The LAPD admits to using facial recognition since 2009, House Democrats are calling for big changes among the big four, and Facebook bans QAnon. 

GPS tracks sea turtle traffickers; Netflix Canada is hiking its prices, and IBM says goodbye to its managed infrastructure services

We take a trip down memory lane to revisit old websites and feel old, pubs and restaurants sell contact tracing information; and is it time to consider work from home dress codes?

Apple’s new iPhone 12, Prime day kicked off the holiday shopping season, and Disney is going to be making a historical change

Amazon workers are striking in Germany, Google comes out with new robots to help farmers, and Twitter is suspending accounts for posing as Black Trump supporters.

More WFH woes, but in the meantime Dropbox makes WFH permanent, plus, a Facebook exec speaks out and calls Facebook ‘a threat to democracy.’

In this episode of Hashtag Trending, Jim Love examines new reporting suggesting Amazon raised concerns with U.S. officials before the government restricted access to Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, raising questions about why the company was reportedly given only minutes to respond and whether the official explanation fully accounts for the decision.

The show also looks at the expiration of a major U.S. federal data-centre oversight framework at the same time public opposition to data-centre projects is growing across the country. Communities are increasingly pushing back over electricity demand, water consumption, environmental impacts and taxpayer subsidies, with Arizona becoming the latest state to reconsider incentives.

Jim also reviews new allegations involving Flock Safety's AI-powered licence-plate tracking system after investigators uncovered multiple cases where police officers allegedly used the technology to monitor romantic partners and family members.

Finally, the episode explores a growing problem facing the AI industry itself: some of its most valuable customers may actually be unprofitable. New analysis suggests heavy users of premium AI subscriptions can consume thousands of dollars in computing resources while paying only a fraction of the cost, even as OpenAI reportedly considers more aggressive pricing to compete with Anthropic.

Stories include:

Amazon's role in the Anthropic shutdown controversy
Expiring U.S. data-centre oversight rules
Growing resistance to AI infrastructure projects
Alleged abuse of Flock surveillance technology
OpenAI, Anthropic and the economics of AI subscriptions
Why AI companies may be losing money on their best customers

For the thumbnail, I'd go with:

The COVID Alert app source code is now available on Github, AT&T pulls DSL internet without providing an alternative for people living in the area, and John McAfee gets arrested in Spain.