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  31. <title>Otherwise Objectionable: When Congress Ridiculously Tried Merging Censorship With Freedom</title>
  32. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/otherwise-objectionable-when-congress-ridiculously-tried-merging-censorship-with-freedom/</link>
  33. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/otherwise-objectionable-when-congress-ridiculously-tried-merging-censorship-with-freedom/#comments</comments>
  35. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Masnick]]></dc:creator>
  36. <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2025 22:59:18 +0000</pubDate>
  37. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  38. <category><![CDATA[censorship]]></category>
  39. <category><![CDATA[chris cox]]></category>
  40. <category><![CDATA[free speech]]></category>
  41. <category><![CDATA[james exon]]></category>
  42. <category><![CDATA[otherwise objectionable]]></category>
  43. <category><![CDATA[responsibility]]></category>
  44. <category><![CDATA[ron wyden]]></category>
  45. <category><![CDATA[section 230]]></category>
  46. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=489046</guid>
  47.  
  48. <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>
  49. <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>
  50. <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>
  51. <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>
  52. <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>
  53. <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>
  54. <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>
  55. ]]></content:encoded>
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  58. <slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
  61. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">489046</post-id> </item>
  62. <item>
  63. <title>Trump&#8217;s Buddies At Andreesen Horowitz Want To Help Buy TikTok, Turn It Into A Right Wing Safe Space</title>
  64. <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>
  65. <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>
  67. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Karl Bode]]></dc:creator>
  68. <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2025 20:48:06 +0000</pubDate>
  69. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  70. <category><![CDATA[amazon]]></category>
  71. <category><![CDATA[andreessen horowitz]]></category>
  72. <category><![CDATA[bytedance]]></category>
  73. <category><![CDATA[oracle]]></category>
  74. <category><![CDATA[tiktok]]></category>
  75. <category><![CDATA[authoritarian]]></category>
  76. <category><![CDATA[competition]]></category>
  77. <category><![CDATA[content moderation]]></category>
  78. <category><![CDATA[corruption]]></category>
  79. <category><![CDATA[disinformation]]></category>
  80. <category><![CDATA[donald trump]]></category>
  81. <category><![CDATA[jeff bezos]]></category>
  82. <category><![CDATA[marc andreessen]]></category>
  83. <category><![CDATA[propaganda]]></category>
  84. <category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
  85. <category><![CDATA[tiktok ban]]></category>
  86. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=488998&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=488998</guid>
  87.  
  88. <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>
  89. <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>
  90. <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>
  91. <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>
  92. <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>
  93. <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>
  94. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  95. <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>
  96. </blockquote>
  97. <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>
  98. <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>
  99. <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>
  100. <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>
  101. <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>
  102. <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>
  103. <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>
  104. <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>
  105. <p>Really a great job on all fronts, from policymakers to U.S. journalism. Everybody really nailed it.</p>
  106. <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>
  107. <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>
  108. ]]></content:encoded>
  110. <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>
  111. <slash:comments>11</slash:comments>
  114. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">488998</post-id> </item>
  115. <item>
  116. <title>230 Protects Users, Not Big Tech</title>
  117. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/230-protects-users-not-big-tech/</link>
  118. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/230-protects-users-not-big-tech/#comments</comments>
  120. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Masnick]]></dc:creator>
  121. <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2025 19:11:07 +0000</pubDate>
  122. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  123. <category><![CDATA[content moderation]]></category>
  124. <category><![CDATA[section 230]]></category>
  125. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=488583</guid>
  126.  
  127. <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>
  128. <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>
  129. <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>
  130. <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>
  131. <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>
  132. <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>
  133. <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>
  134. <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>
  135. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Section 230 Protects Everyday Internet Users&nbsp;</strong></h3>
  136. <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>
  137. <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>
  138. <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>
  139. <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>
  140. <h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Deleting Section 230 Will Create A Field Day For The Internet’s Worst Users&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></h3>
  141. <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>
  142. <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>
  143. <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>
  144. <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>
  145. <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>
  146. ]]></content:encoded>
  148. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/230-protects-users-not-big-tech/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  149. <slash:comments>9</slash:comments>
  152. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">488583</post-id> </item>
  153. <item>
  154. <title>ICE Is Using Pure Bullshit To Turn People Into Venezuelan Gang Members To Keep Hitting Its Daily Arrest Quota</title>
  155. <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>
  156. <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>
  158. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Tim Cushing]]></dc:creator>
  159. <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2025 17:58:25 +0000</pubDate>
  160. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  161. <category><![CDATA[dhs]]></category>
  162. <category><![CDATA[donald trump]]></category>
  163. <category><![CDATA[due process]]></category>
  164. <category><![CDATA[gang databases]]></category>
  165. <category><![CDATA[ice]]></category>
  166. <category><![CDATA[immigration]]></category>
  167. <category><![CDATA[kristi noem]]></category>
  168. <category><![CDATA[tattoos]]></category>
  169. <category><![CDATA[tren de aragua]]></category>
  170. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=488547&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=488547</guid>
  171.  
  172. <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>
  173. <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>
  174. <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>
  175. <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>
  176. <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>
  177. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  178. <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>
  179. <p><em>[&#8230;]</em></p>
  180. <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>
  181. <p><em>[&#8230;]</em></p>
  182. <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>
  183. </blockquote>
  184. <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>
  185. <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>
  186. <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>
  187. <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>
  188. <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>
  189. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  190. <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>
  191. </blockquote>
  192. <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>
  193. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  194. <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>
  195. <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>
  196. <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>
  197. </blockquote>
  198. <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>
  199. <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>
  200. <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>
  201. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  202. <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>
  203. </blockquote>
  204. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  205. <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>
  206. <p><em>[&#8230;]</em></p>
  207. <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>
  208. <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>
  209. </blockquote>
  210. <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>
  211. ]]></content:encoded>
  213. <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>
  214. <slash:comments>17</slash:comments>
  217. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">488547</post-id> </item>
  218. <item>
  219. <title>Daily Deal: LabsDigest Subscription</title>
  220. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/daily-deal-labsdigest-subscription/</link>
  221. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/daily-deal-labsdigest-subscription/#respond</comments>
  223. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Daily Deal]]></dc:creator>
  224. <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2025 17:53:25 +0000</pubDate>
  225. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  226. <category><![CDATA[daily deal]]></category>
  227. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=489022&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=489022</guid>
  228.  
  229. <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>
  230. <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>
  231. <div class="wp-block-image">
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  235. ]]></content:encoded>
  237. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/daily-deal-labsdigest-subscription/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  238. <slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
  241. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">489022</post-id> </item>
  242. <item>
  243. <title>But His Gmail: National Security Advisor Waltz&#8217;s Private Email Hypocrisy</title>
  244. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/but-his-gmail-national-security-advisor-waltzs-private-email-hypocrisy/</link>
  245. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/but-his-gmail-national-security-advisor-waltzs-private-email-hypocrisy/#comments</comments>
  247. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Masnick]]></dc:creator>
  248. <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2025 16:26:00 +0000</pubDate>
  249. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  250. <category><![CDATA[but her emails]]></category>
  251. <category><![CDATA[communications]]></category>
  252. <category><![CDATA[gmail]]></category>
  253. <category><![CDATA[mike waltz]]></category>
  254. <category><![CDATA[national security]]></category>
  255. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=488933</guid>
  256.  
  257. <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>
  258. <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>
  259. <p>Ah, but her emails.</p>
  260. <p>All this seems less than great for the top “security” official in the administration.</p>
  261. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  262. <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>
  263. <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>
  264. <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>
  265. </blockquote>
  266. <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>
  267. <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>
  268. <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>
  269. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  270. <p><em>Hughes said NSC staff have guidance about using “only secure platforms for classified information.”</em></p>
  271. </blockquote>
  272. <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>
  273. <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>
  274. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  275. <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>
  276. </blockquote>
  277. <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>
  278. <div class="wp-block-image">
  279. <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>
  280. </div>
  281. <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>
  282. <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>
  283. ]]></content:encoded>
  285. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/02/but-his-gmail-national-security-advisor-waltzs-private-email-hypocrisy/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  286. <slash:comments>20</slash:comments>
  289. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">488933</post-id> </item>
  290. <item>
  291. <title>A Bipartisan Roster Of Former FCC Officials Say  Trump FCC Boss Brendan Carr Is Taking A Giant Dump On The First Amendment</title>
  292. <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>
  293. <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>
  295. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Karl Bode]]></dc:creator>
  296. <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2025 12:23:00 +0000</pubDate>
  297. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  298. <category><![CDATA[authoritarian]]></category>
  299. <category><![CDATA[brendan carr]]></category>
  300. <category><![CDATA[fcc]]></category>
  301. <category><![CDATA[first amendment]]></category>
  302. <category><![CDATA[free speech]]></category>
  303. <category><![CDATA[journalism]]></category>
  304. <category><![CDATA[media]]></category>
  305. <category><![CDATA[mergers]]></category>
  306. <category><![CDATA[propaganda]]></category>
  307. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=488668&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=488668</guid>
  308.  
  309. <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>
  310. <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>
  311. <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>
  312. <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>
  313. <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>
  314. <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>
  315. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  316. <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>
  317. <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>
  318. </blockquote>
  319. <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>
  320. <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>
  321. <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>
  322. <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>
  323. ]]></content:encoded>
  325. <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>
  326. <slash:comments>18</slash:comments>
  329. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">488668</post-id> </item>
  330. <item>
  331. <title>Measles &#038; Vitamin A Toxicity: How RFK Jr. Is Compounding The Outbreak Problem</title>
  332. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/01/measles-vitamin-a-toxicity-how-rfk-jr-is-compounding-the-outbreak-problem/</link>
  333. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/01/measles-vitamin-a-toxicity-how-rfk-jr-is-compounding-the-outbreak-problem/#comments</comments>
  335. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Dark Helmet]]></dc:creator>
  336. <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2025 03:15:00 +0000</pubDate>
  337. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  338. <category><![CDATA[health]]></category>
  339. <category><![CDATA[health and human services]]></category>
  340. <category><![CDATA[measles]]></category>
  341. <category><![CDATA[mmr]]></category>
  342. <category><![CDATA[outbreak]]></category>
  343. <category><![CDATA[rfk jr.]]></category>
  344. <category><![CDATA[vaccines]]></category>
  345. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=488863&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=488863</guid>
  346.  
  347. <description><![CDATA[The measles outbreak is not going away and RFK Jr. is making it worse. There is no need for equivocation in that statement. The facts are plain for all to see. Through a combination of half-hearted statements on getting the MMR vaccine followed up first by a pivot to nutrition, then another pivot to purposeful [&#8230;]]]></description>
  348. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The measles outbreak is not going away and RFK Jr. is making it worse. There is no need for equivocation in that statement. The facts are plain for all to see. Through a combination of half-hearted statements on getting the MMR vaccine followed up first by a pivot to <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/12/rfk-jr-blames-malnutrition-for-measles-outbreaks-severe-illnesses-and-deaths/">nutrition</a>, then another pivot to <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/17/there-it-is-rfk-jr-suggests-best-strategy-for-combatting-measles-is-for-everyone-to-get-it/">purposeful exposure</a> being the best course, only for there to be <em>another</em> pivot to so-called &#8220;alternative treatments&#8221; for measles such as <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2025/03/27/the-consequences-of-an-rfk-jr-hhs-appointment-are-smacking-our-children-in-the-face/">Vitamin A</a> and cod liver oil, the Secretary for Health and Human Services is on a course to make the humans under his care less healthy. </p>
  349. <p>The last time I wrote about this topic was in the last week of March. Here was the measles outbreak data at the time of that writing.</p>
  350. <div class="wp-block-image">
  351. <figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img data-recalc-dims="1" fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" width="415" height="859" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/image-1.png?resize=415%2C859&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-488884" style="width:284px;height:auto" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/image-1.png?w=415&amp;ssl=1 415w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/image-1.png?resize=145%2C300&amp;ssl=1 145w" sizes="(max-width: 415px) 100vw, 415px" /></figure>
  352. </div>
  353. <p>And here it is today, roughly a week later.</p>
  354. <div class="wp-block-image">
  355. <figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="423" height="865" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/image-2.png?resize=423%2C865&#038;ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-488885" style="width:282px;height:auto" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/image-2.png?w=423&amp;ssl=1 423w, https://i0.wp.com/www.techdirt.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/image-2.png?resize=147%2C300&amp;ssl=1 147w" sizes="(max-width: 423px) 100vw, 423px" /></figure>
  356. </div>
  357. <p>Over a 100 more confirmed cases, with more likely unconfirmed out there, in a week. The biggest jump in those numbers are among children, while the overwhelming percentage of the impacted by the disease are unvaccinated. We&#8217;re currently on pace to have the most <a href="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/measles/us-measles-cases-approach-500-worst-year-2019">total measles cases in America since 2019</a>, when there were 1,274 cases, also as a result of outbreaks among the unvaccinated, largely in the south and in certain religious groups in New York.</p>
  358. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  359. <p><em>Cases this year are tracking well above the 285 cases reported for all of 2024 and are at the highest level since 2019 when 1,249 cases were reported. Most of those cases were reported in underimmunized, close-knit communities, including two outbreaks in New York’s Orthodox Jewish communities.</em></p>
  360. <p><em>The surge in cases that year, the highest since 1992, threatened the United States’ measles elimination status.</em></p>
  361. </blockquote>
  362. <p>The problem, of course, is that we&#8217;re only in the beginning stages here. It&#8217;s April and we&#8217;re already eclipsing the total annual cases of the previous year. It may seem like we&#8217;re tracking under the 2019 numbers, but that&#8217;s only if you ignore the exponential nature of outbreak growths that aren&#8217;t properly managed. Infectious diseases, as it turns out, typically have trouble obeying the speed limit.</p>
  363. <p>RFK Jr. is compounding the problem in multiple ways. His hesitancy on vaccination, to put it unbelievably mildly, is preventing the best cure for this outbreak from being implemented. His advocacy and garbled imprecise language around alternative treatments that <em>didn&#8217;t</em> result in measles being officially obliterated has led to other negative healthcare outcomes, such <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rfk-jr-vitamin-a-toxicity-measles_l_67e6a46ee4b086a4e8de55cf">as Vitamin A toxicity</a>. Again, in children.</p>
  364. <p>Dr. Anita Patel and Joel Bervell are among many concerned that RFK Jr.&#8217;s inability to understand either the science or how to communicate to the public is garbling the message. She rightly notes that concentrated application of Vitamin A <em>in a hospital setting by medical professionals</em> can indeed serve as a treatment for measles post-infection. But that is where the agreement ends.</p>
  365. <blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
  366. <p><em>“The kernel of truth is that he’s right. Vitamin A at very high doses — high doses that you would never administer by yourself at home — but high-dose vitamin A administered in the hospital has shown to reduce both mortality and duration and severity of [measles] illness,” Patel said.</em></p>
  367. <p><em>“The lack of truth in the statement he made is that giving vitamin A in the form of cod liver oil as like a panacea for all the people in Texas &#8230; is unequivocally wrong,” Patel added.</em></p>
  368. <p><em>More, taking too much of any vitamin, including vitamin A, can lead to complications and toxicity, Bervell said. “It can cause &#8230; liver damage to fatigue to hair loss and headaches.” According to Texas Public Radio, the hospitalized children who are now being treated for vitamin A toxicity have abnormal liver function.</em></p>
  369. <p><em>Vitamin A also can interact with other medications, which can lead to more problems, Patel said.</em></p>
  370. </blockquote>
  371. <p>I&#8217;m going to keep stating this for as long as it takes: none of this is necessary. We have the preventative cure for measles: the MMR vaccine. It&#8217;s been employed for decades. The scientific community and studies done indicate the vaccine is safe for most people. Far safer than, say, measles. </p>
  372. <p>Public policy has to be made in ways that are extremely clear. The average American doesn&#8217;t have the training to know that the amount of Vitamin A in cod liver varies wildly. They don&#8217;t know that there is such a thing as too much Vitamin A. They don&#8217;t know what herd immunity is or why it&#8217;s important. And they have no memory of a time when measles was rampant, nor the devastating consequences it can bring, even for those that survive it.</p>
  373. <p>RFK Jr. has demonstrated that he is either completely incapable of leading on this issue, or else he&#8217;s too ego-driven to reverse his stance on vaccinations to put an end to it. And while I&#8217;m not one who thinks compulsory vaccinations should be mandated, it&#8217;s also simply the case that the man doesn&#8217;t have to offer up any alternative treatments or crackpot theories about how to combat it, either. Someone must do something better on this.</p>
  374. <p>Or else we could see Warp Speed 2 put in place. Only this time, instead of an effort to manufacture a vaccine, it will be an industrial effort to build tiny coffins.</p>
  375. ]]></content:encoded>
  377. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/01/measles-vitamin-a-toxicity-how-rfk-jr-is-compounding-the-outbreak-problem/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  378. <slash:comments>20</slash:comments>
  381. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">488863</post-id> </item>
  382. <item>
  383. <title>The Normalization Of Autocracy</title>
  384. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/01/the-normalization-of-autocracy/</link>
  385. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/01/the-normalization-of-autocracy/#comments</comments>
  387. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Masnick]]></dc:creator>
  388. <pubDate>Tue, 01 Apr 2025 22:33:01 +0000</pubDate>
  389. <category><![CDATA[whca]]></category>
  390. <category><![CDATA[amber ruffin]]></category>
  391. <category><![CDATA[capitulation]]></category>
  392. <category><![CDATA[correspondents dinner]]></category>
  393. <category><![CDATA[free speech]]></category>
  394. <category><![CDATA[press freedom]]></category>
  395. <category><![CDATA[truth to power]]></category>
  396. <category><![CDATA[white house]]></category>
  397. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=488587</guid>
  398.  
  399. <description><![CDATA[The White House Correspondents Association has just&#160;capitulated&#160;to pressure from the Trump administration by removing comedian Amber Ruffin from its annual dinner. Their stated reason? “To ensure the focus is not on the politics of division.” This seemingly minor capitulation reveals something profound about how democracy dies—not through dramatic confrontation, but through a thousand small surrenders [&#8230;]]]></description>
  400. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The White House Correspondents Association has just&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mediaite.com/news/breaking-whca-backs-down-on-anti-trump-comic-hosting-dinner-to-ensure-focus-is-not-on-politics-of-division-after-trump-admin-complains/">capitulated</a>&nbsp;to pressure from the Trump administration by removing comedian Amber Ruffin from its annual dinner. Their stated reason? “To ensure the focus is not on the politics of division.” This seemingly minor capitulation reveals something profound about how democracy dies—not through dramatic confrontation, but through a thousand small surrenders dressed up as civility, bridge-building, and institutional preservation.</p>
  401. <p>Let&#8217;s be absolutely clear about what happened: A comedian called members of an administration implementing policies that deport people to face torture without due process “murderers” who aren&#8217;t “human beings.” The administration demanded she be removed. And instead of defending the principle of free expression—supposedly the cornerstone value of a press organization—the WHCA unanimously backed down.</p>
  402. <p>Two plus two equals four. There are twenty-four hours in a day. And no amount of high-minded rhetoric about “re-envisioning our dinner tradition” can disguise what this represents: the normalization of autocracy through the quiet surrender of institutions that should be democracy&#8217;s strongest defenders.</p>
  403. <p>This pattern has become distressingly familiar. Institutions faced with authoritarian pressure justify their capitulation as pragmatism, as bridge-building, as focusing on what “really matters.” But with each surrender, the space for democratic resistance narrows. With each concession, autocratic behavior becomes more normalized. With each institutional compromise, the cost of standing firm increases.</p>
  404. <p>What makes this particular surrender so revealing is how it exposes the moral compromise at the heart of institutional responses to democratic backsliding. The WHCA isn&#8217;t some random organization—it&#8217;s a body explicitly dedicated to protecting press freedom. Its very purpose is to defend the right to speak truth to power. Yet when actually confronted with power&#8217;s displeasure, they didn&#8217;t just modify their approach—they unanimously abandoned it.</p>
  405. <p>The language of their surrender is particularly telling. By framing a comedian&#8217;s criticism of an administration implementing objectively cruel policies as “the politics of division,” they implicitly position resistance to autocracy as equivalent to autocracy itself. This both-sides framing, where calling out authoritarian behavior is treated as equally problematic as the behavior itself, reveals a profound moral confusion about what democracy requires.</p>
  406. <p>Democracy doesn&#8217;t depend on everyone being polite to each other. It doesn&#8217;t require critics of power to moderate their language so that those in power don&#8217;t feel uncomfortable. What democracy absolutely requires is that power be held accountable—that its abuses be named clearly, that institutions stand firm against authoritarian pressure, that the right to criticize those in power be defended even when that criticism is harsh.</p>
  407. <p>What&#8217;s most disturbing about the WHCA&#8217;s capitulation is how it reflects a broader pattern of institutional surrender. From media organizations that prioritize access over accountability, to universities abandoning academic freedom in the face of political pressure, to corporations quietly accommodating authoritarian demands to maintain market position—our democratic institutions are failing at precisely the moment when they should be standing firm.</p>
  408. <p>This dynamic creates what political scientists call “democratic erosion”—a process where democracy isn&#8217;t overthrown in a dramatic coup, but gradually hollowed out from within as its institutional guardians surrender its core principles one by one. Each surrender is justified as a practical necessity, as avoiding unnecessary conflict, as focusing on what “really matters.” But what could matter more than defending democracy itself?</p>
  409. <p>The WHCA&#8217;s decision reflects a profound misunderstanding of the current moment. They appear to believe that by removing a potential source of conflict, they&#8217;re preserving their institutional role. But in an autocratic system, institutions don&#8217;t maintain their independence by accommodation—they survive only as long as they&#8217;re useful to power. By demonstrating their willingness to self-censor in response to government pressure, the WHCA hasn&#8217;t preserved its independence; it has signaled its fundamental malleability.</p>
  410. <p>What makes this particularly dangerous is how it shifts the Overton window of acceptable government behavior. When an administration can successfully pressure a press organization to remove a critic, that success becomes a precedent for more aggressive interventions. Today it&#8217;s removing a comedian from a dinner; tomorrow it&#8217;s demanding the firing of reporters whose coverage is deemed unfair. Each successful intervention makes the next one easier.</p>
  411. <p>To frame this capitulation as “bridge-building” rather than surrendering to power is, to use a term I don&#8217;t employ lightly, gaslighting. It&#8217;s attempting to convince us that defending basic democratic principles is somehow divisive, that holding power accountable is somehow partisan, that standing firm against authoritarian pressure is somehow counterproductive.</p>
  412. <p>This isn&#8217;t bridge-building—it&#8217;s burning the bridges of democratic accountability while pretending to strengthen them. It&#8217;s abandoning the very principles that make a free press possible while claiming to celebrate them. It&#8217;s normalizing autocracy while pretending to preserve democracy.</p>
  413. <p>The institutions we&#8217;ve trusted to defend democratic norms are failing us—not because they&#8217;re being violently overthrown, but because they&#8217;re voluntarily surrendering their independence in the name of civility, access, and institutional preservation. They&#8217;re choosing the appearance of normality over the reality of resistance, prioritizing their short-term institutional comfort over their long-term democratic purpose.</p>
  414. <p>What&#8217;s perhaps most distressing is how quickly this surrender happened. One complaint from a White House official about harsh criticism, and an institution ostensibly dedicated to press freedom unanimously abandons its plans. When resistance collapses this easily, what hope is there for holding the line against more significant authoritarian pressures?</p>
  415. <p>We must recognize these small surrenders for what they are: not pragmatic accommodations, but moral abdications that cumulatively threaten democracy itself. Every institution that bends to authoritarian pressure makes it harder for others to stand firm. Every principle abandoned in the name of civility weakens the foundations of democratic governance.</p>
  416. <p>Two plus two equals four. There are twenty-four hours in a day. And no amount of institutional compromise will protect democracy if the institutions themselves abandon the principles they were created to defend. The path to autocracy isn&#8217;t paved with dramatic confrontations but with quiet capitulations justified as reasonable accommodations to power.</p>
  417. <p>The WHCA&#8217;s surrender is a warning—not just about a dinner or a comedian, but about how democracy dies. Not with a bang, but with a careful, consensus-driven press release explaining why principled resistance to power is simply too divisive to maintain.</p>
  418. <p><em>Mike Brock is a former tech exec who was on the leadership team at Block. Originally published at his <a href="https://www.notesfromthecircus.com/p/the-normalization-of-autocracy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Notes From the Circus</a></em>.</p>
  419. ]]></content:encoded>
  421. <wfw:commentRss>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/01/the-normalization-of-autocracy/comments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
  422. <slash:comments>24</slash:comments>
  425. <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">488587</post-id> </item>
  426. <item>
  427. <title>Techdirt Podcast Episode 413: Ron Wyden On Chutzpah</title>
  428. <link>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/01/techdirt-podcast-episode-413-ron-wyden-on-chutzpah/</link>
  429. <comments>https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/01/techdirt-podcast-episode-413-ron-wyden-on-chutzpah/#comments</comments>
  431. <dc:creator><![CDATA[Leigh Beadon]]></dc:creator>
  432. <pubDate>Tue, 01 Apr 2025 20:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
  433. <category><![CDATA[1]]></category>
  434. <category><![CDATA[podcast]]></category>
  435. <category><![CDATA[politics]]></category>
  436. <category><![CDATA[ron wyden]]></category>
  437. <guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.techdirt.com/?p=488905&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=488905</guid>
  438.  
  439. <description><![CDATA[Support us on Patreon&#160;&#187; If you&#8217;re a Techdirt reader, you&#8217;re probably familiar with Senator Ron Wyden. In January, he released his new book It Takes Chutzpah, offering up a call for political boldness that feels even more relevant with every day that passes. This week, Senator Wyden joins Mike on the podcast to talk about [&#8230;]]]></description>
  440. <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div style="float: right; margin-left: 12px; margin-bottom: 8px; line-height: 1; padding: 8px; border: 2px solid rgb(26, 81, 143);font-weight:bold;"><a href="https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=4450624&amp;redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.patreon.com%2Ftechdirt">Support us on Patreon&nbsp;&raquo;</a></div>
  441. <p>If you&#8217;re a Techdirt reader, you&#8217;re probably familiar with Senator Ron Wyden. In January, he released his new book <em><a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/It_Takes_Chutzpah.html?id=4nIGEQAAQBAJ&amp;redir_esc=y">It Takes Chutzpah</a>,</em> offering up a call for political boldness that feels even more relevant with every day that passes. This week, Senator Wyden joins Mike on the podcast to <a href="https://soundcloud.com/techdirt/ron-wyden-on-chutzpah">talk about the book and the political moment we find ourselves in</a>.</p>
  442. <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-soundcloud wp-block-embed-soundcloud">
  443. <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
  444. <iframe loading="lazy" title="Ron Wyden On Chutzpah by Techdirt" width="500" height="400" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?visual=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F2068613024&#038;show_artwork=true&#038;maxheight=750&#038;maxwidth=500"></iframe>
  445. </div>
  446. </figure>
  447. <p>You can also <a href="https://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/2068613024-techdirt-ron-wyden-on-chutzpah.mp3" download="">download this episode directly</a> in MP3 format.</p>
  448. <p><em>Follow the Techdirt Podcast on <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://soundcloud.com/techdirt" target="_blank">Soundcloud</a>, subscribe via <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/techdirt/id940871872?mt=2" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://open.spotify.com/show/6qXCFL3MjSpiD8O0pZgcsi" target="_blank">Spotify</a>, or grab the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.techdirt.com/podcast.xml" target="_blank">RSS feed</a>. You can also keep up with all the latest episodes <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/blog/podcast/">right here on Techdirt</a>.</em></p></p>
  449. ]]></content:encoded>
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