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MEDIA BITS AND BYTES — SEPTEMBER 2, 2025  
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August 2, 2025
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_ Big Tech and civilization _

, Shutterstock

 

* Saving Digital Democracy 
* When Neutrality is a Constraint
* Saving Rural Newspapers
* Reality Bites in DC
* Sam Altman Gets CGT-5 Backlash
* Pondering Techno-Development
* California News Coalition Launches Police Misconduct Database
* E. Jean Carroll's Tell-all Doc is Here
* Trump’s War on “Woke AI”
* What the Tech Lords Have in Store

SAVING DIGITAL DEMOCRACY
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By Muhammed Bello Buhari
Global Voices

Across continents, the voices that most need digital space are being
silenced not by force, but by shutdowns, surveillance, censorship, and
biased algorithms. What was once a tool for liberation is now
increasingly a site of repression.

WHEN NEUTRALITY IS A CONSTRAINT
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By Lisa Armstrong
Columbia Journalism Review

Does a profession that was founded to reflect the concerns of
elites—property-owning white men—and helped shape public discourse
in ways that protected their political and economic power, have the
mettle to meet this particular moment? 

SAVING RURAL NEWSPAPERS
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By Sarah Raza
Associated Press

A dozen recently shuttered newspapers across Wyoming and South Dakota
are set to publish again, after buyers stepped up within days to
prevent the rural communities from becoming “news deserts” where
little or no local media remains. 

REALITY BITES IN DC
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By Jennifer Schulze
Indistinct Chatter

DC residents are flooding social media with critical reality checks on
Trump’s takeover scheme. Local news is also doing important on the
ground reporting.

SAM ALTMAN GETS CGT-5 BACKLASH
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By Will Knight
Wired

OpenAI’s GPT-5 model was meant to be a world-changing upgrade to its
wildly popular and precocious chatbot. But for some users, last
Thursday’s release felt more like a wrenching downgrade, with the
new ChatGPT presenting a diluted personality and making surprisingly
dumb mistakes.

PONDERING TECHNO-DEVELOPMENT
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By Walden Bello
Foreign Policy in Focus

The only constraint to AI is the material one of how many transistors
can be imprinted on a silicon wafer or computer chip. However, these
limits continue to be breached by ever more sophisticated
micro-processes that have allowed the number of transistors per chip
to increase ten-million-fold over the last 50 years.

CALIFORNIA NEWS COALITION LAUNCHES POLICE MISCONDUCT DATABASE
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By Kathryn Squyres
Current
Seven years in the making, a database of police records on misconduct,
shootings and use of force causing serious injury or death is now
public on the websites of LAist and KQED in San Francisco. The
database is free to access and doesn’t require an account. 

E. JEAN CARROLL’S TELL-ALL DOC IS HERE
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By Matt Donnelly
Variety

A sure sign of authoritarianism is repression of women and censorship
and abuse of power. The timing of this film is absolutely important.
And people will get to know E. Jean’s entire story. That was always
my intent. I did not make this to focus purely on the assault.

TRUMP’S WAR ON “WOKE AI”
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By Tori Noble and Kit Walsh
Electronic Frontier Foundation

The White House’s recently-unveiled “AI Action Plan” wages war
on so-called “woke AI”—including large language models (LLMs)
that provide information inconsistent with the administration’s
views. It targets measures designed to mitigate the generation of
racial and gender biased content and even hate speech.

WHAT THE TECH LORDS HAVE IN STORE
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By João Camargo
Common Dreams

What do Thiel and the other techlords stand for? Their ideological
base revolves around something called the “Dark Enlightenment.” It
is a mixture of libertarian doctrines with scientific racism, an
anti-historical vision of a return to feudalism and an acceleration
toward social and environmental collapse.

 

* digital democracy
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* Journalism
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* neutrality
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* rural newspapers
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* Washington DC
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* CGT-5
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* Sam Altman
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* artificial intelligence
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* Deepseek
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* Foes of Kaiser (and SEIU) Unite in California
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* police misconduct database
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* E. Jean Carroll
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* Woke AI
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* Donald Trump
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* tech lords
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* Peter Thiel
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