Ad firms settle with Trump FTC over claims they boycotted conservative media
FTC aims to stamp out brand-safety standards that hurt Breitbart and Musk’s X.
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Jon Brodkin
Senior IT Reporter
jon.brodkin@meincmagazine.com
Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry. Jon graduated from Boston University with a degree in journalism and has been a full-time journalist since 2000. He joined Ars in 2011 and previously worked for the Sentinel & Enterprise, MetroWest Daily News, and IDG's Network World. Jon lives in Massachusetts and likes to play beach volleyball. To send Jon encrypted email, his public key is here; he can also be reached securely on Keybase.
Recent stories by
Jon Brodkin
Jury finds Live Nation/Ticketmaster is illegal monopoly that overcharged fans
Trump administration dropped out of the trial, but 33 states kept fighting.
Jon Brodkin
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FCC exempts Netgear from ban on foreign routers, doesn’t explain why
Trump FCC starts handing out exemptions to its ban on foreign-made routers.
Jon Brodkin
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137
Apple chooses Amazon satellites for iPhone, years after rejecting Starlink offer
Amazon announces $11.6B merger with Globalstar and satellite deal with Apple.
Jon Brodkin
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130
IBM folds to Trump anti-DEI push, admits no misconduct but pays $17M penalty
IBM is first firm to pay penalty under Trump’s “Civil Rights Fraud Initiative.”
Jon Brodkin
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211
Report: US demands Reddit unmask ICE critic, summons firm to grand jury
Trump admin reportedly gets grand jury involved in attempt to identify Redditor.
Jon Brodkin
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347
Trump-appointed judges refuse to block Trump blacklisting of Anthropic AI tech
Appeals court denies Anthropic’s emergency motion for a stay.
Jon Brodkin
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LinkedIn scanning users’ browser extensions sparks controversy and two lawsuits
LinkedIn says claims fabricated by extension maker suspended for scraping data.
Jon Brodkin
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Most Read
SCOTUS overturns 5th Circuit ruling that told ISP to kick pirates off Internet
Supreme Court’s precedent-setting Cox ruling helps Grande beat music piracy claims.
Jon Brodkin
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Sports bets on prediction markets ruled to be “swaps,” exempt from state laws
Court rules US preempts states from applying gambling laws to prediction markets.
Jon Brodkin
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Elon Musk insists banks working on SpaceX IPO must buy Grok subscriptions
Some banks “agreed to spend tens of millions on the chatbot,” NYT reports.
Jon Brodkin
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182
SpaceX tries to convince FCC that Amazon put satellites into wrong altitude
Amazon denies violation, says SpaceX caused conflict by lowering Starlink satellites.
Jon Brodkin
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103
Trump defunding of NPR and PBS blocked by judge, but damage is already done
Judge invalidates Trump executive order, but Congress also cut off all funding.
Jon Brodkin
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95
Starlink satellite breaks apart into “tens of objects”; SpaceX confirms “anomaly”
Satellite failure cause is unexplained after second “fragment creation event.”
Jon Brodkin
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174
OkCupid gave 3 million dating-app photos to facial recognition firm, FTC says
OkCupid and Match settle with Trump FTC, don’t have to pay any financial penalty.
Jon Brodkin
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69
Judge halts Nexstar/Tegna merger after FCC let firms exceed TV ownership limit
“Defendants must immediately cease” actions to integrate and consolidate the firms.
Jon Brodkin
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48
Spotify seeks $300M from Anna’s Archive, which ignores all court proceedings
Even with court orders, music firms struggle to eliminate notorious shadow library.
Jon Brodkin
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52
Supreme Court rejects Sony’s attempt to kick music pirates off the Internet
Sony’s 1984 Betamax win helps Cox beat Sony in important online piracy case.
Jon Brodkin
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178
FCC imposes sweeping ban on foreign-made routers, affecting all new models
Trump admin to decide which router makers get exemptions from FCC import ban.
Jon Brodkin
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209
Intuit beats FTC in court, ending restrictions on “free” TurboTax ads
Biden-era punishment tossed; Intuit now has more friendly regulators under Trump.
Jon Brodkin
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71
Trump FCC lets Nexstar buy Tegna and blow way past 39% TV ownership cap
Brendan Carr lets Trump-favorite Nexstar exceed national station ownership limit.
Jon Brodkin
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106
FBI started buying Americans’ location data again, Kash Patel confirms
Tom Cotton supports FBI data purchasing, compares it to searching people’s trash.
Jon Brodkin
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96
Cloudflare appeals Piracy Shield fine, hopes to kill Italy’s site-blocking law
Firm says requiring site blocks within 30 minutes breaks core Internet architecture.
Jon Brodkin
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46
Apple can delist apps “with or without cause,” judge says in loss for Musi app
Judge tosses Musi case against Apple, sanctions lawyers for “mak[ing] up facts.”
Jon Brodkin
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147
Trump and his FCC chair demand more positive news coverage of Iran war
Carr makes evidence-free claim of “hoaxes and news distortions.” Trump is thrilled.
Jon Brodkin
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163
Google Fiber will be sold to private equity firm and merge with cable company
GFiber and Astound to merge with Alphabet, selling majority stake to Stonepeak.
Jon Brodkin
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143
Another AT&T FirstNet user gets shocking $6,200 bill, at $2 per megabyte
Bizarre FirstNet charge nearly identical to one that hit different user in 2024.
Jon Brodkin
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57
Live Nation director boasted of gouging ticket buyers, “robbing them blind”
Unsealed messages add wrinkle to trial after US agreed to settle with Live Nation.
Jon Brodkin
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131
“Use a gun” or “beat the crap out of him”: AI chatbot urged violence, study finds
Character.AI deemed “uniquely unsafe” among 10 chatbots tested by CCDH.
Jon Brodkin
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75
Anthropic sues US over blacklisting; White House calls firm “radical left, woke”
Anthropic says it was blacklisted for opposing autonomous weapons, mass surveillance.
Jon Brodkin
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186
US blindsides states with surprise settlement in Live Nation/Ticketmaster trial
States seek mistrial, saying “sudden disappearance” of US will influence jury.
Jon Brodkin
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Lawsuit: Google Gemini sent man on violent missions, set suicide “countdown”
Gemini allegedly called man its “husband,” said they could be together in death.
Jon Brodkin
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404
FCC chair calls Paramount/WBD merger “a lot cleaner” than defunct Netflix deal
FCC to review foreign debt, but Carr indicates it will be a formality.
Jon Brodkin
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121
Charter gets FCC permission to buy Cox and become largest ISP in the US
FCC rejects protests because Charter and Cox don’t compete directly in most places.
Jon Brodkin
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182
Trump FCC’s equal-time crackdown doesn’t apply equally—or at all—to talk radio
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s unequal enforcement of the equal-time rule.
Jon Brodkin
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Whoops: US military laser strike takes down CBP drone near Mexican border
Trump admin “incompetence continues to cause chaos in our skies,” Duckworth says.
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