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Reposted by Aliya Bhatia

Center for Democracy & Technology @cdt.org · 14h

CDT’s @aliyabhatia.bsky.social in BankInfoSecurity: “This case lays bare the privacy risks of even so-called 'privacy-protective' age-assurance approaches.”

Discord Vendor Hack Exposes ID Data in Ransom Bid

A vendor breach linked to Discord exposed government ID uploads used in age verification, raising alarms among privacy experts who warn that third-party data

www.bankinfosecurity.com

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Reposted by Aliya Bhatia

Mathias Vermeulen @mathver.bsky.social · 15h

Strong report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Protection of Freedom of Expression on "the paradigm shift" in the governance of social media platforms that has "alarming consequences for freedom of expression online". www.ohchr.org/en/documents...

A/80/341: Threats to freedom of expression online in turbulent times

In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression focuses on a paradigm shift in the governance of social media platforms ...

www.ohchr.org

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Aliya Bhatia @aliyabhatia.bsky.social · 1d

Request for headline writers to stop using the phrase "Gen Z protest". So many protests and movements have been mobilized by young people - what's new?

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Evelyn Douek @evelyndouek.bsky.social · 1d

I wrote about an under-appreciated aspect of AAUP v. Rubio. It is the first case of the Trump Era to explicitly identify and reject the primary and most pernicious form of speech suppression employed by this Administration: Chill.

balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/aaup...

Balkinization: AAUP v. Rubio and the Big Chill

A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics

balkin.blogspot.com

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Reposted by Aliya Bhatia

Centre for Communication Governance at NLU Delhi @ccgnlud.bsky.social · 2d

Join us at APRIGF 2025 on 13 October at 10 AM IST for a virtual fireside chat with @aliyabhatia.bsky.social of Center for Democracy & Technology and Torsha Sarkar on how content moderation practices of LLM-powered chatbots may be shaping content governance norms across the APAC region!

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Angie Coiro @angiecoiro.bsky.social · 3d

Really well-done piece by @annielagos.bsky.social for @wired.com - context and significance of the NFL booking Bad Bunny for halftime. Smart stuff. www.wired.com/story/bad-bu...

Bad Bunny Has MAGA All Worked Up

After avoiding the continental US on his world tour due to ICE, Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show will be a battleground for the country’s culture wars.

www.wired.com

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Aliya Bhatia @aliyabhatia.bsky.social · 2d

Age verification mandates, digital ID laws, and policies entrenching digital identification online are fundamentally changing how we access the web and whether we can access it anonymously.

Read my colleague Nick on why a "Papers, Please" web isn't what we want: cdt.org/insights/we-...

We Don’t Want a “Papers, Please” Web

A More Considered Way Forwardriving-now" href="#online-papers-checks-arriving-now" class="toc-anchor">Online Papers Checks Arriving Nowpers-please-on-the-web" href="#a-dangerous-future-papers-please-o...

cdt.org

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Reposted by Aliya Bhatia

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 2d

New from @eileenguo.bsky.social:

“Trying to blunt these efforts to hold federal officers accountable” has the effect of “chilling speech and activism,” says David Greene, the director of civil liberties at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline

People over Papers was removed by Padlet, the platform it was built on, yesterday.

www.technologyreview.com

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Aliya Bhatia @aliyabhatia.bsky.social · 2d

Local bots, global norms: Excited to join @ccgnlud.bsky.social's Torsha Sarkar in a fireside chat at the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum discussing AI, content moderation, and low resource languages on Monday, Oct 13 at 1015am Nepal Time/1230am ET. Tune in to join us!

APrIGF 2025 Virtual Conference

Time: 2:15- 6:00 UTC Date: 11th – 14th October 2025 The Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF) serves as a regional platform for dialogue, collaboration, and exchange on Internet gov...

cdt.org

Reposted by Aliya Bhatia

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 5d

Sick burn. finance.yahoo.com/news/22-old-...

Critics see something different. Suresh Venkatasubramanian, director of the Center for Technological Responsibility, Reimagination, and Redesign at Brown University, said that Friend is clearly an example of a frothy AI company, but that it also bore a “pernicious” resemblance to a mostly forgotten early-20th-century fad: “radium necklaces.”  When Marie Curie’s new glowing discovery first hit the market, jewelers embedded radium in pendants and bracelets and sold them as chic wellness accessories—until decades later, people started dying of cancer.  “I look at Friend and I think, ‘Are we making the same mistake?’” Venkatasubramanian told Fortune. “We’re rushing these intimacy machines into people’s lives with no evidence they’re safe, or even helpful.”

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Aliya Bhatia @aliyabhatia.bsky.social · 6d

While ICE operations have not been meaningfully affected by the government shutdown, US tourist visa delivery has. Iranian dissident director is just one case who was unable to get his visa in time for his NY Film Fest event with Martin Scorsese due to the shutdown
www.avclub.com/it-was-just-...

Government shutdown blocks Jafar Panahi from presenting his Palme d'Or winner at NYFF

www.avclub.com

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Aliya Bhatia @aliyabhatia.bsky.social · 6d

The U.S. Admin is engaging in "data theater" and in doing so they're joining a dubious cadre of autocrats around the world who are doing the same.

Read @sydneysaubestre.bsky.social @premmtrivedi.bsky.social at @opentechinstitute.bsky.social in @foreignpolicy.com:
foreignpolicy.com/2025/09/22/u...

When U.S. Data Lies, the World Listens

The Trump administration’s manipulation of statistics is exporting uncertainty into the international system.

foreignpolicy.com

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Reposted by Aliya Bhatia

Center for Democracy & Technology @cdt.org · 9d

APPLY: Applications for CDT’s 2026 cohort of Fellows are open. The deadline to apply is Monday, October 6.

CDT’s Fellows program is an opportunity for academics to engage directly with + inform our policy work and represents a wide range of academic fields & disciplines:

cdt.org/about/fellows/

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Reposted by Aliya Bhatia

David Kaye @davidakaye.bsky.social · 7d

"We call for the immediate end of the use of AI systems by DHS until the government can ensure the systems it deploys are free of discrimination, and until diverse perspectives are meaningfully included in the development and use of AI systems."

Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 7d

Tsion Gurmu, Hinako Sugiyama, and Sobechukwu Uwajeh call on the US Department of Homeland Security to cease deploying AI systems until it can ensure they are free of discrimination and until diverse perspectives are meaningfully included in their development.

Where AI Meets Racism at the Border | TechPolicy.Press

Migrants are impacted by the use of AI even before they arrive at the border, write Tsion Gurmu, Hinako Sugiyama, and Sobechukwu Uwajeh.

buff.ly

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Dhanaraj Thakur @thakurdhanaraj.bsky.social · 7d

"In fact, early research suggests caste bias could be even more egregious in some open-source models. It’s a particularly troublesome finding as many companies in India are choosing to adopt open-source LLMs..."
www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/01/1...

#LLMs #caste

h/t @aliyabhatia.bsky.social

OpenAI is huge in India. Its models are steeped in caste bias.

India is OpenAI’s second-largest market, but ChatGPT and Sora reproduce caste stereotypes that harm millions of people.

www.technologyreview.com

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Reposted by Aliya Bhatia

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 8d

PEN America releases the following statement about the New York journalists injured by masked ICE agents:

"This latest incident is part of an alarming trend of attacks on press freedom by the administration, putting journalists’ safety and the public’s right to information at serious risk."

NEW YORK)— Responding to the violent assault on journalists in New York City today, PEN America's Tim Richardson, program director for Journalism and Disinformation, said:

“This violent assault on journalists by ICE officers in New York is another stark example of federal law enforcement and immigration officials failing to respect the essential watchdog role of an independent press,” said Richardson. “This latest incident is part of an alarming trend of attacks on press freedom by the administration, putting journalists’ safety and the public’s right to information at serious risk. Just this past weekend, a journalist was arrested covering ICE-related protests in Chicago and journalist Mario Guevara, who was arrested while covering protests in Georgia, faces possible deportation after more than 100 days in ICE custody.”

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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 8d

Very proud of my colleagues right now--especially @ramyakrishnan.bsky.social and @alexabdo.bsky.social. But we could not have got this far without the superb trial lawyers at Sher Tremonte. Grateful to them for all of the time and energy they put into this case. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/u...

Judge Rules Trump Unlawfully Targeted Noncitizens Over Pro-Palestinian Speech

www.nytimes.com

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jon ben-menachem @jbenmenachem.com · 8d

"Working largely from Canary Mission’s list, Homeland Security Investigations generated between 100 and 200 reports on student protesters.

DHS then referred dozens of such reports to the State Department, recommending that it revoke the visas and green cards of those individuals."

Trump administration illegally targeted pro-Palestinian protesters, judge rules

The efforts to detain and deport noncitizen activists earlier this year represented an unconstitutional infringement on the First Amendment, the ruling says.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 8d

Judge Young: "The First Amendment does not draw President Trump’s invidious distinction and it is not to be found in our history or jurisprudence." An extraordinary, historic victory for democratic freedom. knightcolumbia.org/content/in-l...

In Landmark Ruling, Federal Court Says Trump Administration Violated First Amendment By Deporting Foreign Citizens for Pro-Palestinian Advocacy

knightcolumbia.org

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Reposted by Aliya Bhatia

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 8d

Judge Young: "This case ... squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us. The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally 'yes, they do.' 'No law' means 'no law.'"

This case -– perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court –- squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us. The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally “yes, they do.” “No law” means “no law.” The First Amendment does not draw President Trump’s invidious distinction and it is not to be found in our history or jurisprudence. See Section III.A infra. No one’s freedom of speech is unlimited, of course, but these limits are the same for both citizens and non-citizens alike.

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Adam Klasfeld @klasfeldreports.com · 8d

BREAKING

A federal judge that the Trump admin's policy targeting pro-Palestinian students for deportation violated the First Amendment.

His blistering, 161-page ruling starts with a threat he received in chambers and his response.

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Aliya Bhatia @aliyabhatia.bsky.social · 8d

This is actually pretty close to a threat of violence against political opponents and attempts to read it as not are a choice to put your head in the sand

NPR @npr.org · 8d

JUST IN: President Trump has told top U.S. commanders that the military would be used against "enemy within."

Trump defends use of U.S. military against 'enemy within'

Earlier, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the purpose of the department would exclusively be "war fighting."

n.pr

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Curd Knüpfer @curdknupfer.bsky.social · 8d

Excellent Op-ed by @pastpunditry.bsky.social, on the history of the censorious right.
What she observes here for the US also goes for other national contexts, where formations on the far right often self-depict & are seen as free-speech absolutists, when they're anything but...

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Jazmine Ulloa @jazmineulloa.bsky.social · 9d

As immigration agents have escalated their tactics, US citizens, many of them Latino men, have been stopped and in some cases taken into custody by law enforcement officers. Allison, Jenny and I took a closer look at the encounters. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/u...

‘I’m From Here!’: U.S. Citizens Are Ending Up in Trump’s Dragnet

www.nytimes.com

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Dr. Chinasa T. Okolo @chinasa.bsky.social · 13d

In "Building AI to serve the Global Majority", my latest commentary for @compiler.news, I discuss the impact of the lack of inclusion in global AI governance and development on socioeconomic growth and global power dynamics.

www.compiler.news/ai-for-globa...

How to build AI to serve the Global Majority

The lack of inclusion in global AI governance raises profound implications for socioeconomic growth and global power dynamics.

www.compiler.news

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