The Best of The Intercept
10+ most popular The Intercept articles, as voted by our community.
Fearless, adversarial journalism. Join our newsletter to get our best investigative reporting delivered to you: http://interc.pt/newsletter
The Intercept on Academia
How Big Tech Manipulates Academia to Avoid Regulation
A Silicon Valley lobby enrolled elite academia to avoid legal restrictions on artificial intelligence.
The Intercept on China
Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal
Search app that will "blacklist sensitive queries" could be launched in six to nine months, according to documents and people familiar with the plans.
Google China Prototype Links Searches to Phone Numbers
Google’s plan for a censored search engine in China also blacklists terms like “Nobel Prize” and “human rights.”
The Intercept on Cybersecurity
Whistleblowers Take Note: Don’t Trust Cropping Tools
Cropping tools like those in Google Docs allow viewers to see the full, original images.
The Intercept on Facial Recognition
Google AI Tech Will Be Used for Virtual Border Wall, CBP Contract Shows
Google Cloud will be used in conjunction with Anduril Industries’ surveillance tech on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Intercept on Fake News
Leaked Documents Outline DHS’s Plans to Police Disinformation
Under the guise of counterterrorism, the government is accelerating pressure on social media companies to crack down on speech the feds deem disinformation.
The Intercept on Justice
Startup Pitched Tasing Migrants From Drones, Video Reveals
Well-funded Brinc positions its use of robots as nonviolent, but an early promo video undercuts this message.
The Intercept on Peter Thiel
How Peter Thiel’s Palantir Helped the NSA Spy on the Whole World
Documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden reveal Palantir’s role in creating the U.S. government’s international spy machine.
Peter Thiel’s Palantir Was Used To Bust Relatives of Migrant Children, New Documents Show
Palantir previously claimed its software was strictly involved in criminal investigations as opposed to deportations. This was false.
The Intercept on Politics
How a Grassroots Revolt in the Iconic Retirement Community Ended With a 72-Year-Old Political Prisoner
A slate of reformers unleashed the fury of the Florida GOP and its business elite, and left two men facing garbage felony charges.
More Than 150 International Organizations Call on Biden to Close Guantánamo on 21st Anniversary
Guantánamo Bay “is the iconic example of the abandonment of the rule of law,” the letter argues.
The Intercept on Privacy
Zoom Meetings Aren’t End-to-End Encrypted, Despite Misleading Marketing
The video conferencing service can access conversations on its platform.
American Phone-Tracking Firm Demo’d Surveillance Powers by Spying on CIA and NSA
Anomaly Six, a secretive government contractor, claims to monitor the movements of billions of phones around the world and unmask spies with the press of a button.
«track the movements of billions of people via their phones with a constant stream of data purchased directly from Twitter.»
The Intercept on Twitter
Left-Wing Voices Are Silenced on Twitter as Far-Right Trolls Advise Elon Musk
Elon Musk appears to have out-sourced decisions about who to ban from Twitter to the platform’s right-wing extremists.
Popular
These are some all-time favorites with Refind users.
Meltdowns Have Brought Progressive Advocacy Groups to a Standstill at a Critical Moment in World History
Locked in a cycle of Slack callouts and healing retreats, left-wing groups — from reproductive rights to climate to racial and economic justice — have brought themselves to a grinding halt.
My Story: How I Was “Groomed” by My Elementary School Teachers
From encouraging me to read and write, to nudging me to think for myself, their pernicious influence burdens me to this day.
How QAnon Conspiracy Theories Spread in My Colorado Hometown
During the pandemic, some of the people I grew up with got sucked into QAnon and the Q-adjacent “Save the Children” movement.
The Origin of Student Debt: Reagan Adviser Warned Free College Would Create a Dangerous “Educated Proletariat”
In 1970 Roger Freeman, who also worked for Nixon, revealed the right’s motivation for coming decades of attacks on higher education.
What Are Stingrays and Dirtboxes?
A guide to stingray surveillance technology, which may have been deployed at recent protests.
What is Refind?
Every day Refind picks the most relevant links from around the web for you. is one of more than 10k sources we monitor.
How does Refind curate?
It’s a mix of human and algorithmic curation, following a number of steps:
- We monitor 10k+ sources and 1k+ thought leaders on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
- In addition, our users save links from around the web using our Save buttons and our extensions.
- Our algorithm processes 100k+ new links every day and uses external signals to find the most relevant ones, focusing on timeless pieces.
- Our community of active users gets the most relevant links every day, tailored to their interests. They provide feedback via implicit and explicit signals: open, read, listen, share, mark as read, read later, «More/less like this», etc.
- Our algorithm uses these internal signals to refine the selection.
- In addition, we have expert curators who manually curate niche topics.
The result: lists of the best and most useful articles on hundreds of topics.
How does Refind detect «timeless» pieces?
We focus on pieces with long shelf-lives—not news. We determine «timelessness» via a number of metrics, for example, the consumption pattern of links over time.
How many sources does Refind monitor?
We monitor 10k+ content sources on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
Can I submit a link?
Indirectly, by using Refind and saving links from outside (e.g., via our extensions).
How can I report a problem?
When you’re logged-in, you can flag any link via the «More» (...) menu. You can also report problems via email to hello@refind.com
Who uses Refind?
200k+ smart people start their day with Refind. To learn something new. To get inspired. To move forward. Our apps have a 4.9/5 rating.
Is Refind free?
Yes, it’s free!
How can I sign up?
Head over to our homepage and sign up by email or with your Twitter or Google account.