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samleecole.bsky.social
do not fight in my replies journalist / co-founder @404media.co signal (for sensitive comms ONLY thanks): sam.404
414 posts 19,807 followers 383 following
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TSA stays in the arena for groping innovation www.404media.co/tsa-working-...

Good morning, internet, and welcome to a new publication that @garnethenderson.com and I have been working on for months

Had fun chatting with @samleecole.bsky.social about censorship, p*rn, and obscenity for this article. Prosecutors have more important things to do than officiating romcom plots and (no judgment!) egg-themed instagram accounts. Give it a read! www.404media.co/egg-yolk-pop...

AI-generated Bible videos are going viral because Christian actually love them and make them. Here's why: www.404media.co/why-do-chris...

It can be easy to laugh at bad Internet bills like the Interstate Obscenity Definition Act, but, as I say herein, "if it does gain momentum, this is really, really dangerous." Read @samleecole.bsky.social: www.404media.co/email/85d0e4...

“You will never, ever put human sexuality in a box. The idea that someone like Mike Lee wants to try is not only absurd, it’s scary: a ruse set up for social control.”

"Much like anti-abortion laws don’t end abortion, and the so-called war on drugs didn’t “win” over drugs, anti-porn laws don’t end the adult industry. They only serve to shift power from people ... to politicians"

This is a fantastic article that I think helped me understand why puriteens constantly insist that everything is so sexual when overt sexuality is at what feels like an all-time low in my lifetime: With the biggest social media platforms banning porn, creators seek to eroticize everything else.

I tried to put into (many) words something I've tried to put a finger on for years: everything is weirdly sexual now because nothing is allowed to be overtly, actually sexual anymore www.404media.co/egg-yolk-pop...

in an era of Golden Domes and massive defense contracts for your Palmers Luckey, Ukraine's real innovation is logistics. Open source software. Cheap drones. Trucks. Sheds. Exploiting the enemy's arrogance. www.404media.co/ukraines-mas...

had way way way too much fun yapping it up with @siridahl.com for her new pod. please tell me someone else had funny feelings for this guy

“I am sick to my stomach as I write this because I've spent 20 years developing a pedagogy that's about wrestling with big ideas through writing and discussion, and that whole project has been evaporated by for-profit corporations who built their systems on stolen work. It's demoralizing.” Yep.

Many of these testimonials track with my experience. I just met with our teaching center, explaining how I ended the semester in despair (despite using best practices to curtail LLM use). My sentiment, they told me, was widely shared. This was a breaking-point semester and big changes must happen.

I talked to 15 teachers/professors about how AI and ChatGPT is ruining their lives: www.404media.co/teachers-are...

we put DOOM on a tank top. Gonna ship these starting tomorrow: 404media.myshopify.com/products/doo...

Flock has decided not to use hacked data in its people search tool after our earlier reporting: www.404media.co/flock-decide...

New from 404 Media: Flock says it will not use hacked data in its new people search tool for cops. This comes after internal pressure and our coverage based on leaked material revealing the plans www.404media.co/flock-decide...

All hail 404 Media for a great tech/abortion (horror) story that includes @ifwhenhow.bsky.social @katerosebee.bsky.social and of course @evacide.bsky.social of EFF. Proud to know these folks, and to subscribe to @404media.co

A really good report from Stanford about student-on-student AI CSAM and what to do about it www.404media.co/no-one-knows...

extremely wild: www.404media.co/texas-solici...

very happy to have @jordanpearson.lol on 404 Media with a story about an online community developing its own hair loss drugs www.404media.co/inside-the-d...

fellas.... www.404media.co/inside-the-d...

Sweden criminalised Adult Content. Is it really protecting anyone? Here’s what sx workers say on BBC Outside Source:

We built the Big Brother, a Panopticon, a Ban-Opticon and a NeoConOpticon all together -- and we hardly care

This is a pretty big change to how the entire nonconsensual AI-generated content ecosystem works. I don't think this would have happened without our reporting or support from our subscribers www.404media.co/civitai-ban-...

SCOOP: ICE, HSI, and DHS are getting side-door access to the nationwide system of Flock license plate cameras by asking local police to perform lookups for them, new public records show. ICE does *not* have a contract to use this surveillance tool itself. www.404media.co/ice-taps-int...

losing it at the idea of a CIA agent typing the words “like these games you will" www.404media.co/the-cia-secr...

Mozilla is shutting down Pocket so it can free up time and resources for cramming more "AI-powered" trash into Firefox www.404media.co/pocket-app-s...

smart people are scared to come here. cool sign www.404media.co/hacker-confe...

“In the long run, unless AI develops breakthrough technologies beyond current imagination, the core structure of psychotherapy should not be shaken.” 🙂🙂🙂 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

"People need to realize that criminalizing porn is not ever really about just criminalizing adult content — it's about criminalizing representations of sexuality and gender, and ultimately criminalizing those practices and communities."

wise words from @mikestabile.bsky.social: "This law is just another step in making the industry dangerous to work in and dangerous to access, to push it toward back alleys and black markets."

Sweden just expanded the Nordic Model, or "End Demand," to the internet. But we already know criminalization, including criminalizing buyers, is harmful policy www.404media.co/sweden-sex-w...

Scientists told me why Trump's Golden Dome is a complete fantasy www.404media.co/scientists-e...

New: The AI-generated Chicago Sun-Times / Philadelphia Inquirer insert was made by a subsidiary of magazine giant Hearst. Chicago Sun-Times told me it is considering canceling this relationship and that no one from the newspaper read the insert before it was printed: www.404media.co/viral-ai-gen...