Deji from Access Now writes, “You remember that spooky story about the U.S. screening everyone’s social media ‘presence’ at the border? Well, now there’s a way to tell the government exactly what you think about it.”
Boing Boing readers may remember that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is floating a plan to collect the social media accounts of the nearly 100 million people who enter the country every year. They won’t tell us what they’re going to do with the information. They won’t say if they’re going to share the data with the NSA and FBI. They won’t say whether what you post online could single you out for invasive screening. But they do say the program will cost $300,000,000.00.
We need to shut this down before it gets started.
My organization, Access Now, has created a survey to collect opinions about this program, and we’re going to deliver the responses directly to the agency before the deadline on August 22, 2016. Here are some of the questions, and a link to full questionnaire:
Should the U.S. government scan ALL your social media posts when you enter the country? Full survey
If U.S.customs screens social media, would you think twice about what you post? Full survey
Should the U.S. government be able scan your username through other databases to connect it to other information the government holds on you, like your tax information or military records?
Mohamed Ahmed Radwan had boarded a plane in Charlotte, North Carolina and the flight attendant went to the tannoy and said: “Mohamed Ahmed, Seat 25-A: I will be watching you.” The employee made no other announcements about any other passenger. Mr Radwan asked the employee why she had made the announcements. She reportedly responded that he was being “too sensitive” [and] was told he must leave the plane as he had made the first air stewardess “uncomfortable”.
The company’s response: “We thoroughly reviewed these allegations and concluded that no discrimination occurred.”
The same way bad police use “felt threatened” as an excuse for beatings and killings, bad airlines have settled on “felt uncomfortable” as their lawyer-approved all-bases-covered method of booting Muslims from flights.
Towns in Mississippi and other Tea Party-ruled states with large (often private) prison industries are totally reliant on state/fed funding transfers to local prisons for cash and jobs, forced prison labor to provide local services for free, and War on Drugs arrests and minimum sentencing to fill those jails. The first tiny steps toward criminal justice reform have eroded the underpinnings of the whole system, leaving the towns facing collapse.
Increasing vacancy rates in these prisons mean less revenue (and less free, forced labor), but the counties and towns still have to keep up payments on the bonds they floated to raise the money to build their prisons.
Meanwhile, “fiscally responsible” states run by slash-and-burn Tea Party governors have cut services and transfer payments (except the per-prisoner/per-diem payments), eroding the towns’ infrastructure (see also), leaving the towns in a state of absolute precarity.
The first question in this Ubisoft customer survey is “What is your gender” with “Male” and “Female” as permitted responses; if you choose “Female,” you’re dumped into a screen that informs you that “your profile doesn’t suit the survey.”
Games companies have got a lot of stick over the years for their failure to understand, cater to, and appreciate their masses of female customers, but it’s a rare thing for a company’s commercial blind-spots to be so vividly illustrated in two screens.
For Immediate Release: July 6, 2016 Contact: Christina DiPasquale, 202.716.1953, Christina@balestramedia.com
Today, an unnamed official at the Army revealed unverified information relating to Chelsea Manning’s confidential medical status to the media and Nancy Hollander, lead attorney on her defense team, released the following statement:
“We’re shocked and outraged that an official at Leavenworth contacted the press with private confidential medical information about Chelsea Manning yet no one at the Army has given a shred of information to her legal team.
“I had a privileged call scheduled with Chelsea at 2pm Leavenworth time yesterday, after the Army has now said she was hospitalized, but the Army gave the excuse—which I now believe to be an outright lie—that the call could not be connected although my team was waiting by the phone.
“Despite the fact that they have reached out to the media, and that any other prison will connect an emergency call, the Army has told her lawyers that the earliest time that they will accommodate a call between her lawyers and Chelsea is Friday morning. We call on the Army to immediately connect Chelsea Manning to her lawyers and friends who care deeply about her well-being and are profoundly distressed by the complete lack of official communication about Chelsea’s current situation.”
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Fight for the Future is a digital rights group that has been supporting Chelsea Manning while in prison. This press release was posted with the approval of her attorneys.
When Stanley Franks is told he has 1500 words left to live, he faces a battle to keep both his marriage and himself alive using the fewest words possible.
SCREENINGS:
London Independent Film Festival – WINNER
New York Independent Film Festival – WINNER
International Filmmaker Festival of Milan – WINNER
Los Angeles International Short Film Festival
Portland Film Festival
Austin Shortsfest
Laughter Comedy Fest
Film Crash
The Monthly Film Festival – WINNER
UnderGround Film Fest – WINNER
