Matene Toure

One of TV’s Best Sitcoms Is Ending Early. Fans Are Shocked—but It’s Actually a Good Thing. Smiling Friends is going out on its own terms, without turning into another Rick & Morty.

taking a step back from the Warner Bros. news to note: in this awful era for creatives (which will now worsen), it's heartening that the creators of a beloved, popular show can choose to end things on their own terms, instead of wallowing in the churn cycle. on the abrupt end of Smiling Friends:

TikTok Refuses to Confirm or Deny That It's Providing User Data to ICE TikTok refuses to confirm or deny that ICE is obtaining detailed information about its users via private data brokers.

"Yeah, everyone just go ahead and delete TikTok now if you haven't already."

“The world ain’t safe for democracy; it’s unsafe because of the conceit of democracy.”

Joshua Myers, No-Spaces and Returns

My latest for @wired.com

The Viral ‘DoorDash Girl’ Saga Unearthed a Nightmare for Black Creators A delivery driver posted a TikTok alleging she had been sexually assaulted by a customer. The deepfakes that followed reveal a growing digital blackface problem.

“A delivery driver posted a TikTok alleging she had been sexually assaulted by a customer. The deepfakes that followed unearthed a growing digital blackface problem.”

My latest for @wired.com

The Viral ‘DoorDash Girl’ Saga Unearthed a Nightmare for Black Creators A delivery driver posted a TikTok alleging she had been sexually assaulted by a customer. The deepfakes that followed reveal a growing digital blackface problem.

You may have heard of the "DoorDash girl"—a driver who alleged a customer exposed himself and filmed it. Afterwards, many Black content creators saw AI-generated versions of themselves defending the customer on TikTok, though they'd said nothing about it: www.wired.com/story/the-vi...

ngl I kind of think Sam Altman should be tried criminally? is that … feasible?

What Does Palantir Actually Do? Palantir is often called a data broker, a data miner, or a giant database of personal information. In reality, it’s none of these—but even former employees struggle to explain it.

Palantir is in the news a lot lately. However, the public discourse about the company often misconstrues it as a data broker, a data miner, a single centralized database, etc. But what does Palantir actually do?

I wrote a piece to firmly & clearly answer that question:
www.wired.com/story/palant...

CBP Wants New Tech to Search for Hidden Data on Seized Phones Customs and Border Protection is asking companies to pitch tools for performing deep analysis on the contents of devices seized at the US border.

SCOOP: The CBP asking tech companies to pitch digital forensics tools that are designed to process and analyze text messages, pictures, videos, and contacts from seized phones, laptops, and other devices at the United States border, according to documents reviewed by WIRED.

ICE Is Using a New Facial Recognition App to Identify People

🔗 www.404media.co/ice-is-using...

5% of Undocumented Migrants Are Black. They're 20% of Potential Deportations. Research exposes how racial disparities in policing have created a pathway from routine life to permanent family separation for Black migrants.

One of the most underreported aspects of life for Black undocumented migrants can be summed up in one statistic: They’re deported at a rate four times more often than their numbers would suggest.

capitalbnews.org/black-migran...

Tech moguls want to found a crypto paradise on a Native American reservation And hope to gobble up some land near you.

Tech moguls want to build a crypto paradise on a Native American reservation.

And hope to gobble up some land near you.

Read @kieraevebutler.bsky.social's latest.

A Texas Cop Searched License Plate Cameras Nationwide for a Woman Who Got an Abortion The sheriff said the woman self-administered the abortion and her family were concerned for her safety, so authorities searched through Flock cameras. Experts are still concerned that a cop in a state...

A Texas Cop Searched License Plate Cameras Nationwide for a Woman Who Got an Abortion

🔗 www.404media.co/a-texas-cop-...

The Massacre of Nine Children of the Al-Najjar Family “I turned on my camera and began recording. I didn’t know yet that the fire was burning the bodies of my neighbors’ children.”

💡NEW at @dropsitenews.com: The Massacre of Nine Children of the Al-Najjar Family

“I turned on my camera and began recording. I didn’t know yet that the fire was burning the bodies of my neighbors’ children.”

Dispatch by Donya Abu Sitta

www.dropsitenews.com/p/massacre-a...

Hi! I am currently investigating nonprofit newsrooms that have lost funding over their Palestine coverage for @prismreports.org -- please email me at nicolefroio@gmail.com if you have any tips. I guarantee anonymity.

Immigration Crackdowns Are Booming. So Is the Digital Resistance Fighting Them. As immigrants face threats under Trump 2.0, a scrappy movement of techies is creating real-time tools to resist.

second, I wrote about the myriad digital platforms immigrant advocates have been coding and launching to notify their neighbors of ICE raids, with a special focus on @joshua.stealingheather.com's new ICEBlock app: slate.com/technology/2...

It is too horribly perfect that Musk's Grok is spewing racist inanities while fueled by huge methane generators that are menacing the health of Memphis's Black communities.

"The children are being used as bait" Thousands of kids are stuck in immigration facilities—with no end in sight.

“We don’t know when, if ever, they will be able to reunite with their family.”

Thousands of kids are stuck in immigration facilities—with no end in sight.

Ray Levy Uyeda wrote an extensive piece about Musk's supercomputer last month for @prismreports.org! It's definitely worth a read.

ICE Plans Central Database of Health, Labor, Housing Agency Data to Find Targets A document viewed by 404 Media describes ICE's plans to incorporate data from the Department of Labor (DOL), Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) ...

NEW: ICE Plans Central Database of Health, Labor, Housing Agency Data to Find Targets

🔗 www.404media.co/ice-plans-ce...

The State Department Relied on Columbia University’s Mischaracterization of Protests to Arrest Mohsen Mahdawi Columbia University refused to retract its statement calling pro-Palestine protests “intimidation.” Now, the Trump administration is using it against Mohsen Mahdawi.

⚡️NEW at @dropsitenews.com: The State Department Relied on Columbia University’s Mischaracterization of Protests to Arrest Mohsen Mahdawi

Story by Meghnad Bose

www.dropsitenews.com/p/mohsen-mah...

Mahmoud Khalil and the Necropolitics of Trump’s Deportation Regime The necropolitics of Trump's attack on immigrants like Mahmoud Khalil: Death is the point.

The Trumpian move is to don the Totenkopf, to embrace and supercharge this monstrous and grossly unequal death tableau.
Khalil, meanwhile, continues to show us what it means to fight for the living. @theintercept.com
theintercept.com/2025/04/11/m...

AI slop farms are churning out fake heartwarming videos about Trump figures Machine-made YouTube videos are racking up views while fooling the MAGA faithful.

NEW: while researching another story I stumbled across a group of AI slop farms on YouTube, churning out heartwarming fake stories about people in the Trump universe. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Revealed: The shocking far-right agenda behind the surveillance tech used by ICE and the FBI Thousands of newly obtained documents show that Clearview AI’s founders always intended to target immigrants and the political left. Now their digital dragnet is in the hands of the Trump administrati...

Revealed: The shocking far-right agenda behind the surveillance tech used by ICE and the FBI

Bluesky Can’t Take a Joke Bluesky has been a safe haven for users fleeing X and Threads. But while there’s less hate, there’s also fewer lolz.

Bluesky has been a safe haven for users fleeing X and Threads. But while there’s less hate, there’s also fewer lolz.

The new director of Medicare and Medicaid services was peddling vitamins to teenagers on TikTok Shop just a few months ago. I wish I was joking

The cost of care In Africa’s migration economy, women’s labor fuels households abroad while their own needs are sidelined at home. What does freedom look like when care itself becomes a form of exile?

In Africa’s migration economy, women’s labor fuels households abroad while their own needs are sidelined at home. Naila Aroni asks: what does freedom look like when care itself becomes a form of exile? africasacountry.com/2025/04/the-...

How Eric Adams and the NYPD Helped Create the Xenophobic Tren de Aragua Panic New York City's law enforcement officials were some of the first to push the narrative that a mysterious and deadly Venezuelan gang was running amok, despite little evidence to back it up.

With today's news about Eric Adams running for re-election as an independent, throwing all sorts of wacky chaos into this year's race, we wanted to highlight a story about the mayor's effect on national discourse you may have missed from last week. hellgatenyc.com/eric-adams-n...