The Columbia settlement is an “astonishing transfer of autonomy and authority to . . . an administration whose disdain for the values of the academy is demonstrated anew every day.” New @knightcolumbia.org analysis of the Columbia settlement, just published. knightcolumbia.org/blog/what-th...

There's still time to apply to present a paper at the Canadian Technology Law Conference!

Just email your abstract and CV along by May 5.

@suziedunn.bsky.social @schulichlaw.bsky.social @jenraso.bsky.social @f-mb.bsky.social @penney.bsky.social @schulichlaw.bsky.social

From concerns about social media addiction to urgent civil liberties issues, courts are asking scientists to be arbiters of alleged technology harms. How can scientists reliably inform courts and how can courts interpret our work?

New article with @penney.bsky.social
tsjournal.org/index.php/jo...

Really grateful to the Université de Montréal for organizing this roundtable on The Privacy Fallacy and to @penney.bsky.social @elanazeide.bsky.social @stzeitouni.bsky.social @cehaupt.bsky.social Nicolas Vermeys Pierre-Luc Deziel & Neil Richards for joining and sharing their fabulous interventions

Except this authoritarian regime is too stupid to do so, and in fact is adopting policies to do the opposite, and will accelerate those prices.

Their advantage is their ruthlessness, shamelessness, and wealth; their disadvantage is their stupidity.

Steve Levitsky, co-author of How Democracies Die

"the U.S. is sliding toward a more 21st-century model of autocracy: competitive authoritarianism"
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

"A failure to resist... could pave the way for authoritarian entrenchment"
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

A classic authoritarian move is to go after judges. I honestly did not think we would see it in the US because the system is already so politicized and Trump has a 6-3 majority. But here we are.

Check this interview out. @rondeibert.bsky.social and @citizenlab.ca at the Munk School are Canadian national treasures. youtu.be/x3z_R-oIRzg

President Trump delayed the U.S. #TikTok ban, but is his executive order legally sound? The Citizen Lab’s @penney.bsky.social writes for the @theglobeandmail.com, questioning whether the move addresses privacy issues or is purely about political power.
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

it really is appropriate to view this as potentially the biggest privacy and cybersecurity scandal in American history

Others like @taylorowen.bsky.social, who I link therein, have written similarly about this new era. It requires a different approach to tech regulation but also democratic governance. The law that enacted the TikTok ban weaponizes rather than restrains this new tech/state power.

I wrote about the the TikTok ban in the @theglobeandmail.com. I argue the ban is dead for a few reasons, but mostly because its' design failed to account for the new era that Trump's admin represents: persistent weaponization of tech and state power: www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

How can scientists provide courts with reliable evidence in tech litigation?

@mwoluchem.bsky.social interviewed researchers, civil society, & litigators CAT Lab convened to ask this question. Here's her report: A Collective Front Toward Platform Accountability

citizensandtech.org/2025/01/scie...

NGOs and individual experts, including Citizen Lab's @rondeibert.bsky.social, @noura.bsky.social, @penney.bsky.social, and Kate Robertson, urge Canada to reject the UN's draft Convention against Cybercrime in an open letter to @melaniejolycan.bsky.social, Hon Dominic LeBlanc & Hon Arif Virani.

That’s fantastic news, Simon! It’s a brilliant thesis. Congratulations!

Starter pack for faculty, adjuncts, staff, etc, at Osgoode Hall Law School:

go.bsky.app/P28f8BK

Great to see the mass exodus from X, Threads, and other platforms to #Bluesky. For those interested in privacy and tech law, highly recommend Dan’s starter pack! bsky.app/profile/dani...

Fully agree.

Couldn’t agree more. I mean, I’m reading @sarahjeong.bsky.social reporting from inside the National Assembly in Seoul. That’s what Twitter used to offer. bsky.app/profile/esqu...

that Korea does this, immediately, in the face of actual soldiers trying to impose martial law - when members of our own congress voted for a coup hours after the J6 mob stormed congress, and the coup instigator won the next election - is about as scathing an indictment of America as I’ve ever seen

I'm at the National Assembly building. The army is here. And I just saw two soldiers in fatigues getting pushed around by belligerent ajusshis. and they looked legit scared.

Great surveillance studies starter pack from @ubisurv.net go.bsky.app/HYGu6oX

Critical point here by @stamos.org; there’s nothing unique about @bsky.app that prevents it from these abuses. Need trust, safety, and security team/measures. bsky.app/profile/stam...