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Apple unveils new accessibility features
Apple announced major accessibility updates powered by Apple Intelligence, including new capabilities for VoiceOver, Magnifier, and Voice Control.
Topics /
Society, Policy & Culture
The most popular blog posts about society, policy & culture on Hacker News. 330 posts.
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European digital ID wallets rely on safety services of Google and Apple
European governments are rolling out digital identity wallets, which are to be used by citizens to access services, and to verify their age online. There is a serious problem with this: these wallets rely on safety services of Google and Apple.
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Your brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of cognitive debt when using an AI assistant
This study explores the neural and behavioral consequences of LLM-assisted essay writing. Participants were divided into three groups: LLM, Search Engine, and …
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Internet Archive Switzerland
Thirty years ago, Brewster Kahle founded the Internet Archive with an ambitious goal: Universal Access to All Knowledge. Today, that mission continues to grow with an exciting new chapter: the launch of the Internet Archive Switzerland, a non-profit foundation based in St. Gallen. The Internet Archive Switzerland…
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An update on Wayback Machine access
We've heard you: "Fix the Wayback Machine!" Here's what's going on. The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine has been hit by waves of high-volume automated traffic, and we've put protections in place to keep the service running. One recent change: we rewrote the message you see when a request is blocked with a 429 error…
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Every AI model has the same "controversial" take on humans
We asked 14 AI models for their most controversial opinion of humans, three times each. 35 of 41 answers were the same one: we care more about belonging than about the truth.
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SQLite Is a Library of Congress Recommended Storage Format
SQLite is a Recommended Storage Format for datasets according to the US Library of Congress . Further information:
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The 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement is no longer viable
UNEP's Emissions Gap Report 2026 warns that exceeding 1.5°C is inevitable and calls for urgent emissions cuts to limit warming and reverse the trend.
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Remote workers report the highest well-being in study of 7,700 employees
Many employers worry remote workers feel disconnected. A new study found they reported higher well-being and were no more likely to feel isolated than their
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The KIDS Act would require age checks to get online
Buried inside the KIDS Act are provisions that will push online services to verify all users’ ages, require government-directed moderation policies for online speech, and even create new rules about private and encrypted communications. While supporters continue to claim this bill protects minors online, its…
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The recurring dream of replacing developers
Every decade brings new promises: this time, we'll finally make software development simple enough that we won't need so many developers.
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A/I shuts down
The day we discovered we had been designated a global terrorist organization, we promised that we would try to resist as long as this was possible, that we would not back down as long as we could see options to stand our ground. For years, we have proudly maintained and defended a free, privacy-friendly, autonomous…
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Court finds Fourth Amendment doesn’t support broad search of protesters’ devices
In a big win for protesters’ rights, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit overturned a lower court’s dismissal of a challenge to sweeping warrants to search a protester’s devices and digital data and a nonprofit’s social media data.The case, Armendariz v. City of Colorado Springs, arose...
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De-dollarization: Is the US dollar losing its dominance? (2025)
Top dollar no more? Discover the factors threatening the dominance of the world’s reserve currency and how this is playing out across markets.
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Unsealed Briefs in Authors’ Case v. Microsoft/OpenAI
(New York, September 21, 2026) Explosive new documents released last Thursday in Authors Guild v. OpenAI—the major book authors’ ongoing lawsuit alleging OpenAI and Microsoft illegally trained their products on copyrighted books—show that executives and employees at both companies intentionally […]
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Where things stand with the Department of War
A statement from Dario Amodei
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A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline
But the Institute is facing ongoing challenges in two related areas: funding, and our talent pipeline.
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In memory of the man who put red and green squiggles under words
Starting in Word and expanding to nearly every other word processor, and even things that aren't word processors.
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Hannah Fry Wins the Leelavati Prize in 2026 for Mathematics Outreach
Hannah Fry is Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). She joined the University of Cambridge in January 2025, becoming the first person ever to hold the role.
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Americans' social activity has steeply declined in the past 30 years
Our survey finds significant, double-digit declines in Americans’ participation in key social activities from 1995 to 2026.
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Age verification for social media, the beginning of the end for a free internet?
So-called age verification for social media is spreading across the world, framed as an effort to create a safer internet for children. In reality, age verification lays the foundation for a fully government controlled internet.
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Record-High 89% in U.S. Say Government Corruption Widespread
Perceptions of government corruption in the U.S. hit a record high in 2026, with broad agreement across partisan lines.
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Claude's new constitution
A new approach to a foundational document that expresses and shapes who Claude is
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The Cognitive Dark Forest
The open web with AIs is turning into a dark forest.
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There's a new "Google Jail" for independent wikis
Big week! We just finished moving the Overwatch and Fortnite wikis off of Fandom. It’s still my favorite thing in the world to help wiki editors grab control of their projects and make them awesome (and not covered with a dozen auto-playing video ads!)
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Removable batteries in smartphones will be mandatory in the EU starting in 2027
Starting in 2027, smartphone batteries will once again be replaceable in the EU. Learn all about the new regulation and what this means for users.
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Blocking Internet Archive Won't Stop AI, but Will Erase Web's Historical Record
Imagine a newspaper publisher announcing it will no longer allow libraries to keep copies of its paper. That’s effectively what’s begun happening online in the last few months. The Internet Archive—the world’s largest digital library—has preserved newspapers since it went online in the mid-1990s....