Policy

The Tech Transparency Project identified several Iranian government agencies and officials enjoying the perks of X Premium accounts. Normally, Premium requires a paid subscription, which could violate US sanctions. Suspiciously, when Wired flagged some of those accounts to X, they were stripped of their blue checkmarks:

There are plenty of good reasons to have your doubts about Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, but he’s right — if understandably self-serving — in criticizing Russia’s “authoritarian” restrictions on both Telegram and WhatsApp.

The sudden closure of El Paso airspace yesterday came after US customs officials fired an anti-drone laser on loan from the Department of Defense without coordination with the FAA. And, according to The New York Times, it wasn’t triggered by “Mexican cartel drones breaching US airspace” as the administration claimed:

Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson warned Apple’s news product could violate a law against deceptive business practices if its alleged promotion of some ideological content violates its terms of service. Ferguson doesn’t cite specific terms it might have violated, but urges a “comprehensive review” to ensure they’re consistent.

For the past year, the Times has been using LLMs to create what’s internally known as the “Manosphere Report,” according to Nieman Lab. The AI-generated reports include episode transcripts and summaries for around 80 primarily right-wing podcasts, including the Ben Shapiro Show, Red Scare, and The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show.

Durov responded to slowdowns and other issues users in Russia are experiencing in a post on X, saying, “This authoritarian move won’t change our course. Telegram stands for freedom and privacy, no matter the pressure.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is suing Attorney General Pam Bondi and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for their alleged roles urging Meta and Apple to remove a Facebook group and app documenting ICE agents. FIRE claims they unconstitutionally coerced companies to censor speech. In a statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused FIRE of spinning “this correct decision for Apple to remove these apps as them caving to pressure instead of helping prevent further harm to federal officers.”

You should always assume that anything online about you might well stay there forever, but don’t worry: so long as you have the budget of Jeffrey Epstein, you can probably make it go away.

Friends and colleagues keep asking things like: “Can I pay you for some of those 3D-printed whistles to fight fascists so I can hand them out too?” But they are free! Request free whistles right here. Also, I’ve got an extra-long Bluesky thread with more inspiring quotes.

The bipartisan “Copyright Labeling and Ethical AI Reporting Act,” introduced by Senators Adam Schiff (D-CA) and John Curtis (R-UT), would require a written notice detailing the use of copyrighted works for training new and currently-available AI models, Deadline reports. The bill follows numerous lawsuits against AI companies for alleged copyright infringement.

The European Commission has weighed in on the November decision to block the likes of ChatGPT and Copilot from WhatsApp, and thinks it violates EU antitrust laws. It’s surprisingly fast for the organization, which called the issue “urgent” because of the risk of “irreparable” damage to competition in the nascent AI industry.

The removals — which follow the Trump administration’s previous data purging efforts — target all posts prior to the president returning to office in January 2025, with a goal to “limit confusion on US government policy,” A spokesperson told NPR that the department’s X accounts “are one of our most powerful tools for advancing the America First goals.”

A clip that put Barack and Michelle Obama’s faces on the bodies of apes appeared on the president’s Truth Social account for about 12 hours before it was deleted, but not before press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the post, saying it was simply “an internet meme.”