Tech Policy Leaders

Bio

Dr. Desmond Upton Patton (@SAFELab) is an assistant professor at the Columbia School of Social Work and a Faculty Affiliate of the Social Intervention Group (SIG) and the Data Science Institute. His research utilizes qualitative and computational data collection methods to examine how and why youth and gang violence, trauma, grief and identity are expressed on social media and the real world impact they have on well-being for low-income youth of color.

His current research projects examine:

1. How gang involved youth conceptualize threats on social media
2. The extent to which social media shapes and facilitates youth and gang violence
3. Developing an online tool for detecting aggression in social media posts in partnership with the Data Science Institute at Columbia.

Dr. Patton's research on Internet Banging has been discussed on several media outlets, including the Chicago Tribune, USA Today, NPR, Boston Magazine, ABC News, and Vice; it was most recently cited in an Amici Curae Brief submitted to the United States Supreme Court in the Elonis v. United States case which examined the issues of interpreting threats on social media. Before coming to Columbia in July of 2015, Dr. Patton was an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work and School of Information. He received a BA in Anthropology and Political Science, with honors, from the University of North Carolina- Greensboro, an MSW from the University of Michigan School of Social Work, and a PhD in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago.

Resources

SAFELab at Columbia University's School of Social Work

The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish

News Roundup Mueller indicts 13 Russians in '16 election hacking

You have undoubtedly heard by now about FBI special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's indictment of 13 Russians who allegedly maintained a vast network of content creators in order to sway the 2016 election in favor of Donald Trump. The defendants used social media by amplifying primarily mainstream news content, according to a new Columbia University study. The network stole Americans' identities, and created fake social media profiles to spread divisive content that favored Donald Trump.

But the hacking began in 2014, prior to president Trump's announcement that he would be running for president. The defendants even promoted content that favored Bernie Sanders' primary campaign against Hillary Clinton. So the Trump administration is using this to try to illustrate that the Russians' primary effort was to subvert our entire political system, rather than support Donald Trump's election, specifically. Trump's opponents argue that Russian conspirators saw the seating of Donald Trump as President as a no-brainer, given his susceptibility to blackmail because of his alleged hiring of prostitutes in 2013 in Moscow and his real estate deals with Russians. Sharon Lafraniere and Matt Apuzzo report for the New York Times. Craig Timberg reports for the Washington Post. But you can find coverage everywhere.

Meanwhile, Trump's Director of National Intelligence warns that there is "no doubt" that Russians are planning to hack this year's midterm elections. The consensus is that we're not prepared for that. In fact, the website Hamilton 68, reported that Russian bots flooded Twitter with pro-gun messaging following Wednesday's school shooting in Parkland Florida that left 17 dead.

FCC is investigating its own Chairman Pai

Cecilia Kang at the New York Times reported last week that the FCC's Inspector General is investigating FCC Chairman Ajit Pai for illegally paving the way for Sinclair Broadcasting. Pai led the agency in several efforts that, appearing to some, seemed timed to Sinclair's proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media, including the relaxation of the media ownership cap and newspaper broadcast cross-ownership rules.

Amazon boosts lobbying spending

Spencer Soper, Naomi Nix, Ben Brody and Bill Allison report for Bloomberg that Amazon has significantly increased its lobbying spending in Washington. A number of policy issues have taken center-stage for the company, as Amazon seeks to expand into different areas, including healthcare. The company's lobbying spending has grown by over 400% since 2012, according to Bloomberg. You can find the full report there.

Federal Court: Grubhub drivers are contractors not employees

In a major victory for on-demand takeout company Grubhub, the U.S. Dictrict Court for the Northern District of California ruled that Grubhub drivers are contractors not employees. The plaintiff sued Grubhub for paying subpar wages based on his classification as a contractor. The court ruled that Grubhub does not exercise a requisite amount of color over drivers' work to justify classifying them as employees. Dara Kerr reports in CNET.

Google tests 911-caller locator system

Google tested a new system that would improve the ability of 911 operators to locate emergency callers. Currently, 911 calls made via cell phone are difficult to pinpoint. Ryan Knutson has the story in the Wall Street Journal.

Dr. Desmond Patton discusses how social media and gang violence relate and how policymakers and law enforcement can empathize with youth more effectively.

Bio

Brian Howard is a Research & Policy Analyst with the American Indian Policy Institute (AIPI) at Arizona State University. Prior to joining the AIPI team in November 2016, Brian served over five years as a Legislative Associate with the National Congress of American Indians in Washington, DC. Working on behalf of American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments, Brian's work included developing and advocating tribal policy initiatives in Congress and the Administration on issues such as Telecommunications, Government Contracting, and Cultural Protections (Sacred Places, Eagle Feather/Eagle Protections, NAGPRA, and Mascot issues). Brian's work experience has included numerous D.C.-based research and policy internships, as well as with the New Mexico House of Representatives and the Gila River Indian Community Council's Office.

Brian graduated from the University of New Mexico in 2009 with his Bachelor of Arts degree in Native American Studies focusing on Federal Indian Law and Policy with a minor in Political Science. He is Akimel O'odham, Tohono O'odham, and Pi-Pash, and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community where he grew up in the Komatke District.

Resources

American Indian Policy Institute (AIPI) at Arizona State University

National Congress of American Indians

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto by Jr. Vine Deloria

News Roundup

N.Y. Times: U.S. spies paid Russians for cyberweapons/Trump secret

Remember the dossier on Donald Trump that former British spy Christopher Steele built that made headlines about a year ago? The one that alleged encounters with prostitutes, bribes, and evidence of collaboration with Russians to hack Democrats? Well the problem with the dossier until now was that none of the allegations have been corroborated. But, over the weekend, the New York Times reported that U.S. spies paid a "shadowy Russian" some $100,000 in exchange for stolen National Security Agency cyberweapons. The Russian also promised secret information about President Trump. The total payout was to be $1 million. This was just the first installment. And the spies, according to the Times, delivered the cash in a suitcase to a Berlin hotel. The White House and CIA have obviously been trying to contain the report. Matthew Rosenberg reports in the New York Times.

Russian hackers continue to exploit U.S. cyber vulnerabilities

The Associated Press reports that Russian spies have continued to exploit vulnerabilities in U.S. defenses. According to the report, the spies fooled contractors with phishing scams disseminated via email, which allowed them to gain access to data acquired by spy drones.

Waymo and Uber reach a settlement

Uber and Waymo reached a settlement last week. Uber agreed to give Waymo, the self driving car company built by Google, a $245 million stake in Uber's equity, or about .34 percent. No cash was part of the settlement. Uber continues to deny that they either stole or used any of Waymo's trade secrets or self-driving car technology. Alex Castro reports for the Verge.

U.S. arrests 36 in cyberfraud crackdown

The Justice Department reported last week that it had arrested and charged 36 people for running a cyberfraud ring that stole some $350 million. Officials allege that Svyatoslav Bondarenko created Infraud in 2010 to make online purchases with counterfeit or stolen credit card information. Tom Schoenberg reports on the details of the scheme in Bloomberg.

Internet giants back net neutrality bill

The Internet Association--the trade association that represents internet giants like Google, Facebook and others--wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last week in support of a bipartisan legislative solution that would overturn the FCC's repeal of the net neutrality rules. Harper Neidig reports in the Hill.

British officials grill Google, Facebook and Twitter in Washington

Eleven members of the British Parliament came to Washington last week to grill tech executives from Google, Facebook and Twitter about fake news. Hamza Shaban of the Chicago Tribune reported that the meeting was far from cordial, with the lawmakers sharply criticizing the companies' moral compass and failure to curtail the spread of misinformation online. YouTube maintained that it hadn't found any evidence of Russian interference in the Brexit vote.

In a separate story last week, CNN brought to Twitter's attention the fact that hundreds of Russian propaganda videos remained on Vine—the video sharing platform that Twitter owns--until well after Twitter should have been aware that the Kremlin posted the videos

Also, YouTube had to change some of its policies after YouTuber Logan Paul engaged in an ongoing pattern of posting really repulsive videos such as the video of a suicide victim in Japan. Google decided to suspend advertising on Paul's channel and announced a broader policy change under which it would make YouTube channels that post offensive content less discoverable. Ingrid Ludent reports for Tech Crunch

Winter Olympics were cyberattacked

An organizer of the winter Olympics in Pyeongchang reported that there was a cyberattack during the opening ceremony. However, the organizer won't disclose who carried out the attack. Peter Rutherford reports in Reuters

New study finds gender pay gap among Uber drivers

A new University of Chicago study found a gender pay gap among Uber drivers. The study found that women driving for Uber earned some 7% less per hour than their male counterparts.

Mark Warner tees up 'tech addiction'

At a speech last week, Senator Mark Warner teed up tech addiction as a concern for policymakers. The remarks came amidst several studies conducted recently that purport to illustrate Americans' addition to tech. David McCabe has more in Axios

M.I.T. study shows facial recognition AI skin color bias

A new study from the M.I.T. Media Lab shows a commercial facial recognition technology is correct 99% of the time when it comes to identifying white man. But when it came to identifying black folks, the software was wrong 35% of the time. Steve Lohr reports in The New York Times

Spouses of highly skilled immigrants face job losses under Trump

The spouses of high skilled workers who enter the country under an H1B visa are permitted to work under an H-4 visa. But Trump's Department of Homeland Security is seeking to end the program, potentially affecting that additional source of income.

Cleaver wants white supremacists out of cryptocurrencies

Several reports say that white supremacists have been raising funding with Bitcoin to circumvent the established tech sector. So Missouri Democrat Emanuel Cleaver wrote a letter to the Bitcoin Foundation and Digital Chamber of Commerce, asking for measures to curtail white supremacists' cryptocurrency fundraising activities. Ali Breland reports in the Hill.

Senators pressure CFPB on Equifax

Thirty Senators want to know why Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, a Trump appointee has delayed the investigation into the Equifax breach that compromised the data of some 143 million Americans. Thirty Senators, led by Hawaii Democrat Brian Schatz, want to know why CFPB hasn't taken preliminary steps in the investigation. So far the CFPB has declined comment.

Trump administration wants to privatize International Space station

Christian Davenport reports for the Washington Post that the White House is planning to stop funding for the International Space Station after 2024. It is working on a plan to turn the space station into a commercial enterprise.

Brian Howard is a Research & Policy Analyst with the American Indian Policy Institute (AIPI) at Arizona State University. research and policy internships, as well as with the New Mexico House of Representatives and the Gila River Indian Community Council’s Office.

Bio

Dr. Simone Browne (@wewatchwatchers) is Associate Professor in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas, Austin. She teaches and researches surveillance studies and black diaspora studies.

Her first book, Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness, examines surveillance with a focus on transatlantic slavery, biometric technologies, branding, airports and creative texts. You can read the Introduction to Dark Matters here.

• Winner of the 2016 Best Book Prize, Surveillance Studies Network
• Winner of the 2016 Lora Romero First Book Prize, American Studies Association
• Winner of the 2015 Donald McGannon Award for Social and Ethical Relevance in Communications Technology Research

She is an Executive Board member of HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory). She is also a member of Deep Lab, a feminist collaborative composed of artists, engineers, hackers, writers, and theorists. Along with Katherine McKittrick and Deborah Cowen she is co-editor of Errantries, a new series published by Duke University Press.

Resources

Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness by Simone Browne

Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Noble

UT Austin Department of Sociology

AI Now Institute at New York University

Deep Lab

Danielle Deane

Sadie Barnette

News Roundup CFPB Head Mulvaney Halts Equifax Probe

Patrick Rucker at Reuters reported on Sunday that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Acting Director, Mick Mulvaney, has been blocking the investigation into Equifax's massive September data breach. The breach exposed the data of some 143 million Americans to hackers. But Mulvaney has been working behind the scenes by not ordering any subpoenas, seeking sworn testimony, or really anything that would suggest CFPB is doing anything to further the investigation. CFPB has also blocked other agencies such as the FDIC and Federal Reserve from even stepping in to help out with the investigation. The U.S. Court of Appeals also affirmed Mulvaney's poltically-charged appointment.

Study finds text reminders reduced arrest warrants for those who fail to appear in court

A new University of Chicago Crime Lab and ideas42 study that was funded, in part, by the MacArthur Foundation, found that texts reminding people about court appearances in New York City, reduced Failure to Appear "FTA" arrest warrants by as much as a third. Changes to the summons form, that put the most relevant information on top, such as the date, time and place of the court appearance, plus the penalty associated with failing to appear, translated to a reduction of FTA arrest warrants by 17,000, when the form changes were implemented system-wide.

U.S. Census Bureau to Ignore Detailed Race Classification

The U.S. Census Bureau is bowing to an apparent effort by the Trump administration to ensure that as many people as possible claim their race as "White" for census purposes. The Census Bureau released a statement on January 26th saying that the 2020 Census would ignore the Obama Administration's recommendation to allow census respondents to check specific ethnicities along with racial categories. Instead, the Bureau will continue to emphasize the broader racial categories of White and Black, with Hispanics and Latinos only being able to write-in their heritage, but also having to choose their race as Black or White. The form also indicates "Egyptian" as an example of "White". Additionally, the "White" racial category will continue to be listed first. But that would have been the case on the form that the Obama administration recommended as well. The Census Bureau has until March 31st to make its final determination.

PBS cries foul on YouTube content-flagging plan

YouTube's plan to flag government-sponsored content isn't going over so well with PBS. PBS receives some, but not all, funding from the federal government. So the powerful, non-profit broadcast network is concerned that YouTube will lump all of its content into one bucket. Hamza Shaban reports for The New York Times.

Ahead of Valentine's Day, the FTC posts infographic warning of dating site scams

The Federal Trade Commission last week released a new infographic warning about dating site scams. Some of the things to look out for include, well, weirdos, basically – people who profess their love quickly, ask for money, or say they need help with an emergency. You know, standard stuff. The FTC says people lost $220 million from scams like these in 2016. DON'T let it happen to you.

Alphabet's board names new Executive Chairman

Google's parent company Alphabet has announced its new Chairman to replace outgoing Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. John Hennessy has taken the helm. Hennessy is the former President of Stanford University and he's been an Alphabet board member since it was founded in 2015, and prior to that was a Google board member since 1997. Hennessy is a passionate defender of the DREAM Act. Schmidt remains an Alphabet board member and technical advisor to the company. He has also joined MIT as an innovation fellow.

Trump SOTU breaks Twitter record

Twitter reports that Trump's State of the Union Speech last week broke the Twitter record. The 3 million tweets during Trump's speech surpassed the 2.6 million tweets Barack Obama's garnered in 2015.

Dr. Simone Browne (@wewatchwatchers) is Associate Professor in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas, Austin. She teaches and researches surveillance studies and black diaspora studies.

Bio

Chris J Snook (@chrisjsnook) is the Bestselling Author of Digital Sense: The Common Sense Approach to Effectively Blending Social Business Strategy, Marketing Technology and Customer Experience (Wiley, 2016). He is a Managing Partner at Launch Haus, a venture capital firm focused on cryptocurrency, blockchain, enterprise software, consumer products, digital marketing, event/media properties, and service businesses. He is also a Chairman and Founder of the WorldTokenomicForum ,the leading international organization for enabling public-private cooperation, interoperability, and innovation in token and blockchain based technology. He is also an INC magazine contributor.

Resources

World Tokenomic Forum

Digital Sense: The Common Sense Approach to Effectively Blending Social Business Strategy, Marketing Technology, and Customer Experience by Travis Wright and Chris Snook (Wiley, 2016).

Principles: Life and Work by Ray Dalio

News Roundup Trump officials weigh 5G network

Trump officials are weighing building a new 5G network to compete with China's, according to a Powerpoint Axios obtained. The plan would be for the federal government to build a 5G network within 3 years. The report was met with resistance from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, as well Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel. Olivia Beavers has the story in the Hill. Which do you think will be built first? The Wall between the US and Mexico or the 5G network?

Russia's Twitter presence

Twitter announced on Friday that some 677,000 of its users engaged with a Kremlin-linked troll factory called the Internet Research Agency. Twitter has also identified an additional 13,512 Russian bots on Twitter, bringing the total to over 50,000. One hundred and twenty-six million people saw content from Russian bots on Twitter during the 2016 election cycle.

Twitter has big changes in store for the 2018 midterm election to significantly cut back on malicious Russian bots. Twitter also reported that Russian bots retweeted Donald Trump some 500,000 times over just two-and-a-half months between September 1 and November 16, 2016. Facebook reported to the Senate Intelligence Committee that Russian bots created some 129 events. Ashley Gold reports for Politico and Jacqueline Thomas for the Hill.

New York Attorney General to Investigate Fake Follower Farm

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that he would be investigating Devumi--a company that sells millions of fake followers to high profile individuals. The New York Times reported over the weekend that some 15% of Twitter's active users are actually fake accounts. Nicholas Confessore, Gabriel J.X. Dance, and Richard Harris and Mark Hansen report in the New York Times.

Fitness Tracking App reveals secret US Army base location

A fitness tracking app called Strava inadvertently revealed the locations of secret U.S. army basis via military personnel who tracked their exercise by using the app. Alex Hern reports for the Guardian.

Trump nominates Suzette Kent as CIO

President Trump has nominated a new Chief Information Officer. Suzette Kent was previously with Ernst & Young, JP Morgan and the Carreker Corporation over 27 years in financial an payment services. Aaron Boyd reports in Next.gov.

Serial entrepreneur Chris Snook joined Joe Miller to discuss how policy professionals can make their advocacy more relevant.

Bio

Daiquiri Ryan (@daiquiriryan) is a Policy Fellow at Public Knowledge, where she uses her passion for the intersection of technology policy and social justice to help further innovative consumer advocacy. Prior to joining PK, Daiquiri spent time as a legal intern at Amazon and a Google Policy Fellow at the National Hispanic Media Coalition.

Daiquiri is a current member of Google's NextGen Policy Leader's inaugural class and contributes NextGen's subcommittee on Data and Machine Learning's impact on marginalized communities. She received her J.D. from The George Washington University Law School and B.A. in Political Science and Media Relations at Arizona State University. Daiquiri is a Texas native with a special affinity for college football, Elvis Presley and her dog Bobo.

Resources

Public Knowledge

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

News Roundup Montana becomes first state to pass a law challenging the FCC's repeal of net neutrality

Montana Governor Steve Bullock, a Democrat, signed an Executive Order last week that requires internet service providers to abide by the FCC' 2015 net neutrality principles. The order simply states that ISPs with state contracts must abide by the principles. Bullock says this is a template that other states should use. harper Neidig has more in The Hill.

FCC draft report says wireless broadband not a full substitute for wired

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai reneged on previous statements in which he suggested that the FCC would consider mobile broadband to be a full substitute for wired broadband. Back in 2014, the Obama era FCC under Chairman Tom Wheeler raised the definition of what is to be considered high speed broadband from 4 Mbps down and 1Mbps up to 25Mbps down and 3 Mbps up. But last August, the FCC proposed 10 Mbps up and 1Mbps down for mobile broadband as an adequate substitute for wired broadband. Thankfully, in a reversal last week, Pai circulated a draft report stating that he would keep the current broadband definition intact. The Open Meeting is scheduled for January 30th.

FCC to investigate false alarm in Hawaii

You've heard by now that a false alert went out to Hawaiians last week warning them about an incoming ballistic missile strike. The alert turned out to be false. So the FCC says it's investigating.

Apple and Verizon announce tax windfalls

Verizon and Apple announced windfalls last week stemming from Republicans' tax overhaul. Verizon said the new tax bill would reduce their 4th quarter tax liabilities by $16.8 billion, which translates to $4.10 in earnings per share. Apple claims that it would repatriate some $250 billion in overseas cash from the overhaul. The company claimed that it would invest $350 billion in the U.S. economy over the next 5 years.

Google's Sundar Pichai supports no NDAs for women reporting harassment

Google CEO Sundar Pichai told Kara Swisher and Ari Melber last week that he would have "no issues" with women speaking out about sexual harassment, even if they are bound by an non-disclosure agreement. Pichai said he's not even aware of such agreements that would prevent women from telling their stories.

Comcast's NCB merger conditions expire

The merger conditions the feds placed on Comcast back when they acquired NBC Universal in 2011 have expired. This raises concerns for advocates who are concerned about Comcast now becoming emboldened to engage in anti-competitive practices. Kim Hart reports for Axios.

EFF files amicus brief urging Ninth Circuit to require warrants for border phone searches

Under President Trump, U.S. Customs searches of mobile devices belonging to people entering the U.S. have more than tripled at the U.S. border with Mexico. The Electronic Frontier Foundation wants those warrantless searches to stop. So it filed an amicus brief in U.S. v. Cano, urging the court to apply the same Fourth Amendment standard to those entering the country that it applies to arrestees.

Daiquiri Ryan (@daiquiriryan) is a Policy Fellow at Public Knowledge,