exploiting Unregulated Data Broker Location Data To Target And Kill U.S. Troops
There are two major reasons that the U.S. doesn’t pass an internet-era privacy law or regulate data brokers despite a parade of dangerous scandals. One, lobbied by a vast web of…
City Lawmaker Responds To Flock Camera Ban By Demanding A Cell Phone Ban
Flock Safety has made its bed. It has courted homeowners associations and gated communities since it first arrived on the market, apparently hoping to convert inherent racism into…
Trump Points Middle Finger At The American Dream, Tells Green Card Applicants To GTFO
Poll everyone you can. Even the most MAGA never dreamed up this scenario. There’s no single-issue voter whose kink is “surely the people wanting green cards can get that done in…
Violent Crime In The US Is At Record Lows, But The DOJ Is Eliminating The Funding That Helped Reduce Crime
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The United States is experiencing one of the steepest declines in…
This Week In Techdirt History: May 24th – 30th
This Week in 2016 This Week in 2011 This Week in 2006
‘Trump Mobile’ Has Struggled To Ship Any Phones, But Has Already Leaked Subscriber Data
The Trump Organization still hasn’t shipped their promised Trump phone to most customers who laid down a $100 deposit a year ago. But rubes patriots who signed up did get…
Australian Teens Impacted By The Social Media Ban Are Getting Less News
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. In the months leading up to the implementation of Australia’s social…
Lying, Cheating Administration Has Its Ass Handed To It By Judge Overseeing BS Charges Against ICE Protesters
There are many (negative) things this Trump administration is known for. It’s a long list and I would encourage everyone to add as many negative things to that list. His DOJ is…
How AI Can Lead To False Arrests & Wrongful Convictions
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. In Baltimore County, Maryland on Oct. 20, 2025, a 17-year-old…
Brendan Carr Says He Wants Public Input On His Censorship Campaign Against ABC
As we’ve previously noted, Brendan Carr recently launched a series of phony inquiries into ABC because Jimmy Kimmel made fun of the president’s wife. Carr can’t just come out and…
Stop Killing Games Gets Its First American Legislative Effort Out Of Committee in California
I’ve written quite a bit about the Stop Killing Games movement, in no small part because I think it’s way more important than most people think. Preserving cultural output is both…
Out Of Control RFK Jr. Fires Leaders Of Preventative Services Task Force
Alright, this is getting dire. In addition to all of the anti-vaxxer bullshit that has infected HHS thanks to RFK Jr.’s appointment to run the department, we have also made the…
Telecom Industry Covertly Funds Sleazy Attacks On Community Broadband Efforts In Massachusetts
Like most of the U.S., Western Massachusetts towns and cities have spent decades dealing with expensive, spotty, and slow broadband from private telecom monopolies like Comcast…
Can’t Do Anything Right: RFK’s ACIP Charter Changes Yanked For Not Following Procedure
I’m starting to wonder if RFK Jr. can do anything right at all. After the courts put an injunction on Kennedy’s overhaul of the CDC’s ACIP panel on vaccines, as well as pretty…
My Kid Vibe Coded Their Way To Actually Learning Math
I’ve spoken to enough teachers and professors to know that LLM tools are absolutely a challenge for many of them in the classroom. Many struggle with making sure they’re actually…
‘The Worst Leak I’ve Witnessed’: A CISA Contractor Left AWS GovCloud Credentials Sitting In A Public GitHub Repo
The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was one of the few genuinely good things Donald Trump was talked into doing during his first term. It was an agency…
Journalists Identify Murder Victims Of Trump’s Boat Strike Program
It’s hard to believe we once were shocked to hear a government figure proudly declare that we kill people based on metadata. What’s happening now is even more disturbing. We’re…
NPR Flubs Its Recovery From Brutal Republican Funding Attacks
NPR is imposing a new round of buyouts and layoffs as it tries to survive the brutal Trump GOP attacks on public broadcasting. According to NPR, it’s being forced to trim $8…
France’s Terrible Copyright Law, Hadopi, Is Not Quite Dead
One of the best demonstrations that an obsession with protecting copyright’s intellectual monopoly drives politicians insane is the French law known as Hadopi, an acronym for…
SpaceX’s IPO Filing Shows Elon’s Twitter ‘Business Genius’ Was A Fantasy
Elon Musk, business genius. When Elon Musk announced his plans to buy Twitter, some of his billionaire friends rushed to text him to say they’d throw whatever money they wanted…
The FDA Takes Its Turn Burying Studies Showing The Safety Of COVID, Shingles Vaccines
The fuckery that is going on across HHS and vaccine programs is just plain incredible. As the Trump administration continues to provide whatever cover it can so that RFK Jr. can…
Post Loss Clarity: Bill Cassidy Rediscovers His Spine As A Lame Duck Senator
Just a few days ago, I wrote a post about how Bill Cassidy had been primaried out of returning as a senator for Louisiana and how all of this bootlicking of the Trump…
This Week In Techdirt History: May 17th – 23rd
This Week in 2016 This Week in 2011 This Week in 2006
Super Meth Isn’t The Hero We Want, But It’s The Hero We Deserve
Our war on drugs began with a simple man with a simple plan. That plan was this: give the government more powers at the expense of civil rights, all under the “leadership” of…
Judge Dismisses Charges Against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Says Gov’t Engaged In Vindictive Prosecution
It’s one thing to accuse the government of engaging in vindictive prosecutions. It’s quite another thing to prove it. The deck is stacked against those making these claims. These…
Amazon Gets Into The AI Podcast Slop Business
Late last year we wrote about a new startup that was flooding the internet with AI-generated podcast slop. Featuring fake hosts having fake discussions, the startup proudly stated…
Ctrl-Alt-Speech: Message In A Bottleneck
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,…
The California Primary And The Frustrating Absence Of Ranked Choice Voting
Even if you don’t live in California you’ve probably heard about the California primary coming up on June 2 (although early voting has already begun). In particular, you’ve…
Daily Deal: Headway Premium Memorial Day Sale
Unlock a world of knowledge with a Headway Premium subscription. This exclusive deal gives you unlimited access to Headway’s massive library of 1500+ book summaries, with 30-50…
Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
We’ve got a double-winner this week, but also a very very slow week overall on the funny side, so this will be a somewhat truncated post. On the insightful side, both top comments…
Daily Deal: MasterBundle For Web Designers
A unique opportunity to get all that you need for your website in one single bundle. MasterBundle gives you over 1,300 essentials for setting your page to success. Get 20+…
Daily Deal: The 2026 Complete Godot Stack Development Bundle
Dive into Godot – a rising star in the game engine world – with the 2026 Complete Godot Stack Development Bundle. You’ll learn to create platformers, RPGs, strategy games, FPS…
Daily Deal: The Academy of Game Art Bundle
The Academy of Game Art Bundle teaches you the basics of how to create video game art. You’ll learn how to use Inkscape to create logos, 2D backgrounds, pre-defined modules, UI…
Daily Deal: The Complete Arduino, Raspberry Pi & ESP32 Bundle
The Complete Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and ESP32 Bundle has 14 courses covering what you need to get started on building out your own smart home. After learning the basics, courses…
Ctrl-Alt-Speech: Deus vs. Machina
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,…