Late last year, Mike was a guest on Seb Agertoft’s Humans in the Loop podcast for a wide-ranging discussion all about restoring the promise of the decentralized internet. That interview was just released, and we’re dropping the whole conversation here as well on this week’s episode of the Techdirt Podcast.

You can also download this episode directly in MP3 format.

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This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is MrWilson (who racked up a lot of wins this week) with a comment about the Twitter Files crew staying quiet when there are real attacks on free speech:

“Free speech absolutists”: “You’re absolutely free to shut up and listen to my speech. Also, your speech is a violent assault on me.”

In second place, it’s an anonymous comment about where things go from here:

Unfortunately, the only way out might be to the bottom and through.

Provoking Trump to use the Insurrection Act won’t take much but it will also be the only way that either he gets convicted on impeachment by the current Senate or a subsequent Democratic one with 60 (likely needing 65) votes.

Short of that everyone is content to just piss, moan and wait out the clock which isn’t the appropriate action here, and street protesting has its limits.

You have an entire Overton Window to revert to pre-2016, trillions of dollars to snatch and grab from billionaires and an entire political party to crush, and no one seems to be writing a Project 2026 to do that, both a public half with the policy changes and machinery to govern and the unitary executive fiat reversions of a hundred years of conservative jurisprudence, followed by the hidden half that requires convincing the remaining regional military leadership to coup the GOP out of existence plus logistics for disasters and conflict zones that you hope never to have to need.

A Democratic Presidential Candidate is going to need a menu of options and priorities to pursue hitting the ground running on or prior to 2028 because they are going to have to use the same powers written and unwritten Trump claimed to restore democracy, it’s going to be messy, and it sure as shit won’t follow rule of law or allow 77.5 million Trump voters to walk free once voter rolls are examined for the last 3 or 4 election cycles within this plan (If the GOP wants to try to seize them then the responsibility should be to follow through and use it on them first).

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with a comment from Arianity about the FTC’s threat of an “investigation” into Apple’s supposed liberal news bias:

Part of fascism is weaponizing things others care about. If they know you care about free speech, they use the trappings of free speech to help push fascism.

Next, it’s Stephen T. Stone with a thought about where the claims of bias come from:

And the algorithm probably leans toward citing left-leaning sources (or sources perceived to be left-leaning) because those sources have far more credibility in re: reporting actual facts. I’m sure that pisses off the MAGA crowd.

Over on the funny side, both top comments come from MrWilson again. In first place, it’s a comment about Trump’s apparent belief that he’s an absolute ruler:

Well, I mean, he was in fact elected in the biggliest landslide victory of 600% of the electoral vote and over 1000% of the popular vote because he’s the…look, nobody understands nuclear like he does, and the Chinese are just ripping us off, so you just have to raise tariffs on the Swiss Prime Minister because she’s just nasty and prices are down everywhere like you’ve never seen and all the experts are saying he should have won the Olympic Gold medal in everything but they cheated him out of it because they’re just awful people like you’ve never seen and everybody knows and windmills cause cancer and have you seen his ratings because they’re the best ever, everyone loves him except fake people. Thank you for your attention to this.

In second place, it’s a comment about how so many high-ranking Trump loyalists are incompetent and stupid:

Apply Dunning-Kruger directly to forehead.

For editor’s choice on the funny side, we start out with a reply from Scott_in_MI to the assertion that Brett Kavanaugh knows the law better than his critics:

Objection – assumes facts not in evidence.

Finally, it’s Thad invoking a well-known image in response to our description of how the DOGE grant review process operated:

That’s that butterfly meme, right?

That’s all for this week, folks!

Five Years Ago

This week in 2021, we looked at how state laws around community broadband were harming communities during the pandemic, just as one Congressional representative introduced a new such law to do so nationwide. Minneapolis joined the list of cities banning facial recognition tech, while it was revealed that CBP’s use of the technology identified fewer than 300 imposters after gathering 50 million face photos. We also wrote about how history shows Section 230 isn’t just for startups, while North Dakota was considering an anti-230 bill that would let people sue you for reporting their content to Twitter.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2016, a California judge worryingly ordered Apple to create a new iPhone backdoor following the San Bernardino shooting. Apple responded to the order, and soon after we wrote about how the new backdoor would work on modern iPhones too. A lot of people were extremely confused about what exactly the order would do, including many lawmakers and nearly all the presidential candidates, and we dismantled a lot of the myths going around including the false notion that Apple had done this 70 times before. Also, a footnote in the DOJ motion to compel Apple revealed that the whole mess was caused by the San Bernardino health department resetting Syed Farook’s password.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2011, evidence suggested that major film studios were uploading movie clips to YouTube and pretending they were pirated, a CBS reporter uploaded footage of the Grammys to YouTube only to have CBS send a takedown notice, and the target of one of Liberty Media’s mass infringement lawsuits was fighting back. We dug deeper into why DHS’s domain name seizures were almost certainly illegal, while DHS was being cagey about whether or not it seized Mooo.com and took down 84,000 sites in the process. Meanwhile, Congress was getting ready to reintroduce COICA and Ron Wyden was speaking out against it.

Two weeks ago, we ran a bit of an AMA experiment, with a call on Bluesky for fans of Techdirt to ask Mike any questions they might have. We got lots of great responses and now, as promised, Mike is delivering the answers on this week’s episode of the podcast!

You can also download this episode directly in MP3 format.

Follow the Techdirt Podcast on Soundcloud, subscribe via Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or grab the RSS feed. You can also keep up with all the latest episodes right here on Techdirt.

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is MrWilson with a comment about MAGA doing things “for the children”:

If conservatives stopped thinking about children so much, the children would be better off and much safer.

In second place, it’s an anonymous comment inserting a little optimism into the fear that Section 230 is not long for this world:

Keep in mind that a lot of commenters here did just the same at the 25th anniversary. (Myself included, but not publicly.) All is not yet lost.

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with the comment that sparked the first place winner above, which was actually a reply to Heart of Dawn‘s comment listing some examples:

Between this, Epstein and his cohorts, being anti-vax and anti-science, doing nothing about gun control, preventing queer kids from learning about themselves and getting support, the abolishment of the Department of Education- when these people “think of the children” it’s in the most cruel and callous way possible.

Next, it’s a comment from Citizen about the 5th circuit ruling that only citizens get due process rights:

Catch-22?

So if ICE grabs me and whisks me off to a detention center in Texas, how exactly would I go about proving my citizenship and getting released? According to ICE in this hypothetical scenario, I’m not a citizen, and according to the Fifth Circuit, that means I have no due process rights, meaning I can’t contest ICE’s claim, correct? Unless I’m missing something here, in this hypothetical scenario, any citizen grabbed by mistake–or, God forbid, grabbed by “mistake”–can only be released if ICE chooses to admit that they’re a citizen.

Over on the funny side, our first place winner is Mars42 with a comment about the disastrous data leak by an AI toy company:

I have always been told that the “S” in IOT stands for security.

In second place, it’s an anonymous comment from one of several people who were not a fan of a guest post from R Street this week:

How do we flag an article for being trolling/spam?

For editor’s choice on the funny side, we start out with another anonymous comment, this time on our post about RFK Jr. apparently lying to congress about his 2019 trip to Samoa:

Maybe it will save time to just note when the US government tells the truth

Finally, it’s Thad with a quip on our post about NBC hiding the crowd reaction that JD Vance garnered at the Winter Olympics:

Fake boos.

That’s all for this week, folks!

Five Years Ago

As you probably know, we marked the 30th anniversary of Section 230 this week, so it’s not surprising that this same week in 2021 we were celebrating its 25th anniversary with a special online event where we were joined by Chris Cox and Ron Wyden. We also wrote about the many reasons to celebrate the law and explained how it lets tech companies fix content moderation issues, and how to think about 230 in the context of online advertising. Plus, we celebrated the matching anniversary of the Declaration Of The Independence Of Cyberspace by John Perry Barlow. Of course, none of that stopped the GOP from rolling out a dumb new talking point saying 230 should be killed if net neutrality happens, nor did it stop Orrin Hatch from telling flat out lies about what 230 does.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2016 we were, of course, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Section 230 and doing the same for the aforementioned Declaration. We also looked at the impact of Title II regulation a year after the many doomsayer predictions about it. Meanwhile, Warner/Chappell had to pay up in the lawsuit over the Happy Birthday copyright while the plaintiffs began seeking to declare the song in the public domain, Honda got hit with the Streisand Effect in its attempt to get Jalopnik to dox a commenter, a judge changed their mind and allowed James Woods to unmask a Twitter user who made fun of him, and Techdirt received (and rebuffed) yet another bogus legal threat from Australia.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2011, while Righthaven was going after a new target that had a strong fair use case, we wondered what the shutdowns of ACS:Law and MediaCAT meant for the future of the US Copyright Group, just as the latter was teaming up with the producers of The Expendables to shake down thousands of people. Meanwhile, a report from IP Czar Victoria Espinel was little more than a list of lobbyist talking points, the MPAA filed a surprisingly weak billion dollar lawsuit against Hotfile, the US Chamber of Commerce was calling for more censorship and more IP protectionism, and a bizarre opinion piece in NME claimed the recent takeover of EMI by Citigroup was proof that file sharing had “murdered the music business”.

In the last few years, the Supreme Court has been paying a lot more attention to the internet than it ever has before, and the cases keep on coming. This is already having a big impact on how the internet functions, and it doesn’t look likely to stop any time soon. Given all that, this week our own Cathy Gellis joins the podcast for a discussion all about the past, present, and future of SCOTUS and the internet.

You can also download this episode directly in MP3 format.

Follow the Techdirt Podcast on Soundcloud, subscribe via Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or grab the RSS feed. You can also keep up with all the latest episodes right here on Techdirt.

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Stephen T. Stone with a comment about ICE and CBP stealing money from citizens at the Minneapolis airport:

Dear Democrats in leadership positions:

There is no reforming or retraining this level of institutional rot. Your centrist asses need to start demanding the abolishment of ICE (and DHS), and you need to start doing it now.

Sincerely, a concerned US citizen

In second place, it’s Strawb with an answer to the question of why the CIA deleted its famous World Factbook resource:

Well, the easy answer is “Because a corrupt government’s worst enemy is a well-informed population”.

For editor’s choice on the insightful side, we start out with Bloof offering another even broader answer to that question:

If something is useful and a product of government, that’s all the reason republicans need to destroy it.

Next, it’s dfbomb bringing more updates from Minneapolis:

They leave cars running from their victims in the road. We have to find tows and clear it.

They deploy tear gas taking people from parks. We have to clean up and help those hurt.

They harass and stalk schools, taking kids with impunity. They approach our school patrols pretending to be locals to get info.

They kill and are protected.

They do not care if the people they take are actually what they’re told to look for, they just take brown people and those that piss them off.

They took Native-Americans and have not returned them.

This is ethnic cleansing and it is done at the behest of a white supremacist administration hunting brown people.

This has not stopped. There is no draw down.

Please stop arguing over the KIND of fascism this is and start rattling cages in DC to abolish this bullshit.

This is not a fucking drill.

Over on the funny side, our first place winner is terribly tired with a comment about a line in one of the federal rulings calling out the administration’s immigration bullshit:

Holy old fuck, she pounds X is a wild-ass sentence to be reading in the real god damn world.

Couldn’t have made it sound more like an addictive substance if I tried.

In second place, it’s dfbomb again, this time with a comment on our post about news websites bringing back comment sections:

Is there irony in the urge for me to shitpost in the comments on this one?

Things are still pretty slow on the funny side (for reasons that continue to be obvious), so we’ll stick to just one editor’s choice — a very simple answer to the question of why the CIA shut down the Factbook, this time from an anonymous commenter:

Oh, that’s easy. They shut it down because it has facts in it.

That’s all for this week, folks!

Five Years Ago

This week in 2021, the attacks on Section 230 were coming fast, with a Columbia law professor spewing blatantly false information in the Wall Street Journal and Joe Lieberman calling for its repeal, followed by the Democrats introducing the dumpster fire that was the SAFE TECH Act, which we dug into in depth. We also wrote about how attempts to tie 230 to a horrific story of online stalking were just plain wrong. Meanwhile, a federal court tossed out a constitutional challenge to FOSTA, 14 states were considering right to repair laws, and the RIAA launched a brand new front group pretending to represent independent artists.

Ten Years Ago

This week in 2016, a DHS official was calling for an end to anonymity online, French politicians were trying to ban linking to any website without permission, and India was getting ready to ban zero rating after the failure of Facebook’s misleading lobbying. We wrote about how lobbyists turned an education reform bill into a copyright propaganda push, Take Two Software was sued over tattoo copyrights, Hasbro was sued for font piracy on My Little Pony merchandise, and a ridiculous copyright fight was still keeping the only video of the first Super Bowl locked up.

Fifteen Years Ago

This week in 2011, there was a lot of coverage of the recent uprising in Egypt and the government’s response. We looked at just how the government shut down the internet in an attempt to quell the protests, then at how they turned it back on for the same reasons. Al Jazeera offered up its Egypt coverage under a Creative Commons license, while China was trying to prevent people from talking about it online. Meanwhile, Homeland Security embarked on a new round of domain seizures that raised serious questions and strongly suggested the agency was twisting the law, especially with the now-infamous seizure of Spanish streaming site Rojadirecta.

On a recent episode of our other podcast, Ctrl-Alt-Speech, Mike was joined by guest host Konstantinos Komaitis for a far-reaching discussion about online speech. One point that was briefly raised in that discussion was the question of whether AI tools are good or bad for user agency, and since Mike and Konstantinos didn’t entirely agree, it seemed like a good question to unpack in more detail — and that’s exactly what they do on this week’s episode of the Techdirt Podcast.

You can also download this episode directly in MP3 format.

Follow the Techdirt Podcast on Soundcloud, subscribe via Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or grab the RSS feed. You can also keep up with all the latest episodes right here on Techdirt.