Congratulations!

[Valid RSS] This is a valid RSS feed.

Recommendations

This feed is valid, but interoperability with the widest range of feed readers could be improved by implementing the following recommendations.

Source: http://feeds.techdirt.com/techdirt/feed

  1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0"
  2. xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
  3. xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
  4. xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
  5. xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
  6. xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
  7. xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
  8. >
  9.  
  10. <channel>
  11. <title>Techdirt</title>
  12. <atom:link href="https://www.techdirt.com/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
  13. <link>https://www.techdirt.com</link>
  14. <description></description>
  15. <lastBuildDate>Thu, 03 Apr 2025 16:01:18 +0000</lastBuildDate>
  16. <language>en-US</language>
  17. <sy:updatePeriod>
  18. hourly </sy:updatePeriod>
  19. <sy:updateFrequency>
  20. 1 </sy:updateFrequency>
  22.  
  23. <image>
  24. <url>https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/cropped-techdirt-square-512x512-1.png?fit=32%2C32&#038;ssl=1</url>
  25. <title>Techdirt</title>
  26. <link>https://www.techdirt.com</link>
  27. <width>32</width>
  28. <height>32</height>
  29. </image>
  30. <site xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">169489720</site> <item>
  31. <title>Trump Declares A Trade War On Uninhabited Islands, US Military, And Economic Logic</title>
  32. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/03/trump-declares-a-trade-war-on-uninhabited-islands-us-military-and-economic-logic/</link>
  33. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/03/trump-declares-a-trade-war-on-uninhabited-islands-us-military-and-economic-logic/#comments</comments>
  35. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Masnick]]></dc:creator>
  36. <pubDate>Thu, 03 Apr 2025 16:29:00 +0000</pubDate>
  37. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  38. <category><![CDATA[biot]]></category>
  39. <category><![CDATA[chagos islands]]></category>
  40. <category><![CDATA[diego garcia]]></category>
  41. <category><![CDATA[donald trump]]></category>
  42. <category><![CDATA[economics]]></category>
  43. <category><![CDATA[heard and mcdonald island]]></category>
  44. <category><![CDATA[liberation day]]></category>
  45. <category><![CDATA[motherfucking penguins]]></category>
  46. <category><![CDATA[penguins]]></category>
  47. <category><![CDATA[reciprocal tariffs]]></category>
  48. <category><![CDATA[tariffs]]></category>
  49. <category><![CDATA[trade deficit]]></category>
  50. <category><![CDATA[trade war]]></category>
  51. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=489116</guid>
  52.  
  53. <description><![CDATA[There&#8217;s a fundamental problem with Donald Trump&#8217;s new trade policy: it fails a test that actual 5th graders can pass. I know this because I tried explaining his &#8220;Liberation Day&#8221; trade plan to one last night. Here&#8217;s how that conversation went: “Imagine you want to buy a toy at a store which costs $50. You [&#8230;]]]></description>
  54. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>There&#8217;s a fundamental problem with Donald Trump&#8217;s new trade policy: it fails <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Are_You_Smarter_than_a_5th_Grader%3F_(American_game_show)">a test</a> that actual 5th graders can pass. I know this because I tried explaining his &#8220;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/regulating-imports-with-a-reciprocal-tariff-to-rectify-trade-practices-that-contribute-to-large-and-persistent-annual-united-states-goods-trade-deficits/">Liberation Day</a>&#8221; trade plan to one last night. Here&#8217;s how that conversation went:</p>
  55. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  56. <p><em>“Imagine you want to buy a toy at a store which costs $50. You pay for the toy and walk away with it. The President looks at that transaction and says ‘wait, you paid the store $50 and the store paid you nothing, therefore the store is stealing from you. To “fix” this, I’m going to tax the store $25. From now on that same toy costs $75.”</em></p>
  57. </blockquote>
  58. <p>The 5th grader looked at me like I was crazy. &#8220;Whaaaaaaat? None of that makes sense. If I pay for something, it&#8217;s not stealing. And taxing the store seems stupid, and then everything is more expensive. Why would anyone do that? That can’t be how it works.&#8221;</p>
  59. <p>This is the core problem with Trump&#8217;s &#8220;Liberation Day&#8221; trade policy: it fundamentally misunderstands what trade deficits are. And if you think that&#8217;s bad, just wait until we get to the part where this policy declares economic war on penguins and our own military base.</p>
  60. <p>The policy, unveiled yesterday afternoon, is called a &#8220;reciprocal tariff plan,&#8221; which is a bit like calling a hammer a &#8220;reciprocal pillow.&#8221; The premise is that since other countries have high tariffs on us (they don&#8217;t), we should have high tariffs on them (we shouldn&#8217;t). But that&#8217;s not even the weird part.</p>
  61. <p>At the heart of this policy is a chart. Not just any chart, but what might be the most creative work of economic fiction since, well, Donald Trump launched his memecoin. Trump proudly displayed these numbers at a White House event, explaining that they showed the tariffs other countries impose on the US. He emphasized repeatedly that the US was being more than &#8220;fair&#8221; because our reciprocal tariffs would be less than what other countries were charging us.</p>
  62. <p>There was just one small problem: none of the numbers were real tariff rates. Not even close. Vietnam, according to the chart, imposes a 90% tariff on US goods. This would be shocking news to Vietnam, which <a href="https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/vietnam-import-tariffs">does no such thing</a>.</p>
  63. <div class="wp-block-image">
  64. <figure class="aligncenter"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/lex-img-p.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/img/6f88fe72-ecb8-459d-9d6e-17caad785aa2-RackMultipart20250403-196-6bbphb.png?ssl=1" alt=""/></figure>
  65. </div>
  66. <p>At first, observers assumed the administration was simply inventing numbers, which would have been bad enough. But the reality turned out to be far more stupid. James Surowiecki stumbled into what was actually happening:</p>
  67. <div class="wp-block-image">
  68. <figure class="aligncenter"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/lex-img-p.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/img/6daf7617-6803-4680-be41-85ccc01ae5eb-RackMultipart20250403-131-12sacb.png?ssl=1" alt=""/></figure>
  69. </div>
  70. <p>Let&#8217;s pause for a moment to appreciate what Surowiecki discovered. The administration didn&#8217;t just make up random numbers — that would have been too simple. Instead, they invented a formula that manages to be both more complicated and more wrong: they took our trade deficit with each country and divided it by that country&#8217;s exports to us.</p>
  71. <p>So for Indonesia, the math went like this:</p>
  72. <ul class="wp-block-list">
  73. <li>US trade deficit with Indonesia: $17.9 billion</li>
  74. <li>Indonesia&#8217;s exports to the US: $28 billion</li>
  75. <li>$17.9B ÷ $28B = 64%</li>
  76. <li>Therefore (according to this logic), Indonesia must be charging us the equivalent of a 64% tariff</li>
  77. </ul>
  78. <p>This is roughly equivalent to calculating your coffee shop&#8217;s markup by dividing how much coffee you buy from them by how much coffee they buy from you. Which would make sense if you were in the coffee business, but you&#8217;re not.</p>
  79. <p>When confronted about this methodology, the administration didn&#8217;t backtrack. They <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/04/02/us-news/trump-slaps-at-least-10-tariffs-on-all-imports-in-declaration-of-economic-independence-half-of-what-they-could-be/">just admitted it</a>:</p>
  80. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  81. <p><em>“The numbers [for tariffs by country] have been calculated by the Council of Economic Advisers … based on the concept that the trade deficit that we have with any given country is the sum of all trade practices, the sum of all cheating,” a White House official said, calling it “the most fair thing in the world.”</em></p>
  82. </blockquote>
  83. <p>Whoever on the Council of Economic Advisers used this formula should turn in their econ degree, because this is not how anything works. Even if they then go on to <a href="https://ustr.gov/issue-areas/reciprocal-tariff-calculations">publish another version</a> of the formula that looks all sophisticated and shit:</p>
  84. <div class="wp-block-image">
  85. <figure class="aligncenter"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/lex-img-p.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/img/1d216aa1-5153-4be2-8b76-09a705043fd9-RackMultipart20250403-124-v8w9yk.png?ssl=1" alt=""/></figure>
  86. </div>
  87. <p>This is what happens when you ask ChatGPT to &#8220;make my wrong econ math look more scientific.&#8221; The document even admits that they couldn&#8217;t figure out the actual tariff rates, so they &#8220;proxied&#8221; them with this formula instead. That&#8217;s a bit like saying you couldn&#8217;t find your house keys, so you proxied them with a banana.</p>
  88. <p>The fundamental problem here isn&#8217;t just that the tariff numbers are wrong — though they absolutely are. It&#8217;s that the entire premise rests on treating trade deficits as if they were tariffs. They&#8217;re not the same thing. At all.</p>
  89. <p>Let&#8217;s back up for a moment and talk about trade deficits, because <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/us/politics/trade-deficit-tariffs-economists-trump.html">Trump has been getting this wrong</a> for longer than some of his supporters have been alive. His logic appears to be:</p>
  90. <ol class="wp-block-list">
  91. <li>&#8220;Deficit&#8221; sounds bad</li>
  92. <li>Therefore, trade deficits must be bad</li>
  93. <li>Therefore, countries with whom we have trade deficits must be cheating us</li>
  94. <li>Therefore, we should punish them with tariffs to “level the playing field”</li>
  95. </ol>
  96. <p>Remember that 5th grader from earlier? They already understood what Trump doesn&#8217;t: when you buy a toy for $50 at a store, you have a &#8220;trade deficit&#8221; with that store. You gave them $50, they gave you $0. But you also got a toy. That&#8217;s not the store cheating you — that&#8217;s just how <em>buying things</em> works.</p>
  97. <p>A trade deficit between countries works the same way. When we have a trade deficit with a country, it just means we bought more stuff from them than they bought from us. We got the stuff. They got the money. That&#8217;s it.</p>
  98. <p>Trump&#8217;s solution to trade deficits (which aren&#8217;t a problem) is to impose tariffs (which don&#8217;t help). In fact, they can often make things worse. According to actual economists who study this stuff, higher tariffs can actually <a href="https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/2025/why-higher-tariffs-wont-shrink-trade-deficit"><em>lead to higher trade deficits</em></a>, not lower ones.</p>
  99. <div class="wp-block-image">
  100. <figure class="aligncenter"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/lex-img-p.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/img/4f1e8f67-bf31-4550-929f-b24826df93ef-RackMultipart20250403-138-q2g8gb.png?ssl=1" alt=""/></figure>
  101. </div>
  102. <p>Joseph Gagnon, one of the world&#8217;s foremost experts on trade deficits, explains exactly why this is such a bad idea:</p>
  103. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  104. <p><em>Although tariffs do not reduce trade deficits, they do reduce imports and exports, as well as total income. That&#8217;s because they force a country to shift resources from more profitable exports to less profitable imports, as well as to services. But the long-run economic effects are also negative. By shielding producers from foreign competition, a tariff ultimately leads to less business innovation, slower productivity growth, and lower household living standards.</em></p>
  105. </blockquote>
  106. <p>You might notice something about that paragraph. It starts by describing how tariffs hurt the economy in the short term. Then there&#8217;s a &#8220;but&#8221; — which usually signals some kind of silver lining. Instead, it just pivots to explaining how tariffs hurt the economy even more in the long term.</p>
  107. <p>Cool.</p>
  108. <p>So we have a policy that:</p>
  109. <ol class="wp-block-list">
  110. <li>Is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of trade deficits</li>
  111. <li>Uses made-up numbers derived from a nonsense formula</li>
  112. <li>Would actually make the &#8220;problem&#8221; it&#8217;s trying to solve even worse</li>
  113. <li>Will definitely make Americans poorer</li>
  114. </ol>
  115. <p>But wait, it gets better.</p>
  116. <p>All of this glosses over the fact that “reciprocal tariffs” are not reciprocal at all. Trump’s team is <em>making up fake tariff numbers</em> for foreign countries based not on anything having to do with tariffs, but on trade deficits, which is just an accounting of inflows vs. outflows between two countries. It’s only reciprocal because the Trump team faked the numbers.</p>
  117. <p>On top of that, Trump can only impose tariffs (normally a power of Congress) based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the National Emergencies Act. Both laws require there to be an actual &#8220;emergency.&#8221; The only emergency here is that nobody in the administration understands what trade deficits are.</p>
  118. <p>But at least we may know where they got their brilliant formula from. There has been some suggestion that the administration got the idea from AI — specifically from asking a large language model how to calculate &#8220;fair&#8221; tariffs based on trade deficits. And yes, when asked &#8220;What would be an easy way to calculate the tariffs that should be imposed on other countries so that the US is on even-playing fields when it comes to trade deficit? Set minimum at 10%,&#8221; several AI models did suggest something similar to the administration&#8217;s approach.</p>
  119. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-bluesky-social wp-block-embed-bluesky-social">
  120. <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  121. <blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:iyz5zf463ic52vqbonyu2ebu/app.bsky.feed.post/3lluo7jmsss2w" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreibw5fksczlnhfug2k222u3wafo6krqunxhxooksdol5dck42tsb44">
  122. <p lang="en">guess where they got their weird trade deficit math from?i went to the pit for y&#39;all and brought back the screenshots with alt text</p>
  123. <p>&mdash; <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:iyz5zf463ic52vqbonyu2ebu?ref_src=embed">Amy Hoy (@amyhoy.bsky.social)</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:iyz5zf463ic52vqbonyu2ebu/post/3lluo7jmsss2w?ref_src=embed">2025-04-03T00:42:22.169Z</a></p>
  124. </blockquote>
  125. <p><script async src="https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
  126. </div>
  127. </figure>
  128. <p>But here&#8217;s the thing: every single AI model also included very clear warnings about why using this formula would be catastrophically stupid. I tested this myself with multiple LLMs (Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Llama, and Copilot), and they all basically said &#8220;Well, if you insist on doing something this economically illiterate, here&#8217;s how you could do it, BUT PLEASE DON&#8217;T.&#8221;</p>
  129. <p>My favorite was DeepSeek, in which I had its reasoning turned on, and it seemed particularly perplexed as to why I would try to balance trade deficits with tariffs, but felt resigned to do so:</p>
  130. <div class="wp-block-image">
  131. <figure class="aligncenter"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/lex-img-p.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/img/3aae89b7-84dc-465d-aa83-7ef98dfa5628-RackMultipart20250403-173-zxln3j.png?ssl=1" alt=""/></figure>
  132. </div>
  133. <p>That’s a little small to read, but it says:</p>
  134. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  135. <p><em>Wait, but is this the right approach? I mean, tariffs can have various effects. If you impose a tariff, it might lead to retaliation from other countries, which could hurt US exports. Also, higher tariffs could increase prices for consumers in the US, which isn’t great for the economy. But the user is specifically asking about balancing the trade deficit, so maybe those considerations are secondary here.</em></p>
  136. </blockquote>
  137. <p>Yeah, that’s literally DeepSeek grappling with the fact that the user here (the US government) is asking for a fundamentally stupid thing without understanding the consequences.</p>
  138. <p>The administration appears to have taken only the formula and ignored all the warnings. Which would be merely sad if they were just playing with theoretical numbers. But they&#8217;re not. They&#8217;re actually implementing this policy, using emergency powers that are supposed to be reserved for actual emergencies — not &#8220;we don&#8217;t understand how trade works&#8221; emergencies.</p>
  139. <p>Which then brings us around, finally, to the penguins.</p>
  140. <p>Because MAGA’s best economists are implementing it so mechanically, applying their formula to every country in what appears to be the CIA World Factbook, we end up with some truly spectacular results.</p>
  141. <p>Let&#8217;s take a closer look at the very last page of the administration&#8217;s tariff list:</p>
  142. <div class="wp-block-image">
  143. <figure class="aligncenter"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/lex-img-p.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/img/ec63607e-0088-4526-ac6f-d2cf135a76fd-RackMultipart20250403-127-ztdcr5.png?ssl=1" alt=""/></figure>
  144. </div>
  145. <p>Now, you might notice a bunch of these entries show a flat 10% tariff rate. That&#8217;s what happens when a &#8220;country&#8221; has no trade with the US at all — the formula defaults to the minimum. A mildly competent team might have wondered why these places have zero trade with us and done a quick check before declaring economic war on them.</p>
  146. <p>But this team isn&#8217;t mildly competent. This team is extremely, profoundly, impressively incompetent.</p>
  147. <p>So let&#8217;s look at who exactly we&#8217;re launching a trade war against, starting with the Heard and McDonald Islands. Total population: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heard_Island_and_McDonald_Islands"><em>zero human beings</em></a>. The only residents are <a href="https://wwf.org.au/blogs/protecting-a-penguin-paradise-heard-island-and-mcdonald-islands/">some absolutely stunning penguins</a>. You can actually <a href="https://wwf.org.au/adopt/adopt-an-international-species/adopt-a-penguin/">adopt one</a> if you want — though I suppose that may now cost 10% more, thanks to Trump&#8217;s tariff.</p>
  148. <p>But that&#8217;s not even the best part. Just a few lines up, you&#8217;ll find the &#8220;British Indian Ocean Territory,&#8221; also known as the Chagos Islands. Nearly all of the humans currently on these islands are US military personnel at the Diego Garcia base. And they&#8217;re only there because, as detailed in a recent Behind the Bastards podcast, the British government <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efzS1Jc7TX0">forcibly expelled all the native inhabitants</a> to lease the territory to the US military.</p>
  149. <p>Let that sink in for a moment: Donald Trump just imposed tariffs on our own military base. On territory we lease. Where the only residents are US military personnel.</p>
  150. <p>So to sum up where we are:</p>
  151. <ol class="wp-block-list">
  152. <li>The administration invented an economic emergency</li>
  153. <li>To justify a policy based on made-up numbers</li>
  154. <li>Generated by an AI formula that came with explicit warnings not to use it</li>
  155. <li>Which they&#8217;re now using to launch trade wars against:
  156. <ul class="wp-block-list">
  157. <li>Penguins</li>
  158. <li>Our own military</li>
  159. <li>And presumably Santa&#8217;s Workshop (someone check for a North Pole entry)</li>
  160. </ul>
  161. </li>
  162. </ol>
  163. <p>And while the penguins and military base make for amusing examples of this policy&#8217;s incompetence, the real damage will come from applying this same backwards logic to basically all of our actual trading partners — countries whose goods and services make American lives better and whose economic relationships we&#8217;ve spent decades building. And who, historically, welcomed back American goods and services as well. All of that is now at risk because someone couldn&#8217;t be bothered to learn what a trade deficit actually is. And the American electorate deciding that’s who we wanted to govern the country.</p>
  164. <p>When your trade policy is so fundamentally misguided that you&#8217;re declaring economic war on flightless birds and your own armed forces, perhaps it&#8217;s time to admit that the 5th grader from the beginning of this story wasn&#8217;t just smarter than the administration — they were dramatically overqualified for Trump&#8217;s Council of Economic Advisers.</p>
  165. ]]></content:encoded>
  167. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/03/trump-declares-a-trade-war-on-uninhabited-islands-us-military-and-economic-logic/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  168. <slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
  171. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">489116</post-id> </item>
  172. <item>
  173. <title>Trump&#8217;s FCC &#8216;Investigates&#8217; Disney For Not Being Racist And Sexist Enough</title>
  174. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/03/trumps-fcc-investigates-disney-for-not-being-racist-and-sexist-enough/</link>
  175. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/03/trumps-fcc-investigates-disney-for-not-being-racist-and-sexist-enough/#comments</comments>
  177. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Karl Bode]]></dc:creator>
  178. <pubDate>Thu, 03 Apr 2025 12:27:00 +0000</pubDate>
  179. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  180. <category><![CDATA[disney]]></category>
  181. <category><![CDATA[authoritarianism]]></category>
  182. <category><![CDATA[brendan carr]]></category>
  183. <category><![CDATA[civil rights]]></category>
  184. <category><![CDATA[dei]]></category>
  185. <category><![CDATA[fcc]]></category>
  186. <category><![CDATA[harassment]]></category>
  187. <category><![CDATA[journalism]]></category>
  188. <category><![CDATA[media]]></category>
  189. <category><![CDATA[racism]]></category>
  190. <category><![CDATA[resegregation]]></category>
  191. <category><![CDATA[sexism]]></category>
  192. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=488659&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=488659</guid>
  193.  
  194. <description><![CDATA[Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr isn&#8217;t really interested in doing his actual job as head of the FCC. He&#8217;s not interested in protecting consumers or markets from notoriously shitty telecom monopolies. He&#8217;s not interested in protecting consumers or markets from harmful consolidation. He&#8217;s not interested in addressing the fact the telecom industry just saw the [&#8230;]]]></description>
  195. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr isn&#8217;t really interested in doing his actual job as head of the FCC. He&#8217;s not interested in <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/27/under-cover-from-other-trumpy-bullshit-fccs-carr-quietly-starts-rubber-stamping-att-and-comcasts-policy-wishlist/">protecting consumers or markets from notoriously shitty telecom monopolies</a>. He&#8217;s not interested in <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/27/under-cover-from-other-trumpy-bullshit-fccs-carr-quietly-starts-rubber-stamping-att-and-comcasts-policy-wishlist/">protecting consumers or markets from harmful consolidation</a>. He&#8217;s not interested in addressing the fact the telecom industry <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/12/30/mindlessly-deregulating-u-s-telecom-contributed-to-the-worst-hack-in-u-s-history/">just saw the worst hack in history</a>. </p>
  196. <p>What&#8217;s he interested in? Harassing companies that <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/26/fccs-carr-openly-admits-hell-block-mergers-of-companies-that-refuse-to-kiss-trump-ass/">don&#8217;t adequately bend the knee to Trump</a>. And harassing companies that aren&#8217;t suitably racist or sexist enough for the Trump administration&#8217;s liking. </p>
  197. <p>Carr&#8217;s already announced he&#8217;s <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/fcc-boss-brendan-carr-investigating-verizon-for-not-being-racist-enough/">launching phony &#8220;investigations&#8221; into Verizon and Comcast</a> for not being racist and sexist enough (read: having some bare-bones inclusivity efforts on a website). He&#8217;s doing this by leveraging looming approvals for <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/09/06/press-happily-parrots-verizons-claim-that-its-20-billion-purchase-of-frontier-will-be-a-huge-boon-to-consumers/">potential shitty mergers</a> to bully these companies into submission. And because these companies are routinely stocked with abject cowards, it will probably work.</p>
  198. <p>And Carr continues to expand his anti-civil-rights campaign on the taxpayer dime. Last week he announced he&#8217;s also &#8220;investigating&#8221; Disney/ABC for not being racist and sexist enough. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/03/29/nx-s1-5344469/fcc-disney-dei-changes-abc">From NPR</a> (which Carr is also &#8220;investigating&#8221; for being <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/01/30/nx-s1-5281162/fcc-npr-pbs-investigation">insufficiently deferent</a> to christofascist clods):</p>
  199. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  200. <p><em>&#8220;In a <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/Carr-Letter-to-Disney-DEI-03252027.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">letter</a> to Disney CEO Robert Iger, Carr said the FCC&#8217;s Enforcement Bureau will review whether Disney or ABC have violated any FCC equal employment opportunity regulations. He added that the probe will apply to both past and current policies.&#8221;</em></p>
  201. </blockquote>
  202. <p>As with all of these investigations, Carr is pulling his legal justifications entirely out of his ass. He&#8217;s basically trying to claim that marginal efforts to be more inclusive are themselves in violation of anti-discrimination rules and laws. Rules and laws they&#8217;re trying to destroy. It&#8217;s circular logic gibberish designed to give a thin veneer of legitimacy to pointless bullshit harassment. Sayeth Carr:</p>
  203. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  204. <p><em>&#8220;Numerous reports indicate that Disney&#8217;s leadership went all in on invidious forms of DEI discrimination a few years ago and apparently did so in a manner that infected many aspects of your company&#8217;s decisions.&#8221;</em></p>
  205. </blockquote>
  206. <p>In telecom, Carr has tried to re-interpret language in the Communications Act designed to prevent discrimination to attack efforts against discrimination. It will never hold up in even the shittiest of courts, but Carr of course doesn&#8217;t care about that. He wants the publicity generated by the fake investigations to do the bullying. He wants to scare companies with fake, costly inquiries into nonexistent violations.</p>
  207. <p>Disney, like most feckless U.S. corporations, has <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/02/07/nx-s1-5288947/trump-dei-disney-pepsi-diversity">been happy to oblige so far</a>, scrubbing their websites and earnings reports of references to equality and inclusion, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/02/07/nx-s1-5288947/trump-dei-disney-pepsi-diversity">shortening warnings on Disney+</a> about how older Disney content may feature racist stereotypes, and shuttering already flimsy programs designed to help marginalized populations.</p>
  208. <p>Of course the U.S. press, many of them keen to avoid harassment or get tax cuts and merger approvals, have proven appropriately feckless in their news coverage of Carr&#8217;s weird zealotry. </p>
  209. <p>Authoritarian propagandists have hijacked the term &#8220;DEI&#8221; to help sanitize and normalize sexism/racism, and conflate half-assed corporate inclusivity initiatives with popular civil rights. Instead of saying Carr is &#8220;being racist,&#8221; &#8220;being sexist,&#8221; &#8220;embracing resegregation,&#8221; or &#8220;attacking civil rights,&#8221; they&#8217;re quick to adopt the more sterile &#8220;he&#8217;s investigating DEI&#8221; nomenclature:</p>
  210. <div class="wp-block-image">
  211. <figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" width="1024" height="725" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-31-083330.png?resize=1024%2C725&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-488661" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-31-083330.png?resize=1024%2C725&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-31-083330.png?resize=300%2C213&amp;ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-31-083330.png?resize=768%2C544&amp;ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Screenshot-2025-03-31-083330.png?w=1420&amp;ssl=1 1420w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" /></figure>
  212. </div>
  213. <p>And if you read through pretty much any coverage of these sham investigations, you&#8217;ll find they all go out of their way to frame Carr&#8217;s racist and sexist harassment of companies as serious adult policymaking. Because that&#8217;s what you get when you let journalism consolidate at the hands of feckless trust fund brunchlords who are more interested in tax cuts and access than serving the public interest. </p>
  214. <p>Carr&#8217;s a weird zealot launching baseless investigations into companies because they&#8217;re not being suitably racist and sexist enough for his king&#8217;s liking. It&#8217;s pathetic, and the collective press and corporate response so far has been equally so. </p>
  215. ]]></content:encoded>
  217. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/03/trumps-fcc-investigates-disney-for-not-being-racist-and-sexist-enough/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  218. <slash:comments>20</slash:comments>
  221. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">488659</post-id> </item>
  222. <item>
  223. <title>Take-Two DMCAs Video Of GTA5 Mod To For GTA6 Map Content</title>
  224. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/take-two-dmcas-video-of-gta5-mod-to-for-gta6-map-content/</link>
  225. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/take-two-dmcas-video-of-gta5-mod-to-for-gta6-map-content/#comments</comments>
  227. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Dark Helmet]]></dc:creator>
  228. <pubDate>Thu, 03 Apr 2025 03:00:38 +0000</pubDate>
  229. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  230. <category><![CDATA[rockstar games]]></category>
  231. <category><![CDATA[take 2 interactive]]></category>
  232. <category><![CDATA[copyright]]></category>
  233. <category><![CDATA[dmca]]></category>
  234. <category><![CDATA[gta]]></category>
  235. <category><![CDATA[gta 5]]></category>
  236. <category><![CDATA[gta 6]]></category>
  237. <category><![CDATA[mods]]></category>
  238. <category><![CDATA[video games]]></category>
  239. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=487243&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=487243</guid>
  240.  
  241. <description><![CDATA[Rockstar Games and its parent company, Take-Two Interactive, have been telling us who they are for years. And who they are, for our purposes, amounts to a game developer that both absolutely hates any leaked information about its games and one that has been perfectly willing to go to war with its own modding community. [&#8230;]]]></description>
  242. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Rockstar Games and its parent company, Take-Two Interactive, have been telling us who they are for years. And who they are, for our purposes, amounts to a game developer that both absolutely hates any leaked information about its games and one that has been perfectly willing to <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2021/08/13/rockstar-begins-war-modders-gta-games-totally-unclear-reasons/">go to war</a> with its own modding community. After suffering an intrusion by bad actors in 2022, a bunch of information and footage from the in-development <em>Grand Theft Auto 6</em> <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2022/09/20/rockstar-tries-to-bury-gta6-leak-with-dmcas-streisands-them-instead/">leaked</a> onto the internet. That leak has been bookended by Rockstar and Take-Two engaging in all kinds of <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2021/11/17/take-two-rockstar-continue-dmca-blitzing-mods-save-games-gta/">DMCA takedowns</a> for <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2023/08/21/sigh-rockstar-goes-right-back-to-its-war-on-mods/">game mods</a> and even saved game files for <em>Grand Theft Auto</em> titles and other franchises.</p>
  243. <p>What do these two topics have in common? Well, they came together recently when Take-Two issued a <a href="https://www.gosugamers.net/entertainment/news/74570-gta-5-mod-based-on-gta-6-leaks-taken-down-over-copyright-strike">takedown notice on YouTube videos</a> in which one modder shows off his custom map that seeks to input as much of the map for <em>GTA6</em> that could be derived from the leaks into <em>GTA5. </em></p>
  244. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  245. <p><em>Modder &#8216;Dark Space&#8217; had created a free-to-download GTA 5 map using leaked coordinate data and official trailer shots of GTA 6. He also uploaded gameplay footage of the mod to his YouTube channel. In January, the mod gained widespread attention as GTA fans, eager for a glimpse of the upcoming game, explored this fan-made recreation ahead of GTA 6’s official launch.</em></p>
  246. <p><em>However, Dark Space confirmed that he recently received a take down notice from YouTube.&nbsp;</em></p>
  247. </blockquote>
  248. <p>We, and Dark Space, can but speculate as to the motivation behind the takedown. Perhaps Take-Two considers the details in the map to be spoilers of sorts, though it would seem the widely available leaked information about the forthcoming game and the trailers did the spoiling first. Perhaps it considers the map construction to be proprietary information, covered by copyright, and acted upon it. Or perhaps it&#8217;s simply a matter of lawyers lawyering.</p>
  249. <p>But what isn&#8217;t up for debate is that the modding community continues to feel slighted by the company, while any sane understanding of the effects of these mods is one that is beneficial to Take-Two.</p>
  250. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  251. <p><em>He also criticised Take-Two’s handling of modders, stating, &#8220;When will these companies learn to stop attacking their own feet? It’s thanks to the community of players and modders that these companies can stand.”</em></p>
  252. <p><em>He claimed that the company has a history of hiring private investigators and taking legal action against them, rather than supporting their work. He pointed to past instances where Take-Two had sent private investigators to modders&#8217; homes, filed lawsuits, and banned creators from making GTA-related content.</em></p>
  253. <p><em>As an example, he cited the original GTA Trilogy on PC, where mods were essential for fixing game-breaking bugs and making the titles playable. He argued that instead of appreciating these contributions, Take-Two cracked down on modders instead of acknowledging their efforts.</em></p>
  254. </blockquote>
  255. <p>It should go without saying that importing the game map, as best as can be recreated by a modder, into an older game does not replace the new game. In fact, the attention this mod and those like it have received are a symptom of the thirst the public has <em>for the new game</em>. The company could have used all of this as a free marketing tool for <em>GTA6</em>, if it wanted to. It&#8217;s not even that hard.</p>
  256. <p>&#8220;Folks, go look at the map if you want. We know you&#8217;re hungry to play this game and we&#8217;re equally hungry for you to do so. This doesn&#8217;t reflect the entirety of the new map, the new game, or the experience you&#8217;ll have playing it, but whet your appetites because <em>GTA6</em> is going to be great.&#8221;</p>
  257. <p>It would have been that easy. But instead, the company has decided to once more slight the modding community that helps drive ongoing interest in Take-Two&#8217;s new and existing titles. Attacking, as Dark Space put it, their own feet.</p>
  258. ]]></content:encoded>
  260. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/take-two-dmcas-video-of-gta5-mod-to-for-gta6-map-content/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  261. <slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
  264. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">487243</post-id> </item>
  265. <item>
  266. <title>Otherwise Objectionable: When Congress Ridiculously Tried Merging Censorship With Freedom</title>
  267. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/otherwise-objectionable-when-congress-ridiculously-tried-merging-censorship-with-freedom/</link>
  268. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/otherwise-objectionable-when-congress-ridiculously-tried-merging-censorship-with-freedom/#comments</comments>
  270. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Masnick]]></dc:creator>
  271. <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2025 22:59:18 +0000</pubDate>
  272. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  273. <category><![CDATA[censorship]]></category>
  274. <category><![CDATA[chris cox]]></category>
  275. <category><![CDATA[free speech]]></category>
  276. <category><![CDATA[james exon]]></category>
  277. <category><![CDATA[otherwise objectionable]]></category>
  278. <category><![CDATA[responsibility]]></category>
  279. <category><![CDATA[ron wyden]]></category>
  280. <category><![CDATA[section 230]]></category>
  281. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=489046</guid>
  282.  
  283. <description><![CDATA[Moral panics come and go, but stupid legislation is forever. At least until the Supreme Court steps in. This week on Otherwise Objectionable, my podcast series about Section 230, we talk about how the moral panic over “porn” online, including Senator James Exon’s infamous blue binder of internet porn, caused the Senate to pass a [&#8230;]]]></description>
  284. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Moral panics come and go, but stupid legislation is forever. At least until the Supreme Court steps in. <a href="https://rss.com/podcasts/otherwise-objectionable/1968778/">This week on Otherwise Objectionable</a>, my podcast series about Section 230, we talk about how the moral panic over “porn” online, including Senator James Exon’s infamous blue binder of internet porn, caused the Senate to pass a horrifying censorship bill that would have required the internet be as clean as Sesame Street.</p>
  285. <p><iframe src="https://player.rss.com/otherwise-objectionable/1968778" title="Episode 4: The Solution" width="100%" height="154px" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen scrolling="no"><a href="https://rss.com/podcasts/otherwise-objectionable/1968778">Episode 4: The Solution</a></iframe></p>
  286. <p>Enter Representatives Chris Cox and Ron Wyden, who recognized that Exon&#8217;s approach wasn&#8217;t just unconstitutional — it fundamentally misunderstood how the internet worked. Instead of trying to turn every website into PBS Kids, they proposed something radical: trust users to make their own choices about what content they wanted to see, and protect the platforms that gave users those tools.</p>
  287. <p>Their proposal, which would become Section 230, was based on a simple premise: the internet would work better if we empowered users rather than censors. Want to keep your kids away from adult content? Great — here are tools to do that. Want to create a family-friendly platform? Fantastic — you won&#8217;t get sued for trying. Want to build a more open platform? Also fine — you won&#8217;t get sued for that either.</p>
  288. <p>This approach was such obvious common sense that it sailed through the House with overwhelming bipartisan support. But then congressional efficiency (or perhaps laziness) kicked in. Rather than reconcile the House and Senate approaches, leadership simply merged the bills together. The result? Section 230, a law designed to promote free speech and user choice, became part of the Communications Decency Act, a law designed to censor the internet into bland submission.</p>
  289. <p>The supreme irony is that when the Supreme Court inevitably struck down most of the CDA as unconstitutional, Section 230 was the only part that survived. The provision that was never meant to be part of the censorship bill turned out to be its only lasting legacy. As Congress once again rushes to &#8220;protect the children&#8221; through ham-handed internet regulation, it&#8217;s worth remembering how the last moral panic resulted in terrible unconstitutional nonsense, that accidentally got merged with the very protection that makes a free and open internet possible.</p>
  290. ]]></content:encoded>
  292. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/otherwise-objectionable-when-congress-ridiculously-tried-merging-censorship-with-freedom/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  293. <slash:comments>9</slash:comments>
  296. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">489046</post-id> </item>
  297. <item>
  298. <title>Trump&#8217;s Buddies At Andreessen Horowitz Want To Help Buy TikTok, Turn It Into A Right Wing Safe Space</title>
  299. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/trumps-buddies-at-andreesen-horowitz-want-to-help-buy-tiktok-turn-it-into-a-right-wing-safe-space/</link>
  300. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/trumps-buddies-at-andreesen-horowitz-want-to-help-buy-tiktok-turn-it-into-a-right-wing-safe-space/#comments</comments>
  302. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Karl Bode]]></dc:creator>
  303. <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2025 20:48:06 +0000</pubDate>
  304. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  305. <category><![CDATA[amazon]]></category>
  306. <category><![CDATA[andreessen horowitz]]></category>
  307. <category><![CDATA[bytedance]]></category>
  308. <category><![CDATA[oracle]]></category>
  309. <category><![CDATA[tiktok]]></category>
  310. <category><![CDATA[authoritarian]]></category>
  311. <category><![CDATA[competition]]></category>
  312. <category><![CDATA[content moderation]]></category>
  313. <category><![CDATA[corruption]]></category>
  314. <category><![CDATA[disinformation]]></category>
  315. <category><![CDATA[donald trump]]></category>
  316. <category><![CDATA[jeff bezos]]></category>
  317. <category><![CDATA[marc andreessen]]></category>
  318. <category><![CDATA[propaganda]]></category>
  319. <category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
  320. <category><![CDATA[tiktok ban]]></category>
  321. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=488998&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=488998</guid>
  322.  
  323. <description><![CDATA[We&#8217;ve noted more times than I can&#8217;t count that the push to ban TikTok was never really about protecting American privacy. If that were true, we would pass a real privacy law and craft serious penalties for companies and executives that play fast and loose with sensitive American data. It was never really about propaganda. [&#8230;]]]></description>
  324. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>We&#8217;ve noted more times than I can&#8217;t count that the push to ban TikTok was never really about protecting American privacy. If that were true, <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2023/03/21/forget-a-tiktok-ban-we-need-to-regulate-data-brokers-and-pass-a-real-privacy-law/">we would pass a real privacy law</a> and craft serious penalties for companies and executives that play fast and loose with sensitive American data. </p>
  325. <p>It was never really about propaganda. If that were true, we&#8217;d take aim at the extremely well funded <a href="https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/01/02/americas-right-wing-propaganda-problem-might-be-terminal/">authoritarian propaganda machine</a> and engage in content moderation of race-baiting political propaganda that&#8217;s filling the brains of young American men with <a href="https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/01/02/americas-right-wing-propaganda-problem-might-be-terminal/">pudding and hate</a>. </p>
  326. <p>Banning TikTok was never really about national security. If that were true, we wouldn&#8217;t be <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/12/30/mindlessly-deregulating-u-s-telecom-contributed-to-the-worst-hack-in-u-s-history/">dismantling our cybersecurity regulators</a>, hosting <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/25/but-their-signal-chats-trump-officials-share-war-plans-with-journalist/">sensitive military chats over Signal with journalists</a>, voting to cement utterly incompetent knobs in unaccountable roles across military intelligence, and <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2023/03/21/forget-a-tiktok-ban-we-need-to-regulate-data-brokers-and-pass-a-real-privacy-law/">letting run-amok data brokers sell personal info to global governments</a> (including our own). </p>
  327. <p>The push to Facebook was about ego, money, and information control. Ego; Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/style/tiktok-trump-rally-tulsa.html">got mad at TikTok videos making fun of his small crowd sizes</a>. Money: <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2022/03/31/facebook-hired-pr-firm-coordinated-anti-tiktok-campaign-to-spread-bogus-moral-panics/">Facebook worked tirelessly to spread bogus moral panics about TikTok</a> in order to kill off a competitor they couldn&#8217;t out-innovate. Control: the GOP wants to own TikTok so they can ensure it&#8217;s friendly to an essential cornerstone of party power &#8212; <a href="https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/01/02/americas-right-wing-propaganda-problem-might-be-terminal/">their propaganda</a>. </p>
  328. <p>Enter the fine folks at (Trump friendly) Andreesen Horowitz, who are emerging as a late-stage bidder for a big chunk of whatever winds up being left of TikTok alongside (Trump friendly) Oracle:</p>
  329. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  330. <p><em>&#8220;US venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz is in talks to invest in social media platform TikTok as part of an effort led by Donald Trump to wrest control of the popular video app from its Chinese owners. The venture capital group, whose co-founder Marc Andreessen is a vocal supporter of the US president, is in talks to add new outside investment that will buy out TikTok’s Chinese investors, as part of a bid led by Oracle and other American investors to carve it out of its parent company ByteDance.&#8221;</em></p>
  331. </blockquote>
  332. <p>Thanks to America&#8217;s silly and performative ban, ByteDance has until April 5 to sell TikTok to U.S. controlled companies. There&#8217;s still no word on what a finalized deal will look like, and ByteDance has had strong reservations in including the company&#8217;s engagement algorithms as part of any deal.</p>
  333. <p>We&#8217;ve kind of come full circle here. If you recall, Trump&#8217;s big plan during his first term was to <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2021/02/10/trump-oracles-dumb-tiktok-cronyism-falls-apart/">transfer ownership of TikTok to right wing-friendly companies Oracle and Walmart</a>. That plan ultimately fell apart, and Trump has subsequently waffled back and forth on what to do, in part because he was trying to appease right wing <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/11/15/trump-may-kill-americas-performative-tiktok-ban-for-the-benefit-of-his-billionaire-buddy/">billionaire donor and ByteDance investor Jeffrey Yass</a>.</p>
  334. <p>Marc Andreessen, who has become <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2014/06/05/marc-andreessen-thinks-snowden-administration-are-to-blame-backlash-against-us-tech-industry/">increasingly incoherent</a> as he <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/11/14/you-dont-believe-in-free-markets-and-free-speech-if-youre-demanding-criminal-charges-against-people-for-their-free-market-free-speech-decisions/">prostrates himself and his empire to King Dingus</a>, clearly wants TikTok ad money, but he also wants <em>information control</em>. Andreessen is already on the board of Meta and one of the investors in Elon&#8217;s takeover of Twitter. If he grabs a large stake in TikTok, <strong>an overt authoritarian will have meaningful power over the country&#8217;s three biggest social media platforms</strong>. That is, you know, bad for a long list of reasons that should be obvious. </p>
  335. <p>Other suitors may not be much better. As I was writing this, news emerged that Jeff Bezos (the guy currently making <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/13/more-washington-post-staffers-resign-over-bezos-mismanagement-and-authoritarian-ass-kissing/">the Washington Post more friendly to authoritarian ideology</a> and <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/27/jeff-bezos-frees-wapo-opinion-pages-of-the-personal-liberty-of-expressing-their-opinion/">hostile to anyone who disagrees</a>) is also putting in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/business/media/amazon-tiktok-bid.html">a bid for Amazon to acquire TikTok</a>. If his bumbling at WAPO is any indication, his ownership of TikTok wouldn&#8217;t be much better for free expression. </p>
  336. <p>Modern U.S. authoritarians don&#8217;t want major popular tech platforms engaging in <a href="https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/01/02/americas-right-wing-propaganda-problem-might-be-terminal/">content moderation of right wing propaganda and disinformation</a>, a <a href="https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/01/02/americas-right-wing-propaganda-problem-might-be-terminal/">cornerstone of Trump power</a> (since their actual policies, like letting shitty corporations do whatever they want, dismantling civil and labor rights, and giving billionaires more tax cuts, are broadly unpopular amongst the plebs). </p>
  337. <p>But the TikTok ban really can&#8217;t be separated by the broader GOP quest to dominate the entirety of modern media. You might recall how the GOP <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/07/18/just-a-reminder-authoritarians-dont-actually-support-antitrust-reform/">spent years successfully bullying tech companies into going soft on race-baiting right wing propaganda</a>, often under the pretense they were <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/07/18/just-a-reminder-authoritarians-dont-actually-support-antitrust-reform/">doing serious adult business on antitrust reform</a> or trying to combat (<a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2019/08/02/enough-with-myth-that-big-tech-is-censoring-conservatives-that-law-requires-them-to-be-neutral/">completely bogus</a>) &#8220;censorship&#8221; of Conservative ideologies. </p>
  338. <p>There was, if you recall, a whole three year news cycle where major news outlets propped up the myth that this wasn&#8217;t about control, propaganda, and forcing unpopular right wing policies down everybody&#8217;s throat, it was about <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/07/18/just-a-reminder-authoritarians-dont-actually-support-antitrust-reform/">reining in corporate power</a> and &#8220;holding big tech accountable.&#8221; These GOP efforts were, time and time again, portrayed in the press as serious, adult, good faith policymaking. </p>
  339. <p>A few years later and everything is completely fucked, regulators are either being <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/20/trump-fcc-boss-to-destroy-whatevers-left-of-u-s-broadband-consumer-protection/">stripped for parts</a> or <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/fcc-boss-brendan-carr-investigating-verizon-for-not-being-racist-enough/">being used to harass companies for not being racist enough</a>, all our biggest tech companies have folded on moderating right wing racism, <a href="https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/01/02/americas-right-wing-propaganda-problem-might-be-terminal/">right wing propaganda is worse than ever</a>, journalism is dying, civil rights and free speech face existential threats, and federal corporate oversight is <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/20/trump-fcc-boss-to-destroy-whatevers-left-of-u-s-broadband-consumer-protection/">effectively dead</a>. </p>
  340. <p>Really a great job on all fronts, from policymakers to U.S. journalism. Everybody really nailed it.</p>
  341. <p>TikTok always heavily trafficked in a lot of right wing engagement bait because, as an amoral algorithmic engagement machine, they like to shovel <strong>more</strong> of the stuff you already like your direction. But at the same time, I personally found I was more likely to find left wing content on TikTok than I would on, say, Facebook&#8217;s reels. Ultimately, TikTok <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/tiktok-goes-dark-with-kiss-up-message-to-trump/">has veered even harder right</a> as it tried to appease U.S. authoritarians. </p>
  342. <p>However right wing friendly you think TikTok is now, it will be notably worse under Oracle and Andreessen Horowitz, and far more likely to take action against content and creators Trumpism doesn&#8217;t like. All in service to authoritarian control, and chasing where the <strong>real</strong> money is in America media right now: telling young angry men all of their worst lizard-brained impulses are correct.</p>
  343. ]]></content:encoded>
  345. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/trumps-buddies-at-andreesen-horowitz-want-to-help-buy-tiktok-turn-it-into-a-right-wing-safe-space/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  346. <slash:comments>20</slash:comments>
  349. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">488998</post-id> </item>
  350. <item>
  351. <title>230 Protects Users, Not Big Tech</title>
  352. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/230-protects-users-not-big-tech/</link>
  353. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/230-protects-users-not-big-tech/#comments</comments>
  355. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Masnick]]></dc:creator>
  356. <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2025 19:11:07 +0000</pubDate>
  357. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  358. <category><![CDATA[content moderation]]></category>
  359. <category><![CDATA[section 230]]></category>
  360. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=488583</guid>
  361.  
  362. <description><![CDATA[Once again, several Senators appear poised to gut one of the most important laws protecting internet users &#8211;&#160;Section 230 (47 U.S.C. § 230).&#160; Don’t be fooled &#8211; many of Section 230’s detractors claim that this critical law only protects big tech. The reality is that Section 230 provides limited protection for all platforms, though the [&#8230;]]]></description>
  363. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/paris.nyc/post/3lkvcermoh22i">Once again</a>, several Senators appear poised to gut one of the most important laws protecting internet users &#8211;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/230">Section 230 (47 U.S.C. § 230)</a>.&nbsp;</p>
  364. <p>Don’t be fooled &#8211; many of Section 230’s detractors claim that this critical law only protects big tech. The reality is that Section 230 provides limited protection for all platforms, though the biggest beneficiaries are small platforms and users. Why else would some of the biggest platforms be willing to&nbsp;<a href="https://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF16/20210325/111407/HHRG-117-IF16-Wstate-ZuckerbergM-20210325-U1.pdf">endorse</a>&nbsp;a bill that guts the law? In fact, repealing Section 230 would&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/05/wanna-make-big-tech-monopolies-even-worse-kill-section-230">only cement</a>&nbsp;the status of Big Tech monopolies.</p>
  365. <p>As EFF has said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/04/section-230-not-special-tech-company-immunity">for years</a>, Section 230 is essential to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/06/changing-section-230-wont-make-internet-kinder-gentler-place">protecting individuals’</a>&nbsp;ability to speak, organize, and create online.&nbsp;</p>
  366. <p>Congress knew exactly what Section 230 would do – that it would lay the groundwork for speech of all kinds across the internet, on websites both small and large. And that’s exactly what has happened.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  367. <p>Section 230 isn’t in conflict with American values. It upholds them in the digital world. People are able to find and create their own communities, and moderate them as they see fit. People and companies are responsible for their own speech, but (with narrow exceptions) not the speech of others.&nbsp;</p>
  368. <p>The law is not a shield for Big Tech. Critically, the law benefits the millions of users who don’t have the resources to build and host their own blogs, email services, or social media sites, and instead rely on services to host that speech. Section 230 also benefits thousands of small online services that host speech. Those people are being shut out as the bill sponsors pursue a dangerously misguided policy.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  369. <p>If&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/facebooks-pitch-congress-section-230-me-not-thee">Big Tech is at the table</a>&nbsp;in any future discussion for what rules should govern internet speech, EFF has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/dont-blame-section-230-big-techs-failures-blame-big-tech">no confidence</a>&nbsp;that the result will protect and benefit internet users, as Section 230 does currently. If Congress is serious about rewriting the internet’s speech rules, it must spend time listening to the small services and everyday users who would be harmed should they repeal Section 230.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  370. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Section 230 Protects Everyday Internet Users&nbsp;</strong></h3>
  371. <p>There’s another glaring omission in the arguments to end Section 230: how central the law is to ensuring that every person can speak online, and that Congress or the Administration does not get to define what speech is “good” and “bad”.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  372. <p>Let’s start with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/230">text of Section 230</a>. Importantly, the law protects both online services and users. It says that “no provider or user shall be treated as the publisher” of content created by another. That&#8217;s in clear agreement with most Americans’ belief that people should be held responsible for their own speech—not that of others.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  373. <p>Section 230 protects individual bloggers, anyone&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eff.org/issues/cda230/cases/batzel-v-smith">who forwards an email</a>, and social media users who have ever&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eff.org/cases/barrett-v-rosenthal">reshared</a>&nbsp;or retweeted another person’s content online. Section 230 also protects individual moderators who might delete or otherwise curate others’ online content, along with anyone who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eff.org/issues/cda230/cases/perfect-10-inc-v-ccbill-llc">provides web hosting services</a>.&nbsp;</p>
  374. <p>As EFF has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/03/what-policymakers-need-know-about-first-amendment-and-section-230">explained</a>, online speech is frequently targeted with meritless lawsuits. Big Tech can afford to fight these lawsuits without Section 230. Everyday internet users, community forums, and small businesses cannot.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.engine.is/news/primer/section230costs">Engine</a>&nbsp;has estimated that without Section 230, many startups and small services would be inundated with costly litigation that could drive them offline. Even entirely meritless lawsuits cost thousands of dollars to fight, and often tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.</p>
  375. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Deleting Section 230 Will Create A Field Day For The Internet’s Worst Users&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></h3>
  376. <p>Section 230’s detractors say that too many websites and apps have “refused” to go after “predators, drug dealers, sex traffickers, extortioners and cyberbullies,” and imagine that removing Section 230 will somehow force these services to better moderate user-generated content on their sites.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
  377. <p>These arguments fundamentally misunderstand Section 230. The law lets platforms decide, largely for themselves, what kind of speech they want to host, and to remove speech that doesn’t fit their own standards without penalty.&nbsp;</p>
  378. <p>&nbsp;If lawmakers are legitimately motivated to help online services root out unlawful activity and terrible content appearing online, the last thing they should do is eliminate Section 230. The current law strongly incentivizes websites and apps, both large and small, to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/06/changing-section-230-wont-make-internet-kinder-gentler-place">kick off their worst-behaving users</a>, to remove offensive content, and in cases of illegal behavior, work with law enforcement to hold those users responsible.&nbsp;</p>
  379. <p>If Congress deletes Section 230, the pre-digital legal rules around distributing content would kick in. That law strongly discourages services from moderating or even knowing about user-generated content. This is because&nbsp;<a href="https://wjlta.com/2022/02/18/stratton-oakmont-v-prodigy-services-the-case-that-spawned-section-230/">the more a service moderates user content</a>, the more likely it is to be held liable for that content. Under that legal regime, online services will have a huge incentive to just not moderate and not look for bad behavior. This would result in the exact opposite of their goal of protecting children and adults from harmful content online.</p>
  380. <p><em>Republished from the <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03/230-protects-users-not-big-tech">EFF&#8217;s Deeplinks blog</a>.</em></p>
  381. ]]></content:encoded>
  383. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/230-protects-users-not-big-tech/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  384. <slash:comments>12</slash:comments>
  387. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">488583</post-id> </item>
  388. <item>
  389. <title>ICE Is Using Pure Bullshit To Turn People Into Venezuelan Gang Members To Keep Hitting Its Daily Arrest Quota</title>
  390. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/ice-is-using-pure-bullshit-to-turn-people-into-venezuelan-gang-members-to-keep-hitting-its-daily-arrest-quota/</link>
  391. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/ice-is-using-pure-bullshit-to-turn-people-into-venezuelan-gang-members-to-keep-hitting-its-daily-arrest-quota/#comments</comments>
  393. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Tim Cushing]]></dc:creator>
  394. <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2025 17:58:25 +0000</pubDate>
  395. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  396. <category><![CDATA[dhs]]></category>
  397. <category><![CDATA[donald trump]]></category>
  398. <category><![CDATA[due process]]></category>
  399. <category><![CDATA[gang databases]]></category>
  400. <category><![CDATA[ice]]></category>
  401. <category><![CDATA[immigration]]></category>
  402. <category><![CDATA[kristi noem]]></category>
  403. <category><![CDATA[tattoos]]></category>
  404. <category><![CDATA[tren de aragua]]></category>
  405. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=488547&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=488547</guid>
  406.  
  407. <description><![CDATA[Donald Trump has decided he can&#8217;t do immigration enforcement without doing war crimes. That&#8217;s where we&#8217;re at now as a country: under the thumb of someone exercising executive war powers to remove anyone looking faintly Mexican from the country under the extremely dubious theory that the people rounded up by ICE are all members of [&#8230;]]]></description>
  408. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/"></a>Donald Trump has decided he can&#8217;t do immigration enforcement <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/24/even-the-guy-who-saw-nothing-wrong-with-cia-torture-thinks-trump-is-going-too-far-with-his-deportation-efforts/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/24/even-the-guy-who-saw-nothing-wrong-with-cia-torture-thinks-trump-is-going-too-far-with-his-deportation-efforts/">without doing war crimes</a>. That&#8217;s where we&#8217;re at now as a country: under the thumb of someone exercising executive war powers to remove anyone <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/28/ice-arrested-and-detained-a-us-citizen-for-hours-because-he-looked-mexican/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/28/ice-arrested-and-detained-a-us-citizen-for-hours-because-he-looked-mexican/">looking faintly Mexican</a> from the country under the extremely dubious theory that the people rounded up by ICE are all members of foreign gangs.</p>
  409. <p id="block-b9e4fcd7-97c0-4a4a-af4e-f89cefe57fb6">Of course, it&#8217;s not limited to warriors or wars. The Trump Administration is now just <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/27/trumps-secret-police-are-now-disappearing-students-for-their-op-eds/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/27/trumps-secret-police-are-now-disappearing-students-for-their-op-eds/">disappearing people for exercising their First Amendment rights</a>. But, in this case, the outlandish claim is that everyone who was arrested and flown (<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/21/james-boasberg-trump-administration-deportations-00003815" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/21/james-boasberg-trump-administration-deportations-00003815">in violation of a federal injunction!</a>) to El Salvador to rot in that country&#8217;s prisons is a member of gangs like MS-13 and&#8230; um&#8230; Tren de Aragua. </p>
  410. <p>Oh wait. You <em>haven&#8217;t</em> heard of Tren de Aragua, a.k.a. TdA? Don&#8217;t blame your service provider and/or your social media feeds. The gang Trump (sort of) declared &#8220;war&#8221; on is something new. It&#8217;s not MS-13. Apparently, it&#8217;s the new &#8220;most dangerous thing ever,&#8221; even if there&#8217;s nothing that demonstrates TdA is making the sort of inroads into America that MS-13 has. </p>
  411. <p>But Trump has always been able to round up rubes to help with the duping. That&#8217;s where New York City mayor Eric Adams &#8212; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/10/eric-adams-justice-department-trump" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/10/eric-adams-justice-department-trump">a recent recipient of Trump largesse</a> &#8212; comes into play, as <a href="https://hellgatenyc.com/eric-adams-nypd-tren-de-aragua/" data-type="link" data-id="https://hellgatenyc.com/eric-adams-nypd-tren-de-aragua/">Max Rivlin-Nadler reports for Hell Gate</a>. </p>
  412. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  413. <p><em>The Trump administration&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/alien-enemies-trump-immigration-deportations-21a62ede23b8c493b60d00a9c125722f?ref=hellgatenyc.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">has invoked</a>&nbsp;the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport more than 200 Venezuelans to a massive prison in El Salvador without any due process. How has the president justified using a 227-year-old law that has only been wielded during actual wars to override the Constitution? He&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/us/politics/intelligence-trump-venezuelan-gang-alien-enemies.html?ref=hellgatenyc.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">claims</a>&nbsp;these men are members of the gang &#8220;Tren de Aragua.&#8221;</em></p>
  414. <p><em>[&#8230;]</em></p>
  415. <p><em>[T]he NYPD and Mayor Eric Adams [&#8230;] spent much of 2024 pushing a narrative that New York,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/nyc-migrant-crisis-explained.html?ref=hellgatenyc.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">which is home to thousands</a>&nbsp;of recently-arrived Venezuelan migrants, is somehow being inundated with members of a small, relatively new regional gang that is named for the Tocorón prison in the Venezuelan state of Aragua.&nbsp;</em></p>
  416. <p><em>[&#8230;]</em></p>
  417. <p><em>&#8220;We believe they are participating in illegal behavior, and they&#8217;re the source of some of the increases in robberies and pattern robberies, particularly on scooters. And we continue to monitor the situation, but it is alarming,&#8221; Adams said. He added that Tren de Aragua was &#8220;a very dangerous gang,&#8221; and that he had sent his NYPD deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism to Colombia to gather information.&nbsp;</em></p>
  418. </blockquote>
  419. <p>Scooter robberies? Vague &#8220;illegal behavior?&#8221; Well, no wonder Trump deployed his war powers to rid this country of a threat incapable of being coherently defined by the NYC mayor in the president&#8217;s back pocket. </p>
  420. <p>Supposedly the easiest way to identify members of a gang no one had really ever heard of before Trump started sending planeloads of non-white people to prisons in El Salvador is by their tattoos. After all, MS-13 is notorious for its inking and its members&#8217; inability to blend into any society that isn&#8217;t currently bathing itself in bathtub meth money. </p>
  421. <p>In fact, ICE has its own <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25873448-govuscourtsdcd2784366721/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25873448-govuscourtsdcd2784366721/">guide</a> [PDF] for identifying TdA members by their tattoos. But as American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/reichlinmelnick.bsky.social/post/3llmbqkgghc2a" data-type="link" data-id="https://bsky.app/profile/reichlinmelnick.bsky.social/post/3llmbqkgghc2a">pointed out on Bluesky</a>, the guidelines are somewhat even worse and more lax <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2020/01/15/lapd-officers-faked-reports-added-innocent-people-to-gang-database/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.techdirt.com/2020/01/15/lapd-officers-faked-reports-added-innocent-people-to-gang-database/">than the bullshit regular cops use</a> to place people in (domestic) gang databases.</p>
  422. <p>This nomination system uses points. Eight points is all it takes to get you labeled as someone fast-tracked for an indefinite prison sentence in a nation you weren&#8217;t even born in. A lot of this relies on tattoos. Four points for gang tattoos. Four points for <em>any</em> tattoo an ICE officer <em>believes</em> is a gang tattoo. Six points for texting anyone ICE <em>thinks</em> is a TdA member and 3 points for sending funds (via Cash app or other services) to anyone whose tattoos are presumed to be TdA-related. </p>
  423. <p>Even if someone fails to hit the 8-point threshold for immediate expulsion to El Salvador (and, remember, we&#8217;re dealing with alleged <em>Venezuelan</em> gang members here), points can be added by any ICE officer or supervisor willing to put their thumb on the scale. </p>
  424. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  425. <p><em>Aliens scoring 6 or 7 points may be validated as members of TDA; you should consult with a supervisor and OPLA, reviewing the totality of the facts, before making that determination; if you determine an alien should not be validated at this time as a member of TDA, when available, you should initiate removal proceedings under the INA.</em></p>
  426. </blockquote>
  427. <p>This ICE guidance &#8212; obtained by the ACLU &#8212; relies heavily on identifying TdA members by their tattoos. But there&#8217;s a massive logical flaw here: unlike MS-13, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/28/dhs-fbi-documents-question-tattoos-identification-tren-de-aragua/82695605007/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/28/dhs-fbi-documents-question-tattoos-identification-tren-de-aragua/82695605007/">TdA doesn&#8217;t treat tattoos as a basis for entry or a sign of loyalty</a>. ICE already knows this. So does the DHS. </p>
  428. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  429. <p><em>[I]nternal U.S. Department of Homeland Security and FBI documents obtained by USA TODAY reveal federal authorities for years have questioned the effectiveness of using tattoos to identify members of Tren de Aragua, also known as TdA.</em></p>
  430. <p><em>“<strong>Gang Unit collections determined that the Chicago Bulls attire, clocks, and rose tattoos are typically related to the Venezuelan culture and not a definite (indicator) of being a member or associate of the (TdA)</strong>,” reads a 2023 &#8220;Situational Awareness&#8221; bulletin on the criminal gang written by the U.S. Custom and Border Protection’s El Paso Sector Intelligence Unit.</em></p>
  431. <p><em>In another DHS document, titled “ICE Intel Leads,” a former Venezuelan police official interviewed by authorities said <strong>tattoos are “the easiest but least effective way” of identifying members of the criminal gang</strong>.&nbsp;</em></p>
  432. </blockquote>
  433. <p>Everyone who hasn&#8217;t been completely corrupted by their association with Trump knows the accepted method of identifying gang members doesn&#8217;t actually work. Everyone in the inner circle doesn&#8217;t care. And ICE has never given a shit one way or the other, so long as it&#8217;s able to hit the ever-escalating expulsion benchmarks set by the administration and backed by barely-sentient FEDZ<em>®</em> doll Kristi Noem, who <a href="https://apnews.com/video/homeland-security-secretary-visits-el-salvador-prison-where-deported-venezuelans-are-held-21e64ab4041544e0bf732571fb360370" data-type="link" data-id="https://apnews.com/video/homeland-security-secretary-visits-el-salvador-prison-where-deported-venezuelans-are-held-21e64ab4041544e0bf732571fb360370">decided to issue a &#8220;tough on crime&#8221; statement</a> in front of an overcrowded El Salvadoran prison cell <a href="https://www.keloland.com/keloland-com-original/controversy-over-noems-latest-homeland-security-video/" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.keloland.com/keloland-com-original/controversy-over-noems-latest-homeland-security-video/">while prominently displaying her $50,000 Rolex watch</a>. </p>
  434. <p>Between the bizarre invocation of the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans" data-type="link" data-id="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans">abuse of Japanese US residents</a> during World War II made it unfashionable and ICE&#8217;s enthusiasm for rounding up any foreigners officers come across, it&#8217;s no surprise areas where Latin Americans are a majority of the population are considered target-rich environments.</p>
  435. <p>What is surprising, however, is that <a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/03/30/nx-s1-5304236/police-say-ice-tactics-are-eroding-public-trust-in-local-law-enforcement" data-type="link" data-id="https://www.npr.org/2025/03/30/nx-s1-5304236/police-say-ice-tactics-are-eroding-public-trust-in-local-law-enforcement">some local law enforcement agencies are viewing ICE as the enemy</a> and the people they serve as people worth protecting from federal government overreach. </p>
  436. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  437. <p><em>In Santa Fe County, N.M., last month, local police leaders stood before a packed auditorium and showed photos of their uniforms so residents would know what they look like — and, more pointedly, what ICE does not.</em></p>
  438. </blockquote>
  439. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  440. <p><em>&#8220;Whatever happens around the country, whoever is president, you are our community. We are your officers,&#8221; Santa Fe Police Chief Paul Joye&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZOoEnwHqa8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>said with the help</u></a>&nbsp;of a Spanish interpreter. &#8220;It is a fundamental human right that you feel safe in your home regardless of where you&#8217;re from.&#8221;</em></p>
  441. <p><em>[&#8230;]</em></p>
  442. <p><em>Many police chiefs have opted to risk the ire of the federal government in an attempt to preserve trust with immigrant communities – a bond that can be tenuous even in the best of times.</em></p>
  443. <p><em>In Boston, when police commissioner Michael Cox pointed out last month that his agency&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wcvb.com/article/otr-bpd-commissioner-michael-cox-feb16/63801332" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>doesn&#8217;t have the authority</u></a>&nbsp;to enforce immigration law, Trump&#8217;s border czar, Tom Homan, said he&#8217;d&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/tom-homan-issues-warning-bostons-police-commissioner-2034915" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>&#8220;bring hell&#8221; to the city</u></a>. On March 24, ICE&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-law-enforcement-partners-arrest-370-alien-offenders-during-enhanced-operation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><u>arrested more than 300 people</u></a>&nbsp;in Massachusetts.</em></p>
  444. </blockquote>
  445. <p>It&#8217;s nice to know that at least a few cops aren&#8217;t on board with Trump&#8217;s anti-immigrant warfare. There&#8217;s still no unified front pushing back against ICE but every little bit helps. Unfortunately, none of this will matter to the Trump administration. It&#8217;s incapable of being shamed and it&#8217;s fine with massive amounts of collateral damage as long as its intended targets are included in the body count. </p>
  446. ]]></content:encoded>
  448. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/ice-is-using-pure-bullshit-to-turn-people-into-venezuelan-gang-members-to-keep-hitting-its-daily-arrest-quota/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  449. <slash:comments>24</slash:comments>
  452. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">488547</post-id> </item>
  453. <item>
  454. <title>Daily Deal: LabsDigest Subscription</title>
  455. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/daily-deal-labsdigest-subscription/</link>
  456. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/daily-deal-labsdigest-subscription/#respond</comments>
  458. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Daily Deal]]></dc:creator>
  459. <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2025 17:53:25 +0000</pubDate>
  460. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  461. <category><![CDATA[daily deal]]></category>
  462. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=489022&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=489022</guid>
  463.  
  464. <description><![CDATA[LabsDigest is built for those who learn best by doing. Whether you&#8217;re preparing for a CompTIA certification or diving into Python development, our platform offers interactive labs that simulate real-world tasks—no passive watching or reading, just real experience. Work through performance-based exercises for CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+, and more, or sharpen your coding skills with [&#8230;]]]></description>
  465. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://deals.techdirt.com/sales/lifetime-access-to-labsdigest?utm_campaign=affiliaterundown">LabsDigest</a> is built for those who learn best by doing. Whether you&#8217;re preparing for a CompTIA certification or diving into Python development, our platform offers interactive labs that simulate real-world tasks—no passive watching or reading, just real experience. Work through performance-based exercises for CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+, and more, or sharpen your coding skills with hands-on Python projects. Learn by solving problems, fixing bugs, and applying your knowledge in practical scenarios that prepare you for the real world. It&#8217;s on sale for $30.</p>
  466. <div class="wp-block-image">
  467. <figure class="aligncenter size-large"><a href="https://deals.techdirt.com/sales/lifetime-access-to-labsdigest?utm_campaign=affiliaterundown"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/cdnp2.stackassets.com/b58c6f0ab813ab22bacf5e116c08ab04028b6f79/store/ba282ae9ac85293a8d5c2f1de264f33afb9c5b1427d71aa01c50a955c433/product_345682_product_shots1.jpg?ssl=1" alt=""/></a></figure>
  468. </div>
  469. <p><em>Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt Deals helps support Techdirt. The products featured do not reflect endorsements by our editorial team.</em></p>
  470. ]]></content:encoded>
  472. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/daily-deal-labsdigest-subscription/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  473. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  476. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">489022</post-id> </item>
  477. <item>
  478. <title>But His Gmail: National Security Advisor Waltz&#8217;s Private Email Hypocrisy</title>
  479. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/but-his-gmail-national-security-advisor-waltzs-private-email-hypocrisy/</link>
  480. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/but-his-gmail-national-security-advisor-waltzs-private-email-hypocrisy/#comments</comments>
  482. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Masnick]]></dc:creator>
  483. <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2025 16:26:00 +0000</pubDate>
  484. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  485. <category><![CDATA[but her emails]]></category>
  486. <category><![CDATA[communications]]></category>
  487. <category><![CDATA[gmail]]></category>
  488. <category><![CDATA[mike waltz]]></category>
  489. <category><![CDATA[national security]]></category>
  490. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=488933</guid>
  491.  
  492. <description><![CDATA[Remember Mike Waltz? The National Security Advisor who&#8217;s spent the last few weeks demonstrating his profound inability to handle basic security? First, there was the illegal Signal chat where he accidentally added a journalist while discussing potential war crimes. Then we learned about his completely exposed Venmo contacts and leaked passwords. And now, in a [&#8230;]]]></description>
  493. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Remember Mike Waltz? The National Security Advisor who&#8217;s spent the last few weeks demonstrating his profound inability to handle basic security? First, there was the <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/25/but-their-signal-chats-trump-officials-share-war-plans-with-journalist/">illegal Signal chat</a> where he accidentally added a journalist while <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/27/even-if-those-werent-war-plans-in-hegseths-signal-chat-they-were-war-crimes/">discussing potential war crimes</a>. Then we learned about his <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/28/trumps-best-security-people-cant-figure-out-basic-security/">completely exposed Venmo contacts</a> and leaked passwords. And now, in a twist that would be too on-the-nose for fiction, it turns out the same official who previously demanded DOJ action over private email use… has been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/04/01/waltz-national-security-council-signal-gmail/">conducting government business through Gmail</a>.</p>
  494. <p>Ah, but her emails.</p>
  495. <p>All this seems less than great for the top “security” official in the administration.</p>
  496. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  497. <p><em>Members of President Donald Trump’s National Security Council, including White House national security adviser Michael Waltz, have conducted government business over personal Gmail accounts, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post and interviews with three U.S. officials.</em></p>
  498. <p><em>The use of Gmail, a far less secure method of communication than the encrypted messaging app Signal, is the latest example of questionable data security practices by top national security officials already under fire for the mistaken inclusion of a journalist in a group chat about high-level planning for military operations in Yemen.</em></p>
  499. <p><em>A senior Waltz aide used the commercial email service for highly technical conversations with colleagues at other government agencies involving sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems relating to an ongoing conflict, according to emails reviewed by The Post. While the NSC official used his Gmail account, his interagency colleagues used government-issued accounts, headers from the email correspondence show.</em></p>
  500. </blockquote>
  501. <p>This is, needless to say, pretty fucking bad. First, there&#8217;s the basic security incompetence: the National Security Advisor conducting sensitive government business through a commercial email service. Even if Gmail has robust security, it&#8217;s completely inappropriate for handling government communications — giving Google potential access to sensitive national security discussions that should never leave secured government systems.</p>
  502. <p>But more concerning is what this reveals about Waltz&#8217;s (lack of) judgment. As National Security Advisor, he&#8217;s one of the highest-value targets for foreign intelligence services. Every personal account, every commercial service he uses represents another potential vulnerability for adversaries to exploit. And given his demonstrated pattern of security failures — from exposed Venmo contacts to leaked passwords — it&#8217;s clear he&#8217;s making their job easier.</p>
  503. <p>The National Security Council&#8217;s response is a masterclass in missing the point (or, more accurately, misdirecting from the point). When pressed about &#8220;sensitive military matters&#8221; being discussed over Gmail, their spokesperson offered this gem:</p>
  504. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  505. <p><em>Hughes said NSC staff have guidance about using “only secure platforms for classified information.”</em></p>
  506. </blockquote>
  507. <p>This attempt at reassurance actually reveals the depth of the problem. The distinction isn&#8217;t just between classified and unclassified information — it&#8217;s about maintaining basic operational security for <em>all</em> sensitive government communications.</p>
  508. <p>And as if to underscore how little they grasp this, we learned from <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/mike-waltz-is-losing-support-inside-the-white-house-2b17459c">a WSJ article</a> that Waltz&#8217;s infamous Signal chat wasn&#8217;t a one-off mistake.</p>
  509. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  510. <p><em>Two U.S. officials also said that Waltz has created and hosted multiple other sensitive national security conversations on Signal with cabinet members, including separate threads on how to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine as well as military operations</em></p>
  511. </blockquote>
  512. <p>The scale of security failures here should be absolutely disqualifying for any administration official, let alone America&#8217;s top national security advisor. But what makes this situation particularly galling is Waltz&#8217;s own history of grandstanding about private email use. Here he is in a tweet that <strong>remains up</strong> from less than two years ago:</p>
  513. <div class="wp-block-image">
  514. <figure class="aligncenter"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/lex-img-p.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/img/075969a7-5bf7-4fb6-85fa-ac59d80f4dcb-RackMultipart20250401-159-5e25fs.png?ssl=1" alt=""/></figure>
  515. </div>
  516. <p>Yes, that&#8217;s the same Mike Waltz demanding DOJ action over private email use by a previous National Security Advisor. The hypocrisy would be merely annoying if the stakes weren&#8217;t so high. But this isn&#8217;t just about scoring political points — it&#8217;s about the fundamental security of our nation&#8217;s most sensitive communications.</p>
  517. <p>By Waltz&#8217;s own standard, articulated in that still-visible tweet, the DOJ should be investigating his wanton use of private commercial messaging services. But more importantly, someone needs to ask: if this is how carelessly our National Security Advisor handles basic operational security, what other vulnerabilities has he created that we don&#8217;t yet know about?</p>
  518. ]]></content:encoded>
  520. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/but-his-gmail-national-security-advisor-waltzs-private-email-hypocrisy/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  521. <slash:comments>22</slash:comments>
  524. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">488933</post-id> </item>
  525. <item>
  526. <title>A Bipartisan Roster Of Former FCC Officials Say  Trump FCC Boss Brendan Carr Is Taking A Giant Dump On The First Amendment</title>
  527. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/a-bipartisan-roster-of-former-fcc-officials-say-trump-fcc-boss-brendan-carr-is-taking-a-giant-dump-on-the-first-amendment/</link>
  528. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/a-bipartisan-roster-of-former-fcc-officials-say-trump-fcc-boss-brendan-carr-is-taking-a-giant-dump-on-the-first-amendment/#comments</comments>
  530. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Karl Bode]]></dc:creator>
  531. <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2025 12:23:00 +0000</pubDate>
  532. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  533. <category><![CDATA[authoritarian]]></category>
  534. <category><![CDATA[brendan carr]]></category>
  535. <category><![CDATA[fcc]]></category>
  536. <category><![CDATA[first amendment]]></category>
  537. <category><![CDATA[free speech]]></category>
  538. <category><![CDATA[journalism]]></category>
  539. <category><![CDATA[media]]></category>
  540. <category><![CDATA[mergers]]></category>
  541. <category><![CDATA[propaganda]]></category>
  542. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=488668&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=488668</guid>
  543.  
  544. <description><![CDATA[Last October,&#160;Trump sued CBS&#160;claiming (falsely) that a 60 Minutes interview of Kamala Harris had been “deceitfully edited” to her benefit (they simply shortened some of her answers for brevity, as news outlets often do). As&#160;Mike explored in a post at the time, the lawsuit was utterly baseless, and tramples the First Amendment, editorial discretion, and [&#8230;]]]></description>
  545. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Last October,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/11/04/trumps-latest-lawsuit-against-cbs-proves-hes-no-free-speech-champion/">Trump sued CBS</a>&nbsp;claiming (falsely) that a 60 Minutes interview of Kamala Harris had been “deceitfully edited” to her benefit (they simply shortened some of her answers for brevity, as news outlets often do). As&nbsp;<a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2024/11/04/trumps-latest-lawsuit-against-cbs-proves-hes-no-free-speech-champion/">Mike explored</a> in a post at the time, the lawsuit was utterly baseless, and tramples the First Amendment, editorial discretion, and common sense.</p>
  546. <p>CBS/Paramount is looking for regulatory approval for its <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skydance_Media">$8 billion merger with Skydance</a> (run by Larry Ellison’s kid David). Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr quickly zeroed on on this, and began using merger approval as leverage to bully CBS into even more feckless coverage of the administration. </p>
  547. <p>It&#8217;s part of a broader effort by Carr to abuse FCC authority to harass companies that aren&#8217;t suitably deferential to Trump, <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/fcc-boss-brendan-carr-investigating-verizon-for-not-being-racist-enough/">aren&#8217;t racist and sexist enough for the administration&#8217;s liking</a>, or might get the crazy idea of calling out the Trump administration&#8217;s bullshit. </p>
  548. <p>Carr&#8217;s increasingly unhinged behavior <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/03/ex-fcc-chairs-from-both-parties-say-cbs-news-distortion-investigation-is-bogus/">continues to attract a growing roster of critics</a>, including a bipartisan coalition of former Republican and Democrat officials who say Carr is taking a giant, heaping dump on the First Amendment with the CBS inquiry. That includes Republican Alfred Sikes, the FCC chair from 1989 to 1993, and Democrat Tom Wheeler, the FCC chair from 2013 to 2017.</p>
  549. <p>In a <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/1032657330681/1">filing submitted to the FCC</a> last week, the former commissioners all make it clear Carr is abusing the FCC&#8217;s news distortion rules to attack journalism:</p>
  550. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  551. <p><em>&#8220;&#8230;The Commission is signaling to broadcasters that it will indeed act at the behest of the White House by closely scrutinizing the content of news coverage and threatening the regulatory licenses of broadcasters whose news outlets produce coverage that does not pass muster in the President’s view. </p>
  552. <p>We recommend the Commission reverse course, closing this proceeding without further action and reaffirming its long-held commitment to acting as an independent agency rather than the White House’s personal censor.&#8221;</em></p>
  553. </blockquote>
  554. <p>How polite. The former commissioners are careful to suggest the Carr FCC &#8220;may be seeking to censor the news media in a manner antithetical to the First Amendment,&#8221; not that they&#8217;re <strong>actually</strong> and <strong>obviously</strong> censoring the news media and trampling the First Amendment, lest somebody get upset.</p>
  555. <p>Carr is trying to claim that the minor edits done by CBS violate a longstanding “<a href="https://www.fcc.gov/broadcast-news-distortion">Broadcast News Distortion</a>” policy that’s almost never enforced by the agency, which has largely given up on media regulations under both parties. The policy in question says violations must involve clear distortion of “a significant event and not merely a minor or incidental aspect of the news report.”</p>
  556. <p>That means hard proof of something like a bribe by a company or politicians to change news coverage, and that clearly doesn’t apply here. Trumpism is just making baseless accusations against CBS, knowing that even if CBS isn’t actually found guilty of anything, it allows the vast&nbsp;<a href="https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/01/02/americas-right-wing-propaganda-problem-might-be-terminal/">GOP propaganda machine</a>&nbsp;to generate entire news cycles suggesting that 60 Minutes did something nefarious.</p>
  557. <p>That further props up the right wing victimization machine, forging greater hostility to real journalism or anybody who might be inclined to poke holes in <a href="https://www.damemagazine.com/2025/01/02/americas-right-wing-propaganda-problem-might-be-terminal/">authoritarian propaganda</a>. All while authoritarians pretend that protecting free speech is among their <strong>top</strong> priorities. </p>
  558. ]]></content:encoded>
  560. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/a-bipartisan-roster-of-former-fcc-officials-say-trump-fcc-boss-brendan-carr-is-taking-a-giant-dump-on-the-first-amendment/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  561. <slash:comments>18</slash:comments>
  564. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">488668</post-id> </item>
  565. </channel>
  566. </rss>
  567.  

If you would like to create a banner that links to this page (i.e. this validation result), do the following:

  1. Download the "valid RSS" banner.

  2. Upload the image to your own server. (This step is important. Please do not link directly to the image on this server.)

  3. Add this HTML to your page (change the image src attribute if necessary):

If you would like to create a text link instead, here is the URL you can use:

http://www.feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A//feeds.techdirt.com/techdirt/feed

Home · About · News · Docs · Terms

 
Copyright © 2002-9 Sam Ruby, Mark Pilgrim, Joseph Walton, and Phil Ringnalda