Mike Masnick 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (23312)

• On the post: The Supreme Court Upholds The Constitution. Barely.

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 01 Jul, 2026 @ 09:46pm

  This is why my plan includes a more radical rethinking, not just "stacking the court" but changing the nature of the court: https://www.techdirt.com/2026/01/16/the-case-for-a-100-justice-supreme-court/ Expand it to 100 Justices so that no single justice can matter that much. Along with that, I'd change rules on jurisdiction shopping, increase the number of circuits, and make a bunch of other procedural changes as well. It's not "stacking" the court, which leads to escalation. It's revamping how the courts work.

• On the post: The Free And Open Web Is Under Attack At The IETF

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2026 @ 10:57pm

  This is not even remotely equivalent. I asked a legitimate question: I run a small site. We have done nothing to prevent AI scraping. If it's true that AI scraping is overwhelming small sites, I expect we would have seen it. We have not. So I'm legitimately confused as to why. I said (directly, which you ignore — why?) that it's entirely possible other sites are experiencing it. I'm just legitimately confused why we haven't. It honestly makes no sense to me. We should see this influx of bot traffic. And we haven't. So I was hoping someone could explain why. The only thing someone said is that we've been "exempted" but that doesn't make sense to me. Who would exempt us? And why?

• On the post: The Free And Open Web Is Under Attack At The IETF

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2026 @ 10:55pm

  You’re not seeing it here for the same reason that certain other sites aren’t seeing it: this site’s on an exemption list.

  Why would we be on an exemption list? We've made it clear we're fine with AI scraping and are well represented in most AI tools I know of. So I don't understand this claim that they would exempt us. Why?

• On the post: The Free And Open Web Is Under Attack At The IETF

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2026 @ 01:28am

  Small websites are getting absolutely crushed by automated tools–most of which are AI bots–and I don’t see you providing a real solution to that.

  I keep hearing this... and yet, we haven't seen that here. And we don't really take any steps to block AI scrapers (even though we could). Every so often we get a bot that goes haywire, but it's always been relatively easy to deal with. I'm sure that some sites are overwhelmed with AI scraping traffic, but I find it odd that so many people insist it's killing smaller sites... and we just haven't seen it at all. So... can someone explain why there's a supposed flood of bot traffic overwhelming sites, but doesn't seem to be hitting us? I'm not saying that it's not happening. I just don't understand why we don't see it here.

• On the post: He Moved A Box Of Leftist Zines. MAGA’s Favorite Judge Just Gave Him 30 Years.

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2026 @ 12:04am

  But, the first amendment isn’t really implicated much since the judge isn’t congress. Trump and his antifa nonsense also isn’t congress.

  Hey friend: the First Amendment is not limited to Congressional action any more, and hasn't been since the 14th Amendment was added to the Constitution. A bunch of Supreme Court cases starting in the 1920s and 30s made it quite clear that the First Amendment applies to all government actors (including state gov't actors). So yes, the First Amendment is absolutely implicated, and you should update your understanding of who the First Amendment applies to, because what you said here has been wrong for over a century.

• On the post: He Moved A Box Of Leftist Zines. MAGA’s Favorite Judge Just Gave Him 30 Years.

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 25 Jun, 2026 @ 11:57pm

  Have you read the details of how the two judges associated with this case handled the trial? Because it was not a normal jury trial at all. An initial jury pool was tossed out entirely because the judge didn't like a t-shirt someone wore, and then decided that he alone would conduct voir dire, which is crazy and highly unusual. Have you read about what evidence was allowed for the prosecutors? And what evidence was not allowed for the defense? I'm sorry, but anyone actually following the case would know that this was not a fair jury trial. This was a pair of MAGA judges tilting the scales HEAVILY in favor of one side, starting with the initial bogus mistrial declaration and carrying on through the entire trial. That you're willing to accept this as normal is just as bad as your willingness to accept the DOJ's summary of what happened, which has already been widely debunked.

• On the post: Elon Musk Threatens To Sue Rep. Khanna For… Citing The Lancet About How DOGE Cuts Will Likely Lead To Millions Of Deaths

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 25 Jun, 2026 @ 11:48pm

  This commenter is a troll. Everyone can read it and see whether they think he's an effective troll or a pathetic person who is crashing out as more and more people realize his cult leader wears no clothes. I recommend not replying to him. I am only responding here as a service for other commenters.

• On the post: Judge Says Florida’s Social Media Law Is “Literally Impossible” To Obey. Thanks To The Supreme Court, It Gets A Trial Anyway.

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 25 Jun, 2026 @ 11:45pm

  The complaint added an as-applied challenge. The problem is that the court said it wasn't really "as applied" but was "quasi-facial."

• On the post: Judge Says Florida’s Social Media Law Is “Literally Impossible” To Obey. Thanks To The Supreme Court, It Gets A Trial Anyway.

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 25 Jun, 2026 @ 11:42pm

  You cannot possibly believe that. Please tell me you're just trolling? You can't honestly be that clueless and ignorant. Are you?

• On the post: Illinois’ Social Media Tax Is A Modern Stamp Act — And Just As Doomed

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 25 Jun, 2026 @ 01:52am

  Logged out users trigger the review queue at a much greater rate than other posts because... most of the 2000 spam post attempts per day are unregistered users. But they are all reviewed and posted within a few hours, other than the spam. Never has it been 48 hours. Never has it even been 24 hours. Lying doesn't help your case. It's also extra ridiculous. What other sites still even allow logged out posting? Would you prefer we follow the path of most other sites that massively limit all posts? Some people are never fucking satisfied.

• On the post: He Moved A Box Of Leftist Zines. MAGA’s Favorite Judge Just Gave Him 30 Years.

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 25 Jun, 2026 @ 01:33am

  A tip for the wise: never, ever, take the DOJ's word on anything as an honest description of what transpired. Especially during the MAGA Pam Bondi / Todd Blanche era. You will only look like a fool. Many federal judges (though not the ones in this case) have learned this lesson. Why haven't you?

• On the post: Elon Musk Threatens To Sue Rep. Khanna For… Citing The Lancet About How DOGE Cuts Will Likely Lead To Millions Of Deaths

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 25 Jun, 2026 @ 01:25am

  For visitors who are new here, a public service announcement. This comment is from a MAGA cultist troll who spends a surprising amount of time providing trollish comments on this site. He at least used to try to make a point, but as Trump's approval numbers drop lower and lower, and everyone realizes what a problematic Presidency this is, this troll is crashing out and making more and more unhinged comments. Take this one: "you get to sue for defamation over lies." Which is not actually how defamation law works. There are a number of factors that make something defamatory and "lies" is not enough by itself. Second, if this troll had actually read the article (which, of course, he did not, he only posts based on the headline), he would realize that I already addressed the details of why this literally cannot be a viable defamation lawsuit for multiple reasons (both opinion based on disclosed fact, and the lack of actual malice, which this troll will get confused about because he thinks "actual malice" means "really dislikes someone" and despite having had the legal standard explained to him multiple times, he cannot process what the law actually means. Or he doesn't care, because he's just here to troll. Oh, and finally "Seriously it's all made up" is a fascinating claim to make without even the slightest source to back it up. Who should we believe? Perhaps the most respected medical journal on the planet, or a guy who would bend over to lick the boots of his mindless cult leader, who can't bother to cite a single source? That's just trolling. And bad trolling. He was at least more interesting when he made an effort. Indeed, this troll was handy, because he'd use all the standard MAGA talking points, which has been useful for years every time I'm asked to come to DC and talk to officials. But these days, like the remnants of the crumbling facade of MAGA, there's just weird lashing out. Pathetic.

• On the post: Illinois’ Social Media Tax Is A Modern Stamp Act — And Just As Doomed

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2026 @ 10:30pm

  Hence the heavy editorial discretion over which comments appear.

  Unless it's spam, nearly all comments will appear. Perhaps every so often we miss one when going through the spam filter, but we are (by far) the most permissive site out there for comments. We block spam and that's about it.

• On the post: As Suspected, The ‘Trump Phone’ Is Just A Cheap Overseas Knockoff With Some Garish Yellow Paint

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2026 @ 12:19am

  Considering that when they launched and got people to put down their deposits, they promised it would be made in America and have a much larger battery than it actually has... I would think that that is what people would expect. That it's a cheap old HTC phone is not what they sold. Which, yeah, should kinda matter. But I guess if you're selling to cultists who will always insist you can do no wrong, then perhaps they'll get away with the lying, though it really says a lot about the suckers who find this acceptable.

• On the post: Everyone In This LEGO Dispute Should Have Spoken To A Lawyer Earlier Than They Did

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 18 Jun, 2026 @ 10:14pm

  As stated like half a dozen times above:

  1. The "talk to a lawyer" advice was more meant for everyone else beyond Mansell.

  2. The $10k retainer was only about litigating. There is more to having a lawyer than litigating. And I was talking about the things BAM did and the things Schneider did that all happened pre-litigation.

• On the post: Xbox: A Mess, Moving Back To Exclusivity Deals, & The Layoffs Microsoft Promised Wouldn’t Happen

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 18 Jun, 2026 @ 10:12pm

  I started with Mint (as other commenters have suggested) and still like it quite a lot, but recently moved on to Kubuntu because I needed Ubuntu underneath for something (at first I tried Cinnamon on Ubuntu, since Cinnamon is basically Mint, but I ran into some problems and moved to Kubuntu and it works great). But to start, I'd start with Mint. And, I know you're not a fan of LLMs, but I will say that Google Gemini helped me a lot in getting through some of the quirks of Linux.

• On the post: Wyden And Cruz Team Up On A Bill To Stop Government Jawboning. It’s… Actually Pretty Good?

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 18 Jun, 2026 @ 10:04pm

  That weapon being... what, exactly? The unconstitutional use of government power to suppress speech? You are actually supporting the idea that Trump should be able to control and suppress speech. Are you that stupid?

• On the post: The VCs Who Screamed That Biden Would Kill Powerful AI Models Seem Quite Chill About Trump Actually Doing It

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2026 @ 01:07pm

  Once again, in case people are unaware, this person is trolling. We have regularly criticized people in both parties, were never fans of Joe Biden and spent years criticizing his terrible record on tech policy, just as we spent years criticizing Obama's bad record on tech policy. But note that this troll will do literally anything, twist literally anything into support for Donald Trump, even when he flipped out of identical behavior from Biden. He is not serious. He is a troll. You can check my record against his any day. Only one of us is concerned about actual rights and policies. He is only concerned about kissing the ass of his cult leader.

• On the post: The VCs Who Screamed That Biden Would Kill Powerful AI Models Seem Quite Chill About Trump Actually Doing It

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 15 Jun, 2026 @ 09:59pm

  This is Techdirt's resident MAGA troll. He is always wrong. But just for people who don't follow Techdirt closely, I'll point out that when Biden was in power, this same troll interpreted everything that Biden did in the worst possible way, and screamed and yelled any time anyone pointed out that he was exaggerating or misrepresenting reality. Now that Trump is in power, he will bend over backwards to defend every single thing that Trump does, even when it's way worse than anything he accused Biden of doing (which Biden usually didn't do). It's pure tribal trolling. He has never, not once, pointed out anything that he disagrees with Trump on. He will always attack any court rulings that go against Trump as "activist judges." He will insist that "this time is different" when Trump enacts incredible attacks on civil liberties or free speech, when he spent years screaming that Biden was coming for everyone's free speech. It's just trolling. Yes, it's pathetic. Yes, it's also probably clinical. But just rest assured that this troll has to live with his own pathetic loser shit.

• On the post: And Now Basically Everyone In This LEGO Dispute Looks Sketchy

  

  Mike Masnick ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2026 @ 02:04pm

  Accurately pointing out that almost everyone involved here misrepresented things, while calling out that some parties misrepresented things more than others is... "yellow journalism" and "a crime to the fourth estate?" Buddy: get a fucking grip.

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