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The Pudding – “We fed thousands of Congressional tweets to a machine learning algorithm in order to recognize political issues. We’ll keep doing this every day of the 116th congress, from January 3 2019 through January 3, 2021. These are the topics that dominate members of Congress’ public discourse—the issues they discuss (and don’t discuss). …
The New York Times – “The F.B.I. has used secret subpoenas to obtain personal data from far more companies than previously disclosed, newly released documents show. The requests, which the F.B.I. says are critical to its counterterrorism efforts, have raised privacy concerns for years but have been associated mainly with tech companies. Now, records show …
Center for Data Innovation: “Deepfakes—realistic-looking images and videos altered by AI to portray someone doing or saying something that never actually happened—have been around since the end of 2017, yet in recent months have become a major focus of policymakers. Though image and video manipulation have posed challenges for decades, the threat of deepfakes is …
EveryCRSReport.com – Party Leaders in the United States Congress, 1789-2019, September 4, 2019 – “This report briefly describes current responsibilities and selection mechanisms for 15 House and Senate party leadership posts and provides tables with historical data, including service dates, party affiliation, and other information for each. Tables have been updated as of the report’s …
NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights – The role of social media in a democracy. “In our fourth report on online disinformation, the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights explores risks to democracy and free speech posed by the expected spread of disinformation during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The report …
The New York Times – Our lawyer provides an update on why we’re still filing so many Freedom of Information Act lawsuits – “…what we face every day in The New York Times’s legal department as we continue to push against government secrecy through the use of FOIA. Whether it is helping our reporters as …
Washington Post: “I recently used my credit card to buy a banana. Then I tried to figure out how my credit card let companies buy me. You might think my 29-cent swipe at Target would be just between me and my bank. Heavens, no. My banana generated data that’s probably worth more than the banana …
“Today we launch the Russia Investigation Congressional Clearinghouse – a resource tool that seeks to provide, in one place, all congressional investigations materials related to Russia’s efforts to interfere in U.S. elections. We trust it will be a great resource for journalists, academics, and the broader Just Security readership. Bookmark the clearinghouse page to find …
Wired – Facebook says it will extend its fact-checking program to Instagram. But the system is already overwhelmed and may not be able to handle more information. “Facebook announced on Thursday that it would expand a fact-checking program to its Instagram image-sharing service. Instagram users in the US can now report content they believe is …
MIT Technology Review – This provision of the Communications Decency Act is being blamed for everything from social-media bias to enabling revenge porn. Here’s how to understand the law that created the modern internet. “Section 230 is one of the pieces of legislation that allowed today’s internet—and Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube—to develop. Now, it’s being …
Brennan Center for Justice: “Using data released by the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC) in June, a new Brennan Center analysis has found that between 2016 and 2018, counties with a history of voter discrimination have continued purging people from the rolls at much higher rates than other counties. This phenomenon began after the Supreme …
“The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (18 USC 249) was passed by Congress in 2009. Despite around 50 criminal referrals each year to federal prosecutors for these hate crimes, few have resulted in actual charges filed in federal court. During the Trump Administration, the number of federal prosecutions under this …
