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Homeland Security Plans To Collect Immigrants’ Social Media Info

September 28, 2017 Alfred Ng and Laura Hautala, www.cnet.com , ,
By Alfred Ng and Laura Hautala for CNet - The US Department of Homeland Security quietly introduced a proposed amendment to its records regulations last week that would allow the agency to collect data from all immigrants' social media history, including posts from their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. It would also affect green card holders and naturalized citizens. The new provision, introduced to the Federal Register on Sept. 18, was first spotted by Buzzfeed News. The update adds to increased government scrutiny of immigrants' internet activity, scrutiny that's been growing since the administration of President Barack Obama and has continued into the presidency of Donald Trump. On Sept. 13, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation sued the DHS after 11 travelers had their laptops and phones searched without warrants at US borders. It's been reported that border agents have also been checking people's Facebook profiles. The US Department of State said in May that it wanted to search through five years of social media history to grant US visas. (However, border patrol agents said in July that they wouldn't search through a person's cloud data.) Last week's regulatory update appears to continue the collection and retention of data on immigrants' social media activity long after they've crossed the border.

Tweets, Leaks, Classified Information, And The Right To Know

August 10, 2017 William Boardman, www.readersupportednews.org , ,
By William Boardman for Reader Supported News - This bit of political circus hooha was briefly all over the news early in the week, with almost no news outlet getting it right: that the issue of “classified information” and “leaks” is largely a meaningless smokescreen designed to protect the power of government secrecy against the public’s right to know the truth. Logically, this sequence of events should lead to an Attorney General investigation of Fox and President Trump for disclosing classified information, or at least an investigation of Fox News to learn the identities of its anonymous officials with access to intelligence data (perhaps in the White House). This is a perfect time for a test case that demonstrates real integrity. Does anyone expect anything like that to happen? The underlying story from Fox News is relatively simple in substance, fundamentally illogical, and more important for its attitude than its presumed facts: Despite the United States’ insistence that North Korea halt its missile tests, U.S. spy agencies detected the rogue communist regime loading two anti-ship cruise missiles on a patrol boat on the country’s east coast just days ago. It’s the first time these missiles have been deployed on this type of platform since 2014...

US Government Quietly Starts Asking Travelers For Social Media Accounts

December 26, 2016 Nadia Prupis, www.commondreams.org , , , ,
By Nadia Prupis for Common Dreams - The U.S. government has quietly started to ask foreign travelers to hand over their social media accounts upon arriving in the country, a program that aims to spot potential terrorist threats but which civil liberties advocates have long opposed as a threat to privacy. The program has been active since Tuesday, asking travelers arriving to the U.S. on visa waivers to voluntarily enter information associated with their online presence, including "Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube, as well as a space for users to input their account names on those sites," Politico reports.

Social Media Surveillance Tool Used To Arrest Baltimore Protestors

October 13, 2016 Russell Brandom, www.theverge.com ,
By Russell Brandom for The Verge - For years, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook have provided data to a company marketing social media surveillance tools to police, according to a newly published investigation by the ACLU of Northern California. Geofeedia used the company’s APIs to create real-time maps of social media activity in protest areas, maps which were subsequently used to identify, and in some cases arrest, protestors shortly after their posts became public. All three services have terminated Geofeedia’s access to the relevant APIs.

What Facebook Knows About You

September 30, 2016 Julia Angwin, Terry Parris Jr. and Surya Mattu, www.propublica.org , ,
By Julia Angwin, Terry Parris Jr. and Surya Mattu for ProPublica - WE LIVE IN AN ERA of increasing automation. Machines help us not only with manual labor but also with intellectual tasks, such as curating the news we read and calculating the best driving directions. But as machines make more decisions for us, it is increasingly important to understand the algorithms that produce their judgments. We’ve spent the year investigating algorithms, from how they’ve been used to predict future criminals to Amazon’s use of them to advantage itself over competitors.

Egyptian Authorities Ban Social Media Satire Pages

August 24, 2016 Sayed Elhadidi, www.al-monitor.com , ,
By Sayed Elhadidi for Al Monitor - After the Egyptian officials clamped down on satirical programs in Egypt, notably "Al-Bernameg," which had been hosted by media presenter Bassem Youssef, Egyptian satirists have resorted to social media as a supposedly safe haven where they can pursue their favorite hobby — taunting heads of state, especially President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The Egyptian satirists’ idea was to create pages on various social media platforms that carry the name of the political character whom they make fun of.

People Arrested For Criticizing Cops On Social Media After Dallas Shootings

July 18, 2016 Naomi LaChance, www.theintercept.com , , ,
By Naomi LaChance for The Intercept - FOUR MEN IN Detroit were arrested over the past week for posts on social media that the police chief called threatening. One tweet that led to an arrest said that Micah Johnson, the man who shot police officers in Dallas last week, was a hero. None of the men have been named, nor have they been charged. “I know this is a new issue, but I want these people charged with crimes,” said Detroit Police Chief James Craig. “I’ve directed my officers to prepare warrants for these four individuals, and we’ll see which venue is the best to pursue charges,” he added.

How Police Across Country Are Employing Social Media Surveillance

May 27, 2016 Aaron Cantú, www.muckrock.com , ,
By Aaron Cantú for Muck Rock - In keeping with our mission to monitor and track the powerful people who rule over the rest of us, we at LittleSis turned the surveillance gaze back onto the local forces monitoring social media. We not only dug into the corporate profiles of some of the companies police contract to snoop on your Tweets and Facebook rants, we also filed freedom of information requests to twenty police departments across the country to find out how, when, and why they monitor social media.

Police Monitoring Social Media For Criticism Of Flint Water Crisis

April 29, 2016 Claire Bernish, www.thefreethoughtproject.com , , ,
By Claire Bernish for The Free Thought Project - After needlessly contaminating Flint’s water supply with lead, a new report reveals the government now monitors social media for hints subversive communications relating to the Flint Water Crisis. According to MLive, officials with the Michigan State Police have been conducting online surveillance for comments about Flint’s lead contamination crisis. One of over 127,000 emails released by Gov. Rick Snyder’s office shows one man’s allegedly threatening Facebook post concerning the government’s mishandling of the Flint crisis — which led to the initiation of criminal proceedings.

How #BlackLivesMatter; #Ferguson Became Movement

March 1, 2016 Deen Freelon, Charlton D. McIlwain, and Meredith D. Clark, www.cmsimpact.org , , , ,
By Deen Freelon, Charlton D. McIlwain, and Meredith D. Clark for CMSI - IN 2014, A DEDICATED ACTIVIST MOVEMENT—Black Lives Matter (BLM)—ignited an urgent national conversation about police killings of unarmed Black citizens. Online tools have been anecdotally credited as critical in this effort, but researchers are only beginning to evaluate this claim. This research report examines the movement’s uses of online media in 2014 and 2015. To do so, we analyze three types of data: 40.8 million tweets, over 100,000 web links, and 40 interviews of BLM activists and allies. Most of the report is devoted to detailing our findings...

Today’s Causes: Powerful Tweets, Not Powerful Leaders

February 3, 2016 China Okasi, www.truthdig.com ,
By China Okasi for Truth Dig - When we think of early American protests, we think of the Boston Tea Party of 1773. During that historic demonstration, the colonists destroyed a large shipment of tea in a bid to end the British East India Company’s monopoly on the tea trade, a move that led to the American Revolution and the colonies’ independence from Britain. We might also think of the legendary but unsuccessful 1831 rebellion led by Nat Turner in Southampton County, Va.

Activists Expose Online Racists In Billboard Near Their Homes

December 2, 2015 Kali Holloway, www.alternet.org , ,
By Kali Holloway for AlterNet - Recently, the Cleveland Plain Dealer announced it had turned off comments on stories about Tamir Rice because “just about every piece we published about Tamir immediately became a cesspool of hateful, inflammatory or hostile comments.” The Montana Standard shared plans to end commenter anonymity, retroactively and going forward, due to “posters who consistently offer destructive and noxious comments.” A 2014 study found roughly seven racist tweets are sent every minute, which equals about 10,000 per day. And in recognition of just how much vitriolic racism exists on the video platform, satirical newspaper the Onion headlined an article “YouTube Reaches 1 Trillion Racist Comments.”

Inside The Dream Defenders’ Social Media Blackout

October 2, 2015 Kate Aronoff, www.wagingnonviolence.org ,
Kate Aronoff for Waging Nonviolence - Last week, the Florida-based Dream Defenders announced a six week “social media sabbatical” from their personal and organizational Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, promising to digitally resurface in November “with a fresh voice; one that emanates from the grassroots and is a complement to movement work, not just characters.” Founded in the wake of Trayvon Martin’s murder in 2012, the Dream Defenders’ first major action was a three-day, 40-mile march from Daytona to Sanford, where they held a sit-in at the town’s police headquarters to demand the long-awaited arrest of Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman.

The Power Of Hashtags In Black Activism

August 7, 2015 Kate MacArthur, www.chicagotribune.com , , , ,
By Kate Macarthur in the Chicago Tribune. Chicago, IL - #BlackLivesMatter, #Ferguson, #BillCosby, #SayHerName and #ConfederateFlag are more than social media hashtags. They’re each the digital equivalent of a rallying cry, amplifying black voices and empowering the next generation of activists. Cathy J. Cohen is an author and professor of political science at the University of Chicago and the founder of the Black Youth Project. She’s also a member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Youth and Participatory Politics. She explains the growing role of hashtags in political discussion and what digital media can and can’t do for activists.

Social Media & Movements: Is The Love Affair Really Over?

August 3, 2015 Thomas Swann, www.roarmag.org ,
By Thomas Swann in Roar Mag - Social media was increasingly seen as an essential element in how large groups were able to organize without centralized leadership. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter were allowing people to mobilize not as hierarchical structures like trade unions and political parties but as horizontal networks. Individual activists and sub-groups enjoyed a tactical autonomy while remaining part of a larger whole. Almost four years have passed, and now at the end of my PhD the gloss to this narrative has to a large extent worn off. Some elements of the 2011 uprisings have been consumed by the tragedy of civil war and renewed dictatorships, while others have dispersed.
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