Date: June 16, 2022 Join the Digital Rights Job Fair Meet leading organizations at the intersection of technology, human rights, and social justice, working on the most important issues facing our world. Expand your network and learn about the opportunities available in the digital rights field, whether you are a seasoned professional or just starting your career. Learn how your skillset can be useful to organizations advancing digital rights and internet freedom worldwide! We are looking for all types of profiles and backgrounds. Folks new to the digital rights field are highly encouraged to come! Space is limited, so RSVP in the form below soon! Come prepared by checking out popular Digital Rights Job Board, and have questions ready for recruiters! Who Should Participate? Ideal candidates come from all disciplines, ranging from community organizers to researchers to technologists. What they share in common is a desire to work in an authentically diverse field that supports activists, journalists and citizen advocates from around the world, who are facing next generation issues brought on by technology. In addition, participants can be based anywhere in the world because many of the participating organizations have distributed teams, with staff based in various regions. If you are new to the digital rights field, this is a great opportunity to connect with amazing organizations and see what jobs are available! We strongly encourage the participation of people who speak one or more languages, and are from underrepresented groups and/or diaspora communities. There is also a great need for young technologists looking to start their career in Internet Freedom spaces. What Organizations are Participating? Participating organizations work on issues ranging from online censorship to surveillance, disinformation, online harassment, whistleblowing, Internet freedom, and the protection of groups such as activists, journalists, women, and sexual minorities, among others. They…
Why Elon Musk’s ambition to have Twitter “authenticate all real humans” will get people killed | Rest of World
In June 2021, Alita, a trans woman living in Saudi Arabia, saw a hashtag trending on Twitter that translated roughly to “a space for hatred of religion.” In a Twitter Spaces audio room days earlier, Alita, who asked Rest of World to use her screen name for her safety, had spoken frankly about atheism and her decision to leave Islam. A recording of the conversation started circulating on Twitter and the backlash was swift, resulting in the trending hashtag. In the days that followed, she received transphobic comments, death threats, and calls that she be arrested by Saudi authorities for what she had said. Apostasy — abandoning your religion — is punishable by death in the country, and atheists have been labeled terrorists by the government. “If it was up to them, the government would have arrested and prosecuted me by now. But thank goodness that my information is private and I’m not known everywhere by my real identity. That’s why I’m still safe,” Alita told Rest of World in a private Twitter Spaces room. She requested to speak there, rather than on encrypted messaging apps, because she said it’s where she feels safest sharing her experiences. [...] Source: Why Elon Musk’s ambition to have Twitter “authenticate all real humans” will get people killed | Rest of World
Minneapolis police used traffic stops and fake social media profiles to target communities of color | MIT Technology Review
“Since 2010, of the 14 individuals that MPD officers have killed, 13 of those individuals were people of color or Indigenous individuals,” the report states. “People of color and Indigenous individuals comprise approximately 42% of the Minneapolis population but comprise 93% of all MPD officer-involved deaths between January 1, 2010, to February 2, 2022.” A clear racial disparity can be seen in the widespread use of chemical and other “less-lethal” weapons as well. MPD officers deploy pepper spray against Black people at a higher rate than they do against white people. From the report: “Officers recorded using chemical irritants in 25.1% of use of force incidents involving Black individuals. In contrast, MPD officers recorded using chemical irritants in 18.2% of use of force incidents involving white individuals in similar circumstances.” Overall, according to the report, “between January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2020, 63% of all use of force incidents that MPD officers recorded were against Black individuals.” Traffic stops were unfortunately no different. “Although Black individuals comprise approximately 19% of the Minneapolis population, MPD’s data shows that from January 1, 2017, to May 24, 2020, 78%—or over 6,500—of all searches conducted by MPD officers were searches of Black individuals or their vehicles during officer-initiated traffic stops.” Black people in Minneapolis are at six times greater risk of being treated with force during traffic stops than their white neighbors, according to the report. The Minneapolis Police Department has not replied to our request for comment. [...] Source: Minneapolis police used traffic stops and fake social media profiles to target communities of color | MIT Technology Review
Keys to Unlocking an Inclusive and Just Tech Future | Stanford Social Innovation Review
Michael Odiari, a Dallas-based entrepreneur, seeks to revolutionize traffic stops. He was motivated by his own experience, which includes a history of being pulled over by police and on one occasion, being forced to stare down the barrel of an officer’s gun. After surviving this harrowing, yet all too common, experience for African Americans, Odiari harnessed his skills as a developer and created Check, a technology-based solution that allows drivers to use their mobile devices to send documents like a driver's license, registration, and proof of insurance to an officer, while both parties sit in their vehicle. This solution could increase safety at scale and calm the angst Odiari and others feel during traffic stops. Check offers an example of the countless innovations that are possible when we invest in tech social entrepreneurs, or public interest technology (PIT) entrepreneurs, who represent a diversity of backgrounds and experiences. PIT entrepreneurs from historically marginalized communities have too often been passed over for funding, which stymies both equity and progress. Investing in PIT entrepreneurs who are marginalized based on race, identity, and class is an investment in innovative tech-based solutions to society’s most pressing personal and collective challenges, including the root causes of systemic inequality. Source: Keys to Unlocking an Inclusive and Just Tech Future | Stanford Social Innovation Review
Elon Musk and the oligarchs of the ‘Second Gilded Age’ can not only sway the public – they can exploit their data, too | The Conversation
During the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, and the early decades of the 20th century, U.S. captains of industry such as William Randolph Hearst and Jay Gould used their massive wealth to dominate facets of the economy, including the news media. They were, in many ways, prototype oligarchs – by the dictionary definition, “very rich business leaders with a great deal of political influence.” Some have argued that the U.S. is in the midst of a Second Gilded Age defined – like the first – by vast wealth inequality, hyper-partisanship, xenophobia and a new crop of oligarchs using their vast wealth to purchase media and political influence. Which brings us to the announcement on April 25, 2022, that Tesla billionaire Elon Musk is, barring any last-minute hitches, purchasing the social media platform Twitter. It will put the wealthiest man on the planet in control of one of the most influential means of communications in world today. [...] Source: Elon Musk and the oligarchs of the ‘Second Gilded Age’ can not only sway the public — they can exploit their data, too | The Conversation
‘Bossware is coming for almost every worker’: the software you might not realize is watching you | The Guardian
When the job of a young east coast-based analyst – we’ll call him James – went remote with the pandemic, he didn’t envisage any problems. The company, a large US retailer for which he has been a salaried employee for more than half a decade, provided him with a laptop, and his home became his new office. Part of a team dealing with supply chain issues, the job was a busy one, but never had he been reprimanded for not working hard enough. So it was a shock when his team was hauled in one day late last year to an online meeting to be told there was gaps in its work: specifically periods when people – including James himself, he was later informed – weren’t inputting information into the company’s database. As far as team members knew, no one had been watching them on the job. But as it became clear what had happened, James grew furious. Can a company really use computer monitoring tools – known as “bossware” to critics – to tell if you’re productive at work? Or if you’re about to run away to a competitor with proprietary knowledge? Or even, simply, if you’re happy? [...] Source: ‘Bossware is coming for almost every worker’: the software you might not realize is watching you | The Guardian
Opportunity: PostDoctoral Scholar – Community Organizing and Social Computing | UC Irvine
PostDoctoral Scholar - Community Organizing and Social ComputingApplication Window Open date: April 12th, 2022 Next review date: Wednesday, May 11, 2022 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time) Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee. Final date: Wednesday, Aug 31, 2022 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time) Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled. Position description Inviting Postdoctoral Scholars to submit applications for an NSF-funded position that will study how professional community organizers use data to pursue grassroots-led projects and influence data-intensive technologies. This position will support long-term engagement and programming with community partners guided by principles of research justice. Duties will chiefly involve recruiting self-described, professional community organizers for compensated, interview-based research. The Postdoctoral Scholar will additionally (1) help train graduate student researchers and lead coding and data analysis, (2) administer a series of meetings that explore the harms of datafication in minoritized communities, and (3) learn from our partners as they advocate on behalf of communities frequently ignored or actively harmed by technological innovation. Competitive candidates will have strong writing skills, qualitative research and/or codebook experience. Flexible work arrangements will be considered for applicants who can describe how they would handle the specific challenges of remote work for this position. [...] Source: Opportunity: PostDoctoral Scholar – Community Organizing and Social Computing | UC Irvine
From the Arab Spring to Russian censorship: a decade of internet blackouts and repression | Rest of World
Special operation and peace On February 27, a few days after Russia invaded Ukraine, radio journalist Valerii Nechay returned to St. Petersburg from a trip to the North Caucasus to find three men in his apartment. Wearing masks to disguise their features, they told him that if he wanted his mother to be left unharmed, he should leave the country. They needn’t have bothered. Nechay already had a one-way ticket booked to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. “It actually just helped me to pack my bags much quicker,” he said. From Armenia, he traveled on to Georgia and then on again. Rest of World agreed not to disclose his current location, out of concern for his safety. For nearly two decades, Nechay has worked for the radio station Echo of Moscow, which has broadcast political talk shows and news since 1990. Soon after the invasion of Ukraine began, the station was told, like all media in Russia, to stop calling the war a war. [...] Source: From the Arab Spring to Russian censorship: a decade of internet blackouts and repression | Rest of World
Conversations on The Datafied State | Data & Society
The Datafied State is an emerging research agenda that seeks to explore the relationship between datafication and public administration. It is concerned with the proliferation of data sources, infrastructures, and computational techniques adopted across the public sector. The processes through which governments procure, develop, implement, and legally mandate the use of digital and computational systems are increasingly blurring the boundaries between what is considered public and private. So, how datafied is the state today? How can we find out? Data & Society is hosting a series of conversations with researchers, technology designers, lawyers, activists, policy experts, and public administrators to articulate this agenda across three lines of inquiry: algorithms, automation, and surveillance. The goals of this series are to develop a shared understanding of the ways datafication organizes civic life and to examine how governments use these techniques to distribute benefits and risks to their constituents. Source: Data & Society — Conversations on The Datafied State
The 2020 Census Has Thousands of Errors Added on Purpose | The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Census Block 1002 in downtown Chicago is wedged between Michigan and Wabash Avenues, a glitzy Trump-branded hotel and a promenade of cafes and bars. According to the 2020 census, 14 people live there — 13 adults and one child. Also according to the 2020 census, they live underwater. Because the block consists entirely of a 700-foot bend in the Chicago River. If that sounds impossible, well, it is. The Census Bureau itself says the numbers for Block 1002 and tens of thousands of others are unreliable and should be ignored. And it should know: The bureau’s own computers moved those people there so they could not be traced to their real residences, all part of a sweeping new effort to preserve their privacy. That paradox is the crux of a debate rocking the Census Bureau. On the one hand, federal law mandates that census records remain private for 72 years. That guarantee has been crucial to persuading many people, including noncitizens and those from racial and ethnic minority groups, to voluntarily turn over personal information. On the other, thousands of entities — local governments, businesses, advocacy groups and more — have relied on the bureau’s goal of counting “every person, only once and in the right place” to inform countless demographic decisions, from drawing political maps to planning disaster response to placing bus stops. The 2020 census sunders that assumption. Now the bureau is saying that its legal mandate to shield census respondents’ identities means that some data from the smallest geographic areas it measures — census blocks, not to be confused with city blocks — must be looked at askance, or even disregarded. And consumers of that data are unhappy. The area within Block 1012 on the southeast side of Chicago is said to have one home…