Facebook’s Secret War on Switching Costs
Update, October 1, 2021: The original version of this essay incorrectly stated that Metcalfe's Law dictated that the number of connections in a network doubled with each new user; that has been corrected, below.When the FTC filed its amended antitrust complaint against Facebook in mid-August, we read it with...
Chicago Inspector General: Using ShotSpotter Does Not Justify Crime Fighting Utility
ˀThe Chicago Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has released a highly critical report on the Chicago Police Department’s use of ShotSpotter, a surveillance technology that relies on a combination of artificial intelligence and human “acoustic experts” to purportedly identify and locate gunshots based on a network of...
OnlyFans Content Creators Are the Latest Victims of Financial Censorship
Update (8/26/21): Victory! OnlyFans has reversed course and suspended its plans to ban sexually explicit content, saying it has “secured assurances necessary” from banking partners and payout providers to enable it to continue to serve all creators. We hope that financial institutions will take note that it is unacceptable...
How LGBTQ+ Content is Censored Under the Guise of "Sexually Explicit"
Party Like It’s 1979: The OG Antitrust Is Back, Baby!
President Biden’s July 9 Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy is a highly technical, 72-part, fine-grained memo on how to address the ways market concentration harms our lives as workers, citizens, consumers, and beyond. To a casual reader, this may seem like a dry bit of...
O (No!) Canada: Fast-Moving Proposal Creates Filtering, Blocking and Reporting Rules—and Speech Police to Enforce Them
Policymakers around the world are contemplating a wide variety of proposals to address “harmful” online expression. Many of these proposals are dangerously misguided and will inevitably result in the censorship of all kinds of lawful and valuable expression. And one of the most dangerous proposals may be adopted in Canada....
The Company Behind Online Learning Platform Canvas Should Commit to Transparency, Due Process for Students
Canvas is an online learning platform created by the Utah-based education technology company Instructure. In the past year, the platform has also been turned into a disciplinary technology, as more and more schools have come to rely on Canvas to drive allegations of cheating—despite student protests and technical...
Tech Rights Are Workers' Rights: DoorDash Edition
DoorDash workers are embroiled in a bitter labor dispute with the company: at issue, the tips that “Dashers” depend on to make the difference between a living wage and the poorhouse. DoorDash has a long history of abusing its workers’ tips; including a particularly ugly case brought by the...
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: Platforms Want To Be Utilities, Self-Govern Like Empires
The Cryptocurrency Surveillance Provision Buried in the Infrastructure Bill is a Disaster for Digital Privacy
The forthcoming Senate draft of Biden's infrastructure bill—a 2,000+ page bill designed to update the United States’ roads, highways, and digital infrastructure—contains a poorly crafted provision that could create new surveillance requirements for many within the blockchain ecosystem. This could include developers and others who do not control digital...