Author: n Ashley Belangern

This month, the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine archived its trillionth webpage, and the nonprofit invited its more than 1,200 library partners and 800,000 daily users to join a celebration of the moment. To honor “three decades of safeguarding the world’s online heritage,” the city of San Francisco declared October 22 to be “Internet Archive Day.” The Archive was also recently designated a federal depository library by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), who proclaimed the organization a “perfect fit” to expand “access to federal government publications amid an increasingly digital landscape.”

The Internet Archive might sound like a thriving organization, but it only recently emerged from years of bruising copyright battles that threatened to bankrupt the beloved library project. In the end, the fight led to more than 500,000 books being removed from the Archive’s “Open Library.”

“We survived,” Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle told Ars. “But it wiped out the Library.”

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The saga of a 61-year-old man jailed for more than a month after reposting a Facebook meme has ended, but free speech advocates are still reeling in the wake.

On Wednesday, Larry Bushart was released from Perry County Jail, where he had spent weeks unable to make bail, which a judge set at $2 million. Prosecutors have not explained why the charges against him were dropped, according to The Intercept, which has been tracking the case closely. However, officials faced mounting pressure following media coverage and a social media campaign called “Free Larry Bushart,” which stoked widespread concern over suspected police censorship of a US citizen over his political views.

How a meme landed a man in jail

Bushart’s arrest came after he decided to troll a message thread about a Charlie Kirk vigil in a Facebook group called “What’s Happening in Perry County, TN.” He posted a meme showing a picture of Donald Trump saying, “We should get over it.” The meme included a caption that said “Donald Trump, on the Perry High School mass shooting, one day after,” and Bushart included a comment with his post that said, “This seems relevant today ….”

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The US inched one step closer to taking over TikTok’s algorithm after President Donald Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday.

Neither leader confirmed that China has agreed to the terms of Trump’s proposed deal, which would create a US version of TikTok that licenses the Chinese-owned algorithm. But the Chinese Commerce Ministry provided a statement following the meeting; translated, it indicates that “China will properly resolve TikTok-related issues with the United States.”

Trump, who has long vowed to “save” TikTok, was notably silent on Thursday, but US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News ahead of Trump’s meeting with Xi that “we finalized the TikTok agreement in terms of getting Chinese approval.” According to Bessent, the deal will “finally” be resolved over the “coming weeks and months,” Reuters reported.

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Social media videos have confirmed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers patrolling US streets are actively using facial recognition technology to verify citizenship, 404 Media reported.

In one video posted on a Chicago-based Instagram account, a self-described teenager and US citizen tells officers that he has no government ID. After he offers to show his student ID instead, the officer turns to another and asks, “can you do facial?” As the other officer pulls up an app to scan the teen’s face, the first officer tells the teenager to “relax” while alleging that “a lot of parents” tell their kids they were born in the US. The video ends after the officer takes the minor’s photo and asks the teen to verify that his name matches what the app’s database pulled up.

It’s unclear which app the officers used during this Chicago stop. But 404 Media has been closely tracking ICE and CBP’s increasing use of face scans amid the Trump administration’s nationwide mass deportation campaign, which critics slam as largely rooted in racial profiling. Earlier this year, 404 Media reviewed leaked emails confirming that ICE was using Mobile Fortify, which allows agents to scan “an unprecedented number of government databases” and compare face matches against a database of 200 million images.

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Social media platforms have agreed to comply with Australia’s social media ban for users under 16 years old, begrudgingly embracing the world’s most restrictive online child safety law.

On Tuesday, Meta, Snap, and TikTok confirmed to Australia’s parliament that they’ll start removing and deactivating more than a million underage accounts when the law’s enforcement begins on December 10, Reuters reported.

Firms risk fines of up to $32.5 million for failing to block underage users.

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Donald Trump is eyeing taking equity stakes in quantum computing firms in exchange for federal funding, The Wall Street Journal reported.

At least five companies are weighing whether allowing the government to become a shareholder would be worth it to snag funding that the Trump administration has “earmarked for promising technology companies,” sources familiar with the potential deals told the WSJ.

IonQ, Rigetti Computing, and D-Wave Quantum are currently in talks with the government over potential funding agreements, with minimum awards of $10 million each, some sources said. Quantum Computing Inc. and Atom Computing are reportedly “considering similar arrangements,” as are other companies in the sector, which is viewed as critical for scientific advancements and next-generation technologies.

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