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Edition · The Front Page Thursday, March 13, 2025 · Vol. III, No. 087 1,847 diggers online now

Lead Story · 14 minutes on the front page

A federal court just ruled that an algorithm can be a "speaker" — and the implications stretch from your feed to the First Amendment.

In a 41-page opinion, Judge Maravill explains why ranked timelines may deserve protection — and why every crowd-edited platform should be paying attention this week.

Submitted by @kaitlyn_w 3,412 upvotes 284 comments Source: theverge.com
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A judge's gavel beside an open legal opinion and a vintage computer screen.
Submitted by @kaitlyn_w · 14 minutes on the front page

Live ranking

The crowd has spoken — top stories right now

Updated every 60 seconds · 1,847 diggers online now · 4,712 votes in the last hour
  1. 01 Tech

    OpenAI's new agent builder lets non-developers ship working tools — and the indie web is losing its mind

    14 tools shipped in the first 90 minutes. Three are already on the Hacker News front page. The crowd is voting them up faster than the editorial layer can keep up.

    Submitted by @marcus_lin · source: openai.com/blog · 11 minutes to front page · 412 comments

    4,128 95% up
  2. 02 Science

    JWST catches a galaxy that "shouldn't exist" 290 million years after the Big Bang

    It's rotating, it's already mature, and it has no business being there. Three independent teams have confirmed the redshift.

    Submitted by @noor_astrophys · source: nature.com · 17 minutes to front page · 198 comments

    3,847 96% up
  3. 03 Politics

    The EU's new transparency rule forces every "promoted" post to disclose its training data — by Tuesday

    Platforms have 72 hours to comply or face 6% of global revenue. The lobbying pushback started the moment the directive was published.

    Submitted by @elisabet_v · source: politico.eu · 9 minutes to front page · 521 comments

    2,963 97% up
  4. 04 Culture

    The Penguin Random House union just won the largest publishing contract in U.S. history — 2,100 employees, 5-year term

    Base pay up 38%. AI clause restricts how manuscripts can be used for model training. Other houses are watching — and a second union drive has already been filed.

    Submitted by @tasha_reed · source: nytimes.com · 22 minutes to front page · 309 comments

    2,481 97% up

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