New: The FTC has formally sued John Deere over its tractor repair monopoly, which is the strongest punitive action the federal government has ever taken against a company over restricting right to repair
404 Media
FTC Sues John Deere Over Its Repair Monopoly
Deere "has illegally restricted the ability of farmers and independent technicians to repair Deere equipment, including tractors and combines."
Meta is deleting links to Pixelfed, a decentralized, open source Instagram competitor that has had skyrocketing signups in recent days:
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Meta Is Blocking Links to Decentralized Instagram Competitor Pixelfed
Pixelfed said it is "seeing unprecedented levels of traffic."
Beautiful stuff: "It’s not really enjoyable to make music now… it takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of practice, you have to get really good at an instrument... I think the majority of people don’t enjoy the majority of time they spend making music."
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CEO of AI Music Company Says People Don’t Like Making Music
"I think the majority of people don’t enjoy the majority of the time they spend making music.”
New: Meta has deleted trans and nonbinary Messenger themes, as well as the blog posts announcing them. Happens the same week that it has changed its rules to allow users to say LGBTQ+ people are "mentally ill"
404 Media
Meta Deletes Trans and Nonbinary Messenger Themes
Amid a series of changes that allows users to target LGBTQ+ people, Meta has deleted product features it initially championed.
New: Meta employees are furious about a new policy that allows users to call LGBTQ+ people "mentally ill." Some have resigned in protest. Some LGBTQ+ employees have started saying they if they are 'mentally ill' they should get leaves of absence from work
404 Media
β€˜It’s Total Chaos Internally at Meta Right Now’: Employees Protest Zuckerberg’s Anti LGBTQ Changes
Meta's decision to specifically allow users to call LGBTQ+ people "mentally ill" has sparked widespread backlash at the company.
As of today, Pornhub is now blocked in almost all of the American South. The only place where it is still freely available is Georgia, where it will be blocked in July
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Pornhub Is Now Blocked In Almost All of the U.S. South
As of today, three more states join the list of 17 that can't access Pornhub because of age verification laws.
good stuff out of wordpress, which is a very serious place
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To Log Into WordPress, You Now Have To Agree Pineapple on Pizza Is Good
Longtime WordPress contributors ask: β€œWhere are the adults in the room?”
Artist makes website that lets you take selfies through NYC's network of traffic cameras. NYC Department of Transportation sends cease and desist. Artist nails cease and desist to a very very very long pole & holds it up to one of the cameras to take a photo of it
404 Media
Traffic Camera 'Selfie' Creator Holds Cease and Desist Letter in Front of Traffic Cam
Traffic Cam Photobooth lets you take a capture from NYC surveillance camera. The city's Department of Transportation does not like that.
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New: Texas AG Ken Paxton has subpoenaed 404 Media for confidential reporting about an internal Google privacy incident database we published in June. If Paxton wants the database, he can get it directly from Google. Our lawyers have formally objected to the subpoena:
404 Media
404 Media Objects to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's Subpoena to Access Our Reporting
404 Media's reporting on an internal Google privacy violation database has been subpoenaed by the State of Texas. We are fighting it.
Many major health insurance companies have purged or deleted the pages where they show executive names and bios in the last 24 hours:
404 Media
Major Health Insurance Companies Take Down Leadership Pages Following Murder of United Healthcare CEO
Following the shooting of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, multiple major health insurance companies have taken their executive leadership pag...