Tech Policy Leaders

The author of 'Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right' and Joe Miller discuss how media public policy has helped the Right seem bigger than they are.

Anne Nelson (@nelsona) is the author of 'Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right' (Macmillan, 2019) and lecturer in the fields of international affairs, media and human rights. As a journalist she covered the conflicts in El Salvador and Guatemala, and won the Livingston Award for best international reporting from the Philippines. She served as the director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. In 1995 she became the director the international program at the Columbia School of Journalism, where she created the first curriculum in human rights reporting.

Since 2003 Nelson has been teaching at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), where her classes and research explore how digital media can support the underserved populations of the world through public health, education and culture.

Nelson is a widely published author. Her 2009 book "Red Orchestra" describes the way media was used for both propaganda and resistance in Nazi Germany, and was published to wide acclaim in the U.S. and Germany. In October 2017, Simon & Schuster published her book "Suzanne's Children: A Daring Rescue in Nazi Paris," telling the story of a rescue network in Paris that saved hundreds of Jewish children from deportation. The Wall Street Journal praised the way the book "vividly dramatizes the stakes of acting morally in a time of brutality." It was named a finalist in the National Jewish Book Awards. The work was published as "Codename: Suzette" in the UK, and as "La Vie Heroique de Suzanne Spaak" by Robert Laffont in France. It is available as an audiobook, read by Nelson, and was released in paperback in October 2018.

Nelson's play "The Guys," based on her experiences following the September 11th attacks, has been produced in all fifty states, fifteen countries, and as a feature film. It has been widely used to fund local fire departments and related causes such as trauma counseling and burn treatment centers.

Nelson also has long experience in philanthropy. She has consulted for the Rockefeller Foundation, the Gates Foundation, the Knight Foundation, among others, in areas of human rights, freedom of expression, social and economic development, and media policy.

Nelson is a graduate of Yale University, a 2005 Guggenheim fellow, and a 2013 Bellagio Fellow. She is a fellow at the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia, and a member of the New York Institute for the Humanities and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Soros/Clinton drag Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and billionaire Democratic mega-donor George Soros called out Facebook's apparent intention to get President Trump re-elected. The social media platform continues to maintain its policy of allowing ads placed by politicians that contain falsehoods to remain on the platform. According to Bloomberg, in a speech at the World Economic Summit in Davos, Mr. Soros stated "I think there is a kind of informal mutual assistance operation or agreement developing between Trump and Facebook". He went on to say that Facebook and Trump will work to protect each other.

At the Sundance Film Festival and in an Atlantic interview, Ms. Clinton expressed similar concerns and said that Zuckerberg's philosophy of letting its users "decide for themselves" what's true or false is an authoritarian perspective.

Jeff Bezos's phone hacked

According to new reports in the Guardian, Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos's smart phone was hacked in 2018. Forensic investigators reportedly found a "high probability" that a malicious file that was embedded within a WhatsApp conversation between Mr. Bezos and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, scoured Bezos's phone for personal information. The Hill notes that 9 months later, the National Enquirer revealed details of Mr. Bezos's extramarital affair, although both Saudi Arabia and National Enquirer former parent company American Media Inc., both deny Saudi Arabia's involvement. 2018 was also the year that Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered, a murder the U.S. concluded was ordered by bin Salman—an allegation that bin Salman and the Saudi government deny. President Trump has backed bin Salman and the Saudi government's denials of the murder.

In addition to controlling Amazon, Mr. Bezos also owns Washington Post, so multiple lawmakers and cybersecurity experts believe the alleged hack, reportedly conducted with tools linked to a bin Salman associate, was designed to suppress reporting on Mr. Khashoggi's murder. On Wednesday, Bezos tweeted a photo of himself standing with Mr. Khashoggi's fiancé under the hashtag #Jamal.

NFL social media accounts hacked

Hackers gained access to several NFL teams' social media profiles on Monday, including those of the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs, who are set to face off in Super Bowl 54 next Sunday. The hackers got into the teams Twitter Facebook and Instagram accounts. The hackers removed profile pictures, bios and headers. Other teams affected included the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, the Houston Texans, the New York Giants, the Chicago Bears, and the NFL's official Twitter account.

Newly tapped CBP head reportedly a member of racist/sexist Facebook group

Rodney Scott, the 27-year Customs and Border Patrol veteran whom President Trump tapped to lead the agency, has reportedly been a member of the same Facebook group that led to his predecessor's firing. The Facebook group "I'm 10-15"—10-15 is the code name CBP officers use to communicate that they have a so-called alien in custody—has been the site of racist and misogynistic attacks against Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in addition to other racist and sexist posts. Former CBP Chief Carla Provost retired after it was discovered that she was a member of the group.

Georgetown University and the City of Washington work to develop an algorithm to prioritize building inspections

Finally, the Washington Post reports that Georgetown University and the DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs are working on a new algorithm to go after slum lords in the District of Columbia. The Washington Post had reported back in 2017 that Sanford Capital, which owns several buildings in the District, maintained poor conditions including broken doors, rat infestations and problems with heat and sewage, even as they received millions in taxpayer subsidies. The new algorithm will be designed by Georgetown students and with the goal of improving efficiencies in an understaffed and unwieldy building inspection system.

Related Posts

Ep 50: How to Promote Counter Narratives to Hate Speech with Jessica Gonzalez(Opens in a new browser tab)

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

Naeemah Clark: How to Define 'Viewpoint Diversity' in a Polarized America (Ep. 155)(Opens in a new browser tab)

Yosef Getachew ( @ygetachew2) serves as Program Director of the Media & Democracy Program at Common Cause. Prior to joining Common Cause, Yosef served as a Policy Fellow at Public Knowledge where he worked on a variety of technology and communications issues. His work has focused on broadband privacy, broadband access and affordability, and other consumer issues. Prior to joining Public Knowledge, Yosef worked as a law clerk for several technology and communications organizations including the Federal Communications Commission, Comcast, Facebook, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Yosef has also served as a Project Coordinator and Research Assistant for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Yosef received his J.D. from the George Washington University Law School. In law school, he was an Articles Editor for the

Federal Communications Law Journal. Yosef was born and raised in Washington D.C.

Common Cause, Media & Democracy Project

We Must Remedy Discrimination in Our Media System by Jessica J. González

(Common Dreams, 2019)

Pelosi accuses Facebook of intentionally misleading voters

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped Facebook last week saying the company shamefully, intentionally misleads voters by failing to remove political ads. Ms. Pelosi specifically called out Facebook's capitalistic model as being antithetical to democracy and a fair election in 2020. She told reporters Thursday that Facebook only wants two things: continued tax cuts and weak antitrust enforcement.

There were 58.5 billion robocalls made in 2019, which is up 22 percent

Robocall-blocking service YouMail released a report last week finding a 22% increase in the number of robocalls placed in the U.S. since 2018. The company claims that Americans received nearly 18 robocalls per year in 2019. According to the company, overall, Americans have received some 100 billion robocalls over the last 2 years. At the end of December, President Trump signed a bi-partisan bill to reduce robocalls.

Former Mueller Chief of Staff says Washington is failing to ensure election security

John Carlin, the former Chief of Staff to Robert Mueller reportedly told the Hill that the federal government isn't doing enough to prevent election interference. Mr. Carlin says the federal government's response to the 2016 attacks, including a $425 million spending bill to address election security, did not go far enough its ongoing effort to deal with the proliferation of ransomeware and what he termed a "here and present threat"

National Institute of Justice paid Purdue University to study social media for warnings of future crimes

According to the National Institute of Justice's own website, it awarded nearly $2 million to Purdue University to assign convicted offenders wearable devices and then monitor them remotely to determine the likelihood that they'll commit future crimes. The NIJ claims the goal is to determine whether offenders should be permitted to re-enter society. But the results of the study could have significant implications for mass surveillance as the study, which calls for testing 250 randomly-selected offender participants, will likely unfairly target African American inmates since roughly 40% of the prison population is African American even though we comprise 13% of the total U.S. population.

City of Washington discovered 115 "ghost guns" in 2019

The Washington City Paper reports that the number of "ghost guns" police discovered in 2019 grew by 25% compared to the year before, or to more than 115 ghost guns. DC Police found only 3 such guns in 2017. Ghost guns are guns made from materials that can't be found by metal detectors, such as the plastic used to print 3D guns. The DC Council has proposed a bill that would ban some but not all 3D printed guns. Some officials are worried that legislation doesn't encompass enough of the various types of ghost guns. DC officials report that ghost guns were used in 3 homicides in 2019.

Proofpoint's Sherrod DeGrippo joined Joe Miller on the WashingTECH Podcast to discuss malware, the Emotet threat, and the human factor of cybersecurity.

Sherrod DeGrippo (@sherrod_im) is the Sr. Director of Threat Research and Detection for Proofpoint, Inc. She leads a worldwide malware research team to advance Proofpoint threat intelligence and keep organizations safe from cyberattacks. With more than 15 years of information security experience, Sherrod successfully directs her 24/7 team to investigate advanced threats, release multiple daily security updates and create scalable threat intelligence solutions that integrate directly into Proofpoint products.

Human Factor Report (Proofpoint, 2019)

Russia hacked the Ukrainian company at center of impeachment

The New York Times reported Monday that Russia's infamous Main Intelligence Unit formerly known as G.R.U, which is accused of working closely with Cambridge Analytica to interfere with the 2016 presidential election, hacked into the emails of Burisma, Ukraine's largest natural gas producer which is at the center of president Trump's impeachment. Former Vice President Joseph Biden's son, Hunter Biden, served on Burisma's board from 2014, until his term expired last year, a position for which Biden was compensated up to $50,000 per month. The articles of impeachment against Trump allege that Trump bribed Ukrainian President Vloymyr Zelensky by conditioning the $391 million in military aid already earmarked for Ukraine on Ukraine's investigation into Trump's unsubstantiated claim that Hunter Biden engaged in malfeasance during his time on Burisma's board. Both the Ukrainian prosecutor who said that he saw no wrongdoing by Biden and the Ukrainian prosecutor who replaced him issued a joint statement in October of last year stating that they did not find any evidence of wrongdoing by Biden.

The security firm Area 1 reports that Russian hackers conducted a phishing operation in which they created pages that appeared to be Burisma internal pages and tricked employees into entering their usernames and passwords, which gave the Russian's access to Burisma's network. It is not clear what information they obtained, but officials believe the hack was intended to find embarrassing information about Hunter Biden, given its timing amidst the impeachment investigation, as well as reports by the New York Times that Russian spies are conducting operations on the ground to gain access to Burisma in the physical world in order to achieve the same goal. Most Republicans in Congress currently deny that Trump should be removed from office, and zero republicans in the House voted for the articles of impeachment to move forward.

Facebook holds forth on political misinformation policy

Facebook persists in maintaining its corrosive political advertising policies, including the policy which allows politicians to microtarget false statements in their political ads. The company says it will soon allow users to limit the political ads they see and offer more details about the ads. The company has announced a ban on deepfake videos. Federal Election Commission Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub called the response weak.

Twitter has banned political advertisements altogether and Google is allowing political ads but not microtargeting.

White House recommends hands-off approach for discrimination in AI

Despite concerns raised by major civil rights groups over the last few years about the discriminatory effects of AI bias, and research showing the discriminatory effects of AI in determining things like creditworthiness, making hiring decisions, and many other areas, the White House released a set of AI Regulatory Guidelines during the Consumer Electronic Show last week, which take a relatively hands-off approach to addressing discrimination in AI.

Overall, the guidelines discourage regulations. Consider this phrase on page 5 of the guidelines: "When considering regulations or non-regulatory approaches related to AI applications, agencies should consider, in accordance with law, issues of fairness and non-discrimination with respect to outcomes and decisions produced by the AI application at issue." What the White House is saying here is that agencies "should" consider – it's optional – the outcomes and decisions produced—so not what goes into making the applications or addressing the fact that most of the people developing AI applications are not African-American, Hispanic, Latino, Southeast Asian, or Native American – but only the outcomes. This recommendation therefore means … let's take a hands-off approach—let's not develop standards for how AI applications are developed—let's just take a wait and see approach—if they have harmful effects, we'll go ahead and wait until someone spots those effects before we do anything about it.

And it's not like the guidelines don't make strong recommendations in other areas … Agencies "MUST", for example, report on the outcomes of stakeholder engagements and "identify existing regulatory barriers to AI applications …" So we've got a double-standard of a set of guidelines that mandate pre-emptive approaches to address regulatory barriers to the development of applications, but not barriers to say, you finding a job, or getting a mortgage, or getting Tinder matches who aren't Ayn Rand enthusiasts. And the guidelines make no mention of civil rights at all.

Barr asks Apple to unlock the Pensacola shooters iPhone

U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr has asked Apple to unlock the iPhone belonging to Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, the Saudi air force member who shot and killed 3 American sailors in Pensacola last month. Apple has refused. The dispute is the latest chapter in an ongoing saga between Apple and law enforcement officials that began when the FBI sought to compel Apple to unlock the iPhone belonging to Syed Farook, terrorist who murdered 14 people in San Bernadino in 2015. Federal law enforcement officials abandoned that effort after finding an alternative way to gain access.

Ivanka Trump speaks at the Consumer Electronics Show, met with resistance

Despite a warm reception from the crowd at the Consumer Electronics Show last week, White House adviser and daughter to the president Ivanka Trump was met with scorn and criticism, under the hashtag #BoycottCES from women and tech workers who said she didn't belong there. The Hill reported for example that game developer and Congressional candidate Brianna Wu took exception to the fact that Ms. Trump is not a woman in tech and criticized the Consumer Electronics Show's "lazy" attempt to achieve speaker diversity by selecting her as a speaker.

House passes 5G bills to ensure U.S. dominance over China

Finally, The House of Representatives passed 3 bills last Wednesday which would allow data speeds of up to 100x of what we currently have. The bills will also give the United States more say in how 5G is developed internationally by, for one, requiring the Secretary of State to hire a telecom adviser. Both parties signed on to the bills nearly unanimously.

Dylan Gilbert (@dgilbert_PK) is Policy Counsel at Public Knowledge where he advocates for the public interest with a focus on government affairs. His core work includes privacy, copyright reform, and a variety of telecommunications and platform-related issues. Prior to joining the Public Knowledge team, Dylan clerked at the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, the Federal Communications Commission, and America's Public Television Stations. Dylan also has over a decade of experience working in the music industry as a performer, producer, and music supervisor.

Dylan holds a J.D. from The George Washington University Law School and a B.A. from The College of William and Mary. In his free time, Dylan enjoys playing jazz piano and hitting errant golf shots at the driving range

Public Knowledge

Making Sense of the Termination Right: How the System Fails Artists and How to Fix It by Dylan Gilbert, Meredith Rose and Alisa Valentin (Public Knowledge, 2019)

Facebook and Twitter remove accounts tied to a fake pro-Trump network

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram removed hundreds of accounts , pages, groups and Instagram accounts operated by individuals in Vietnam and the U.S. The accounts used artificial intelligence to evade detection and create fake profile see in order to spread misinformation. Facebook connected all of the accounts to The Epoch Times, a Chinese site operated by the Falun Gong which has been supportive of President Trump. Twitter also removed 88,000 accounts on Friday alone which the company tied to Saudia Arabia.

Unanimous Senate Approves Robocall Legislation

Every once in awhile, it's nice to see some bipartisanship. The Senate last week unanimously approved Robocall legislation which will require phone carriers to block annoying robocalls free of charge. The bill also requires companies to verify that phone calls are coming from real numbers. It's called the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence or TRACED Act. It now heads to the president's desk for signature which Congressman Mike Doyle expects to happen within a week.

Airbnb bans 60+ white supremacists

Using data it collected from its user verification process, which included cross referencing its readership against the leaked SQL database of the now-defunct violent white extremist group Iron March, Airbnb banned more than 60 of its users, mostly guests rather than renrters, for their ties to Iron March. Gizmodo has more.

France has fined Google $167 million for anti-compettive conduct

France has fined Google some $167 million for anti-competitive conduct. The country asserts that Google controls some 90% of the online advertising market. Earlier this year, France began collecting a 3% company from firms that provide digital services to France-based customers.

Reveal News reports on debilitating worker injuries at Amazon

Reveal News published an article last week examining worker injuries at Amazon where, especially during the holiday season, workers are injured bending and lifting in an effort to reach a company goal of sending out 1 million orders out per hourdd. That translates to one item per 11 seconds for each employee. Moving at this breakneck speed, workers are increasingly injured, often keeping them out of work indefinitely. You can find that story in the show notes.

The New York Times releases extensive report on location data collection

The New York Times released a must-read report on how companies and entities we've never heard of, much less given consent to, are constantly collecting our location data, telling full stories about where we go, whom we're with, and what we're doing. It's a long read, so definitely something to check out over the holidays.

Mohamed Abdel-Kader (@MAKtweeter) is Executive Director of the Stevens Initiative at the Aspen Institute. He previously served in the administration of President Barack Obama as Deputy Assistant Secretary for International and Foreign Language Education at the US Department of Education's Office of Postsecondary Education. In that role, Mohamed was responsible for encouraging and promoting the study of foreign languages and the study of the cultures of other countries at the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary levels in the United States. He led his division's work in administering grants for overseas studies and research programs funded through the Fulbright-Hays Act as well as Title VI grants to support language and area studies programs in the United States.

Before joining the US Department of Education, Mohamed served as the Director of Development for the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and managed the university's advancement strategy in the Middle East, where he focused on major gifts and strategic engagement. Previously, he developed international partnerships and led donor development efforts at George Mason University. He has advised a variety of clients on organizational strategy, doing business in emerging markets, intercultural communication, and cultural competency in international philanthropy.

He speaks fluent Arabic and basic Spanish, is a Truman National Security Fellow and is the author of a children's book about stereotypes. He holds a Bachelor's degree from Clemson University, a Master's degree in Higher Education from Vanderbilt University, and an MBA from Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. Mohamed is a trustee of the Longview Foundation for International Education & World Affairs.

Stevens Initiative at the Aspen Institute

Virtual Exchange Impact and Learning Report (Stevens Initiative, 2019)

Texas men plead guilty to committing hate crime against Grindr users

Two Texas men admitted to using gay dating app Grindr to target gay men for hate crimes. The 24 and 18-year-old pleaded guilty to committing a hate crime, conspiracy to commit a hate crime, car jacking and use of a firearm, according to the Justice Department. The defendants used Grindr to lure gay men to a vacant apartment where they allegedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted them, forcing them to withdraw money from ATMs at gunpoint. They face between 15 and 30 years for their crimes.

Groups file net neutrality appeal

Several tech companies and advocacy groups, including Mozilla, Etsy, Vimeo, Free Press, and Public Knowledge, among others, filed an appeal in the D.C. Circuit asking the full panel of judges to reconsider the three-judge panel's October decision to uphold the Federal Communications Commission's repeal of the Obama-era net neutrality rules. If the court grants the appeal petition, the full court will rehear the matter.

Senators Booker/Wyden call on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to address algorithmic biases in healthcare

Senators Cory Booker and Ron Wyden sent a letter to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma calling for action to address racial and ethnic biases in healthcare. The Senators specifically cited recent research published in Science magazine showing that doctors were more likely not to refer black patients for additional care since their healthcare costs are typically lower than those of white patients. The Senators also cited a 2016 study showing that medical students and residents thought that black patients have a higher threshold for pain than white patients, affecting treatment recommendations offered to black patients. The Senators requested answers to several questions as to how CMMS is addressing algorithmic bias in healthcare. The answers to those questions are due by December 31st.

ProPublica: Facebook still allows discrimination against women and older workers in ad targeting

ProPublica reported last week that Facebook still allows advertisers to to discriminate based on age and gender even though the company made changes to its platform to prevent advertisers from explicit targeting discrimination. But a new report by Northeastern and Upturn found that advertisers can still discriminate based on proxies for age and gender. Targeting audiences based on software engineering as an occupation, for example, can yield a larger percentage of male applicants. Facebook is adamant that it has done more than any other company to address advertising bias.

New study finds increase in robocalls

A new report from Hiya, a company that tracks robocalls, released a report Monday showing that some 54.6 million robocalls were placed between January and November of this year—a 108 percent increase compared to last year. Congress is expected to pass legislation that will require phone carriers to block robocalls as well as verify that the phone numbers from which calls originate are legit.

Ebonie Riley currently serves as DC Bureau Chief of National Action Network's Washington, DC Bureau. The function of the Bureau is to advocate for and influence Federal public policy that reflects the needs and desires of the communities based on the Action Agenda set forth by the National Action Networks national board and senior leadership. In this capacity, Ebonie serves as a conduit for information about what is happening in the halls of Congress, in the office and administration of the President, and United States Supreme Court. Moreover, she and her team work to educate lawmakers and other stakeholders on the challenges and opportunities facing communities, by advocating for more resources and polices that help invest and advance economic and social equality.

Ebonie's government affairs portfolio includes criminal justice, federal sentencing reform, ending racial profiling, equal employment protection, access to comprehensive healthcare, immigration, access to quality education, women's rights, environmental justice, voting rights protection, housing, among other various issues that impact social and economic status, mobility, prosperity and empowerment of urban and under served communities.

Prior to this role, she served as the Bureau's Research and Policy Associate, analyzing legislation, drafts advocacy strategies, develops policy recommendations and monitors policy developments related to federal, state and local legislation while co-managing NAN's Social Media.

During her time at NAN she has helped organized several events and marches including coordinating NAN's 2015 National Convention, NAN's events in Baltimore, MD after the death of Freddie Gray, the Justice For All March in December 2014, NAN's Legislative & Policy Conferences in 2015 and 2014, the National Action to Realize the Dream Rally and March in celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington with over 200,000 people in attendance and Justice For Trayvon 100 City Vigil in Washington, D.C. both in 2013, just to name a few.

Born in Chicago, Illinois and growing up in Severn, Maryland, Ms. Riley graduated from Ft. Meade Senior High School and attended UMBC (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) where she graduated with Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and minor in History. While at UMBC; she served as President of Africana Studies Council of Majors, while sitting on several academic research teams that focused on civil rights, voting rights, political behavior and attitudes, identity politics, race and representation, Congress, and elections. Specific interests include political engagement, civil rights law, voter turnout, voter suppression, and identity group politics.

National Action Network

LGBTQ+ groups call on Facebook to take down false drug ads

Several LGBTQ+ civil rights groups are calling on Facebook to take down an ad posted by lawyers apparently seeking to capitalize by spreading misinformation about Truvada for PrEP, which studies have shown helps reduce the risk of contracting HIV by 99%. According to groups including GLAAD, The Human Rights Campaign and other groups, the lawyers are inaccurately claiming the drug causes certain side effects, and the groups are concerned that the ad will discourage people from taking the drug.

Pensacola hit by cyberattack

In a Facebook post, The City of Pensacola, Florida reported that it was the victim of a cyberattack over the weekend and into Monday, which took down much of the city's network, including its online payment system and city government emails. 311 service was also affected. Pensacola Mayor Grover Robertson said in a press conference that it was not known whether the cyberattack was connected to last week's shooting at the Pensacola Naval Station in which 3 people were killed and many others injured.

TikTok lawsuits

Legal troubles are mounting for Chinese social media company TikTok, whose growth has been outpacing that of established social media platforms, including Facebook. Bytedance, TikTok's parent company, was already under federal investigation into potential ties to the Chinese government. Plaintiffs filed two lawsuits last week, one of which was settled. But a second lawsuit brought against ByteDance in the Northern District of California by a student alleges that TikTok is transferring private user data to the Chinese government.

Separately, German digital rights and digital culture blog NetzPolitik reported that TikTok has been blocking users with disabilities including overweight users and users with intellectual disabilities. Netzpolitik also reports that TikTok has been nbanning gay users as well. The company purports to ban these users so that they won't be subjected to bullying.

Google Ads staff files retaliation complaint against Google

The National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint last Tuesday claiming the company fired several employees in retaliation for their having joined or supported a labor group and protesting the company's terms and conditions of employment. Reports also state that Google's rules prevent employees from organizing.

Policymakers often discuss privacy as something that is lacking. But what if there is too much privacy? Michele Gilman joined Joe Miller to explain.

Bio

Michele Gilman (@profmgilman) is the Venable Professor of Law; Director, Saul Ewing Civil Advocacy Clinic; and Co-Director, Center on Applied Feminism at the University of Baltimore School of Law. She is also a faculty fellow at Data & Society in New York, where she focuses on the intersection of data privacy law with the concerns of low-income communities.

Before joining the faculty, Professor Gilman was a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice; an associate at Arnold and Porter in Washington, D.C.; a law clerk to United States District Court Judge Frank A. Kaufman of the District of Maryland; and an editor of the Michigan Law Review. Professor Gilman's scholarship focuses on issues relating to poverty, privacy, economic inequality, and feminist legal theory and her articles have been published in the California Law Review, the Vanderbilt Law Review and the Washington University Law Review, among others. She was a visiting associate professor at the William and Mary School of Law during the 2005-06 academic year and a professor in the University of Aberdeen summer program in summer 2009. In 2009, she received the Outstanding Teaching by a Full-Time Faculty Member Award.

Professor Gilman directs the Saul Ewing Civil Advocacy Clinic, in which student attorneys represent individuals and community groups in a wide array of civil litigation and law reform projects. She is involved in numerous groups working on behalf of low-income Marylanders. She is a member of the Committee on Litigation and Legal Priorities of the ACLU of Maryland and the Judicial Selection Committee of the Women's Law Center. She is the past president of the board of the Public Justice Center, where she served from 2004-2014, as well as a past member of the Maryland Bar's Section Council on Delivery of Legal Services. She received the 2010 University System of Maryland Board of Regents' Award for Public Service. Professor Gilman is the former co-chair and a member of the Scholarship Committee of the AALS Clinical Legal Education Section, and a former editor of the Clinical Law Review Review and the Journal of Legal Education. She is also a co-director of the Center on Applied Feminism, which works to apply the insights of feminist legal theory to legal practice and policy. She is a member of the Maryland and District of Columbia bars.

Professor Gilman will be a faculty fellow at Data & Society in New York during the 2019-2020 academic year. She will be focusing on the intersection of data privacy law with the concerns of low-income communities.

Resources

University of Baltimore School of Law

The Surveillance Gap: The Harms of Extreme Privacy and Data Marginalization by Michele Gilman (New York University Review of Law & Social Change, 2019).

News Roundup

Uber wins against woman in driver rape lawsuit

Uber was victorious last week in a sexual assault lawsuit brought against it by a woman who says she was raped near a San Francisco shopping mall last year, by a suspended Uber driver who still had the Uber decal on his window. In her pleadings before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, the victim claimed that the suspended driver was acting within the scope of his employment and that she legitimately thought it would be a safe ride. But the court disagreed. Judge Corley did find, however, that the victim had made out a plausible claim for negligence and permitted her to refile for punitive damages for negligence stemming from Uber's apparent failure to ensure the driver removed the decal from his window. The driver still faces a criminal trial which could send him away for life.

Separately, Uber has begun videotaping rides. But the effort has faced resistance from privacy advocates.

Prisoners in West Virginia prisons to be charged $.03 per minute to read e-books

West Virginia prisoners will have to pay $.03 per minute to access e-books via Project Gutenberg, which otherwise offers the public free access to over 60,000 books. The West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (WVDCR) entered into a deal with Global Tel Link (GTL) to provide tablets to 10 prisons in West Virginia which will also allow inmates to watch videos and send written messages and photos. But the rates for those services, ranging between $.25 and $.50 per minute, are still very high relative to the $.04 per hour to $.58 per hour prisoners can earn in wages. The prisons will lift a current restriction on accessing books in print. But advocates who oppose the exploitative $.03 per minute fee for e-books note that the use of books in print comes with many more restrictions.

DC AG sues DoorDash for wage theft

DC Attorney General Karl Racine is suing DoorDash for pocketing tips the company solicits from customers. The Office of the Attorney General has been investigating the company since March, and now says that evidence shows that DoorDash routinely kept the tips to reduce the amount they had to pay drivers in wages.

Congresswoman Val Demings introduces bipartisan digital evidence bill

Florida Congresswoman Val Demings, a Democrat, has introduced new bipartisan legislation to improve law enforcement's access to digital evidence from tech companies. The bill would create a new Office of Digital Law Enforcement within the Department of Justice to train law enforcement on how to handle digital evidence. It would also create a Center for Excellence for Digital Forensics to centralize tech expertise and legal assistance within the same building. The bill would also set up infrastructure for the DOJ to issue digital evidence program grants, as well as a Technology Policy Advisory Board to advise the Attorney General on digital evidence best practices.

Brooklyn landlord nixes facial recognition plan

A Brooklyn landlord has cancelled plans to install facial recognition technology after resistance from tenants and advocacy groups. Robert Nelson, President of Nelson Management Group, owns the 700-unit Atlantic Plaza Towers building in Brownsville where most tenants are black. Tenants and their supporters are now pushing for statewide legislation that would outlaw facial recognition technology throughout the Empire State.

Democrats call out Oracle on Diversity

Democratic lawmakers who are members of the House Tech Accountability Caucus, the Tri-Caucus, and the Congressional Black Caucus' Diversity Task force called out Oracle for its lack of diversity in a letter to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. The letter notes that Oracle has 0% board diversity, saying it is unacceptable given Oracle's attempts to earn business from firms that serve people of color.

Tyler McIntyre (@tmcpro) is the founder & CTO of Novo, a small business challenger bank in the United States that is building technology to help small and medium-sized businesses better understand where and how they are spending their money. Tyler has a strong technology background and understanding of business through his previous startups. He has also consulted for Fortune 500 companies. Tyler has been working with building artificially intelligent assistants since 2011. He has a Bachelors in Management from the University of Miami and a Certificate in Business Management from the University of Pennsylvania. His company is based in Manhattan's Flatiron district.

Novo Bank

Microsoft steps up fight to save DACA

Microsoft is stepping up its fight to save the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on behalf of its 66 DACA employees, referred to as "Dreamers". The Obama-era program grants relief to the children of undocumented migrants who have spent their entire childhood in the United States. Applicants to the program do need to meet several requirements in order to qualify for DACA. For example, they can't have any felony convictions or more than 3 misdemeanors. They also have to have earned a high school diploma or GED. If they qualify, Dreamers get renewable, 2-year deferrals from being deported and can ultimately become eligible to obtain a work permit. President Trump has said he would end the program. So many, including Microsoft, have been pushing Congress to pass legislation to protect Dreamers, since the program was established under the Obama administration through an executive memo. The courts, including the Supreme Court which prevented its expansion, have held that the program is likely unconstitutional without action from Congress.

Big Tech invests billions to fund public housing efforts in California

Big tech companies are investing billions to address California's public housing shortage. It started with Apple announcing a $2.5 billion investment, followed by pledges from Google and Facebook who pledged to contribute $1 billion apiece. But local California officials have said that the investment will not be enough to address decades of rapid employment growth in the tech sector. This growth has pushed some 28,000 people out of their homes, according to the Hill. Vermont Congressman Bernie Sanders also criticized the program, calling for tax hikes, saying that its disingenuous for tech company tax evaders, who he says created the problem, to attempt to distract from it with investments that won't be enough.

Social media companies reconsider microtargeting in political ads

Facebook, Google and Twitter are reconsidering allowing politicians to microtarget their ads based on user location and other factors. Twitter, for one, has banned all political advertising. Google is reportedly reconsidering its political ad policy with an announcement expected this week. These developments come amid criticism from Mozilla as well as an International Committee composed of lawmakers from Australia, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Singapore, the UK and the United States, who have objected to microtargeting practices across social media.

Facebook, YouTube pledge not to name whistleblower

Facebook and YouTube have said that they will remove content revealing the name of the potential whistleblower who disclosed President Donald Trump's alleged attempt to require Ukraine to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden in exchange for aid. The whistleblower's complaint is at the heart of the House of Representatives' impeachment inquiry into the president.=

Twitter however, will continue to allow users to post the name of the whistleblower, but will remove personally identifiable information such as his or her phone number and address.

Study: misinformation on Facebook is up ahead of 2020 election

Avaaz, a global advocacy organization that tracks misinformation online, issued a study of the most viral fake political news stories in 2019. It found the stories generated nearly 160 million views, compared to 140 million views of fake news stories posted during the 2016 election. Some 62 percent of the fake stories were anti-Democrat.

NY Times: NYPD staffers took kickbacks from health clinics, doctors, and lawyers in exchange for car accident victim data

The New York Times reports that staffers of the New York City Police Department took kickbacks from health clinics, doctors, lawyers, and a fraud insurance ring in Queens, in exchange for data from car accident victims. Prosecutors have charged 27 individuals for their alleged involvement. Fifty-one year-old Anthony Rose allegedly directed the scheme in which 911 call operators sent car accident victims in low-income areas in New York City to fake call centers that directed them to partnering accident victim service providers. In exchange, the call centers allegedly paid kickbacks to Rose, a portion of which he then distributed to co-conspirators who worked for the NYPD.

Sole anti-net neutrality Democratic Senator tied to Comcast

The American Prospect reports that it has tied Kyrsten Sinema, the only Democrat in the Senate who opposes the pro-net neutrality Save the Internet Act, to a Super PAC that's funded by telecom lobbyists. The report states that Sinema directed contributions to the Super PAC that ultimately funded her own campaign.

Instagram to hide 'likes' beginning this week

Finally, beginning this week, Instagram is expected to hide the number of 'likes' users generate from their posts. Users will reportedly continue to be able to see likes on their own posts, but not the likes of others'. But the new policy will only affect some of Instagram's users. The Hill reports that YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook are also considering hiding likes.

The Common Law History of Section 230 with Brent Skorup (Ep. 208)

Brent Skorup (@bskorup) is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. His research areas include transportation technology, telecommunications, aviation, and wireless policy.

He serves on the FCC's Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee and on the Texas DOT's Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Task Force. He is also a member of the Federalist Society's Regulatory Transparency Project.

The White House, the FCC, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and a dissenting opinion at the Illinois Supreme Court have cited his research. In addition to economics and law journal publication, he has authored pieces for National Affairs, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Wired, Air Traffic Management magazine, Regulation magazine, and elsewhere. He's appeared as a TV and radio interview guest for news outlets like C-SPAN, NPR, CBS News, ABC News, and CNBC Asia.

Brent has a BA in economics from Wheaton College and a law degree from the George Mason University School of Law, where he was articles editor for the Civil Rights Law Journal. He was a legal clerk at the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and at the Energy and Commerce Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. Before joining Mercatus, he was the Director of Research at the Information Economy Project, a law and economics university research center.

Mercatus Center

The Erosion of Publisher Liability in American Law by Brent Skorup and Jennifer Huddleston (Mercatus Center, 2019)

Zuckerberg, Facebook under mounting pressure over political ads

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to meet with civil rights leaders this week after his company has maintained its policy to leave up political ads containing false statements by politicians. The company has applied the policy unevenly, first allowing Donald Trump to maliciously post an ad with false information about Joe Biden; then leaving up an Elizabeth Warren ad containing false information designed to illustrate the absurdity of Facebook's ad policy. During a hearing, Zuckerberg also admitted to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that if she were to place a false political ad, that the company would probably leave it up.

But Facebook is inexplicably removing false ads placed by Political Action Committees. One notable example is an ad placed the Really Online Lefty League – ROLL – a Political Action Committee co-founded by Adriel Hampton – which falsely claimed that Lindsey Graham supports the New Green Deal. Hampton, an experienced marketing and political strategist, responded by filing to run for governor of California. Then gubernatorial candidate Hampton posted a false political ad and Facebook took it down, saying his campaign wasn't legit—that it was just a ploy to place a false ad to see what Facebook would do. Even though Hampton says he fully expects to win the governorship, Facebook hasn't reinstated the ad.

It's a mess.

Top officials from the NAACP, National Urban League, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights are scheduled to meet with Zuckerberg this week to express their concerns with Facebook's political ad policy, which the company now says has been extended to the UK.

Facebook sued for age, gender bias in financial services ads

A plaintiff in San Francisco filed a potential class action federal lawsuit last week claiming that Facebook discriminates against users based on age and gender in determining who can see financial services ads. The lawsuit comes 7-months after Facebook agreed to tailor its platform to avoid discrimination on the basis of age, gender and zip code for job, credit, and housing ads.

US launches Tik Tok investigation

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has launched a national security investigation into Tik Tok, which is owned by the Chinese firm Bytedance. A bipartisan cohort of lawmakers including Democrat Chuck Schumer, Republican Marco Rubio, and Tennessee Democratic Congressman Bart Gordon have all expressed concern about how the Chinese government uses TikTok's data. TikTok's growth has been outpacing the growth of incumbent social media companies in the U.S.

Snowden: Facebook as untrustworthy as the NSA

Whistleblower Edward Snowden, who is exiled in Russia for blowing the lid off the National Security Agency's mass data collection practices six years ago, told ReCode's Kara Swisher last week that Facebook is as untrustworthy as the NSA when it comes to privacy. But he didn't limit his remarks to Facebook. He said that all tech companies are looking to exploit our personal data no matter the consequences. He also said that, on the surface, users may appear not to be concerned about how big tech companies handle their data but that, in reality, users are very concerned but feel powerless.

Five people shot and killed at Airbnb rental

Five people were shot and killed at an Airbnb rental Northern California during a Halloween party on Thursday. The rental listing on Airbnb prohibited parties and the renter claimed it was renting the space for family members who were suffering from smoke inhalation from the fires in the Los Angeles area. A witness reported to Buzzfeed that the shooting occurred with apparently no provocation. Airbnb has banned the renter from the platform.

China launches 5G network

Chinese officials announced last week that it would roll out 5G to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou 2 months ahead of schedule. The country also announced plans to roll out 5G to over 50 cities by the end of this year. While U.S. telecom companies have begun their 5G roll-out, it's largely been rolled out on higher frequency bands than the 5G service that's being rolled out in China. The lower frequency bands that China's using cover a larger surface area, while the higher frequency bands U.S. companies are using are more powerful but cover less ground.

Corey Booker introduces bill to ban facial recognition in public housing

Senator Corey Booker has introduced a bill to ban facial recognition in public housing. The Senator cites the disproportionate impact that facial recognition technology threatens to have on the nation's most vulnerable communities. The No Biometric Barriers to Housing Act targets public housing that receives funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Apple pledges $2.5 billion for California affordable housing

Apple announced that it will invest $2.5 billion to address California's affordable housing shortage. Some of those funds will be applied statewide. Others will be allocated for projects in the Bay Area. Three hundred million dollars will go towards affordable housing on Apple-owned property.

Following Katie Hill's resignation, Democrats push for revenge porn law

Thirty-five democrats in Congress sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee to pass a federal revenge porn law that would criminalize the nonconsensual posting of sexually explicit images online. The letter followed Congresswoman Katie Hill's resignation from Congress after someone posted nude images depicting her and others as well as accusations that she was having inappropriate relations with campaign and congressional staffers. Hill blames her husband, whom she is in the process of divorcing, for posting the photos.

MIT president acknowledges discrimination against minorities and women on campus

Finally, Massachusetts Institute of Technology president Rafael Reif acknowledged last week that women and people of color often face exclusion and belittlement on campus and that it's something the university is trying to improve. The development follows revelations of Jeffrey Epstein's ties to the university.