Law

The CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) is suing Trump administration officials after they targeted him for deportation from the US because of his online content moderation work.

The Trump administration just sanctioned five people, including Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) founder Imran Ahmed, over their work in content moderation and anti-disinformation. On Wednesday he filed a lawsuit (pdf) to stop their “unconstitutional attempt to arrest and expel him.”

In the middle of threatening funding for hospitals that provide gender-related care to minors and trying to tack his name onto the Kennedy Center, the president also signed another executive order.

This report from New York magazine follows up after a few months of the state’s bell-to-bell ban:

President Donald Trump, who was reelected despite the events of January 6th, 2021, has filed a defamation lawsuit against the BBC in his home state of Florida. He’s seeking $10 billion to repair reputational harm allegedly suffered after a misleading edit of his actions prior to the attack on the US Capitol building was broadcast to people living 4,000 miles away.

In a blog post, the nonprofit says it has “significant reservations” about systems that require AI companies to pay to train on their content, stating that they “could become new concentrations of power, with the ability to dictate how we experience the web.”

In addition to complying with the under-16 social media ban that begins December 10th in Australia, Reddit is making changes globally for under-18s:

There’s some kind of news coming from the White House this week about AI regulations, after a post from the president to Truth Social saying, “You can’t expect a company to get 50 Approvals every time they want to do something. THAT WILL NEVER WORK!”

The court is hearing arguments in a case where it could overturn decades of precedent over the president’s firing of a Federal Trade Commissioner. While conservative justices worry about letting Congress’ authority run wild, liberal justices like Elena Kagan warn of creating “a president with control over everything.”

Earlier this week, the judge overseeing the New York state case against Mangione said he would seal all exhibits, including police body camera footage of the arrest. Mangione’s defense argues releasing the exhibits could be prejudicial — but Judge Gregory Carro just told us that some exhibits will be released soon. Journalists made a push for releasing the exhibits earlier this week, with one reporter even getting removed from court.

In court Thursday during evidence suppression hearings, prosecutors showed a hand-written note that police say they found among Mangione’s possessions. It was only briefly shown and hard to make out, but one day’s tasks included buying USBs and a digital camera from Best Buy. Journalist Lorena O’Neil reports one section of the note may have referenced archiving social media pages, which were scrutinized by the public after Mangione’s arrest.

Cool update to last week’s story on why language doesn’t equal intelligence: a Michigan judge cited it to justify imposing sanctions over a ChatGPT-assisted filing that mentioned real cases but misstated their facts. Congrats to author Benjamin Riley, and thanks to folks who pointed it out on X and Bluesky!

According to FlatpanelsHD and TheWalkmanblog, Sony has trademarked “True RGB” in Japan and Canada. It’s almost certainly for the RGB TV technology announced earlier this year to compete with similar RGB tech from Hisense, TCL, and Samsung shown in 2025.

We’re listening to testimony from one of the responding officers who arrested Luigi Mangione in a Pennsylvania McDonalds. The officer testified that Mangione’s medical face mask made him stand out as the person who was reported as being suspicious.

We’re back in New York court this morning for pre-trial hearings on whether key evidence in the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting case will be barred from being shown to jurors — that includes items like a firearm and notebook recovered when Mangione was arrested. As I left the courthouse last night, some Mangione supporters were already “in line” to try to get inside on Tuesday. They camped out across the street in tents overnight.

A Department of Corrections officer at the Pennsylvania prison where Mangione was held after his arrest told the court that he and Mangione discussed how traditional media and social media was reacting to the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The corrections officer told Mangione that from his perspective, mainstream media focused on the crime, whereas social media users discussed the wrongdoings of the healthcare industry.

Hearings this week will focus on whether key evidence is admissible in the New York State case against Mangione, who’s accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. At each hearing, trucks have circled the courthouse with information about the case and stories of patients who have struggled to get healthcare claims approved.

Fresh off a settlement with the DOJ over its software allegedly enabling landlord collusion to raise rents, RealPage is now suing the state of New York over a new law that bans algorithmic rent pricing, claiming it violates the company’s First Amendment rights.

Cameo, the service that gives purpose to has-beens, has secured a temporary restraining order that prohibits Altman and Co from using “Cameo” to name a Sora feature that lets people insert themselves and characters into AI-generated videos. The TRO expires shortly after a trademark hearing scheduled for December 19th.

It’s the latest legal ruling that training on copyrighted materials without permission violates said copyright, ignoring OpenAI’s argument that users should be the ones held liable.

NFL analyst Mina Kimes, one of several ESPN personalities who promoted Papaya Gaming’s Solitaire Cash app on social media, says she’s “deeply embarrassed” for the endorsement. Papaya is currently tied up in a federal lawsuit over whether it used bots to control what were advertised as skill-based games.

Following similar lawsuits in Louisiana and Kentucky, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on X that he’s suing the gaming company for “putting pixel pedophiles and profits” over child safety.

The man accused of throwing a sandwich at a Border Patrol agent was found not guilty Thursday. The officer who was hit with the sandwich gave a testimony loaded with details, including that the sub “exploded all over” him and that he could smell mustard and onions. The jury apparently didn’t have a taste for it — perhaps it was a subpar case.