Tech Policy

Why That Anti-Loot Box Bill Is Actually Kinda Shitty

A bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday aims to ban pay-to-win microtransactions and loot boxes in video games that are “minor-oriented.” The bill, however, essentially applies to all video games ever made, whether children were the intended audience or not. It would also appear to ban a wide variety of in-game mechanics…

Tech Policy Dell Cameron

FCC Commissioner: ‘Repeat After Me: “Robocall” Is Not a Bad Word’

What’s the absolute easiest way to unify America today? Go anti-robocall. Not exactly a brave and controversial stance to condemn the most annoying phenomenon of our time, is it? The English language has a few verboten words. Lately, it seems that “robocall” is creeping up the rankings, alongside “taxes” and “moist.” The numbers of robocalls…

Tech Policy Patrick Howell O'Neill

Ajit Pai Warned Lying to Congress Is Bad

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has been strongly urged by a Democratic lawmaker to make corrections to statements he made during a contentious oversight hearing on Wednesday while raising the possibility that he intentionally lied. Warning FCC Chairman Ajit Pai that “lying to Congress is a federal crime,” Congresswoman Anna Eshoo wrote there…

Tech Policy Dell Cameron

The FCC Wants Carriers to Start Automatically Blocking Robocalls for Free

It’s no secret that the Federal Communications Commission is fed up with robocalls—them, and everyone else with a phone. The latest salvo in the war on robocalls? Today, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai put forth a proposal that would let carriers block unwanted robocalls by default. While analytics and consumer white lists are currently used by…

Tech Policy Victoria Song

Kamala Harris Says ‘We Have to Seriously Take a Look At’ Breaking Up Facebook

California Senator Kamala Harris, one of the (innumerable) Democrats eyeing the White House in a 2020 presidential bid, has joined Massachusetts senator and fellow candidate Elizabeth Warren in calling for antitrust authorities to look at a possible breakup of Facebook. Possible antitrust action against Facebook has been in the news lately after one of the…

Tech Policy Tom McKay

New Zealand Seeking Global Support for Pledge to Counter Extremist Content Online

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is preparing a global push called the “Christchurch Call” to compel large internet platforms to do more about extremist content in the wake of a massacre of 51 Muslims at mosque in the country in March, the New York Times reported on Sunday. During that massacre, a gunman live-streamed…

Tech Policy Tom McKay

FCC Blames Wireless Carriers for Outages After Hurricane Michael, Pretends It’s Not Also to Blame

An investigation by the Federal Communications Commission identified the causes of what it called “unacceptably slow restoration of wireless service” in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, the Category 5 that ripped across Florida in October, killing dozens and causing some $25 billion in damage. In some areas—such as Florida’s Bay and Gulf Counties—wireless service was…

Tech Policy Dell Cameron

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Injects Energy Into Elizabeth Warren’s Plan to Break Up Big Tech

In March, Senator Elizabeth Warren published her proposal to break up the tech juggernauts—namely, Facebook, Amazon, and Google. On Friday, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has finally endorsed the plan, possibly providing a major boost to the bold Big-Tech regulation and antitrust platform. Warren released the policy before a rally in Queens, New York, near the site…

Tech Policy Jennings Brown

New Research Shows Why the Sprint/T-Mobile Merger Could Be a Disaster for Your Wallet

Despite a lengthy process that started way back in the spring of 2018, today Sprint and T-Mobile agreed to extend the deadline for their proposed merger another two months until June 29th. However, even if the FCC ends up approving the deal, after seeing a new study by mobile data analysts Rewheel, it’ll be hard…

Tech Policy Sam Rutherford

TurboTax Purposely Hid Its Free Tax-Filing Page From Google Search

If you can’t find something on Google, does it even exist? When it comes to free tax-filing offerings, at least, TurboTax maker Intuit sure as hell seems to hope you think the answer is no. The Internal Revenue Service has had a long-held agreement with a dozen or so tax-preparation companies: They’ll help the 70…

Tech Policy Dell Cameron

AT&T and Sprint Settle 5G E Lawsuit, Paving the Way for More Customer Deception

When AT&T announced it was rebranding part of its 4G LTE service as 5G E, or 5G Evolution, everyone knew it was bullshit. AT&T’s service hadn’t magically gotten faster, and all the other carriers cried foul. But only Sprint had the guts to sue AT&T over its misleading claims. Now it appears AT&T and Sprint…

Tech Policy Sam Rutherford

Report: The FCC’s Big Millimeter-Wave Auction Won’t Help Speed Up 5G Rollout All That Much

Last week, Donald Trump and the Federal Communications Commission announced a huge push to sell off up to 3.4 gigahertz of the millimeter-wave spectrum, part of a plan to speed the rollout of 5G technology. The president introduced the push by telling an audience at the White House that he will not allow “any other…

Tech Policy Tom McKay

The Biggest Lies We Heard About Net Neutrality This Week

“Consumer protection” isn’t a phrase you’ll find on the resume of a person who devises dishonest, meaningless soundbites like, “Net neutrality is about government takeover of the internet.” But most Washington lawmakers don’t really care what a soundbite means or whether it’s they’re true. It just needs to be catchy, maybe inspire a little fear…

Tech Policy Dell Cameron

House Democrats Pass Bill to Restore Net Neutrality

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives made good on a campaign promise on Wednesday by passing legislation that would effectively reinstate, in its entirety, the 2015 Open Internet Order—rules that, for a brief time, ensured that net neutrality was the law of the land. The bill passed in a 232-190 vote, with only one…

Tech Policy Dell Cameron

Senators Introduce Bill to Stop ‘Dark Patterns’ Huge Platforms Use to Trick Users

Senators Mark Warner (D-Virginia) and Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska) have introduced legislation to ban so-called “dark patterns” tactics designed to trick users into handing over access to their data, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Dark patterns, a term first popularized by the website darkpatterns.org, describe everything from UI elements to technical tricks designed to lure users into…

Tech Policy Tom McKay

UK Readies Crackdown on Social Networks for Enabling Terrorism, Child Abuse, and Self-Harm

The British government is preparing to publish its plans to clamp down on social networks that distribute and promote harmful content. According to a leaked document, the proposed measures include enabling regulators to hold company executives personally liable in cases entailing negligence. The government is expected to release a white paper detailing the plans on…

Tech Policy Dell Cameron

Senator Hawley Keeps Attacking a Law Crucial to Internet Speech—That He Can’t Seem to Read

The economic juggernaut we call the internet has thrived principally thanks to a single U.S. law passed more than two decades ago—Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. It states quite simply that website operators shall not be treated as the publishers of information posted by their users. To wit, Gizmodo cannot be held liable…

Tech Policy Dell Cameron

The Head of the FTC Just Debunked the FCC’s Favorite Excuse for Killing Net Neutrality

Two weeks before voting to rollback the net neutrality rules, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post in which he laid out his case for killing off the policy that ensured a free and open internet. In it, he offered up one widely-disputed argument for doing so: that blocking, throttling, and…

Tech Policy Dell Cameron

Section 230 Is the Foundation of the Internet, So Why Do Republicans Want to Change It?

Without Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, most of your favorite websites would not survive—nor would they have existed at all. The modern internet would be a much different place without this short little bit of legislation that has become a sort of First Amendment of the web. Now, a growing contingent of conservative…

Tech Policy Dell Cameron

FCC Reportedly Collected Only 0.003% of Robocall Fines Since 2015

As late as last month, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai was on the Fox News Channel boasting about having imposed on robocalls some of the “biggest fines in the FCC’s history.” Documents obtained this week by reporters at the Wall Street Journal, however, put the agency’s milquetoast enforcement in a more authentic light. As the paper…

Tech Policy Dell Cameron

Why That Anti-Loot Box Bill Is Actually Kinda Shitty

FCC Commissioner: ‘Repeat After Me: “Robocall” Is Not a Bad Word’

Ajit Pai Warned Lying to Congress Is Bad

The FCC Wants Carriers to Start Automatically Blocking Robocalls for Free

Kamala Harris Says ‘We Have to Seriously Take a Look At’ Breaking Up Facebook

New Zealand Seeking Global Support for Pledge to Counter Extremist Content Online

FCC Blames Wireless Carriers for Outages After Hurricane Michael, Pretends It’s Not Also to Blame

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Injects Energy Into Elizabeth Warren’s Plan to Break Up Big Tech

New Research Shows Why the Sprint/T-Mobile Merger Could Be a Disaster for Your Wallet

TurboTax Purposely Hid Its Free Tax-Filing Page From Google Search

AT&T and Sprint Settle 5G E Lawsuit, Paving the Way for More Customer Deception

Report: The FCC’s Big Millimeter-Wave Auction Won’t Help Speed Up 5G Rollout All That Much

The Biggest Lies We Heard About Net Neutrality This Week

House Democrats Pass Bill to Restore Net Neutrality

Senators Introduce Bill to Stop ‘Dark Patterns’ Huge Platforms Use to Trick Users

UK Readies Crackdown on Social Networks for Enabling Terrorism, Child Abuse, and Self-Harm

Senator Hawley Keeps Attacking a Law Crucial to Internet Speech—That He Can’t Seem to Read

The Head of the FTC Just Debunked the FCC’s Favorite Excuse for Killing Net Neutrality

Section 230 Is the Foundation of the Internet, So Why Do Republicans Want to Change It?

FCC Reportedly Collected Only 0.003% of Robocall Fines Since 2015

Tesla Goes Ahead and Admits Its Robotaxis Are Sometimes Fully Human-Controlled

School Forced to Replace Toilets After Kids Flush Vapes

‘Scream 7’ Just Won’t Stop Making Money as ‘Scream 8’ Gets Started

The Curtain Has Closed on Meta’s Movie Rating-Inspired Content Filters

Good News! You Can Finally Change That Ridiculous Gmail Address

ExpressVPN Just Launched ExpressAI: Your Prompts Are Now Invisible

VR Just Took Another Massive Body Blow

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

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