Notices by Justin Hendrix (justinhendrix@mastodon.social)

Advocacy in Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia shows that Global South demands gain traction in platform governance when they align with Western priorities, are amplified by international allies, and build trust with marginalized communities, writes Mai Van Tran.
https://www.techpolicy.press/lessons-from-resisting-big-tech-power-in-southeast-asia/

Federal data misuse is accelerating, but state and local governments can still act, argue Reem Suleiman, Esra’a Al Shafei, and Brian Hofer. “Before DHS, ICE, or others come knocking, governments should run, not walk! — through this triage checklist to protect the privacy of the most vulnerable.” https://www.techpolicy.press/public-sector-triage-of-the-federal-governments-data-hemorrhage/

On Thursday, a 10-year moratorium on the enforcement of state AI laws advanced in the budget bill passed in the US House of Representatives. Tech Policy Press editor Justin Hendrix and associate editor Cristiano Lima-Strong discussed the moratorium, the contours of the debate around it, and its prospects in the Senate. https://www.techpolicy.press/will-a-moratorium-on-state-ai-laws-advance-in-the-us-senate/

When it comes to the argument over a proposed 10-year moratorium on enforcing state AI laws, both sides are right—just not entirely; and both are wrong—just not completely, argues Gideon Lichfield. There’s an argument for a moratorium—but a much narrower one than what Republicans propose, he says. https://www.techpolicy.press/why-both-sides-are-right-and-wrong-about-a-moratorium-on-state-ai-laws/

AI isn’t just a tool—it’s an excuse, writes Eryk Salvaggio. The US government is using automated decision-making to justify surveillance, firings & policy enforcement without accountability. Today, AI-powered data consolidation threatens our rights, writes Salvaggio. https://www.techpolicy.press/the-ai-state-is-a-surveillance-state/

Images from the #TeslaTakeDown protest in Manhattan, one of close to 50 such events taking place across the country. Protesters chanted "Stop the Coup" and "Boycott Tesla."

Bad actors seek to deter women of color from participating in representative politics by targeting them online. Dhanaraj Thakur and Müge Finkel are the authors of a new report that further describes the threat in the context of this election cycle: https://www.techpolicy.press/2024-us-election-women-of-color-political-candidates-are-targeted-with-more-offensive-speech-and-hate-speech-than-other-candidates/

The Pixel 9's "Reimagine" tools could supercharge election misinformation, write Cornell Tech's Mor Naaman and Alexios Mantzarlis. Google should strongly consider pausing the launch of Reimagine for several months, at least until after the US election results are certified. https://www.techpolicy.press/we-dont-need-google-to-help-reimagine-election-misinformation/

The current disinformation paradigm is unsustainable, but that does not mean counter-disinformation is a doomed enterprise, writes Dean Jackson. https://www.techpolicy.press/russian-indictments-highlight-us-limitations-in-fighting-disinformation/

Recent items on the Musk tracker:

• Elon Musk boosts fake Trump rally bomb threat and false claims about the election (CNN)
• Musk Finds a (Temporary) Way Around Brazil’s X Ban (NYT)
• Elon Musk has often inflamed politically tense moments, raising worries for the US election (AP)
https://www.techpolicy.press/tracking-elon-musks-political-activities/

Millions are living under the specter of surveillance and criminalization for seeking, assisting with, or providing abortion care, write CDT President and CEO Alexandra Reeve Givens and National Partnership for Women & Families President Jocelyn Frye. It's time to close the data broker loophole: https://www.techpolicy.press/protect-reproductive-privacy-close-the-health-data-loophole/

The UK’s new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA) will boost the government's power to address the many harms inflicted by tech monopolies, write Max von Thun and Cori Crider.
https://www.techpolicy.press/a-new-british-law-charts-a-course-towards-reining-in-big-tech/

No place for politics here, says CEO of tech company with massive impact on world politics and events.
wapo.st/3WdPCIG

Indiana University researchers explored the underground market for tools and services with names like BadGPT, XXXGPT, and Evil-GPT. OpenAI models are behind many of these products, which are used to generate malware, phishing campaigns, and scam websites. https://www.techpolicy.press/studying-black-market-for-large-language-models-researchers-find-openai-models-power-malicious-services/

A new preprint from Manoel Horta Ribeiro, Shagun Jhaver, Jordi Cluet i Martinell, Marie Reignier-Tayar, and Robert West reveals the results of a first-of-a-kind “longitudinal, quasi-experimental study of 165 deplatforming events targeted at 101 influencers.” It finds that deplatforming works in reducing overall online attention paid to norm-violating figures. https://www.techpolicy.press/deplatforming-reduces-overall-attention-to-online-figures-says-longitudinal-study-of-101-influencers/

“AI” Hurts Consumers and Workers — and Isn’t Intelligent

Resistance to AI in various labor contexts sets the stage for regulation, say Alex Hanna @alex and @emilymbender:
https://techpolicy.press/ai-hurts-consumers-and-workers-and-isnt-intelligent/

Elon Musk tweeted an image on a whiteboard from a "Twitter HQ code review" that wrapped up early Saturday. The image has attracted nearly 12k upvotes and over 1,000 comments over at the subreddit r/ProgrammerHumor, under the title "Twitter for Dummies". The image itself is an architecture schematic, not code. I put it on a Miro Board and Luke Dubois and Mark Hansen helped annotate it. If you're curious how Twitter's bits work, check it out here: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVPBnTJmM=/?share_link_id=748653261357