FOIA
DHS Is Deploying a Powerful Surveillance Tool at College Football Games
Public records show DHS is deploying the "Homeland Security Information Network" at college protests and football games.
AI
Facebook’s Algorithm Is Boosting AI Spam That Links to AI-Generated, Ad-Laden Click Farms
Viral 'Shrimp Jesus' and AI-generated pages like it are part of spam and scam campaigns that are taking over Facebook.
News
Scientific Journals Are Publishing Papers With AI-Generated Text
The ChatGPT phrase “As of my last knowledge update” appears in several papers published by academic journals.
stripe
Gumroad Celebrates Sales Spike While Adult Creators Panic
Gumroad has banned anything that can be "understood as being primarily for sexual purposes," and while it bragged about a revenue spike, adult creators hustled to add flash sales to their shops.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: TikTok Ban and Pornhub Blocks
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 iterative journalism, security through obscurity, Pornhub abandoning Texas and the TikTok ban.
News
Cleaner for SWAT Team Leaks DEA Investigative File on Her Fentanyl Dealing Cousin
In an unusual insider threat case, a cleaner working in a SWAT office allegedly snapped photos of a DEA investigative file and leaked them.
News
Horrific AI-Generated Breastfeeding Images Bypass Facebook’s Moderation
A page called Mom Daily is using AI-generated images of mothers and babies to bypass Facebook’s rules on nudity, with some really terrifying results.
Baseball
How a Foul Ball From 2014 Became Part of a Russian Disinformation Campaign
Using OSINT and Baseball Reference to determine the exact pitch that was used in a Russian disinformation video.
pornhub
Pornhub Pulls Out of Texas
All of the sites in Aylo's network, including Pornhub, YouPorn, and Brazzers, are blocked in Texas, their homepages replaced with a message about the company's rejection of age verification laws.
tinder
I Tried a Bot That Swipes Tinder For Me
BaddieFinder is based on one man's idea of hot women. So I gave it a test run through my own Tinder account.
News
FTC Goes Undercover Against Fake Antivirus Companies
Companies called Restoro and Reimage are allegedly behind pop-ups that trick people into downloading a piece of fake antivirus software and paying sizable fees.
pornhub
The Rise, Fall, and Revival of Pornhub
In a new series by CBC Podcasts, hosted by 404 Media's Sam Cole, former employees, performers, and the new owners themselves speak out about Pornhub's influence on the industry and beyond.
TikTok
The U.S. Wants to Ban TikTok for the Sins of Every Social Media Company
The TikTok situation is an untenable mess. Banning it will further balkanize the internet.