Sasha Baron Cohen eviscerates social media disinformation, conspiracy peddlers. “Voltaire was right, ‘those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.’” H/t
@KarenKornbluh
Our NTIA report and recommendations on AI Accountability Policy synthesizes > 1400 public comments, stakeholder consultations, inter-agency input. Short personal thread on theory of change for creating accountability ecosystem.
California puts $25 mil into UC Berkeley Journalism -- to train and sustain more journalists from more diverse backgrounds to report more local news. This is
#publicmedia
!
Reprehensible SCOTUS decision on gerrymandering is mostly a disaster for democracy. It's also a perfect example of how analog law assuming friction, inefficiency, imprecision can't handle
#algorithmic
governance - today's partisan gerrymandering.
Allegheny County is trying to do
#algorithms
right. Thread 👇for audit results
1. It hired academics, not commercial vendor to create risk assessment tool to screen child mistreatment calls (
#AFST
)
2. It allowed researchers into black box r/t allowing opacity by trade secret
Tech accountability in the US! Great coverage of
@NTIAgov
.
@CaseyNewton
: "I think the Biden administration’s move here offers some room for hope" on
#AccountableAI
; "asking a lot of questions marks a good first step.”
@Kantrowitz
Highlight of
#stiglercompetition
so far. Antitrust panel asked whether we have clear proof of harm from concentrated platforms.
@matthewstoller
pounded the dais, exclaiming "WAKE UP!"
Clear critique of EU AI Act by
@AlexCEngler
. You can't regulate general purpose AI (or foundation models) for safety and expect that to fix problems through AI value chain. Have to push responsibility (and model access) down.
Since FB changed algo to demote news in 2018, "it's basically impossible for anyone running a FB page to reach their audience...without paying... FB is either a tollbooth or an extortion racket. Organic reach has gone down, and ad rates have gone up."
National Education Policy Center report - schools shouldn't deploy or be pressured to deploy AI without accountability plan, proof of concept, data protection, teacher and child centered learning. Ben Williamson, Alex Molnar, Faith Boninger.
Australia makes FB pay for news and FB exits, taking public service announcements, civic info with it. The law is problematic, but one thing is clear: we can’t depend on private platforms for civic info. Must have digital sovereignty.
Here is where the rubber hits the road for
@facebook
and it’s civic intentions. (Forget the Oversight Board for one minute). It won’t comply with a democratic government law which it doesn’t agree with which costs it money - and removes all accredited publishers including PSBs
.
@froomkin
writes Bezos
@washingtonpost
platform backend platform could monopolize newspaper operations (on AWS!). Instead, we could build civic infrastructure if he donated to nonprofit, made open source. The Carnegie move.
@stevenwaldman
@saschameinrath
Overall, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter accepted their civic responsibilities. But how did that translate into real-world effects? by
@KarenKornbluh
and
@ellgood
> 1400 comments filed in response to
@NTIAgov
RFC on AI accountability policy. A quirk in makes it cumbersome to filter the comments by filer. . So we’ve posted an index. .
We considered stopping only candidate ads, but issue ads present a way to circumvent. Additionally, it isn’t fair for everyone but candidates to buy ads for issues they want to push. So we're stopping these too.
So proud of my 19 year old boy, Lev, who knocked on doors all day every day for 10 weeks for
@Tanner4Delegate
VA 40. Donte unseated incumbent by 68 votes tonight. That's making change.
@letamericavote
@daphnehk
The CDA 230 EO wants the FCC to construe immunity. This is not a "yellow zone" toss-up. The FCC has no jurisdiction over the platforms and no rulemaking authority connected with 230. This is just noise.
First public govt. reactions to
#sidewalklabs
Toronto
#smartcity
plan. Many of which we forecast in this pre-history .
@juliapowles
. Concerns about data governance, private power, regulatory evasion, metastatic scope.
My short read on
@twitter
newsworthiness standard to mediate privacy, power, public interest. There’s no alternative to mediation. But we need granular transparency on implementation. New common law of newsworthiness.
@CaseyNewton
Zuckerberg will elevate local news in the FB feed. But how about paying for it? I've suggested tech-funded endowment with firewall. So has
@emilybell
.
And here's the
@PulitzerPrize
-winning reporting from the paper that just declared bankruptcy. I love that they just reposted it. Hang in there,
@wvgazettemail
Looks like Sidewalk Labs blinked. What Waterfront Toronto will vote forward will be a scaled-back Quayside project. Much more public governance of data, infrastructure, and value in the smart city "neighborhood"/test-bed. If so, this is because of
#blocksidewalk
, public oppo.
@Yair_Rosenberg
“Otef aza” is what this is about. That means Gaza envelope, meaning border communities. Subtitles omitted “otef” which is like calling New Mexico Mexico.
My new piece w/
@karenkornbluh
spinning proposal for platform circuit breaker to slow down harmful virality. Facebook says it is piloting concept
@CaseyNewton
reports!
@amprog
also on board.
Billionaire funds private surveillance in SF neighborhood. City enters into public-private partnership. City gets surveillance powers public never approved. All this in a city that has banned facial recognition. PPPs work around
#smartcity
accountability.
A year after Australia ordered platforms to pay for news, Aussy outlets are hiring reporters. The Guardian added 50. "Journalism professors say their students are getting hired and that there are too many job vacancies to fill," writes
@anyaSIPA
With the Digital Services Act on its way, the UK's algorithmic transparency regime starting pilots, the EU's layered AI governance initiatives piling up, Europe is running away with digital law as the US fiddles. Extraterritorial effects may hurdle culture war and FA blockades.
What
@KarenKornbluh
and I call Trojan Horse “news “,
@emilybell
@TowCenter
calls “pink slime” — Political PR dressed up as local news, exploiting news deserts. Transparency, ratings, down ranking would help.
NEW: We're investing $3.5M in new, independent research on issues at the forefront of national
#tech
policy debates — helping inform policymakers as they shape the future of the internet. More on our support for 22 universities, research + advocacy orgs ⬇️
@voxdotcom
It was a horrible decision but this headline is misleading and tendentious. 1. It’s that they support BDS, not that they’re women of color. 2. This is Bibi sucking up to Trump and Israeli right in advance of elections.
The United States needs to invest in a new digital public sphere—a new civic infrastructure—if it hopes to sustain democratic practice and informed participation, argue Sanjay Jolly and
@ellgood
:
Important talk on
#platform
power,
#algocracy
. Digital firms "are no longer market participants. Rather, in their fields, they are market makers, able to exert regulatory control over the terms on which others can sell goods and services."
.
@EYCanada
piloting conformity assessment for responsible AI with
@AIStandardsHub
@ResponsibleAI
. Idea is to test ISO/IEC 42001 standard on AI management. Doesn't start till 03/25. What world will we be in by then?
@GaryMarcus
@daphnehk
Per Comcast v. FCC, ancillary authority is very limited and here, there is no authority for 230 to be ancillary to (no spectrum, no Title 2 authority, no telecoms service, etc.). Only nexus between 230 and the FCC is that it sits in the Coms Act. Furthermore, FCC has no expertise
One of goals of Civil Media blockchain platform
@Join_Civil
is to provide unalterable record of journalism. When future Lester Holt says "let's go to the tape," it would have clear truth value.
@vivian
Trump called the Holt interview of him a fake.
@BobbyChesney
and I call this the liar’s dividend, when liars invoke deep fakes to cast doubt on truth. Buckle up folks. We need to be first line of defense on truth denial and truth decay
We did it! $5 million to support local news & info in New Jersey! This campaign showed that the public aren't just news consumers but constituents for journalism. When you give them the chance, they will take action to support a new vision for local media:
On the Lochnerization of the
#firstamendment
beat: looks like hospital industry will not be able to invalidate HHS mandated disclosure of negotiated rates. AHA argued disclosure violated speech rights b/c so uncertain. DC Cir. skeptical at oral arg (Garland, Tatel, Edwards).
Research I worked on with
@TomDobber
@nhelberger
suggests these interventions have to be well-designed or people will simply miss them. FRICTION IS COMPLICATED.
@KarenKornbluh
and my new piece is out in
@DemJournal
,
We propose a new indy Digital Democracy Agency to "push against the tendencies of the network toward centralized control, instead promoting transparency, decentralized citizen control, and privacy."
Sora’s mistakes further degrade information integrity. Without any theory of the world, Sora is assertively erroneous. But so pretty, people won’t know and will stop asking. Where are the
#provenance
labels?!!!
Fantastic example! That said, it is important to realize that 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘰𝘳𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘦𝘵.
Sora generalizes, it just doesn’t always generalize in ways that are constrained by physics,…
In May, my office launched an investigation into the online platforms used by the shooter at Tops Market in Buffalo to plan, promote, and stream his terror attack.
Today, we're releasing our report and calling for reforms to combat online extremism and violence.
Core problem is that we allowed privatization of public square. This wasn't inevitable. Done with a thousand policy cuts: spectrum policy, preemption of community broadband, starving of public media, media consolidation, internet exceptionalism.
@VWPickard
Monumental achievement by
@linakhanFTC
.
@RKSlaughterFTC
blazed trail to codify prohibitions on unfair/deceptive data practices.
@oliviersylvain
, other staff found the way. Leans on clear authority - no major questions doctrine. Also dares congress to act on privacy.
1. Firms track & collect data on Americans at a stunning scale—on our location, our health, what we read online, who we know, what we buy.
@FTC
is seeking comment on whether to issue rules aimed at commercial surveillance & lax data security practices.
We are pleased to share the final report from our Pittsburgh Task Force on Public Algorithms. We hope this research will help inform govt decisions around the use of
#algorithms
and educate communities on how it affects them. Read it here:
The work
@KarenKornbluh
and
@GMFDigital
are doing shows that 1. disinformation is not marginal; in many info flows, it dominates; 2. fact-based story tellers need a very different approach and tech affordances to be heard; 3. civic info is a "full stack" systemic process.
Algorithmic predictive policing uncovered by
@TB_Times
. Surveilled children. Data sharing between police and schools. What data is collected, and whether it sits in trusts or departmental silos, will find its way to law enforcement unless there’s a lot of friction.
@maggieNYT
@daveweigel
@TimJGraham
Gianforte doesn't have to answer Guardian questions or Breitbart's. What he does have to do is refrain from assault and battery.
Israeli Finance Minister & fascist homophobe Bezalel Smotrich: "I liked a tweet that called for the erasure of the village of Hawara, because I think that the village of Hawara should be wiped out. It is the state that should wipe it out."
Video .
Thanks to all authors cited, etc 👇whose work will inform recs for policies to hold AI systems accountable for safety, fairness, privacy, explanation, alignment with democracy. Pre-system release, post-release, no-release. Comments due 6/10
EU tries to show it will enforce DSA/DMA more robustly than GDPR. It will staff new DG CONNECT and Algorithmic Transparency center with domain experts and fill in the vagaries of law (e.g., around
#algorithmic
audits). 1/4
@jorisvanhoboken
@KarenKornbluh
Spectrum managmt and interference are like the electrical grid - underappreciated until failure. Julie Knapp, longtime head of FCC's Office of Engineering & Technology, prevented failure. Fairly, non-politically, effectively. Civil servant hero. Thanks
@haroldfeld
for the tribute
AI for smarter government? Today, MuckRock is opening to its readers its growing collection of records and requests on government algorithms. Join the effort.
Our crappy honest AI exchanges will make it hard to detect crappy scams
@doctorow
. I fear this is true not only for detecting material fraud, but also with communication.
#infointegrity
watch.