You really can’t make this stuff up.

On Friday, the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs posted to Twitter/X condemning Nicaragua’s government for—and I quote—”detaining Nicaraguans for liking posts online,” calling it evidence of “how paranoid the illegitimate Murillo and Ortega regime is.” The Bureau demanded “the unconditional release of all political prisoners” and declared that “freedom means ending the regime’s cycle of repression.”

Stirring stuff. Very pro-free-expression. One tiny problem: the very same day, a federal judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit against Secretary of State Marco Rubio over the US government doing… essentially the same thing. Hat tip to the excellent Chris Geidner from Lawdork for calling out the contrast on Bluesky.

The lawsuit, brought by Stanford Daily Publishing Corporation along with two anonymous noncitizen students, challenges the government’s practice of revoking visas and initiating deportation proceedings against people lawfully present in the United States based on their speech—including, notably, their social media activity. As we’ve covered here at Techdirt, the State Department has made reviewing social media profiles a regular part of the visa process, and has been actively targeting people for their online expression.

The court’s ruling lays out in pretty damning detail just how aggressively the government has been going after people for their protected speech. From the order:

In March 2025, DHS and ICE began aggressively targeting lawfully present noncitizens for protected speech, particularly at universities. Plaintiffs point to the arrests of Mahmoud Khalil, Rümeysa Öztürk, and Mohsen Mahdawi as emblematic of the Government’s enforcement strategy.

And what exactly did these individuals do that warranted arrest, detention, and deportation proceedings? Let’s see:

Ms. Öztürk is a PhD student at Tufts University who is lawfully present in the United States on an F-1 student visa. Ms. Öztürk co-authored an opinion article in the Tufts student newspaper that criticized the university’s refusal to adopt several resolutions approved by the undergraduate student senate urging the University to, among other things, recognize a genocide in Gaza and divest from Israeli companies… On March 25, 2025, six plain-clothes federal officers surrounded Ms. Öztürk on the street outside her home, detained her, and transported her to a Louisiana immigration jail.

She wrote an op-ed in a student newspaper. A DHS spokesperson claimed her editorial “glorified and supported terrorists.” It did not. It criticized the university’s policies, and did nothing to glorify or support “terrorists.”

The court also details what government officials have been saying publicly about this enforcement strategy.

DHS posted on Twitter that anyone who thinks they can “hide behind the First Amendment to advocate for anti-American and anti-Semitic violence and terrorism—think again.” Stephen Miller bragged that “The State Department has revoked tens of thousands of visas, and they’re just getting started on tens of thousands more.” The US government isn’t hiding the fact that they’re combing US social media to figure out who to detain.

One of the plaintiffs—Jane Doe—is on the Canary Mission website, a private list of people which MAGA folks claim are anti-Israel and which the government has apparently been using as a shopping list for who to kidnap and deport. From the ruling:

Jane Doe was listed on the Canary Mission website, which is an anonymously and privately run website that publishes personal information of individuals and organizations that the Canary Mission personally deems “anti-Israel.” In their motion and during the hearing, the Government explained that DHS had asked ICE to generate “reports” for the State Department on individuals listed on the Canary Mission website to aid in decision-making about visa revocations. Notably, before the Government brought enforcement actions against them, Mahmoud Khalil, Rümeysa Öztürk, and Mohsen Mahdawi all had profiles published about them on the Canary Mission website.

The US government is actively monitoring people’s social media, revoking visas over protected speech, and using an anonymous website that doxxes pro-Palestinian activists as a source for enforcement targets.

And then the State Department has the audacity to criticize Nicaragua for “detaining Nicaraguans for liking posts online.”

Remember, the State Department’s tweet said that this kind of behavior shows “how paranoid and illegitimate” the regime is. We agree.

The hypocrisy is coming so fast it’s hard to keep up, but this one deserves special mention because the State Department is literally condemning other countries for the exact policy it’s implementing, and getting called out about it in court.

Nicaragua is paranoid and illegitimate for targeting social media activity, but when the US does it, we’re… protecting national security? Fighting antisemitism? The framing changes but the underlying action is the same: using the power of the state to punish people for their online expression.

The court, for its part, found that the plaintiffs’ fears of enforcement were entirely reasonable given the government’s very public campaign of targeting people for their speech:

Jane Doe and John Doe have sufficiently alleged that their behavior falls into the crosshairs of the Government’s stated enforcement priorities. The Government has also not disavowed plans to continue invoking the Revocation and Deportation Provisions.

In other words: the government isn’t even pretending it won’t keep doing this. And yet somehow it’s Nicaragua that needs to be lectured about freedom?

Maybe someone at the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs should walk down the hall and have a chat with their colleagues about what “freedom means ending the regime’s cycle of repression” actually looks like in practice. Because right now, the State Department’s position appears to be: targeting people for their social media activity is evidence of a paranoid, illegitimate regime—unless we’re the ones doing it.

Cuban immigrants in Florida have been reliable Republican supporters and voters, with 7 in 10 voting for Donald Trump in 2024. "To their shock," the New York Times now reports, "Cubans in Florida Are Being Deported in Record Numbers." — Read the rest

The post Florida Cubans targeted for deportation appeared first on Boing Boing.

An anonymous reader shares a report: If you're among the macOS users experiencing some weird issues with your Logitech mouse, then good news: Logitech has now released a fix. This comes after multiple Reddit users reported yesterday that Logi Options Plus -- the app required to manage and configure the controls on Logitech accessories -- had stopped working, preventing them from using customized scrolling features, button actions, and gestures. One Reddit user said that the scroll directions and extra buttons on their Logitech mouse "were not working as I intended" and that the Logi Options Plus app became stuck in a boot loop upon opening it to identify the cause. Logitech has since acknowledged the situation and said that its G Hub app -- a similar management software for gaming devices under the Logitech G brand -- was also affected. According to Logitech's support page, the problem was caused by "an expired certificate" required for the apps to run. Windows users were unaffected. The issues only impacted Mac users because macOS prevents certain applications from running if it doesn't detect a valid Developer ID certificate, something that has affected other apps in the past.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Elon Musk says that modern cleanrooms are built wrong, and if Tesla builds its own fab, he will be able to eat and smoke in that facility.

DJI's next drone likely won't be authorized for sale in the US. Image: DJI

The US government has placed a de facto ban on the import and sale of new drones and drone parts made outside of its borders, including ones from popular manufacturers like DJI. While people are still able to fly the drones they currently own and retailers can sell current models, it's a major blow to the drone market in the country.

A press release from the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, predictably cites national security as the reason for the policy change. It acknowledges that "unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), otherwise known as drones, offer the potential to greatly enhance public safety and innovation," but goes on to say that "criminals, hostile foreign actors, and terrorists can use them to present new and serious threats to our homeland." It lists major events, like the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2028 summer Olympics, as potential reasons to "safeguard" its airspace.

The policy isn't an outright ban on selling foreign drones

The policy isn't an outright ban on selling foreign drones. Rather, it makes it so the FCC can't authorize new drones or critical drone parts* if they're made in a foreign country. However, the end result is that any drone that doesn't currently have that authorization won't be able to be legally imported or sold in the US, without explicit approval from the Department of Defense or the Department of Homeland Security. Again, this doesn't impact drones that Americans currently own (except for, potentially, the availability of replacement parts).

This move has been a long time coming. The US government has been threatening to ban DJI's drones, which make up the vast majority of the market, in one way or another for years. Its most recent move was to require a security audit of the company's products before December 23rd, and to subsequently not carry out that audit, but the efforts have spanned all branches of the government, under multiple administrations.

A DJI spokesperson told Politico that it's "disappointed" in the new policy. The company has clearly seen the writing on the wall, though, as many of its recent products (drones or otherwise) haven't officially launched in the US. That's despite the company telling us that the Mavic 4 Pro had "all necessary approvals and clearances, including FCC certification, for sale in the United States."

Drones are obviously useful tools for photographers and videographers, but they've also become vital in other industries such as forestry, agriculture, industrial inspections and more. While the FCC's press release states that this move will "unleash American drone dominance," it's unclear what, if any, American companies are poised to take up the mantel of designing and manufacturing drones that are as affordable or easy to use as those available from DJI and its competitors.

* - Banning authorization of parts cuts off the obvious loophole of companies selling each part individually, and giving users instructions on how to assemble them

We’ve all owned something where one tiny detail drives us nuts: a blinding power LED, buttons in the wrong order, or a beep that could wake the dead. This beautifully documented project fixes exactly that kind of annoyance, only this time it’s the climate-controlled seats in a 2020 Ram 1500.

[projectsinmotion] wasn’t satisfied with adjusting seat heating and ventilation only through the truck’s touchscreen. Instead, they added real physical buttons that feel just like factory equipment. The challenge? Modern vehicles control seats through the Body Control Module (BCM) over a mix of CAN and LIN buses. To pull this off, they used an ESP32-S3 board with both CAN and LIN transceivers that sits in the middle and translates button presses into the exact messages the BCM expects.

The ESP32 also listens to the CAN bus so the new physical buttons always match whatever setting was last chosen on the touchscreen, no mismatched states, no surprises. On the mechanical side, there are 3D-printed button bezels that snap into blank switch plates that come out looking completely stock, plus a tidy enclosure for the ESP32 board itself. Wiring is fully reversible: custom adapters plug straight into the factory harness. Every pinout, every connector, and every wire color is documented with WireVis diagrams we’ve covered before, making this an easily repeatable seat-hack should you have a similar vehicle. Big thanks to [Tim] for the tip! Be sure to check out some of our other car hacks turning a mass produced item into one of a kind.