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Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Justice Department Quietly Seized Washington Post Reporters’ Phone Records During Trump Era
The Department of Justice quietly seized phone records and tried to obtain email records for three Washington Post reporters, ostensibly over their coverage of then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election, according to officials and government letters reviewed by the Post. Justice Department regulations typically mandate that news organizations … Continued
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Tech NewsTransportation
Being a Dick on a Plane Could Cost You $32,750
The Federal Aviation Administration is upping its “zero tolerance” war on pandemic passengers who disrupt flights by refusing to wear masks. In a press release on Wednesday, the agency proposed fines of $9,000 to $32,750 against three violators of the mandatory policy. The $32,750 fine may hit a JetBlue Airlines passenger flying from the Dominican … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsGoogle
Biden’s NLRB to Google: Not So Fast on the Union Busting, Bub
Google maintains it is “very confident” it will face no consequences for firing three workers involved in unionization efforts, despite the acting top counsel of the National Labor Relations Board’s opinion that the tech giant may have violated labor law. In late 2019, Google fired five different staffers known for workplace activism on issues like … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsFacebook
Conservatives Demand Supreme Court Overrule Fake Facebook Court, Others Weigh In
On Wednesday, Facebook’s Oversight Board, the pseudo-legalistic, questionably independent body that the company claims has the power to review and potentially overrule official moderation decisions, issued its not-so-final proclamations regarding the status of Donald Trump’s account. The now-former president has been suspended from Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram after inciting deadly riots at the Capitol … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsNews
Oversight Board Finds Facebook Took the Coward’s Way Out With Trump Ban, Also Takes Coward’s Way Out
America may have to wait another six months to find out whether Facebook has the capacity to make a good decision. On Wednesday, Facebook’s Oversight Board announced that it would uphold the social media network’s decision to suspend Donald Trump from its main site and Instagram after he rallied his supporters to attack the Capitol … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsNews
Area Man Wants You To Check Out His Blog
After threatening for months to disrupt social media with a bespoke platform that would allow him to bypass community guidelines (and the embarrassingly long list of platforms he’s been banned from), our big patriotic boy has finally made good on his promise. Folks, the wait is over — the future is now, and it’s a … Continued
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Tech NewsFacebook
Future of American Democracy Hangs in Balance and/or Doesn’t
Facebook’s Oversight Board, the supposedly independent watchdog tasked with determining whether Donald Trump’s ban from Facebook after he incited a deadly neo-fascist riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 will be as permanent as his Twitter ban, has reached a decision. On Monday, it stated that it will be announcing its findings at Wednesday at … Continued
By Tom McKay -
EartherClimate Change
The EPA Takes First Step to Reduce Some of the Most Dangerous Greenhouse Gases on Earth
The Biden administration is clamping down on hydrofluorocarbons, an extremely powerful suite of greenhouse gases used in refrigerators, air conditioners, fire extinguishing systems, and building insulation. On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed new rules to ramp down the use of these chemicals by 85% over the next 15 years. It’s the agency’s first rule … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
Tech NewsTech Policy
Sites That Ban Politicians May Soon Get Fined in Florida (Unless the Site Is Owned by Disney)
Florida’s really gone and done it. On Thursday, the House voted 77-38 to pass SB 7072, a bill that would dole out massive fines to companies like Twitter and Facebook for booting public officials from their sites. The piece of legislation was spearheaded by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis—a close political ally of former President Donald … Continued
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Tech NewsCrime
PSA to Trump Revanchists and Anti-Vaxxers: Making Fake CDC Vaccination Cards Is a Federal Crime
The various dingbats and wingnuts of the pro-Donald Trump web have been keeping busy by spreading detailed instructions on how to create fake official Centers for Disease Control and Prevention coronavirus vaccination cards rather than just get the damn shot. Doing so, the FBI says, is a federal crime that can be punished by up … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsPolitics
The Secrets of the ‘Cyber Ninjas’ Will Not Stand in Arizona GOP’s Useless 2020 Recount, Judge Rules
The state judge overseeing a Democratic challenge to the Republican-controlled Arizona Senate’s “audit” of the 2020 election—a secretive effort the state GOP is using as a sort of Hail Mary to overturn or at least delegitimize Joe Biden’s victory there—has ordered that the process no longer be conducted behind closed doors. Biden won the county … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsPolitics
Hey Rudy and/or the FBI, Pick Up Your Phone
On Wednesday, the feds raided the home and office of Rudy Giuliani, noted flask with legs and former personal attorney to ex-President Donald Trump. According to one of Giuliani’s neighbors at his Upper East Side apartment building, the agents in question seized and “were bringing out a lot of stuff.” Search warrants require investigators to … Continued
By Tom McKay -
EartherClimate Change
Congress Is About to Repeal a Repeal on Methane Regulations
Joe Biden’s America continues to descend into anarchy. The latest injustice perpetrated by congressional Democrats on behalf of the president: Americans will no longer get to breath so much methane-laden air. It follows other hostile decisions such as propping up Big Energy-Saving Efficient Furnace and letting innocent Italian restauranteurs live sanction-free. On Wednesday, Democrats will … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
Tech NewsFacebook
Read Facebook’s Internal Report on How Badly It Screwed Up Stopping ‘Stop the Steal’
BuzzFeed has posted the entirety of internal Facebook documents outlining in detail the results of the company’s investigation into its role in the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol, during and after which at least five people died. The report, which was first reported in detail by BuzzFeed last week, found that Facebook played a … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Earther
Marjorie Taylor Greene Brags She Read All 14 Pages of the Green New Deal
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene—the QAnon-loving bigot who ranks as possibly the furthest-right member of Congress—is a very slow reader, apparently. Earlier this year, Greene was stripped of her committee assignments, which she characterized as actually fitting her very clever plan to spend most of her time in DC pulling publicity stunts and generally going … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Anonymous NatSec Officials: The Cuban Ray Guns Are in Syria Now, Just Trust Us on This
Here we go again with the anonymously sourced claims Russia is trying to fry the innards of U.S. government personnel abroad, using energy guns secretly manufactured using updated Soviet blueprints. According to Politico, anonymous officials said the Pentagon has briefed members of Congress on “intelligence surrounding suspected directed-energy attacks against U.S. troops,” with the outlet … Continued
By Tom McKay -
EartherClimate Change
Greta to Congress: ‘End Fossil Fuel Subsidies Now’
Between releasing new climate commitments under the Paris Agreement and organizing an international Earth Day summit, it’s clear that President Joe Biden wants to reposition the U.S. as an international climate leader. At a hearing on Thursday, 17-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg offered him some advice on a way to do so: ending all … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
io9Comic Book Shows
WandaVision‘s Suburban Sadness Is a Reminder of Our Failures—and What Needs to Change
Watching Disney+ and Marvel’s WandaVision as someone who I would say is, at best, loosely versed in the MCU means I missed a lot of the subtext io9 has delved deep into. But as someone who regularly writes about destructive systems at Gizmodo’s other subsite, Earther, what stood out to me was not just the … Continued
By Brian Kahn -
Tech NewsNews
Postal Service Cops Are Monitoring Social Media, ‘Sensitive’ Internal Document Says
Add another pushpin to the string wall of America’s shadowy force of postal service cops. Yahoo News reports that the USPS’s security arm, the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), monitored social media for potential threats of domestic violence. According to a USPIS memo obtained by Yahoo News, the agency collected “inflammatory” Parler and Telegram … Continued
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EartherClimate Change
Trump’s Unfinished Border Wall Could Worsen Texas Flooding
Former President Donald Trump’s border wall loomed large in American consciousness throughout his campaign and presidency—and wreaked a path of ecological destruction as he raced to fulfill his promise to build it. And while President Joe Biden has halted construction on the wall, what has been built (or more accurately, what hasn’t) is putting communities … Continued
By Molly Taft