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Reposted by Alexander Laufer

Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 3d

📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU.

Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.

Signal @signal.org · 6d

We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...

signal.org

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Signal @signal.org · 6d

We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...

signal.org

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Reposted by Alexander Laufer

Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 23d

what are the most widely read digital newspapers by web traffic across the US and EU? do you know of any current repositories?

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Reposted by Alexander Laufer

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 24d

I collected some materials on critical AI from my perspective; hope it's useful: olivia.science/ai

"CAIL is as an umbrella for all the prerequisite knowledge required to have an expert-level critical perspective, such as to tell apart nonsense hype from true theoretical computer scientific claims"

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Alexander Laufer @criticalethics.bsky.social · 22d

I couldn’t agree more with @abeba.bsky.social: “most AI4SG efforts… amount to “technosolutionism”: complex political, historical, and social issues are reduced to technical problems, implying that they can be solved through “innovation.””

www.project-syndicate.org/magazine/ai-...

The False Promise of “AI for Social Good”

Abeba Birhane refutes industry claims about the technology's potential to solve complex social problems.

www.project-syndicate.org

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skelly @iid.bsky.social · Sep 8

it's so funny that all these economic pieces are like 'could it be that silicon valley has made a bad bet?' and then the bet is that a text prediction software will achieve consciousness

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · Sep 6

We also go through many arguments that can be used as counters to typical false frames forced upon us, such as:

1. the powerful nonsense that we as experts know nothing

(Section 3.1 here doi.org/10.5281/zeno...)

3/n

3.1 Rejection of expertise, ironically including our own
Being in a colonizing discipline first demands and then encourages an attitude that might
be called intellectual hubris. Furthermore, since you cannot master all the disciplines that
you have designs on, you need confidence that your knowledge makes the ‘traditional
wisdom’ of these fields unworthy of serious consideration. Here too, the AI scientist
feels that seeing things through a computational prism so fundamentally changes the
rules of the game in the social and behavioural sciences that everything that came before
is relegated to a period of intellectual immaturity.
Sherry Turkle (1984, p. 230)
Every field that comes into contact with AI discourse becomes infected even within AI as a field of
study (recall Table 1). Our colleagues have embraced these systems, uncritically incorporating them
into their workflows and their classrooms, without input from experts on automation, cognitive science, computer science, gender and diversity studies, human-computer interaction, pedagogy, psychology, and law to name but a few fields with direct relevant expertise (Sloane et al. 2024). Meanwhile, technology companies have rushed to invest in ‘AI ethics’ or ‘AI safety’ to ethics wash their
claims, thereby “laundering accountability” (as Abeba Birhane explains in Arseni 2025) and “distracti[ng] from real AI ethics” (Crane 2021), while censoring academics and thus, violating academic
freedom (Gebru and Torres 2024; Gerdes 2022; Goudarzi 2025; Munn 2023; Ochigame 2019; Suarez
et al. 2025; Tafani 2023).

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Alexander Laufer @criticalethics.bsky.social · Sep 6

www.ftm.nl/artikelen/ho...

Hoe banken moslims tot verdachten maken: ‘Heeft u ooit positief gestaan tegenover Hamas?’

Banken die vragen naar je mening over Hamas. Moslims die keer op keer op het matje worden geroepen, niet vanwege verdachte transacties, maar om hun naam, geloof of activisme. Wat is bedoeld als wapen ...

www.ftm.nl

Alexander Laufer @criticalethics.bsky.social · Sep 6

@ftm.nl Banken die vragen naar je mening over Hamas. Moslims die keer op keer op het matje worden geroepen, niet vanwege verdachte transacties, maar om hun naam, geloof of activisme. Wat is bedoeld als wapen tegen terrorisme, verandert in een systeem dat hele groepen wantrouwt

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Reposted by Alexander Laufer

Anthony Moser @anthonymoser.com · Aug 27

I considered writing a long carefully constructed argument laying out the harms and limitations of AI, but instead I wrote about being a hater. Only humans can be haters.

I Am An AI Hater

I am an AI hater. This is considered rude, but I do not care, because I am a hater.

anthonymoser.github.io

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Alexander Laufer @criticalethics.bsky.social · Sep 2

www.ftm.nl/artikelen/he...

Het Nederlandse leger doet al jaren in het geheim zaken met de omstreden techreus Palantir – net als de politie

Het Amerikaanse softwarebedrijf Palantir is diep verweven met de regering-Trump, maar ook met het Nederlandse leger. Dat doet al sinds 2010 zaken met het bedrijf, blijkt uit onderzoek van Follow the M...

www.ftm.nl

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Alexander Laufer @criticalethics.bsky.social · Sep 2

@ftm.nl: de Politie verzamelt enorme hoeveelheden data van onschuldige mensen, en hier wordt Palantir software op toegepast.
@amnestynl.bsky.social roept op tot onafhankelijk onderzoek en om gebruik van deze software onmiddellijk stop te zetten als de mensenrechten niet gewaarborgd zijn.

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Reposted by Alexander Laufer

Amnesty International @amnesty.org · Aug 28

🚨 Today we have launched the ‘Breaking up with Big Tech’ briefing which calls on governments to rein in the power of big technology companies in order to protect human rights.

amn.st/63326f4SHp

Amnesty launches ‘Breaking up with Big Tech’ briefing

Amnesty International has launched a new briefing calling on governments to rein in the power of Big Tech companies in order to safeguard human rights.

amn.st

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Reposted by Alexander Laufer

kottke.org @kottke.org · Aug 26

Dan Froomkin of Press Watch: “The top story of the moment is the one story that our most influential newsrooms won’t touch: That the United State has become an authoritarian state.” [presswatchers.org]

We have become an authoritarian state, and our top newsrooms are in denial | Press Watch

The frog in the proverbial pot is dead.

presswatchers.org

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Reposted by Alexander Laufer

Evan Greer @evangreer.bsky.social · Apr 2

"Age verification" laws are actually "upload your ID or get your face scanned to access every website, ending anonymity and associating your identity with everything you do online" laws and if more people understood that they would not be down for this authoritarian nonsense

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Aditya Mukerjee 🦦 🏳️‍🌈 @chimeracoder.bsky.social · Aug 21

RT if you also wish ill upon JK Rowling.

The Advocate @advocate.com · Aug 20

Outcry grows after multiple trans users were targeted for mild criticisms of the anti-trans billionaire.

Bluesky silenced trans voices over J.K. Rowling, here’s why

Outcry grows after multiple trans users were targeted for mild criticisms of the anti-trans billionaire.

bit.ly

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Alexander Laufer @criticalethics.bsky.social · Aug 20

💀

Screenshot of a forum Where a user asks what’s the point of give coding if he still needs to pay a dev to do the debugging

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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · Aug 18

Lab evaluations of facial recognition claiming a high level of accuracy have been used to justify the technology's vast deployment, but they often ignore how the software could perform in diverse, messy and unpredictable real-world environments, Teo Canmetin, Juliette Zaccour and Luc Rocher write.

Why We Shouldn’t Trust Facial Recognition’s Glowing Test Scores | TechPolicy.Press

While lab evaluations of facial recognition may appear objective, they often ignore real-world performance, write Teo Canmentin, Juliette Zaccour & Luc Rocher.

www.techpolicy.press

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Alexander Laufer @criticalethics.bsky.social · Aug 18

According to established ECtHR case law, differential treatment that is solely or predominantly based on race or ethnicity can never be objectively justified. Even when race or ethnicity is used in combination with other characteristics, it is in violation of the prohibition of discrimination. /end

Alexander Laufer @criticalethics.bsky.social · Aug 18

Specifically, the court explicitly refers to the previous analysis by Amnesty, in which we stated that using nationality as a risk criterion constitutes racial profiling. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs subjects individuals from certain countries to a more intensive assessment process. 4/

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Alexander Laufer @criticalethics.bsky.social · Aug 18

In its justification for the rejection, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs fails to mention of the use of the profiling algorithm and doesn’t provide an assessment of its impact on human rights. The court hereby mandates a Fundamental Rights Impacts Assessment. 3/

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Alexander Laufer @criticalethics.bsky.social · Aug 18

In a case brought by a woman of Moroccan nationality regarding the rejection of her application for a short-stay visa, a Dutch court ruled that the transparency requirements for a right to effective remedy were not met. 2/

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Alexander Laufer @criticalethics.bsky.social · Aug 18

💥 Important interim judgement by a Dutch national court concerning the right to an effective remedy and the right to non-discrimination when using a profiling algorithm for the allocation of short stay visa (Ministry of FA)

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Alexander Laufer @criticalethics.bsky.social · Aug 18

💥In een tussenuitspraak over het discriminerend visumalgoritme van Ministerie van BuZa, refereert de rechtbank DH naar de analyse van Amnesty waarin we stellen dat er sprake is van etnisch profileren. BuZa onderwerpt namelijk mensen uit bepaalde landen aan een intensiever beoordelingsproces.

Rechtspraak.nl - Zoeken in uitspraken

Zoeken in uitspraken

uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl

Reposted by Alexander Laufer

Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · Aug 10

Because I am angry I will share this again. One of the reasons that Israel is able to target individuals so precisely is that it collects every phone call in Gaza and stores the recordings in Microsoft Azure, then uses AI to analyze and pick targets.

‘A million calls an hour’: Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians

Revealed: The Israeli military undertook an ambitious project to store a giant trove of Palestinians’ phone calls on Microsoft’s servers in Europe

www.theguardian.com

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