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Reposted by Emanuel Maiberg

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 11h

very interesting what is not allowed these days. in this case, basic archiving of real videos

www.404media.co/apple-banned...

Apple Banned an App That Simply Archived Videos of ICE Abuses

Eyes Up's purpose is to "preserve evidence until it can be used in court." But it has been swept up in Apple's crackdown on ICE-spotting apps.

www.404media.co

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Reposted by Emanuel Maiberg

Matthew Gault @mjgault.bsky.social · 1d

It's laughably easy to remove the watermark from Sora 2 generated videos. 404 Media found dozens of websites and pieces of software that will do it.

Sora 2 Watermark Removers Flood the Web

Bypassing Sora 2's rudimentary safety features is easy and experts worry it'll lead to a new era of scams and disinformation.

www.404media.co

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Emanuel Maiberg @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · 2d

Thanks! more coming soon!

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Emanuel Maiberg @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · 2d

Got a tip recently about how Trump's tariffs are preventing libraries from sharing books, and causing their loaned books to get stuck or lost in other countries: www.404media.co/libraries-ca...

Libraries Can’t Get Their Loaned Books Back Because of Trump’s Tariffs

Libraries have shared their collections internationally for decades. Trump’s tariffs are throwing that system into chaos and can ‘hinder academic progress.’

www.404media.co

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Emanuel Maiberg @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · 5d

an "Anti-social Democrat" is running for congress with a bold no posting strategy www.404media.co/can-you-win-...

Can You Win a Congressional Seat Without Social Media?

Carleigh Beriont is running for Congress as an “anti-social Democrat” and she thinks the party needs to abandon social media nationally also.

www.404media.co

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Emanuel Maiberg @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · 6d

Amazon has not provided comment, but I woke up this morning that they have removed the AI-generated biography. The same author has dozes of other AI-generated books on Amazon. Not a new problem, but a new low

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Emanuel Maiberg @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · 6d

Yesterday I wrote about an AI-generated biography of the writer Kaleb Horton, who recently passed, which outraged his friends and colleagues www.404media.co/ai-generated...

AI-Generated Biography on Amazon Tries to Capitalize on the Death of a Beloved Writer Kaleb Horton

‘I cannot overstate how disgusting I find this kind of AI dog shit in the first place, never mind under these circumstances.’

www.404media.co

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Reposted by Emanuel Maiberg

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 7d

404 Media has sued DHS. Last week we sued ICE. Will keep you updated:

www.404media.co/404-media-an...

404 Media and Freedom of the Press Foundation Sue DHS

Both organizations are seeking a copy of a data sharing agreement that is giving the personal data of nearly 80 million Medicaid patients to ICE.

www.404media.co

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Reposted by Emanuel Maiberg

Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 8d

New from 404 Media: ICE to buy tool that tracks locations of hundreds of millions of phones every day. Billions of pieces of location data. ICE previously stopped using data remotely harvested from smartphones. Now it's buying it again. Usually used w/o warrant
www.404media.co/ice-to-buy-t...

ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day

Documents show that ICE has gone back on its decision to not use location data remotely harvested from peoples' phones. The database is updated every day with billions of pieces of location data.

www.404media.co

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Emanuel Maiberg @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · 8d

you have to read this. A collection of "the dog ate my homework" excuses www.404media.co/18-lawyers-c...

18 Lawyers Caught Using AI Explain Why They Did It

Lawyers blame IT, family emergencies, their own poor judgment, their assistants, illness, and more.

www.404media.co

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Reposted by Emanuel Maiberg

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 8d

Spent many (many!) hours pulling legal explanations and apologies from lawyers who were caught using AI that hallucinated in which they explained to a judge why they used AI. The explanations are astonishing and extremely good:

www.404media.co/18-lawyers-c...

18 Lawyers Caught Using AI Explain Why They Did It

Lawyers blame IT, family emergencies, their own poor judgment, their assistants, illness, and more.

www.404media.co

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Emanuel Maiberg @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · 8d

Department of War policy is no fatties, and all in on AI www.404media.co/in-unhinged-...

In Unhinged Speech, Pete Hegseth Says He's Tired of ‘Fat Troops,’ Says Military Needs to Go Full AI

The Secretary of War lectured America’s generals on fitness standards, bears, and warriors for an hour.

www.404media.co

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Reposted by Emanuel Maiberg

Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 9d

New from 404 Media: landlords are demanding potential tenants hand over employer login credentials so a tool can verify their income. I was sent screenshot of the tool, Argyle, downloading much more data than necessary to approve the renter. Opt-out means no housing
www.404media.co/landlords-de...

Landlords Demand Tenants’ Workplace Logins to Scrape Their Paystubs

Screenshots shared with 404 Media show tenant screening services ApproveShield and Argyle taking much more data than they need. “Opt-out means no housing.”

www.404media.co

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Emanuel Maiberg @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · 9d

I hope it's clear in the article that this isn't a simple story with heroes and villains, but a look at the complicated community and governance of the open source tools that provide infrastructure for much of the internet

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Emanuel Maiberg @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · 9d

Spent a lot of time talking to people in the Ruby controversy about the ousting of contributors by Ruby Central and what the entire episode says about open source development www.404media.co/how-ruby-wen...

How Ruby Went Off the Rails

What happened to RubyGems, Bundler, and the Open Source drama that controls the internet infrastructure.

www.404media.co

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Emanuel Maiberg @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · 15d

a golden age for doing bullshit and creating problems for your coworkers www.404media.co/ai-workslop-...

AI ‘Workslop’ Is Killing Productivity and Making Workers Miserable

AI slop is taking over workplaces. Workers said that they thought of their colleagues who filed low-quality AI work as "less creative, capable, and reliable than they did before receiving the output."

www.404media.co

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Reposted by Emanuel Maiberg

Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 16d

New: 404 Media is suing ICE. We have filed a lawsuit demanding ICE release its $2 million contract with Paragon, a company that makes powerful spyware to break into phones and read encrypted messages. This is expensive for a small outlet but this info is important
www.404media.co/were-suing-i...

We’re Suing ICE for Its $2 Million Spyware Contract

404 Media has filed a lawsuit against ICE for access to its contract with Paragon, a company that sells powerful spyware for breaking into phones and accessing encrypted messaging apps.

www.404media.co

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Emanuel Maiberg @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · 16d

We're suing ICE to release spyware contracts the public has the right to see. Could not be more grateful to our subscribers for putting us in a position to be able to do this www.404media.co/were-suing-i...

We’re Suing ICE for Its $2 Million Spyware Contract

404 Media has filed a lawsuit against ICE for access to its contract with Paragon, a company that sells powerful spyware for breaking into phones and accessing encrypted messaging apps.

www.404media.co

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Emanuel Maiberg @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · 16d

we're doing great, gen AI working out really well for everyone www.404media.co/ai-generated...

AI-Generated YouTube Channel Uploaded Nothing But Videos of Women Being Shot

YouTube removed a channel that posted nothing but graphic Veo-generated videos of women being shot after 404 Media reached out for comment.

www.404media.co

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Reposted by Emanuel Maiberg

Matthew Gault @mjgault.bsky.social · 21d

another odd thing I found while working on this story is that Sputnik has launched an AI "Digital Dugin."

For westerners, imagine if Fox News aired a 5 minute speech from AI Jordan Peterson every week

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Reposted by Emanuel Maiberg

Matthew Gault @mjgault.bsky.social · 21d

AI Trump's plan to end Russia's war in Ukraine? Building a Casino. Honestly? They capture the man quite well.

In one of the AI-generated Trump interviews, the American president talked about how he’d end the war in Ukraine by building a casino in Moscow with golden toilets. “And all the Russian oligarchs, they would all be inside. All their money would be inside. Problem solved. They would just play poker and forget about this whole war. A very bad deal for them, very distracting,” the deepfake Trump said.

Deepfake world leaders aren’t new and are pretty common across the internet. For Leetaru, the difference is that this is airing on a state-backed television station. “It’s still in parody form, but to my knowledge, no national television network show has even gone this far,” he told 404 Media. “Today it’s a parody video that’s pretty clearly a comedic interview. But, you know, how far will they take that? And does that inspire others to maybe step into spaces that they wouldn’t have before?”

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Reposted by Emanuel Maiberg

Matthew Gault @mjgault.bsky.social · 21d

A TV station run by Russia's Ministry of Defense has launched a new show it claims is "AI-generated," meaning a "Neural Network" is picking the topics and generating the videos.

Russian State TV Launches AI-Generated News Satire Show

An AI-generated show on Russian TV includes Trump singing obnoxious songs and talking about golden toilets.

www.404media.co

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Reposted by Emanuel Maiberg

Nicole Carpenter @nicolecarpenter.bsky.social · 22d

icymi, from last week!

404 Media @404media.co · 28d

How the iconic looping video of a studying anime girl and stream of chill music became a big business.

🔗 www.404media.co/how-lofi-gir...

How Lofi Girl Became a Chill Beats Empire

How the iconic looping video of a studying anime girl and stream of chill music became a big business.

www.404media.co

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Emanuel Maiberg @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social · 22d

A DOJ study showing most domestic terrorism in the US comes from the far right is suddenly missing and replaced with a note saying DOJ is complying with Trump's executive order www.404media.co/doj-deletes-...

DOJ Deletes Study Showing Domestic Terrorists Are Most Often Right Wing

Following Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the Trump administration’s promise to go after the “radical left” a study showing most domestic terrosim is far-right was disappeared.

www.404media.co

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Reposted by Emanuel Maiberg

Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 22d

Good news: Rather than deal with tariff logistics, some international eBay and Etsy sellers have simply jacked their shipping costs up to $2,000 for Americans buyers:

www.404media.co/2-000-shippi...

$2,000 Shipping: International Sellers Charge Absurd Prices to Avoid Dealing With American Tariffs

Some sellers on eBay and Etsy have jacked up their shipping costs so American buyers won't buy their products.

www.404media.co

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