@htwdbstto.bsky.social
Dabbler in law, data, democracy, and digital comms/surveillance discussions with a side of Alexandria, VA local musings. 🫠
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I have seen DOJ do some strange redactions before, but this is up there:
December 23, 2025 at 1:15 PM
I have seen DOJ do some strange redactions before, but this is up there:
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This climate of secrecy and fear extends into academia, business, nonprofits, and into the media itself. With other accountability mechanisms paralyzed by fear, all these places have become rich sources of leaks.
Even Congress resorts to document dumps because of its weakened oversight powers
Even Congress resorts to document dumps because of its weakened oversight powers
December 23, 2025 at 3:26 AM
This climate of secrecy and fear extends into academia, business, nonprofits, and into the media itself. With other accountability mechanisms paralyzed by fear, all these places have become rich sources of leaks.
Even Congress resorts to document dumps because of its weakened oversight powers
Even Congress resorts to document dumps because of its weakened oversight powers
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I wrote this with @jasonkoebler.bsky.social while sitting in an airport and marveling at the fallout. I think we were some of the only folks with the correct take. The surveillance state will come for us all
The Astronomer CEO's Coldplay Concert Fiasco Is Emblematic of Our Social Media Surveillance Dystopia
Facial recognition and crowdsourced social media investigations are constantly being used not just on cringe CEOs, but on random people who are simply existing in public.
www.404media.co
December 22, 2025 at 4:10 PM
I wrote this with @jasonkoebler.bsky.social while sitting in an airport and marveling at the fallout. I think we were some of the only folks with the correct take. The surveillance state will come for us all
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“You can look down a tremendous distance with our cameras. The camera will identify people, what they’re wearing, and cars up to a half a mile away. It’s that good.”
— Kevin Cox, a Flock consultant who used to work for the Grand Prairie, Texas Police Department said in a 2023 Flock Condor webinar.
— Kevin Cox, a Flock consultant who used to work for the Grand Prairie, Texas Police Department said in a 2023 Flock Condor webinar.
Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves
Flock left at least 60 of its people-tracking Condor PTZ cameras live streaming and exposed to the open internet.
www.404media.co
December 22, 2025 at 4:53 PM
“You can look down a tremendous distance with our cameras. The camera will identify people, what they’re wearing, and cars up to a half a mile away. It’s that good.”
— Kevin Cox, a Flock consultant who used to work for the Grand Prairie, Texas Police Department said in a 2023 Flock Condor webinar.
— Kevin Cox, a Flock consultant who used to work for the Grand Prairie, Texas Police Department said in a 2023 Flock Condor webinar.
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CBS paid the president of the United States millions in bribe money and now they censor news reports so it does not annoy him. I don’t know how much plainer we can put this.
December 22, 2025 at 12:14 PM
CBS paid the president of the United States millions in bribe money and now they censor news reports so it does not annoy him. I don’t know how much plainer we can put this.
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60 MINUTES CORRESPONDENT: “Our story was screened 5x and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.” #CBSNewsMAX #BariWeiss
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...
December 22, 2025 at 3:00 AM
60 MINUTES CORRESPONDENT: “Our story was screened 5x and cleared by both CBS attorneys and Standards and Practices. It is factually correct. In my view, pulling it now is not an editorial decision, it is a political one.” #CBSNewsMAX #BariWeiss
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/b...
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Social media companies attempt to detect and remove this type of astroturfing for violating their inauthentic behavior policies, which is why Doublespeed uses a bank of phones to emulate the behavior of real users.
@evystadium.bsky.social explains more here: www.404media.co/hack-reveals...
@evystadium.bsky.social explains more here: www.404media.co/hack-reveals...
December 17, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Social media companies attempt to detect and remove this type of astroturfing for violating their inauthentic behavior policies, which is why Doublespeed uses a bank of phones to emulate the behavior of real users.
@evystadium.bsky.social explains more here: www.404media.co/hack-reveals...
@evystadium.bsky.social explains more here: www.404media.co/hack-reveals...
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Reminding everyone for no particular reason that Section 230 is one of the last things standing between free speech online and Trump having control over everything you see and say on the internet
December 18, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Reminding everyone for no particular reason that Section 230 is one of the last things standing between free speech online and Trump having control over everything you see and say on the internet
For all the lawyers out there .. this is required reading.
I don't know, Aaron. I think we need to take this seriously. In fact, after surveying hundreds of years of history in the past few days, I've written an article assessing the originalist case here:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
December 16, 2025 at 3:52 PM
For all the lawyers out there .. this is required reading.
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John Oliver really was not kidding about the overwhelming rebellious power of just saying “Fuck you, make me.”
we can kill them all if we just work together and ✨believe💫
December 15, 2025 at 8:49 PM
John Oliver really was not kidding about the overwhelming rebellious power of just saying “Fuck you, make me.”
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It's not that "no one was ready" it's that literacy efforts don't get funded, fact-checking is now "censorship", grants got killed, taxing companies to mitigate social impact =nonstarter in the US, politicians focused on the wrong things. Trust & social norm breakdown the are major non-tech issues.
December 16, 2025 at 1:46 AM
It's not that "no one was ready" it's that literacy efforts don't get funded, fact-checking is now "censorship", grants got killed, taxing companies to mitigate social impact =nonstarter in the US, politicians focused on the wrong things. Trust & social norm breakdown the are major non-tech issues.
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Imagine thinking now is the time to remove a protection on freedom of speech on the internet.
Sen. WHITEHOUSE: We finally are moving to file a bipartisan Section 230 repeal bill. Waiting any longer serves no useful purpose.
December 12, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Imagine thinking now is the time to remove a protection on freedom of speech on the internet.
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Do not do this.
Sen. WHITEHOUSE: We finally are moving to file a bipartisan Section 230 repeal bill. Waiting any longer serves no useful purpose.
December 12, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Do not do this.
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A point I find myself raising repeatedly: people focus on tech policy within a silo (privacy, speech, safety, copyright, competition, etc.), without understanding the actual impact on the system, where you push on just one of those levers and don't realize it's disastrous for the other ones.
A vital point here, first driven home to me by Cory Doctorow in the context of copyright policy, is that many forms of tech regulation that strike lots of folks as appealing and commonsensical would in practice require a fairly massive surveillance apparatus to meaningfully enforce.
“In fact, it would not have occurred to any liberal before the 1950s that one could settle these issues by rejecting the desirability of human flourishing; and that without some conception of the good, even the public good, one could decide what policy is ‘best’ (and how to rank its kinds).”
December 12, 2025 at 10:21 PM
A point I find myself raising repeatedly: people focus on tech policy within a silo (privacy, speech, safety, copyright, competition, etc.), without understanding the actual impact on the system, where you push on just one of those levers and don't realize it's disastrous for the other ones.
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the entire post 9/11 apparatus is now being fully utilized
WOW. @haleaziz.bsky.social with a new scoop: ICE now gets a running list of every person who is going to be taking a domestic flight inside the United States from the TSA and runs it through their database looking for targets. This explains the Babson College student's arrest.
Immigration Agents Are Using Air Passenger Data for Deportation Effort
www.nytimes.com
December 12, 2025 at 9:28 PM
the entire post 9/11 apparatus is now being fully utilized
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This is great but would be even more helpful if turned into a format grassroots ppl can use. For instance, would be great for eff to post a one page letter template simply listing out risks of ring and possible, more privacy protective, alternatives. Help make this accessible for neighbors to share.
December 11, 2025 at 2:47 PM
This is great but would be even more helpful if turned into a format grassroots ppl can use. For instance, would be great for eff to post a one page letter template simply listing out risks of ring and possible, more privacy protective, alternatives. Help make this accessible for neighbors to share.
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Congress is trying to force through mass surveillance/censorship laws THIS WEEK
BOOST THIS EVERYWHERE before it’s too late. 👇
www.badinternetbills.com
Call and tell your rep:
—NO to KOSA
—NO to Section 230 reform
—NO online digital ID laws
—NO age verification laws
BOOST THIS EVERYWHERE before it’s too late. 👇
www.badinternetbills.com
Call and tell your rep:
—NO to KOSA
—NO to Section 230 reform
—NO online digital ID laws
—NO age verification laws
Bad Internet Bills
All of the bad internet bills. One website.
www.badinternetbills.com
December 11, 2025 at 5:40 AM
Congress is trying to force through mass surveillance/censorship laws THIS WEEK
BOOST THIS EVERYWHERE before it’s too late. 👇
www.badinternetbills.com
Call and tell your rep:
—NO to KOSA
—NO to Section 230 reform
—NO online digital ID laws
—NO age verification laws
BOOST THIS EVERYWHERE before it’s too late. 👇
www.badinternetbills.com
Call and tell your rep:
—NO to KOSA
—NO to Section 230 reform
—NO online digital ID laws
—NO age verification laws
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An excellent & very disturbing overview of the scope & scale of domestic surveillance systems deployed in the US 🇺🇸 by @peter.andringa.me @financialtimes.com 👇
Ostensibly for deportation, these can (& likely are) being fine-tuned for deployment on critics of the Trump regime -- a chilling prospect
Ostensibly for deportation, these can (& likely are) being fine-tuned for deployment on critics of the Trump regime -- a chilling prospect
NEW: We took a deep dive into ICE's data dragnet: the data brokers, biometrics tools, and license plate readers powering Trump's deportation effort. Some of the contracts are for tools previous administrations deemed too intrusive.
Trump’s immigration data dragnet
The US is pulling in vast amounts of personal information in its drive to deport 1mn people this year
ig.ft.com
December 10, 2025 at 9:35 PM
An excellent & very disturbing overview of the scope & scale of domestic surveillance systems deployed in the US 🇺🇸 by @peter.andringa.me @financialtimes.com 👇
Ostensibly for deportation, these can (& likely are) being fine-tuned for deployment on critics of the Trump regime -- a chilling prospect
Ostensibly for deportation, these can (& likely are) being fine-tuned for deployment on critics of the Trump regime -- a chilling prospect
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“The aspiring authoritarian assaults the democratic system itself…The regime tames the legislature, sidelines or steamrolls the courts, co-opts the business class, exerts control over the media and universities, and begins nibbling away at electoral machinery.”
open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...
open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...
Trump’s Wager and the Authoritarian Shift
Is Trump getting weaker, or is the authoritarian danger increasing? Yes.
open.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 6:32 PM
“The aspiring authoritarian assaults the democratic system itself…The regime tames the legislature, sidelines or steamrolls the courts, co-opts the business class, exerts control over the media and universities, and begins nibbling away at electoral machinery.”
open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...
open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...
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if I see another academic describe LLMs - a tech owned by a small elite of white billionaires, built from extracting data from humans and minerals from the earth, and refined by the labor of underpaid workers in the global south - as an ‘important tool for decolonization’ I may simply just explode
December 9, 2025 at 2:32 AM
if I see another academic describe LLMs - a tech owned by a small elite of white billionaires, built from extracting data from humans and minerals from the earth, and refined by the labor of underpaid workers in the global south - as an ‘important tool for decolonization’ I may simply just explode
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ICE agent shoves a home security camera as she approaches a home. Masks aren't enough. They don't want you to have any record of their behavior. Even the tiniest threat of accountability is too much. Keep recording anyway.
December 8, 2025 at 7:31 PM
ICE agent shoves a home security camera as she approaches a home. Masks aren't enough. They don't want you to have any record of their behavior. Even the tiniest threat of accountability is too much. Keep recording anyway.
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If Trump and Musk had a falling out, and if Musk is no longer involved in politics, why is the Trump admin using levers of US foreign policy to get Musk’s company out of well deserved fines?
This is the moment, Europe. Stand up for yourself, your laws, your freedom against foreign interference.
This is the moment, Europe. Stand up for yourself, your laws, your freedom against foreign interference.
Trump administration officials banded together to denounce the European Union after the bloc fined Elon Musk’s X, with some suggesting a US response is warranted, Cristiano Lima-Strong reports: www.techpolicy.press/trump-admini...
Trump Administration Locks Arms with Musk’s X Against EU Tech Enforcement | TechPolicy.Press
Senior Trump administration officials banded together against the EU for fining Elon Musk's X on transparency grounds.
www.techpolicy.press
December 6, 2025 at 12:21 AM
If Trump and Musk had a falling out, and if Musk is no longer involved in politics, why is the Trump admin using levers of US foreign policy to get Musk’s company out of well deserved fines?
This is the moment, Europe. Stand up for yourself, your laws, your freedom against foreign interference.
This is the moment, Europe. Stand up for yourself, your laws, your freedom against foreign interference.
Well this pairs nicely with today’s snow…
December 6, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Well this pairs nicely with today’s snow…
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What it will NOT mean is that suddenly the Roberts Court will have moderated. It is not moderating. It’s pursuing its own antidemocratic agenda to perpetuate Republican power well beyond his own time in office, and sides with Trump when his own empowerment and the issues he creates serve that agenda
December 5, 2025 at 7:12 PM
What it will NOT mean is that suddenly the Roberts Court will have moderated. It is not moderating. It’s pursuing its own antidemocratic agenda to perpetuate Republican power well beyond his own time in office, and sides with Trump when his own empowerment and the issues he creates serve that agenda