Tech Policy Leaders

Transportation Equity with Henry Greenidge (Ep. 237) -- New York University's McSilver Institute Fellow-in-Residence Henry Greenidge joined Joe to discuss transportation equity and what new legislation will mean for communities of color.

Henry L. Greenidge is a dynamic attorney and government affairs professional with over ten years of experience in policy advising and legal advocacy. His areas of expertise include sustainability, energy, infrastructure, broadband, and autonomous transportation. Currently, he leads state and local government affairs in addition to public engagement for Cruise, a GM subsidiary focused on autonomous vehicles.

Previously, Henry held legal, policy, budget, and government affairs roles in Washington, DC during the Obama Administration. He has also served in senior leadership positions for the New York City Department of Transportation and the NYC Mayor's Office.

Henry strongly believes in the importance of investing in your community and is active in several organizations including the New York Urban League and the Metropolitan Black Bar Association. His board service includes Brooklyn Community Board 9, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Tech 2025, the Apollo Theater Young Professionals, and the Emma L. Bowen Foundation, providing undergraduate students of color with internships at top media and tech companies.

In addition to awards and commendations received during his time with the Obama Administration, Henry's work has been recognized by several organizations including New York University as an Emerging Leader in Transportation, City & State Magazine as a 40 Under 40 Rising Star, and the New York Urban League as a Trailblazer. Henry has also completed the Coro Leadership New York Fellowship program and was a Fellow with the Council of Urban Professionals.

Henry holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Baltimore and a Bachelor of Arts from the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at Hampton University where he graduated with honors. During his free time, Henry can be found chasing his two young children around and doting on his beautiful wife, Linara. He also enjoys golf, cycling and collecting rare vinyl records.

The McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy & Research at New York University

Christina Thomas is the Divisional Vice President for Youth Exchanges at World Learning. Christina oversees the World Learning's multimillion-dollar U.S. and international youth exchange portfolio consisting of World Learning's flagship program, the Experiment in International Living. The Exchange portfolio serves over 1,200 high school age U.S. and international students and adult educators and hires up to 150 program leaders annually. Programs focus on experiential learning, global issues, and youth leadership.

Christina also serves as the Board President of the Federation EIL providing member support in strategic planning, capacity building, and quality assurance. The Federation is a nonprofit association representing a global network of international educational program providers supporting 12 members around the globe who offer programs in volunteerism, group travel, language training, and study abroad.

Before joining World Learning in 2003, Christina taught English to junior and senior high school students and designed teacher training programs for Japanese English teachers on the Japan Teaching and Exchange Program (JET) for three years. Christina received her master's degree in international communications from the School of International Service with an emphasis on international education and management from American University in Washington, DC.

Global Youth Exchanges - World Learning, World Learning (2020), https://www.worldlearning.org/what-we-do/global-youth-exchanges/ (last visited Jun 28, 2020).

Growing list of companies pull ads from Facebook

As of Monday morning, Verizon, Coca-Cola, Starbucks and Unilever announced they would be pulling their ads from Facebook in protest over the social media giant's refusal to take down hate speech. Patagonia, North Face, and REI had previously announced they'd be pulling their ads, along with Ben & Jerry's, Eddie Bauer, and Honda America who were among the first companies to make the announcement. Unilever announced it would be pulling its ads at least until the end of the year. Bloomberg reported Friday that Zuckerberg lost over $7 billion of his wealth after Facebook's stock price dropped 8.3%. While Zuckerberg has come under intense scrutiny, the Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook investor, board member, and Trump adviser Peter Thiel is actually the one calling the shots.

What exactly is Peter Thiel's role in the "boogaloo" movement?

Thiel donated $1.25 million to President Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, and is also a co-founder of Palantir, the controversial surveillance firm that's developed a predictive policing algorithm popular among the boys in blue. The company has sold its software to local law enforcement agencies around the world, as well as to the U.S. military and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. It's notorious for allegedly helping police unfairly target Blacks and Latinos and reinforcing racialized patterns within the criminal justice system, which apparently has become a breeding ground for white supremacists, including 2 now-fired cops, in Wilmington, North Carolina, who were caught on a patrol car video saying they couldn't wait to slaughter black people. The Department of Health and Human Services has also awarded Palantir a mysterious coronavirus contract, about which Democrats in Congress, led by Congressman Joaquin Castro, wrote HHS Secretary Alex Azar Thursday, calling for the Palantir contract, as well as similar contracts with Oracle and Amazon, to be made public. The increased focus on Thiel last week came amidst reports of the growing anti-government "boogaloo" movement pushing for a Second Civil War, the type of apocalyptic event about which Peter Thiel has ostensibly been pining for years, given his 477-acre retreat in New Zealand, the Guardian reported about in a 2018 article, which would be perfect to escape such a calamity. Peter Thiel has pulled strings in the background before, when he funded Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker after Gawker alleged that Thiel was gay, resulting in Gawker's 2016 bankruptcy.

The American right partners with Falun Gong

Axios first reported last week President Trump has fired the head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which includes the Open Technology Fund, which used to fund a variety of projects, like Signal, that allow devices access to sites repressive regimes try to block. Trump replaced USAGM's former lead John Lansing with Steve Bannon ally and conservative filmmaker Michael Pack. Pack then fired Libby Liu, former head of the Open Technology Fund within USAGM. Now conservatives are looking to invest exclusively in two specific technologies known as UltraSurf and Freegate, technologies religious freedom advocacy organizations like Asia's Falun Gong prefer because they see them as a way to topple China's "Great Firewall". Falun Gong also owns Epoch Times, which Axios notes is part of Trump's conservative news ecosystem, and the organization is seen to align themselves with religious freedom advocates on America's far-right, in an effort many fear will politicize America's international media outlet.

Federal government ramps up surveillance efforts

The Intercept reported last week the FBI has ramped up surveillance efforts, citing contracts with companies like Venntel, which tracks the movements of millions of Americans. The Intercept found what it termed an "expedited agreement" between the FBI and a company called Dataminr as demonstrators took to the streets to protest systemic injustice, worldwide protests triggered by the killing of George Floyd, a black man killed by a police officer who knelt on Mr. Floyds neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds in Minneapolis despite the fact that he repeatedly said he couldn't breathe, called for his mother, and was motionless for several minutes. The FBI has a long history of targeting racial, ethnic, and religious minorities especially Muslims.

Boston bans facial recognition

In a major victory for civil rights advocates, the City of Boston has officially banned facial recognition from policing, becoming the second-largest city to do so, following San Francisco. The Boston City Council voted unanimously in favor of the ban. On the federal level, however, no one seems to know how facial recognition technologies are used, after lawmakers sought information from the Department of Housing and Urban Development on how the Department uses the technology in public housing, which includes some 1.2 million households. The Department said it doesn't keep track. In another development, more than 1,000 machine learning experts wrote a letter to the publisher of an article set to be released from a couple of researchers at Harrisburg University claiming they have developed a facial recognition program with an accuracy rate of 80%. Also check out the profile The New York Times did on the black man whose case became the nation's first dealing with false identification by an facial recognition algorithm.

Indiana Supreme Court rules woman not required to unlock her phone for police

The Indiana Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a Carmel, Indiana woman, Katelin Seo, who refused to unlock her phone for police during a criminal investigation, which led to the lower court holding her in contempt. The Indiana Supreme Court found that requiring Seo to unlock her phone would have violated her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Trump restricts highly-skilled worker visas

The White House last week announced that it will be restricting the number of foreign worker visas including the H1B visas tech companies use to attract highly skilled workers. Most of these workers are people of color from countries in Asia. The Trump administration claims the visas would put America at an economic disadvantage during its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

TaskRabbit CEO, Stacy Brown-Philpot Resigns

Finally, Task Rabbit C.E.O. Stacy Brown-Philpot has resigned after four years leading the gig working company. Ms. Brown-Philpot said she will stay with the company until the end of August to give it enough time to find her successor. Brown-Philpot is one of the few Black or Female technology industry CEOs. She is also on the Boards of HP and Nordstrom and is currently advising a $100 million Softbank fund to support companies led by people of color. Ms. Brown-Philpot indicated she was deeply affected by the killing of George Floyd, championed the hiring of more women and black people in tech, and said the gig working industry needs to do more for contract workers.

Protecting the 2020 Election from COVID 19 - Gowri Ramachandran, Counsel in the Election Security program at the Brennan Center joined Joe Miller.

Gowri Ramachandran is Counsel in the Election Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. She is currently on leave from her position as professor of law at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. At Southwestern, she taught courses in constitutional law, employment discrimination, critical race theory, and the Ninth Circuit Appellate Litigation Clinic, which received the Ninth Circuit's 2018 Distinguished Pro Bono Service Award.

She received her undergraduate degree in mathematics from Yale College and a master's degree in statistics from Harvard University. While in law school, she served as editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal. After graduating from law school in 2003, Ramachandran served as law clerk to Judge Sidney R. Thomas of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Billings, Montana. After a fellowship at Georgetown University Law Center, she joined the Southwestern faculty in 2006.

Gowri Ramachandran, How to Keep the 2020 Election Secure Brennan Center for Justice (2020), https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-keep-2020-election-secure (last visited Jun 21, 2020).

Edgardo Cortés et al., Preparing for Cyberattacks and Technical Problems During the Pandemic: A Guide for Election Officials (2020), https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/preparing-cyberattacks-and-technical-problems-during-pandemic-guide (last visited Jun 21, 2020).

'Communications Policy in the COVID-19 Era' with Hon. Geoffrey Starks (Ep. 225)(Opens in a new browser tab)

Lawmakers step up efforts to rein in facial recognition companies' work with law enforcement

IBM, Microsoft, and Amazon announced plans to scale back the sale of their facial recognition technologies to law enforcement. But while those companies are some of the largest providers of such technologies, smaller competitors continue to supply police departments, and Amazon has only stated that it would stop selling facial recognition technology for 12 months as it waits for Congress to write new legislation. Many important studies have repeatedly demonstrated how these technologies produce biased outcomes when it comes to women and people of color. One Zero also reported last week that technology companies also make substantial donations to police organizations.

WSJ: How federal authorities use marketing, GPS data to pursue suspects

In 2018, the Supreme Court decided Carpenter v. U.S., in which it held that law enforcement needs a search warrant before obtaining cell tower location data from carriers when they pursue suspects. But in an exclusive report, the Wall Street Journal explains how the police now circumvent Carpenter using marketing data – which is anonymized but when correlated with other factors can reveal the personal identity of a suspect. These law enforcement agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, have concluded those data don't fall within the scope of data for which the U.S. Supreme Court requires probable cause per Carpenter since the data doesn't come from cell phone data and, instead, comes from geolocation data. Venntel, the subject of the Wall Street Journal report and company that provided marketing data to the IRS, claims its data is "pseudanonimized". It will be interesting to see how courts and lawmakers consider how such pseudanonimized data should be treated in light of the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Facebook struggles to respond to backlash over its content moderation policies and calls for boycotts by civil rights organizations

Facebook is still under fire for failing to adequately moderate misinformation posted by the president. Several Civil Rights organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, NAACP, Sleeping Giants, Color of Change and others called on advertisers to boycott Facebook after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly refused to even flag misinformation Trump posted a couple of weeks ago saying mail-in ballots pose a risk for voter fraud, a claim that is unsubstantiated. Several research reports by prominent institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have concluded mail-in ballots produce no meaningful advantage for either political party.

Amidst the backlash, Facebook announced plans last week to invest $200 million to support Black-owned businesses and organizations. The company also announced an effort to register 4 million voters.

Trump tests waters with new social media violations

President Trump continued to defy social media boundaries with more misleading and hateful content last week. On Thursday, the Trump campaign posted an ad containing the upside down, red triangle Nazi's used to identify communists, socialists and liberals in concentration camps. Facebook and Twitter removed that ad. On Friday, the president tweeted a manipulated video appearing to show a white child running after a black child with a fake lower-third saying "terrified toddler runs from racist baby". Twitter initially flagged the tweet but ultimately took it down. Both Twitter and Facebook also announced last week they've seen foreign actors evolve their social media propaganda efforts but as yet no coordinated efforts by state actors to manipulate election outcomes.

France upholds $56 million fine against Google for privacy violations

After an 18-month appeal effort, Google has lost against French regulators who found the company violated Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by failing to make it easy for users to determine how the company used their data, notice which required users to go through several steps, according to the French Council of State, France's highest administrative court, which upheld the $56 million fine it levied against Google back in January of last year.

Netflix Founder and CEO Reed Hastings announced that Netflix would be investing $120 million in Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Government relations pros blast Pinterest for discriminating against them for being black women

Two prominent government relations pros, both of whom are African American women, put Pinterest on blast last week for allegedly having a toxic work environment that is hostile to black employees. Ifeoma Ozoma reported on Twitter that a white male inside Pinterest doxed her, sharing her private information publicly, and failed to give her a pay raise. She also said that, during her performance review, her manager criticized her for being outspoken during discussions around the company's new policy to stop advertising slave plantation—according to Ozoma, the manager accused her of not "both-siding" the issue. Ozoma also noted that her replacement, Aerica Banks, also a black woman, also resigned.

Harold Hughes (@OneBandwagonFan) is the founder & CEO of Bandwagon – an identity infrastructure company that helps companies and organizations transparently manage, aggregate, and store valuable consumer data. A rising star in sports tech, Harold has had his ideas validated as a graduate (and now mentor) of the Founder Institute Greenville chapter; graduate of Capital Factory – Austin, one of the inaugural companies in Google for Startups Black Founders Exchange Program, and most recently the IBM Blockchain Accelerator.

In his hometown community, he serves as the founder and Managing Director of Brickyard Innovation Lab: an entrepreneur ecosystem for early-stage startups and emerging growth companies. He is also a Co-Director of the Founder Institute Greenville chapter, a startup incubator, and a member of the Greenville Chamber of Commerce. A man of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Harold is actively involved in the community participating on the Board of Directors for Rebuild Upstate and Visit Greenville. As a strong believer in mentorship, he makes time to speak with youth and his peers about his journey to entrepreneurship and how he has found success along the way.

Harold Hughes is a graduate of Clemson University where he received Bachelors degrees in both Economics (B.A) and Political Science (B.A.). As a "Triple Tiger", he also completed his MBA at Clemson, before pursuing a graduate certificate in Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Stanford University.

Aura

Bandwagon Fan Club

Tech giants curtail, end sale of facial recognition to police

IBM and Microsoft announced plans last week to end the sale of surveillance technology to police departments, with IBM stopping all research, development and production of such systems indefinitely, and Microsoft saying it plans to stop the practice until Congress passes legislation. Amazon currently only has plans to pause the sale of its Rekognition software to police for one year, but it too has called for new legislation. The decisions came after years of advocacy reached a boiling point amidst reports that police have been using facial recognition during worldwide protests, in support of Black Lives, after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police just over two weeks ago. However, IBM, Microsoft and Amazon are just 3 of the companies selling facial recognition technology to police. Also last week, the American Civil Liberties Union and several other organizations sued Clearview AI, a supplier of facial recognition technology to police departments, for scanning Illinois' residents' faces, without their consent, in violation of an Illinois law preventing nonconsensual fingerprinting and face scans, The New York Times reported. The Hill reports Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey also called on Clearview to conduct an independent assessment of whether police have been using their technology during the protests, to which Clearview responded that it only helps police after crimes have already been committed. And Vice surveyed 43 facial recognition companies whether they too will refuse to work with police. According to Vice, most didn't respond to the inquiry—you can find a link to the list of those companies in the show notes. You'll also want to read Geoffrey Fowler's Washington Post piece discussing efforts by other companies, including lesser-known companies like NEC and Idemia to thwart lawmakers' efforts to rein in law enforcement's use of facial recognition to spy on U.S. citizens.

Zuckerberg still being difficult about curbing misinformation

Despite leading lawmakers' and activists' calls on Facebook to improve how it flags misinformation, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is still being difficult. But at the same time he claims he's "disgusted" by President Trump's content, The Hill reported last week.

The debate with Facebook has continued for years, with the company condescending to and patronizing a handful of civil rights groups making repeated calls for the company to better moderate hate speech. The term "hate speech", of course, being one Fox News like to wrap in quotes as if it's not a real thing, never mind that centuries of newspapers', broadcast stations', the FCC's, and social media companies' enabling of bigots and misogynists suggest otherwise.

Sure. Facebook will take down hundreds of accounts managed by anti-racist Skinheads. But when Trump threatens bodily injury posting "when the looting starts, the shooting starts", lumping peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters into a single category of "looters" … That's no problem.

On Wednesday, the House Homeland Security Committee wrote Zuckerberg, again, urging him to curb Trump's "dangerous" posts. Zuckerberg's response? Writing a letter in reply to 270 concerned scientists he and his wife Priscilla Chan fund through their Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, admitting Trump's posts constituted misinformation, that they were incendiary, that they were "deeply shaken and disgusted" by them. But, alas, "Having more voices at the table that represent a diversity of perspectives, viewpoints, and lived experiences isn't just a good way to help solve the world's biggest problems and challenges – it is the only way."

"The only way". Those words are important because they negate diverse perspectives, viewpoints, and lived experiences. They urge authoritarianism.

Uber waives fees for black-owned restaurants

The Hill reported that Uber Eats, after creating a list of black-owned businesses, has waived fees for customers ordering from black-owned restaurants. Uber's ride-sharing unit also announced discounts for passengers going to black-owned establishments. The company said the deals will continue through until the end of the year.

Jeff Bezos 'happy to lose' racist customers

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos took to Instagram last week to drag a racist customer named Dave who complained about Amazon's homepage statement in support of Black Lives Matter. The customer sent an email deriding the world's wealthiest person saying he'd laugh watching the company's profits decline as a result of the statement. Bezos posted the email, redacting the customer's name, saying he's happy to lose such customers. Amazon was up 24 points on Monday June 8th's market close, the first market close after Bezos's post, to 2,524.06 per share.

Police investigate disruptions of police radios during protests

Someone took advantage of police officers' unencrypted frequencies during protests. In one intrusion, hackers played Tay Zonday's YouTube viral hit "Chocolate Rain" over police radios. Authorities are investigating incidents in Minnesota, Illinois and Texas. Some departments have switched over to encrypted frequencies.

Twitter makes Juneteenth a holiday

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced last week that the company will now recognize Juneteenth as a company holiday every June 19th. Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the date African Americans in Galveston, Texas first learned of their emancipation from Union General Gordon Granger, who delivered the news nine weeks following Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court Courthouse, and some two-and-a-half years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

YouTube announces $100 million for black creators

YouTube announced last week that it would be investing $100 million to amplify the voices of black creators. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki made the announcement Thursday, in a post in which she also reported the company removed some 100,000 hateful videos and 100 million such comments in the second quarter.

McKinley L. Price is President of the African American Mayors Association and Mayor of Newport News, Virginia. He is a native of Newport News, Virginia. He graduated from Huntington High School in 1967 and then received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in Hampton, Virginia, in 1971. McKinley was honorably discharged from the United States Army in 1972 as 1st Lt. In 1976, he earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery Degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and performed his general anesthesia residency at Provident Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

Dr. Price has received numerous honors and awards from various professional associations. In 1989, he was elected by his peers as President of the Peninsula Dental Society; he was the first black president of this organization. He was also named "Dentist of the Year" by the Old Dominion Dental Society. Dr. Price is a Fellow in the Virginia Dental Association, the American College of Dentists, and the International College of Dentists. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Delta Dental of Virginia, serving on the Audit and Compliance Committee and Dental Policy Advisory Committee.

Dr. Price's community service was highlighted by his being appointed chair of the Newport News School Board for two years, during his eight years of service, from 1984-1992.

In 1994, Dr. Price received the President's Humanitarian Award from the Virginia Peninsula Chapter of 100 Black Men and in 1996 he received the Presidential Citizenship Award from Hampton University. The Peninsula Chapter of the National Conference for Community and Justice presented him with their Humanitarian Award in 1996. In 1998, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated honored him as Citizen of the Year during the Mid-Atlantic 44th Annual Regional Conference. The Daily Press Newspaper awarded him "Citizen of the Year" for 2005, which highlighted his Co-Chairmanship of the organization People to People whose mission is to improve race relations and the quality of life in Newport News. It also commended him for being a founding member of the Virginia Peninsula Chapter of 100 Black Men. They recognized him as the Role Model of the Year in April 2011. Thomas Nelson Community College awarded him their TNCC Medallion Award during commencement exercises in May 2011. The Price Family was the Honored Family during the 2010 Hampton University's Black Family Conference and he was the Founder's Day speaker at Hampton in 2011.

In addition to the commitment he makes to his professional activities and meeting the demands a successful dental practice, Dr. Price devotes untiring energy and time to the Hampton and Newport News community. He has served as Chairman of the Board for Riverside Health System Foundation, Vice Chair of the Riverside Health System Board, and Immediate Past Chairman of the Thomas Nelson Community College Board. He was also appointed to the Newport News City Council for a five month period in 2004. In addition, Dr. Price was appointed by Governor Warner to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Board. In May 2010, he was elected Mayor of the City of Newport News. He becomes the first black elected as mayor of Newport News. The term is four years.

Dr. Price is a member of the First Church of Newport News (Baptist), a church founded by his great-great-grandfather.

He is married to Valerie Scott Price. She is a retired educator having taught for 30 years, most of which were in the Newport News Public School System. They have two adult children and one grandson: McKinley II, DDS, an Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon, he and his wife Amy and their son live in Brooklyn, NY; and Marcia, a Delegate in the Virginia House of Delegates, representing the 95th District.

McKinley Price, The Need for Equitable Health Care Amid COVID-19, Governing, 2020, https://www.governing.com/now/The-Need-for-Equitable-Health-Care-Amid-COVID-19.html(last visited Jun 7, 2020).

Home, Ourmayors.org (2020), https://www.ourmayors.org/Home (last visited Jun 7, 2020).

COVID-19 Resources, Ourmayors.org (2020), https://www.ourmayors.org/Resources/COVID-19-Resources (last visited Jun 7, 2020).

Despite threats from White House, social media companies crack down on misinformation

Despite president Trump's continued claims that Silicon Valley, and social media companies in particular, harbor an anti-conservative bias, social media companies have stepped up their efforts to prevent a repeat performance of the 2016 election during which misinformation and state-sponsored propaganda ran rampant, often in favor of Trump's presidency, according to the Mueller report and several other sources.

On Monday night, after a day of employee virtual walkouts at the company in response to Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg's insistence on leaving up posts that contain misinformation, civil right leaders met with Zuckerberg via videocall and things did not go well.

Leadership Conference for Civil and Human Rights President Vanita Gupta, NAACP Legal Defense Fund head Sherrilyn Ifill, and Color of Change Executive Director Rashad Robinson issued a statement following the meeting stating that Zuckerberg "did not demonstrate understanding of historic or modern-day voter suppression and he refuses to acknowledge how Facebook is facilitating Trump's call for violence against protesters. Mark is setting a very dangerous precedent for other voices who would say similar harmful things on Facebook." Zuckerberg followed up with a company memo on Friday saying the social media giant was again in the process of reviewing its policies related to discussions about police brutality and voter suppression. Before Zuckerberg's announcement, the company had already begun making the public aware of foreign interference on the platform by labeling state-sponsored posts.

Following the meeting with civil rights leaders and Mr. Zuckerberg's announcement, Facebook, citing copyright concerns, removed a campaign video in which the president appeared to pay tribute to George Floyd. The company cited copyright concerns for taking down the video, after it had received complaints from the artist who'd created some of the artwork featured in the video. Twitter had also removed the video, which the White House called an illegal escalation – Twitter denied that removing the video was illegal and also cited to the president's use of copyrighted material.

Facebook also removed some 200 accounts associated with white supremacy groups last week. The company also removed fake antifa accounts, according to Reuters.

Over at Reddit, some subreddit pages went dark in protest over the company's hate speech policy, which leans heavily in favor of free speech. The protest culminated in Reddit Co-Founder Alex Ohanian's resignation from the board and calling for his seat to be filled by an African-American board member. Ohanian also indicated that he would be donating $1 million to Colin Kaepernick's Know Your Rights Camp and investing future gains on his stock in the black community.

Also, on Wednesday, Snapchat announced that it would no longer promote President Trump's account due to the president's promotion of violence during protests over the weekend before last.

Finally, the Center for Democracy and Technology sued the White House in the DC Circuit last week over the president's executive order directing the independent Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission to work together, along with the Department of Commerce, to curtail enforcement of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The president issued the order after Twitter flagged one of the president's tweets as misleading, and a tweet in which the president criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom's executive order to allow mail-in ballots.

Elon Musk calls for Amazon break-up

Elon Musk took to Twitter calling for a break-up of Amazon, which he labelled a monopoly. The tweet came in response to a tweet by a New York Times reporter who'd written that Amazon had rejected his new book about COVID-19 on the grounds that it didn't meet Amazon's guidelines. Amazon has since stated that it removed the book in error.

TikTok pledges to amplify black creators

TikTok pledged to amplify black creators last week amidst criticism that it censored and suppressed content posted by blacks. The company stated that it would form a creator diversity council and a handful of other initiatives to address these concerns. The company also participated in the music industry-led "Blackout Tuesday" during which the company shut down its Sounds page. It also announced that it would invest $3 million in organizations that work to address black inequality (although the company didn't mention which organizations it plans to invest in).

Senators criticize AT&T on zero-rating

In a letter to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Senators Ed Markey and Ron Wyden criticized AT&T for zero-rating its own content on HBO. Zero-rating is the industry jargon used to describe the anticompetitive practice in which carriers count the use of competing platforms against their customers' data limits but not their own content, in this case HBO, which AT&T acquired in 2018, along with HBO's parent company WarnerMedia. The Senators set a response deadline of June 25th.

Zoom announces end-to-end encryption for paying subscribers only

Videoconference platform Zoom announced that it would be introducing end-to-end encryption, but only for paying subscribers. The company says doing so will allow it to work with the FBI to identify child pornographers and sex traffickers. However, Zoom made no reference to any evidence correlating free usership to the distribution of illegal content at a rate that exceeds the that of paid subscribers.

California assembly introduces facial recognition bill

The California Assembly is now considering a bill that would allow the State of California to conduct surveillance using facial recognition technology, if it gives notice ahead of time. The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California is opposing the measure on the grounds that it undercuts limitations on the use of facial recognition technology which are already in place in some local areas including San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley.

Denver cop fired for inciting a riot over Instagram during George Floyd protests

Tommy McClay, a former police officer in Denver posed with two other cops for an Instagram photo for which he wrote "let's start a riot". That night, Denver police used tear gas and foam bullets against protesters, according to Ars Technica. The Denver Police Department fired McClay for the post. McClay was a brand new recruit—just 9 months out of the police academy—and so still subject to the initial probationary period of his tenure there. But one civil rights leader in Denver told Ars that the Denver Police Department has a high rate of re-hiring officers who were previously fired.

Christopher Lewis (@ChrisJLewis) is President and CEO at Public Knowledge. Prior to being elevated to President and CEO, Chris served for as PK's Vice President from 2012 to 2019 where he led the organization's day-to-day advocacy and political strategy on Capitol Hill and at government agencies. During that time he also served as a local elected official, serving two terms on the Alexandria City Public School Board. Chris serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute for Local Self Reliance and represents Public Knowledge on the Board of the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG).

Before joining Public Knowledge, Chris worked in the Federal Communications Commission Office of Legislative Affairs, including as its Deputy Director. He is a former U.S. Senate staffer for the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and has over 18 years of political organizing and advocacy experience, including serving as Virginia State Director at GenerationEngage, and working as the North Carolina Field Director for Barack Obama's 2008 Presidential Campaign and other roles throughout the campaign. Chris graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelors degree in Government and lives in Alexandria, VA where he continues to volunteer and advocate on local civic issues.

The Washington Center for Technology Policy Inclusion, 2020. President Trump's Social Media Executive Order Violates The Voting Rights Act Of 1965. [online] Available at: https://www.washingtech.com/post/president-trump-s-social-media-executive-order-violates-the-voting-rights-act-of-1965 [Accessed 31 May 2020].

Public Knowledge, 2020. Public Knowledge Rejects White House Executive Order Targeting Free Speech On Social Media Platforms. [online] Available at: https://www.publicknowledge.org/press-release/public-knowledge-rejects-white-house-executive-order-targeting-free-speech-on-social-media-platforms/ [Accessed 31 May 2020].

Feld, H., 2020. Could the FCC Regulate Social Media Under Section 230? No. [Blog] Public Knowledge Blog, Available at: https://www.publicknowledge.org/blog/could-the-fcc-regulate-social-media-under-section-230-no/ [Accessed 31 May 2020].

Public Knowledge, 2020. Public Knowledge Responds To White House Proposal To Require FTC, FCC To Monitor Speech On Social Media. [online] Available at: https://www.publicknowledge.org/press-release/public-knowledge-responds-to-white-house-proposal-to-require-ftc-fcc-to-monitor-speech-on-social-media/ [Accessed 31 May 2020].

'They Smile in Your Face: How the Internet is Unmasking Hidden Racism' with Robert Eschmann (Ep. 222)(Opens in a new browser tab)

'How Media Policies Have Helped the Far Right' with Anne Nelson (Ep. 217)(Opens in a new browser tab)

Facebook and Civil Rights: What are the Options? with Ebonie Riley (Ep. 212)(Opens in a new browser tab)

Should Americans Trust News on Social Media? with Elisa Shearer (Ep. 207)(Opens in a new browser tab)

Examining "Social Media Bias" with Jen Schradie (Ep. 199)(Opens in a new browser tab)

Renée DiResta: How to Fight the Imminent Disinformation Blitzkrieg (Ep. 175)(Opens in a new browser tab)

Trump tweets mark turning point in Section 230 discourse

A tweet from President Trump last week that criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom's Executive Order allowing Californians' the right to vote by mail, in addition to preserving Californians' right to vote in person if they'd prefer, has triggered a turning point in the debate around Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, even though the

Centers for Disease Control recommended that election officials allow mail-in voting, specifically because of the disproportionate impact the COVID-19 disease is having on communities of color. These communities have historically been targets of voter suppression efforts.

Section 230 is the 1996 law widely seen as the heart of the internet as we know it, because it shields interactive content providers, like Twitter, Google, and Facebook, from liability stemming from content posted by users. In short, without Section 230, it would be all but impossible for Twitter, Facebook, and Google to exist: without Section 230, it would simply be too risky for social media platforms to expose themselves to liability for content that you and I, or even Trump, post.

President Trump posted the now-infamous tweet about Governor Newsom's Executive Order on Tuesday. In it, the president alleged that sending mail-in ballots to voters would cause what right-wing politicians theorize is "voter fraud", and that sending ballots to what the president termed "millions of people" would lead to the ballots being stolen. The president didn't indicate how those attempting to steal ballots would even know whether ballots were inside of a person's mailbox. Would they go to every single mailbox every single day to see if a ballot's inside?

In any case, the president has expressed a general fear of snail mail in recent months. At the start of the pandemic, he and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin blocked funding from the $2 trillion stimulus bill that would have provided the U.S. Postal Service with billions of dollars in grants to balance its budget.

So, something's up with the mail that this president seems extremely frightened of.

All of this culminated in Twitter, for the first time, posting a disclaimer on the president's tweet – a blue hyperlink with an exclamation mark next to it that says, "Get the facts about mail-in ballots". When users click the link, they're redirected to another Twitter page listing articles discussing the factual inconsistencies in the president's claim that mail-in ballots would lead to election fraud and voting by immigrants.

Unsurprisingly, Trump was livid when this happened. Two days later, he released an Executive Order providing for the Department of Commerce to file a petition at the Federal Communications Commission asking it to review still-unsubstantiated claims of social media companies' alleged anti-conservative bias. The order also calls on the Federal Trade Commission to allow individuals to file complaints.

When protests began around the nation in response to the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer who has since been fired and charged with manslaughter, Trump tweeted a comment that echoed Miami's then-Mayor Walter Headley's 1967 remark "when the looting starts, the shooting starts", which was met with scorn by civil rights leaders. In the tweet, the president called protesters "THUGS", saying he'd spoken with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz "and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts." (Here would be a good place to recall last summer's Center for Investigative Journalism report that several Confederate, anti-Islam, misogynistic or anti-government militia Facebook groups counted hundreds of police among their members, a report that corroborated an earlier finding by the FBI released over a decade ago that warned of the infiltration of law enforcement by white supremacists.)

Twitter followed up with the president's "THUGS" tweet by placing a notice over it saying the tweet violated Twitter's policy against users glorifying violence, but still allowing users to clickthrough and see the president's tweet. The company also went on to flag tweets from Ice Cube, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, and others it deemed to have violated Twitter's community standards.

But as far as Trump's Executive Order to rein in social media companies is concerned, after speaking with experts like Tech Freedom's Berin Szoka, Georgetown's Gigi Sohn, and Public Knowledge's Harold Feld – all of whom have been guests on the WashingTECH Tech Policy Podcast – the Hill reports that there's a general consensus in the telecommunications public policy community that the president's executive order is a non-starter. To make it happen, the FCC would need to undo years of precedent and essentially contradict every ruling it's made, at least during Ajit Pai's tenure there as Chairman, including its repeal of the net neutrality order.

…

On another front, Senator Ted Cruz, alleging that Twitter is violating sanctions against Iran, is calling for a criminal investigation into Twitter's alleged preservation of accounts of enemies of the United States, like Iranian Supreme Leaders Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and its Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Also, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg confessed to Fox News last week that Facebook shouldn't be "arbiters of truth". In fact, The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Facebook Executives ignored a 2018 internal report that found the company's algorithms "exploit the human brain's attraction to divisiveness". It also warned that, if left unchecked, Facebook could spread even more discord, and that bringing Facebook's algorithms under control would disproportionately affect users espousing conservative viewpoints. Facebook never publicly released the report or even acted internally to "check" conservative misinformation. Coincidentally, the presentation came at the same time the Trump administration was just beginning its campaign to characterize social media companies as being biased in favor of liberals. Last week, House Speaker Pelosi called Zuckerberg's non-interventionist stance a "disgrace".

Running with the ball, Republicans in Congress are reportedly working on legislation to control speech on social media platforms by undoing the liability protections conferred by Section 230. Conservatives are pushing for the legislation even though a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit last week dismissed a lawsuit brought by Freedom Watch, the conservative legal group, and far-right activist Laura Loomer, against Facebook, Google & Twitter, alleging the companies were conspiring to suppress conservative viewpoints.

Trump creates more expansive warrantless watchlist

President Trump has moved to further circumvent Constitutionally-guaranteed due process protections by expanding a September 11th-era terrorism watchlist to include individuals who aren't even suspected of terrorism. Newsweek reports the watchlist could grow to as many as a million names. But the Trump administration hasn't acknowledged it's expanded the watchlist, even though it's required to do so under federal law. Now individuals can be included on the watchlist even if they just have family in El Salvador.

FBI ties Pensacola shooter to al Qaeda with iPhone data

The FBI says the shooter at a Pensacola naval base last December, a shooting that took the lives of 3 sailors and injured 8 others, had ties to Al Qaeda. Twenty-one-year-old 2nd Lieutenant Mohammed Alshamrani initially attempted to destroy his iPhone following the shooting, but wasn't successful.

Initially, investigators approached Apple for help in gaining access to the phone's data. When Apple declined, the FBI took matters into its own hands and figured out how to crack open the phone on its own.

Indigent customers not getting broadband despite large carriers' promises

Even though internet service providers like Comcast and Charter promised free and low-cost internet to indigent residents, a lot of those residents are getting bills in the mail. The New York Times reports that customers who are supposed to have access to these programs are getting bills instead, sometimes for as much as $120. Customers have also reported not being able to get through to a customer service rep at all, much less in their native languages.

In an unusual alliance, Republican Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O'Rielly joined Democrats in calling to expand broadband service around the country. O'Rielly told The Hill's Editor-in-Chief Steve Clemons that equipment and affordability are the main barriers to broadband.

Anonymous re-appears

Hacktivist group Anonymous, which first made an appearance during the Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011, has reappeared amidst protests in cities around the nation in response to the killing of George Floyd and other grievances. A Facebook group owner who claims to be affiliated with Anonymous wrote that it would soon expose the Minneapolis police departments "many crimes in the world". Forbes reports that Anonymous apparently even took down the Minneapolis Police Department's website.

FCC approves $16 million in telehealth funding

The FCC also approved an additional $16 million for 43 applicants seeking funding to provide telehealth services during the pandemic. The money goes to healthcare providers for things like network upgrades and laptop, and is part of a total pool of $200 million Congress allocated for COVID-19-related telehealth programs. To date, the FCC has allocated $50 million, or just a quarter of that total amount.

Licy Do Canto (@docantolicy) is Managing Director of BCW Healthcare in the firm's Public Affairs and Crisis practice. He leads policy and public affairs strategy for the firm's healthcare clients in North America across public and corporate affairs, government relations, communications and reputation management on a diverse and broad range of healthcare issues. He also oversees the BCW Healthcare Team in Washington, D.C.

An expert in health and healthcare policy, with twenty five years of experience at the national, state and local levels across the nonprofit, philanthropic, corporate and government sectors, Licy is an accomplished, values-driven leader with unparalleled experience in developing and leading integrated public affairs campaigns combining strategic communications, public relations, political and legislative initiatives, policy, coalition building, grassroots/grasstops efforts and direct advocacy.

Before joining BCW, Licy built and lead a nationally recognized minority owned strategic public affairs and communications firm, served as Health Practice Chair and Principal at The Raben Group, was the Chief Executive Officer of The AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth and Families, and managed and helped set the leadership direction for strategic policy, communications and advocacy investments in executive and senior government affairs roles for the American Cancer Society and the nation's Community Health Centers.

Before joining the private sector, Licy served as health policy advisor to U.S. Rep. Barney Frank and served in several stints in the Office of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. During his extensive tenure in Washington, D.C., Licy has played a leading role in efforts to draft, shape and enact many pieces of legislation and policy affecting public health, health care safety net and the U.S. health care system.

Licy is a graduate of Duke University and holds a certificate in public health leadership from the University of North Chapel Hill—School of Public Health and Kenan Flagler Business School, and is the recipient of multiple industry awards and citations for his leadership, policy and public affairs acumen, including being named to The Hill Newspaper list of most influential leaders in Washington, D.C. consecutively over the last ten years.

Why Embracing Diversity Will Lift Us Out of This Crisis Faster on Medium.

Licy Do Canto Video Interview on the Importance of Diversity and Inclusion in Times of Crisis

New BCW Inclusion & Diversity Offering: https://bcw-global.com/now-next/inclusion-diversity

Taking on the Inequities Laid Bare by COVID-19 with Robert Phillips (Ep. 229)(Opens in a new browser tab)

Dr. Alisa Valentin: The Unifying Power of Social Justice (Ep. 178)(Opens in a new browser tab)

Antitrust red flags about Facebook and Google

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the Department of Justice is prepping an antitrust lawsuit against Google. The suit is expected to focus on allegations that Google is monopolizing the online advertising ecosystem.

Facebook also came under scrutiny in the Senate last week, with a bipartisan group of Senators calling foul on Facebook's newly-announced plan to acquire the popular GIF-making platform Giphy in a $400 million deal which would give the social media giant access to Giphy's huge user base and roughly 700 million daily impressions. The acquisition would give Facebook access to data on all of the platforms into which Giphy is integrated, Facebook's competitors, like Mailchimp, iMessage, Signal, Snapchat, Slack, Telegram, TikTok, Tinder, Trello, and Twitter.

Snapchat/Twilio to offer in-app domestic violence support

Snapchat and Twilio are planning to offer in-app domestic violence support, according to an exclusive report from Axios. The rollout will include an effort to address victims' mental health concerns. Snapchat will be partnering with the National Network to End Domestic Violence to provide resources, including a way for friends of victims to offer support. Twilio announced that it would provide $2 million in cash grants to orgs providing support services during the pandemic.

James Damore moves to dismiss lawsuit against Google

Remember James Damore? The white male Google engineer who was fired back in 2017 for writing a screed entitled "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber"? The one that went on and on about how the corporate culture at Google discriminates and marginalizes the viewpoints of conservative white men, namely the alt-right? Well he decided to move to dismiss the case, a motion Google then joined, which led to a resolution that wasn't made public. So it's over. No one knows the details. But the matter that consumed the tech community for months over 2 years ago, has now drifted away like it never happened.

Warren/Sanders demand explanation about Amazon firings

Nine U.S. Senators led by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders wrote a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos demanding an explanation for his company's firing of at least 4 Amazon workers who'd raised concerns about Amazon's working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter noted that COVID-19 infections have been reported in some 100 Amazon warehouses, that at least 3 Amazon workers have died from COVID-19 complications, and that an Amazon Vice President resigned in protest over the company's handling of employees' complaints. Other signers included Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, Kirsten Gillibrand, Ed Markey, Richard Blumenthal, Kamala Harris, and Tammy Baldwin. No Republicans signed the letter—not even Josh Hawley who has been very vocal about his concerns regarding what he sees as Amazon's anticompetitive behavior. Amazon's response is due by May 20th.

Nutcase conspiracy theorist spits on 5G engineer who then contracts COVID-19

A conspiracy theorist in London ran up to Michael Demetroudi, an apprentice 5G engineer, yelled, "All you engineers are just trying to import the 5G in every single box", and then spat in his face. Vice News reports that it wasn't the first time Demetroudi has been harassed by lunatics for being a 5G engineer – one woman jumped out in front of his truck in the middle of the street and accused him of "spreading 5G from the top of his vehicle". Another guy started yelling at him when he was just standing in line in his uniform, getting ready to buy a sandwich … I really don't know what else to say.

FCC fines Sinclair $48 million for fake news segments

The FCC has fined Sinclair Broadcasting for $48 million for airing paid fake news segments 1,700 times across its stations nationwide in 2016. However, the FCC hasn't revoked Sinclair's licenses, even though Sinclair attempted to maintain control over stations it was supposed to divest as part of its proposed merger with Tribune back in 2018. Also in 2018, Sinclair was clowned for forcing its local newscasters nationwide to read the same script echoing President Trump's exhortations about Fake News. Despite this pattern of conduct, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai refused to revoke Sinclair's licenses, saying requests by advocates to do so were "politically motivated".

Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings (@MayaforCongress) is President and CEO of Global Policy Solutions, a certified B Corporation and mission-driven strategy firm, dedicated to helping community-based, philanthropic, academic, governmental, and corporate organizations achieve strategic objectives. The firm specializes in coalition building, public policy analysis and research, program development, project management, and government relations.

Dr. Rockeymoore Cummings previously served as the chair of the Maryland Democratic Party, Vice President of Research and Programs at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Senior Resident Scholar at the National Urban League, Chief of Staff to former Congressman Charles Rangel, Professional Staff on the House Ways and Means Committee, and as a CBCF Legislative Fellow in the office of former Congressman Melvin Watt among other positions. A noted speaker and author, Dr. Rockeymoore Cummings' areas of expertise include health, social insurance, economic security, education, technology, women's issues and youth civic participation. She is the author of The Political Action Handbook: A How to Guide for the Hip-Hop Generation and co-editor of Strengthening Community: Social Insurance in a Diverse America among many other articles and chapters. Her frequent speaking engagements have included invitations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Economic Policy Institute, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, Congressional Progressive Caucus, Drexel University, Women Donors Network, National Association of Black Journalists, and Grantmakers in Aging among many other organizations. She has been quoted extensively in publications such as the Washington Post and New York Times and has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, and C-SPAN among other news outlets.

The recipient of many awards, including the Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellowship, she announced a run for Congress in Maryland's 7th Congressional District in November 2019 to succeed her late husband Congressman Elijah E. Cummings.

Resources

Center for Global Policy Solutions

New York reports sharp uptick in domestic violence calls]

Calls to the State of New York's domestic violence hotline increased 30% in April, according to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Abusers are using the pandemic to justify keeping their victims isolated and have intensified the nature of their abuse from psychological or financial, to physical. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is open 24/7 and can be reached at 800-799-SAFE. 800-799-SAFE. That's 800-799-7233. 800-799-7233. You can also text LOVEIS to 22522. That's LOVEIS to 22522. Otherwise, you can log in to thehotline.org. That's thehotline.org.

Wyden, Eshoo introduce $5bn online child abuse bill

Senator Ron Wyden and California Representative Anna Eshoo introduced a bill on Wednesday to stop the alarming spread of child sexual abuse material online. The Invest in Child Safety Act aims to invest $5bn to quadruple the number of FBI investigators focused on online child abuse and exploitation (from 30 to 120) and expand the capacity of state and local governments to investigate and prosecute the offenders and counsel the victims of online child abuse. The money would also help fund the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, create a White House oversight office, and require tech companies to keep evidence of online abuse for at least 6 months instead of 3. This new effort comes amidst a broader effort by lawmakers to limit Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act which indemnifies tech companies for hosting content posted by third parties.

California AG Becerra sues Uber and Lyft for misclassifying workers

Invoking California Assembly Bill 5, which requires companies to treat workers as employees if they control how workers perform tasks of if the work is routine, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and a coalition of city officials sued Uber and Lyft for misclassifying its workers as independent contractors. The bill took effect on January 1 but so far the companies have pushed back on compliance. The New York Times reports that Uber has even gone as far as saying they're not required to pay their drivers as employees because technology is its core business, not ridesharing. The lawsuit also claims the companies' noncompliance is harming other businesses who have begun implementing the law.

Amazon VP resigns as company fires protesting workers

Calling Amazon "chickenshit", Tim Bray, a prominent Senior Engineer and VP at Amazon resigned "in dismay" in an open letter on his blog after the company fired employee organizers protesting the company's treatment of warehouse workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The workers went on strike, along with workers from Target, FedEx, Whole Foods, and Instacart, to protest their employers' weak efforts to protect them from the virus. At Amazon specifically, at least 75 employees across half the company's 110 warehouses, have fallen ill.

Uber lays off 14 percent of workforce

Uber announced plans to lay off some 14% of its workforce, or 3,700 employees, as demand for ridesharing has dropped during the coronavirus pandemic. Most of the layoffs will come from the CommOps and Recruiting teams. An internal memo suggested that more layoffs may be looming to as much as 20% of the current workforce, according to The Information.

Airbnb has also announced plans to lay off approximately 25 percent of its workforce, or about 1,900 employees.

Tumblr to remove posts that violate its hate speech policy

Tumblr, founded in 2007, announced just the other day that it will remove all posts that violate its hate speech policy. Better late than never.

"Researchers" at a Pennsylvania university claim to have solved the bias in AI problem

Twitter dragged some so-called researchers at Harrisburg University in Pennsylvania after the university posted a link claiming they'd discovered a facial recognition method capable of detecting criminality with "80% accuracy and no racial bias". One of researchers is a former NYPD police officer. The University pulled down the link. The paper will still be released but it's doubtful to withstand scrutiny since many say 80% accuracy isn't high enough for the technology to be considered bias-free.

Robert Phillips (@rphillipsalluma) leads the strategic direction, fiscal stewardship, daily operations, and overall management of Alluma as CEO. A healthcare advocate and philanthropist, Robert joined the Board of Alluma (then Social Interest Solutions) in 2006, and became President of the Board and CEO in 2017.

Robert has been acting on his commitment to improve the health and wellbeing of communities in the U.S. and California for over 25 years. He played a crucial role in strategic philanthropic and advocacy efforts to improve the health of children and youth of color, expand health coverage to all children in California, modernize enrollment into public programs using technology solutions, and implement electronic health records in community clinics. His leadership at Alluma builds from experience at the California Endowment, Sierra Health Foundation, PolicyLink, AFL-CIO, SEIU, and Kaiser Permanente's Community Benefit and Strategy. Decade after decade he has been proactively gaining the tools to lead changemakers in building what we need to achieve the economic well-being we aspire to as a society.

Sharing economy implodes as people stay home

The sharing economy has imploded amidst sharply reduced demand for things like ride or apartment-sharing as Americans shelter in place. Lyft announced that it would be laying off 17% of its workforce, with more layoffs to come. Uber's Chief Technology Officer stepped down as the company announced that it would be laying off some 20% of its workforce. And Axios reports that Airbnb took on two, separate, $1 billion loans in April alone.

Study: Sextortionists netted some $500k in five months

Sextortion has been on the rise according to a new report from cybersecurity firm Sophos. The company found that so-called sextortionists – criminals who blackmail people for thousands of dollars in exchange for not revealing their online porn habits and sexual predilections – have raked in some $500k. Interestingly, most people didn't fall for the scheme which involved paying into a bitcoin wallet set up by the perpetrators, just .5% of targets paid into the wallet, according to the report. Still the amount of money these criminals raised from such a low response rate was enough to raise some red flags.

Hate groups and tech

Technology continues to enable hate speech and white supremacy as some investors have become unwitting funders of companies owned by white supremacists. The Tech Transparency project found about 125 militant groups on Facebook promoting a second Civil War, or "boogaloo", as they refer to it. Also, Softbank has apparently invested in surveillance firm Banjo whose CEO, according to OneZero, apparently admitted to helping a KKK member shoot up a synagogue. According to the report, Damien Patton admitted to being involved with the Dixie Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Pretty sobering when you think about the fact that this is a surveillance firm he's running.

Banks and consumer advocates want a limited return to robocalling

Banks and some consumer advocates, usually foes in their lobbying efforts, are both advocating for an exception to the general ban on robocalling Congress passed last year. The exception would allow robocalls in cases where the robocalls are designed to inform the public about financial relief. I think we can all anticipate the can of worms that would be opened there – give banks an inch and they'll take a yard. Pretty soon banks will be calling you for any reason at all.

Abortion via telemedicine

Pam Belluck of the New York Times wrote a piece on pregnant women seeking abortions via telemedicine. A company call TelAbortion, which the F.D.A. has approved to run during the Trump administration, serves as something of a middleman between doctors and patients by facilitating telemedicine appointments and the mailing of abortion medication. Lots of questions regarding conflicts of law issues as each state has different abortion regulations. But you can find the story in the New York Times and we've linked to it in the show notes.

Federal judge approves Baltimore spy initiative

A Republican judge appointed by George W. Bush gave the greenlight to the City of Baltimore's aerial surveillance program citing a "highly relevant" amount of violence "afflicting the city of Baltimore". The ACLU had sued the City of Baltimore back on April 9th for the spy plane program arguing that it is an unconstitutional invasion of personal privacy and the 4th Amendment guarantee of freedom from unreasonable government searches. More in Baltimore Magazine.

Democrats push to increase broadband access in next stimulus

The Hill reports that Democrats in both chambers of Congress are pushing for more funding to improve broadband for people who can't access internet service that's fast enough to do things like participate in remote work or distance learning. Senators Blumenthal and Markey, as well as Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, participated in a livestream with several advocacy organizations arguing for lower broadband prices. The 12 organizations hosting the livestream also circulated a petition containing 110,000 signatures urging guaranteed access to broadband as part of the next stimulus.

Fox News fires Diamond & Silk

Fox News has fired controversial commentators Diamond & Silk, whose real names are Lynette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, from their Fox Nation streaming service. The rabid Trump supporters have repeatedly promoted unsubstantiated conspiracy theories such as the claims that the World Health Organization is able to turn the coronavirus on and off at will, that Bill Gates is hiding the vaccine as a way to control the population, and that 5G causes the coronavirus to spread.

Doug Brake (@dbrakeitif) directs the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation's work on broadband and spectrum policy. He writes extensively and speaks frequently to lawmakers, the news media, and other influential audiences on topics such as next-generation wireless, rural broadband infrastructure, and network neutrality.

Brake is a recognized broadband policy expert, having testified numerous times before Congress, state legislatures, and regulatory commissions, as well as serving on the FCC's Broadband Deployment Advisory Group. His written commentary has appeared in publications such as Democracy Journal, Ripon Forum, Morning Consult, Roll Call, The Hill, and RealClearPolicy, and he has provided analysis on air for broadcast outlets such as Bloomberg, NPR, CNBC, and Al Jazeera.

He previously worked as a research assistant at the Silicon Flatirons Center at the University of Colorado, and he interned as a Hatfield scholar at the FCC, assisting with the implementation of the advanced communications services section of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act.

Brake holds a law degree from the University of Colorado Law School and a bachelor's degree in English literature and philosophy from Macalester College.

Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF)

Robert D. Atkinson et al., Digital Policy for Physical Distancing: 28 Stimulus Proposals That Will Pay Long-Term Dividends Digital Policy for Physical Distancing: 28 Stimulus Proposals That Will Pay Long-Term Dividends (2020) (last visited Apr 21, 2020).

Event memorializing Holocaust Zoom-bombed with Hitler images

Israeli Embassy in Germany

The Israeli Embassy in Germany decided to hold its Holocaust memorial online this year, only to have it Zoom-bombed with images of Adolf Hitler. This is just one of several incidents involving Zoom calls, with a meeting held by African American students at UT Austin Zoom-bombed a few weeks ago with similar racist comments and imagery. Despite the well-publicized breaches, though, Zoom usage is way up, with the company's CEO Eric Yuan reporting 300 million new users, or 50% higher, as the company's share price rose some 12% this week.

Human Rights groups try to protect kids online amidst EdTech commercialization efforts

School districts across the nation have rolled out their distance learning programs with varying degrees of success. Fairfax County, Virginia Public Schools' rollout was an embarrassing flop, for example, with students getting Zoom-bombed and users faced with persistent log in and access problems. But with the responsibility for education delegated to each state, how can students' privacy and personal data be protected with so little uniformity? Who will manage the RFP process for school technology providers seeking to work with school districts? What are the standards that will be used to evaluate them?

There aren't any.

So, as John Eggerton writes in Multichannel News, human rights groups are pushing for better oversight.

TikTok has added additional parental controls, like disabling DMs for teens under age 16. But that doesn't solve the problem of the China-based company potentially recording, predicting, and attempting to modify user behavior by conducting behavior and sentiment analysis over a lifetime, based on the profiles and videos their users have visited and how they have expressed themselves online since childhood, the effects of which we've yet to see.

Nintendo confirmed 160,00 hacks last week, disabling users' ability to log in, as the public shrugged off the hacks as a necessary tradeoff to enjoy our connected world. Fairfax County Police conducted a sting operation, arresting 30 adults who used the opportunity of the coronavirus lockdown to solicit underaged children for sex. While this effort is certainly a deterrent, many more perps, especially those who are technically literate, engage in the same behavior while evading detection, simply because lawmakers seem unable or unwilling to pass comprehensive privacy legislation to prevent the inadvertent disclosure of children's data, much less their exploitation by criminals.

Prisons are surveilling prisoners for discussions about coronavirus

The Intercept reports that prisons are surveilling inmates' phone calls for discussions about coronavirus. How doing so will help limit the spread of the deadly disease isn't clear. But the technology was developed by a company called Verus, which was funded by Republican donor Elliott Brody according to the report.

Cathy O'Neil: COVID-19 response threatens to automate ageism

In an opinion piece for Bloomberg, 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' author Cathy O'Neil writes that biased data is causing healthcare providers to allocate resources away from the elderly, as they choose where to assign limited resources. She fears that nations will automate ageism in a way that preserves healthcare gaps between the young and elderly. O'Neil argues that not only is much of the data biased, but it is also incomplete, showing little to no justification at all for assigning lower priority to older patients based on their age.

FCC denies extension of net neutrality comment period

Not even during a pandemic is the current FCC able to show the slightest bit of graciousness for two cities among the hardest hit. Saying they had more than enough time to prepare comments, the FCC denied the Cities of Los Angeles and New York's request to extend the comment deadline pertaining to those parts of the agency's net neutrality repeal the DC Circuit sent back for it to reconsider.

Newly unemployed find below-minimum-wage remote work on Amazon

Newly unemployed workers are finding work on Amazon. The only problem is that it's not the work in warehouses or delivering packages that most people think of. For many years, so-called "reviewers" have used Amazon's "Mechanical Turk" platform to perform tasks that pay a median wage of around 2.00 per hour, according to research from Carnegie Mellon University. Tasks include things like labeling pictures, text, or other items for large companies like Microsoft, according to Wired. So definitely some labor issues to think about there.

Leaked Amazon pics show new efforts to track license plates

Finally, Amazon has faced significant criticism of late regarding the surveillance components of its Ring camera and facial recognition program. But despite calls for reform, and in the absence of regulatory constraints, the company has continued developing this technology. Ars Technica reported last week that the company may now be tracking license plates. Several reports from the Washington Post and other sources have covered police departments' widespread use of surveillance technology developed by Amazon, Google, Palantir and others. But as one can see, we're essentially in a Wild West-type of era, similar to the early days of the internet, in which the supposed societal benefits, in this case public safety, are seen by tech moguls to outweigh our Constitutional rights.