News digest | Open Society Information Program | Week ending June 25, 2021 ==================================================== The Information Program NEWS DIGEST, published on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month, aims to update colleagues in the Open Society Foundations and friends further afield about the news, opinions and events the Program team have been watching this fortnight. The views expressed in these stories do not necessarily reflect those of the Information Program or the Open Society Foundations. Prepared by Wendy M. Grossman. Current and former grantees featured in this issue: AccessNow, SPARC, Wikimedia Foundation. NEWS ===== Twitter Risks Losing Intermediary Status in India ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Twitter has missed the deadlines to appoint "social media intermediaries" to serve as points of contact as required by India's Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, Simon Sharwood reports at The Register. Twitter was accordingly asked to explain that, as well as its decision to label tweets by a spokesperson for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party "manipulated media" to the national parliament's Standing Committee on Information Technology. Law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has hinted that Twitter may have lost its immunity from prosecution for user-generated content that breaches Indian laws. https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/21/twitter_india_spat_continues/ Croatian Wikipedia Was Ideologically Captured ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A recent independent evaluation of Croatian Wikipedia has found it was captured by ideologically-driven users who are "structurally misaligned" with Wikipedia's guiding five pillars, the Wikimedia Foundation reports. The situation is being remedied. The evaluation found that a small group of admins had undue control over the project and produced "unencyclopedic" distorted content, and recommends reestablishing a robust local governance system with oversight and support from the rest of Wikimedia, as needed. The Foundation hopes the findings will help other community projects struggling with similar issues. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Croatian_Wikipedia_Disinformation_Assessment-2021 Forensic Digital Experts Display Bias ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Former UK forensic science regulator Gillian Tully, a professor at Kings College London, concludes that the findings of a study of 53 digital forensics experts are biased by the contextual information they are given about the investigation, Linda Geddes reports at the Guardian. Digital evidence features in around 90% of criminal cases, and the field's rapid growth means forensic techniques for studying it have had less scientific scrutiny; people also have a tendency to "trust the machine" without considering the role of the person interpreting the machine. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/may/31/digital-forensics-experts-prone-to-bias-study-shows Israel Discontinues Vaccination Pass ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Israel, which in February was the first country to issue a "green pass" vaccination certificate, ended the system on June 1 because epidemiological data following the country's successful vaccination rollout show it's no longer required, Einat Albin and Aeyal Gross report at Lex-Atlas. They go on to explain how to design such passes to respect human rights and privacy. At the New York Times, Sharon Otterman reports that New York State's "Excelsior Pass" vaccine passport, being created by IBM under a three-year contract, could cost taxpayers $17 million and expand to include details of driver's license, proof of age, and other health records. IBM is contracted to deliver a road map to scale the system up to all 20 million New York residents based on estimates that two-thirds will download passes by 2024. Thousands are already using them to gain entry to baseball games, bars, and restaurants, but the program is voluntary and venues must also accept paper cards. https://lexatlas-c19.org/first-in-first-out-the-rise-and-fall-of-israels-green-pass/ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/09/nyregion/excelsior-pass-vaccine-passport.html Lina Khan Becomes Federal Trade Commission Chair ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Big Tech critic Lina Khan has been sworn in as the youngest-ever chair of the US Federal Trade Commission after winning Senate confirmation by 69 votes to 28, David McCabe and Cecilia Kang report at the New York Times. At her confirmation hearing, Khan told the Senate she was concerned by the way technology companies use their power to dominate new, adjacent markets and that regulators should scrutinize these companies' mergers more closely. https://sparcopen.org/news/2021/sparc-statement-on-public-access-provisions-in-the-u-s-innovation-and-competition-act/ G7 Announces Commitment to Open Science ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The G7 countries will collaborate to remove barriers to the "open and rapid sharing of knowledge, data, and tools" that underpin research, , the G7 announced on its website following its meeting in Cornwall. They intend to promote open science and its dissemination to citizens while seeking to minimize technology-related risk and ensure research security. In a podcast at the BBC, Aleks Krotoski discusses the first ten years of Sci-Hub, the outlaw free repository of scientific journal articles, with Heather Joseph, executive director of SPARC, and its importance in retaining the material from open access journals with Mikael Laakso, from Helsink's Hanken School of Economics, who has published a study of vanished journals. https://www.g7uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/G7-2021-Research-Compact-PDF-356KB-2-pages.pdf https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000wz2h https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.11933 FEATURES AND ANALYSIS ==================== US cultural exports disproportionately shape global political debates ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this article, the Economist discusses You Are Here, a new book by Syracuse University media researcher Whitney Phillips that examines global information flows. Phillips finds that America plays an outsized role in shaping political debates across the world. https://www.economist.com/international/2021/06/12/social-media-are-turbocharging-the-export-of-americas-political-culture Newsrooms Fail to Understand Mmorally-Motivated Networked Harassments ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this article at Substack, Charlie Warzel discusses Alice Marwick's paper on morally-motivated networked harassment to shed light on the environment into which newspapers are, without much understanding, sending their reporters. Newsroom leaders privilege stories on divisive, morally-charged issues without recognizing that context collapse may cause legitimate reporting to be misconstrued and lead to attacks on journalists on unrelated platforms, even when it appears to have no connection to the internet. https://warzel.substack.com/p/newsrooms-dont-understand-the-internet Rightscon ---------------------------------------------------------------------- On this YouTube channel, AccessNow presents videos from the recently-concluded tenth annual RightsCon. Panels of particular interest include "fireside chats" featuring Cory Doctorow (surveying the technology horizon) and Rappler founder Maria Ressa (on the state of journalism in the Asia-Pacific region), the press briefing on India's online space, and the panel on aligning content moderation with human rights principles featuring David Kaye and two members of the Facebook Oversight Board, University of Oklahoma professor Evelyn Aswad, and Digital Rights Foundation executive director Nighat Dad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Jwa_E62RQ&list=PLprTandRM962kq7fcetWh8Uvp0bB0tM8C Experts Predict AI Will Not Adopt Ethical Principles by 2030 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this blog posting at the Pew Research Center, Lee Rainie, Janna Anderson, and Emily A. Vogels, present the results of Pew's newly published survey of expert opinion on the long-term impact of AI and its implications. More than two-thirds of the 602 technology innovators, developers, business and policy leaders, researchers, and activists who responded agreed that ethical principles focused primarily on the public good will not be employed in most AI systems by 2030. The survey was conducted in the summer of 2020. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/06/16/experts-doubt-ethical-ai-design-will-be-broadly-adopted-as-the-norm-within-the-next-decade/ Deepfakes, Disinformation, and Democracy ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this video clip, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), in collaboration with the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) U.S. Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) and the Online News Association (ONA) present the half-day Deepfakes, Disinformation, and Democracy Conference. Speakers including internet pioneer Vint Cerf and Daniel Braun, deputy head of cabinet of Commission Vice-President Vera Jourová, discuss how to tackle these emerging risks. Braun in particular lays out the EU's strategy for tackling disinformation while defending fundamental rights. At Nieman Lab, Emily Saltz and Claire Leibowicz publish a new report into the platforms' handling of misinformation that focuses on identifying patterns in how they classify and act upon information and its credibility. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ehMJBwj8Kg https://www.i-com.it/en/2020/12/16/tackling-disinformation-empowering-democracy-the-videotalk-with-daniel-braun-cabinet-jourova/ https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/06/shadow-bans-fact-checks-info-hubs-the-big-guide-to-how-platforms-are-handling-misinformation-in-2021/ The Internet's Declining Entropy ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In a blog posting at Lawfare, Jonathan L. Zittrain and John Bowers discuss the increasing centralization of the internet and the resulting fragility and structural risks. The "radically decentralized" original design of the internet is disappearing into a handful of cloud providers, any one of whom can become a significant point of failure. In a transcript, Zittrain testifies before the US Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights on the subject of the Internet of Things and interoperability, comparing the present state of siloed single-platform devices, each requiring its own app, to the early days of walled-off information services. Zittrain recommends updating and reforming antitrust law, separating choice of assistant from choice of phone, and subsidies for public goods, and warns that Internet of Things could become a "privacy apocalypse". https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/download/jonathan-zittrain-testimony https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/protecting-competition-and-innovation-in-home-technologies https://www.lawfareblog.com/internet-entropy *** DIARY ============== *** In light of the coronavirus outbreak, please follow your organization's travel guidelines, and check links to events listed below regularly for participation restrictions and updates as to whether events will go ahead.*** If you would like your event listed in this mail, email info.digest@opensocietyfoundations.org. ONE-OFF EVENTS CPDP LatAm 2021 ---------------------------------------- July 14-16, 2021 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil The first Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection Latin America will be held in conjunction with the first Latin American Privacy Law Scholars conference and MyData's first Latin American meeting. The theme will be "Data Protection in Latin America: Democracy, Innovation, and Regulation". The organizers hope it will be a unique opportunity to bring together varied and complementary perspectives on data protection and its impact on democracy, innovation, and regulation in Latin America. The conference will especially focus on data protection at a time of social emergency - COVID-19, democracy, innovation, and regulation in Latin America. https://cpdp.lat/en/ DEF CON 29 ---------------------------------------- August 5-8, 2021 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Def Con is one of the oldest and best-attended hacker conferences. Each year it attracts thousands of professional and amateur security researchers. https://www.defcon.org SOUPS 2021 ---------------------------------------- August 8-10, 2021 Vancouver, BC, Canada The 17th Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security will bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners in human-computer interaction, security, and privacy. It will be colocated with USENIX 2021. https://www.usenix.org/conference/soups2021 Singularity University Global Summit 2021 ---------------------------------------- August 23-25, 2021 Los Angeles, California, USA Global Summit 2021 Singularity University's premier annual gathering brings together 2,000 change-makers for talks on AI, augmented/virtual reality, blockchain, the future of work, impact, investing, robotics and more. https://su.org/summits/su-global-summit/ Wikimania 2021 ---------------------------------------- August, 2021 Online from Bangkok, Thailand Wikimania 2020, now Wikimania 2021, will be the 16th Wikimania conference, an annual event for the international Wikimedia community. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2020 World Library and Information Congress 2021 ---------------------------------------- August 2021 Rotterdam, Netherlands WLIC is the annual conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). https://2020.ifla.org/ Modern Law Review: Are We Owned? ---------------------------------------- October 8, 2021 Stirling, Scotland, UK The Modern Law Review will present a one-day conference, "Are We Owned? A Multidisciplinary and Comparative Conversation on Intellectual Property in the Algorithmic Society". The conference will discuss the future of autonomy as the terms of service that apply to phones and computers become embedded in "smart" physical objects throughout our environment and within our bodies. https://guidonotoladiega.wordpress.com/2021/02/01/call-for-abstracts-are-we-owned-a-multidisciplinary-and-comparative-conversation-on-intellectual-property-in-the-algorithmic-society/ OAI12 ---------------------------------------- September 6-10, 2021 Online from Geneva, Switzerland The Geneva Workshop on Innovations in Scholarly Communication will focus on scholarly publishing, digital research data, reproducibility and research integrity, diversity, inclusivity and collaboration, and the future of open science. https://indico.cern.ch/event/1015275/ ALPSP Annual Conference ---------------------------------------- September 15-17, 2021 Online from UK The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers' annual conference provides a friendly forum to share information, learn about new initiatives and engage in open discussion on the challenges and opportunities facing the scholarly publishing community. The main themes for 2021 are "Discoverability and Accessibility" and "The Great Reset: Scenario planning for life after COVID". https://alpsp.cventevents.com/event/5a76c9bf-384d-433c-8719-104efee5daff/summary Open Education Global ---------------------------------------- September 27-October 1, 2021 Online Each day of the 2021 2021 conference program will have webinars comprised of five presentations and interactive asynchronous activities focused on that day's action area. Sessions may be in any of the six official languages of the United Nations - Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, or Spanish. https://conference.oeglobal.org/2021/online-conference/ Thotcon ---------------------------------------- October 8-9, 2021 Chicago, Illinois, USA The 11th Chicago-based Thotcon hacking conference is a non-commercial event intended to combine a top-quality information security conference with a casual and social experience. https://thotcon.org/ Tech for Democracy ---------------------------------------- November 9, 2021 Copenhagen, Denmark The Danish Government will host an international conference, Tech for Democracy, to bring states, tech sector representatives, media, academia, and civil society around the same table to focus on concrete ways to make technology support - and not undermine - democracy and civil society. https://um.dk/en/foreign-policy/tech-for-democracy-2021/ Policy & AI ---------------------------------------- November 9-10, 2021 Palo Alto, California, USA With artificial intelligence rapidly transforming every aspect of our world, calls for regulation, governance, and oversight are on the rise. HAI's 2021 fall conference will consider four radical proposals for policies that respond to the challenges and opportunities of an AI-powered future. Can basic income address the future of automated work? Should a public agency certify algorithms? How would we regulate AI-based decisions on platforms? Should there be ownership rights in data that fuel algorithms? Each substantive session will feature the short presentation of one radical proposal with discussion by a panel of experts from multiple disciplines and backgrounds. https://hai.stanford.edu/events/2021-fall-conference-policy-ai-four-radical-proposals-better-society Internet Governance Forum ---------------------------------------- December 6-10, 2021 Katowice, Poland The Internet Governance Forum is an international meeting, held at the initiative of the United Nations, that enables a global discussion on the development of the Internet. It is a place for exchanging thoughts and experiences in the field of Internet governance. https://www.gov.pl/web/igf2021-en Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection ---------------------------------------- January 26-28, 2022 Brussels, Belgium CPDP offers the cutting edge in legal, regulatory, academic and technological development in privacy and data protection. Within an atmosphere of independence and mutual respect, CPDP gathers academics, lawyers, practitioners, policy-makers, industry and civil society from all over the world in Brussels, offering them an arena to exchange ideas and discuss the latest emerging issues and trends. This unique multidisciplinary formula has served to make CPDP one of the leading data protection and privacy conferences in Europe and around the world. https://www.cpdpconferences.org/ Mozilla Festival ---------------------------------------- March, 2022 TBC MozFest is a unique hybrid: part art, tech and society convening, part maker festival, and the premiere gathering for activists in diverse global movements fighting for a more humane digital world. https://www.mozillafestival.org/en/ ONGOING Ada Lovelace Institute ---------------------------------------- London's Ada Lovelace Institute, founded in 2019 to ensure the ethical use of AI, is running a series of events on the issues surrounding the use of technologies in response to the pandemic. Late-2020 events included discussions of regulating for algorithm accountability and "almost-future" AI. https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/events/ Bace Cybersecurity Institute ---------------------------------------- Recent webinars sponsored by Bace Security include a "fireside" discussion with prominent women in security, security problems in online voting, methods for privacy-protecting digital contact tracing, advanced botnet researcher, and using marketing techniques to improve cybersecurity communication. https://www.bacesecurity.org/page/webinars. Benchmark Initiative ---------------------------------------- The Benchmark Initiative is running regular events on topics such as the use of location data to end the global sanitation crisis, the safe use of location data in human migration; data, power, and the pandemic; and managing social distancing in public spaces. All events are posted on Vimeo soon after they conclude. https://benchmarkinitiative.com/event https://vimeo.com/user40391998/videos CAMRI ---------------------------------------- The Communication and Media Institute (CAMRI) at London's University of Westminster hosts a series of online events presenting the work of sociologists, historians, economists, and activists studying online developments around the world. Spring 2021 offerings include a reassessment of the 2010 Arab Spring and studies of internal communication connections within the Global South, the changing role of public service media, decolonizing the curriculum, and using Facebook to reduce polarization. https://camri.ac.uk/events/ Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs ---------------------------------------- The Carnegie Council runs frequent events on topics such as illiberal threats to democracy, the societal limits of AI ethics, AI and ethics in Africa, and inclusion. The Council posts audio and a transcript after each event. https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/calendar/upcoming Data & Society ---------------------------------------- Data & Society has moved its weekly Databites and Network Power Hours programs into online interactive formats. Its first event for 2021 examines digital technology and democratic theory. https://datasociety.net/events/ DRAILS ---------------------------------------- The Research Group on Data, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Law & Society is presenting a series of discussions on topics such as robotics (Frank Pasquale, April 1), rights, technology, and society (Anne-Sophie Hulin, May 19), and justifiability and contestability of algorithmic decision systems (Daniel Le Métayer, June 1). https://drails.org/ EFF ---------------------------------------- EFF and its local counterparts in the Electronic Frontier Alliance are running numerous events on subjects such as technology education, open source, voting security, and content moderation. https://www.eff.org/events/ Future in Review ---------------------------------------- Future in Review is running a series of online "FiReSide" events. Recent topics include Chinese-US relations after the presidential election, and the future technology struggle. https://www.futureinreview.com/fireside/ Geneva Internet Platform ---------------------------------------- The Geneva Internet Platform (GIP), a Swiss initiative run by DiploFoundation is organizing monthly briefings on internet governance, providing updates and news and projections of how they will influence future developments. https://dig.watch/events Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence at Stanford ---------------------------------------- HAI's series of events covers AI-related topics such as upcoming regulation, issues with algorithms, health, and AI and society. https://hai.stanford.edu/events/upcoming-events In Lieu of Fun ---------------------------------------- Kate Klonick, an assistant professor at St John's University School of Law who specializes in online speech and governance, and Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and co-founder and chief editor of Lawfare, hold a nightly discussion of current affairs, law, politics, and digital media with invited guests. Daily at 5pm Eastern Time. https://inlieuof.fun/ Legal Frontiers in Digital Media 2020 ---------------------------------------- The Berkeley Center for Law and Technology's online seminars on emerging legal issues at the intersection of digital media, freedom of speech, and law include AI, privacy law, technology law as a vehicle for anti-racism, and a look ahead to the next telecommunications act. https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/bcltevents/ London Futurists ---------------------------------------- The London Futurists group, led by former Psion and Symbian architect David Wood, is presenting near-weekly speaker-led events focusing on potential radical transformations of humanity and society. Upcoming topics include anticipating future pandemics and a discussion of Michael Baxter's new book, Living in the Age of the Jerk. Event recordings are made available soon after meetings conclude. https://londonfuturists.com/forthcoming-meetings/ https://www.meetup.com/London-Futurists/ Open Data Institute ---------------------------------------- The ODI's Friday lunchtime (London time) talks have moved online. These one-hour talks cover topics such as data ethics, social equity, trust, and converting weather into music. https://theodi.org/events/talks/ Open Rights Group ---------------------------------------- The Open Rights Group and its local offshoots are running frequent online presentations and discussions of digital privacy, democracy, and data exploitation. Recent topics have included the launch of ORG's data and democracy report, a proposed law to ensure that contact-tracing apps are surrounded with privacy-protecting safeguards, and the effect of the pandemic on democratic institutions. https://www.openrightsgroup.org/events/ Public Knowledge ---------------------------------------- Public Knowledge is running public web events on subjects such as algorithmic amplification of hate speech, the survival of local journalism, and how to protect privacy during a pandemic. https://www.publicknowledge.org/events/ RUSI ---------------------------------------- London's Royal United Services Institute is running frequent online events considering topics relating to international politics, terrorism, financial crime, policing, and warfare, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes it will bring. https://rusi.org/event/mapping-pandemic-policing-uk-during-covid-19 Singularity University ---------------------------------------- Singularity University's upcoming events include reimagining primary education and a series of executive programs aimed at various countries. https://su.org/events/ *** Hear more from the Information Program! ================================ If you have been forwarded this email by a friend and wish to subscribe to this fortnightly digest, please visit: https://opensocietyfoundations.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=52d98944f5466486ab8567329&id=1c0675de1d. 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June 2021 Archives
News digest | Open Society Information Program | Week ending June 11, 2021
==================================================== The Information Program NEWS DIGEST, published on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month, aims to update colleagues in the Open Society Foundations and friends further afield about the news, opinions and events the Program team have been watching this fortnight. The views expressed in these stories do not necessarily reflect those of the Information Program or the Open Society Foundations. Prepared by Wendy M. Grossman. Current and former grantees featured in this issue: Communia. NEWS ===== Facebook Ends Politicians' Exemption from Content Rules ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In response to the Oversight Board's recommendations in early May, Facebook will extend its suspension of former US president Donald Trump's account for two years from January 7, 2021, the date it began, Julia Carrie Wong reports at the Guardian. At that time, Facebook will work with experts to assess the risk to public safety posed by reinstating the account and use a system of escalating suspension penalties for misbehavior. Facebook will also cease exempting politicians from its content rules, including the ban on hate speech. In a blog posting at Galaxy Brain, Charlie Warzel is dissatisfied with Facebook 's logic. At Vox, Emily Stewart reports shareholders have voted down proposals that would have limited CEO Mark Zuckerberg's control over the company. At Openly, Avi Asher-Schapiro and Maya Gebeily report that while LGBT+ conversion therapy is banned on Facebook and is blocked in English, practitioners promote these practices in Arabic without interference. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/04/facebook-donald-trump-oversight-board-instagram https://warzel.substack.com/p/5-quick-thoughts-on-facebooks-trump https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/5/30/18644755/facebook-stock-shareholder-meeting-mark-zuckerberg-vote https://www.openlynews.com/i/?id=dca4275c-275a-4ede-baec-08074c4f262f Study Finds Pervasive Flaws in AI Models in Medicine ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A study of more than 400 machine learning models for use in medicine carried out by a research team at the University of Cambridge finds that all of them have methodological flaws, Casey Ross reports at Statnews. Many papers rely on limited or low-quality data, don't test whether they work across a variety of demographics, and fail to specify their statistical methods and approach to training. Many of the resulting algorithms appear accurate in studies but fail in clinical use. At The Verge, Andrew J. Hawkins finds that the autonomous vehicle industry is shrinking as would-be vendors continue to discover that autonomous vehicles will take longer to reach and cost much more than they hoped. Among many mergers, Lyft has sold its self-driving car division to a subsidiary of Toyota, its latest round of funding dropped Waymo's valuation by 85%, and there are very few robotaxi startups left. https://www.statnews.com/2021/06/02/machine-learning-ai-methodology-research-flaws/ Nigeria Suspends Access to "Unpatriotic" Twitter ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Nigeria's information minister has indefinitely suspended access to Twitter within the country because of "persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria's corporate existence", Emmanuel Akinwotu reports at the Guardian. The move follows closely on Twitter's decision to remove a tweet posted by president Huhammadu Buhari that threatened pro-Biafra groups and suspend his account for 12 hours. Agence France-Presse reports at the Guardian that all TV and radio stations in Nigeria have been directed to suspend "patronage" of Twitter immediately, calling its use "unpatriotic". https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/04/nigeria-suspends-twitter-after-presidents-tweet-was-deleted] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/02/twitter-deletes-nigerian-presidents-abusive-biafra-tweet https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/07/nigerian-government-tv-radio-broadcasters-suspend-twitter European Commission Pushes Big Tech to Cease Profiting from Disinformation ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The European Commission has published non-binding guidelines that push big technology companies to commit to not making money from disinformation-linked advertising, Reuters reports at the Financial Post. The proposals update the existing code, which was introduced in 2018 and signed by Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Mozilla, and TikTok, along with other advertising and technology lobbying groups. Signatories are expected to develop details of how they will comply by the end of 2021 and implement them in 2022. At Politico, Laura Kayali reports that in France, where Google is being fined €220 million for abusing its dominant position in the online advertising market by self-preferencing, the company has agreed to stop using data from other sell-side platforms to optimize bids on its exchange that those other platforms can't replicate. https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/eu-guidelines-target-tech-giants-over-monetising-disinformation https://www.politico.eu/article/france-competition-google-advertising-antitrust-fine/ China Uses Uyghurs as Test Subjects for Emotion Recognition ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A software engineer has told the BBC's Panorama news program that he has installed AI and facial recognition-based camera systems to test emotion detection on Uyghurs in police stations in Xinjiang province, Jane Wakefield reports at the BBC. Xinjiang's 12 million Uyghurs are already under comprehensive daily surveillance. The system outputs a pie chart scoring the subject's emotional state; the engineer calls it "pre-judgment without any credible evidence". The program,. "Are You Scared Yet, Human", which investigates the AI race between China and the US, is available for viewing online until May 2022 for those inside the UK. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57101248.amp https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000wft2/panorama-are-you-scared-yet-human British Government Orders Seizure of GPs' Patient Data in England ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The British government has ordered NHS Digital (formerly the Health and Social Care Information Centre) to begin taking comprehensive data from the patient records held by English GPs, Sarah Marsh reports at the Guardian. Doctors are concerned that the move will disrupt doctor-patient trust. The campaign organization medConfidential provides instructions on how to opt out, noting that the government has neither publicized the scheme nor published a data protection impact assessment. A similar attempted move in 2014 attracted so much outrage the project had to be postponed. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/30/gps-warn-plans-share-patient-data-third-parties-england https://medconfidential.org/for-patients/gp-2021/ FEATURES AND ANALYSIS ==================== The Decline of Interoperability ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this article at the Guardian, Alex Hern notes the divergence of standards between systems and devices, citing as his prime example Apple's ecosystem, which increasingly fences out others, overturning years of progress towards interoperability. In a blog posting from October 2020, Ian Brown and Douwe Korff discuss how to use interoperability as a tool for competition regulation. , which has been proposed as a requirement in the EU Digital Markets Act. In a March 2021 update, they note that the requirement has been killed and seek to understand why and to whose benefit. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/may/30/gadgets-have-stopped-working-together-interoperability-apple https://www.ianbrown.tech/2020/10/01/interoperability-as-a-tool-for-competition-regulation-2/ https://www.ianbrown.tech/2021/03/29/560/ AI Offers Potential for Automating Disinformation at Scale ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this report from the Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Ben Buchanan, Andrew Lohn, Micah Musser, and Katerina Sedova study the GPT-3 AI system's potential for generating disinformation at scale by testing it on six common disinformation tasks. The report concludes that although GPT-3 will not replace all humans in disinformation operations, it will enable them to create moderate to high-quality messages at an unprecedented scale. https://cset.georgetown.edu/publication/truth-lies-and-automation/ EU Publishes Implementation Guidance for the "Upload Filter" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this blog posting, the Communia Association discusses the EU's implementation guidance for Article 17 of the Copyright in the Single Market Directive (the "upload filter"), which has been published on the last day before the implementation deadline. The final version includes some requirements for safeguards, but does not include a promised commitment to protect users' fundamental rights; some provisions even offer opportunities for abuse by rights holders. Communia awaits a decision from the Court of the European Union on whether Article 17 is compatible with the Charter of Fundamental Rights. https://www.communia-association.org/2021/06/04/article-17-implementation-guidance-strong-user-rights-safeguards-with-a-giant-loophole/ The Industrialization of Ransomware ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this article at the Guardian, John Naughton warns that the attack on the US Colonial Pipeline is a sign of cybercrime's industrialization of ransomware. Modern cybercrime operations have tech support, customer ratings, management panels, and negotiation scripts. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/15/welcome-to-darkside-and-the-inexorable-rise-of-ransomware https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/04/google_chip_flaws/ Github Refuses Code Access to Death Row Inmate ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Github is refusing to share software code that Texas Death Row inmate Joseph Colone believes could expose flaws in key evidence in his case, which depends on DNA analysis that used a probabilistic genotyping program, Whitney Kimball reports at Gizmodo. The Texas court granted an out-of-state subpoena to obtain the code, but courts in California, where Github is based, refuse to enforce it. Github claims that the 1986 Stored Communications Act prohibits platforms from turning over customer content. https://gizmodo.com/a-death-row-inmate-has-waited-years-for-github-to-provi-1846976389 The Extractive Reality of AI ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this interview at the Guardian, Microsoft and University of Southern California researcher Kate Crawford outlines her new book, Atlas of AI, which rejects the typically abstract view of AI and grounds it as a technology of extraction, from the planetary and human consequences of mining rare earth minerals to turning human subjects into data subjects. At MIT Technology Review, Karen Hao reviews the book and interviews Crawford about its genesis. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jun/06/microsofts-kate-crawford-ai-is-neither-artificial-nor-intelligent https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/04/23/1023549/kate-crawford-atlas-of-ai-review/ *** DIARY ============== *** In light of the coronavirus outbreak, please follow your organization's travel guidelines, and check links to events listed below regularly for participation restrictions and updates as to whether events will go ahead.*** If you would like your event listed in this mail, email info.digest@opensocietyfoundations.org. ONE-OFF EVENTS RightsCon ---------------------------------------- June 7-11, 2021 Online AccessNow's tenth RightsCon will bring together business leaders, policy makers, general counsels, technologists, advocates, academics, government representatives, and journalists from around the world to tackle the most pressing issues at the intersection of human rights and technology. https://www.rightscon.org/ CPDP LatAm 2021 ---------------------------------------- July 14-16, 2021 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil The first Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection Latin America will be held in conjunction with the first Latin American Privacy Law Scholars conference and MyData's first Latin American meeting. The theme will be "Data Protection in Latin America: Democracy, Innovation, and Regulation". The organizers hope it will be a unique opportunity to bring together varied and complementary perspectives on data protection and its impact on democracy, innovation, and regulation in Latin America. The conference will especially focus on data protection at a time of social emergency - COVID-19, democracy, innovation, and regulation in Latin America. https://cpdp.lat/en/ DEF CON 29 ---------------------------------------- August 5-8, 2021 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Def Con is one of the oldest and best-attended hacker conferences. Each year it attracts thousands of professional and amateur security researchers. https://www.defcon.org SOUPS 2021 ---------------------------------------- August 8-10, 2021 Vancouver, BC, Canada The 17th Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security will bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners in human-computer interaction, security, and privacy. It will be colocated with USENIX 2021. https://www.usenix.org/conference/soups2021 Singularity University Global Summit 2021 ---------------------------------------- August 23-25, 2021 Los Angeles, California, USA Global Summit 2021 Singularity University's premier annual gathering brings together 2,000 change-makers for talks on AI, augmented/virtual reality, blockchain, the future of work, impact, investing, robotics and more. https://su.org/summits/su-global-summit/ Wikimania 2021 ---------------------------------------- August, 2021 Online from Bangkok, Thailand Wikimania 2020, now Wikimania 2021, will be the 16th Wikimania conference, an annual event for the international Wikimedia community. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2020 World Library and Information Congress 2021 ---------------------------------------- August 2021 Rotterdam, Netherlands WLIC is the annual conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). https://2020.ifla.org/ Modern Law Review: Are We Owned? ---------------------------------------- October 8, 2021 Stirling, Scotland, UK The Modern Law Review will present a one-day conference, "Are We Owned? A Multidisciplinary and Comparative Conversation on Intellectual Property in the Algorithmic Society". The conference will discuss the future of autonomy as the terms of service that apply to phones and computers become embedded in "smart" physical objects throughout our environment and within our bodies. https://guidonotoladiega.wordpress.com/2021/02/01/call-for-abstracts-are-we-owned-a-multidisciplinary-and-comparative-conversation-on-intellectual-property-in-the-algorithmic-society/ OAI12 ---------------------------------------- September 6-10, 2021 Online from Geneva, Switzerland The Geneva Workshop on Innovations in Scholarly Communication will focus on scholarly publishing, digital research data, reproducibility and research integrity, diversity, inclusivity and collaboration, and the future of open science. https://indico.cern.ch/event/1015275/ ALPSP Annual Conference ---------------------------------------- September 15-17, 2021 Online from UK The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers' annual conference provides a friendly forum to share information, learn about new initiatives and engage in open discussion on the challenges and opportunities facing the scholarly publishing community. The main themes for 2021 are "Discoverability and Accessibility" and "The Great Reset: Scenario planning for life after COVID". https://alpsp.cventevents.com/event/5a76c9bf-384d-433c-8719-104efee5daff/summary Open Education Global ---------------------------------------- September 27-October 1, 2021 Online Each day of the 2021 2021 conference program will have webinars comprised of five presentations and interactive asynchronous activities focused on that day's action area. Sessions may be in any of the six official languages of the United Nations - Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, or Spanish. https://conference.oeglobal.org/2021/online-conference/ Thotcon ---------------------------------------- October 8-9, 2021 Chicago, Illinois, USA The 11th Chicago-based Thotcon hacking conference is a non-commercial event intended to combine a top-quality information security conference with a casual and social experience. https://thotcon.org/ Policy & AI ---------------------------------------- November 9-10, 2021 Palo Alto, California, USA With artificial intelligence rapidly transforming every aspect of our world, calls for regulation, governance, and oversight are on the rise. HAI's 2021 fall conference will consider four radical proposals for policies that respond to the challenges and opportunities of an AI-powered future. Can basic income address the future of automated work? Should a public agency certify algorithms? How would we regulate AI-based decisions on platforms? Should there be ownership rights in data that fuel algorithms? Each substantive session will feature the short presentation of one radical proposal with discussion by a panel of experts from multiple disciplines and backgrounds. https://hai.stanford.edu/events/2021-fall-conference-policy-ai-four-radical-proposals-better-society Internet Governance Forum ---------------------------------------- December 6-10, 2021 Katowice, Poland The Internet Governance Forum is an international meeting, held at the initiative of the United Nations, that enables a global discussion on the development of the Internet. It is a place for exchanging thoughts and experiences in the field of Internet governance. https://www.gov.pl/web/igf2021-en ONGOING Ada Lovelace Institute ---------------------------------------- London's Ada Lovelace Institute, founded in 2019 to ensure the ethical use of AI, is running a series of events on the issues surrounding the use of technologies in response to the pandemic. Late-2020 events included discussions of regulating for algorithm accountability and "almost-future" AI. https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/events/ Bace Cybersecurity Institute ---------------------------------------- Recent webinars sponsored by Bace Security include a "fireside" discussion with prominent women in security, security problems in online voting, methods for privacy-protecting digital contact tracing, advanced botnet researcher, and using marketing techniques to improve cybersecurity communication. https://www.bacesecurity.org/page/webinars. Benchmark Initiative ---------------------------------------- The Benchmark Initiative is running regular events on topics such as the use of location data to end the global sanitation crisis, the safe use of location data in human migration; data, power, and the pandemic; and managing social distancing in public spaces. All events are posted on Vimeo soon after they conclude. https://benchmarkinitiative.com/event https://vimeo.com/user40391998/videos CAMRI ---------------------------------------- The Communication and Media Institute (CAMRI) at London's University of Westminster hosts a series of online events presenting the work of sociologists, historians, economists, and activists studying online developments around the world. Spring 2021 offerings include a reassessment of the 2010 Arab Spring and studies of internal communication connections within the Global South, the changing role of public service media, decolonizing the curriculum, and using Facebook to reduce polarization. https://camri.ac.uk/events/?mc_cid=81df08bfcd&mc_eid=901b84981a Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs ---------------------------------------- The Carnegie Council runs frequent events on topics such as illiberal threats to democracy, the societal limits of AI ethics, AI and ethics in Africa, and inclusion. The Council posts audio and a transcript after each event. https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/calendar/upcoming Data & Society ---------------------------------------- Data & Society has moved its weekly Databites and Network Power Hours programs into online interactive formats. Its first event for 2021 examines digital technology and democratic theory. https://datasociety.net/events/ DRAILS ---------------------------------------- The Research Group on Data, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Law & Society is presenting a series of discussions on topics such as robotics (Frank Pasquale, April 1), rights, technology, and society (Anne-Sophie Hulin, May 19), and justifiability and contestability of algorithmic decision systems (Daniel Le Métayer, June 1). https://drails.org/ EFF ---------------------------------------- EFF and its local counterparts in the Electronic Frontier Alliance are running numerous events on subjects such as technology education, open source, voting security, and content moderation. https://www.eff.org/events/ Future in Review ---------------------------------------- Future in Review is running a series of online "FiReSide" events. Recent topics include Chinese-US relations after the presidential election, and the future technology struggle. https://www.futureinreview.com/fireside/ Geneva Internet Platform ---------------------------------------- The Geneva Internet Platform (GIP), a Swiss initiative run by DiploFoundation is organizing monthly briefings on internet governance, providing updates and news and projections of how they will influence future developments. https://dig.watch/events Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence at Stanford ---------------------------------------- HAI's series of events covers AI-related topics such as upcoming regulation, issues with algorithms, health, and AI and society. https://hai.stanford.edu/events/upcoming-events In Lieu of Fun ---------------------------------------- Kate Klonick, an assistant professor at St John's University School of Law who specializes in online speech and governance, and Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and co-founder and chief editor of Lawfare, hold a nightly discussion of current affairs, law, politics, and digital media with invited guests. Daily at 5pm Eastern Time. https://inlieuof.fun/ Legal Frontiers in Digital Media 2020 ---------------------------------------- The Berkeley Center for Law and Technology's online seminars on emerging legal issues at the intersection of digital media, freedom of speech, and law include AI, privacy law, technology law as a vehicle for anti-racism, and a look ahead to the next telecommunications act. https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/bcltevents/ London Futurists ---------------------------------------- The London Futurists group, led by former Psion and Symbian architect David Wood, is presenting near-weekly speaker-led events focusing on potential radical transformations of humanity and society. Upcoming topics include anticipating future pandemics and a discussion of Michael Baxter's new book, Living in the Age of the Jerk. Event recordings are made available soon after meetings conclude. https://londonfuturists.com/forthcoming-meetings/ https://www.meetup.com/London-Futurists/ Open Data Institute ---------------------------------------- The ODI's Friday lunchtime (London time) talks have moved online. These one-hour talks cover topics such as data ethics, social equity, trust, and converting weather into music. https://theodi.org/events/talks/ Open Rights Group ---------------------------------------- The Open Rights Group and its local offshoots are running frequent online presentations and discussions of digital privacy, democracy, and data exploitation. Recent topics have included the launch of ORG's data and democracy report, a proposed law to ensure that contact-tracing apps are surrounded with privacy-protecting safeguards, and the effect of the pandemic on democratic institutions. https://www.openrightsgroup.org/events/ Public Knowledge ---------------------------------------- Public Knowledge is running public web events on subjects such as algorithmic amplification of hate speech, the survival of local journalism, and how to protect privacy during a pandemic. https://www.publicknowledge.org/events/ RUSI ---------------------------------------- London's Royal United Services Institute is running frequent online events considering topics relating to international politics, terrorism, financial crime, policing, and warfare, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes it will bring. https://rusi.org/event/mapping-pandemic-policing-uk-during-covid-19 Singularity University ---------------------------------------- Singularity University's upcoming events include reimagining primary education and a series of executive programs aimed at various countries. https://su.org/events/ *** Hear more from the Information Program! ================================ If you have been forwarded this email by a friend and wish to subscribe to this fortnightly digest, please visit: https://opensocietyfoundations.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=52d98944f5466486ab8567329&id=1c0675de1d. 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News digest | Open Society Information Program | Week ending June 4, 2021 ==================================================== The Information Program NEWS DIGEST, published on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month, aims to update colleagues in the Open Society Foundations and friends further afield about the news, opinions and events the Program team have been watching this fortnight. The views expressed in these stories do not necessarily reflect those of the Information Program or the Open Society Foundations. Prepared by Wendy M. Grossman. Current and former grantees featured in this issue: Access Now, AI Now Institute, Amnesty International Limited, Article 19, Big Brother Watch, Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Creative Commons, Derechos Digitales, The Engine Room, English PEN, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Hiperderecho, The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, ISUR, Centro de Internet y Sociedad de la Universidad del Rosario, The Legal Resources Centre, Mozilla Foundation, Open Rights Group, Privacy International, Ranking Digital Rights, R3D: Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales. NEWS ===== European Court on Human Rights: UK's Bulk Data Interception Was Unlawful ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the methods used by Britain's GCHQ for bulk interception of online communications, which Edward Snowden revealed in 2013, violated the rights to privacy and freedom of expression, and insufficiently protected confidential journalistic material, Haroon Siddique reports at the Guardian. The case joined three cases brought between 2013 and 2015 by 16 organizational applicants and two individuals, including Privacy International, Open Rights Group, ACLU, Amnesty International, Big Brother Watch, English PEN, Bureau of Investigative Journalism, The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, The Legal Resources Centre, and human rights organizations in Ireland, Canada, and Egypt. However, the ECtHR did not rule bulk interception illegal in and of itself. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/25/gchqs-mass-data-sharing-violated-right-to-privacy-court-rules https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/4525/qa-grand-chamber-european-court-human-rights-rules-uk-mass-surveillance-laws-violate India Censors "Indian Variant" Term for Variant B.1.617.2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Indian information technology ministry has asked social media companies to remove content using the term "Indian variant" for the variant WHO designates as B.1.617.2, on the basis that calling it "Indian" hurts the country's image, Aditya Kalra reports at Reuters. WHO has since adopted Greek letter code names to avoid national stigmatization, Erin Schumacher reports at ABC News. At Rest of World, Sonia Faleiro profiles Alt News, India's most reputable fact-checking organization, and its efforts to counter misinformation. Much of it emanates from the government and most of it focuses on religious minorities, particularly Muslims. At BuzzFeed,. Pranav Dixit reports that officers from an elite branch of the New Delhi police that investigates terrorism and organized crime "served a notice" to the head of Twitter in India three days after Twitter marked tweets from members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party "manipulated media". Finally, Diksha Madhok reports at CNN that WhatsApp has sued the Indian government to block its new social media rules, which impose numerous requirements for content moderation, compliance with law enforcement, and the ability to trace the origins of messages. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/india-asks-social-media-firms-remove-reference-indian-variant-coronavirus-2021-05-21/ https://abcnews.go.com/Health/switches-greek-naming-system-coronavirus-variants/story?id=78016128 https://restofworld.org/2021/fact-checking-modis-india/ https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/police-in-delhi-have-raided-twitters-indian-headquarters https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/26/tech/whatsapp-india-lawsuit-hnk-intl/index.html Court of Appeal: UK Home Office Must Show Immigrants Their Data ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Court of Appeal found unanimously that a clause in the 2018 Data Protection Act, which brings the EU's General Data Protection Regulation into post-Brexit UK law, that exempted immigrants' data from subject access rights is incompatible with Article 23, the Open Rights Group reports in a press release. ORG, which brought the case with the3million, notes that the Court will reconvene to decide on appropriate relief. The judgment reversed a High Court ruling in 2019. https://www.openrightsgroup.org/press-releases/immigration-exemption-judged-unlawful-excessive-wrong-by-court-of-appeal/ https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/03/eu-citizens-lose-high-court-challenge-access-home-office-data Apple Bows to Chinese Government Requirements ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Apple has made numerous compromises to do business in China, where the company assembles nearly all its products and earns a fifth of its revenues, Jack Nicas, Raymond Zhong, and Daisuke Wakabayashi report at the New York Times. Among them: localizing data storage with government access, removing the "Designed by Apple in California" label from the backs of iPhones, proactively censoring tens of thousands of apps, and blocking tools for organizing pro-democracy protests and bypassing internet restrictions. CEO Tim Cook responds that the world is better off with Apple in China. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-censorship-data.html Technology Companies Fail to Protect Freedom of Expression and Privacy ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Only two companies out of 26 - Twitter (53%) and Verizon Media (52%) - scored more than 50% on their policies and practices affecting people's rights of freedom of expression and privacy, according to the newly published 2020 Ranking Digital Rights survey. In a blog posting at Access Now, Isedua Oribhabor and Peter Micek discuss how to bring these companies to accountability;. sSince the last RDR report, a number of companies took important steps such as improving transparency and updating their policies. Amazon, newly added this year, ranked last of the 26. Access Now has asked each company to review their ranking and respond publicly. https://rankingdigitalrights.org/index2020/ https://www.accessnow.org/ranking-digital-rights-2020/ Musicians and NGOs Ask Spotify to Reject Speech Recognition ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Access Now, Fight for the Future, Union of Musicians and Allied Workers, and a global coalition of over 180 musicians and human rights organizations including the Mozilla Foundation, AI Now Institute, Amnesty International, Article 19, Derechos Digitales, Electronic Privacy Information Center, epicenter.works, Hiperderecho, ISUR (Centro de Internet y Sociedad de la Universidad del Rosario), and R3D: Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales have called on Spotify to publicly commit to never using, licensing, selling, or monetizing its newly-patented speech recognition technology, Access Now reports. They are concerned that the technology, which Spotify claims can detect emotional state, gender, age, or accent in order to make better music recommendations, could be manipulative, discriminatory, insecure, and privacy-invasive. The company says it has not implemented the technology and has no plans to do so. https://www.accessnow.org/spotify-spy-tech-coalition/ https://www.stopspotifysurveillance.org/letter.pdf FEATURES AND ANALYSIS ==================== Reimagining the Internet ---------------------------------------------------------------------- On this page are a video introduction and transcript introducing Reimagining the Internet from the Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure, a series of podcasts hosted by Ethan Zuckerman presenting the views of activists, scholars, journalists, and entrepreneurs about how to create online spaces in the public interest. Interviewees include Black Software author Charlton McIlwain, The Markup co-founder and editor-in-chief Julia Angwin, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Wendy Liu, author of Abolish Silicon Valley, and Trebor Scholz, founder of the Platform Coopertivism Consortium. https://publicinfrastructure.org/podcast/01-welcome-to-reimagining-the-internet The Disinformation Dozen ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this report, the Center for Countering Digital hate finds that just 12 people are responsible for as much as 65% of anti-vaccine content overall, and 73% on Facebook. The report lists all 12 and recommends platforms should remove them and the key organizations they use to disseminate their messages. Top of the list is alternative medicine proponent Joseph Mercola; second is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, who chairs the anti-vaccine advocacy group Children's Health Defense. https://www.counterhate.com/ https://252f2edd-1c8b-49f5-9bb2-cb57bb47e4ba.filesusr.com/ugd/f4d9b9_b7cedc0553604720b7137f8663366ee5.pdf Technology Tools to Document Human Rights Abuses ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this report on research conducted with the Public Law and International Policy Group and Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems International, the Engine Room surveys the landscape of technology tools used by civil society organizations to document human rights abuses and considers how to meet the common challenges they pose. https://www.theengineroom.org/tech-tools-for-human-rights-documenters/ Creative Commons Licenses Versus NFTs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this blog posting, University of Sussex lecturer Andrés Guadamuz analyzes the interaction between commercial Creative Commons licenses and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which some artists are using to uniquely identify and sell digital copies. NFTs are typically just metadata, often incorporating a link to the original work; it's therefore possible for a third party to create and profit from the NFT while paying the creator earns nothing. Guadamuz argues that this would be legal, violating the spirit, but not the letter, of Creative Commons. https://www.technollama.co.uk/creative-commons-commercial-use-and-nfts The Value of Insurrection ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this blog posting, Ethan Zuckerman discusses his new book, Mistrust: How Losing Faith in Institutions Provides the Tools to Transform Them, including links to an adapted version of the first chapter at The Atlantic and a radio interview. Zuckerman began working on his ideas about the value of insurrection as Occupy was winding down and finished it in the wake of the January 6 invasion of the US Capitol. https://ethanzuckerman.com/2021/01/19/mistrust-or-books-as-letters-to-a-future-world/ The Full Story of the RSA Hack ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this article at Wired, Andy Greenberg tells the full story of the 2011 hack into RSA, which compromised the security of companies and government agencies worldwide, publishing details that have come to light only now that ten-year non-disclosure agreements have expired. This first supply chain attack, like the recent SolarWinds attack, exposed the fragility of our digital infrastructure and taught that every network should be regarded as "dirty". https://www.wired.com/story/the-full-story-of-the-stunning-rsa-hack-can-finally-be-told/ *** DIARY ============== *** In light of the coronavirus outbreak, please follow your organization's travel guidelines, and check links to events listed below regularly for participation restrictions and updates as to whether events will go ahead.*** If you would like your event listed in this mail, email info.digest@opensocietyfoundations.org. ONE-OFF EVENTS Privacy Law Scholars 2021 ---------------------------------------- June 3-4, 2021 Online from Washington, DC, USA Privacy Law Scholars is a paper workshop intended to improve the quality of legal scholarship in the area of privacy. Participants submit works-in-progress for workshop discussions led by commenters on the papers. https://privacyscholars.org/ RightsCon ---------------------------------------- June 7-11, 2021 Online AccessNow's tenth RightsCon will bring together business leaders, policy makers, general counsels, technologists, advocates, academics, government representatives, and journalists from around the world to tackle the most pressing issues at the intersection of human rights and technology. https://www.rightscon.org/ CPDP LatAm 2021 ---------------------------------------- July 2021 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil The first Computers, Privacy, and Data Protection Latin America will be held in conjunction with the first Latin American Privacy Law Scholars conference and MyData's first Latin American meeting. The theme will be "Data Protection in Latin America: Democracy, Innovation, and Regulation". The organizers hope it will be a unique opportunity to bring together varied and complementary perspectives on data protection and its impact on democracy, innovation, and regulation in Latin America. The conference will especially focus on data protection at a time of social emergency - COVID-19, democracy, innovation, and regulation in Latin America. https://cpdp.lat/en/ DEF CON 29 ---------------------------------------- August 5-8, 2021 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Def Con is one of the oldest and best-attended hacker conferences. Each year it attracts thousands of professional and amateur security researchers. https://www.defcon.org SOUPS 2021 ---------------------------------------- August 8-10, 2021 Vancouver, BC, Canada The 17th Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security will bring together an interdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners in human-computer interaction, security, and privacy. It will be colocated with USENIX 2021. https://www.usenix.org/conference/soups2021 Singularity University Global Summit 2021 ---------------------------------------- August 23-25, 2021 Los Angeles, California, USA Global Summit 2021 Singularity University's premier annual gathering brings together 2,000 change-makers for talks on AI, augmented/virtual reality, blockchain, the future of work, impact, investing, robotics and more. https://su.org/summits/su-global-summit/ Wikimania 2021 ---------------------------------------- August, 2021 Online from Bangkok, Thailand Wikimania 2020, now Wikimania 2021, will be the 16th Wikimania conference, an annual event for the international Wikimedia community. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2020 World Library and Information Congress 2021 ---------------------------------------- August 2021 Rotterdam, Netherlands WLIC is the annual conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). https://2020.ifla.org/ Modern Law Review: Are We Owned? ---------------------------------------- October 8, 2021 Stirling, Scotland, UK The Modern Law Review will present a one-day conference, "Are We Owned? A Multidisciplinary and Comparative Conversation on Intellectual Property in the Algorithmic Society". The conference will discuss the future of autonomy as the terms of service that apply to phones and computers become embedded in "smart" physical objects throughout our environment and within our bodies. https://guidonotoladiega.wordpress.com/2021/02/01/call-for-abstracts-are-we-owned-a-multidisciplinary-and-comparative-conversation-on-intellectual-property-in-the-algorithmic-society/ OAI12 ---------------------------------------- September 6-10, 2021 Online from Geneva, Switzerland The Geneva Workshop on Innovations in Scholarly Communication will focus on scholarly publishing, digital research data, reproducibility and research integrity, diversity, inclusivity and collaboration, and the future of open science. https://indico.cern.ch/event/1015275/ ALPSP Annual Conference ---------------------------------------- September 15-17, 2021 Online from UK The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers' annual conference provides a friendly forum to share information, learn about new initiatives and engage in open discussion on the challenges and opportunities facing the scholarly publishing community. The main themes for 2021 are "Discoverability and Accessibility" and "The Great Reset: Scenario planning for life after COVID". https://alpsp.cventevents.com/event/5a76c9bf-384d-433c-8719-104efee5daff/summary Open Education Global ---------------------------------------- September 27-October 1, 2021 Online Each day of the 2021 2021 conference program will have webinars comprised of five presentations and interactive asynchronous activities focused on that day's action area. Sessions may be in any of the six official languages of the United Nations - Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, or Spanish. https://conference.oeglobal.org/2021/online-conference/ Thotcon ---------------------------------------- October 8-9, 2021 Chicago, Illinois, USA The 11th Chicago-based Thotcon hacking conference is a non-commercial event intended to combine a top-quality information security conference with a casual and social experience. https://thotcon.org/ ONGOING Ada Lovelace Institute ---------------------------------------- London's Ada Lovelace Institute, founded in 2019 to ensure the ethical use of AI, is running a series of events on the issues surrounding the use of technologies in response to the pandemic. Late-2020 events included discussions of regulating for algorithm accountability and "almost-future" AI. https://www.adalovelaceinstitute.org/events/ Bace Cybersecurity Institute ---------------------------------------- Recent webinars sponsored by Bace Security include a "fireside" discussion with prominent women in security, security problems in online voting, methods for privacy-protecting digital contact tracing, advanced botnet researcher, and using marketing techniques to improve cybersecurity communication. https://www.bacesecurity.org/page/webinars. Benchmark Initiative ---------------------------------------- The Benchmark Initiative is running regular events on topics such as the use of location data to end the global sanitation crisis, the safe use of location data in human migration; data, power, and the pandemic; and managing social distancing in public spaces. All events are posted on Vimeo soon after they conclude. https://benchmarkinitiative.com/event https://vimeo.com/user40391998/videos CAMRI ---------------------------------------- The Communication and Media Institute (CAMRI) at London's University of Westminster hosts a series of online events presenting the work of sociologists, historians, economists, and activists studying online developments around the world. Spring 2021 offerings include a reassessment of the 2010 Arab Spring and studies of internal communication connections within the Global South, the changing role of public service media, decolonizing the curriculum, and using Facebook to reduce polarization. https://camri.ac.uk/events/?mc_cid=81df08bfcd&mc_eid=901b84981a Data & Society ---------------------------------------- Data & Society has moved its weekly Databites and Network Power Hours programs into online interactive formats. Its first event for 2021 examines digital technology and democratic theory. https://datasociety.net/events/ DRAILS ---------------------------------------- The Research Group on Data, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Law & Society is presenting a series of discussions on topics such as robotics (Frank Pasquale, April 1), rights, technology, and society (Anne-Sophie Hulin, May 19), and justifiability and contestability of algorithmic decision systems (Daniel Le Métayer, June 1). https://drails.org/ EFF ---------------------------------------- EFF and its local counterparts in the Electronic Frontier Alliance are running numerous events on subjects such as technology education, open source, voting security, and content moderation. https://www.eff.org/events/ Future in Review ---------------------------------------- Future in Review is running a series of online "FiReSide" events. Recent topics include Chinese-US relations after the presidential election, and the future technology struggle. https://www.futureinreview.com/fireside/ Geneva Internet Platform ---------------------------------------- The Geneva Internet Platform (GIP), a Swiss initiative run by DiploFoundation is organizing monthly briefings on internet governance, providing updates and news and projections of how they will influence future developments. https://dig.watch/events In Lieu of Fun ---------------------------------------- Kate Klonick, an assistant professor at St John's University School of Law who specializes in online speech and governance, and Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and co-founder and chief editor of Lawfare, hold a nightly discussion of current affairs, law, politics, and digital media with invited guests. Daily at 5pm Eastern Time. https://inlieuof.fun/ Legal Frontiers in Digital Media 2020 ---------------------------------------- The Berkeley Center for Law and Technology's online seminars on emerging legal issues at the intersection of digital media, freedom of speech, and law include AI, privacy law, technology law as a vehicle for anti-racism, and a look ahead to the next telecommunications act. https://www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bclt/bcltevents/ London Futurists ---------------------------------------- The London Futurists group, led by former Psion and Symbian architect David Wood, is presenting near-weekly speaker-led events focusing on potential radical transformations of humanity and society. Upcoming topics include anticipating future pandemics and a discussion of Michael Baxter's new book, Living in the Age of the Jerk. Event recordings are made available soon after meetings conclude. https://londonfuturists.com/forthcoming-meetings/ https://www.meetup.com/London-Futurists/ Open Data Institute ---------------------------------------- The ODI's Friday lunchtime (London time) talks have moved online. These one-hour talks cover topics such as data ethics, social equity, trust, and converting weather into music. https://theodi.org/events/talks/ Open Rights Group ---------------------------------------- The Open Rights Group and its local offshoots are running frequent online presentations and discussions of digital privacy, democracy, and data exploitation. Recent topics have included the launch of ORG's data and democracy report, a proposed law to ensure that contact-tracing apps are surrounded with privacy-protecting safeguards, and the effect of the pandemic on democratic institutions. https://www.openrightsgroup.org/events/ Public Knowledge ---------------------------------------- Public Knowledge is running public web events on subjects such as algorithmic amplification of hate speech, the survival of local journalism, and how to protect privacy during a pandemic. https://www.publicknowledge.org/events/ RUSI ---------------------------------------- London's Royal United Services Institute is running frequent online events considering topics relating to international politics, terrorism, financial crime, policing, and warfare, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes it will bring. https://rusi.org/event/mapping-pandemic-policing-uk-during-covid-19 Singularity University ---------------------------------------- Singularity University's upcoming events include reimagining primary education and a series of executive programs aimed at various countries. https://su.org/events/ *** Hear more from the Information Program! ================================ If you have been forwarded this email by a friend and wish to subscribe to this fortnightly digest, please visit: https://opensocietyfoundations.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=52d98944f5466486ab8567329&id=1c0675de1d. 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