404 Media

UNITED STATES·FOUNDED AUG. 22, 2023·404media.co

404 Media is an independent, reporter-owned digital media company covering how technology shapes the world, founded by four journalists after Vice Media's Motherboard shut down.

Overview

404 Media is an independent, reporter-owned digital media company exploring the ways technology is shaping—and is shaped by—the world. The outlet publishes investigative reports, longform features, blogs and scoops on hacking, cybersecurity, cybercrime, sex, artificial intelligence, consumer rights, surveillance, privacy and the democratization of the internet. The company is legally organized as Dark Mode LLC, doing business as 404 Media, and is incorporated in California.

History

404 Media was founded August 22, 2023, by four journalists—Jason Koebler, Emanuel Maiberg, Samantha Cole and Joseph Cox—who had all worked together at Motherboard, the technology vertical of Vice Media, after Vice filed for bankruptcy in May 2023 and Motherboard's staff lost their jobs. Koebler had served as Motherboard's editor-in-chief for six years; Maiberg and Cole had been senior editors there. The four launched 404 Media as a journalist-owned company funded through reader subscriptions rather than outside investment, with tiered plans starting at $10 a month or $100 a year.

By February 2024, roughly six months after launch, the outlet reported it had become profitable and had made 404 Media the founders' full-time jobs. That same month, the company began requiring readers to provide an email address to access stories, after the founders discovered through their own reporting that their articles were being scraped and republished by AI-generated "spinner" sites, some of which outranked the original 404 Media stories in Google search results.

Notable works

• September 2024The Electronic Frontier Foundation presented 404 Media with its EFF Award for Fearless Journalism. In its announcement, EFF said the outlet's reporting on how tech companies and platforms sell user data to AI companies led Apple to ban apps that help create non-consensual sexual AI imagery, and that a separate 404 Media report revealed a feature in New York City's OMNY subway-payment system that enabled rider location tracking, prompting the transit system to shut the feature down.

• 2024404 Media successfully objected to a subpoena from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that sought to compel disclosure of its confidential reporting sources, citing protections under California's reporter shield law; the company's attorneys argued the subpoena was "oppressive" and legally barred given the outlet's incorporation as Dark Mode LLC in California.

• September 22, 2025Dark Mode LLC, doing business as 404 Media, filed a federal Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (case No. 1:25-cv-03357), after the agency failed to respond to a 2024 records request concerning its contract with spyware maker Paragon. The ongoing litigation has yielded partial document releases describing ICE's surveillance-technology contracts.

• 2026404 Media's continuing reporting on ICE's purchases of location, financial and biometric data from brokers including LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters and Venntel, and the agency's access to Palantir, Clearview AI and Flock license-plate-reader systems, prompted Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner to send a formal oversight letter to the Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General requesting an investigation into whether the surveillance technology violates the law.

Key personnel

• Co-FounderJason KoeblerFormer Editor-in-Chief, Motherboard

• Co-FounderEmanuel MaibergFormer Senior Editor, Motherboard

• Co-FounderSamantha ColeFormer Senior Editor, Motherboard

• Co-FounderJoseph CoxFormer Staff Writer, Motherboard

Audience

404 Media's audience is made up of paid subscribers who fund the outlet's reporting directly, with subscription tiers starting at $10 per month or $100 per year. The company has said most of its reporting requires a reader's email address or a paid subscription to access in full, a policy adopted specifically to deter AI-driven content scraping.

Location and contact info

Legal Entity Dark Mode LLC (d/b/a 404 Media)

Incorporated In California

Website https://www.404media.co