Grassroots Republicans Are Not Waiting for the RNC To Revamp Their Digital Strategy
BY Sarah Lai Stirland | Thursday, June 13 2013
Several members of the Republican Party rank and file aren't waiting around for the GOP to reinvent itself on the technological front. They're organizing events themselves to explore what a tech-enabled GOP might look like for the 2014 cycle. Read More
First POST: Shell Games
BY Nick Judd | Thursday, June 13 2013
Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: Generals and senators duel over the truth of surveillance; reporters turn their pens on the whistleblower instead of the leak; and more in today's round-up of news about technology in politics from around the web. Read More
Disruption or Disobedience? Airport Car Sharing Service Hit With Permit Suit
BY Sam Roudman | Wednesday, June 12 2013
Sometimes sharing is caring, other times it’s grounds for a lawsuit. Peer-to-peer car sharing company FlightCar is the target of a lawsuit filed last week by the City of San Francisco filed a alleging the service engages in “unfair and unlawful operation of a rental car company and parking lot” targeted to patrons of San Francisco International Airport. Read More
New Russian Law Makes Publication of Information on Gay Rights Illegal
BY Jessica McKenzie | Wednesday, June 12 2013
On June 11 the Russian parliament passed a bill against “homosexual propaganda” that effectively outlaws gay rights rallies and bans informational or pro-gay rights material from publication in the media or on the Internet. Violators of the law will risk heavy fines and censorship and, in the case of a media outlet, risk being shut down. It had near unanimous support, passing in a 436-to-0 vote, with only one abstention.
Read MoreWhat Traffic Lights Say About the Future of Regulation
BY David Eaves | Wednesday, June 12 2013
London traffic lights (credit: Flickr/@doug88888)
Journalists stirred up a small scandal in Florida when they revealed that traffic signals had been adjusted to show shorter yellow lights, raising revenues thanks to tickets, even though research indicated that might make the roads less safe. The critical question at the core of all this is, what is the purpose of the red light camera? Is it to make intersections safer by recording, punishing and thus deterring drivers who recklessly run red lights? Or is it a means for government — or a private company — to raise revenue? Which goal should this technology serve? Read More
Macedonia Draft Law to Regulate and Restrict the "Last Arena for Freedom of Speech"
BY Jessica McKenzie | Wednesday, June 12 2013
The draft of a media regulation law in Macedonia has journalists and press freedom watchdogs up in arms. The proposed Law on Media and Audiovisual Media Services was written by the government behind closed doors and without input from the media or NGOs. It has been interpreted as a decisive move on the part of the government to limit speech online in a country where press freedoms are already limited. Until now, Internet-based news sites were not regulated like print media.
Read MoreFirst POST: Hearings
BY Nick Judd | Wednesday, June 12 2013
Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: Members of Congress question what they've been told about surveillance of Americans; federal officials take flak for their IT project reporting; and more in today's round-up of news about technology in politics from around the web. Read More
Trying to Prosecute Online Piracy in Canada? Good Luck!
BY Elisabeth Fraser | Wednesday, June 12 2013
A private firm that is monitoring Canadians who download pirated content online has found itself at the center of a legal battle. Read More
What Happens When You Collect "Metadata" On Multinationals Instead of People?
BY Nick Judd | Tuesday, June 11 2013
Chris Taggart. Photo: Esty Stein / Personal Democracy Media
"In a highly connected, networked world, where the network's evolving all the time, the power comes from being able to connect the dots," OpenCorporates founder Chris Taggart told me. "And at the moment ... citizens, people, other companies even don't have the ability to connect those dots." That's where OpenCorporates comes in — a vast, freely available database of information about the world's corporate world. Read More
Google To Justice Department: Let Us Publish National Security Requests
BY Sarah Lai Stirland | Tuesday, June 11 2013
Google's Chief Legal Officer David Drummond on Tuesday published an open letter addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller asking for permission to publish the number and scope of national security-related requests that it receives. In effect, the company is asking the government to lift a gag, imposed in the name of national security, on disclosing the extent to which the search-engine giant passes along user information to the federal government. Read More
