Yesterday, WIRED learned that Madison Square Garden was suing us for our accurate reporting. We stand by our work. That’s why we’re removing the paywall from two of the MSG stories they don’t want you to read, making them free for everyone.

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Everyone’s been sleeping on AB 621, the 2025 CA law that outlaws nudify apps *and* makes services liable for providing support to those apps if they don’t drop support once put on notice by someone like David Chiu. He has spent years suing nudify apps, so it makes sense he’s now using AB 621.

NEW: San Francisco's city attorney has sent cease and desist letters to Apple and Google, telling them to stop hosting and profiting off apps that can 'nudify' people. “These companies have responsibility to ensure that apps on their platforms do not facilitate sexual abuse,” David Chiu told me

NEW: San Francisco's city attorney has sent cease and desist letters to Apple and Google, telling them to stop hosting and profiting off apps that can 'nudify' people. “These companies have responsibility to ensure that apps on their platforms do not facilitate sexual abuse,” David Chiu told me

“If a company automatically opts millions of users into a deepfake tool, then a world filled with even more deepfakes becomes more possible. And that's a reality I’d love to opt out of.” My latest for @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/please...

New publication from me! 🎉 Please check out my latest investigation where we identify (no surprise) a crypto guy to a popular 'leaked' nudes website. Users could even get paid out for sharing leaked/hacked nudes from women. Within 48 hrs of reaching out to him, the site went offline. Impact! 🙌

Happening soon! 📚 For our very first WIRED Book Club livestream, “The Yahoo Boys” author Carlos Barragán will join WIRED Senior Writer Kate Knibbs to answer your questions about Nigeria's romance scammers. Our livestream starts at 12pm ET. Join us at the link!

New: cops are using Flock to track people, not cars. We reviewed Flock search data and found many, many cases of cops searching for people based on their appearance, race, tattoos, etc. Some searches are so vague like "tall man" that innocent people likely swept up www.404media.co/how-cops-use...

The French judiciary has launched an investigation after reports of crimes from Epstein survivors involving French citizens www.lemonde.fr/en/france/ar...

The Scattered Spider TfL hackers were each sentenced to five years and six months' imprisonment. www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/two-sen...

the World Cup final will be between two teams that Cape Verde played even through 90 minutes

Tense

"But while American lawmakers nudge artificial-intelligence companies to add mental-health guardrails, Beijing is taking a heavier hand. It is policing virtual romance, in part because it wants people to stop dating machines and start having babies."

NEW: In addition to a total ban on social media for kids under 16, the UK is planning a social media "curfew" for 16 and 17-year-olds and a crackdown on apps' most addictive features, like autoplay videos. by @milesklee.bsky.social: www.wired.com/story/the-uk...

Happy to be wrong

Despite having policies against explicit content, Youtube is funneling people to nudify sites that generate nonconsensual deepfakes for as little as $1. Targets include people's sisters and motivations are often "getting people fired." by @ejdickson.bsky.social: www.wired.com/story/youtub...

💅🏾

Ann Widdecombe death: counter-terrorism police take over investigation www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

NEW: SFPD left livestreams from their drones on the open web. Researchers Sam Curry and Maik Robert discovered the videos, captured 60 from ~20 flights, and shared them w/ @wired.com—revealing how invasive this surveillance can be. @agreenberg.bsky.social & @dmehro.bsky.social w/ the scoop:

NEW: A public link let anyone watch SFPD police drone operations. We reviewed hours of leaked footage showing drones tracking cars across the city, watching detentions, peering into apartment windows, recording thermal video, and sweeping up hundreds of bystanders w/ @agreenberg.bsky.social

Ahead of England v Norway in the World Cup, enjoy this classic from my old pal Patrick Kidd in The Times

🚨 NEWS: The European Commission finds addictive design of Instagram & Facebook in breach of the Digital Services Act "Meta did not adequately assess the risks of its addictive design on the physical and mental wellbeing of users, including minors and vulnerable adults" ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

sigh

An MSG database tracked and categorized hundreds of celebs, famous Knicks superfans, and even some of Taylor Swift’s wedding guests. Labels included “LGBTQIA,” “DO NOT HOST,” and low to high “risk.” www.wired.com/story/madiso...

oh boy do I have a horrifying patent for you to read

A Brit in the semis of Wimbledon, England still in the World Cup and Nigel Farage spending the summer arguing with a bin. Oh this happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea

Over '2,000 domains belonging to gov. and edu. institutions, across 80 countries, have received copyright takedown requests linked to adult content creators over the past 15 years (&) may have been compromised' - @mattburgess1.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/onlyfa... @enbrown.bsky.social

NEW: For years government websites have been hacked, with scammers uploading porn, ads for free Fortnite currency, and more. Recently, they've started using OnlyFans models as lures. Copyright takedown requests made by adult creators are now showing how big a problem the hacking has become

Another German state heads down the open source sovereignty road

As part of Meta’s Muse Image model rollout, Instagram users with public accounts need to opt out to block AI generations of their content. www.wired.com/story/meta-n...

NEW - Greens won’t stand in Clacton. So it is Nigel Farage versus Count Binface.

EXC - The £5m gift to Nigel Farage by a cryptocurrency billionaire was reported to the National Crime Agency by bankers who were concerned it may have been laundered money, the Guardian can reveal. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

stoked to share that i’m now a SENIOR reporter at @wired.com! taking this promotion as an opportunity to put out a call for tips 🫡 i love writing about software and how it impacts our lives. contact me securely on signal signal.me#eu/-nUwtfyy0...

oh no, oh no, sorry everyone, I love this

From Belgium's X and Instagram accounts

“After it ended, the Belgian team’s social media account had a message to the U.S. on Twitter: “Overturn this.” Perfect. #WellPlayed #Belgium

lol of course why not www.nytimes.com/athletic/742...

NEW and EXCLUSIVE: One of the UK's most powerful supercomputers, called Dawn, spent a week offline after the late June heatwave. Uni of Cambridge says full cooling capacity for Dawn and other affected services has now been restored... My first for @thetimes.com: www.thetimes.com/uk/science/a...

NEW: ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility, an internal watchdog that normally does things like inspecting detention facilities and investigating employee misconduct, has also been investigating what people say online about ICE and its employees: www.wired.com/story/ices-i...

NEW: The ICE office that customarily probes employee misconduct is being refocused to investigate ICE critics, opening hundreds of "doxing and threat" cases and subpoenaing tech companies to unmask anonymous posters. Detention facility inspections, meanwhile, are plummeting. by @regret.bsky.social

Belgians formally challenge Balogun decision

FIFA has how made up some kind of insane appeal process and could rescind the Balogun red card recension no notes www.nytimes.com/athletic/742...

When Sepp Blatter accuses you of corruption you know things have got bad.

🚨 UEFA slams FIFA for reversing the red card suspension for Folarin Balogun. “We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision.”

@citizenlab.ca's Pegasus revelations show the EU's spyware crisis is far from over. CDT Europe, alongside 38 CSOs, is calling for an independent investigation, implementation of the PEGA recommendations, remedies for victims, stronger enforcement, and an end to EU support for spyware companies.

Phenomenal

Well this was certainly worth getting up for