NextDraft: “…This week, President Trump has been attacking Google (and by extension, all of big tech) for being biased against him and the other “victims” who support him. As Kara Swisher rightfully explains in the NYT, “the idea that Google and Twitter are rigging their platforms against him is patently false.” In The Atlantic, Alexis… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Censorship
Federal Judge Strikes Down Portions of Trump’s Executive Orders Undermining Federal Employees
The Hill: “A federal judge on Saturday [August 25, 2018] struck down several key provisions in President Trump‘s executive orders that he signed earlier this year that would have made it easier to fire federal workers. In a court ruling, U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that unions were right in arguing that the provisions… Continue Reading
A Surveillance State Unlike Any the World Has Ever Seen
Spiegel Online: “In western China, Beijing is using the most modern means available to control its Uighur minority. Tens of thousands have disappeared into re-education camps. A journey to an eerily quiet region… Nowhere in the world, not even in North Korea, is the population monitored as strictly as it is in the Xinjiang Uighur… Continue Reading
Pew Survey – Public Attitudes Toward Technology Companies
“A majority of Republicans say technology firms support the views of liberals over conservatives and that social media platforms censor political viewpoints. Still, Americans tend to feel that these firms benefit them and – to a lesser degree – society In the midst of an ongoing debate over the power of digital technology companies and… Continue Reading
NSA Reports Call Detail Records (CDR) Deletion
NSA/CSS Statement, June 28, 2018: “Consistent with NSA’s core values of respect for the law, accountability, integrity, and transparency we are making public notice that on May 23, 2018, NSA began deleting all call detail records (CDRs) acquired since 2015 under Title V of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The Government relies on Title… Continue Reading
Trump Refuses to Release Data on Immigration Crackdown
Bloomberg: ICE’s disappearing records make it difficult to examine whether reality meets the president’s rhetoric. “Five days into his presidency, Donald Trump took aim at illegal immigration with executive orders signaling a new era of heavy enforcement. Not only did he threaten to go after undocumented immigrants, many of whom he labeled violent criminals, he… Continue Reading
ICE Online Detainee Locator System
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement database – Online Detainee Locator System – Search Page Use this page to locate a detainee who is currently in ICE custody. Online Detainee Locator System cannot search for records of persons under the age of 18. “Fact Sheet: Zero-Tolerance Prosecution and Family Reunification Release Date: June 23, 2018 –… Continue Reading
Suppressed Study: The EPA Underestimated Dangers of Widespread Chemicals
ProPublica: “The CDC has quietly published a controversial review of perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, that indicates more people are at risk of drinking contaminated water than previously thought. A major environmental health study that had been suppressed by the Trump administration because of the “public relations nightmare” it might cause the Pentagon and other polluters… Continue Reading
Removal of 26 Documents for Asylum Officer Training from the USCIS Website
Sunlight Foundation: “The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) removed a cache of materials on its asylum process shortly after President Donald Trump took office, a reduction in access detailed in our latest Web Integrity Project report. The 26 removed documents, which collectively run to several hundred pages, constitute training materials for USCIS asylum officers,… Continue Reading
EU Member States agree on monitoring & filtering of internet uploads
EDRI: “On 25 May, the European Council agreed to a negotiating position on the draft copyright directive. This will allow the presidency of the Council to start negotiations with the European Parliament on mass monitoring and filtering of internet uploads and a chaotic new “ancillary copyright” measure that will make it harder to link to… Continue Reading
Cohen files leaked by Treasury law enforcement official turned Whistleblower
New Yorker – Ronan Farrow – “Missing Files Motivated the Leak of Michael Cohen’s Financial Records – A law-enforcement official released the documents after finding that additional suspicious transactions did not appear in a government database.” “Last week, several news outlets obtained financial records showing that Michael Cohen, President Trump’s personal attorney, had used a shell… Continue Reading
CFPB techies blast talk of taking down complaint portal
FCW.com: “…Created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is one of the first federal examples of bringing in outside tech talent to deliver government services. “If you’re going to build a government agency from scratch, you’re going to get the chance to do things differently,” one former CFPB senior official told… Continue Reading
