Jason Koebler

The End of Windows 10 Support Is an E-Waste Disaster in the Making In an example of egregious planned obsolescence, as many as 400 million computers will soon hit the waste stream.

The end of Windows 10 support is going to be an environmental and security disaster, an egregious example of planned obsolescence that doesn't have to be this way:

https://www.404media.co/the-end-of-windows-10-support-is-an-e-waste-disaster-in-the-making/

Some exciting news: 404 Media just won a grant via Muckrock to investigate book bans and educational censorship in the U.S. The plan is to file hundreds of public records requests around the country and to report on and archive all the documents for public use […]

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 […]

The much-hyped SIM farm the Secret Service seized uses readily available off the shelf tech that, very interestingly, has also become critical to ticket scalping. I, like others, am extremely not buying the idea that this was intended to take down the cell network […]

New: We have just sued ICE to demand it turns over a secretive spyware contract that it refuses to release:

https://www.404media.co/were-suing-ice-for-its-2-million-spyware-contract/

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:

https://www.404media.co/2-000-shipping-international-sellers-charge-absurd-prices-to-avoid-dealing-with-american-tariffs/

Talked to 23 people who suddenly have to pay huge tariffs or otherwise cannot get chainmail from Pakistan, yarn from France, retro computers from Japan, metal music from the Netherlands, DVDs from Germany, cosplay supplies, sunscreen, etc […]

BREAKING: Michael Pratt, the ringleader of Girls Do Porn, was sentenced to 27 years in prison today. @samleecole.bsky.social is at the court in what sounds like a completely gut-wrenching day:

https://www.404media.co/michael-pratt-girlsdoporn-ringleader-sentenced/

AI "boring history" slop has taken over YouTube and is particularly insidious because it flattens history and drowns out the tireless work of creators who have been integral to legitimizing YouTube as a place for high-quality history videos […]

@CWilbur yep. i have begun hearing of people abandoning the packages etc

@maccruiskeen i dont have an argus but it seems like a decent time to give it a go

Trump take LEGO:

https://www.404media.co/lego-stops-shipping-individual-bricks-to-united-states-after-trumps-tariffs/

There are two ways this can go: One everything becomes much more of a pain in the ass, certain products are not available, the tariff prices and subcharges and processing fees and times end up getting paid transparently by the customer, and everyone becomes mad at this state of affairs. Or two, and unfortunately more likely: The rough edges of this process get smoothed out because big shipping companies and platforms are terrified of upsetting Trump and the burden of dealing with all of this is passed primarily onto overseas sellers who will simply incorporate all of these new fees into the prices of the actual products and will pay the tariff ahead of time, so everything costs more because of the tariffs but the artificial, completely self-inflicted reasons that it costs more to do your hobby become largely invisible and accepted over time. The “normal” state of affairs will be that buying things from small overseas sellers is expensive and slow. But it is worth remembering that none of this is necessary, that it wasn’t always like this, and that an immeasurable number of small businesses and regular people all over the world have been immensely impacted by these tariffs.

I don't know how this is going to go in the long term, but I suspect that the rough edges of this process for Americans are going to eventually be smoothed over, meaning it will just be a logistical nightmare for the small businesses / individuals overseas. But everything will be more expensive:

This is bc of the end of de minimis, which meant you didn't have to pay tariffs on anything under $800. I know I am personally excited to familiarize myself with harmonization tables, deal more with FedEx, and learn the difference between various acronyms.

If you have a hobby, your new hobby is […]

Buying anything from overseas is about to get more expensive, more logistically complicated, slower, and overall more annoying. Film photography community, retro games community, people into skincare already seeing chaos on eBay. eBay sellers locking US buyers out […]

New: An app developer has restored functionality to popular Echelon exercise bikes after the company made them all-but-useless unless you have a subscription. But he can't legally release the software […]

Breaking: 4chan and Kiwi Farms have sued the United Kingdom over the Online Safety Act:

https://www.404media.co/4chan-and-kiwi-farms-sue-the-uk-over-its-age-verification-law/

80s nostalgia AI slop: A niche like any other, reverse engineered by 20-something digital nomads in Bali to boomerfy the masses as they astral project to a fake past in service of making fractions of a cent per view on Zuckerberg's cultish algorithmic slop machine […]

Today is the two year anniversary of 404 Media, which is hard to fathom. We wrote about how it's going, what we've done, what we're going to do, and what we've learned. We cannot do this without the support of our subscribers and for that we are endlessly thankful […]

TikTok Shop is selling 'Silent' GPS trackers that are marketed to stalkers and domestic abusers. Many of the videos have millions of views and at least 100,000 of them have been sold. TikTok's algorithm endlessly puts these in front of you if you fall into the algo […]

An ICE sizzle reel propaganda video that used a Jay-Z song got hit with a copyright takedown and has been deleted off of X. Sound removed on Instagram and Facebook

https://www.404media.co/ice-propaganda-video-that-used-jay-z-song-hit-with-copyright-takedown/

SCOOP: A CBP agent wore Meta's AI smart glasses to an immigration raid in Los Angeles. CBP has no deal with Meta so it's possibly his own personal device

https://www.404media.co/a-cbp-agent-wore-meta-smart-glasses-to-an-immigration-raid-in-los-angeles/

New: A Sheriff's Office in Texas has access to data from AI license plate reading cameras at hundreds of Home Depots (in Texas) and Lowe's (around the country)

https://www.404media.co/home-depot-and-lowes-share-data-from-hundreds-of-ai-cameras-with-cops/

Apple Is Selling iPad Repair Parts for Astronomical Prices “I believe Apple is charging this because they know if the price is high enough no one will buy it."

Apple is now selling repair parts for iPads ... but the prices are often astronomical and make repair totally untenable:

https://www.404media.co/apple-is-selling-ipad-repair-parts-for-astronomical-prices/

SCOOP: The manifests for three legally contested deportation flights to El Salvador contain the names of dozens of people who have not been acknowledged in any way by the US government. Immigration experts following the case say they don't know where these people are […]

All American trains have a vulnerability where a hacker can remotely trigger the brakes over radio frequency. A single researcher has been warning about this for 13 years and the government has FINALLY acknowledged it’s real and is making train companies fix it […]

Media outlets can't pivot to AI to save themselves. It's not a business strategy and it's not going to work. The only path forward is for journalists to lean into their humanity, to do things AI can't, and to make clear they are writing for people, not algorithms […]

NEW: ICE is using a facial recognition smartphone app that pulls faces from CBP's database of people who cross the border:

https://www.404media.co/ice-is-using-a-new-facial-recognition-app-to-identify-people-leaked-emails-show/

Here's the Video for Our Sixth FOIA Forum: Massive Blue Here is the video archive for our FOIA Forum where we explained how we got records about Massive Blue, a company selling AI personas to cops.

if you missed our FOIA Forum last week, where we talk about how we do public records reporting and how you can too, the archive is here:

https://www.404media.co/heres-the-video-for-our-sixth-foia-forum-massive-blue/