Daily Links #122: Utah police kill unarmed Black man

Elijah James Smith

• Whatever else Elijah James Smith ^[pictured] may have done, the fact remains that Utah police shot an unarmed Black man dead for obeying their order to remove his hands from his pockets.
  (via @radleybalko)

• Free speech advocates warned FOSTA/SESTA would stifle free speech online. Now that the bills are law, they’re … stifling free speech online.

• Meanwhile, the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality rules comes into effect today. Any changes will be gradual, and that’s if the multifaceted efforts to restore the old rules on state and federal levels don’t succeed first.

• Actual religious persecution: Russian government continues its crackdown on Jehovah’s Witnesses, forcing thousands to flee abroad or go into hiding.

• A Minnesota court just ruled that basically everyone on Twitter is now a stalker.
  (via @ScottGreenfield)

• Finally, James Comey’s new book is exactly what you expect from the memoir of the former director of the FBI. That’s not a compliment.
  (via @cjciaramella; retweet by @Popehat)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Links #113: Abstinence advocate controls family planning funding

Valerie Huber

• The perils of having Republicans in power: Almost $300 million in family planning funding is now controlled by an anti-abortion abstinence advocate. ^[pictured]

• Appeals court throws out a man’s conviction after a trial judge ordered him to be electrocuted three times to silence him. That judge needs to be fired yesterday.
  (via @washingtonpost; retweet by @Popehat)

• The Arctic just had its warmest winter on record.

• Oregon becomes the latest state to pass its own law protecting net neutrality.

• Finally, here’s everything you need to know about Jehovah’s Witnesses in five minutes:
  (via Friendly Atheist)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

NRA awards rifle to FCC chairman for “courage” in killing net neutrality rules

FCC Chmn. Ajit Pai at CPAC 2018

I believe this is something the kids would call “not The Onion”:

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai received the National Rifle Association's (NRA) “Charlton Heston Courage Under Fire Award” at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday.

The NRA-sponsored award was given to Pai in recognition of months of heavy criticism over his successful push to repeal the agency’s net neutrality rules. Pai led the push to repeal the rules, which were overwhelmingly supported by the public, in December.

"Ajit Pai is the most courageous, heroic person that I know,” said Dan Schneider, the executive director of the American Conservative Union, while introducing the FCC chairman.

[…]

Pai’s award is a handmade Kentucky long gun, which will be housed in the NRA’s museum in Fairfax, Va.

He enters a hallowed hall of recipients that includes Mike Pence and Milwaukee’s former cosplaying sheriff David Clarke. I don’t think I need to add anything to that.

(via Joe.My.God.)

Daily Links #107: Texas school district threatens to suspend students who protest gun violence

• Thanks to this Texas school district, colleges may soon see “I got suspended for protesting against kids being shot in school” on applications they receive.
  (via @sarahemclaugh; retweet by @Popehat)

• The Pennsylvania district map saga continues: As predicted, Republicans are suing over the new, non-gerrymandered map released by the State Supreme Court, likely hoping to keep their advantage until after the midterms.

• Aurora, Illinois cop secretly installed surveillance cameras in his ex-wife’s home so that he could spy on her during and after their divorce. The city and police chief both want him fired. The arbitrator and police union argue a suspension is good enough. The only reason he’s not going to jail is because the ex-wife refused to press charges.
  (via @TimCushing; retweet by @Popehat)

• More than half of US states are taking it upon themselves to protect net neutrality.
  (via Techdirt)

• Germany’s speech laws continue to be a raging dumpster fire of censorial stupidity.

• Speaking of terrible laws, Swedish politicians want to set the prison penalty for copyright infringement on par with manslaughter.
  (via Privacy News Online)

• Finally, what’s more predictable: That Twitter would ban thousands of bot accounts, that this would impact the follower counts of far-Right tweeps in particular, or that they’d scream “censorship!” over it?

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Links #101: Constitutional crisis brewing in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania’s gerrymandered 7^th District

• US Supreme Court refuses to block a lower court’s order that Pennsylvania’s heavily gerrymandered, Republican-favoring district maps be tossed out and redrawn.

• … So now Pennsylvania Republicans want to impeach the Democratic state supreme court justices who ruled against them.
  (via @radleybalko)

• New Jersey is the latest state to protect net neutrality with an executive order.

• British appeals court refuses to extradite accused hacker Lauri Love because of US prisons’ inability to humanely handle mental health issues.

• Father whose teen is threatened with child porn charges over sexting does exactly as he should: lawyer up and don’t believe any promises made by school administrators or police.
  (via @JohnSMill_enial; retweet by @Popehat)

• More on the Canadian Privacy Commissioner’s terrible idea to import a European-style “right to be forgotten” that’s invariably abused.

• Trump may finally get his military parade. I guess he thinks showing off the men and women doing a job he weaseled his way out of several times will demonstrate his strength.

• Finally, flat-Earthers’ best “proof” really just proves how incredibly silly they are.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Links: 01/23/18 – Pennsylvania top court throws out gerrymandered district maps

Pennsylvania’s gerrymandered 7^th District

• Pennsylvania Supreme Court throws out the state’s Republican-favoring gerrymandered district maps ^[pictured], giving the legislature a month to redraw them.
  (via Joe.My.God.)

• Montana governor signs executive order blocking ISPs from securing state contracts if they violate net neutrality.

• New Jersey’s Asbury Park Press has an in-depth, multi-part investigation into state police departments that allow rogue cops to abuse and murder citizens without losing their jobs.
  (via @davidminpdx; retweet by @radleybalko)

• Vermont kinda, sorta, becomes the ninth US state to legalize marijuana, but Vermonters still can’t sell it or smoke it in public.
  (via retweet by @radleybalko)

• Big Horn County, Montana lawyer announces a “crackdown” on pregnant women who consume drugs or alcohol, intends to issue restraining orders and then imprison women who violate them.
  (via @radleybalko)

• Preventing felons from voting is one of the most common and uncontroversial acts of voter suppression, and it shouldn’t be. Now Florida will vote on restoring voting rights to over 1.5 million citizens in November.
  (via @FullFrontalSamB)

• The sham-tastic Republican-controlled House Science Committee wants to investigate a scientist for writing in support of science.

• Finally, the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins lays bare the religious-Right’s hypocrisy: Evangelicals are happy to ignore all of Trump’s lying and adultery so long as he supports their agenda.
  (via @HashtagGriswold; retweeted by @Popehat)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Edit (01/31/18 @ 6:46 AM ET): Fixed a typo.

Daily Links: 01/18/18 – Senate Democrats help Republicans give Trump mass spying powers

• Senate Democrats join their House counterparts in helping Republicans give the Trump administration vast warrantless powers to spy on Americans. Viva la #Resistance!

• British Columbia Supreme Court judge strikes down Canada’s indefinite solitary confinement regime. An Ontario court ruled similarly last month.

• Two dozen US state attorneys general file a lawsuit against the FCC over the repeal of its net neutrality rules.

• Supreme Court temporarily blocks a lower court order that North Carolina throw out its ridiculously gerrymandered electoral map that heavily favors Republicans.

• Deputy guns down an unarmed 16-year-old after he tries to stop the deputy from arresting his upset mother after a juvenile court hearing.
  (via @ShaunKing; retweet by @pzmyers)

• Christian-fascist legal group Alliance Defending Freedom is pushing to kill protections for trans prison inmates, because Christianist bigots just aren’t happy unless sexual minorities live in constant fear.

• Trump’s week-long-awaited Fake News Awards are out. If you must read about them, check out PolitiFact’s analysis.

• Finally: Quack who pretends to treat cancer with baking soda and vitamins is exposed as a quack, sues to silence the critic, prepares to run face-first into wall labeled “Streisand Effect”.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Links: 12/20/17 – The problems with “drug-free zones”

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)

• The Myth of the Playground Pusher: How “drug-free zones” are less about protecting children and a lot more about drug-warrior politicians who want to burnish their creds with tougher sentences, innocence be damned.
  (via @radleybalko)

• Rep. Marsha Blackburn ^[pictured] (R-TN), noted telecom shill who understands nothing about net neutrality, introduces a bill that would codify the FCC’s anti-net-neutrality position into law.

• Law firm Appleby, whose leaked documents were the basis for the Paradise Papers, sues The Guardian and the BBC over their reporting, claiming “there was no public interest in the stories”.
  (via @KyellGold)

• Speaking of bad lawsuits: Password manager company Keeper is suing an Ars Technica reporter who wrote about a security flaw that has since been fixed. Considering that security firms’ credibility rests largely on their transparency regarding security flaws, this mostly ensures that no-one will trust Keeper again.
  (via @normative; RT: @Popehat)

• More data, this time from Las Vegas, shows that police body cameras reduce the number of complaints and use-of-force incidents.

• Ding dong, the child-molestation-enabling cardinal is dead. Naturally, he’ll get a full Vatican funeral with Pope Francis’s blessing.

• Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) sets his resignation date for January 2, 2018.
  (via Joe.My.God.)

• Finally, it’s a victory against breed-specific legislation as Montréal, Québec strikes down its pit bull ban.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Links: 12/14/17 – Net neutrality edition

As expected, the FCC under Chairman Ajit Pai, a former Verizon executive, has voted to dismantle its net neutrality rules that prevented cable companies from fucking up the free and open Web, arguably the greatest invention and the most powerful tool for democracy in human history.

• What does an Internet without net neutrality look like? Try the Removal of Net Neutrality Simulator extension for Chrome to give you a hint of what you’re in for.

• If you think the above is an exaggeration, it’s not far from what we’ve seen in real-world cases. It’s also exactly what’s happening right now in Portugal, which has no net neutrality protections.

• Some are hoping the FTC will step in and do the job. It won’t.

• Others are hoping states will step in and present their own net neutrality rules. But companies like Verizon, Comcast and wireless carriers are already pushing the FCC to block that, too.

• It’s difficult to describe how brutally dishonest the FCC and Ajit Pai’s arguments against the need for net neutrality rules are.
  • Pai’s primary claim, that repealing the current rules will return the Internet to how it was just two years ago, is pure bullshit.
  • Pai says that net neutrality somehow harms the sick and disabled. It doesn’t.
  • Pai says net neutrality harms small ISPs. The FCC’s own data shows that’s a lie.
  • Pai & co. claim net neutrality rules stopped companies investing in the Internet framework. That’s bullshit based entirely on garbage lobbyist data.
  • Pai claims that lack of competition between Internet companies, the primary reason net neutrality is an issue, has been fixed. It very obviously hasn’t.
  • And too many more to list here.
• Of course, cable companies shovel horseshit at your face, too.
  • AT&T ignores countless surveys showing people overwhelmingly support net neutrality to lie and pretend they don’t.
  • Speaking of AT&T, they also deceived their customers into opposing net neutrality in the guise of defending it.
  • Verizon (Ajit Pai’s old home) lies the lyingest lies ever about how no-one’s talking about killing net neutrality rules, man.
  • Comcast also lies about how just because they want net neutrality rules gone doesn’t mean they want to take advantage of that, even though they pushed for it, but, like, for no reason, so don’t worry.
  • Speaking of Comcast, watch how quickly their promise to avoid “paid prioritization” disappeared from their website when it became clear they’d have their way.
  • Back to AT&T again: They’re now pretending they won’t do anything to screw with net neutrality, either, even after years and millions of lobbying dollars spent opposing the rules that protected it.
  • And meanwhile, ISPs were jumping at the chance to screw their customers over even before the FCC’s repeal of their net neutrality rules took place.

• Meanwhile, the people who actually built the Internet were quick to slam the repeal.

• … Not that Ajit Pai cares, as he was too busy lashing out at everyone from Hollywood to Silicon Valley over their universal condemnation of his plan.

But there’s hope yet. Also as expected, the entire Internet is in an uproar, with everyone from the ACLU to the New York Attorney General to many in Congress vowing to fight the FCC in both judicial and legislative arenas. Lawmakers’ phones are going to melt all over DC over this, and they know they’d better pay attention. If there’s one issue that crosses party lines, it’s that everyone loves their Internet just the way it is, and anyone caught trying to tamper with it is in for a world of hurt.

So make ’em hurt. (With civil protest, that is.)

As a final note, I’d like to thank the valiant crew at Techdirt for their years of hard work in researching and educating about tech policy generally and net neutrality in particular.

Robert Reich explains how dismantling net neutrality harms democracy

Robert Reich, economy professor, Clinton Administration Labor Secretary and all-around cool dude, breaks down why allowing the FCC’s Ajit Pai to dismantle net neutrality rules would not only destroy the open Web and drive up prices, it would also harm democracy itself by allowing big Internet companies to hinder the free exchange of ideas and stifle any speech they don’t like:

Abolishing Net Neutrality would drive up prices, stifle innovation, and jeopardize democracy. Here's why we must stop this corporate takeover of the internet. pic.twitter.com/oPvY6L2JHI

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) December 10, 2017

People in other countries (including here in Canada, which strictly enforces net neutrality) shouldn’t feel too superior, either; given the massive chunk of the Internet that’s based in or runs through the US, a major upheaval there will affect everyone’s online experience.

The sad irony is that net neutrality rules are only the least bad solution to the current problem, a band-aid slapped onto a severed aorta. They’re only necessary because of the near-total lack of competition and innovation in the US Internet marketplace. Giants like Verizon and AT&T have so much power and have swallowed up so many smaller companies (when they don’t block them from launching in the first place) they’re often the only ISPs Americans have access to. And when you have singular gatekeepers, there’s nothing to stop them from hiking up prices, keeping speeds low and generally doing whatever the hell they want, especially with their lobbying arms that are so obscenely powerful they literally write their own legislation designed to make it impossible for states and communities to give themselves more options.

The FCC’s 2015 net neutrality rules were a stopgap solution to a much larger problem, but they were a step in the right direction. Now Trump’s puppet is doing all he can do rip the band-aid off and let ISPs get even richer from the hemorrhaging.

(via @Alyssa_Milano; RT: @donttrythis)