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404 Media

14 mentions in 7 days · 34 in 30 days · 39 total · first seen Aug 11, 2026 · last 4d ago

Timeline39 articles

Behind the Blog: How to Talk About AI Doom

404 Media's behind-the-blog post discusses AI doomer discourse, 9/11 archival projects, and a podcast with The Intercept on AI in surveillance and war.

404 Media staff reflect on how their top weekly stories came together, covering the 9/11 anniversary through archival projects like the 2001 Live X account and Mattel's GenerationGirl.com bulletin board, plus AI doom discourse. A live podcast with The Intercept examined the use of AI in surveillance and war, with a recording to be published later. The piece is editorial commentary rather than a security or AI news report.

404 MediaSep 11, 17:31 UTC · 4d agoOther 2 sources

Sign In

Crawled 404 Media sign-in page yielded no article text, providing no reportable security or AI news content.

The item is 404 Media's sign-in page, captured without any article body. No security, breach, or AI-related news content could be extracted. It appears to be a crawl artifact rather than a published story.

404 MediaSep 10, 03:52 UTC · 5d agoOther

Sitemap

404 Media sitemap page crawled with no article text; no security or AI news content available.

The item is 404 Media's sitemap page, captured without any article body or news details. No cyber or AI information could be extracted from it. It is a technical site page rather than a published story.

404 MediaSep 10, 03:52 UTC · 5d agoOther

Offline

404 Media offline placeholder page with no article content available.

This URL is a 404 Media site utility page (offline placeholder) crawled without any article body. It contains no cybersecurity or AI news content.

404 MediaSep 10, 03:52 UTC · 5d agoOther

Account

404 Media account management page with no article content available.

This URL is a 404 Media site utility page for account management, crawled without any article body. It contains no cybersecurity or AI news content.

404 MediaSep 10, 03:52 UTC · 5d agoOther

Doom

404 Media page at the /doom/ slug crawled with no article text; no reportable news content available.

The item is a 404 Media page with the slug 'doom' but no article body was captured. Without text, no security, gaming, or AI facts can be extracted. It appears to be a crawl artifact rather than a published story.

404 Mediaupdated Sep 11, 17:31 UTC · 4d agofirst Sep 10, 03:52 UTC · 5d agoOther 2 sources

404 Media

404 Media sign-in page containing site boilerplate with no news content.

This URL is a 404 Media sign-in page describing the outlet as an independent media company founded by Jason Koebler, Emanuel Maiberg, Samantha Cole, and Joseph Cox. No cybersecurity or AI news content is present.

404 MediaSep 10, 03:52 UTC · 5d agoOther 2 sources

404 Media

404 Media signup page containing site boilerplate with no news content.

This URL is a 404 Media signup page describing the outlet as an independent media company founded by Jason Koebler, Emanuel Maiberg, Samantha Cole, and Joseph Cox. No cybersecurity or AI news content is present.

404 MediaSep 10, 03:52 UTC · 5d agoOther 2 sources

Automattic's board forces CEO Matt Mullenweg into leave of absence

Automattic's board voted to place CEO Matt Mullenweg on paid leave against his will, naming CFO Mark Davies interim CEO of WordPress's parent company.

Automattic's board voted to put founder and CEO Matt Mullenweg on paid leave against his will, with CFO Mark Davies appointed interim CEO; Mullenweg remains on the board. The move follows years of turmoil, including a protracted legal battle with WP Engine, a 2024 ultimatum in which 159 employees took severance, and a 16% staff layoff in April 2025. WordPress.org's executive director said the open-source WordPress project and its teams continue as planned and are not impacted. Automattic also owns Tumblr, WooCommerce, and Pocket Casts.

Hacker News · securityupdated Sep 11, 16:33 UTC · 4d agofirst Sep 9, 23:49 UTC · 5d agoOther 7 sources HN 23↑ · 99 comments

Doctor Doom Thanked Seattle for All the Surveillance Cameras

Activist dressed as Doctor Doom urged Seattle's council to curb Axon and Flock surveillance after a committee voted to redirect $250,000 from CCTV expansion.

Clifford Cawthon, a policy advisor at the Washington State Department of Commerce, appeared at a Seattle Public Safety Committee meeting in costume as Doctor Doom to protest the city's expanding mass surveillance. He criticized Seattle PD's access to 62 cameras feeding an Axon real-time crime center that ingests CCTV, body camera, geolocation, ALPR, and dispatch data from vendors like Axon and Flock. His group Community Not Cameras submitted a petition with five demands, and a committee already voted to move $250,000 away from CCTV expansion pending full council approval.

404 MediaSep 9, 19:25 UTC · 6d agoPolicy & legal

Smear Campaign Says Anti-Flock Movement Is Chinese Propaganda

Lobbying report and coordinated media push claim anti-Flock surveillance opposition is Chinese-linked propaganda; 404 Media disputes the evidence.

More than a dozen local TV stations ran a report framing opponents of Flock's automated license plate reader cameras and AI data centers as far-left activists funded by China-linked networks and billionaire Neville Roy Singham. A report from lobbying group Consumer Action for a Strong Economy, with a foreword by former NSA head Rob Joyce, makes similar claims, though AI-detection tool Pangram found most of it was likely AI-written and its cited evidence is thin. 404 Media argues the smear mirrors Flock CEO Garrett Langley's earlier, since-apologized-for attacks on critics, while noting the report's own data shows most online opposition comes from right-wing or libertarian accounts.

404 MediaSep 9, 17:15 UTC · 6d agoOther

First ‘Take It Down Act’ Sentencing Puts Man Behind Bars for 15 Years

Ohio man James Strahler gets the first US Take It Down Act sentence: 15 years for distributing real and AI-generated abuse imagery.

James Strahler, 38, became the first person convicted under the Take It Down Act, receiving a 15-year federal prison sentence after investigators found more than 3,000 real and AI-generated abuse images across his devices, including over 700 he posted online. He pleaded guilty to cyberstalking, producing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse, and publication of digital forgeries after victims received threats, extortion demands, and AI-fabricated explicit images; the FBI took over the case in June. The federal law, which took effect in May, criminalizes knowingly publishing or threatening to publish nonconsensual intimate imagery, and free-speech advocates have criticized its 48-hour platform removal window as a censorship risk.

404 MediaSep 9, 15:57 UTC · 6d agoPolicy & legal

Channel 5 Gave Hunter Biden a List of Its Subscribers’ Emails for Some Reason

YouTube channel Channel 5 shared its subscriber email list with Hunter Biden to promote his memecoin, which a privacy lawyer says likely breaches GDPR.

Channel 5, the YouTube channel hosted by Andrew Callaghan, confirmed it handed Hunter Biden a CSV of newsletter subscriber emails so he could promote his new memecoin. Data protection lawyer Neil Brown of Decoded Legal said the sharing likely conflicts with GDPR and that subscribers never consented to third-party direct marketing. The channel's own privacy policy had stated it does not disclose subscriber data to third parties for direct marketing purposes.

404 MediaSep 8, 18:28 UTC · 7d agoOther

We Are Going to Be Okay: A Three Year Anniversary Events Recap

404 Media recaps its third-anniversary subscriber events, including a sold-out live podcast taping in New York and a Brooklyn afterparty.

404 Media marked three years since its August 2023 launch with two sold-out subscriber events in New York City: a live podcast taping at WNYC's Greene Space and an afterparty at Threes Brewing in Brooklyn. The post thanks readers, contributors, and sponsor DeleteMe, and previews Year Four offerings. It has no cybersecurity incident or research content.

404 MediaSep 7, 16:44 UTC · 8d agoOther

Flock Taught Cops How to Surveil No Kings Protesters

Flock webinars teach police to surveil No Kings protests and routine events using FlockOS, ALPRs, drones, and AI-powered video search.

404 Media reports Flock's training webinars show police how to monitor protests, parades, and fireworks using FlockOS, a platform combining ALPRs, drones, gunshot detectors, 911 data, and third-party cameras. Flock says more than 4,800 cities run FlockOS, and the EFF previously documented multiple law enforcement agencies running Flock searches around No Kings rallies. The reporting suggests Flock's public framing of its ALPR cameras as minimally invasive understates the platform's broader surveillance capabilities.

404 MediaSep 3, 15:49 UTC · 12d agoOther

A16z Says You Actually Love Social Media, Enshittification Isn’t Real

a16z-published essay by NYU professor Ruby Thelot argues social media 'enshittification' is a misdiagnosis he calls platform narcissism.

a16z published an essay by NYU professor Ruby Thelot arguing that Cory Doctorow's 'enshittification' concept is a misdiagnosis, claiming users are satisfied with social media and citing an ACSI survey where satisfaction rose 1% to 75 out of 100. 404 Media counters that the cited survey measures app performance rather than user sentiment, and points to polls showing most Americans distrust social media and support stronger oversight. The piece is opinion commentary, not security news.

404 MediaSep 2, 16:04 UTC · 13d agoOther

Texas Police Used AI to Write Report About Using Flock to Search for Woman Who Had Abortion

Johnson County, Texas deputies used Axon's Draft One AI to write a report about searching 80,000+ Flock cameras for a woman who self-administered an abortion.

Documents show the Johnson County Sheriff's Office used Flock's nationwide camera network and Axon's Draft One, which drafts police reports from body camera audio, in its investigation of a woman's self-administered abortion. The AI-generated report summarized deputies' discussion of legal implications, noting Texas law provided no applicable criminal charges. Flock CEO Garrett Langley has repeatedly claimed the search was a family welfare check, but earlier police reports indicate it was initiated at the behest of the woman's abusive partner.

404 MediaSep 2, 15:57 UTC · 13d agoAI safety & security

Cops Are Asking Axon to Make Their Cameras Look Different From Flock So People Don't Destroy Them

Axon says police want its ALPR cameras to look different from Flock devices as widespread vandalism and public backlash against Flock spreads.

Axon executives said in an August 26 webinar, later deleted, that law enforcement customers asked for ALPR camera redesigns so they look less like Flock cameras amid widespread vandalism of Flock devices. Some cities are switching from Flock to Axon cameras after reports of police misuse, including lookups for ICE, tracking of a woman who self-administered an abortion, and stalking of ex-spouses. Vandalism of Flock cameras has led to arrests, including a man charged with three felonies for breaking a 3D-printed decoy camera.

404 MediaSep 2, 14:02 UTC · 13d agoOther

Podcast: We Spoke to an Amazon Worker Destroying Books for AI

404 Media podcast covers Amazon destroying scanned books for AI training, recurring AI names in academic papers, and ICE voter-data spending.

404 Media's podcast follows up on its investigation of an Amazon warehouse where books are scanned and destroyed for AI training data, including an interview with a warehouse worker. The hosts also discuss how the same few names repeatedly surface in LLM outputs and AI-generated academic papers. The episode additionally covers ICE's plans to spend millions on voter fraud data and Boston Dynamics robot dogs.

404 MediaSep 2, 12:47 UTC · 13d agoAI industry

This 'Digital Camouflage' Shirt Confuses AI-Powered Surveillance Cameras

Artist Simon Weckert's 'digital camouflage' shirt uses visual patterns to confuse AI-powered surveillance cameras, demonstrated in action.

Artist Simon Weckert demonstrated a 'digital camouflage' shirt designed to confuse AI-powered surveillance cameras. 404 Media covered the project working in action, showing clothing that disrupts AI-based camera recognition as a form of counter-surveillance design.

404 MediaSep 1, 13:27 UTC · 14d agoOther

How Cyber Sleuths Tracked a Nigerian Scammer to His Doorstep

Cyber fraud fighters Erin West and Paul Raffile traveled to Nigeria to identify a scammer, uncovering more than just his identity.

404 Media reports that fraud investigators Erin West and Paul Raffile traveled to Nigeria to track down an online scammer. The on-the-ground investigation revealed more than the scammer's identity, offering a rare look at how scam operations run. The piece is an investigative narrative with no immediate technical risk to defenders.

404 MediaAug 31, 12:21 UTC · 15d agoPhishing & fraud

Apple iCloud Private Relay Can Expose Real IPs Through WebKit Proxy Bypasses

Researchers found WebKit features bypass proxies and iCloud Private Relay, leaking users' real IP addresses; Apple patched in iOS 26.6.1 and macOS 26.6.2.

Researchers Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk found that three WebKit features — DNS prefetching, WebAuthn Related Origin Requests, and WebTransport — bypass configured proxies and send traffic directly from the device. This leaks the user's real IP address in Safari and all WebKit-based iOS browsers and undermines iCloud Private Relay's dual-hop privacy design. Any website can trigger the leak via WebAuthn without user interaction or passkey use; a proof-of-concept site, leaks.psylo.app, demonstrates the issue. Apple investigated and patched the leaks in iOS 26.6.1 and macOS 26.6.2.

The Hacker NewsAug 30, 07:12 UTC · 16d agoVulnerability

Behind the Blog: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Flamin' Hot Slop

404 Media's behind-the-blog post discusses rare books discourse, new ICE technology purchases, and a Flamin' Hot story.

This is a 404 Media behind-the-scenes blog post discussing the week's coverage, including debates over rare book collecting, ICE technology purchases, and a Flamin' Hot Cheetos story. It contains no cybersecurity, AI research, or security-relevant content.

404 MediaAug 28, 15:16 UTC · 18d agoOther

Flock’s CEO Is Lying to Cops About 404 Media's Reporting on Abortion Case

Flock CEO Garrett Langley told police that 404 Media's reporting on cops tracking an abortion case via Flock was 'entirely false.'

Flock CEO Garrett Langley told law enforcement that a 404 Media story about officers using Flock cameras to track someone who self-administered an abortion was 'entirely false.' 404 Media disputes this characterization, asserting the CEO is misrepresenting its reporting. The full article is behind a paywall, so limited additional detail is available.

404 MediaAug 26, 13:44 UTC · 20d agoOther

Inside the Warehouse Where Amazon Scans and Destroys Books for AI Training

Amazon's Las Vegas VGT3 warehouse destructively scans thousands of books, cutting spines and discarding pages, to build AI training data.

404 Media interviewed an anonymous Amazon employee at the VGT3 warehouse in Las Vegas, part of the same complex as the LAS8 print-on-demand facility. Workers receive shipments of books including library liquidations and University of London materials, scan them, cut the spines off with machines, and discard the loose pages irreversibly. The operation was discovered by placing a tracking device in a shipment of rare books a bookseller suspected was being acquired by an anonymous AI company. Employees described scanning barcodes to weed out duplicates and an often disorganized process that changed daily.

404 MediaAug 26, 13:21 UTC · 20d agoAI industry

Podcast: Cops Are Making Fake Flock Cameras and Amazon Packages

404 Media's podcast covers police deploying a fake Flock camera to catch a vandal and anti-Flock Darth Vader activism.

The episode opens with Jason's report on a police officer who deployed a fake Flock camera to catch a vandal, raising questions about felony charges for damaging a decoy device. It also covers Sam's story about the man behind the anti-Flock Darth Vader mask and closes with subscriber-only discussion marking 404 Media's three-year anniversary. The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

404 MediaAug 26, 13:07 UTC · 20d agoOther

How a Network of Volunteers Is Liberating Critical Court Records for Everyone

Volunteer project Habeas Dockets has published roughly 29,000 immigration habeas corpus filings online, circumventing a 2007 federal rule blocking electronic access.

A volunteer project called Habeas Dockets, founded by Chicago software developer John Kyle Cronan, publishes federal habeas corpus filings from immigration cases online. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2(c) makes these public records viewable only in person at courthouse kiosks, hindering attorneys, journalists, and researchers. About 400 volunteers have reviewed and uploaded roughly 29,000 documents, and the project now operates as the nonprofit Immigration Justice Transparency Initiative. It launched a year ago amid nearly 50,000 habeas petitions challenging the Trump administration's mass detention and deportation campaign.

404 MediaAug 24, 15:09 UTC · 22d agoOther

Behind the Blog: Early Birthday Reflections

404 Media marks its third anniversary with a members-only reflection on the outlet's launch and growth.

404 Media published a behind-the-blog post reflecting on the three-year anniversary of its launch, discussing how the publication started and its subsequent success. The post is available to paid members and announces a celebration party and panel in New York. It contains no cybersecurity or AI news content.

404 MediaAug 21, 14:54 UTC · 25d agoOther

Podcast: Amazon is Destroying Rare Books to Train AI

404 Media podcast covers Amazon buying and destroying rare books for AI training, AI misuse in court cases, and Meta's glasses patent.

404 Media's podcast discusses its investigation tracing a shipment of rare books to an Amazon AI training facility where they were destroyed, alongside reporting on AI misuse in courts: an expert witness who used ChatGPT to write a report defending 3M in a deadly explosion lawsuit, and a prompt injection hidden in a legal filing instructing AI to side with one party. It also covers Meta's new patent for AI smart glasses with facial recognition and research into the glasses being used to harass women.

404 MediaAug 19, 20:06 UTC · 27d agoAI industry

The National Park Service Is Using Flock. Rangers Are Pissed

The National Park Service installed Flock license plate reader cameras at parks including Yosemite, drawing criticism from current and former rangers.

According to 404 Media, the National Park Service has purchased and deployed Flock cameras at parks including Yosemite. Current and former rangers criticized the deployment, with one fearing a visitor could be pulled over and held at gunpoint because a license plate reader misread their plate. The article is paywalled and provides limited technical or security detail.

404 MediaAug 18, 18:35 UTC · 28d agoOther

Anthropic’s Text Watermarking Proves AI Companies Do Not Care at All About Writing

Anthropic will watermark Claude outputs by biasing low-stakes word choices, a method it says complies with EU AI regulations.

Anthropic detailed how future Claude versions will carry a statistical watermark by altering the source of randomness used to pick among near-synonymous words, adding no hidden characters or metadata; a key holder can compute a probability that text was Claude-generated. The company says internal testing showed no impact on quality, creativity, or readability, and frames the change as compliance with new EU AI regulations. Critics including John Gruber and Jeff Jarvis argue the method treats synonyms as interchangeable and devalues writing, a view echoed in this 404 Media opinion piece.

404 MediaAug 18, 15:54 UTC · 28d agoAI industry

We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility

Investigation reveals Amazon buys and destroys massive quantities of printed books, cutting bindings to scan them for AI training data at a Las Vegas warehouse.

A 404 Media investigation tracked a rare book with a GPS device to Amazon's VGT3 warehouse in Las Vegas, revealing an unreported operation buying large volumes of printed books for AI training data. Employees there report cutting bindings off shipments to scan the books quickly, destroying the printed copies in the process. The finding offers rare visibility into how major AI companies acquire print material for training corpora.

404 MediaAug 17, 21:11 UTC · 29d agoAI industry

Behind the Blog: Endless Scam Parade

404 Media's behind-the-blog discusses Spotify tagging AI-generated artists as a tipping point in platforms algorithmically rejecting AI slop.

404 Media's weekly behind-the-blog post discusses Spotify's decision to tag artists as AI-generated and stop promoting them, arguing it signals a tipping point where platforms and users begin algorithmically rejecting AI slop. It also mentions the mainstreaming of Flock and media appearances. The post is partially paywalled for paid members.

404 MediaAug 14, 16:21 UTC · Aug 14, 2026AI industry

Here's the Manual for ICE's Electric Shock Gloves

ICE plans to spend tens of millions on Compliant Technologies' electric shock gloves, whose manual warns of possible sudden death.

According to the Associated Press, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to spend tens of millions of dollars on G.L.O.V.E (Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter) gloves sold by Compliant Technologies, which pulse electrical energy to help agents subdue people. A user manual obtained by 404 Media provides details on how the devices work and notes they may contribute to sudden death.

404 MediaAug 12, 23:59 UTC · Aug 12, 2026Other

Researchers Show How Meta's 'Pervert Glasses' Are Used to Harass Women

University of Sydney researchers detail how pickup artists use Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses to covertly film and harass women, then post the videos on Instagram.

Researchers Joanne Gray, Milica Stilinovic, Marcus Carter, and Ben Egliston analyzed 350 Instagram videos posted between September 2023 and March 2026 showing unsolicited approaches to women filmed with smart glasses. They found a clear correlation between covert filming and harassment severity, arguing ambient capture creates 'borderline' harassment that evades platform moderation mechanisms. Instagram head Adam Mosseri said the platform would remove harassing pickup-line content, though similar videos remain widespread a month later. Meta's safeguards, such as the recording light, were previously criticized as insufficient, and users have modded glasses to disable the light.

404 MediaAug 12, 14:05 UTC · Aug 12, 2026AI safety & security

The Government is Monitoring Anti

Fusion center bulletins reveal US law enforcement monitoring anti-Flock social media accounts and warning police ahead of the DeFlock Week of Action against license plate readers.

Public records requests by 404 Media and journalist Dan Boguslaw exposed intelligence bulletins from fusion centers in Colorado, Wisconsin, and Florida tracking anti-Flock sentiment, camera vandalism videos, and the DeFlock National Week of Action against automated license plate readers scheduled for August 16-22. The bulletins highlight Instagram accounts like Nomark.Project posting daily camera takedowns, and a device found during a June 25 traffic stop that could locate Flock cameras. Police are advised to increase patrols around ALPR locations and warned about upcoming DeFlock events, including 11 Florida cities signed up. DeFlock creator Will Freeman said the project never called for vandalism and that over 100 surveillance contracts have been canceled through civic engagement.

404 MediaAug 12, 13:36 UTC · Aug 12, 2026Policy & legal

Company Offering ‘100% Human-Written, Never AI’ Medical Research Is Entirely AI

404 Media found Research Gold, advertised as '100% human-written' medical research, is run entirely by AI with fake PhD staff.

Research Gold advertises PRISMA-compliant systematic reviews and meta-analyses drafted by PhD methodologists, but its listed experts are AI-generated personas that do not exist. Real methodologists, including evidence synthesis scientist Jenny Berrio, were listed without permission using photos copied from LinkedIn. Customer calls and quotes were handled by AI agents that insisted they were human, quoting $1,900 for a systematic review.

404 MediaAug 11, 14:58 UTC · Aug 11, 2026AI safety & security

Appears with

vendor Flock 7 vendor 404 Media 6 organization ICE 4 vendor Amazon 4 vendor Axon 3 vendor Meta 3 organization Electronic Frontier Foundation 2 product Flock cameras 2 organization Flock 2 organization Automattic 1 organization Daring Fireball 1 organization Court Watch 1 organization Decoded Legal 1 organization Associated Press 1 ai model Claude 1 organization Consumer Action for a Strong Economy 1

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