Meta Sues Alleged Violent Extortionist For Holding Instagram Accounts Hostage
Idriss Qibaa, a “professional when it comes to the banning and unbanning of Instagram accounts" who ran “Unlocked 4 Life,” claimed he made more than $600,000 a month.
dei
Researcher Captures Contents of ‘DEI.gov’ Before It Was Hidden Behind a Password
The list includes budget claims like "$3.4 million for Malaysian drug-fueled gay sex app" and "Disbursed $15,000 to 'queer' Muslim writers in India."
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Backdoors and the Miracle of Wikipedia
This week, we discuss Apple's iCloud, Wikipedia as a miracle of humankind, and good soup.
AI
Lawyers Caught Citing AI-Hallucinated Cases Call It a 'Cautionary Tale'
The attorneys filed court documents referencing eight non-existent cases, then admitted it was a "hallucination" by an AI tool.
health
Judge Orders CDC and FDA to Restore Pages Removed by Trump Admin Before Midnight
After health agencies responded to Trump's executive order deeming there to be only "two sexes" by scrubbing sites of important resources, a judge ordered they have until midnight Tuesday to bring them back online.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Getting Political
This week: getting "political" and what it means to be technology journalists in this day and age.
age verification
Senator Tries Bringing Anti-Porn Age Verification Law to New York
“The internet is a dangerous place for children, rife with sexual material that is harmful to minors," the Republican lawmakers wrote. "The ease of access to this material is downright scary."
nasa
Workers at NASA Told to ‘Drop Everything’ to Scrub Mentions of Indigenous People, Women from Its Websites
"This is a drop everything and reprioritize your day request," a directive "per NASA HQ direction" stated.
AI
AI Company Asks Job Applicants Not to Use AI in Job Applications
Anthropic, the developer of the conversational AI assistant Claude, doesn’t want prospective new hires using AI assistants in their applications, regardless of whether they’re in marketing or engineering.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Boom, Bust, and Big Ideas
This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss AI's boom or bust, trying Github's Copilot, and making time for good ideas.
Donald Trump
Memos to Federal Employees Were Written By People With Ties to Project 2025, Metadata Shows
James Sherk and Noah Peters appear as the authors of memos sent by the Office of Personnel Management.
porn
Oklahoma Senator Introduces Bill to Make Porn Completely Illegal
In a slate of several bills restricting reproductive rights and divorce, Oklahoma senator Dusty Deevers suggests anyone making anything even vaguely pornographic should go to jail.