[More censorship, more surveillance, more media resistance]
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MEDIA BITS AND BYTES – DECEMBER 12, 2023  
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December 12, 2023
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_ More censorship, more surveillance, more media resistance _

, Matt Shirley

 

* The IRS vs Microsoft
* Mehdi Hasan Gets the Ax - When He’s Most Needed
* America’s School Internet Censorship Machine
* ESPN’s Real Crisis
* The Quantum Computers of Tomorrow
* Report: The Ultimate Quest for Data
* Joan Donovan Calls Out Harvard and Meta
* Giving Surveillance for the Holidays
* Keeping Gaza Connected
* Social Media in the Lebanese Movement

THE IRS VS MICROSOFT
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By Paul Kiel
ProPublica

The Microsoft case provides a unique window into tech companies
shifting profits to tax havens. Three senators sough more detail
about the role of the mega-consultancy KPMG: “KPMG helped Microsoft
reward shareholders and executives, while depriving the federal
government of billions in tax revenueKPMG clearly played a central
role in the systematic offshoring of corporate profits.”

MEHDI HASAN GETS THE AX — WHEN HE’S MOST NEEDED
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By Perry Bacon Jr.
The Washington Post

Hasan’s diminishment is the latest indication of a worrisome drift
in political journalism. The Black Lives Matter movement and the
resistance to Donald Trump’s presidency pushed the news media in a
more liberal direction. But with Biden in office, many news outlets
have tried to recalibrate — most notably CNN, which pushed
out several journalists who the network felt were too
anti-Republican. 

AMERICA’S SCHOOL INTERNET CENSORSHIP MACHINE
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By Todd Feathers and Dhruv Mehrotra
Wired

Thanks in large part to a two-decade-old federal anti-porn law, school
districts across the US restrict what students see online using a
patchwork of commercial web filters that block vast and often random
swathes of the internet. As the national debate over school censorship
focuses on controversial book-banning laws, automated web filters can
perpetuate ever more dangerous censorship.

ESPN’S REAL CRISIS
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By Joel Anderson
Slate

Consumers continue to drop their cable bundles in favor of streaming
services, which haven’t yet proven to be as profitable. That shift
in viewing habits has shrunk ESPN’s footprint to 71 million homes
from a peak of 100 million. For now, the only way for cord-cutters to
watch ESPN is through cable.

THE QUANTUM COMPUTERS OF TOMORROW
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By Bryan Walsh
Vox

The Quantum System Two represents a significant step forward in the
very long path to bring quantum computing from the lab into the
practical world, where such machines could one day solve problems that
even the fastest classical supercomputers couldn’t crack in millions
of years.

REPORT: THE ULTIMATE QUEST FOR DATA
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By Jenna Ruddock
Free Press

This report explores how the rampant harvesting of our personal data
online has led to discrimination, disclosure of sensitive information
and other abuses. It illustrates the urgent need to safeguard our
digital privacy and mitigate corporate hunger for our data.

JOAN DONOVAN CALLS OUT HARVARD AND META
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By Matthew Ingram
Columbia Journalism Review

Joan Donovan founded and ran the Technology and Social Change
Project, a research effort at Harvard. After years investigating Meta,
she was forced out, and Donovan alleges that Meta “inappropriately
influenced” her superiors in return for the promise of funding,
leading to what she calls a “significant conflict of interest.” 

GIVING SURVEILLANCE FOR THE HOLIDAYS
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By Thorin Klosowski
Electronic Frontier Foundation

With the holidays upon us, it's easy to default to giving the tech
gifts that retailers tend to push on us this time of year: smart
speakers, video doorbells, bluetooth trackers, fitness trackers, and
other connected gadgets are all very popular gifts. But before you
give one, think twice about what you're opting that person into.

KEEPING GAZA CONNECTED
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By Yasmin Shabana
Quartz

A global campaign is helping connect the Palestinians in Gaza using
electronic SIMs (eSIMs). From Egypt, to Lebanon, France, Belgium, the
UK, and the US, thousands of Palestinians in the diaspora, along with
friends and strangers, rushed to purchase eSIMs—the digital version
of the physical SIM cards that store subscriber identity data on
mobile phones—gifting them to people in Gaza.

SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE LEBANESE MOVEMENT
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By Mieke Hein
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung

The Beirut-based independent media platform Megaphone seeks to
tackle the difficulties of independent media production in Lebanon,
and offer their growing audience an alternative to media outlets that
have increasingly become mouthpieces of the country’s rival
political factions.

* Internal Revenue Service
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* Microsoft
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* Mehdi Hasan
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* MSNBC
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* censorship
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* social media
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* schools
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* espn
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* Quantum Computing
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* Free Press
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* data collection
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* Joan Donovan
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* Technology and Social Change
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* Harvard
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* surveillance
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* Gaza
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* SIMs
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* Lebanon
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* Megaphone
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* KMPG
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