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Mark Ruffalo Pushes Petition Urging House Democrats to Reject Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker: ‘Simply Not the Right Choice’

4 days 21 hours ago

Disney's Marvel movie star Mark Ruffalo is crashing the Democrats' midterm party, pushing a petition meant to put pressure on U.S. House Democrats to not vote House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) as House Speaker.

The post Mark Ruffalo Pushes Petition Urging House Democrats to Reject Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker: ‘Simply Not the Right Choice’ appeared first on Breitbart.

Simon Kent

Drugs, Guns, Ammo, Cash Seized, 89 Arrested at Texas Border During Two-Week Operation Southern Surge

4 days 21 hours ago

Federal law enforcement officials announced the results of Operation Southern Surge during a Monday press conference in Laredo, Texas. The operation was described by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as a coordinated Homeland Security Task Force effort that has netted more than 1,600 pounds of narcotics, 15 firearms, and over $360,000 in cash since mid-October.

The post Drugs, Guns, Ammo, Cash Seized, 89 Arrested at Texas Border During Two-Week Operation Southern Surge appeared first on Breitbart.

Randy Clark

Reddit locks down as bots eat the internet. Can online anonymity survive?

4 days 22 hours ago


Reddit was boosted heavily in Google Search results for years, driving clicks and promoting sustainability. So it’s no surprise that Reddit took a massive hit when AI Overview overshadowed Search, and now Reddit is locking its platform to prevent AI — and people — from accessing it without an account.

Google Search used to be a reciprocal tool that benefited both Google and website publishers. When users searched for a term, Google brought up a list of websites that included that keyword. If the results were relevant, the user clicked, giving the website vital traffic and earning both it and Google some ad revenue. These were much simpler times. Better times, even. But I digress.

You should expect more companies to restrict their platforms as AI bots and agents run amok, otherwise unchecked, across the World Wide Web.

Today Google largely cuts out the middleman to serve itself. Search is now a secondary product, dwarfed by AI Overview, where users type a query into the search bar, and Google AI Overview provides a response scraped from all the websites that are now further down the page — out of sight, out of mind. Users don’t have to click to get an answer anymore, because AI Overview already presented the information in full, robbing both website publishers and Google of that same ad revenue that kept them afloat.

All ad-based websites were hit hard by this monumental change. Even Google recently admitted that AI Overview probably isn’t good for its bottom line, as search revenue growth slowed, per the latest earnings call at the end of October. Among the hardest hit websites, though, was Reddit.

In a not-too-distant past, Google and Reddit had a close relationship. The former often referenced the latter in snippet results and ranked Reddit high on its result listings.

This is how AI Overview ended up generating some extremely odd — and sometimes dangerous — responses in its early days, leaning on Reddit comments that advised users to replace cheese on pizza with non-toxic glue or eat one rock per day for good health. Even after switching to an AI-first search solution, Google still pulled data from Reddit and displayed it prominently, this time, though, without the backlinks that benefited Reddit’s platform.

Mere months after AI Overview overtook Search, this level of data scraping without anything in return isn’t sustainable for Reddit’s brand. To block AI bots from continuing to repackage Subreddits as their own, Reddit is officially locking anonymous accounts — both human and AI — out of its platform for good.

Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit, announced the move on his profile, writing:

I want to talk about a big change we're making on Reddit: We're going to evolve Reddit to being a primarily logged-in experience.

We’re making the change because it’s better for user experience, better for our ads business, is more in line with safety regulations, and more protective of Reddit data. And we can do this while continuing to ensure user privacy.

RELATED: Google's AI overhaul of Search will overfish the internet to extinction

bgblue/Getty Images

He went on to highlight several main reasons for the decision, from user personalization, to data protection, to regulatory factors, and more. One of the biggest points that stood out, though, was that “the vast majority of unauthorized access to Reddit (basically the scraping and stealing of Reddit’s data) happens through our logged-out experiences.”

Basically, AI bots are anonymously mining Reddit for data — namely users’ comments, thoughts, and interactions — and leaving the company with nothing to show for it.

The change isn’t set in stone yet, so there’s still time to tweak how it will work. First, it will enter a testing phase in several unnamed regions outside of the United States through the end of 2026 and into 2027. If that goes well, users should expect a wider rollout that will officially restrict Subreddits to those who have a username and password.

This isn’t the first controversial move Reddit has made recently to protect its business. Earlier this year, the company forced some users to download the Reddit app on their mobile devices in lieu of visiting Subreddits on the mobile web.

You should expect more companies to restrict their platforms as AI bots and agents run amok, otherwise unchecked, across the World Wide Web.

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Zach Laidlaw

U.S. Begins Cartel Drone Strikes in Former Cartel Haven Venezuela

4 days 22 hours ago

The U.S. government stepped up its cartel fighting in Latin America with a new wave of drone strikes. This time, the attacks took place in Venezuela, a country that was a haven for drug cartels. Former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is currently sitting in a U.S. jail awaiting trial on drug charges.

The post U.S. Begins Cartel Drone Strikes in Former Cartel Haven Venezuela appeared first on Breitbart.

Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby

Tim Ryan: 'Government Can't Run Anything Well', But Need to 'Reform' Economy for Less Wealth Concentration

4 days 22 hours ago

On CNN on Wednesday, former Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) said that to have success in the 2028 presidential race, Democrats should take a position that “we have to reform the way the economy and the competition between capital versus labor

The post Tim Ryan: ‘Government Can’t Run Anything Well’, But Need to ‘Reform’ Economy for Less Wealth Concentration appeared first on Breitbart.

Ian Hanchett

Zakaria: 'Blockade on Iran Is Working Well', Trump Pushing Advantage Too Much

4 days 22 hours ago

On CNN on Wednesday, CNN host and Washington Post columnist Fareed Zakaria stated that “the blockade on Iran is working well. The Iranians are squeezed. They’ve been coming forward with proposals, and Trump seems to be reluctant.” And both sides keep trying

The post Zakaria: ‘Blockade on Iran Is Working Well’, Trump Pushing Advantage Too Much appeared first on Breitbart.

Ian Hanchett

DNC Chair: Garcia's 'Lawyer Up' Statement Not What Some Candidates Want, We'll Focus on Prices

4 days 22 hours ago

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” DNC Chair Ken Martin responded to Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) saying people should lawyer up now that Democrats have won the House by saying that it’s not what some Democratic

The post DNC Chair: Garcia’s ‘Lawyer Up’ Statement Not What Some Candidates Want, We’ll Focus on Prices appeared first on Breitbart.

Ian Hanchett