Experts Mona Elswah, a CDT Fellow on Global South content moderation, & Emna Mizouni, a Tunisian digital rights advocate, discuss the hurdles Maghrebi Arabic speakers face online and how platforms can make moderation more inclusive. https://cdt.org/insights/tech-talk-talking-tech-with-mona-elswah-emna-mizouni-on-moderating-maghrebi-content/

Microsoft is shutting down Skype in favor of Teams https://www.theverge.com/news/621353/microsoft-skype-shutting-down-retirement-may-2025

This new paper shows that based on a review of 250 computer science undergraduate degrees worldwide, almost half do not offer any computing ethics courses at all, and only a third *require* students to take an ethics course to obtain their degree. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3641554.3701824

1st place photo from this year's Rest of World contest on the impacts of technology
https://restofworld.org/2025/tech-photography-contest-winners/#/grace-yoon
#surveillance #immigration #facialrecognition

You can change the title of this chart and - with the exception of Orban - this process has been essentially identical, featuring the same people, for the last five years.

Online rumors as propaganda, advancing the goals of a political machine.

We chronicled how this worked in election 2020…and got investigated by Jim Jordan in retaliation.

Global Voices statement on the U.S. foreign aid freeze
https://globalvoices.org/2025/01/29/global-voices-statement-on-the-u-s-foreign-aid-freeze/

As the U.S. government seeks to enact stricter controls over online speech, TikTok users are adopting more coded 'algospeak' to criticize and resist the government https://www.usermag.co/p/tiktok-cute-winter-boots-meaning-explained-algospeak

Check out CDT’s latest Tech Talk episode! What happens when an AI system "resigns," stopping recommendations or restricting outputs? Can this reduce legal or reputational risks? Join CDT’s Jamal Magby & NYU Assistant Professor @umangsbhatt.bsky.social, to explore this bold idea. 🎧 Listen now: https://cdt.org/insights/tech-talk-talking-tech-with-umang-bhatt-on-algorithmic-resignation/

If you’re just tuning in to the flurry of AI agent releases, here’s last summer’s short essay meant both as an explainer and a sketch of some real challenges for us all to take up. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/07/ai-agents-safety-risks/678864/?gift=GFVsesv7yr2B_e8FpoMTZ3HZdGk7HxQRM9NGUsBu0p8&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

The simple truth is that nonconsensual porn AI "nudify" apps are viable because they get almost all of their traffic from social media ads. One of the largest one is getting *90 percent* of its traffic from Instagram ads. 90 percent! This is only going to get worse

https://www.404media.co/instagram-ads-send-this-nudify-site-90-percent-of-its-traffic/

Thinking of my friends who are farmers on the island of Jersey, where PFAs contamination is so bad that the government scientific panel is recommending blood transfusions for the island's population.

3M actually signed a secret contract with the island's government in 2005 to block testing of prevalence among the population and to obligate the government to defend the company against legal challenges.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jan/16/bloodletting-recommended-for-jersey-residents-after-pfas-contamination

if TikTok does the same thing it does in India to shut down the app for the USA this weekend, we can expect to see modified versions of the TikTok app that don't report the correct `getSIMCountryISO()` (or equivalent)... see slide 19 of this presentation from IETF 119: https://datatracker.ietf.org/meeting/119/materials/slides-119-maprg-out-in-the-open-on-the-implementation-of-mobile-app-filtering-in-india-00

Our “Education Leader’s Guide” explores how immigration enforcement may impact schools and provides actionable recommendations to safeguard students and their families. https://cdt.org/insights/brief-education-leaders-guide-to-complying-with-existing-student-privacy-and-civil-rights-laws-amidst-an-evolving-immigration-landscape/ cc: Kristin Woelfel

CDT’s Free Expression Director Kate Ruane pens an op-ed for US News unpacking how the government’s TikTok law sets a dangerous precedent that could harm free speech & democracy. https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2025-01-10/heres-what-the-supreme-courts-tiktok-case-is-really-about

An article by Documented explores how TikTok influencers are targeting migrants with misleading advice.

Dr. Jo Lukito explains:
“We call these gap spaces ‘data voids,’ places where you do not have a lot of information if you look something up.”

https://documentedny.com/2024/12/20/tiktok-migrants-immigration-social-media/

By leaving insecure tracking devices on the open internet, “police have not only breached public trust but created a bounty of location data for everyone who drives by which can be abused by stalkers & other criminals,” EFF’s @cooperq told WIRED.
https://www.wired.com/story/license-plate-reader-live-video-data-exposed/

India's internet shutdown crisis: A growing threat to digital rights
https://globalvoices.org/2025/01/06/indias-internet-shutdown-crisis-a-growing-threat-to-digital-rights/

“RFK Jr: Maybe A Broken Clock Is Right Twice A Day?”
“Yes, Children’s Health Defense Lies Hurt Kids BUT…”

This media coverage framing is about to seep into a confirmation hearing, where it’ll be used to imply that pesky medical “experts” opposed to RFK are the *real* unreasonable ones. “We all know the status quo is bad, why do you hate change?”

This is a rhetorical trick implying a binary. It’s not “RFK vs status quo”!

*American kids deserve a qualified leader. Pick the best for them.*

🛑🤡 PSA: This is disingenuous marketing. Signal chats can't be 'monitored' by anyone not in those chats.

Dressing up "joining groups via publicly posted links, then exfiltrating group data" as an offensive 'cybercapability' borders on misinfo, and confuses/scares ppl who rely on Signal for robust privacy.

https://intel471.com/blog/expanding-source-coverage-adding-signal-chats-to-threat-intelligence

#ContentModeration systems often fail to address the unique needs of low-resource languages in the Global South. Our series from CDT Research explores these challenges, starting with Maghrebi Arabic, where biases & inadequate training data lead to inaccuracies. https://cdt.org/cdtresearch/