maddy varner
@regret.bsky.social
reporter @wired.com ✨ prev the markup, FTC ✨ signal: mvarner.01
Nice feature from WSJ that has some new details about ICE's effort to investigate social media critics, including some of the contractors ICE is using: www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
How ICE Is Weaponizing Social Media Against Its Critics
The agency says its surveillance program searches for threats to agents, but critics see free-speech infringements.
wsj.com
NEW: In 2025 ICE obtained DNA from nearly one million people and funneled it into an FBI criminal database. The collection likely included DNA from young children and was backed by the threat of criminal prosecution. The raw genetic material is stored indefinitely. Free to read:
ICE Collected Nearly 1 Million People’s DNA Last Year—Including Young Children
Internal documents show ICE's DNA collection has skyrocketed in the second Trump administration. Now hundreds of thousands of people never convicted of a crime are in an FBI criminal database forever.
wired.com
Is this the end for Judge Jeanine??? She is responsible for some of the most egregious conduct out of DOJ but I will never forget one of her first actions as a US Attorney (making a video ranting about having to pay $7/mo for access to the office watercooler lol) washingtonian.com/2025/05/22/j...
Jeanine Pirro Wants Taxpayers to Fund Her Bottled Water - Washingtonian
The new interim US Attorney for DC compared her office unfavorably to countries that got aid from the US.
washingtonian.com
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 4d agoTrump: “I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro on the Reflecting Pool. I don’t know what she was thinking? To me, it was a pure case of VANDALISM, that included the grass, which had a big 86 47 emblazoned …There may have been some contractor difficulty, but major damage was caused by VANDALS!”
DOJ just made a bunch of new hires. One of the new temporary immigration judges, William L. Richards III, volunteered as a special asst US attorney in Minnesota earlier this year and was on cases prosecuting Metro Surge protesters. www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1...
justice.gov
This is just to say I have OCRed the text thet was in tne arch:ve and whicb yov were prabaldy seamhing for "breahtast" Fargme ms fheg mem debo:w5 sb ?mccf mmb 5c oc1b
Anthropic finally posted its government request transparency report for the last half of 2025. Previously it reported 0 requests and disclosures, but that seems to have changed! www-cdn.anthropic.com/5d453bc3285b...
some "shared" claude chats got indexed by search engines! who's fault is it? anthropic disallows crawlers from using it via robots.txt, but search engines apparently ignore that if you don't have a "noindex" meta tag on the page.
WIRED@wired.com · last wk.The screwup shows how tricky it can be to stop web crawlers from making ostensibly private conversations with AI chatbots entirely too public. www.wired.com/story/privat...
Wow. Another lawsuit from DOJ trying to overturn a local government’s mask ban, citing an art project that we found cannot actually identify any of the thousands of new ICE agents in the field www.wired.com/story/states...
States Want ICE Agents to Show Their Faces. The Trump Administration Is Blocking Them
Federal lawyers say anti-mask laws would endanger immigration agents, citing an ICE face-recognition art project that doesn’t actually work.
wired.com
Courthouse News@courthousenews.bsky.social · 2w agoUS government sues Milwaukee over federal officer mask ban www.courthousenews.com/us-governmen...
MSG’s new lawsuit against @wired.com isn’t just about defamation. It’s an attack on the newsgathering process itself. If journalists can be sued for talking to sources with NDAs, powerful institutions have another way to keep their secrets.
MSG revives legal theory that once haunted ‘60 Minutes’
Journalists don’t lose First Amendment protections just because a source signed an NDA
freedom.press
Trying and failing to think of other reporting that illustrates how blatantly surveillance can be something applied to most of us without recourse but that the elite can choose to opt out of.
For Taylor Swift, Madison Square Garden’s Controversial Cameras Briefly Went Dark
MSG’s sprawling surveillance system can monitor guests down to the second. Its owners made an exception for the pop star’s rehearsal dinner.
wired.com
new article about icespy.org! DOJ has been using my 2018 art project as justification for arguing with states that ICE agents need to be allowed to wear masks 😩
Andrew Couts@couts.bsky.social · 2w agoNEW: The DOJ is trying to block state laws that ban ICE and other enforcement authorities from wearing masks by citing alleged “doxing” threats from a website that almost no one visits and doesn’t really work. @regret.bsky.social w/ the scoop: www.wired.com/story/states...
NEW: DOJ is fighting states that are trying to pass accountability laws that would prohibit ICE agents from wearing masks. the DOJ says this would endanger ICE agents...pointing to an art project that doesn't work? www.wired.com/story/states...
States Want ICE Agents to Show Their Faces. The Trump Administration Is Blocking Them
Federal lawyers say anti-mask laws would endanger immigration agents, citing an ICE face-recognition art project that doesn’t actually work.
wired.com
NEW: The DOJ is trying to block state laws that ban ICE and other enforcement authorities from wearing masks by citing alleged “doxing” threats from a website that almost no one visits and doesn’t really work. @regret.bsky.social w/ the scoop: www.wired.com/story/states...
States Want ICE Agents to Show Their Faces. The Trump Administration Is Blocking Them
Federal lawyers say anti-mask laws would endanger immigration agents, citing an ICE face-recognition art project that doesn’t actually work.
wired.com
As bad as that sounds, it's actually worse. "The mother is a mental health professional with confidential client relationships. One of the two spouses is the general counsel of a major law firm."
Brad Heath@bradheath.bsky.social · 2w agoThe Trump administration sought the phone records of several New York Times journalists and their relatives — including one reporter’s mother — in its effort to unmask the confidential sources. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/b...
Not only do we stand by our reporting. Madison Square Garden’s ridiculous lawsuit actually confirms it, noting the company did, in fact, track the sexual orientation of LGBTQIA celebrities in its talent database.
WIRED@wired.com · 3w agoA statement from WIRED leadership.
There's a renewed push to ban facial recognition at Madison Square Garden, Politico reports: www.politico.com/newsletters/...
Our two investigations into Madison Square Garden are now unpaywalled and free for anyone to read.
WIRED@wired.com · 3w agoYesterday, WIRED learned that Madison Square Garden was suing us for our accurate reporting. We stand by our work. That’s why we’re removing the paywall from two of the MSG stories they don’t want you to read, making them free for everyone.
In April, we reported on the MSG surveillance machine–an operation that allegedly tracked a trans woman, lawyers, protesters, and more. You can now read it for free.
The Shocking Secrets of Madison Square Garden’s Surveillance Machine
Famously vengeful Knicks owner Jim Dolan has long spied on people at his iconic arenas. WIRED goes deep inside the operation that allegedly tracked a trans woman, lawyers, protesters, and more.
wired.com
This month, we published another article revealing that MSG kept a database of VIP event attendees, labeling some of them as LGBTQIA and assigning a “risk score” to others. This is also now free to read:
Madison Square Garden Kept a List of Gay Celebrities
An MSG database tracked and categorized hundreds of celebs, famous Knicks superfans, and even some of Taylor Swift’s wedding guests. Labels included “LGBTQIA,” “DO NOT HOST,” and low to high “risk.”
wired.com
Yesterday, WIRED learned that Madison Square Garden was suing us for our accurate reporting. We stand by our work. That’s why we’re removing the paywall from two of the MSG stories they don’t want you to read, making them free for everyone.
Today is a great day to subscribe to @wired.com! It’s not just a matter of supporting our journalism, though we deeply appreciate that—it offers a lot of benefits like our subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and it’s just $36 for a year of both print and digital right now.
WIRED - The Latest in Technology, Science, Culture and Business | WIRED
Unlock a world of benefits, only for WIRED subscribers. | Best-in-class reporting that's too important to ignore - plus gear reviews, podcasts, and more
wired.com
Read our reporting that led to this lawsuit www.wired.com/story/madiso...
Madison Square Garden Kept a List of Gay Celebrities
An MSG database tracked and categorized hundreds of celebs, famous Knicks superfans, and even some of Taylor Swift’s wedding guests. Labels included “LGBTQIA,” “DO NOT HOST,” and low to high “risk.”
wired.com
WIRED@wired.com · 3w agoA statement from WIRED leadership.
these federal register notices are always worth reading because agencies have to take ownership for their decisions. in this one, DHS says sure, lots of people said this is "unfair, cruel and inhumane or barbaric", but they're doing it anyways!
![Excerpt from the federal register link, describing the comments received in response to the proposed "Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility" rule: "Comment: Many commenters expressed general opposition to the rule. Some stated that the rule is unfair, cruel and inhumane or barbaric, that previous poverty is not a reason to penalize a person today, and that every human deserves to be cared for and treated respectfully. Some disagreed with the basis of the rule, commenting that the rule is not right for the country. One commenter called the rule pointless, with another stating the rule is unnecessary and would negatively impact children.
Response: DHS strongly disagrees that the rule is pointless, unnecessary, or unfair. [...]"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ed25butifjy4ghyu4733ly4h/bafkreiejmxuylhy6aav5j5kzhcilv4ddkn2lqumm73esu22ppejmpec5ce)
Shelby Gonzales @shelbytgonzales.bsky.social · 3w agoThis new rule is a direct attack on lawful immigration, and it may punish parents if their U.S. citizen children access any number of benefits intended to help afford food, housing, and health care services they need & are eligible for. www.federalregister.gov/public-inspe...
cyclospora, which causes the explosive diarrhea you've been reading about, can spread and multiply “like pythons in the Everglades” as people use the bathroom which is not what I, personally, was hoping to hear! www.wired.com/story/explos...
The Explosive Diarrhea Outbreak Is About to Get Much Bigger
Official case counts likely capture only a fraction of US cyclosporiasis infections, and the outbreak is likely to get worse before it gets better.
wired.com
This is I believe the third incident where ICE has gone to arrest people, they flee, and someone is hit by a car or other vehicle and dies. In this case, ICE officers went to question some people at a gas station, they panicked, and one of them ran into the road and was hit by a truck.
Miami Herald@miamiherald.com · 3w agoNEW: A 28-year-old man died Tuesday morning following an encounter with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations agents in St. Augustine, marking the third death involving ICE in a week.
Despite having policies against explicit content, Youtube is funneling people to nudify sites that generate nonconsensual deepfakes for as little as $1. Targets include people's sisters and motivations are often "getting people fired." by @ejdickson.bsky.social: www.wired.com/story/youtub...
YouTube and X Have Become ‘Gateways’ to Nudify Apps
A new study found that social media platforms are referring people to sites where they can create nonconsensual, sexually explicit deepfakes for as little as $1 an image.
wired.com
We relied heavily on bodycam footage for our article on use of force during Midway Blitz. It's disturbing that both of the fatal shootings this past week involved ICE agents who *didn't* have bodycams. Where's the accountability? www.wired.com/story/border...
Unmasking the Paramilitary Agents Behind Trump’s Violent Immigration Crackdown
A WIRED analysis of DHS records identified dozens of specialized federal agents who used force against US civilians during the largest known deployment of its kind in US history.
wired.com
Hi! WIRED health reporter here. Looking to speak with people who got sick with cyclosporiasis and are willing to share the gruesome details. emily_mullin@wired.com
A scoop from this story: Eric Swalwell's drinking was such a problem that the House Intelligence Committee instructed staff accompanying him on foreign trips to monitor his drinking. You know, for national security reasons... www.thebulwark.com/p/drinking-c...
The Drinking Culture on Capitol Hill is Worse Than You Might Think
There are whisper networks among female staffers about which bars to be careful in—and which booze-drenched lawmakers to avoid.
thebulwark.com