Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, while simultaneously removing apps that report the location of ICE officials because Google sees ICE as a vulnerable group. “Big tech has made their choice.” www.404media.co/google-has-c...

also, this happened this year: Following Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the Trump administration’s promise to go after the “radical left” a study showing most domestic terrorism is far-right was disappeared. www.404media.co/doj-deletes-...

Astronomers think they may have captured starlight from the first generation of stars, which shone more than 13 billion years ago.

This year, Grok was reprogrammed to say Elon Musk is better than everyone at everything, including blowjobs, piss drinking, playing quarterback, conquering Europe, etc. www.404media.co/elon-musk-co...

A man tried to create a "women's safety" app called Tea. Then, images and more than a million private conversations, including some about cheating partners and abortions, were compromised in two separate security breaches. One of our top stories this year:

We're already thinking about what to cover next year and have some pieces coming. If you want to support our independent journalism, please consider becoming a subscriber. We'll continue to grow sustainably and with journalists in charge, the journalism comes first www.404media.co/membership/

We reported that hackers had doxed hundreds of DHS, ICE, FBI and DOJ officials www.404media.co/hackers-dox-...

The U.S.'s major airlines stopped selling flight records (name, flight from, flight to, credit card number) to the government after our months of reporting on the issue www.404media.co/airlines-wil...

We revealed the existence of Mobile Fortfy, ICE's new facial recognition app that turns the system used to vet travelers at the border inwards to U.S. streets: www.404media.co/ice-is-using...

We revealed that TeleMessage, the Signal clone used by the Trump administration, had been hacked: www.404media.co/the-signal-c...

As we finish up the year, 404 Media will have stuff publishing over the holidays. Some horrible (you'll see on Xmas day), some fun. Subscribers will still get a story each day. In the meantime, here's some of our best coverage this year, starting with Flock + ICE: www.404media.co/ice-taps-int...

This week, we discuss history repeating itself, a phone wipe scandal, Meta's relationship with links and more.

Meta thinks its camera glasses, which are often used for harassment, are no different than any other camera. Here's 404 Media's guide to the PR team at Meta: www.404media.co/whats-the-di...

“Everything I say leaks. And it sucks, right?,” Zuckerberg said at a Meta all-hands meeting this year. This came after Meta's $25 million settlement with Trump and the company agreeing to pay $22 million for the Trump Presidential Library. From January: www.404media.co/zuckerberg-s...

Things can feel hopeless but this year, people fought back. Here's how the town of Ypsilanti, Michigan is taking on the construction of a 'high-performance computing facility' that would service a nuclear weapons laboratory 1,500 miles away. www.404media.co/a-small-town...

Trump has found an aesthetic to define his second term: grotesque AI slop. www.404media.co/the-ai-slop-...

I am starting to think I will never receive my horny novelty holiday decorations.

More than two miles under the Greenland Sea, tubeworms, snails, crustaceans, and microbes live on gas hydrate seeps that leak crude oil and methane.

Throwback to last month when government 'Shutdown Guidance' for the US Army Garrison Bavaria initially included instructions to go to German food banks. www.404media.co/army-tells-s...

for your holiday reading pleasure: i wrote about why i’m getting back into tapes, and what we’ve lost by letting ourselves get addicted to platforms built around surveillance and instant gratification. 🎶 @404media.co

9 days after Inauguration Day, 404 Media wrote about how this declassified World War II-era government guide to sabotaging fascism became one of the most popular open source books on the internet. One of our top stories this year: www.404media.co/declassified...

How we tracked ourselves with exposed Flock cameras; a year in review; and our personal recommendations on all sorts of things.

In the age of Spotify and AI slop, tapes remind us what we’re missing when we stop taking risks.

When users confronted the exec with their concerns, he brushed them off, said he would not submit to mob rule, and explained that AIs have emotions and that tech firms were working to create a new form of sentience. www.404media.co/anthropic-ex...

There are so many levels to this embarrassment—the Coldplay of it all, the HR violation occurring on jumbotron, etc—that one could likely write a doctoral dissertation on this 15 second video. But here's what it says about the future of surveillance: www.404media.co/the-astronom...

This year marked the first time the AI avatar of a victim—in this case, a dead man—has ever addressed a court, and it raises many questions about the use of this type of technology in future court proceedings. www.404media.co/i-loved-that...

Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, while simultaneously removing apps that report the location of ICE officials because Google sees ICE as a vulnerable group.

There are a lot more stories I'm proud of this year, but I'm mostly proud to be publishing them at 404 Media, where we've accomplished so much in just 2.5 years it makes my head spin. Whether you're a day one supporter or a new friend, thank you. Help spread the word: www.404media.co/membership/

But my most memorable moment in reporting in 2025 was seeing a longtime sex trafficker forced to face his victims, and watching a judge send him to prison for a long time. After following GDP for ~6 years, being present for this sentencing felt important: www.404media.co/michael-prat...

This (and other incredible reporting elsewhere on this topic) resulted in senators and consumer rights groups demanding Meta cut it the fuck out: www.404media.co/senators-let...

With a world like this, it might stand to reason that people need therapy. And a LOT of people get it from chatbots. I broke the story about Meta's "AI therapist" chatbots faking licenses and degrees to keep vulnerable people talking at any cost: www.404media.co/instagram-ai...

These and other laws made me wonder: How the hell are these lawmakers planning to enforce something like "intent to arouse" when horny yolk-popping videos exist? I tried to unpack the question, with the help of legal experts, and arrived at the "Egg Yolk Principle" www.404media.co/egg-yolk-pop...

My very first post this year was on Pornhub blocking access to almost all of the south in response to age verification laws: bit.ly/3MOFzap Now we're at 1/2 of all states. The creep (sprint?) of AV in the US has been chilling to follow; read all our AV stories here: www.404media.co/tag/age-veri...

404 Media is about to enter energy saver mode. We're still publishing throughout the week, however, so watch your inbox / RSS / the @404media.co feed and you won't miss us too badly. Before we all slip into the ether, I wanted to highlight a few stories I published this year that stuck out. 🧵🪡

Are big newsrooms getting better at crediting independent journalists? @jasonkoebler.bsky.social compares notes with @marisakabas.bsky.social, founder of thehandbasket.co, on landing huge scoops as indie journalists and dealing with mainstream media. Listen: www.youtube.com/watch?v=e73s...

Multiple social media users noticed on Monday that the 60 Minutes episode was available via the Global TV app. To view the episode, viewers need to connect to the app from a Canadian IP address. People then uploaded copies of the episode to a variety of file sharing sites and services.

Archivists have saved and uploaded copies of the 60 Minutes episode new CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss ordered be shelved as a torrent and multiple file sharing sites. @evystadium.bsky.social has more. Full story by @josephcox.bsky.social: www.404media.co/archivists-p...

This is 404 Media's @jasonkoebler.bsky.social waving at himself through a Flock camera; one of 60 we learned was left exposed to the open internet. Not only could anyone with a link livestream it, but some admin portals were open with no login credentials required. www.404media.co/flock-expose...

Archivists have saved and uploaded copies of the 60 Minutes episode new CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss ordered be shelved as a torrent and multiple file sharing sites. @evystadium.bsky.social has more. Full story by @josephcox.bsky.social: www.404media.co/archivists-p...

well, archivists gonna archive. torrents remain undefeated www.404media.co/archivists-p...

New: archivists have distributed the 60 Minutes episode Bari Weiss killed. iCloud, Mega, torrent too. Shows won’t be able to keep this episode offline www.404media.co/archivists-p...

iCloud, Mega, and as a torrent. Archivists have uploaded the 60 Minutes episode Bari Weiss spiked.

iCloud, Mega, and as a torrent. Archivists have uploaded the 60 Minutes episode Bari Weiss spiked.

This chatbot roleplay and image generator platform left cloud storage containers of nearly two million of images and videos exposed, including photos and full names of women from social media. www.404media.co/ai-porn-secr...

we are making a print zine (!!!) about the surveillance tactics used by ICE, and the ways people are resisting this technology.

Marisa Kabas of The Handbasket joins the pod to talk about indie journalism, the industry, and what's going on in the federal government

I'm just getting started at 404 Media. I'll keep covering war and nukes and AI next year. Become a member now and don't miss a single moment

and people began to fight back, successfully, against the construction of unwanted datacenters in their communities