We got Meta’s “general global playbook” for defeating advertiser verification regulations, which the company knows would reduce scams. It includes making scam ads “not findable” for regulators searching Meta’s ad library through targeted scrubbing. www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Another great @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social investigation into Meta, this one about the company's secret playbook for deceiving and manipulating the regulators investigating its massive scam problem www.reuters.com/investigatio...

New: We got an internal ICE document revealing its $100 million ad plan to bring in 14,000 new hires: deals with "tactical" influencers; ads to gun & military buffs; and geo-targeting phones around NASCAR races and gun shows. A "wartime recruitment" mode with paramilitary branding: wapo.st/44QrP5j

Sunset in London has pushed back to after 4pm again now and honestly I could not be more relieved

as a result of my reporting, Reddit fully banned the 200K+ member sub where users generated nonconsensual bikini deepfakes and shared tips for stripping women using AI last investigation of the year for @wired.com www.wired.com/story/google...

Incredibly cool series of photographs showing how infrared tech enables surveillance systems

NEW: Meet the folks at AccessNow's Digital Security Helpline, who have been investigating government spyware for more than a decade, helping journalists and dissidents all over the world. I spoke to Hassen Selmi, who heads the incident response team, to learn how his team fights spyware abuses.

Wrote about the State Department's made up censorial rationale for banning visas for some folks based on their speech. It's nonsense. www.ms.now/opinion/marc...

another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls

We need to start talking about the radicalisation of the older generation by the internet: perhaps we should have upper age limits on social media like Facebook, or an age-related ban on owning mobile phones.

US judge blocks Trump administration from deporting UK anti-disinformation campaigner

There’s a real sharp contrast between the UK and France/EUs statements on the US visa bans 🧐 From BBC story: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

When people make such a big deal calling out the dehumanizing language that is used towards immigrants, this is why: that language lets people do terrible things to other humans. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

'The modern AI industry has never really been respectful of data rights.' Frustrating truth from @mattburgess1.bsky.social in @wired.com as he explains 'The Age of the All-Access AI Agent Is Here' and to hell with privacy. www.wired.com/story/expire...

I’ll just note that the US didn’t do this to China, which outright bans US social media websites

The US just banned a guy from the country (Imran Ahmed) for pointing out that X is full of hate speech

“Imran Ahmed, chief executive of Centre for Countering Digital Hate; Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, leaders of HateAid, a German organization; former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, who was responsible for digital affairs; and Clare Melford, who runs the Global Disinformation Index.”

Users of AI image generators are offering each other instructions on how to use the tech to alter pictures of women into realistic, revealing deepfakes. www.wired.com/story/google...

“BBC Verify has found multiple instances from Florida to Oregon of CrimeRadar sending misleading and inaccurate alerts about serious crime to local residents” 🤦🤦🤦

Double checked and they definitely have removed image 468, and it was definitely this one – but that photo of Trump and Melania with Ghislaine and Epstein is a well known one. My guess would be that another photo in the image contains a victim who should’ve been redacted.

We are doing the annual play through of Overcooked (and Overcooked 2), so it’s safe to say that tensions are… high

www.bbc.com/news/article... Polar bears miss out on Christmas Dinner

New from @mattburgess1.bsky.social, @lhn.bsky.social & @zeyiyang.bsky.social : 'Haotian is a robust & versatile platform, researchers & @wired.com’s own analysis have found that the service has been marketing to so-called “pig butchering” scammers and...online fraud...' www.wired.com/story/the-ul...

Haotian, a Cambodia-based company by Chinese founders, blatantly markets its face-swapping tech to pig-butchering scammers in the region. After WIRED contacted Telegram about it, Haotian's Telegram channel suddenly became unavailable today. New story by @mattburgess1.bsky.social @lhn.bsky.social

AI slop all the way down: "Agreement will make a selection of these fan-inspired Sora short form videos available to stream on Disney+" openai.com/index/disney...

New! We worked with the Public Interest Research Group to test a bunch of LLM-driven toys ahead of the Christmas. That sexual talking teddy bear wasn't a one-off; it turns out disturbing behavior is deeply built into these toys across the board.

NEW: All the myriad Jeffery Epstein document releases have gotten hard to keep track of. Ahead of the DOJ's Dec. 19 release deadline, @regret.bsky.social lays out who's released what, and what's coming next: www.wired.com/story/a-comp...

The names of two partial owners of contractor firms linked to China's Salt Typhoon hacker group also appeared in records for Cisco's "Networking Academy" global training program—years before those hackers targeted Cisco's devices in their sweeping spy campaign. www.wired.com/story/2-men-...

Threatening to punish app stores if they don’t remove apps the government dislikes is unconstitutional.This time it’s ICEBlock, but tomorrow it could be a news app. Good for ICEBlock for standing up for everyone’s First Amendment rights.

New from 404 Media: the creator of ICEBlock just sued the U.S. government over it pressuring Apple to remove the app earlier this year. Says it violated his First Amendment rights. www.404media.co/iceblock-cre...

In terms of what’s understood to be socially acceptable behavior, normalizing the filming/taking pictures of people in public who are minding their own business (and putting it online) is one of the worst developments of the past 15 years.

A new anonymous phone carrier startup Phreeli, launching today, will let you sign up for cellular service with almost no personally identifiable information—not even your name. All it asks for is a ZIP code, the minimum info legally required for tax purposes. www.wired.com/story/new-an...

NEW: An AI image generator startup left its database exposed online, unsecured and accessible to anyone. The "overwhelming majority" of the files inside contained nudity, with images appearing to contain children and explicit face-swaps

ICYMI: This weekend, we published the @wired.com guide to digital opsec for teens (tho it applies to pretty much everyone!) We hope you and the kids in your life will read it and stay safe out there. No paywall! @lhn.bsky.social and JP Aumasson report: www.wired.com/story/digita...

I was really thrilled to get to work on The WIRED Guide to Digital Opsec for Teens with @aumasson.jp. I think we did a good job but also apologies in advance to the teens that we tried to make jokes and generally Be Chill. Also no paywall to make it easier to share! www.wired.com/story/digita...

Scoop: Provisions of the NDAA that would ensure military members’ right to repair their own equipment are set to be removed from the funding act, replaced by language that will require the military to pay subscription fees to defense contractors via “data-as-a-service.” www.wired.com/story/subscr...

NEW: Myanmar has made a big show of destroying the notorious KK Park scam compound—even publishing a video of a steamroller driving over thousands of phones But new images show buildings are only destroyed in one area. Hundreds are left untouched and experts say the crackdown is mostly propaganda

NEW: Myanmar has made a big show of destroying the notorious KK Park scam compound—even publishing a video of a steamroller driving over thousands of phones But new images show buildings are only destroyed in one area. Hundreds are left untouched and experts say the crackdown is mostly propaganda

I missed this the other day, but Ofcom fined the creators of a prolific "nudification" service—that lets people create non-consensual nude images with just a couple of clicks—for... a lack of age verification technology 🤦

ICE arrests, detains British woman with US husband and newborn when she shows up for her green card interview. She’s now in a detention center, separated from her 6-month-old. No criminal record. She had overstayed her visa. www.lbc.co.uk/article/brit...

Born out of an internal hackathon, Amazon’s Autonomous Threat Analysis system uses a variety of specialized AI agents to detect weaknesses and propose fixes to the company’s platforms. www.wired.com/story/amazon...

NEW: The US Department of Justice issued a warrant demanding SpaceX seize and disable Starlink devices and accounts being used at a scam compound in Myanmar. At least 9 Starlink devices were linked to a crypto scam that stole $6 million people, an FBI affidavit says Story with @lhn.bsky.social

legal documents cite a WIRED investigation from earlier this year, which revealed that scam compounds in Myanmar have been using Starlink www.wired.com/story/doj-is...

NEW: The US Department of Justice issued a warrant demanding SpaceX seize and disable Starlink devices and accounts being used at a scam compound in Myanmar. At least 9 Starlink devices were linked to a crypto scam that stole $6 million people, an FBI affidavit says Story with @lhn.bsky.social

🚀 New on @isoc-pulse.bsky.social — I analyzed 3.5 years of Starlink IP geolocation data. From Gaza to Mars, the results reveal how this network has expanded (and surprised me) around the world.

Canadian Travel to the U.S. Declines for 10th Straight Month www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/u...