New from 404 Media: M-17 is the military variant of the Sig Sauer P320, a handgun famous for accidental discharges. ICE recently told agents to not use it. Well, the DC National Guard is being trained to use them on the streets of DC.
404 Media
DC National Guard Is Being Trained to Carry Pistols Known to Fire at Random
The Sig Sauer P320 has a reputation for firing on its own. The National Guard is training to use them on the streets of D.C.
another peek inside the headline creation process at 404 media
404 Media
Podcast: The Inside Story of Tea
The inside story of how Tea undercut women's safety groups to get people to join its app; GPS trackers sold on TikTok; and Grok exposes its prompts.
The 404 Media Podcast is up! - the inside story of Tea, inc. with former employees - TikTok Shop selling GPS trackers - subscribers-only: Grok exposes the prompts for its AI personas Apple/Spotify/YouTube:
404 Media
Podcast: The Inside Story of Tea
The inside story of how Tea undercut women's safety groups to get people to join its app; GPS trackers sold on TikTok; and Grok exposes its prompts.
“I’m seeing a lot of friends coming into the livestream, hello this is Brother printer’s official flagship store,” the streamer says. But the streamer isn't real. AI-generated, 24/7 streamers are taking off, selling everything. And outperforming humans. More here:
404 Media
Chinese Livestreaming 'Virtual Human' Salespeople Are Outselling Their Human Counterparts
Built using AI technology from Baidu and DeepSeek, these virtual livestreamers sell everything from wet wipes to printers and work 24 hours a day, ...
New: the inside story of how Tea collected millions of women's secrets, then exposed them to the world. We've found Tea raided women safety groups to get users; paid influencers to undermine others, much more. The “motive is money, not actually to protect people.”
404 Media
How Tea’s Founder Convinced Millions of Women to Spill Their Secrets, Then Exposed Them to the World
A 404 Media investigation reveals how the man who started Tea, the ‘women dating safety’ app, tried to hire a female ‘face’ for the company...
New from 404 Media: TikTok Shop is selling viral GPS trackers marketed to stalkers. "If your girl says she’s just out with friends every night, you’d better slap one of these on her car."
404 Media
TikTok Shop Sells Viral GPS Trackers Marketed to Stalkers
"If your girl says she’s just out with friends every night, you’d better slap one of these on her car."
Grok is exposing the underlying prompts for its AI personas, including such commands as “BE FUCKING UNHINGED AND CRAZY. COME UP WITH INSANE IDEAS. GUYS JERKING OFF, OCCASIONALLY EVEN PUTTING THINGS IN YOUR ASS, WHATEVER IT TAKES TO SURPRISE THE HUMAN.”
404 Media
Grok Exposes Underlying Prompts for Its AI Personas: ‘EVEN PUTTING THINGS IN YOUR ASS’
The website for Elon Musk's Grok is exposing prompts for its anime girl, therapist, and conspiracy theory AI personas.
Thanks to those who just came to my #hope_16 talk, all about the different ways law enforcement are compromising entire encrypted chat platforms. Here is the book if you want to read much, much more
Hachette Book Group
Dark Wire
Written “in the manner of a good crime thriller” (The Wall Street Journal), the inside story of the largest law-enforcement sting operation eve...
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Wrote a bit more about how we verified the ICE group chat texts for our subscribers, here:
404 Media
Behind the Blog: Exercises in OSINT and Storage Pains
This week, we discuss OSINT for chat groups, Russell Crowe films, and storage problems.
Mastodon is very clearly the social network where people try to bypass our freewall, much more than any other social network. We explain why we have this in a 3000 word article here; it's to stop AI scrapers from ripping off our work (it has been effective) and to ensure we build a sustainable business so we can continue to do impactful investigative journalism (we are doing this). This is not an issue on other networks, it is specifically Mastodon
404 Media
We Need Your Email Address
AI stealing our work. The collapse of social networks. The need to pay journalists to produce impactful journalism. Here is why we are asking for y...