Tag: Democracy
Don't bring sensitive data to a border crossing
The DOJ is trying to prosecute Sam Tunick for allegedly using a duress passcode. It's a lesson in why your best protection is having nothing to protect.
Notable links: July 24, 2026
America's AI dominance is under threat; AI vendors put us at risk; meanwhile, everyone's staying in their jobs for the health insurance.
Private healthcare makes industries less innovative. It's time for change.
1 in 4 American workers stay in their jobs because of the healthcare. It suppresses wages and working conditions - and prevents innovators from heading out on their own.
The SFPD leaked its drone footage. It shouldn't be surveilling to begin with.
Surveillance doesn't improve crime or make anyone safer. It wastes civic dollars and creates new risks for vulnerable communities. The SFPD's leak demonstrates one reason why.
Climate.gov was destroyed. Open data saved it.
"After losing their jobs at NOAA, Rebecca Lindsey, her sister and another colleague teamed up to rebuild a pivotal resource the Trump administration took offline."
They tell us surveillance makes us safer. It undermines our democratic rights.
Civil society actors in nearly every region of the world now operate under the assumption that they are being surveilled. The result is a less democratic world for everyone.
Signs you're a dangerous terrorist: using Signal, moving zines
The unusually long sentences criminalize being an anti-fascist activist, reading the wrong zines, and using the wrong communication apps. They're incredibly dangerous.
Don’t make me thick
We say “don’t make me think”, and “less is more”. But a naive application of these principles risks limiting our users when we should be helping them grow.
Sustaining innovation has failed us. It's time to think more radically
Some innovations create a new future that serves people better. Some sustain the status quo. It's time to think more radically.
The Technological Republic, in brief
In which a defense contractor lays its anti-democratic, pro-fascist ideology bare.
Google Broke Its Promise to Me. Now ICE Has My Data.
"Google had already disclosed my data without telling me. There was no opportunity to contest it."
Stop Flock
Flock is building a national surveillance network. A protest movement is forming to tear it down.
When the President threatens to commit a genocide
This cannot continue.
What Digital Isolation and Censorship Evasion Look Like In Wartime Iran
"Four weeks into the war, Iran is plummeting toward total digital isolation with its internet blocked and communications heavily restricted and monitored." And it's part of a bigger trend.
The DOJ thinks news is contraband
By treating source materials as contraband, the DOJ is putting both journalism and democracy at risk.
The White House has an app now, and Trump wants you to report people to ICE on it
Want to report your friends and neighbors for extrajudicial kidnapping? The new White House app wants you to get in touch.
Ageless Linux
"Software for humans of indeterminate age. We don't know how old you are. We don't want to know. We are legally required to ask. We won't." Open source activism at its finest.
Democratic Backsliding Reaches Western Democracies, with U.S. Decline “Unprecedented”
"Democratic backsliding is now happening in well-established democracies. Democracy in the USA is deteriorating at unprecedented speed, and media and journalists are increasingly targeted across the world."
FCC Chair Threatens to Revoke Broadcasters’ Licenses Over Iran War Coverage
Critics say Brendan Carr is positioning himself as a national censor. His threats to broadcasters covering Iran fit the bill.
Trump is using immigration policy to suppress speech, lawsuit claims
Researchers who study online safety are being censored and denied entry to the United States. It's having an unconstitutional chilling effect on independent research and advocacy that a lawsuit aims to correct.
Who's Strengthening Our Democracy - and How Do We Join Forces?
I want us to collectively flourish; for that to happen our democracies require good leadership, informed citizens, and active work to renew and upgrade our democratic sense-making.
An increasingly dangerous world
My underlying model for everything that's happening
Fighting back against techno-capitalist-authoritarianism
Lately I feel like the world's slow burn has been set to broil. Things are not good. And often times, I feel kind of hopeless, like we are going to have no choice but to succumb to authoritarianism and our new tech overlords. Sometimes it feels utterly impossible to do anything to shift the tide of doom. And that's the point. The people in control want us to feel hopeless, they want us to feel a sense of existential nihilism so that we don't fight back because we think it's useless to do so. Com...
Palantir vs. the "Republik": US analytics firm takes magazine to court
Switzerland rejected Palantir on security grounds after independent journalism shed light on fundamental issues. Now the company is suing to tell its side of the story.
A note about personal security
I made a mistake last month that hopefully others can learn from. There are rumors that ICE is turning its attention to the Philadelphia area, where I live. I’m a natural-born American citizen, but based on accounts from Minneapolis, I’m not excited to run into them, and I’m worried about the health and well-being of my child. So I briefly joined a local Signal group that reports ICE sightings. I have been using my full name on Signal — and I’m the only Ben Werdmuller in the world. In the less
AI and the corporate capture of knowledge
"A society cannot meaningfully debate policy, science or justice if information is locked away behind paywalls or controlled by proprietary algorithms. If we allow AI companies to profit from mass appropriation while claiming immunity, we are choosing a future in which access to knowledge is governed by corporate power rather than democratic values." Bruce Schneier...
Coming Up Next
it isn't looking good for the Americans
Remembering Beyond Vietnam on MLK Day
A good friend introduced me to Martin Luther King Jr's Beyond Vietnam speech some time ago. It was not well-received by the mainstream press at the time (more about that in a moment) but I think it's prescient and, unfortunately, timely. At the Riverside Church in New York City, he delivered a blistering response to America's war in Vietnam that went beyond the war itself to discuss the values of the nation and its impact at home and abroad: We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriente
Remarks on the Federal Government’s Ongoing Presence in Minnesota
“It is a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government." So record it.
‘ELITE’: The Palantir App ICE Uses to Find Neighborhoods to Raid
"Internal ICE material and testimony from an official obtained by 404 Media provides the clearest link yet between the technological infrastructure Palantir is building for ICE and the agency’s activities on the ground."
An ... interesting year
On fascism, technology, and finding the helpers.
T.S.A. Is Providing Air Passenger Data to Immigration Agents for Deportation Effort
"The Trump administration is providing the names of all air travelers to immigration officials, substantially expanding its use of data sharing to expel people under deportation orders."
US plans to start checking all tourists' social media
"All tourists will have to undergo a social media screening before being allowed entry into the US under new plans being considered by the country's border force."
The Optical Illusion of Prosperity
"We have created a system where the only way to survive is to be destitute enough to qualify for aid, or rich enough to ignore the cost. Everyone in the middle is being cannibalized."
I Want You to Understand Chicago
"I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time."
Time to start de-Appling
"You have some serious thinking to do about what you intend to trust to the Apple stack altogether going forward, even things like passwords."
Massive immigration raid on Chicago apartment building leaves residents reeling: 'I feel defeated'
Many of our colleagues' communities are being directly targeted by an increasingly authoritarian, anti-immigrant regime. As managers and leaders, we have a duty of care. It starts with listening.
Your private data isn't as private as you think
How law enforcement and private parties can access your information without your knowledge, and what you can do about it.
Fast Fash
conference-on-populism-nationalism-and-the-future-of-democracy-announcement
Sponsored by the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory in Collaboration with the University of Denver You must register in order to receive a participation
conference-on-populism-nationalism-and-the-future-of-democracy-announcement
Sponsored by the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory in Collaboration with the University of Denver You must register in order to receive a participation
conference-on-populism-nationalism-and-the-future-of-democracy-announcement
Sponsored by the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory in Collaboration with the University of Denver You must register in order to receive a participation
conference-on-populism-nationalism-and-the-future-of-democracy-announcement
Sponsored by the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory in Collaboration with the University of Denver You must register in order to receive a participation
conference-on-populism-nationalism-and-the-future-of-democracy-announcement
Sponsored by the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory in Collaboration with the University of Denver You must register in order to receive a participation
conference-on-populism-nationalism-and-the-future-of-democracy-announcement
Sponsored by the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory in Collaboration with the University of Denver You must register in order to receive a participation