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.
automattic
A WordPress ‘Firehose’ Allows AI Companies to Buy Access to a Million Posts a Day
There is a complex chain of companies buying access to WordPress and Tumblr posts through a company called SocialGist.
YouTube
Unionized YouTube Workers Learn Google Laid Them All Off During City Council Meeting
“They just laid us all off. Our jobs are ended today. Effective immediately.” A bell rings. “I’m sorry, your time has expired."
News
Israeli Soldiers Are Posting Tinder Profile Pictures From Gaza
“This is contributing to the whole normalizing of anti-Palestinian racism, and downgrading of Palestinians as if they are not human beings.”
doom
Watch This Guy Play ‘Doom’ on a Toothbrush
The three million toothbrush botnet wasn’t real, but this toothbrush hacked for blasting demons between brushes is.
News
Amazon Turkers Who Train AI Say They’re Locked Out of Their Work and Money
“Our labor is what makes AI work, and it could not function without us. We are the data that makes the machine work.”
TikTok
TikTok Literally Silences Cat Janice, Pop Star Who Died of Cancer, Because of Licensing Dispute
The fallout of a TikTok licensing dispute with Universal Music Group is not just the loss of backing soundtracks, but things like Janice talking about her fight with cancer, over music that she herself created.
etsy
Fanfiction Community Rocked By Etsy Sellers Turning Their Work Into Bound Books
Several popular shops, which clearly violated Etsy's terms of use and IP laws, were deleted after 404 Media reached out for comment.
News
AI-Generated Kara Swisher Biographies Flood Amazon
Why Read Swisher’s Burn Book when you can read KARA SWISHER : The Heroic Biography of a defining force in Tech Journalism (The Silicon Valley’s most powerful tech journalist).
tumblr
Tumblr and WordPress to Sell Users’ Data to Train AI Tools
Internal documents obtained by 404 Media show that Tumblr staff compiled users' data as part of a deal with Midjourney and OpenAI.
News
Ghost Kitchens Are Advertising AI-Generated Food on DoorDash and Grubhub
Reality bending, AI-generated cheesesteaks and pasta dishes are flooding food delivery services.
Podcast
Podcast: Byron Tau on the New U.S. Surveillance State
We're trying out a new interview episode for the podcast! Our first guest is investigative journalist and author Byron Tau on the adtech surveillance industry.
pornhub
Texas Sues Pornhub, Claiming It’s Ignoring Age Verification Law
Attorney General Ken Paxton said he "looks forward" to preventing minors from seeing "harmful, obscene material" on the internet.