Trust & Safety: Armed Conflict; Our New Trust & Safety Game With The International Committee Of The Red Cross While members of Congress waste time grandstanding about “censorship” and politicians threaten to jail tech executives for their moderation choices, actual trust & safety teams are quietly doing work that saves lives in active war zones. But you’d never know it from all the political theater. That’s why we’ve partnered with the International Committee of […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/26/trust-our-new-trust-safety-game-with-the-international-committee-of-the-red-cross/

Ryan Walters Resigns As Oklahoma Superintendent I recently wrote about the Oklahoma state legislature’s plan to build a memorial plaza and statue to honor Charlie Kirk, while mandating signage signifying him as a “civil rights leader.” That post was labeled as a “Part 1” and this post was intended to be “Part 2” for reasons we’ll get into. We’ll have to […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/26/ryan-walters-resigns-as-oklahoma-superintendent/

Secret Service Dubiously Claims, Without Evidence, To Have Uncovered ‘Hidden Telecom Network’ That Could Have Crippled NYC, UN The Secret Service says it has uncovered what it’s calling “a network of electronic devices located throughout the New York Tri-state area that were used to conduct multiple telecommunications-related threats directed towards senior U.S. government officials.” The news was announced, in part, over at the right wing propaganda website run by an overt white supremacist […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/25/secret-service-dubiously-claims-without-evidence-to-have-uncovered-hidden-telecom-network-that-could-have-crippled-nyc-un/

Trump Deploying The National Guard To Fight Crime Blurs The Legal Distinction Between Police & Military A federal judge ruled on Sept. 2, 2025, that the Trump administration broke federal law by sending National Guard troops to Los Angeles in June in response to protests over immigration raids. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said that National Guard troops in Los Angeles had received improper training on the legal scope of their […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/26/trump-deploying-the-national-guard-to-fight-crime-blurs-the-legal-distinction-between-police-military/

Hey, Nintendo: You Cool With ICE Using Your Pokémon IP To Recruit More Goons? If we were to play a Techdirt word association game where you say the first thing that comes to your mind when I say “Nintendo,” the answer had better be “intellectual property bully” for most regular readers here. If not, well, I specifically haven’t done my job very well. Nintendo is incredibly protective and litigious […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/24/hey-nintendo-you-cool-with-ice-using-your-pokemon-ip-to-recruit-more-goons/

Warner Bros Joins Disney In Suing Sling TV For Making Streaming Video Cheaper And More Convenient Earlier this month we noted how Disney and ESPN had sued Sling TV for the cardinal sin of actually trying to innovate. Sling TV’s offense: releasing new, more convenient day, weekend, or week-long shorter term streaming subscriptions that provided an affordable way to watch live television. These mini-subscriptions, starting at around $5, have already proven […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/26/warner-bros-joins-disney-in-suing-sling-tv-for-making-streaming-video-cheaper-and-more-convenient/

Brendan Carr Is A Shameless Liar: Now Pretending He Didn’t Break The Law And Censor Comedians Critical Of His Dim, Unpopular Boss Brendan Carr is fairly typical of a far right wing zealot, in that he has absolutely no compulsion about lying, constantly, about everything. The latest case in point: Brendan Carr is trying to pretend he didn’t abuse FCC power and break the law to try and censor a comedian critical of our mad, idiot king. […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/24/brendan-carr-is-a-shameless-liar-now-pretending-he-didnt-break-the-law-and-censor-comedians-critical-of-his-dim-unpopular-boss/

Indiana’s AG Makes It Clear He’s Going To Target Anyone Who Isn’t Reverential Enough Of Charlie Kirk’s Corpse Apparently, it’s no longer acceptable to speak ill of the dead. Not that it bothers the dead. But it certainly seems to bother a bunch of people who are still alive and who have nothing better to do with their time but snitch on anyone who doesn’t treat Charlie Kirk like an American hero who […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/26/indianas-ag-makes-it-clear-hes-going-to-target-anyone-who-isnt-reverential-enough-of-charlie-kirks-corpse/

Defense Department Will Only Allow Access To Journalists Who Promise Not To Obtain ‘Unauthorized Material’ Everything’s a purge in this administration. The Defense Department — now absurdly referred to by the administration as the “Department of War” — is headed by a guy no one really seems to respect and who has the unfortunate habit of ignoring OPSEC 101 at every opportunity. Pete Hegseth is the victim of self-inflicted wounds […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/24/defense-department-will-only-allow-access-to-journalists-who-promise-not-to-obtain-unauthorized-material/

Trump Declares Everyone Who Doesn’t Kiss His Ass Is A Terrorist Trump has officially given up on any semblance of attempting actual governance and moved to pure man-baby-without-a-nap tantrum mode. His latest “countering domestic terrorism and organized political violence” memorandum is basically him screaming “EVERYONE WHO DOESN’T LIKE ME IS A TERRORIST!” in official government letterhead. The document has zero legal authority and can’t actually do […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/26/trump-declares-everyone-who-doesnt-kiss-his-ass-is-a-terrorist/

Daily Deal: Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2022 + The Premium Learn to Code Bundle Visual Studio Professional 2022 is a fully featured development environment. Their first 64-bit IDE makes it easier to work with even bigger projects and more complex workloads. Enhance your productivity, write high-quality code, and re-imagine collaboration with an advanced suite of tools and built-in integrations to tackle the most challenging development workflows and deliver innovative […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/24/daily-deal-microsoft-visual-studio-professional-2022-the-premium-learn-to-code-bundle/

Daily Deal: The Learn to Code with React Bundle The Learn to Code with React Bundle has 9 courses to help you learn more about React, Redux, and JavaScript. Used by the likes of Instagram, Facebook, Netflix, and Imgur, React is an efficient and flexible JavaScript library for building user interfaces. Meanwhile, Redux is a predictable state container that helps you manage the data […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/26/daily-deal-the-learn-to-code-with-react-bundle-2/

This Week In Techdirt History: September 14th – 20th Five Years Ago This week in 2020, the first phase of the TikTok fight resolved with Oracle getting a lucrative hosting deal instead of buying the company in a deal driven by Trump-world insiders, while a court refused to block Trump’s executive order. At the same time, users were fighting to block the less-discussed part […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/20/this-week-in-techdirt-history-september-14th-20th/

Verizon Remains On The Legal Hook For Illegally Spying On You And Selling Your Movement Data (For Now) For decades, major U.S. wireless providers have collected sensitive customer movement and location data (often down to the meter), then sold it to a long list of random dipshits — usually without bothering to clearly inform customers or get their consent. Five years ago, this resulted in folks like stalkers and people pretending to be law enforcement abusing said […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/26/verizon-remains-on-the-legal-hook-for-illegally-spying-on-you-and-selling-your-movement-data-for-now/

You Don’t Own What You Buy: New Lawsuit Dings Amazon For Misleading Video ‘Purchases’ Techdirt has long lamented how in the modern era, you don’t really “own” what you buy. That game console, smart lock, or smart refrigerator can quickly become less useful (or completely useless) with a firmware update, bankruptcy, or addition of annoying subscription paywall. The problem is particularly bad when it comes to digital rentals. In […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/19/you-dont-own-what-you-buy-new-lawsuit-dings-amazon-for-misleading-video-purchases/

How MAGA Killed Foreign Influence Research, But Now Demands Social Media Stop Foreign Influence Campaigns It’s fascinating how quickly the tune changes when the shoe’s on the other foot. For years, we’ve been treated to endless screaming about how any effort to identify and counter foreign manipulation on social media was “censorship” and a violation of Americans’ free speech rights. The same crowd that turned researchers into pariahs and shut […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/19/how-maga-killed-foreign-influence-research-but-now-demands-social-media-stop-foreign-influence-campaigns/

Oklahoma’s Overreaction To Charlie Kirk’s Murder Part 1: Kirk Statues At Every Public University! I have not written at all about Charlie Kirk in the wake of his disgusting murder, so allow me a bit of throat clearing. When I learned of his murder, my reaction was to be both depressed and a bit sick to my stomach. I’m under no illusions about who Kirk was, what he stood […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/25/oklahomas-overreaction-to-charlie-kirks-murder-part-1-kirk-statues-at-every-public-university/

Daily Deal: Hypergear 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Dock The Hypergear 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Dock is meticulously engineered to reduce the cable clutter and streamline your daily routine. Featuring 2 dedicated wireless charging surfaces, you can power up your phone and AirPods easily. In addition, you can charge your Apple Watch with the built-in charger mount. Stylish and compact, the dock is perfect for […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/19/daily-deal-hypergear-3-in-1-wireless-charging-dock/

Supreme Court Uses Shadow Docket To Let Trump Fire FTC Commissioner While Pretending They Haven’t Already Decided The Case The Supreme Court pulled off another shadow docket masterpiece this week, granting Trump’s request to keep FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter fired while simultaneously pretending they haven’t already made up their minds about whether presidents can ignore 90-year-old Supreme Court precedent. What makes this particularly brazen is that the Court is allowing Trump to violate […] https://www.techdirt.com/2025/09/25/supreme-court-uses-shadow-docket-to-let-trump-fire-ftc-commissioner-while-pretending-they-havent-already-decided-the-case/