*It's byzantine, but if you can work your way through the wrangle-spaghetti here, it's pretty obvious that a lot of media is gonna die from this. Maybe slow, maybe pretty fast, but in the long run dead.
Please Let the Internet Die
Online spaces are captured by oligarchs and saturated with slop—and they’re exacerbating humanity’s worst impulses. It’s time to start over.
Miles Klee
WIRED Ghost Stories
Five hauntings from the other side of technology.
Instagram Is a Streaming Service Now
Instagram’s long-form video update is more than a swipe at YouTube. It’s an attempt to capture the clip economy.
Reece Rogers
These Midterm Races Will Decide Data Centers’ Political Fate
From the Senate to governors’ mansions, candidates are trying to outcompete each other to be the most anti–data center in races across the US.
Molly Taft
The Nvidia Shield TV Is 7 Years Old. It Just Got a $100 Price Hike
The price of anything with memory is skyrocketing thanks to AI. Aging streaming devices are no exception.
Ryan Whitwam, Ars Technica
Trump Isn’t Even Good at TV Anymore
From Trump TV to a Shark Tank knockoff, the president’s latest entertainment ventures are a steep decline from his days on The Apprentice.
Miles Klee
People Are Creating ‘Survival Guides’ to Cope With the ‘AO3 Apocalypse’
The fanfic site could be down for weeks due to a “security incident.” Users are not taking it well.
Ej Dickson
Livestream Replay: Watch Uncanny Valley on Women, Tech, and Power
Missed our latest WIRED@Night event? Enjoy an evening of podcasting in San Francisco right here.
WIRED Staff
I’m Still Convinced the iPod Was the Perfect Gadget
Apple’s original music player got many things right. Chief among them: It didn’t connect to the internet.
Steven Levy
How Many Billions Would It Take to Hold Meta Accountable?
Meta got hit this week with its biggest fine yet, the latest in a mounting pile of court-ordered payments.
Lauren Goode
What the US Movement Against Data Centers Can Learn From Everywhere Else
Paris Marx, author of Hyperscale, has been tracking global data center development for years. The US has a lot to learn from what’s happened everywhere from Ireland to New Zealand.
Molly Taft
Trump Administration Cuts Off Access to a Major Immigration Program for Workers at Microsoft and Adobe
“There has been no company in the United States, unfortunately, that has abused this system more than Microsoft,” Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday.
Kate Taylor