With the advent of Threads people are becoming aware of something called ‘the fediverse’ (Threads is the new social network messaging app – think ‘Twitter’ only owned by Facebook Meta). The reason that the release of Threads has people becoming aware of the fediverse is because of this advisory when they sign up for Threads: “Future versions of Threads will work with the fediverse, a new type of social media network that allows people to follow and interact with each other on different platforms, like Mastodon.”

If you were expecting a piece of feel-good news, unfortunately this isn’t it. Unless you are like me, and find relaxation in reading articles which are gravely concerning for the future of privacy and digital human rights. Either way, we got you covered: A recent study conducted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) put major league internet service providers on the line; and what they found might have you logging off. The FTC issued orders for information on consumer data practices, privacy, and the companies transparency in regards to such practices, and what they found was pretty horrifying.

The White House announced the Affordable Connectivity Program today, which provides low-cost Internet and, for some, even free Internet for low income families and individuals who meet the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) criteria (explained below). That criteria is to either be participating in one of a number of assistance programs (listed below), or to be earning no more than double the Federal poverty limit (we also explain below what is the Federal poverty limit for 2022). And not to put too fine a point on it, but we think that the fact that the White House estimates that as many as 40% of people or households meet the criteria of having either so little income, or needing an assistance program to, you know, live, is really burying the lead, and is a scathing indictment of the state of our society; but we digress. You want to know how to get free or low cost Internet, not read our thoughts on just why 40% of all Americans are living at poverty or subsistence levels. Read on.

5G is supposed to be rolled out this week, specifically with AT&T and Verizon, and the airlines are warning of “catastrophic disruptions” to travel and commerce if 5G is brought online at airports. Conspiracy theories involving Bill Gates and 5G aside, there are some reasons to have substantial concern about 5G, but they may not be the ones you’re hearing about. Here is our plain English explanation of the concerns with 5G.

An Internet outage which has been caused by a DNS issue at domain and DNS provider Enom is affecting business and people across the country. So if you are having trouble getting on the Internet, or getting to a website or other destination on the Internet, it’s quite possibly because of the massive DNS failure at Internet provider Enom. Enom is, among other things, a domain provider (much like GoDaddy, with whom more people may be familiar), which means that they also provide DNS (domain name service) for those domains.

Some version of “Spider Man breaks web” is all over the news today. “Spider-Man breaks the web,” said ABC. “Fans Break the Internet After ‘Spider-Man 3’ Trailer Leaks” says Inside the Magic. “No Way Home breaks the web with the official trailer,” says Celeb Mix. “Marvel Breaks the Internet with Release of Spider-Man,” says Epic Stream; and “Spider-Man breaks the web” echoes Yahoo News.

The Internet has been around for less than half a century. However, it has impacted every aspect of our lives including how we interact and source information. The Internet has pervaded our lives so much that you can hardly avoid it whether at home or at work. Since the online…

By now you know that your online activities are an open secret and can be tracked by various parties. While some users resort to deploying VPNs, others activate the incognito or private mode when browsing to keep their online activities away from prying eyes. So, how private is the incognito…

Google’s Gmail has been hailed as one of the best free email services around the world. Gmail has great security features, including 2-step authentication that provides industry-standard protection against hackers. In addition, it has robust spam filters, which will send all your bad incoming mail to the spam folder.

AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint are all experiencing continued outages across the United States, affecting both cellular and Internet service.

As Americans start staying and working from home in droves due to the Coronavirus, some Internet providers are removing data caps and boosting speed.

Yesterday we reported on the nationwide CenturyLink outage – an outage which is still going on in many parts of the country, more than 24 hours later. We also reported that as a result of this outage, many 911 emergency services were and are unreachable. Now the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is investigating the CenturyLink outage, calling the breadth and duration of it “unacceptable”.

Millions of people across the U.S. woke up to a nationwide, coast-to-coast CenturyLink outage. Hardest hit are New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, and Washington state, however Centurylink is down in other states including California, Oregon, and the Northeast.

Computer scientists at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Oregon have determined that the United States’ Internet infrastructure is at serious risk of being flooded owing to the rising sea levels. According to Paul Barford (UW) and Ramakrishnan Durairajan (UO), this is because much of the land-based underground fiber optic cabling through which the Internet is carried is in shallow underground trenches along the coasts.

As the frenzy over the FCC’s December 14, 2017 vote on whether to repeal the Open Internet Order (OIO), which is being equated to the end of Net Neutrality, reaches a fevered pitch, here’s what the average Internet user needs to know. In our view, the furor over the possible (some say inevitable) repeal is akin to the Y2K hysteria, and the actual outcome probably just as anticlimactic. The sky is not going to fall.