Frustrating user-experience tactics can have real harm, "dark pattern" expert says

Aug 10, 2022
Website and app design strategies that trick users can cost consumers time and money, Harry Brignull says.
From hidden fees when booking a rental property, to a subscription that seems impossible to cancel, dark patterns are annoyances that can cost you time and money.
Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Millions of eligible Americans are missing out on broadband internet subsidies

Jan 24, 2022
People without reliable internet access can be hard to reach.
By one estimate, about 30 million American households are missing out on the FCC's monthly subsidy.
Valerie Macon/Getty Images

Senators grill tech CEOs as both parties fault internet content policies

Oct 28, 2020
Legislation to tighten the oversight of internet content may be coming.
Denis Charlet/AFP/Getty Images

Can the internet help you become a better person?

Oct 28, 2020
On a provocative Reddit forum, millions of strangers can weigh in on questions of right and wrong.
A Reddit forum presents moral questions from people's lives. Strangers post their judgments, which can provide life lessons. Or not.
Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The days of free, unlimited data may be coming to an end for some internet users

Jul 6, 2020
During the pandemic, some internet providers have been offering service for free and waiving late fees.
During the pandemic, the internet has provided a vital service for people to file for unemployment, or take online classes or order deliveries.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

How Trump's executive order would change social media and the internet

May 29, 2020
Without the 1996 law Section 230, the internet as we know it would not exist.
The executive order could lead to uncharted territory on the internet, where platforms either over- or under-censor everything.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

In China, economy dogged at decade's end

Dec 25, 2019
China started 2009 weathering the global financial crisis and ends the decade battling slower economic growth and a trade war with the U.S.
Jennifer Pak/Marketplace

For public good, not for profit.

China's Googleless internet remains vibrant

Apr 8, 2019
Many U.S. tech firms are blocked, but there are homegrown equivalents inside the "Great Firewall."
The Google logo is reflected in windows of the company's China head office as the Chinese national flag flies in Beijing in 2010.
Li Xin/AFP/Getty Images

Amazon wants to deliver broadband from orbit

Apr 8, 2019
Amazon recently confirmed plans to provide internet connectivity from orbit.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos at a press conference in Santa Monica, California.
David McNew/Getty Images

What if social media treated extremist content like junk mail?

Mar 21, 2019
A former Facebook policy worker says platforms have a lot to lose if they don't crack down on misinformation.
An email server shows alerts for spam, or unwanted emails, on a computer screen.
Ian Waldie/Getty Images