X Gets Fined
Plus: Netflix buys Warner Bros., the tradlife really can be yours, baby slop on YouTube, gender insanity in Oklahoma, and more...
European Union slaps Elon Musk on the wrist: As of today, X became the first company to be fined (to the tune of $140 million) under the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) for violations including the platform's "deceptive design" that allows users to mislead others about who they really are as well as prohibited advertising practices and refusal to provide researchers with access to public data.
"The commission rules require tech companies to provide a public list of advertisers to ensure the company's structures guard against illegal scams, fake advertisements and coordinated campaigns in the context of political elections," per The Guardian.
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"Deceiving users with blue check marks, obscuring information on ads and shutting out researchers have no place online in the E.U.," said Henna Virkkunen, the executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy for the European Commission, in a statement. "We are holding X responsible for undermining users' rights and evading accountability."
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
"Meta and TikTok were charged with breaching DSA transparency obligations in October," per Reuters, "while Chinese online marketplace Temu was accused of violating rules to prevent the sale of illegal products."
It's par for the course for the E.U., but what exactly is so wrong with private citizens choosing of their own volition to use these services if they find value in them? The paternalism across the pond knows no bounds.
Netflix buys Warner Bros.: "Netflix announced plans on Friday to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming business, in a deal that will send shock waves through Hollywood and the broader media landscape," reports The New York Times. "The cash-and-stock deal values the business at $82.7 billion, including debt." A few years ago, Amazon acquired (for $8.5 billion) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in a similar deal; streaming giants just keep gobbling up the old studios, further consolidating the entertainment industry.
Scenes from New York: In defense of the flop house!
Low-rent for-profit "Flop Houses" were basically banned in New York. The idea being that "service providing" "non-profits" could better run "single-room occupancy" (SRO) residences. That didn't work out so well. https://t.co/Bo2AsYbMG4 pic.twitter.com/24UzTWPSKL
— Peter Moskos (@PeterMoskos) November 16, 2025
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- "What's gone up is not the cost of living relative to a single earner's wages, but the opportunity cost of the second adult not working," writes Matthew Yglesias at Slow Boring, responding to the Michael Green article on the "new $140,000 poverty line" over at The Free Press. "Nothing is stopping a typical married American couple from accepting 1960s material conditions in exchange for one parent being a full-time homemaker. It's just that most people don't want that….If 'trad' lifestyles with full-time homemakers and large families are declining as a result of economic deprivation, that suggests particular policy remedies. But if you develop the more accurate understanding that they are declining as a result of economic progress, then that has different policy implications."
- Inside the rise of adolescent eunuchism and the gender doctors who perform castration, courtesy of The Free Press.
- Will AI destroy the billable hours model?
- "Many infants and toddlers find themselves in front of YouTube, whose rise in popularity among the youngest consumers on the planet puts parent company Alphabet Inc. in a position to hook an entire generation of potential lifelong users before they're even able to walk or talk," reports Bloomberg. "Creators also see an enormous opportunity. YouTube Kids banned targeted ads following a 2019 settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which presented a new obstacle for creators trying to monetize content on the platform. They could still earn money on the kids' site through limited advertising or YouTube Premium subscriptions that offer an experience free of paid ads. Creators can also cash in on ads placed on children's content distributed on YouTube's main service." Now, AI slop creators are working to throw their, uh, creations onto YouTube Kids. The full report will make you queasy (if you're anything like me).
- Insane story out of Oklahoma on what happened to one college student when she pushed back on an assignment that asked her to wax poetic about gender, contra her beliefs.
