I Almost Lost My Mind in the Bridal Algorithm
As a #2026Bride, the constant, aggressive content started to make me feel like I was losing sight of what mattered. And I'm far from alone.
I Almost Lost My Mind in the Bridal Algorithm
As a #2026Bride, the constant, aggressive content started to make me feel like I was losing sight of what mattered. And I'm far from alone.
Impact
Thomson Reuters Shareholders Demand Investigation into ICE Contracts
The shareholders explicitly cited multiple 404 Media investigations, including one that showed Thomson Reuters' CLEAR is integrated with a tool ICE uses to find neighborhoods to target.
News
Ukraine Says Russians are Surrendering to Robots
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pitching his country as a global leader in robots for war and defense. Will the world listen?
FOIA
Emails Reveal Space Force’s Hardest Mission Is Writing a Song
Internal Space Force emails obtained by 404 Media show the work it takes to have a government agency make a new theme song. A general even wanted to start the whole thing over again.
Podcast
Podcast: How the FBI Extracted Deleted Signal Messages
How a phone's notification database can store messages deleted elsewhere; the continued data center pushback; and Marathon, Marathon, Marathon.
ICE
Thomson Reuters Fired Worker For Speaking Out About ICE, Former Employee Says
“When I saw evidence that our products were being used to harm people and undermine the law, I did what anyone should do—I raised the alarm. Thomson Reuters’ response was to fire me.”
AI
Airbnb Hosts Don't Want to Talk to Guests Anymore, Are Outsourcing Messages to AI
An entire industry of companies offers Airbnb hosts AI to speak to guests on their behalf. 404 Media poked around the industry after one AI tool offered a guest a recipe for French toast.
News
Google, Microsoft, Meta All Tracking You Even When You Opt Out, According to an Independent Audit
“This is the Strait of Hormuz in the data economy. If you want to make a change, this is where you cut it off. Anything short of that is theatrical political posture.”
Hacking
Hacker Compromises a16z-Backed Phone Farm, Tries to Post Memes Calling a16z the ‘Antichrist’
Doublespeed uses a phone farm to flood social media with AI-generated influencers. A hacker managed to get into a backend system of the company.
Podcast
How the Internet Became Hell (with Whitney Phillips)
‘The Ambivalent Internet’ and ‘The Shadow Gospel’ author Whitney Phillips on how online got so bad.
News
WebinarTV Secretly Scraped Zoom Meetings of Anonymous Recovery Programs
WebinarTV scraped and shared 12 steps-based anonymous meetings for people recovering from addiction and other private support groups.
The Abstract
The Oldest Octopus Fossil Ever Isn’t An Octopus At All, Scientists Discover
A re-examination of a 300-million-year-old fossil that was long thought to be the earliest octopus revealed that the animal was actually part of the nautilus family.
