On Jan. 14, our parent company Ziff Davis laid off 5 of our members, days after our successful CES showing as the CNET Group. This is the third round of layoffs since Ziff acquired CNET in 2024. We’re sick of our members being on the chopping block. Read our full statement below:

Unions and community orgs are calling for a Minnesota-wide shutdown in 10 days to protest the ferocious assault by federal immigration agents. They're saying on Jan 23, no work, no school, no shopping. SEIU Local 26, UNITE HERE Local 17, & others are supporting, w/ more to join. By me, Amie Stager

That Grok still has payment processing, when everyone I know — artist or gamer or adult creator —lives in constant fear of deplatforming and debanking over the mere hint of impropriety, is utterly mind-blowing.

No I said don’t tread on *me*. You can get treaded on.

I reached out to more than three dozen X advertisers, xAI investors, politicians, and government agencies about the growing library of sexualized deepfakes generated with Grok—now including Renee Good. I only heard back from four, with three declining to comment. spitfirenews.com/p/grok-deepf...

what this should make clear to everyone in this country is that it does not matter who you are, there's no "it could never happen to me" you can be a white woman who drives around with stuffed animals in her car, and they will still kill you in cold blood and call you a domestic terrorist

Renee Nicole Good was 37. She was murdered by an ICE agent in the street in broad daylight. What really happened to her will not be forgotten, minimized, or ignored.

NEWS: In a heartbreaking video, after ICE shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis, a woman who was in the same SUV cries out: “They killed my wife. I don’t know what to do." “We stopped to videotape, and they shot her in the head,” the distraught woman sobs. www.advocate.com/news/minneso...

With AI/robots apparently able to do our jobs, housework, take care of kids and aging parents, and also create art for us.....what exactly are humans supposed to do with our lives, exactly?

Republicans ban books for fear a fifteen-year-old might read The Bluest Eye. Meanwhile, the GOP's biggest donor has built an international salad shooter of child porn and Nazi propaganda, and Republicans are silent.

2025 was the year millions of Americans awoke to the danger of state surveillance, violent policing, rights erasure, online censorship, ideological funding cancellations and retaliatory doxxing. None of this was new to sex workers. If there's not rights for everyone, there's rights for no one.

the last year has been transformative. my life looks radically different now, and so do i. spending a few hours as a rockette forced me to contemplate how i was going to talk about this, and to confront my greatest fear — being seen. www.yahoo.com/entertainmen...

I’m beyond humbled to share that @spitfirenews.com just hit 10,000 subscribers 🥳 I started this little feminist internet culture newsletter this year after getting laid off and had no idea what to expect. You all showed up for me and I’m forever grateful. spitfirenews.com/p/spitfire-n...

The moral panic around "gooning" is just the latest manifestation of our anxiety around sex and technology. And older, more potent anxiety about masturbation. Somehow, people investing in pleasure has become one of the great symbols of societal decline.

FIGHTING BACK AGAINST AI with worker action AND solid contract protections. Last year, ZDCG took action online and in-person to gain AI guardrails. We swarmed Slack, spoke out at the bargaining table, and took to the streets to picket.

can’t stop thinking about “quiet piggy” and what an uproar that would’ve caused in any other news environment

BREAKING: Starbucks workers have launched a massive, nationwide strike. Baristas in 40 cities have walked off the job on the busiest day of Starbucks' year. Upwards of 12,000 @sbworkersunited.org members could ultimately go on strike as the union escalates.

Thank you @annaroseiovine.bsky.social @mashable.com for including my thoughts about the adult studio alliance and industry code of conduct. Got to give performer-led safety initiatives credit where it’s due! mashable.com/article/adul...

It's infuriating when someone posts their grocery bill online and someone else says "you're just shopping wrong." You are flatly in denial if you don't think prices are outrageous across products and stores

What is Mamdani's plan to restore $10/month MoviePass?

Amazing. The man isn't even mayor yet but he's already solving our trash problems.

thank you for all the support; the statement from our union is now live here with some more reporting. now that this is public I can confirm that the majority of today’s layoffs were women of color. there are no longer any Black women working at Teen Vogue.

For a quick and easy costume may I recommend Peter Thiel’s vision of the Antichrist

A bright spot of news I’m excited to share is that I was honored this past weekend by SPJ as a Fellow of the Society. I’m so grateful to everyone who has supported me and @spitfirenews.com and I got to talk to student journalists about the future of our profession! spitfirenews.com/p/we-yes-we-...

The Hasan Piker dog collar incident shows that proponents of the surveillance state, like Larry Ellison, who claimed that mass video surveillance would lead to more accountability, are catastrophically wrong.

If you think ai porn "Avoids exploitation of sex workers" you REALLY don't give a single solitary shit about sex workers.....or people in general for that matter.

Kim Kardashian’s company SKIMS can advertise its “faux hair panty” to its nearly 7 million followers on Instagram, but a sex worker can sneeze and get banned from the platform

This is so damn scary. The book claimed that Jeffrey Epstein was the one who introduced Donald and Melania. Now the CEO of Harper UK is out.

Is Taylor Swift co-opting the term “showgirl” from sex workers? Thank you @gwenadora.bsky.social and @mssexysaigon.bsky.social for chatting with me for this piece mashable.com/article/shou...

Robin Williams' daughter has some quality thoughts on AI slop

Google is blocking AI searches for Trump and dementia

If any other president in all of history said the military should use American cities as a training ground he would be removed from office that same day. The hardest thing to tolerate in all this is how relatively silent elected democrats are. It’s ridiculous.

What's happening could not be more open and explicit. If you displease the regime, they will bring criminal charges against you. Ask your immigrant friends what it's like to live in a country where the rule of law is a fiction and your freedom depends on the whims of a dictator.

Mainstream institutions, including some of the biggest news outlets, have rushed to sacrifice their journalists and the meaning of words like "debate" to placate the people behind clickbait YouTube videos with titles about woke libs and Karens spitfirenews.com/p/mainstream...

We are at the point in the honoring-Charlie-Kirk's-memory cycle when faculty are being fired for posting, without comment, Charlie Kirk's words. At the behest of politicians sworn to uphold the first amendment, and in public institutions covered by first amendment protections.

You probably failed at "building bridges" if millions of people think that your life's work was destructive and terrible and if your supporters have to threaten people to keep them quiet about said legacy.

going from "transgender ideology" to "look at the poor misguided white kid" without even taking a breath, unconscionable

Since Charlie Kirk was fatally shot, people on the left have been censored, punished, and targeted with more violence for telling the truth about Kirk's legacy. The cycle continues: mainstream whitewashing of violence begets more violence and the victims are blamed. spitfirenews.com/p/the-nation...

I had no wish for him to be murdered, but I’ll harshly judge anyone who flies their flag at half staff for that hateful extremist or talks about honoring his memory. There was no honor in his life.

I think it is always worth mentioning that Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were killed with their beloved dog Gilbert: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/u...

better things are possible!!!!

For @spitfirenews.com, I wrote about how the social media trend of hoping that Trump is dead or dying is linked to both his administration's deadly unraveling of rights and institutions and how hard it is for actual news about it to reach people over memes and vibes. spitfirenews.com/p/is-trump-d...

ZDCG demands accountability for continued attacks on media workers in Gaza:

children in minneapolis shot while praying, children in DC passing armed military when they take the metro to school, this country is so sick

2025 confirmed best year to get engaged

I would urge against referring to what is happening to Kilmar as a deportation. When people are deported, they are sent to their home country or "country of origin." What is happening to Kilmar and many others under the Trump administration is... something else entirely.

I wrote about how Harry Potter slop is inescapable and fueling JK Rowling’s anti-trans bigotry—but pushback seems to be growing, too. Case in point: I just opened Reddit and saw another reboot cast announcement, but most of the comments were about boycotting it spitfirenews.com/p/harry-pott...