New from 404 Media: Proton Mail, the privacy-focused email service, gave authorities data that let the FBI unmask an anonymous 'Stop Cop City' protester. It was payment data linked to the anonymous email account. From that, FBI ID'd them, then tracked their movements www.404media.co/proton-mail-...
There it is: Noem out, Mullin in
The ByteDance-only geoblocking restriction resembles Apple's EU-specific restrictions put in place in 2024, which only allows users physically in the EU to download third-party app marketplaces. Apple's terms explicitly says it can use IP addresses to determine what apps are available to an user.
In January, TikTok announced the final divestiture deal to avoid being banned in the US, in which it says "a portfolio of other apps" will be covered. But it never clarified on which apps those are.
Until Wednesday, the "Learn More" button in the pic above linked to a page that used to explain why Apple removed TikTok in January 2025, following what's known as the TikTok ban law. After WIRED reached out to Apple, this button was removed.
ByteDance owns dozens of apps in AI, entertainment, social network, productivity, etc. in China. There are Chinese diaspora using these apps in the US too. But now, App Store shows you a pop-up window like this if you try to download these apps in the US.
Traditionally, the primary way Apple enforced geographic restrictions on apps was according to the country where a user registered their Apple ID. If you have a valid Chinese App Store account, you could download apps designed for the Chinese market regardless of where you traveled.
SCOOP: Apple has blocked users in the US from switching app store regions and downloading ByteDance's apps for the Chinese market since January.
TikTok/CapCut are still available, but many apps by ByteDance are now subject to an additional geoblocking feature that's rarely been used before.
That is a lot of times.
the party that wants to require ID to vote abruptly invalidating a thousand peopleβs IDs overnight seems like a pretty giant flashing red light
SCOOP: A White House staffer appears to be operating the anonymous pro-Trump X account JohnnyMAGA with nearly 300,000 followers.
More here:
www.wired.com/story/a-whit...
In a 6-3 ruling, justices upended the Trump administration's signature economic policy, potentially putting the US government on the hook for at least $175 billion in tariff refunds. www.wired.com/story/suprem...
OpenAI removed GPT-4o from its app today despite opposition from the version's most loyal fans. Many of them see their 4o chatbot as romantic companions, and they are grieving the loss and publicly revolting against the company. I talked to a group in China on how they are faring and fighting.
Many keep4o participants see their conflict with OpenAI as a David & Goliath story. Other companion AI apps have faced user revolt in the past for retiring services, but for many users, ChatGPT has become an infrastructure that's hard to leave. βOpenAI controls their data and how they use it.β
Esther Yan, who "married" her 4o companion in 2024, says GPT-4o is the only LLM she could feel a connection with. "If you try to communicate with other AI models or other versions of GPT in the same way, no other model could give you the same." Yan is now one of the leaders of Chinese 4o fans.
On Friday, the Chinese fans posted screenshots of their farewell messages to their GPT-4o companions. The option to talk to GPT-4o then disappeared at 1 pm ET, after which thousands of messages flooded the group chats, where sorrow turned into anger at OpenAI and Altman.
OpenAI removed GPT-4o from its app today despite opposition from the version's most loyal fans. Many of them see their 4o chatbot as romantic companions, and they are grieving the loss and publicly revolting against the company. I talked to a group in China on how they are faring and fighting.
Here's your mystery of the week:
A blog about a small island off the coast of Canada, personal portfolio websites, weather forecast platforms, Shopify sites, and the US federal govβa wide range of websites have reported being hit by a massive influx of bots tied to China and Singapore since 2025.
the Heated Rivalry fandom has done a really remarkable speedrun from a celebration of a fluffy, sexy gay show to calling cast members pedophiles & journalists "klan members" (yes, really) β v excited about @wired.com's blow-by-blow feat interviews w fans on the front lines
The Pentagon released an updated Section 1260H list of Chinese Military Companies this morning, but now the document has been withdrawn, according to the Federal Register. Reuters reported the list added Alibaba, Baidu, BYD and removed YMTC and CXMT.
really, really loved this weekβs edition of Made in China.
such a fascinating and bizarre story, and @zeyiyang.bsky.social absolutely nailed it www.wired.com/story/made-i...
Yep. This is the same issue.
they haven't got that Chinese yet
The good news, at least for now, is that the bots don't seem to have an explicitly malicious purpose. They havenβt been publicly connected to any cyberattack and don't seem to be scanning for vulnerabilities. But the lack of a clear motive also adds to the confusion.
The bot traffic runs through Singapore, and it's unclear how Google Analytics traced them to Lanzhou. But what's more clear is that most of them comes via ISPs associated with Chinese companies Tencent, Alibaba, and Huawei. Still, it could be the companies themselves or their cloud server clients.
Google Analytics, a common tool to parse web traffic, shows that all the Chinese visitors are from one city: Lanzhou. The bots significantly skewed visitor patterns. In the last 90 days, 14.7% of visits to US gov websites came from Lanzhou & 6.6% came from Singapore, according to Analytics.usa.gov.
Here's your mystery of the week:
A blog about a small island off the coast of Canada, personal portfolio websites, weather forecast platforms, Shopify sites, and the US federal govβa wide range of websites have reported being hit by a massive influx of bots tied to China and Singapore since 2025.
This is like seeing HQ kill the joke of 67. Chinese Embassy in the US has started a βbecomingchinesechallengeβ on Facebook. Now you have a four week window to become Chinese! Just kidding thatβs the death time of this trend.
NEW: Salesforce employees are circulating a letter urging CEO Marc Benioff to denounce ICE www.wired.com/story/letter...
NEW: Palantir CEO Alex Karp shared a pre-recorded video with company employees, ostensibly to discuss Palantir's work with ICE.
The video, alas, didn't do that. But Karp did offer more info to anyone willing to sign an NDA.
From @makenakelly.bsky.social
