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Category «Government Documents»
I find documents officials want to keep hidden. Here’s how.
Washington Post: “As The Post’s FOIA director, I’ve helped expose government waste and wrongdoing, and published stories that led to new laws. This is the first installment of Revealing Records, a periodic column by Nate Jones about his work obtaining public records for The Post. Few things make a journalist happier than receiving a manila …
Platforms’ policies on AI-manipulated and generated misinformation
EU Disinformation Lab: “The development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has long been a challenge for the disinformation field, allowing content to be easily manipulated and contributing to accelerate its distribution. Focusing on content, recent technical developments, and the growing use of generative AI systems by end-users have exponentially increased these challenges, making it easier …
A primer on some key issues in U.S. v. Google
An ongoing case, U.S. v. Google, promises to be the most significant technology antitrust trial in the U.S. in decades. The case involves allegations that Google violated a prohibition on using exclusionary practices to maintain a monopoly under the Sherman Act. These allegations center on Google’s browser agreements with Apple and Mozilla, under which Google …
Master Calendar of Trump Court Dates: Criminal and Civil Cases
Just Security: First published on September 5, 2023, last updated on October 2, 2023 – “Following a series of recent court developments, former President Donald Trump’s 2023-24 legal schedule is coming into focus, as is his political one. In the calendar below, we capture significant events in both domains—and how they interrelate. The busy legal …
COVID-19 Mortality Rates Higher in States that Limited Govts from Enacting Public Health Emergency Orders
Policy Commons: “State and local governments enacted various public health emergency policies during the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in lower infection and death rates than would have occurred without these policies. However, some states limited emergency public health authority of state executives, state governors, and state and local officials during the pandemic. This brief summarizes …
Freedom on the Net 2023 The Repressive Power of Artificial Intelligence
Highlights – Freedom on the Net 2023 Global internet freedom declined for the 13th consecutive year. Digital repression intensified in Iran, home to this year’s worst decline, as authorities shut down internet service, blocked WhatsApp and Instagram, and increased surveillance in a bid to quell antigovernment protests. Myanmar came close to dislodging China as the …
For 40 years, Big Meat has openly colluded to rig prices
Pluralistic: “For 40 years, Big Meat has openly colluded to rig prices (permalink)…Let me tell you about Agri Stats. Agri Stats has been around since 1985. Every large meat packer pays to be a “member” of Agri Stats, and they each submit weekly, detailed statistics about every aspect of their business: all their costs, all …
GAO Report Shows Government Uses Face Recognition with No Accountability, Transparency, or Training
EFF: “…The government watchdog issued yet another report – Facial Recognition Services: Federal Law Enforcement Agencies Should Take Actions to Implement Training, and Policies for Civil Liberties this month about the dangerously inadequate and nonexistent rules for how federal agencies use face recognition, underlining what we’ve already known: the government cannot be trusted with this flawed …
FTC Sues Amazon for Illegally Maintaining Monopoly Power
Tech Crunch: “Attorneys general from 17 states joined the FTC in the lawsuit, alleging that Amazon leverages a “set of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies” to maintain a monopoly. The states that signed onto the FTC’s action are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, …
Cities Should Act NOW to Ban Predictive Policing
EFF: “Sound Thinking, the company behind ShotSpotter—an acoustic gunshot detection technology that is rife with problems—is reportedly buying Geolitica, the company behind PredPol, a predictive policing technology known to exacerbate inequalities by directing police to already massively surveilled communities. Sound Thinking acquired the other major predictive policing technology—Hunchlab—in 2018. This consolidation of harmful and flawed …
DOJ finally posted that “embarrassing” court doc Google wanted to hide
Ars Technica: “The US Department of Justice has finally posted what Judge Amit Mehta described at the Google search antitrust trial as an “embarrassing” exhibit that Google tried to hide from the public. The document in question contains meeting notes that Google’s vice president for finance, Michael Roszak, “created for a course on communications,” Bloomberg …
