Taylor Hatmaker
The Latest from Taylor Hatmaker
Chelsea Manning is back in jail after refusing to cooperate with WikiLeaks investigation
Following a week-long release from an Alexandria, Va. detention center, Chelsea Manning is back in jail. Manning was jailed in March for her refusal to cooperate with a grand jury investigation into W
San Francisco passes city government ban on facial recognition tech
On Tuesday, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted to approve a ban on the use of facial recognition tech by city agencies, including the police department. The Stop Secret Surveillance Ordi
The Pentagon and CIA have a secret missile that shreds targets with giant flying knives
A report by The Wall Street Journal last week revealed a secretive U.S. military weapon designed explicitly to reduce civilian casualties in targeted strikes. Unlike a traditional Hellfire missile dis
Chelsea Manning released from jail as grand jury expires
Chelsea Manning walked free today for the first time after spending two months in Virginia’s Alexandria Detention Center for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury probing her relationship with
Facebook bans a fresh batch of mostly far-right figures
Facebook just announced a new round of controversial accounts that will be kicked off the platform for violating its rules. In this instance, Facebook cited its policy against “dangerous individ
SpaceX confirms its Dragon crew capsule exploded in testing
For the first time after a video of an exploding Dragon capsule leaked in late April, SpaceX confirmed the spacecraft’s destruction during testing. In statements made today, SpaceX’s vice
TurboTax and H&R Block hide their free tax filing tools from Google on purpose
Low-income Americans can file their taxes for free, but odds are they ended up paying anyway. ProPublica found that tax-filing giant Intuit is deliberately concealing search results for its free filin
Jack Dorsey just met with Trump to talk about the health of Twitter’s public discourse
Twitter’s co-founder and CEO historically doesn’t have the most discerning tastes when it comes to who he decides to engage with. Fresh off the podcast circuit, today a thoroughly beardy J
Mueller report details the evolution of Russia’s troll farm as it began targeting US politics
On Thursday, Attorney General William Barr released the long-anticipated Mueller report. With it comes a useful overview of how Russia leveraged U.S.-based social media platforms to achieve its politi
Congress readies for Mueller report to be delivered on CDs
If there weren’t enough obstacles already standing between Congress and the results of the special counsel’s multiyear investigation, lawmakers are expecting to need an optical drive to re
Co-Star raises $5 million to bring its astrology app to Android
Nothing scales like a horoscope. If you haven’t heard of Co-Star, you might just be in the wrong circles. In some social scenes it’s pretty much ubiquitous. Wherever conversations regularl
Facebook’s Portal will now surveil your living room for half the price
No, you’re not misremembering the details from that young adult dystopian fiction you’re reading — Facebook really does sell a video chat camera adept at tracking the faces of you and yo
YouTube’s algorithm added 9/11 facts to a live stream of the Notre-Dame Cathedral fire
Some viewers following live coverage of the Notre-Dame Cathedral broadcast on YouTube were met with a strangely out of place info box offering facts about the September 11 attacks. BuzzFeed first repo
Facebook taps Peggy Alford for its board, Reed Hastings and Erskine Bowles to depart
Facebook’s board is undergoing its biggest shakeup in memory. On Friday, the company announced that Peggy Alford would be nominated to join the company’s board of directors. “Peggy i
Nancy Pelosi warns tech companies that Section 230 is ‘in jeopardy’
In a new interview with Recode, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made some notable comments on what by all accounts is the most important law underpinning the modern internet as we know it. Section 230 of t
Democrats draw up bill that would require tech platforms to assess algorithmic bias
Democratic lawmakers have proposed a bill to address the algorithmic biases lurking under the surface of tech’s biggest platforms. The bill, known as the Algorithmic Accountability Act, was intr
‘Hateful comments’ result in YouTube disabling chat during a live-streamed hearing on hate
At today’s House Judiciary hearing addressing “Hate Crimes and the Rise of White Nationalism,” hate appears to have prevailed. As the hearing’s live stream aired on the House J
Proposed bill would forbid big tech platforms from using dark pattern design
A new piece of bipartisan legislation aims to protect people from one of the sketchiest practices that tech companies employ to subtly influence user behavior. Known as “dark patterns,” th
Cybercrime groups continue to flourish on Facebook
You might be surprised what you can buy on Facebook, if you know where to look. Researchers with Cisco’s Talos security research team have uncovered a wave of Facebook groups dedicated to making
HyperSciences raises an untraditional $9.6M for its hypersonic drilling vision
We profiled HyperSciences in February, when the team had just successfully completed a launch milestone for a small business grant with NASA. The last time we checked in, the hypersonic drilling compa