Features
The Specter of AI-Generated 'Leaked Songs' Is Tearing the Harry Styles Fandom Apart
Dozens of unreleased Harry Styles songs have leaked on underground Discords in the last month. The fandom can't decide if they're real or AI-generated.
News
Masked Man Filmed Smashing San Francisco RoboTaxi With Hammer
A Cruise robotaxi was bashed repeatedly with a hammer and spraypainted in the middle of a San Francisco intersection.
News
Archivists Back Up Nonprofit TV History Museum Before Sony Copystrikes Get It Taken Down From YouTube
The Museum of Classic Chicago Television eventually came back up, but the incident shows how fragile our shared history is in an age of overzealous copyright enforcement.
FOIA
Our First FOIA Forum! 09/14, 2PM EST
We are hosting our first FOIA Forum next Thursday. Join the livestream, file FOIAs with us, get tips, and more.
News
Let's Check What Drugs, Guns, and Counterfeit Money Instagram Is Advertising Today
Two weeks after a 404 Media investigation, let’s see if Meta has learned to do a basic search of its own platform.
Features
Buzzy AI Startup for Generating 3D Models Used Cheap Human Labor
Kaedim's founder was recently in a Forbes 30 Under 30 list for the company's 2D to 3D image conversion. In some cases artists produced the work wholecloth, one source said.
FOIA
Florida Demands Thousands of Dollars for Public Records About Ron DeSantis's Culture War in Schools
$7,741 to search emails about AP Psychology. $2,416 for details about why a substitute teacher was fired after posting video of empty library bookshelves. $360.20 for documents a school district first claimed didn't exist.
News
Tesla, Which Has Fought Repair Constantly: ‘Tesla’s History of Supporting Right to Repair Is Well-Documented’
Documentation of Tesla's support of right to repair is difficult to find. Documentation of all the things it's done to make Teslas harder to repair is not.
Good Enough
How to Get Into Film Photography (And Why You Should)
Shooting film is expensive, slow, and incredibly inconvenient. That's what makes it so magical.
News
Scientologists Ask Federal Government to Restrict Right to Repair
A group representing L. Ron Hubbard asked the Copyright Office to alter a repair exemption that makes it legal to hack Scientology's E-Meter—and lots of other electronics, too.
News
iFixit Tears Down McDonald's McFlurry Machine, Petitions Government for Right to Hack Them
iFixit tears down a notoriously unreliable McDonald’s ice cream machine: “The error codes are nonsensical, counterintuitive, and seemingly random.”
FOIA
‘Clear as Mud:’ Internal Emails Show Superintendents Struggling to Comply With ‘Don't Say Gay' Law
Documents obtained by 404 Media show Florida educators held emergency meetings to figure out if schools could teach AP Psychology without breaking the law.