Tech, Free Expression, & Human Rights

The Internet and Human Rights Through AI and Tech: Press Freedom! End Censorship! Full Equality! Feminism! Black Lives Matter! LGBTQI! No Surveillance! No Brexit!

By aperçu énergie

Hong Kong
Hong Kong protests: Huge crowds rally peacefully
bbc.co.uk - BBC News
Organisers say 1.7 million people turned out at Sunday's pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong, amid increasingly severe warnings by Beijing.
Hong Kong
How Hong Kong got trapped in a cycle of violence
bbc.co.uk - BBC News
Hong Kong has been seized by escalating protests in recent months. Police and protesters have now found themselves locked into a spiral of provocation. Is there any way out?
Hong Kong
Hong Kong police: We don’t need Beijing’s help
bbc.co.uk - Stephen McDonell
Portland, OR
Far-right group Pround Boys rallies in Portland, Oregon
bbc.co.uk - BBC News
Far-right group Proud Boys marched in Portland, Oregon, as counter-demonstrators organised a rally against their presence in the city. The stated aim of the far-right gathering was to press for the Antifa
Twitter
Twitter is helping the Scots language thrive in the 21st century
Quartz - E Jamieson
Rude, crude and extremely funny, “Scottish Twitter” has garnered much attention in recent years for its uniquely Celtic wit—and for the specific ways it uses language. Journalist Eve Livingston’s recent
Measles
Cybersecurity conference attendees possibly exposed to IRL virus
Mashable - Jack Morse
They, perhaps more than any other gathered group of industry professionals, know how to defend against viruses. Just, maybe, not this kind. Hackers and cybersecurity researchers who attended this year's
United Parcel Service
UPS has been quietly delivering cargo using self-driving trucks
The Verge - Sean O'Kane
UPS has had autonomous trucking startup TuSimple hauling cargo for it between Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, since May as part of a newly publicized partnership between the two companies. The delivery giant
Opinion (UK)
American unions have been decimated. No wonder inequality is booming
The Guardian - Steven Greenhouse
Each year, all of the nation's unions spend about $48m on lobbying in Washington, while corporate America spends more than $2.5bn The corporate-friendly supreme court has ruled that employers' rights workers'
James Baldwin
White professor investigated for quoting James Baldwin's use of N-word | James Baldwin | The Guardian
The Guardian - Alison Flood
White professor investigated for quoting James Baldwin’s use of N-word Laurie Sheck, who teaches at the New School, says inquiry followed a complaint that she had discussed Baldwin’s use of the slur The
Ali Velshi
Bernie Sanders on Israel’s Ban of Omar and Tlaib: Maybe They Should Decline the ‘Billions and Billions’ US Gives Them
mediaite.com - Tommy Christopher
Independent Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders came out strong in defense of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Rep. Ilhan …
Politics
New Trump Rule Would Let Many Companies Fire People for Being Pregnant, Gay, or Trans
VICE - Susan Rinkunas
Employers with federal contracts may be allowed to effectively discriminate against workers based on the employer’s religious beliefs, thanks to a rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Labor. The policy,
Mulan
How the Hong Kong protests created the #BoycottMulan campaign
Vox - Allegra Frank
Disney’s upcoming live-action version of its animated 1998 film Mulan is still months away from its March 2020 release. And as has often been the case with the studio’s live-action remakes, the project
Transportation
Boston Saved $5 Million by Routing School Buses with an Algorithm
CityLab - Emma Coleman
With 25,000 students and the nation’s highest transportation costs, the Boston Public School District needed a better way to get kids to class. The yellow school bus has remained largely unchanged since
News
Family Wants Independent Probe In Fatal Police Shooting Of Teen In Colorado
NPR - Brakkton Booker , Richard Gonzales
When Sgt. Alan Van't Land of the Colorado Springs Police Department approaches two young black men in the 2100 block of Preuss Road in Colorado Springs, he tells them he is responding to a call about possible
Data Breaches
How to limit the impact of data breaches
TechRepublic - Dan Patterson
IBM's Wendi Whitmore offers advice about how to defend against and respond to data breaches. At the Black Hat USA 2019 cybersecurity conference in Las …
Toilets
Trump immigration thugs can't deny kids water, food, toilets, or sleep: Federal Appeals Court
boingboing.net - Xeni Jardin
A Federal appeals court today upheld an order that requires Trump immigration authorities with the US Customs and Border Patrol to provide detained …
Nineteenth Amendment
The 19th Amendment Only Really Helped White Women
Teen Vogue - Marilyn La Jeunesse
OG History is a Teen Vogue series where we unearth history not told through a white, cisheteropatriarchal lens. In the history of fairness and equality in the United States, there’s no denying that women
Oracle
Oracle is using ‘intelligent automation’ to do far more than automate repetitive tasks
VentureBeat - VB Staff
While Forrester predicts that the market for RPA (robotic process automation) will reach $2.9 billion in 2021, and many companies are well down the road with it, not a lot of companies are using it correctly
Jeremy Corbyn
Corbyn has taken a brave step. Now he must rule out any ‘Labour Brexit’
The Guardian - Paul Mason
The Labour leader’s bold gambit has crossed numerous political and psychological lines – but it is only the first move Jeremy Corbyn just got inside everyone else’s decision cycles. The Labour leader’s
Technology
We Asked Def Con Attendees Why People Are Still Getting Hacked
VICE - Lorenzo Franceshi-Bicchierai
This year's Def Con—the world's biggest hacking conference—was more sprawling than ever. Held annually in Las Vegas, the conference has grown over the last 27 years from a small gathering of hackers huddled
Scooters
Segway-Ninebot introduces an e-scooter that can drive itself to a charging station
The Verge - Andrew J. Hawkins
Segway-Ninebot has a solution for all of those dockless electric scooters that need to be gathered up every night for charging: build one that can drive itself to the charging station. The Chinese scooter
Neuralink
Merging AI With Your Brain Could Basically Be Suicide, Claim Scientists
Mashable - Afiya Qureshi
hoIt was only a month ago that Elon Musk unveiled a neurotechnology startup of the likes of any sci-fi invention we have seen in Black Mirror. It is an implantable ‘brain chip’ that combines biological
Mobile Technology
Apple threatens anyone who tries to evade Safari's anti-tracking tech
CNET - by Stephen Shankland
The iPhone maker releases a no-fooling-around policy.
White Nationalism
Americans Are More Worried About White Nationalism After El Paso
FiveThirtyEight - Dhrumil Mehta
After the deadly mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, this month, more Americans now describe white nationalism as a serious threat to the …
Danny McBride
HBO's ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Brutally Skewers Christian Hypocrisy
VICE - Josh Terry
The first scene in HBO's new dark comedy The Righteous Gemstones is also the show's funniest. The show's titular Gemstones, an uber-successful family of televangelists led by Eli (John Goodman), his eldest
U.S. Politics
Trump Administration Asks Congress to Reauthorize N.S.A.’s Deactivated Call Records Program
The New York Times
Slavery
400 years since slavery: a timeline of American history
The Guardian - Khushbu Shah and Juweek Adolphe
In 1619, a ship with 20 captives landed at Point Comfort in Virginia, ushering in the era of American slavery Many Americans’ introduction to US history is the arrival of 102 passengers on the Mayflower
Hong Kong
It’s as if Hong Kong is now unmoored, so fast have the old ways unravelled
The Guardian - Louisa Lim
By refusing to address protesters, Carrie Lam is guilty of fuelling rising violent unrest Recent scenes from Hong Kong might have come from an 1980s gangster film, with hundreds of white-shirted triad
Technology
8 million Android users tricked into downloading 85 adware apps from Google Play
TechCrunch - Zack Whittaker
Dozens of Android adware apps disguised as photo-editing apps and games have been caught serving ads that would take over users’ screens as part of a fraudulent money-making scheme. Security firm Trend