Glenn Greenwald Punches Down

Worse, when he attacked an intern for USA Today, this established and wealthy journalist also threw the truth under the bus

My disappointment with Glenn Greenwald, who I once admired for his work on the Snowden revelations, escalates. Watch as Greenwald, who has 1.6 million followers, deliberately exposes a recent college graduate, a woman, to a screaming mob of trolls on March 28, 2021: Screenshot via Glenn Greenwald's Twitter @ggreenwald. What a bully. More importantly, ...
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Glenn Greenwald Punches Down

Why We Should Ban Oppressive Speech Acts

The debate around deplatforming and “cancel culture” remains mired in a naive understanding of how language really works

_____ When Twitter and Facebook shuttered the account of Donald Trump, along with thousands of others for allegedly spreading far right violence and conspiracy theories, many felt that it was long overdue. Antifascist organizers and writers, myself included, have for years argued against giving platforms to white supremacists, including powerful public ...
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Why We Should Ban Oppressive Speech Acts

Social Media Faces a Reckoning

Power online resides in the wrong hands

JANUARY 13—Tech companies, such as Twitter, Apple, and Facebook have been de-platforming President Donald Trump and his supporters at a rapid pace since the January 6th attack on the Capitol Building, much to the approval of the Democrats and much to the chagrin of the GOP (even though more than a ...
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Social Media Faces a Reckoning

A Possible Coronavirus Vaccine

Past Present Podcast, Episode 255

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has announced a promising new coronavirus vaccine. Niki referred to historian Joanna Radin’s Washington Post piece on the connections between cattle breeding and vaccine distribution and political scientist Dan Drezner’s article about the Trump administration’s cavalier approach ...
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Why Google Is Facing Serious Accusations of Monopoly Practices

The tech monopolies are increasingly being acknowledged as a danger to people, other companies, and even to democracy

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Google-Alphabet (Google’s parent company) on October 20 for a range of anti-competitive practices, including its monopoly power in the search market. It is the only major action in the U.S. against tech monopolies in recent years, the last one being the 1998 action against ...
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Why Google Is Facing Serious Accusations of Monopoly Practices

Can We Trust Monopolies to Play Fair?

Current debates on Big Tech and antitrust law lack a clear definition of “competition”

----- For the anti-monopoly movement, the past three months have been exciting but sobering. In late July, the House Antitrust Subcommittee held a landmark hearing at which members of Congress forced the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google to admit to business practices they would rather have stayed private. Amazon ...
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Can We Trust Monopolies to Play Fair?

Big Tech May Be Closer to Home Than You Know

How digital behemoths create economically vulnerable communities — and then prey on them

----- In May, 2020, the city of Gallatin, Tennessee, voted to provide nearly $20 million in tax breaks to an entity called “Project Woolhawk” that proposed building a data center in the area. Local economic development officials refused to confirm who or what was behind that name, only that it was ...
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Big Tech May Be Closer to Home Than You Know

Detroit’s Project Green Light and the “New Jim Code”

Why video surveillance and digital technology intensify racism

————— Over the last three and a half years, the City of Detroit has greatly expanded Project Green Light, an initiative of the Detroit Police Department (DPD), along with local businesses and other organizations, to use video surveillance and digital technology to fight crime. Since the first cameras went live in ...
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Detroit’s Project Green Light and the “New Jim Code”

Digital Authoritarianism and Trolling in Turkey

In 2007, Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) had its second election victory, increasing its vote share to 47,8 and consolidating power. In the same year, it imposed important regulations to ‘clean’ the Internet of undesirable content. Law 5651, On Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Combating Crimes committed ...
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Digital Authoritarianism and Trolling in Turkey

Is the TikTok Deal Another Level of Trumpian Corruption?

Threatening China’s ByteDance may have forced a deal that benefits a campaign donor

----- Here’s one more chore that Joe Biden should add to his Day One presidential to-do list: launch an investigation into whether the Trump administration improperly steered the U.S. operations of the world’s hottest new social media platform, TikTok, into the hands of one of his most important supporters, Oracle co-founder ...
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Is the TikTok Deal Another Level of Trumpian Corruption?

Should Governments Have Access to Our Data?

Privacy and democracy in the age of pandemics

Americans are scared about encroachments on their data privacy, and rightly so. Prior to 9/11, most advocated limiting the government’s ability to gather and access data in the name of civil liberties. Faced with the threat of terror, however, citizens resigned themselves to encroachments on privacy made in the name ...
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Should Governments Have Access to Our Data?

Wired Politics

Social media is crucial to organizing modern protests: It is also a vulnerability

Nowadays, I try not to watch the cable news shows. There are other ways to get information about the demonstrations engulfing the United States, and my neighborhood in Manhattan, following the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. I text friends in the community for updates ...
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Wired Politics