The Markup

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FCC Approves Rules to Prevent ‘Digital Discrimination’

Congress tasked the FCC with closing the digital divide. Here’s what the agency’s doing

November 15, 2023 14:24 ET

Photograph of Mirna El Helbawi looking down at her phone on a rooftop at night

News

‘Let Me Tell Them Goodbye Before They Get Killed’: How eSIM Cards Are Connecting Palestinian Families

As blackouts in Gaza cut communications, a crowdsourced effort by an Egyptian writer reconnects family members, one eSIM card at a time

November 7, 2023 10:00 ET

Photograph of an LED display of a cop car, with a sign that reads “Federal Signal” underneath it

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The Tech at ‘Cop Con’: Cigarette Carton Trackers, VR for School Shootings, and ‘Peacekeeper Batons’

The International Association of Chiefs of Police brings police leadership and tech vendors together at its annual conference, where clear trends about the future of law enforcement emerged

November 3, 2023 11:00 ET

Image of U.S. President Joe Biden seated at a desk, passing a pen to Vice President Kamala Harris, who is standing. The background screen shows the words 'Artificial Intelligence' with the subheading 'Safety, Security, and Trust' displayed prominently.

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The Problems Biden’s AI Order Must Address

The Markup gives a section-by-section breakdown of the summarized executive order on artificial intelligence

November 1, 2023 14:57 ET

A hand holds an iPhone that displays seven applications under the title "Throttled": Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Threads, X, Bluesky, Patreon, Substack and WhatsApp.

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Twitter Is Throttling Patreon Links, Creators Say It Undermines Their Livelihood

Markup readers helped uncover the link delays, which also affect WhatsApp and Messenger

October 16, 2023 10:30 ET

3-D illustration of a hand holding a phone. The phone is displaying a pyramid structure with circles leading to more circles on the bottom. In the background, there are floating coins and dollar bills.

News

Pyramid Schemes Are Illegal. MLMs Are Not. What About the Tech That Powers Them?

Multi-level marketing companies have captured the public’s attention in recent years. Behind them is a little-known industry of software providers

August 24, 2023 08:00 ET

Illustration of a view of the globe in the shape of a square, surrounded by a yellow square border. The border is surrounded by two larger black boxes. The background is a blurred picture of green grass and ocean, with a pattern of pixels overlaid on top of it.

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AI Is Hurting the Climate in a Number of Non-Obvious Ways

Training and running AI models emits a vast amount of carbon—but AI is also being used to boost fossil fuel extraction and generate climate misinformation

July 6, 2023 06:45 ET

Image of a phone with a broken screen and various tools next to it

News

How Big Tech Rewrote the Nation’s First Cellphone Repair Law

Documents reveal tech lobbyists revised a right-to-repair bill before New York's governor signed it

February 8, 2023 06:45 ET

An early evening photo of the Washington State capitol building

News

Washington State Looks to Become the Second, After California, Where Uber and Lyft Drivers Can’t Be Employees

The bill, backed by the two companies, would prevent drivers from receiving some employee benefits

March 9, 2022 12:00 ET

Photo of a car displaying an Uber and Lyft sticker on its window. A passenger is opening the rear door to enter.

News

Bill in Washington State Would Be First to Bar Uber and Lyft Drivers from Being Classified As Employees

The gig companies and a local Teamsters union helped shape the measure’s language

March 4, 2022 08:00 ET