Mastodawn

Maybe we'll get #JohnOliver to cover it. There wound up being two days of coverage over at #TechDirt that kept me giggling.

Here's the second, which links to the first, and that one has embedded videos of some of the testimony:

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/19/afroman-wins-jury-rules-mocking-cops-who-raided-your-home-is-protected-speech

Afroman Wins: Jury Rules Mocking Cops Who Raided Your Home Is Protected Speech

As we wrote just yesterday, the defamation trial brought by seven Adams County, Ohio deputies against rapper Afroman was going about as well for the officers as their original botched raid on his h…

Techdirt

Curated Hacker News 4d ago

DOGE Didn't Cut Government Waste. It Was Government Waste

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/17/doge-didnt-cut-government-waste-it-was-government-waste/

#techdirt

DOGE Didn’t Cut Government Waste. It Was Government Waste.

Look, I get it. Government waste is real. Bureaucratic bloat is real. The desire to have a federal government that spends taxpayer money wisely and operates without unnecessary friction? That&#8217…

Techdirt

Curated Hacker News 4d ago

Turns Out the DOGE Bros Who Killed Humanities Grants Are Sensitive About It

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/16/turns-out-the-doge-bros-who-killed-humanities-grants-are-kinda-sensitive-about-it/

#techdirt

Turns Out The DOGE Bros Who Killed Humanities Grants Are Kinda Sensitive About It

Much of last week I had been working on a different article than the one this became. The American Historical Association, the Modern Language Association, and the American Council of Learned Socie…

Techdirt

Curated Hacker News Mar 13

The Wyden Siren Goes Off Again: We’ll Be “Stunned” By What the NSA Is Doing

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/12/the-wyden-siren-goes-off-again-well-be-stunned-by-what-the-nsa-is-doing-under-section-702/

#techdirt

The Wyden Siren Goes Off Again: We’ll Be “Stunned” By What the NSA Is Doing Under Section 702

Senator Ron Wyden says that when a secret interpretation of Section 702 is eventually declassified, the American public “will be stunned” to learn what the NSA has been doing. If you&#8…

Techdirt

Curated Hacker News Mar 9

The Government Told Courts It Could Easily Refund Tariffs. Now It Says It Can't

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/09/the-government-told-courts-it-could-easily-refund-unlawful-tariffs-now-it-says-it-cant/

#techdirt

The Government Told Courts It Could Easily Refund Unlawful Tariffs. Now It Says It Can’t.

When companies sued to block Trump’s IEEPA tariffs last year, one of the key arguments they made was obvious: if these tariffs turn out to be illegal, we’ll never get our money back. We…

Techdirt

Curated Hacker News Mar 7

Training students to prove they're not robots is pushing them to use more AI

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/06/were-training-students-to-write-worse-to-prove-theyre-not-robots-and-its-pushing-them-to-use-more-ai/

#ai #techdirt

We’re Training Students To Write Worse To Prove They’re Not Robots, And It’s Pushing Them To Use More AI

About a year and a half ago, I wrote about my kid’s experience with an AI checker tool that was pre-installed on a school-issued Chromebook. The assignment had been to write an essay about Ku…

Techdirt

Curated Hacker News Mar 3

Rubio to World: Stop Doing the Exact Same Thing the US Just Did

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/03/03/rubio-to-world-stop-doing-the-exact-same-thing-the-us-just-did/

#techdirt

Rubio To World: Stop Doing The Exact Same Thing The US Just Did

The State Department wants US diplomats to fight data localization around the world. The policy position is correct. It’s just that the messenger has spent the last few months systematically …

Techdirt

the cranky hermit🌻Feb 26

The Vision For The Decentralized Internet #techdirt
https://podcastaddict.com/techdirt/episode/217978403 via @PodcastAddict

Dave á Jus Feb 21

It Looks Like The FBI Straight Up Lied To A Judge To Get Permission To Seize Georgia Voting Records

Thanks, Tim Cushing and @mmasnick of #techDirt & @6820211 for this:

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/19/it-looks-like-the-fbi-straight-up-lied-to-a-judge-to-get-permission-to-seize-georgia-voting-records/

> Earlier this month, the FBI decided it was going to help Donald Trump steal back the election he’s claimed for half-a-decade was stolen from him. The state whose Secretary of State was asked directly by the outgoing president in January 2021 to “find 11,780 votes” was raided by Trump 2.0, who still somehow thinks he can win the election he lost back in 2020... It’s not just revenge Trump is seeking. He’s also hoping to find anything that will allow him to cast doubt on midterm election results now that it seems entirely possible the GOP might lose its majority in the legislature...

Curated Hacker News Feb 19

DOGE Bro's Grant Review Process Was Literally Just Asking ChatGPT 'Is This DEI?'

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/02/19/doge-bros-grant-review-process-was-literally-just-asking-chatgpt-is-this-dei/

#chatgpt #techdirt

DOGE Bro’s Grant Review Process Was Literally Just Asking ChatGPT ‘Is This DEI?’

Federal grants that had been approved after a full application and review process were terminated by some random inexperienced DOGE bros based on whether ChatGPT could explain—in under 120 characte…

Techdirt