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TikTok says its investigating its Epstein problem

TikTok claims it isn’t deliberately censoring the name “Epstein” in direct messages, but says it’s investigating a bug that stops some DMs that include the name from being sent.

“We don’t have rules against sharing the name ‘Epstein’ in direct messages and are investigating why some users are experiencing issues,” a spokesperson for TikTok’s new U.S.-owned operation told NPR.

The spokesperson added that the company’s internal analysis so far aligned with that of multiple outlets and users: Yes, it’s happening in DMs, but only sometimes.

The company’s response comes one day after multiple users shared screenshots of the problem. TikTok DMs that contained nothing but the word “Epstein” received a red exclamation mark and a stark warning: “This message may be in violation of our Community Guidelines, and has not been sent to protect our community.”

It’s not the only posting problem TikTok users have experienced in the days since the U.S. handover to a group of investors led by Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle. Ellison is a prominent supporter of the Trump administration; many TikTok users fear he has essentially bought the platform to reduce or remove access to opposing points of view.

Trump initially opposed a bipartisan law requiring the Department of Justice to release its files relating to Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted child sex offender and former close friend of Trump’s. As of this writing, the DOJ has released just 1 percent of the material the law instructed it to release by the end of 2025.

TikTok’s transfer to a new U.S.-based data center service was blamed for widespread outages the app experienced over the weekend — a weekend that just happened to be dominated by news of the ICE killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti.

The fact that many TikTok users could not upload ICE-related posts did not allay suspicions about the company’s new management. California has announced its own investigation into censorship at TikTok, based on what governor Gavin Newsom called “independently confirmed instances of suppressed content critical of President Trump.”

In announcing the investigation, Newsom put the Epstein DM problem front and center.


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A new Stuff Your Kindle Day is live — download 100s of free romance books for your Kindle

FREE BOOKS: The latest Stuff Your Kindle Day takes place on Feb. 9-13. The new Free Romance Book Blast offers romance books in a variety of subgenres for your e-reader.


Have you got big plans for Valentine’s Day? Cancel them, because a new Stuff Your Kindle Day just dropped.

The Stuff Your Kindle Day schedule has been predictably hectic in 2026. We had a number of free giveaways in January, but February is on another level. We count nine events this month. Not all of them are huge, but between the niche events and massive drops, bookworms are going to be kept busy.

The latest giveaway is hosted by the Indie Author Collective. Be My Valentine is a romance book blast, offering (you guessed it) free romance books from a variety of subgenres. Everything that you download for free is yours to keep forever, so don’t hold back. So what if you’ve already got a huge stack of books waiting to be read. Add to your virtual pile without guilt.

Looking to make the most of the latest Stuff Your Kindle Day? We’ve lined up everything you need to know about this popular event.

When is Stuff Your Kindle Day?

Be My Valentine takes place on Feb. 9-13. Recent Stuff Your Kindle Days have only lasted 24 hours, meaning participants have needed to act fast. That’s stressful, so this five-day event is a welcome change. You can take stock of your options, pick your favorites, and download without getting worked up. It’s much more civilized.

Which ebooks are free?

Be My Valentine is all about romance titles. There’s a helpful hub page put together by the Indie Author Collective with filters for major tropes, spice levels, content levels, and representation. Here you can peruse the 100s of options or filter to find something that perfectly lines up with your preferences.

It’s important to note that anyone can participate in Stuff Your Kindle Day. Kindle and Kobo readers can download these romance books for free.

Is Stuff Your Kindle Day the same as Amazon Kindle Unlimited?

Everything you download on Stuff Your Kindle Day is yours to keep, and there’s no limit on the number of books you can download. Stuff Your Kindle Day downloads don’t count towards the 20 books that Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscribers can borrow at the same time.

The best Stuff Your Kindle Day deal

Why we like it

These popular e-readers help you take your entire library on the go. With weeks of battery life and an anti-glare display, you can read anywhere and anytime with the Kindle. Plus, you can get three months of Kindle Unlimited for free with your purchase.

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Robin Williams' Final Performance Is Now On Netflix

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published

robin williams

After the first two Night at the Museum movies proved to be a hit, future Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy finished the trilogy with the star-studded Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014). The movie is criminally underrated, and it also happens to feature the final performance from legendary Hollywood funny man, Robin Williams. Whether you’d like to pay your respects or just seriously laugh it up, you can now stream this quirky comedy on Netflix.

The premise of Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb is that Larry Daley now has a working relationship with the exhibits that come to life at night at the Museum of Natural History and is dealing with a new addition: a walking, talking Neanderthal exhibit sculpted to look like him. But that proves to be the least of his problems when the ancient tablet that gives these exhibits life starts corroding, causing chaos throughout the museum. Unless he can figure out what’s going on, all of the exhibits will go completely lifeless, finally fading into history. 

A Cast For The Ages

As with other Night at the Museum movies, the primary reason to watch this third entry is the stacked cast full of Hollywood legends. Ben Stiller (best known for Tropic Thunder) once again plays the hapless security guard surrounded by living exhibits played by the likes of Owen Wilson (best known for The Royal Tenenbaums) and Steve Coogan (best known for Philomena). Meanwhile, Rebel Wilson (best known for Pitch Perfect) plays a new guard, Dick Van Clark (best known for Mary Poppins) plays an old guard, and  Rami Malek (best known for Mr. Robot) plays Ahkmenrah, the Pharaoh whose tablet gives the exhibits life and may soon take it away.

On a more bittersweet note, the performer to really watch in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb is Robin Williams, the comedy legend who reprises his role as the wise and affable exhibit of Theodore Roosevelt. He has always been one of the primary reasons to watch these movies, and Secret of the Tomb is actually the last movie he starred in before his tragic death. Because of that, his final line (“Smile, boy…it’s sunrise”) becomes so powerful that you might just have to reach for the tissues while the credits roll.

Losing The Critics, Winning The Audience

When Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb came out, it proved to be a hit, earning $363.2 million against a budget of $127 million. This marked the last live-action franchise entry from superstar director Shawn Levy, who would later go on to direct the wildly successful Deadpool & Wolverine for Disney. Speaking of Disney, after they bought 20th Century Fox, they released an unexpected sequel to Secret of the Tomb to Disney+: the traditionally animated film Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Strikes Again

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb ended up animating critics in all the wrong ways. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 48 percent, with reviewers generally agreeing that this third film doesn’t pack the comedic bite of its predecessors. They felt this movie was a poor way to end a very unconventional film trilogy, but acknowledged that the movie still has moments of greatness peppered throughout its runtime.

An Acting Legend Takes His Final Vow

To some extent, that critical consensus is correct: this third Night at the Museum movie doesn’t introduce anything really innovative to the franchise formula, and it’s unlikely to win over anybody who doesn’t get a kick out of Ben Stiller talking to animated museum exhibits. Of course, that logic goes both ways, and if you are a fan of these movies, the third entry offers more of the easy laughs and star-studded comedy you’ve come to expect. The fact that Robin Williams offers such a killer performance in what would be his final role is just the cherry on top for established fans.

There’s also something to be said for how uncynical and earnest the comedy in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb is. With its general absence of vulgarity or raunchy humor, it’s actually the perfect movie to watch with your family, and children are sure to love the “what if the museum came to life at night?” premise. Even without the little ones, this is a perfect movie to watch for anyone sick of quippy, irony-laden “he’s right behind me, isn’t he?” style dialogue that Hollywood now puts in almost every single comedy.

Will you agree that Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb is a thick, star-studded slice of imaginative movie magic, or is this one aging comedy that belongs in a museum? You won’t know until you grab your remote (it’s right next to the enchanted tablet!) and stream it for yourself on Netflix. Come for the gentle punchlines and stay for one last performance from Robin Williams, the man who could light up an entire screen with only a smile. 


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Raunchy Drug-Filled Cable Comedy Went Four Seasons Too Long, But Still A Must Binge

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published

In the age of streaming, it’s common to hear people say that they’ll wait for a series to end before bothering to watch it. Every year, an incredible show has its run cut short, but there are also shows that linger too long past their expiration date.

Bones, Brooklyn 99, Modern Family, Westworld, all shows that went one or two seasons too far past the story’s natural conclusion, and none of them can match Showtime’s 2005 comedy-drama series, Weeds. What started as a fun show about a suburban mom selling pot rebooted itself every few episodes by constantly upping the stakes and treating the term  “status quo” like a terminal disease. 

Weeds Burned It All Down And Kept Going

Mary-Louise Parker as Nancy Botwin in Weeds

When Weeds begins, Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) is dealing with the sudden death of her husband, Judah (in photos and, eventually, flashbacks, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan), and struggling to care for her boys, Silas (Hunter Parrish) and Shane (Alexander Gould). The solution is to get into the marijuana business. Her brother-in-law, Andy (Justin Kirk), helps her fledgling business, while frenemy Celia (Elizabeth Perkins), the local overbearing PTA mom, constantly gets in the way. Local councilman Doug (Kevin Nealon) ends up being one of her best customers, and from there, the stage is set for a comedy about suburban consumerism. And it was, for three seasons. 

By the time the third season ends, Nancy has become embroiled with the DEA and escalating levels of dangerous criminals before pissing off a group of bikers and turning to the Mexican Cartel for protection. The entire town of Agrestic burns to the ground (complete with the show’s opening sequence on fire), and Season 4 kicks off along the Mexican border. A romantic relationship with the head of the cartel takes a violent turn, so naturally, Season 6 has them on the run across the country, while Season 7 and 8 put the Botwins in New York to start over. Again. 

Every time you think the show is going to settle down, wether it’s when Nancy early on sits around the table with the supporting cast and everyone agrees to start their own criminal enterprise, or seasons later, when they do the same scene again, or maybe when Silas starts up a front called “Headcheese” with Julia Bowen’s “Yoga Butt” character, you’re wrong. Each of the new status quo setups lasts for three episodes or less before it’s blown up again. 

Mary-Louise Parker Defied Hollywood Expectations

Weeds was a huge hit for Showtime the moment it debuted, culminating in record-breaking viewership for the Season 3 finale. Part of the appeal was the setting, the comedy, and since it was on Showtime, the series didn’t hesitate to throw out nudity and sex scenes in almost every episode, turning the 41-year-old Mary-Louise Parker into a sex symbol. Even at its lowest point, in Season 5, the show kept its dark sense of humor, which worked with the gratuitous nudity to keep eyeballs on the show until it finally ended in 2012. 

The show’s creator, Jenji Kohan, went from Weeds to Orange Is The New Black, another show that kept resetting the status quo on itself. Even if Kohan never works on another show in her career, she managed back-to-back successes that both overstayed by a few years but remain beloved years after they came to an end. 

One of the best parts of Weeds is the opening song in Seasons 1-3, and again in Season 8, “Little Boxes” by Malvina Reynolds. Starting in Season 2, the show used cover versions from artists including Elvis Costello, Randy Newman, Billy Bob Thornton, Linkin Park, the Mountain Goats, and Death Cab for Cutie. The satirical song captured the first few seasons perfectly, which is why it’s removed when the show goes way off the rails and returns when the show finally settles down again.

Over a decade after the end of its run, Weeds might be one of the best shows to binge-watch. The off-kilter narrative 180’s keep it exciting the whole way through, but if you end up bailing after the Season 4 finale’s twist, that’s alright, as you’ve already seen the show at its best. 


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