DOGE
Judge Allows DOGE Deposition Videos Back Online
“We are pleased to see today's ruling in defense of the First Amendment rights of all Americans,” one of the plaintiffs in the DOGE-related lawsuit said. The videos previously went viral when a DOGE member was unable or unwilling to define DEI.
AI
Instagram Begins Randomly Showing Users AI-Generated Images of Themselves
Meta AI put a Redditor into "an endless maze of mirrors" as part of a new AI feature it is testing.
News
Telegram Hands U.S. Authorities Data on Thousands of Users
The number of data requests fulfilled by Telegram skyrocketed, with the company providing data to U.S. authorities on 2,253 users last year.
News
Violent Hackers Are Using U-Haul To Dox Targets
Members of an underground criminal community are targeting U-Haul because of the wealth of non-public information it can hold on targets.
The Abstract
A 5,500-Year-Old Forest in Yellowstone Melted Out of the Ice
We begin 2025 with Amazonian garden cities, lost woods in the Rockies, battitude, and robot hoopers.
AI Slop
Meta's AI Profiles Are Indistinguishable From Terrible Spam That Took Over Facebook
The Meta AI profiles everyone is mad about are old, were a colossal failure, and many are already dead.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Magic Links and Building Shelves
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 talk more about magic links and building shelves offline. A light Behind the Blog today but we're back from the holiday on Monday.
Tesla
Elon Musk Uses Cybertruck Explosion to Show Tesla Can Remotely Unlock and Monitor Vehicles
Surveillance capabilities used and justified by extreme circumstances often trickle down to be used on lesser crimes.
Right to Repair
How (and Why) a Reverse Engineer 3D-Printed an iPhone
Scotty Allen reverse-engineered the interior case of an iPhone and has released the files to people wanting to make their own.
pornhub
Pornhub Is Now Blocked In Almost All of the U.S. South
As of today, three more states join the list of 17 that can't access Pornhub because of age verification laws.
Podcast
Podcast: The 404 Media Year in Review
We talk about the last year when it comes to AI, journalism, and more.
News
We Don’t Want Your Password
Some people don't love our magic link logins. But the best way for us to protect your password is to never ask for it.
News
Secret Service Admits It Didn’t Check if People Really Consented to Being Tracked
Emails viewed by 404 Media show that the Secret Service did not verify that location data it was tracking people with was actually collected with consent, despite saying so.