Last January, Democratic California Assemblymember Tasha Boerner introduced the California Affordable Home Internet Act (AB 353), which mandated that large ISPs in the state needed to provide broadband service at speeds of 100 Mbps down, 20 Mbps up for $15 a month to California residents who qualify for existing low-income assistance programs.
“Right now, families are struggling to afford...
A little over a year ago we discussed YouTuber Ross Scott’s attempt to build political action around video game preservation. Scott started a campaign and site called Stop Killing Games when Ubisoft shut down support for The Crew, rendering this game that people bought unplayable. The goal of the site was to build political action among gamers by contacting lawmakers in various countries and/or...
Belkin is the latest company to painfully demonstrate that you no longer own what you buy, and the whims of corporate executives can very often leave you with expensive paperweights.
In a recent statement to customers, Belkin says that it will no longer be providing support or software updates for the company’s Wemo “smart home” devices starting in the new year. About 27 affected devices, on...
The Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act to expedite its ejection of anyone not white enough to be considered worthy of citizenship. ICE raids occur daily, performed by masked officers who look more like cartel thugs than US law enforcement officers.
The excuse for evoking a law last used to dump anyone looking vaguely Asian into US internment camps during World War II is this: the...
When your CEO gets murdered and half the internet celebrates, most companies might pause and ask “why do so many people hate us?”
But UnitedHealth had a different response: hire more lawyers to silence the critics.
The New York Times has an excellent piece by David Enrich detailing UnitedHealth’s ridiculously aggressive campaign to quiet critics through legal threats and takedown demands. The...
In the Trump administration, every political appointee is now their own personal Richard Nixon. Simply being some of the most powerful people in the world is never enough for Trump and those in his inner circle. If you can’t demand complete loyalty from everyone you oversee, than what is even the point of ascending to power?
Trump’s first term as president involved the same ridiculous demands for...
The Complete 2025 Cloud Computing Bundle has 4 courses focused on security, compliance and infrastructure. Courses cover AWS, Azure, and more. It’s on sale for $20.
Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt Deals helps support Techdirt. The products featured do not reflect endorsements by our editorial team.
When Joe Biden wanted the Department of Education to forgive student loans, the Supreme Court shut him down hard. The Court spent pages in Biden v. Nebraska explaining why the Department lacked authority under the HEROES Act, demanding “clear congressional authorization” for such a significant policy change.
But when Donald Trump wants to dismantle the entire Department of Education without any...
I’ve mentioned more than a few times that the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (2021) wound up funding a lot of very good things. The very sort of everyday “abundance” a lot of high-profile pundits claimed was no longer possible under American leadership.
ARPA helped shore up infrastructure, housing, and sewage upgrades across countless U.S. communities. It’s helping to build a lot of local...
It’s no secret that starting during the onset of the pandemic, as well as in its aftermath, the video game industry has undergone a period of consolidation. This is quite common during times of economic flux and/or turmoil, but Microsoft/Xbox appeared to go after acquisitions in something of a blitz. While Xbox gobbled up several studios, the apex of this blitz was its controversial acquisition...