RapperBot, la botnet DDoS è stata smantellata e arrestato il presunto sviluppatore
Il Dipartimento di Giustizia degli Stati Uniti ha incriminato il presunto sviluppatore e amministratore della botnet DDoS RapperBot, concessa in leasing a criminali informatici. La botnet stessa è stata sequestrata dalle forze dell’ordine all’inizio di agosto nell’ambito dell’operazione PowerOff.
RapperBot (noto anche come Eleven Eleven e CowBot) è stato scoperto per la prima volta dagli analisti di Fortinet nell’agosto 2021. All’epoca, si segnalava che la botnet basata su Mirai era attiva da maggio 2021 e aveva infettato decine di migliaia di videoregistratori digitali (DVR) e router.
La potenza degli attacchi DDoS effettuati con il suo ausilio variava da 2 a 6 Tbit/s. Inoltre, nel 2023, RapperBot è stato dotato di un modulo per il mining di criptovalute, poiché il suo operatore cercava di diversificare le fonti di reddito e aumentare i profitti derivanti dai dispositivi compromessi.
Come riportato ora dal Dipartimento di Giustizia degli Stati Uniti, RapperBot è stato utilizzato per attaccare più di 18.000 obiettivi in 80 paesi, tra cui sistemi governativi statunitensi, importanti piattaforme mediatiche, aziende di gaming e tecnologiche.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), che ha aiutato le forze dell’ordine a tracciare l’infrastruttura di comando della botnet e ha fornito informazioni di intelligence, segnala che RapperBot ha effettuato oltre 370.000 attacchi solo da aprile 2025. Gli attacchi, che hanno coinvolto oltre 45.000 dispositivi compromessi in 39 paesi, hanno talvolta superato il miliardo di pacchetti al secondo (PPS).
Tali attacchi sono costati migliaia di dollari, anche se di breve durata, e spesso sono andati di pari passo con l’estorsione, ha affermato il Dipartimento di Giustizia.
Ethan Foltz, 22 anni, dell’Oregon, è stato ora accusato di aver creato la botnet. Si ritiene che abbia creato RapperBot e l’abbia affittata ad altri aggressori che hanno attaccato varie organizzazioni.
Foltz è stato accusato di favoreggiamento in reati informatici, pena massima di 10 anni di carcere in caso di condanna. Tuttavia, Foltz è attualmente libero e gli è stata notificata una citazione a comparire in tribunale in una data specifica.
L'articolo RapperBot, la botnet DDoS è stata smantellata e arrestato il presunto sviluppatore proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.
Il caso “Mia Moglie” e le sfide della responsabilità digitale tra privacy, revenge porn e ruolo delle piattaforme
La recente vicenda del gruppo Facebook “Mia Moglie”, attivo dal 2019 e popolato da oltre 32.000 iscritti, mette in luce una dinamica che intreccia violazione della privacy, pornografia non consensuale, misoginia sistemica e gravi interrogativi sul ruolo delle piattaforme digitali. In questo spazio gli utenti hanno condiviso fotografie di donne senza il loro consenso, spesso immagini rubate dalla vita quotidiana o scatti privati destinati esclusivamente a un partner, talvolta accompagnandole con commenti violenti ed esplicitamente sessisti.
Questi comportamenti non possono essere liquidati come goliardia online. Siamo di fronte a condotte che ledono la dignità delle persone coinvolte e che hanno una precisa rilevanza giuridica. Il reato di cosiddetto revenge porn si configurerebbe solo qualora fossero diffuse immagini intime o sessualmente esplicite senza il consenso della persona ritratta. Anche nel caso di immagini apparentemente innocue, come una foto in costume o un selfie domestico, la loro diffusione senza autorizzazione rimane comunque una violazione della riservatezza e un atto idoneo a produrre conseguenze devastanti sul piano personale e sociale.
La responsabilità delle piattaforme tra neutralità e potere
Il cuore della questione riguarda il ruolo delle piattaforme che ospitano gruppi e contenuti di questo tipo. In Europa, il principio consolidato fino all’entrata in vigore del Digital Services Act era quello della limitata responsabilità degli hosting provider, i quali non possono essere gravati da un obbligo generale di sorveglianza preventiva sui contenuti caricati dagli utenti. Questa impostazione aveva lo scopo di salvaguardare la libertà di espressione e di evitare che gli intermediari si trasformassero in giudici privati del lecito e dell’illecito.
Tuttavia, il caso “Mia Moglie” mostra quanto sia problematico mantenere una visione di assoluta neutralità delle piattaforme. Colossi come Meta non sono semplici strumenti tecnici di trasmissione di dati, ma veri e propri protagonisti dell’ecosistema informativo globale. Il loro potere economico e la loro capacità di influenzare il dibattito pubblico rendono difficile immaginare che possano limitarsi a un ruolo passivo. L’assenza di un’assunzione di responsabilità, anche solo proporzionata alla loro forza di mercato, si traduce in una sostanziale impunità rispetto agli effetti collaterali che i loro stessi servizi generano.
I limiti della tecnologia nella moderazione dei contenuti
Il caso dimostra anche le barriere intrinseche agli strumenti tecnologici di moderazione. Gli algoritmi di riconoscimento basati sull’intelligenza artificiale riescono a rilevare nudità esplicite e pornografia manifesta, ma non hanno la capacità di comprendere il contesto.
Una fotografia di una donna in spiaggia può sembrare un contenuto innocuo se analizzata da un software, mentre in realtà può costituire un episodio di diffusione abusiva e lesiva della riservatezza. Analogamente, i sistemi automatici faticano a distinguere tra un commento ironico e un’istigazione alla violenza. Ciò che per una macchina appare come linguaggio neutro può essere, per l’essere umano che legge, un messaggio gravemente minaccioso o degradante.
Questo limite tecnico è strutturale e non eliminabile, perché nessuna intelligenza artificiale può stabilire se un contenuto sia stato condiviso con il consenso della persona ritratta.
Per questo motivo, affidarsi unicamente ad algoritmi e sistemi automatizzati significa accettare inevitabili zone d’ombra e lasciare che molte violazioni restino invisibili. Una moderazione efficace non può prescindere dal contributo umano, da procedure di verifica affidabili e da un chiaro quadro giuridico che assegni compiti e responsabilità.
Un bilanciamento necessario tra libertà e responsabilità
Il dibattito non può essere ridotto a un’alternativa secca tra piattaforme totalmente irresponsabili e piattaforme trasformate in tribunali privati del web. La prospettiva più ragionevole consiste in un bilanciamento tra libertà di espressione e tutela dei diritti fondamentali.
Alcuni strumenti già individuati a livello normativo possono costituire un punto di partenza. Tra questi vi sono obblighi di trasparenza sulle politiche di moderazione, procedure di segnalazione semplici e rapide che consentano agli utenti di ottenere in tempi certi la rimozione dei contenuti abusivi, sistemi di auditing indipendenti per monitorare l’efficacia dei controlli e un principio di responsabilità graduata che tenga conto delle dimensioni economiche e del potere effettivo della piattaforma.
In questa prospettiva, non avrebbe senso imporre gli stessi oneri a una piccola realtà digitale e a un gigante globale come Meta o X. Tuttavia, ignorare il ruolo di chi trae profitti miliardari dalla condivisione di contenuti significherebbe rinunciare a uno degli strumenti più incisivi di prevenzione e contrasto della violenza online.
Verso una nuova cultura della responsabilità digitale
Il caso “Mia Moglie” ci restituisce l’immagine di un problema che non è soltanto giuridico, ma anche sociale e culturale. La violenza digitale non nasce negli algoritmi, ma nella mentalità di chi considera legittimo appropriarsi dell’intimità altrui per condividerla in spazi virtuali di complicità e voyeurismo.
La tecnologia può aiutare, ma non può sostituire una presa di coscienza collettiva. È necessario un approccio integrato che unisca il diritto penale e civile, l’assunzione di responsabilità delle piattaforme, la formazione digitale e una nuova educazione al rispetto nelle relazioni di genere.
La rete non è un territorio separato e senza regole. È parte integrante della vita reale e, come tale, deve essere governata da principi di responsabilità e tutela della persona.
Finché i grandi attori economici continueranno a presentarsi come soggetti neutrali, ogni misura resterà parziale. Finché la cultura diffusa non comprenderà che la privacy è un diritto fondamentale e non un ostacolo, ogni progresso sarà fragile.
L’episodio del gruppo “Mia Moglie” ci ricorda che la sfida della responsabilità digitale è uno dei nodi centrali del nostro tempo. Una sfida che chiama in causa il diritto, la politica, la tecnologia e soprattutto la società civile.
L'articolo Il caso “Mia Moglie” e le sfide della responsabilità digitale tra privacy, revenge porn e ruolo delle piattaforme proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.
Performance review 2025 per Google: meno bug, più vibe coding
Per i dipendenti di Google, “stare al passo con i tempi” significa non solo sviluppare l’intelligenza artificiale, ma anche essere in grado di utilizzarla ogni giorno. Negli ultimi mesi, l’azienda ha registrato una crescente pressione affinché i dipendenti utilizzassero strumenti di intelligenza artificiale nelle loro attività quotidiane per migliorare la produttività. Mentre Google e altri giganti della tecnologia come Microsoft spingono i limiti del possibile e cercano nuovi prodotti basati sull’intelligenza artificiale, vogliono che anche i loro dipendenti siano all’avanguardia.
A giugno, ad esempio, la vicepresidente dell’ingegneria Megan Kacholia ha inviato una lettera agli sviluppatori incoraggiandoli a utilizzare strumenti di intelligenza artificiale per migliorare il loro codice. Ha anche affermato che alcune descrizioni delle posizioni lavorative nel settore dell’ingegneria stavano per essere aggiornate per includere esplicitamente il requisito di risolvere i problemi utilizzando l’intelligenza artificiale.
E durante una riunione aziendale a luglio, il CEO Sundar Pichai ha trasmesso un messaggio più diretto: affinché Google vinca la gara, i dipendenti devono adottare l’intelligenza artificiale . Secondo due dipendenti che hanno ascoltato il discorso, Pichai ha sottolineato che i concorrenti avrebbero utilizzato l’intelligenza artificiale e Google deve tenere il passo.
Nel mezzo della competizione con OpenAI e altri, Google sta promuovendo i suoi modelli Gemini e lanciando programmi di formazione interna per incoraggiare i dipendenti a provare il vibe coding e altri strumenti di intelligenza artificiale per migliorare la produttività.
I manager chiedono sempre più spesso ai loro subordinati di dimostrare la loro “competenza in materia di intelligenza artificiale”. Diversi dipendenti, che hanno preferito rimanere anonimi, hanno dichiarato alla pubblicazione che i loro superiori chiedono loro di mostrare come utilizzano l’intelligenza artificiale nel loro lavoro quotidiano, dando per scontato che questo verrà preso in considerazione nelle valutazioni delle prestazioni. “è chiaro che senza l’intelligenza artificiale non si può andare avanti”, ha affermato un lavoratore.
“L’attenzione è ancora rivolta alla realizzazione dei piani”, ha affermato il venditore. “Ma se si utilizza l’intelligenza artificiale per creare nuovi flussi di lavoro utilizzabili da altri, è incoraggiante”. Un portavoce di Google, tuttavia, ha affermato che l’azienda incoraggia attivamente i dipendenti a utilizzare l’intelligenza artificiale nel loro lavoro quotidiano, ma che questa non è ufficialmente inclusa nei criteri di valutazione delle prestazioni .
L'articolo Performance review 2025 per Google: meno bug, più vibe coding proviene da il blog della sicurezza informatica.
Back to the 90s on Real Hardware
As the march of time continues on, it becomes harder and harder to play older video games on hardware. Part of this is because the original hardware itself wears out, but another major factor is that modern operating systems, software, and even modern hardware don’t maintain support for older technology indefinitely. This is why emulation is so popular, but purists that need original hardware often have to go to extremes to scratch their retro gaming itch. This project from [Eivind], for example, is a completely new x86 PC designed for the DOS and early Windows 98 era.
The main problem with running older games on modern hardware is the lack of an ISA bus, which is where the sound cards on PCs from this era were placed. This build uses a Vortex86EX system-on-module, which has a processor running a 32-bit x86 instruction set. Not only does this mean that software built for DOS can run natively on this chip, but it also has this elusive ISA capability. The motherboard uses a Crystal CS4237B chip connected to this bus which perfectly replicates a SoundBlaster card from this era. There are also expansion ports to add other sound cards, including ones with Yamaha OPL chips.
Not only does this build provide a native hardware environment for DOS-era gaming, but it also adds a lot of ports missing from modern machines as well including a serial port. Not everything needs to be original hardware, though; a virtual floppy drive and microSD card reader make it easy to interface minimally with modern computers and transfer files easily. This isn’t the only way to game on new, native hardware, though. Others have done similar things with new computers built for legacy industrial applications as well.
Thanks to [Stephen] for the tip!
youtube.com/embed/ogHqmjn6sY4?…
freezonemagazine.com/news/per-…
Vogliamo ricordare una figura storica, che andrebbe forse definita come leggendaria del cantante folk, cantautore e archivista Joe Hickerson, scomparso domenica 17 agosto all’età di ottantanove anni. Hickerson è stato bibliotecario e direttore dell’Archivio delle canzoni popolari della Library of Congress dal 1963 al 1998, ha
Video Clips with Emacs
Sometimes it seems like there’s nothing Emacs can’t do. Which, of course, is why some people love it, and some people hate it. Apparently, [mbork] loves it and devised a scheme to show a video (with a little help), accept cut-in and out marks, and then use ffmpeg to output the video clip, ready for posting, emailing, or whatever.
This was made easier by work already done to allow Emacs to create subtitles (subed). Of course, Emacs by itself can’t play videos, but it can take control of mpv, which can. Interestingly, subed doesn’t insist on mpv since it won’t work on Windows, but without it, your editing experience won’t be as pleasant.
Back to creating a clip, once you have control of mpv, it is almost too simple. A keybinding remembers where mpv is when you mark the beginning, and another one grabs the end mark, works out the arguments, and calls ffmpeg to do the actual work.
This is one of those cases where Emacs really isn’t doing much of the work; it is more of a sophisticated scripting, orchestration, and user-interface system. But it reminds us of the old Russian proverb: The marvel is not that the bear dances well, but that the bear dances at all.
Emacs is a hot topic of debate in the Hackaday bunker. Some of us have our browsers emacs-ified. We hear a rumor that one among us may even boot directly into the editor. But not all of us, of course.
Bluesky ha bloccato l'accesso nel Mississippi dopo l'entrata in vigore della legge statale HB 1126, che richiede la verifica dell'età per tutti gli utenti dei social media, con multe fino a 10.000 dollari per violazione.
L'azienda ha affermato che tale conformità obbligherebbe tutti gli utenti del Mississippi a fornire dati personali sensibili e richiederebbe a Bluesky di tracciare i minori, creando problemi di privacy e libertà di parola.
#Bluesky ha sottolineato che la sicurezza dei bambini è una priorità, ma ha sostenuto che la legge svantaggia le piattaforme più piccole; la sua decisione si applica solo all'app Bluesky sul protocollo AT, non ad altre app sulla rete.
Le reti private virtuali, come quelle offerte da NordVPN , ExpressVPN e PureVPN , potrebbero consentire ad alcuni utenti interessati di continuare ad accedere a Bluesky.
thedesk.net/2025/08/bluesky-bl…
Bluesky blocks Mississippi users over new age verification law
Bluesky has blocked access in Mississippi, citing privacy and free speech concerns over a new law requiring all social media users to undergo age verification with fines of up to $10,000 per violation.Matthew Keys (TheDesk.net)
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OpenWrt Router/Modem ZTE MF286D - Questo è un post automatico da FediMercatino.it
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Vendo ZTE MF286D con OpenWrt 24.10.2 (latest release) con scatola originale.
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Il router è venduto resettato alle impostazioni di base con interfaccia in inglese e alimentatore.
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“L’alba della nostra libertà” – di Barbara Cagni
@Giornalismo e disordine informativo
articolo21.org/2025/08/lalba-d…
Un libro dalla prosa elegante e scorrevole, che intreccia la vicenda storica con quella umana, quella di alcune donne che hanno deciso di non rimanere inermi di fronte agli sconvolgimenti della guerra, offrendo il loro contributo alla
New strategies to help journalists in Gaza
Dear Friend of Press Freedom,
For 150 days, Rümeysa Öztürk has faced deportation by the United States government for writing an op-ed it didn’t like, and for 69 days, Mario Guevara has been imprisoned for covering a protest. Read on for more, and click here to subscribe to our other newsletters.
New strategies to help journalists in Gaza
Letters and condemnations have their place in press freedom advocacy, especially when dealing with a persuadable audience. But that playbook isn’t working for journalists in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his arms supplier, President Donald Trump, don’t care about journalists’ lives, let alone their freedoms.
Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) board member and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Azmat Khan and her colleagues, Meghnad Bose and Lauren Watson, spoke to over 20 journalists and activists, including FPF Executive Director Trevor Timm, in search of novel ideas to stop Israel’s slaughter of journalists and concealment of war crimes. Read more in Columbia Journalism Review.
FPF complaint opposes U.S. attorney’s retaliation against press
It’d be journalistic malpractice for reporters to ignore a prominent public official listing a boarded-up house as his residence to claim eligibility for his position. But that’s not how John Sarcone III, acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York, sees it.
He was reportedly “incensed” by reporting from the Times Union of Albany and ordered the paper removed from his office’s media list. In response, FPF, Demand Progress Education Fund, and Reinvent Albany filed a complaint with New York’s Attorney Grievance Committee. Read more here.
Oregon cops cosplay as journalists
Eugene police threatened documentary filmmaker Tim Lewis with arrest if he didn’t back up while filming them. But Lewis noticed another reporter wearing a vest marked “PRESS” filming without police harassment.
Turns out he wasn’t a reporter at all — he was a police public information program coordinator. As FPF Advocacy Director Seth Stern told Double Sided Media, “Police officers obstructing lawful journalism and giving their own publicly funded propagandists the exclusive right to record them up close is unconstitutional, un-American, and absurd.”
Eugene police have reportedly said they will replace the word “press” with “videographer.” Read more here.
Kansas school district fails to censor student journalists
A group of students sued Lawrence Public Schools in Kansas over the district’s use of surveillance software against students, including student journalists. Naturally, the student newspaper wanted to report on the case. But the principal ordered them not to, and the students believed their faculty adviser would be fired if they disobeyed.
Major news conglomerates have caved to official pressure, but not these kids. They sought a court order prohibiting the school from censoring them, leading the principal to drop his censorial directive and a judge to remind the district that the adviser was legally protected from retaliation. Then they published their story. Read it here.
Puerto Rico’s fake news law is unconstitutional
A district court rightly struck down Puerto Rico’s “fake news” law, which criminalized raising “false alarms” about public emergencies. Now, FPF and other rights organizations are urging an appellate court to affirm the ruling in a legal brief authored by the University of Georgia School of Law’s First Amendment Clinic.
The brief explained how the law could be selectively enforced to chill reporting that officials dislike. Read more here.
What we’re reading
Pritzker signs bill to protect freedom of press, Illinois journalists (WCIA). A nonsensical court ruling excluded news reporting from the protection of Illinois’ law against strategic lawsuits against public participation. FPF worked with local organizations and lawyers to help fix the mess.
Human rights groups to university administrators: Dismantle surveillance to defend free speech now (Fight for the Future). Surveillance technology has no place on college campuses and especially in student newsrooms. We joined a letter calling on universities to dismantle these dangerous tools.
Lawyers ask judge to order ICE to free Spanish-language journalist from immigration detention (Associated Press). Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s targeting of Mario Guevara — a lawful U.S. resident — based on his journalism is a flagrant First Amendment violation. He must be released.
US: Excessive force against LA protesters (Human Rights Watch). HRW usually focuses on wars and atrocities. Now, they’re investigating LA cops’ violence against protesters and journalists. It’s not because it’s a slow atrocity news week — it’s because the situation in LA really is that bad.
Israel says it killed a Hamas commander. It killed a Pulitzer-winning journalist (The New York Times). “The military made no attempt to obscure this brazen strike on civilians, which is a war crime.” And as +972 Magazine explained, it’s far from the first time Israel smeared journalists as terrorists to justify killing them. Its army has a unit tasked with linking journalists to Hamas.
Watchdog or ‘witch hunt’? Highland releases final review of town clerk’s office (River Reporter). Good for the upper Delaware region’s River Reporter for not letting an embattled town supervisor’s veiled threat of a SLAPP stop it from doing its job.
Journalists planning to cover McCormick, Perry event in Pennsylvania must prove their US citizenship (Penn Live). “Journalists who are citizens should decline to attend if their peers are excluded. They should spend their Tuesday investigating politicians and arms manufacturers rather than covering their photo ops,” Stern said.
For the Record is MuckRock’s weekly newsletter that keeps you informed on public records transparency battles, threats and wins. Sign-up to get original reporting, access to FOIA trainings and more.
A Gaza è carestia. Amnesty International: “Gli stati blocchino l’occupazione israeliana di Gaza City”
@Giornalismo e disordine informativo
articolo21.org/2025/08/a-gaza-…
L’annuncio ufficiale odierno, da parte dell’Iniziativa per la classificazione
La cattura di Serhii Kuznietsov a Rimini è un nuovo caso Almasri
@Giornalismo e disordine informativo
articolo21.org/2025/08/la-catt…
La cattura di Serhii Kuznietsov a Rimini è un nuovo caso Almasri per il Governo italiano, ma più grave. Quando scoppiò il caso Almasri, il comandante libico arrestato dalla DIGOS
Lettera per Alberto Trentini al mondo del cinema. Verrà letta dalla mamma il 28 agosto
@Giornalismo e disordine informativo
articolo21.org/2025/08/lettera…
Una lettera al mondo del cinema italiano per spiegare il dramma della detenzione in Venezuela di Alberto Trentini,
Dalla parte delle vittime, Articolo 21 il 30 agosto a Venezia per la Palestina
@Giornalismo e disordine informativo
articolo21.org/2025/08/dalla-p…
Il prossimo 30 agosto (alle ore 16,30) presso la chiesa di Santa Maria Elisabetta al Lido di Venezia, Articolo 21 sarà presente
We're reflecting on the impact our journalism had in year two, how we've grown with your support, and what we aspire to accomplish in year three.
Wex27;re reflecting on the impact our journalism had in year two, how wex27;ve grown with your support, and what we aspire to accomplish in year three.#404Media #PSA
404 Media at Two Years: How We've Grown, and What's Next
Last week, we were talking to each other about the fact that we were about to hit the second anniversary of 404 Media. The conversation was about what we should say in this blog post, which obviously led us to try to remember everything that has happened in the last year. “I haven’t considered a thing beyond what’s been five seconds behind or in front of me for the last year,” Sam said.The last year has been a whirlwind not just for us but for, uhh, the country and the world. And we’ve been trying our absolute best to bring you stories you can’t find anywhere else about the wildest shit happening right now, which includes the Silicon Valley-led dismantling of the federal government, the deployment of powerful surveillance against immigrants and people seeking abortions, the algorithmic, AI-led zombification of “social” media, the end of anonymity on the internet, and all sorts of weird stuff that we see on our travels through the internet. As Sam noted, we have largely had our heads down trying to bring you the best tech journalism on the internet, which hasn’t left us a ton of time to think about long-term projects, blue-sky ideas, or what the best business strategies for growing this company would be.
Our guiding principle is something we said we would do on day one of starting this company: “We believe it is possible to create a sustainable, profitable media company simply by doing good work, making common-sense decisions about costs, and asking our readers to support us.” What we have learned in two years of building this company is that there is no secret to building a media company, and that there are also no shortcuts. When we work hard to publish an important article, more people discover us and more people subscribe to us, which helps solidify our business and allows us to do more and better articles. As our stories reach a larger audience, the articles often have more impact, more potential sources see them, and we get more tips, which leads to more and better articles, and so on.
In our second year as a media outlet, we’ve done too much impactful reporting to list out in this post. But to summarize some of the big ones:
- We revealed that ICE was tapping into Flock, a nationwide AI-enabled camera network, thanks to local cops. Since then, a police department shut off external access to its cameras after learning they were being searched for immigration related offenses and Austin banned Flock in its city and specifically cited our reporting. The company now says it has severed access to Illinois data for 47 agencies. In response to our story about a Texas cop who searched Flock cameras nationwide for a woman who had a self-administered abortion, the Illinois Secretary of State is investigating the respective suburban Chicago police department because this data sharing violates state law. Congress opened a formal investigation into Flock because of our reporting.
- Meta sued a nudify app that 404 Media reported bought thousands of ads on Instagram and Facebook.
- We broke the news that TeleMessage, a Signal-clone used by the Trump administration, was hacked. Lawmakers demanded answers from the DOJ, and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which used TeleMessage, paused its use of the tool. TeleMessage itself suspended operations too.
- Civitai, a site 404 Media has repeatedly shown was used to generate nonconsensual adult content, banned all AI models designed to generate the likeness of real people.
- After we found Meta's AI Studio chatbots were posing as therapists with fake license numbers and credentials, four senators demanded answers from Meta and a digital rights organizations filed a complaint with the FTC.
- We uncovered that 100,000 people were using a Telegram bot that made non-consensual AI sex videos of anyone. After we covered it, Telegram shutdown the bot.
- We found that Coca Cola was running an AI-powered ad that got basic facts wrong and fabricated quotes from authors. Coca Cola pulled down the ad in response.
- A public library ebook service said it was going to cull AI slop after we found low quality books were flooding libraries.
- Nvidia was sued after we revealed the company scraped YouTube and other sites en masse to build its own AI systems.
- Congress repeatedly grilled Apple and Meta over their association with nonconsensual nudify and deepfake apps after we exposed the connections.
On top of all of these, we’ve published some of the most moment-defining stories that, as Jason has said many times, are the types of things people talk about at the bar after work. Those include:
- Discovering that anyone could push updates to the DOGE website
- Establishing and defining “AI Slop” as a genre (Shrimp Jesus anyone?) and uncovering the economics that make slop popular and profitable
- Following the creep of age verification and censorship across the U.S.
- The leaked plans from Palantir that outline how the company helps deport people
- The “total chaos” at Meta after Trump took office and Zuck went anti-DEI
- Breaking the news of the Tea hacks and continuing to publish new scoops on that saga
It has been a relief that this business strategy of “publish good articles and ask people to pay for journalism” still works, despite the fracturing of social media, the slopification of every major platform, AI being shoved into everything, and the rich and powerful trying to destroy journalism at every turn. That it is working is a testament to the support of our subscribers. We have no real way of knowing exactly where new subscribers come from or what ultimately led them to subscribe, but time and time again we have learned that the most important discovery mechanism we have is word of mouth. We have lost count of the number of times a new subscriber has said that they were told about 404 Media by a friend or a family member at a party or in a group text, so if you have told anyone about us, we sincerely thank you.
Photos by Sharon Attia
It wasn’t obvious when we started this company that it would actually work, though we hoped that it would.
In our post last year, we wrote, “We don’t have any major second-year plans to announce just yet in part because we have been heads down working on some of the investigations and scoops you’ve seen in recent days. The next year holds more scoops, more investigations, more silly blogs, more experiments, more impact, and more articles that hold powerful companies and people to account. We remain ambitious and are thinking about how to best cover more topics and to give you more 404 Media without spreading ourselves too thin.”
But we did take a moment to think about what has changed in the last year, and it turns out that quite a lot is different now than it was a year ago.
For one, we have cautiously begun to expand what we do. In the last year, we launched The Abstract, which is Becky Ferreira’s Saturday newsletter about science, which many of you have said you love and which helps us provide a sense of wonder and discovery when so much of what we report on is pretty bleak. We have been getting part-time (but very critical) help from Case Harts who is running and growing our social media accounts, which is helping us put our stories more natively on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and other platforms that we do not control but which nonetheless remain important for us to be on. Matthew Gault has started covering the military industrial complex, AI, weird internet, and dad internet beat for us, and has done a remarkable job at it. Rosie Thomas is our current intern who has published critical reporting about the sale of GPS trackers on TikTok, protests at the Tesla Diner, and the difficult decisions voice actors need to make about whether they should let AI train on their voices.
All of this has changed what 404 Media looks like, a little bit. We have spent a lot of time thinking about what it would look like to expand beyond this, why people subscribe to us, what it would mean to go further, and what the four of us are actually capable of handling outside of the journalism. Because of your support we are in a place where we’re able to ask questions beyond “Can we survive?” We’re able to ask questions like: “Should we try to make this bigger, and what does that look like?”
We feel incredibly lucky that we are now able to ask ourselves these questions, because there was no guarantee that 404 Media would ever work, and we are forever grateful to everyone who has supported us. You have helped us prove that this model can work, and every day we are delighted to see that other journalists are striking out on their own to create their own publications.
We are still DIYing lots of things. Emanuel is still doing customer support. Jason is still ordering, packing, and mailing merch. Sam is putting together events and parties. Joseph is doing an insane number of things behind the scenes, managing the podcast, working closely with one of our ad partners, and fixing technical issues. As we have grown, these tasks have started to take more and more time, which raises all sorts of questions about when and if we should get help with them. Should we do more events? Should we get someone to help us with them? What does that look like logistically and financially? These are the things that we’re working out all the time. It becomes a question of how much can we juggle while still having some semblance of work/life balance, and while making sure that we’re still putting the journalism first.
Other things that have happened:
- We began a republication partnership with WIRED that recently evolved to include a few coreported collaborations that have allowed us to team up on investigations we may not have been able to do by ourselves.
- We were subpoenaed for our sources on an article by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. We successfully fought off this subpoena with the help of our lawyer, which was expensive but which we were able to do because of your support. We are very proud of this.
- We have been invited to talk about 404 Media and our journalism at conferences and events around the world. Emanuel gave a journalism training in Costa Rica, Jason taught a group of Norwegian journalists how to file FOIA requests and gave a presentation at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Joseph spoke at the Hackers on Planet Earth conference, Sam went to Perugia, Italy to join a panel at the International Journalism Conference, and Sam and Jason talked about indie media at the last XOXO in Portland.
- We threw a party and live panel at SXSW (with the help of our friends at Flipboard), a DIY party at RIP.SPACE in Los Angeles, and we threw an anniversary party and podcast recording last night in Brooklyn.
- After the Trump administration took office, we got to work documenting all of the ways the internet and broader policy started shifting and how tech, surveillance, and immigration intersected, and continued years of holding power accountable through our journalism.
- We had much of our ICE and immigration coverage professionally translated into Spanish and republished without a paywall, which helps communities that benefit the most from our reporting on those topics get it as easily and accurately as possible.
- We took our first-ever break!
- We have moved to Ghost 6.0, which is not something we really did, but it’s important to point out that the new version of our CMS is built with native ActivityPub support, meaning our articles are automatically going into the Fediverse and are being mirrored directly onto Bluesky. We are very excited about the possibilities here as we continue to believe that the healthiest future of journalism and the internet is one where we create direct relationships with our readers that have as little algorithmic friction as possible. Ghost is an open-source nonprofit whose mission is very similar to 404 Media’s.
Like last year, we don’t have anything crazy to announce for year three. But we hope that you will continue to support us (or, if you’re finding us through this post, will consider subscribing). We discussed some of our hopes and dreams for year three in our latest bonus podcast that went out to supporters this week. We are all trying our very best to bring you important, impactful work as often as possible, and we are trying to be as clear as possible about what’s working, what’s not, and how we’re trying to build this company. So far, that strategy has worked really well, and so we don’t intend to change it now.
Gone Fishin': 404 Media Summer Break 2025
404 Media is closed this week. School's out.Jason Koebler (404 Media)
This week, we have some party pics and musical selections from last night.#BehindTheBlog
Behind the Blog: Our Second Anniversary Party!
This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we have a slightly shorter than usual entry from the gang, with some party pics and musical selections from the night.SAM: We’re all still recovering, processing, and floating on the overwhelming support and encouragement we felt from everyone who came to the second anniversary party last night. Thank you again to our sponsor for the evening, DeleteMe (get 20% off with them here as a thank-you to our community with code 404media) and farm.one for being awesome hosts, and especially thank you to everyone who came, cheered us on from afar, and made the last two years possible.
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"Trump, far vedere Putin e Zelensky come unire olio e aceto"
ma ancora non si è reso conto di quello che succede? sarà come far vedere il capo di stato di un paese invaso e stuprato con quello di uno determinato a cancellarlo assieme al suo popolo...
Space Force, nuova missione in orbita per lo spazioplano sperimentale X-37B. I dettagli
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo
La Space Force ha inaugurato l’ottava missione Otv (Orbital test vehicle) dello spazioplano X-37B, lanciato in orbita dal Kennedy Space Center in Florida su un razzo Falcon 9 di SpaceX. Il lancio ha avuto luogo alle 23:30 (ora locale) di giovedì
I doveri dello studente
Tratto (e leggermente rielaborato) da "Il risveglio delle scienze religiose" di Imam Al Ghazali. ❤
Primo dovere dello studente
Il primo dovere dello studente è prioritizzare la purificazione della sua anima dalle caratteristiche più riprovevoli
Ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه ci ricorda:
Conoscenza non è essere al corrente di tante informazioni. Conoscenza è una luce che viene gettata nel cuore.
Secondo dovere dello studente
Il secondo dovere dello studente è che limiti i suoi attaccamenti e che viaggi lontano dalla sua casa, cosicché nel suo cuore si liberi spazio per la conoscenza.
Si dice che la conoscenza non ti darà un decimo di sé stessa se tu non le darai tutto te stesso.
Terzo dovere dello studente
Il terzo dovere dello studente consiste nel non atteggiarsi con arroganza, nel non mostrarsi altezzoso prima di acquisire la conoscenza e nel non impartire ordini al proprio insegnante. Al contrario, dovrebbe consegnare sé stesso al completo controllo del maestro, proprio come un uomo malato si affida totalmente al dottore. La persona malata non pretende di dare consigli al proprio dottore né
di guidarlo su quale medicina utilizzare.
Quarto dovere dello studente
Il quarto dovere dello studente è evitare di prestare attenzione alle divergenze tra le persone di conoscenza, poiché ciò genera confusione e smarrimento. Infatti, nelle fasi iniziali, il cuore dello studente tende a inclinarsi verso qualunque cosa gli venga presentata, soprattutto se essa conduce all’inattività, in accordo con la sua pigrizia e inattitudine.
Quinto dovere dello studente
Il quinto dovere dello studente è quello di non trascurare nessuna disciplina tra le scienze lodevoli, ma di esaminarla fino a raggiungerne l’obiettivo.
Se ne ha la capacità, dovrebbe padroneggiarla completamente; se non può, allora dovrebbe almeno acquisirne la parte più importante. E ciò è possibile soltanto dopo averla dapprima considerata nella sua interezza.
Sesto dovere dello studente
Il sesto dovere dello studente è che egli dedichi grande attenzione alla più importante delle scienze: la conoscenza dell’Aldilà. Con ciò si intende quella categoria di scienze che riguarda il perfezionamento del carattere e lo svelamento. Il perfezionamento del carattere conduce allo svelamento, e lo svelamento è la conoscenza diretta di Allah سبحانه وتعالىٰ, una luce che Allah سبحانه وتعالىٰ infonde in un cuore purificato attraverso l’adorazione e lo sforzo
Settimo dovere dello studente
Il settimo dovere dello studente è che il suo obiettivo presente sia quello di riempire il proprio intimo con le caratteristiche che lo condurranno al cospetto di Allah سبحانه وتعالىٰ e presso la dimora delle alte schiere (al-malāʾ al-aʿlā), tra coloro che sono stati avvicinati. Egli non deve mai cercare, attraverso la conoscenza, né il comando, né la ricchezza, né lo status.
Al seguito di Putin c’è una persona che raccoglie le sue feci: perché lo zar non va mai in bagno da solo
Sono almeno otto anni che nell'entourage del leader russo una guardia del corpo è addetta a raccogliere ogni traccia biologica. Così è stato anche in Alaska, durante il bilaterale con TrumpUgo Milano (Open)
La chiave di Crimea, perché il Donetsk decide il futuro della guerra. L’analisi di Caruso
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo
Il nucleo della resistenza ucraina nel Donetsk si concentra sulla “fortress belt” – una linea difensiva di 50 chilometri che unisce le città di Slovyansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka e Kostiantynivka. Quest’area rappresenta una zona fortificata
Vorratsdatenspeicherung: Dobrindt kündigt Gesetzentwurf „in den nächsten Wochen“ an
netzpolitik.org/2025/vorratsda…
Armamenti Usa per l’Europa, l’Ue non perda di vista l’autonomia strategica. Parla Nones
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo
L’Unione europea e gli Stati Uniti hanno rilasciato una dichiarazione congiunta che fornisce i primi dettagli sull’accordo raggiunto il 27 luglio da Ursula von der Leyen e Donald Trump. Dall’automotive ai chip, l’accordo-quadro definisce il futuro
Morto bimbo 6 anni investito sulle strisce pedonali - Ultima ora - Ansa.it
E' morto all'ospedale di Padova il bambino di 6 anni che mercoledì pomeriggio era stato investito da un'auto mentre con la mamma stava attraversando le strisce pedonali sulla via Noalese, a Santa Maria di Sala (Venezia). (ANSA)Agenzia ANSA
Che schifezza di democrazia.
Il 4 novembre in California ci sarà una votazione speciale per modificare i collegi elettorali a favore dei Democratici - Il Post
https://www.ilpost.it/2025/08/22/california-votazione-cambaire-collegi-elettorali/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypubPubblicato su News @news-ilPost
Poliversity - Università ricerca e giornalismo reshared this.
freezonemagazine.com/news/the-…
Il lato musicale di Anthology – originariamente rappresentato da tre album di materiale inedito, mai ascoltato prima e raro – presenta anche un nuovo elemento importante. Il Volume 4 include nuovi mix dei singoli di successo dei Beatles. I brani vincitori di Grammy Free As A Bird e Real Love hanno ricevuto nuova vita dal […]
freezonemagazine.com/articoli/…
Un lavoro piuttosto interessante questo di Bonny Jack, che scopro essere addirittura il terzo album. Matteo Senese, questo il vero nome dell’artista in questione, è riuscito a farsi apprezzare sia nel nostro paese che fuori dai confini in Italia come One Man Band richiamandosi ad una impostazione di chiaro stampo folk blues, con richiami intriganti […]
L'articolo Bonny Jack – Somewhere,
freezonemagazine.com/news/il-v…
Quando Peter Tosh collaborò con Mick Jagger per il singolo Don’t Look Back del 1978, il reggae incrociò il rock in un modo che avrebbe definito un’epoca. Il brano non solo divenne il successo internazionale più famoso di Tosh, ma segnò anche il raro momento in cui un membro dei Rolling Stones entrò nel sound […]
ACN e l'uccello padulo.
@Privacy Pride
Il post completo di Christian Bernieri è sul suo blog: garantepiracy.it/blog/uccellop…
🎵 Aria sulla Quarta Corda di J. S. Bach 🎶 I più recenti studi ornitologici si sono focalizzati su un subdolo volatile dal comportamento peculiare: l'uccello padulo. Le abitudini predatorie sono in apparenza semplici: vola molto basso e veloce, ama sorprendere le sue prede
X di Elon Musk potrebbe finalmente risolvere la causa di buonuscita da 500 milioni di dollari
Dopo aver acquistato Twitter nel 2022, Musk ha licenziato oltre 6.000 dipendenti di Twitter, riducendo l'organico dell'azienda di circa l'80%. Sebbene Musk abbia offerto tre mesi di buonuscita, la causa sostiene che molti ex dipendenti non hanno ricevuto pagamenti completi, mentre alcuni non hanno ricevuto alcun pagamento.
techcrunch.com/2025/08/21/elon…
Dopo aver acquistato Twitter nel 2022, Musk ha licenziato oltre 6.000 dipendenti di Twitter, riducendo l'organico dell'azienda di circa l'80%. Sebbene Musk abbia offerto tre mesi di buonuscita, la causa sostiene che molti ex dipendenti non hanno ricevuto pagamenti completi, mentre alcuni non hanno ricevuto alcun pagamento.
techcrunch.com/2025/08/21/elon…
Elon Musk's X may finally settle $500M severance lawsuit | TechCrunch
Elon Musk's X is settling a severance lawsuit with former Twitter employees.Amanda Silberling (TechCrunch)
reshared this
In addition to Planet Nine, the solar system may also contain a closer, smaller world that could be spotted soon, according to a new preprint study.#TheAbstract
A ‘Warp’ In Our Solar System Might Be an Undiscovered World: Planet Y
Scientists have discovered possible hints of an undiscovered world in the solar system—nicknamed “Planet Y”—orbiting about 100 to 200 times farther from the Sun than Earth, according to a new study.The newly proposed planet, assuming it exists, is predicted to be somewhere between Mercury and Earth in scale, which would likely make it detectable within the next few years. It is distinct from Planet Nine or Planet X, another hypothetical planet that is predicted to be much larger and more distant than Planet Y.
playlist.megaphone.fm?p=TBIEA2…
Scientists speculated about the potential existence of Planet Y after discovering a strange “warp” in the Kuiper belt, which is a ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune, reports the study, which was posted on the preprint server arXiv on Wednesday.“We still are skeptical because it's not a ‘grand slam’ signal by any means,” said Amir Siraj, a graduate student in astrophysics at Princeton University who led the study, in a call with 404 Media. “At the most, it's a hint—or it’s suggestive of—an unseen planet.” The paper has been accepted for publication in The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Siraj said.
Siraj and his co-authors made the discovery while laying the groundwork for an upcoming search for Planet Nine. For more than a decade, scientists have debated whether this hypothetical world—roughly five to ten times as massive as Earth, making it a “super-Earth” or “mini-Neptune”—is orbiting at a distance of at least 400 astronomical units (AU), where one AU is the distance between Earth and the Sun.
Scientists came up with the Planet Nine hypothesis after observing small celestial bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune called trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), which appear to be gravitationally influenced by some hidden phenomenon. Planet Nine could be the culprit.
It’s an exciting time for Planet Nine watchers, as the next-generation Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile achieved first light in June. Rubin is expected to begin running its signature project, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), by the end of 2025, and will spend a decade scanning the southern sky to produce a time-lapsed map that could expose Planet Nine, if it exists.
For this reason, scientists are gearing up for a worldwide race to be the first to spot the planet in the incoming LSST data. To prepare for the observational onslaught, Siraj and his colleagues have been developing new techniques to learn all they can about the murky Kuiper belt.
“This is something I've been focusing on for the past couple of years, particularly because we are going to be flooded very soon—knock on wood—with thousands of new TNOs from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s LSST,” said Siraj. “So, my philosophy for the past couple of years has been, well, let me make sure I know everything that I can know from all the efforts so far.”
To that end, the team developed an improved technique for measuring the mean motions of objects in the distant Kuiper belt and comparing them to the plane of the solar system. Ideally, the mean plane of the objects’ orbits should fall in line with the solar system’s plane, but deviations could point to more evidence for Planet Nine.
Instead, the team’s novel approach found that the Kuiper belt’s mean plane was tilted by about 15 degrees relative to the solar system plane at ranges of 80 to 400 AU. This “warp” could be caused by many factors, such as orbital resonances with known solar system planets. But it could also hint at the presence of a small rocky world, lurking anywhere from three-to-five times as far as the orbit of Pluto.
“It was certainly a big surprise,” Siraj said. “If this warp holds up, the best explanation we can come up with is an undiscovered and relatively small inclined planet, roughly 100 to 200 AU from the Sun. The other thing that was exciting to us is that, whether the warp is real or not, it will be very quickly confirmed or refuted within the first few years of LSST’s operation.”
If there truly is an undiscovered Mercury-ish world beyond Pluto, it is probably a homegrown member of the solar system that was ejected by the turbulent environment in the early solar system. Planet Nine, in contrast, could have either formed in the solar system, or it could have been a wandering exoplanet that was gravitationally captured by the solar system.
“The solar system probably formed with a lot of planetary embryos,” Siraj said. “There were probably a lot of bodies that were roughly Mercury-mass and most of them likely were just scattered out of the solar system like balls in a pinball machine during the violent stages of solar system formation.”
“That would definitely be the most likely and possible formation scenario for such an object,” he added. “I think it would be very unlikely for an orbit like this to be produced from a capture event.”
Time will tell whether or not the warp represents a lost world that was kicked out of our local neighborhood more than four billion years ago. But the intense focus on the outer solar system and its many mysteries, spurred by LSST, is sure to bring a flood of new discoveries regardless. Indeed, the hypothetical existence of Planet Y does not rule out the existence of Planet Nine (and vice versa) so there may well be multiple mysterious worlds waiting to be added to our solar family.
“It is really remarkably hard to see objects in the outer solar system,” Siraj said. “These kinds of measurements were not even remotely possible 20 years ago, so this speaks to the technological progress that's been made. It is potentially putting us into an era in astronomy that's unfamiliar these days, but was much more familiar in, say, the 1700s or 1800s—the idea of adding another planet to our own solar system.”
Caltech Researchers Find Evidence of a Real Ninth Planet
Planet Nine's existence was discovered by Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown through mathematical modeling and computer simulations.California Institute of Technology
Real Footage Combined With a AI Slop About DC Is Creating a Disinformation Mess on TikTok#News #AISlop
Real Footage Combined With a AI Slop About DC Is Creating a Disinformation Mess on TikTok
TikTok is full of AI slop videos about the National Guard’s deployment in Washington, D.C., some of which use Google’s new VEO AI video generator. Unlike previous efforts to flood the zone with AI slop in the aftermath of a disaster or major news event, some of the videos blend real footage with AI footage, making it harder than ever to tell what’s real and what’s not, which has the effect of distorting people’s understanding of the military occupation of DC.At the start of last week, the Trump administration announced that all homeless people should immediately move out of Washington DC. This was followed by an order to Federal agents to occupy the city and remove tents where homeless people had been living. These events were reported on by many news outlets, for example, this footage from NBC shows the reality of at least one part of the exercise. On TikTok, though, this is just another popular trending topic, where slop creators and influencers can work together to create and propagate misinformation.
404 Media has previously covered how perceptions of real-life events can be quickly manipulated with AI images and footage; this is more of the same; with the release of new, better AI video creation tools like Google’s VEO, the footage is more convincing than ever.
playlist.megaphone.fm?p=TBIEA2…
Some of the slop is obvious fantasy-driven engagement farming and gives itself away aesthetically or through content. This video and this very similar one show tents being pulled from a vast field into the back of a moving garbage truck, with the Capitol building in the background, on the Washington Mall. They’re not tagged as AI, but at least a few people in the comments are able to identify them as such; both videos still have over 100,000 views. This somehow more harrowing one feat. Hunger Games song has 41,000.@biggiesmellscoach Washington DC cleanup organized by Trump. Homeless are now given secure shelters, rehab, therapy, and help. #washingtondc #fyp #satire #trending #viral ♬ origineel geluid - nina.editssWith something like this video, made with VEO, the slop begins to feel more like a traditional news report. It has 146,000 views and it’s made of several short clips with news-anchorish voiceover. I had to scroll down past a lot of “Thank you president Trump” and “good job officers” comments to find any that pointed out that it was fake, even though the watermark for Google’s VEO generator is in the corner.
The voiceover also “reports” semi-accurately on what happened in DC, but without any specifics: “Police moved in today, to clear out a homeless camp in the city. City crews tore down tents, packed up belongings, and swept the park clean. Some protested, some begged for more time. But the cleanup went on. What was once a community is now just an empty field.” I found the same video posted to X, with commenters on both platforms taking offence at the use of the term “community.”
Comments on the original and X postings of this video which is clearly made with VEO
I also found several examples of shorter slop clips like this one, which has almost 1 million views, and this one, with almost half a million, which both exaggerate the scale and disarray of the encampments. In one of the videos, the entirety of an area that looks like the National Mall (but isn’t) has been taken over by tents. Quickly scrolling these videos gives the viewer an incorrect understanding of what the DC “camps” and “cleanup” looked like.
These shorter clips have almost 1.5 million views between them
The account that posted these videos was called Hush Documentary when I first encountered it, but had changed its name to viralsayings by Monday evening. The profile also has a five-second AI-generated footage of ATF officers patrolling a neighborhood; marked as AI, with 89,000 views.
What’s happening also is that real footage and fake footage are being mixed together in a popular greenscreen TikTok format where a person gives commentary (basically, reporting or commenting on the news) while footage plays in the background. That is happening in this clip, which features that same AI footage of ATF officers.
The viralsayings version of the footage is marked as AI. The remixed version, combined with real footage, is not.
I ended up finding a ton of instances where accounts mixed slop clips of the camp clearings, with seemingly real footage—notably many of them included this viral original footage of police clearing a homeless encampment in Georgetown. But a lot of them are ripping each other off. For example, many accounts have ripped off the voiceover of this viral clip from @Alfredito_mx (which features real footage) and have put it over top of AI footage. This clone from omivzfrru2 has nearly 200,000 and features both real and AI clips; I found at least thirty other copies, all with between ~2000 and 5000 views.
The scraping-and-recreating robot went extra hard with this one - the editing is super glitchy, the videos overlay each other, the host flickers around the screen, and random legs walk by in the background.
@mgxrdtsi 75 homeless camps in DC cleared by US Park Police since Trump's 'Safe and Beautiful' executive order #alfredomx #washington #homeless #safeandbeautiful #trump ♬ original sound - mgxrdtsiSo, one viral video from a popular creator has spawned thousands of mirrors in the hope of chipping off a small amount of the engagement of the original; those copies need footage, go looking for content in the tags, encounter the slop, and can’t tell / don’t care if it’s real. Then more thousands of people see the slop copies and end up getting a totally incorrect view of an actual unfolding news situation.
In these videos, it’s only totally clear to me that the content is fake because I found the original sources. Lots of this footage is obviously fake if you’re familiar with the actual situation in DC or familiar with the geography and streets in DC. But most people are not. If you told me “some of these shots are AI,” I don’t think I could identify all of those shots confidently. Is the flicker or blurring onscreen from the footage, from a bad camera, from a time-lapse or being sped up, from endless replication online, or from the bad green screen of a “host”? Now, scrolling social media means encountering a mix of real and fake video, and the AI fakes are getting good enough that deciphering what’s actually happening requires a level of attention to detail that most people don’t have the knowledge or time for.
People Think AI Images of Hollywood Sign Burning Are Real
AI generated slop is tricking people into thinking an already devastating series of wildfires in Los Angeles are even worse than they are — and using it to score political points.Samantha Cole (404 Media)
