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404 Media
@404media.co
150K followers 17 following 1.4K posts
it's a website (and a podcast, and a newsletter) about humans and technology, made by four journalists you might already know. like and subscribe: 404media.co
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404media.co
If Kohler can view the user’s toilet data, as it admits to doing in this email exchange with technologist Simon Fondrie-Teitler, then it’s not—by definition—using end-to-end encryption. @evystadium.bsky.social has more.

Full story by @mjgault.bsky.social here:

www.404media.co/kohlers-smar...
December 5, 2025 at 2:21 PM
404media.co
Guys… it looks like someone invented a fake Russia advance in Ukraine to manipulate online gambling markets. @evystadium.bsky.social gets into it.

Full story by @mjgault.bsky.social here:

www.404media.co/unauthorized...
December 4, 2025 at 3:51 PM
404media.co
At 404 Media, we also talk to experts and those impacted by policies like book bans while the US government continues to push through safeguards on AI with tech giants.

Here, author @maggietokudahall.bsky.social and president of @authorsabb.bsky.social gives us perspective.
December 2, 2025 at 12:59 AM
404media.co
Resistance takes many forms. So does our storytelling.

Chicagoans are making, sharing, and printing designs for whistles that can warn people when ICE is in the area. The goal is to “prevent as many people from being kidnapped as possible.”

Read here:
www.404media.co/the-latest-d...
December 2, 2025 at 12:55 AM
404media.co
Flock exposed training materials and a panel which tracked what its AI annotators were working on. It showed that Flock, which has cameras in thousands of U.S. communities, is using overseas workers. @evystadium.bsky.social has more.

Story by @josephcox.bsky.social:
www.404media.co/flock-uses-o...
December 1, 2025 at 3:07 PM
404media.co
We're running a 💻 CYBER MONDAY 💻 sale. Get 25% off an annual subscription: access to all of our articles, podcasts, bonus content, FOIA Forum trainings, full text RSS feed, no ads, and support independent journalism. Get yours here: www.404media.co/cyber-monday...
Removes all ads. Unlimited access to our articles Commenting privileges on the site (the best of which we publish in our newsletter and respond to on a subscribers-only podcast) Full text RSS feed Access to "Behind The Blog" content where we write about how we reported our stories Ad-free version of, and early access to, our weekly podcast Bonus podcast content every week as well as other bonus episodes Access to “404 FOIA Forum,” a community where we listen to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) ideas, and teach you how to file effective requests Directly support investigative and impact-focused journalism
December 1, 2025 at 2:42 PM
404media.co
Guess who's behind X accounts like RedPilledNurse or Ivanka Trump News? People outside the US. And social media companies are rewarding the creators for it. @evystadium.bsky.social has more:

Full story by @jasonkoebler.bsky.social: www.404media.co/americas-pol...
November 27, 2025 at 3:00 PM
404media.co
An AI 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. @evystadium.bsky.social has more.

Full scoop by @samleecole.bsky.social

www.404media.co/ai-porn-secr...
November 20, 2025 at 4:12 PM
404media.co
Chicagoans are making, sharing, and printing designs for whistles that can warn people when ICE is in the area. The goal is to “prevent as many people from being kidnapped as possible.” @evystadium.bsky.social has more.

Full story by @josephcox.bsky.social here: www.404media.co/the-latest-d...
November 19, 2025 at 4:47 PM
404media.co
The lawsuit says that people detained at the ICE facility are being held in abhorrent, “inhumane” conditions. Despite a request for surveillance video, a DHS report says footage has been “irretrievably destroyed.” @jasonkoebler.bsky.social reports.

Story: www.404media.co/two-weeks-of...
November 18, 2025 at 9:02 PM
404media.co
The former police and military will be paid $300 per address verified for ICE, up to a maximum of $30,000, a person briefed on the plan said www.404media.co/contractor-p...
Brown said that ICE does not have good addresses for some of its targets, one person briefed on the plans recalled. Feds United would give recruited individuals a list of addresses based on things like utility bills, the person said. Feds United would split the people into teams to perform the surveillance, and after verifying the target lived at the address each person on the team would be paid $300, they added. This would go up to a maximum of $30,000, they said. “Do not talk to the neighbors,” the person said, recalling the plans. “This was strictly supposed to be observe and report,” referring to a tactic where they are not supposed to directly interact with anyone.
November 18, 2025 at 5:53 PM
404media.co
This starts with this post on LinkedIn. Jim Brown is the president of a contracting consultancy. He says he is looking for former law enforcement and military personnel for an upcoming project. Doesn't mention ICE, but people briefed told us that's the plan www.404media.co/contractor-p...
“Feds United is seeking approximately 20 more retired experienced law enforcement officers or retired military personnel in the DC/Northern Virginia area to participate in a 90-day pilot project that is expected to kick off within the next few weeks,” he wrote. “The project will assess whether contractors can validate addresses associated with subjects of interest. Participants will work on surveillance teams and this is an OBSERVE and REPORT only task,” Brown wrote. Nearly two dozen people replied to that post, with many of them expressing interest in the work.
November 18, 2025 at 5:13 PM
404media.co
Here's an excerpt from the court filing, which says the footage "has been irretrievably destroyed and therefore cannot be produced on an expedited basis, or at all":
1. Surveillance Video from Inside Broadview. In their Expedited Discovery Request No. 9, Plaintiffs request surveillance video from inside the Broadview facility captured by Defendants’ equipment for a limited set of days, starting in mid-September 2025. Plaintiffs also request current video on a weekly basis. Defendants have agreed to produce video from September 28, 2025, to October 19, 2025, and also from October 31, 2025, to November 7, 2025. Plaintiffs are providing Defendants with hard drives for this production, and the parties expect that this initial production will be made shortly. The parties are discussing ways to ease the burden of production of video going forward, including by having Plaintiffs select random days for production rather than the production of all video on an on-going basis. Defendants have indicated that some video between October 19, 2025, and October 31, 2025, has been irretrievably destroyed and therefore cannot be produced on an expedited basis or at all. Plaintiffs are in the process of hiring an IT contractor. Plaintiffs’ contractor will meet with the government’s ESI Liaison (with attorneys on the phone) to attempt to work through issues concerning the missing video, including whether any content is able to be retrieved. While Plaintiffs intend to explore the issue of missing footage, Plaintiffs have communicated to
November 18, 2025 at 5:01 PM
404media.co
Footage is missing from October 19 through October 31. This is during a period of mass protest in front of the facility, which has led to many arrests. The footage was sought as discovery in a case where people detained there claim abuse and horrendous living conditions:
The filing was made as part of a class action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security by people being held at Broadview, which has become the site of widespread protests against ICE. The lawsuit says that people detained at the facility are being held in abhorrent, “inhumane” conditions. The complaint describes a facility where detainees are “confined at Broadview inside overcrowded holding cells containing dozens of people at a time. People are forced to attempt to sleep for days or sometimes weeks on plastic chairs or on the filthy concrete floor. They are denied sufficient food and water […] the temperatures are extreme and uncomfortable […] the physical conditions are filthy, with poor sanitation, clogged toilets, and blood, human fluids, and insects in the sinks and the floor […] federal officers who patrol Broadview under Defendants’ authority are abusive and cruel. Putative class members are routinely degraded, mistreated, and humiliated by these officers.”
November 18, 2025 at 5:01 PM
404media.co
The latest trend in Facebook’s ever downward spiral down the AI slop toilet are AI deportation videos. And the Facebook algorithm is rewarding creators for it. @jasonkoebler.bsky.social reports.

Full story: www.404media.co/ai-generated...
November 17, 2025 at 10:37 PM
404media.co
Tech companies are betting big on nuclear energy to meet AI’s massive power demands—and Trump’s done a lot to make it easier for them. Heidy Khlaaf, the head AI scientist at the AI Now Institute, tells us why that’s dangerous.

@mjgault.bsky.social has the story:
www.404media.co/power-compan...
November 14, 2025 at 6:57 PM
404media.co
Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, while removing apps that report the location of ICE officials because Google sees ICE as a vulnerable group. @evystadium.bsky.social has more.

Full story by @josephcox.bsky.social here: www.404media.co/google-has-c...
November 13, 2025 at 4:41 PM
404media.co
guys, we're throwing a show!

404 Media is joining hands with community members and organizations to throw LA FIGHTS BACK, a benefit show to raise money to support immigrants and refugees as ICE and DHS continue their dehumanzing crackdown across the U.S.

learn more: regentdtla.com/tm-event/hea...
404 Media has been extensively covering the dehumanizing ICE and DHS crackdown across the U.S. Now, we're coming together with others in the community to help throw a benefit show to raise funds for our immigrant friends, families and neighbors event poster
November 12, 2025 at 11:06 PM
404media.co
Newly released documents provide more details about ICE's plan to use bounty hunters and private investigators to find the location of undocumented immigrants. @evystadium.bsky.social has more.

Full story by @josephcox.bsky.social here: www.404media.co/ice-plans-to...
November 12, 2025 at 5:32 PM
404media.co
Today in #404DeepDive: People are modding Meta Ray-Bans to spy on you. Already, there are videos with millions of views of men using the glasses to film massage workers, asking for happy endings. What's Meta's response? @evystadium.bsky.social has more.

More here: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/p...
November 11, 2025 at 4:14 PM
404media.co
The goal is to “prevent as many people from being kidnapped as possible,” Aaron Tsui, an activist with Cycling Solidarity, and who has been printing whistles, told 404 Media. “Whistles are an easy way to bring awareness for when ICE is in the area." www.404media.co/the-latest-d...
November 11, 2025 at 3:06 PM
404media.co
This town has officially decided to fight against the construction of an AI data center that would service a nuclear weapons laboratory 1,500 miles away.

Amber Fellows, a Ypsilanti Township councilmember, tells us why:

Story by @mjgault.bsky.social: www.404media.co/a-small-town...
November 10, 2025 at 5:25 PM
404media.co
CBP has publicly released an app that Sheriff Offices, police departments, and other local law enforcement can use to scan someone’s face as part of immigration enforcement. @evystadium.bsky.social has more.

Full scoop by @josephcox.bsky.social here: www.404media.co/cbp-quietly-...
November 7, 2025 at 6:18 PM
404media.co
By the numbers: Nancy Pelosi's net worth is an estimated $279 million.

Investor bros, you might wanna take note, bro.
www.404media.co/nancy-pelosi...
Over the last decade, Pelosi’s portfolio returned an incredible 816 percent, according to public disclosure records. The S&P 500, meanwhile, has returned roughly 229 percent. Paul Pelosi sold $500,000 worth of Visa stock in July, weeks before the U.S. government announced a civil lawsuit against the company, causing its stock price to decrease. Just weeks ago, she sold between $100,000 and $250,000 of Apple stock
November 6, 2025 at 9:01 PM
404media.co
Ticketmaster's personalized AI slop ads on Facebook are just a glimpse at the future of social media advertising. And Mark Zuckerberg? He's a fan.

Welcome to the dystopic world of AI generated (and personalized) ads. @jasonkoebler.bsky.social reports:

Read more: www.404media.co/the-future-o...
November 6, 2025 at 5:25 PM