Discord is attempting to distance itself from the age verification provider Persona following a steady stream of user backlash. In an emailed statement to The Verge, Discord’s head of product policy, Savannah Badalich, confirms the company “ran a limited test of Persona in the UK where age assurance had previously launched and that test has […]
This week’s Current Climate newsletter also looks at a former top Tesla engineer’s plans to rewire the grid and the outlook for solving spiking electric power prices
Early on the morning of September 2, 2024, a Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line train was the scene of a random and horrific mass shooting. Four people were shot and killed on a westbound train as it approached the suburb of Forest Park. The police swiftly activated a digital dragnet—a surveillance network that connects thousands…
Donald Trump threatened that there would be “consequences” for Netflix if it didn’t fire board member Susan Rice. Rice served in both the Obama and Biden administrations, and recently appeared on Preet Bharara’s podcast, where she said corporations that “take a knee to Trump” are going to be “caught with more than their pants down. […]
This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on the dire state of tech regulation, follow Adi Robertson. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here. How it started In 1973, long before the modern digital era, […]
Común allows immigrants to open a free checking account online with a foreign ID and to send money to relatives back home at a reasonable cost.
For all his bluster about voter fraud, Elon Musk has been one of the most flagrant flouters of US election law. Now his America PAC has been slapped with a reprimand by the Georgia State Election Board for sending out pre-filled absentee ballot applications. State law prohibits anyone, other than an authorized relative, from sending […]
The US Supreme Court struck down some of Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign imports, which have become a hallmark of the chaos of the second Trump administration. The court’s ruling deals specifically with duties levied using a law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), something no other president has done – the 1977 […]
The Trump administration just tossed out Biden-era restrictions on mercury and other toxic pollutants from power plants. It’s repealing Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) just as electricity demand in the US ticks up with the buildout of new AI data centers. Those standards are particularly impactful when it comes to pollution from coal plants […]
SerpApi, a company that offers tools to scrape content on the web, is fighting back against Google’s copyright lawsuit that accuses it of vacuuming up search results “at an astonishing scale.” In a motion to dismiss filed on Friday, SerpApi argues that Google doesn’t hold a copyright on its search results, alleging that the engine […]