Business Wire: “The Chronicle of Higher Education today announced its updated DEI Legislation Tracker, which is following 49 bills in 23 states to restrict efforts to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion and prohibiting colleges from a range of DEI initiatives. Republican politicians in early 2023 launched an assault on colleges’ diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts to recruit… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Civil Liberties
A new global gender divide is emerging
Financial Times – read free: Young men and young women’s world views are pulling apart. “The consequences could be far-reaching…In the US, UK and Germany, young women now take far more liberal positions on immigration and racial justice than young men, while older age groups remain evenly matched. The trend in most countries has been… Continue Reading
Wyden Releases Documents Confirming the NSA Buys Americans’ Internet Browsing Records
“U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., released documents confirming the National Security Agency buys Americans’ internet records, which can reveal which websites they visit and what apps they use. In response to the revelation, today Wyden called on the administration to ensure intelligence agencies stop buying personal data from Americans that has been obtained illegally by… Continue Reading
Save your Twitter Account
EFF:”…In documenting social movements we must remember social media is not an archive, and platforms will only store (and gate keep) user work insofar as it’s profitable, just as they only make it accessible to the public when it is profitable to do so. But when platforms fail, with them goes the history of everyday voices speaking to… Continue Reading
Elon Musk Is Spreading Election Misinformation
The New York Times – but X’s Fact Checkers Are Long Gone “Civil rights lawyers and Democrats are sounding alarms about Mr. Musk’s claims about voting. The Biden campaign called his posts “profoundly irresponsible.”…This month, Elon Musk, who has since bought Twitter and rebranded it X, echoed several of Mr. Trump’s claims about the American… Continue Reading
Gigafact equips newsrooms to counter misinformation, protect the democratic process
“Online misinformation is rampant. At the same time, the supply of factual and well-sourced knowledge has never been greater nor easier to access. Gigafact’s goal is to empower credible sources to counter the unsupported claims that are undermining democratic society, and provide a process for rebuilding our factual foundations. We believe that fact checks published… Continue Reading
Ring Will No Longer Facilitate Police Requests for Footage from Users
EFF: “Amazon’s Ring has announced that it will no longer facilitate police’s warrantless requests for footage from Ring users. This is a victory in a long fight, not just against blanket police surveillance, but also against a culture in which private, for-profit companies build special tools to allow law enforcement to more easily access companies’… Continue Reading
Cops Used DNA to Predict a Suspect’s Face and Tried to Run Facial Recognition on It
Wired – [read free]: “Police around the US say they’re justified to run DNA-generated 3D models of faces through facial recognition tools to help crack cold cases. Everyone but the cops thinks that’s a bad idea…In a controversial 2017 decision, the department published the predicted face in an attempt to solicit tips from the public.… Continue Reading
Facial Recognition Technology Current Capabilities, Future Prospects, and Governance
National Academies: “Advances in Facial Recognition Technology Have Outpaced Laws, Regulations; New Report Recommends Federal Government Take Action on Privacy, Equity, and Civil Liberties Concerns. Some uses of facial recognition technology raise significant concerns that merit a swift government response, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The report… Continue Reading
How Many of Your State’s Lawmakers Are Women?
ProPublica – If You Live in the Southeast, It Could Be Just 1 in 5. A record number of women were elected to statehouses last year. But in the Southeast, where some legislatures are more than 80% male, representation is lagging as lawmakers pass bills that most impact women, like near-total abortion bans… Seven states,… Continue Reading
Tools for Thinking About Censorship
Ex Urbe: “Was it a government action, or did they do it themselves because of pressure?” This is inevitably among our first questions when news breaks that any expressive work (a book, film, news story, blog post etc.) has been censored or suppressed by the company or group trusted with it (a publisher, a film… Continue Reading
New Digital Tool Provides State-by-State Analysis of High Court Rulings on Abortion
Center for Reproductive Rights: “Since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the federal constitutional right to abortion in its 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, states have become the battlegrounds for abortion rights. State courts are deciding whether and how their own constitutions protect abortion rights, some for the first time. Plus, voters… Continue Reading
