The much-hyped SIM farm the Secret Service seized uses readily available off the shelf tech that, very interestingly, has also become critical to ticket scalping. I, like others, am extremely not buying the idea that this was intended to take down the cell network […]

New: We have just sued ICE to demand it turns over a secretive spyware contract that it refuses to release: https://www.404media.co/were-suing-ice-for-its-2-million-spyware-contract/

Good news: Rather than deal with tariff logistics, some international eBay and Etsy sellers have simply jacked their shipping costs up to $2,000 for Americans buyers: https://www.404media.co/2-000-shipping-international-sellers-charge-absurd-prices-to-avoid-dealing-with-american-tariffs/

Talked to 23 people who suddenly have to pay huge tariffs or otherwise cannot get chainmail from Pakistan, yarn from France, retro computers from Japan, metal music from the Netherlands, DVDs from Germany, cosplay supplies, sunscreen, etc […]

BREAKING: Michael Pratt, the ringleader of Girls Do Porn, was sentenced to 27 years in prison today. @samleecole.bsky.social is at the court in what sounds like a completely gut-wrenching day: https://www.404media.co/michael-pratt-girlsdoporn-ringleader-sentenced/

AI "boring history" slop has taken over YouTube and is particularly insidious because it flattens history and drowns out the tireless work of creators who have been integral to legitimizing YouTube as a place for high-quality history videos […]

Trump take LEGO: https://www.404media.co/lego-stops-shipping-individual-bricks-to-united-states-after-trumps-tariffs/

Buying anything from overseas is about to get more expensive, more logistically complicated, slower, and overall more annoying. Film photography community, retro games community, people into skincare already seeing chaos on eBay. eBay sellers locking US buyers out […]

New: An app developer has restored functionality to popular Echelon exercise bikes after the company made them all-but-useless unless you have a subscription. But he can't legally release the software […]

Breaking: 4chan and Kiwi Farms have sued the United Kingdom over the Online Safety Act: https://www.404media.co/4chan-and-kiwi-farms-sue-the-uk-over-its-age-verification-law/

80s nostalgia AI slop: A niche like any other, reverse engineered by 20-something digital nomads in Bali to boomerfy the masses as they astral project to a fake past in service of making fractions of a cent per view on Zuckerberg's cultish algorithmic slop machine […]

Today is the two year anniversary of 404 Media, which is hard to fathom. We wrote about how it's going, what we've done, what we're going to do, and what we've learned. We cannot do this without the support of our subscribers and for that we are endlessly thankful […]

TikTok Shop is selling 'Silent' GPS trackers that are marketed to stalkers and domestic abusers. Many of the videos have millions of views and at least 100,000 of them have been sold. TikTok's algorithm endlessly puts these in front of you if you fall into the algo […]

An ICE sizzle reel propaganda video that used a Jay-Z song got hit with a copyright takedown and has been deleted off of X. Sound removed on Instagram and Facebook https://www.404media.co/ice-propaganda-video-that-used-jay-z-song-hit-with-copyright-takedown/

SCOOP: A CBP agent wore Meta's AI smart glasses to an immigration raid in Los Angeles. CBP has no deal with Meta so it's possibly his own personal device https://www.404media.co/a-cbp-agent-wore-meta-smart-glasses-to-an-immigration-raid-in-los-angeles/

New: A Sheriff's Office in Texas has access to data from AI license plate reading cameras at hundreds of Home Depots (in Texas) and Lowe's (around the country) https://www.404media.co/home-depot-and-lowes-share-data-from-hundreds-of-ai-cameras-with-cops/

Apple is now selling repair parts for iPads ... but the prices are often astronomical and make repair totally untenable: https://www.404media.co/apple-is-selling-ipad-repair-parts-for-astronomical-prices/

SCOOP: The manifests for three legally contested deportation flights to El Salvador contain the names of dozens of people who have not been acknowledged in any way by the US government. Immigration experts following the case say they don't know where these people are […]

All American trains have a vulnerability where a hacker can remotely trigger the brakes over radio frequency. A single researcher has been warning about this for 13 years and the government has FINALLY acknowledged it’s real and is making train companies fix it […]

Media outlets can't pivot to AI to save themselves. It's not a business strategy and it's not going to work. The only path forward is for journalists to lean into their humanity, to do things AI can't, and to make clear they are writing for people, not algorithms […]

NEW: ICE is using a facial recognition smartphone app that pulls faces from CBP's database of people who cross the border: https://www.404media.co/ice-is-using-a-new-facial-recognition-app-to-identify-people-leaked-emails-show/

if you missed our FOIA Forum last week, where we talk about how we do public records reporting and how you can too, the archive is here: https://www.404media.co/heres-the-video-for-our-sixth-foia-forum-massive-blue/

Spending the next 2-3 hours shipping merch! If you order now your order will ship today. Tank tops and horse shirts back in stock! https://404media.myshopify.com/products/doom-code-404-tank-top-pre-order

In 15 mins we're doing a FOIA FORUM about how we reported a story about cops using AI-powered sockpuppet bots on social media. This is for subscribers only, we'll be taking questions about FOIA, showing examples of our requests, etc. Come hang out! […]

after using it for gazillions of hours as a webcam, my sony a6000 is totally broken now. need recs on: - good webcams for podcast recordings that ultimately go to YT i.e. want very good quality - minimum viable used model sony e-mount camera to use as webcam bc i already have lenses/setup dialed in

NEW: Here's an internal police email thread where 1) Local police performs a license plate lookup for ICE HSI 2) Local police in an informal "analyst group" offer each other, ICE's HSI, and the FBI help with a variety of surveillance tools […]

New: A judge refuses to throw out the FTC's repair monopoly lawsuit against John Deere. Means two major antitrust suits over its repair practices are going to trial, which is a big deal: https://www.404media.co/john-deere-must-face-ftc-lawsuit-over-its-tractor-repair-monopoly-judge-rules/

Scoop: GitHub code shows Trump administration is building a platform to "accelerate" AI across the government called ai.gov that is supposedly going to launch on the Fourth of July https://www.404media.co/github-is-leaking-trumps-plans-to-accelerate-ai-across-government/

Airlines sell passenger data to the feds through a separate data broker they spun up and put in the contract that DHS is not allowed to tell anyone that it comes from the airlines: https://www.404media.co/airlines-dont-want-you-to-know-they-sold-your-flight-data-to-dhs/

I spoke to two former govt workers who helped create IRS's Direct File software, which is set to be killed by DOGE/Trump/Intuit but thankfully just got open sourced. Both of them seem optimistic about what people are going to be able to do with the codebase […]

Extremely interesting story: the Ukraine drones that did this weekend’s massive attack were powered by free open source pilot assistance software https://www.404media.co/ukraines-massive-drone-attack-was-powered-by-open-source-software/

I talked to 15 teachers/professors about how AI and ChatGPT is ruining their lives: https://www.404media.co/teachers-are-not-ok-ai-chatgpt/

Scoop: Texas police used Flock's license plate cameras to search *nationwide* for a woman who had a self-managed abortion. Claim it was "about her safety" https://www.404media.co/a-texas-cop-searched-license-plate-cameras-nationwide-for-a-woman-who-got-an-abortion/

SCOOP: ICE, HSI, and DHS are getting side-door access to the nationwide system of Flock license plate cameras by asking local police to perform lookups for them, new public records show. ICE does *not* have a contract to use this surveillance tool itself […]

I spoke to the person who AI-generated the Chicago Sun-Times reading list. Says he's embarrassed. This was part of a generic package inserted into newspapers and other publications, so likely to run elsewhere. He didn't know it'd be in Chicago Sun-Times […]

FYI: under capitalism your DNA is worth $17 https://www.404media.co/23andme-sale-shows-your-genetic-data-is-worth-17/

New: CBP seized a shipment of t-shirts featuring a swarm of bees attacking a cop. The company also sells "ELIMINATE ICE" t-shirt and previously was threatened by LAPD for "FUCK THE LAPD" shirts and hats. Shirts to be "destroyed under CBP supervision" […]

I FOIAed every state's dept of education to see what they were telling teachers about ChatGPT / how they were training them on it, and the situation was bleak. My writeup, pulled from thousands of pages of presentations, emails, and other documents […]

Scoop: Ricardo Prado Vasquez, a man who was 'disappeared' by ICE, is on a hacked flight manifest for a March 15 flight to El Salvador. This means US govt may have a less detailed list of who it's deporting than a private airline […]

We spoke to the woman who turned her dead brother into an AI avatar that testified at the sentencing hearing for his killer, and learned more about how the judge considered the AI statement Really wild story and not sure this is a road we want to go down […]

"The Trump administration’s constant use of AI art reflects its own brute force attack on American democracy. It’s not just that its aesthetics are useful for Trump, its entire mode of being is useful for how his administration has governed so far" https://www.404media.co/the-ai-slop-presidency/

NEW: GlobalX, the company doing many deportation flights for ICE, has been hacked. Hackers claim to have stolen flight manifest information and flight details, and have also defaced the website https://www.404media.co/globalx-airline-for-trumps-deportations-hacked/

SCOOP: The Signal clone used by Trump admin that Mike Waltz was seen using in a cabinet meeting in has been hacked https://www.404media.co/the-signal-clone-the-trump-admin-uses-was-hacked/

Wrote about the nation's greatest living dystopian fiction salesman, Howard Lutnick, and the pathetic policies that are trying to bring this technofeudalist fever dream to life: https://www.404media.co/your-childrens-children-will-die-in-our-factories/

New: Mike Waltz appears to be using an unofficial fork of Signal in the cabinet meeting, which archives messages elsewhere, off device. Unclear what potential security implications of this are […]

I spoke to the man who runs a Los Angeles tour bus exclusively for Germans that has a stop near my house and brings tons of tourists to many neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles. He says bookings for this summer are down 30% […]

We’ve uploaded more clips from the conversations at the Fediverse House last month at SXSW, including: @jasonkoebler on the perils of building a business on rented land @parkerortolani's recommendation to publishers who want to get started in the fediverse Gina Michnowicz’s advice to brands […]

Internet mystery time. The 'You Wouldn't Steal a Car' anti-piracy ads used a pirated font (lol). But who originally pirated the font, and was it this company that made modems for the Sega Genesis that were sold at Blockbuster? If you know pls tell me (and @xor […]

New: This is the leaked internal ethical justification Palantir has given its employees for building a massive immigrant deportation database with ICE: https://www.404media.co/this-is-palantirs-justification-for-building-ices-master-database/