A second committee gets its shot at social media platform CEOs and much of the hearing runs much like the one at the end of last month. It was with some reluctance that I watched the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing with Facebook and Twitter’s CEO given the other Senate hearing at which they appeared a … Continue reading “Censorship, Suppression, and the 2020 Election” Hearing
Further Reading “How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Ordinary Apps” By Joseph Cox — Vice’s Motherboard. This article confirms the entirely foreseeable: the Department of Defense and its contractors are obtaining and using personal information from smartphones all over the world. Given this practice is common in United States’ (U.S.) law enforcement agencies, … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (17 November)
Further Reading “Trump’s refusal to begin the transition could damage cybersecurity” By Joseph Marks — The Washington Post. Former executive branch officials, some of whom served at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), are warning that the Trump Administration’s refusal to start the transition to the Biden Administration may harm the United States’ (U.S.) ability … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (16 November)
Further Reading “ICE, IRS Explored Using Hacking Tools, New Documents Show” By Joseph Cox — Vice. Federal agencies other than the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Intelligence Community (IC) appear to be interesting in utilizing some of the capabilities offered by the private sector to access devices or networks in the name of … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (11 November)
Further Reading “Facebook bans ‘STOP THE STEAL’ group Trump allies were using to organize protests against vote counting” By Tony Romm, Isaac Stanley-Becker and Elizabeth Dwoskin — The Washington Post. A significant portion of the online activity among those on the right wing alleging that the Biden Campaign and Democrats have stolen the election is traceable to right-wing … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (9 November)
Further Reading “Confusion and conflict stir online as Trump claims victory, questions states’ efforts to count ballots” By Craig Timberg, Tony Romm, Isaac Stanley-Becker and Drew Harwell — Washington Post. When the post-mortem on the 2020 Election is written, it is likely to be the case that foreign disinformation was not the primary threat. Rather, … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (5 November)
Further Reading “U.S. Cyber Command Expands Operations to Hunt Hackers From Russia, Iran and China” By Julian Barnes — The New York Times. The United States (U.S.) agency charged with offensive cyber operations sent teams around the world to undisclosed locations to work with partner nations to foil Russian, Chinese, and Iranian efforts to disrupt … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (4 November)
Further Reading “How Facebook and Twitter plan to handle election day disinformation” By Sam Dean — The Los Angeles Times; “How Big Tech is planning for election night” By Heather Kelly — The Washington Post; and “What to Expect From Facebook, Twitter and YouTube on Election Day” By Mike Isaac, Kate Conger and Daisuke Wakabayashi … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (3 November)
Further Reading “Harris target of more misinformation than Pence, data shows” By Amanda Seitz — Associated Press News. Given the hostile treatment women and minorities in the United States face on social media, it is not a surprise that Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) has faced a barrage of sexist, racist, and xenophobic invective online.“The Untold … Continue reading Further Reading, Other Developments, and Coming Events (2 November)
A pair of Democrats take a different approach on addressing the problems caused by social media platforms visa vis limiting liability protection. Two House Democrats have introduced legislation to reform 47 U.S.C. 230 (Section 230) from a different perspective than the flurry of Republican bills introduced in the last few months. Unlike those bills, the … Continue reading Section 230 Algorithm Bill
Michael Kans 