Tech is reshaping the world — and not always for the better. Whether it’s the rules for Apple’s App Store or Facebook’s plan for fighting misinformation, tech platform policies can have enormous ripple effects on the rest of society. They’re so powerful that, increasingly, companies aren’t setting them alone but sharing the fight with government regulators, civil society groups, and internal standards bodies like Meta’s Oversight Board. The result is an ongoing political struggle over harassment, free speech, copyright, and dozens of other issues, all mediated through some of the largest and most chaotic electronic spaces the world has ever seen.
I’ve been updating it for hours with bits from court documents, blog posts, email fact-checks, even a quick interview with Google Android boss Sameer Samat and Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. I’m about done, but I still need to parse the new Games Level Up Program and Apps Experience Program...
LeakBase had more than 142,000 members and a database containing “hundreds of millions” of stolen account credentials, according to the DOJ. US law enforcement worked with Europol to seize LeakBase’s data and take over two of its domains.
Companies that do business with the US military are pivoting away from Anthropic’s AI after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced he was designating it a “supply chain risk” last week, CNBC reports. While Anthropic can still challenge the designation in court, defense companies say they’re abandoning Claude preemptively “out of an abundance of caution.”
“The parties expect to submit a revised proposal to the Court by March 4, 2026.” That’s today.
Judge Donato seemed extremely skeptical of the previous proposed settlement during the live courtroom proceedings, particularly because Epic and Google had quietly worked out a new $800 million business deal behind the scenes. We’re standing by for the “revised proposal” now.
The site seems to be drawing a line at betting on nuclear war. Even though Polymarket has allowed betting on whether or not there would be a nuclear detonation in a particular year previously, the possibility of a nuclear apocalypse in 2026 might be just a bit too real. According to 404 Media:
For a few hours on Tuesday, Polymarket hosted a bet about the possibility of nuclear war in 2026. The market asked the question “Nuclear weapon detonation by …?” and racked up close to a million dollars in trading volume before Polymarket took the unusual step to remove the market from its website.
The Pro-Human Declaration has been signed by the American Federation of Teachers, the Congress of Christian Leaders, the Progressive Democrats of America, and Steve Bannon.
I’m at the courthouse in downtown Manhattan, where the DOJ and 40 state and district attorneys general are accusing the entertainment titan of maintaining an illegal monopoly that drives up ticket prices.
Jason Lee had this profile killed from an unnamed magazine because he didn’t like being asked a question about Scientology. Defector is publishing it anyway. Are there any cool Gen Xers? Starting to feel like the answer is no.
Reserves can offset short-term disruptions to the global market. Beyond that, higher prices could encourage American companies to ramp up production in coming months.
Trump campaigned on a promise to “drill,” promoting “American energy dominance.” Asked if he’s worried about oil prices ahead of US strikes on Iran, Trump responded, “I’m not concerned … I’m concerned about long term health for this country.”
While Trump’s federal regulators are seemingly in the bag for Larry Ellison’s big dumb gift to his large adult son, The New York Times notes that state attorneys general can sue to block mergers in the US, and EU regulators will have a say since properties like HBO Max and CNN are offered globally.
The $34.5 billion deal to combine two of the biggest US cable providers can now go ahead after appeasing Brendan Carr by pledging to drop DEI policies.
[Federal Communications Commission]
Every time there’s a major event, it seems like some people head to Polymarket to make a quick buck at just the right time. It happened with the Super Bowl, with Nicolás Maduro, and now with Iran. In total, over $529 million was traded related to the timing of the strikes, but according to Bloomberg:
Six accounts on Polymarket made around $1 million in profit by betting on the US to strike Iran by Feb. 28, according to analytics firm Bubblemaps SA. The accounts were all freshly created in February and had only ever placed bets on when US strikes might occur. Some of their shares were purchased, in some cases at roughly a dime apiece, hours before the first explosions were reported in Tehran.
On Friday, Donald Trump announced a ban on the federal government’s use of Claude. Though he had to walk back his demand that agencies “IMMEDIATELY CEASE” using it, instead saying there would be a six-month phaseout. Part of that might be because planning for Saturday’s strikes against Iran was underway and relied on Claude for intelligence assessments and target identification. According to the Wall Street Journal:
Within hours of declaring that the federal government will end its use of artificial-intelligence tools made by tech company Anthropic, President Trump launched a major air attack in Iran with the help of those very same tools.
Anyone else notice that ICE isn’t worried about getting doxed by Meta?
Prime Minister Netanyahu also said there were “many indications” the Ayatollah was dead, according to The New York Times. Later in the evening, the Iranian government confirmed Khamenei’s death. Trump’s post went on to claim that Iranian security forces “no longer want to fight,” though there has been no evidence suggest that yet.
Updated March 1st: Added confirmation from the Iranian government.
[New York Times]
The band didn’t mince any words in the statement after a choral version of the song was used in a video claiming that “Thousands of American families have been torn apart because of criminal illegal alien violence,” saying:
We demand that the amateurs in control of the ICE social media account take it down. It ain’t funny, this song means a lot to us and other people, and you don’t get to appropriate it without a fight.
Also, go fuck yourselves… Radiohead
Dean Ball, who worked as a senior AI policy advisor, said on X that designating Anthropic as a “supply chain risk” or threatening to invoke the Defense Production Act could have a chilling effect on the entire industry. Alan Rozenshtein, a former DOJ official specializing in technology law, told Politico this could be the first step toward partial nationalization of the AI industry.
Early on Saturday, the US and Israel launched a joint military strike on Iran. President Trump said in a video on Truth Social the goal is to “annihilate” the country’s military. He then directly addressed the Iranian people, saying that the country “will be yours to take.” The Iranian government launched retaliatory strikes on Israel and American bases in the area, including in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait.
You can get all the latest updates from The New York Times, NPR, BBC, and Reuters.
South Korea has long restricted the export of mapping data over national security concerns leaving Google Maps, launched there in 2008, to flounder against local rivals Naver and Kakao. The Transport Ministry said the revision is being made in the interest of promoting tourism.
The FTC and 11 states accused Walmart of showing “drivers in its Spark Driver delivery program inflated base pay and tip amounts,” resulting in millions of dollars of lost earnings. Walmart also allegedly deceived customers by claiming that 100 percent of tips went to drivers.
The settlement also requires Walmart to implement an earnings verification program for drivers, as well as other changes. A separate lawsuit from the CFPB over driver bank accounts was dropped last year in the first weeks of the Trump administration.
In what appears to be preparations to fully blacklist Anthropic for not budging on their acceptable use policies, the Defense Department has begun reaching out to contractors to assess their exposure to the AI company’s products. Boeing and Lockheed Martin, two of the biggest companies in the defense space, have reportedly been contacted.
