CDT’s U.S. Newsletter — November Edition


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NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER  

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Women of Color U.S. Political Candidates
Targeted with Worst Online Abuse

Recently, the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) released alarming new research on online abuse of women of color candidates in U.S. elections ([link removed]), which found that they encounter mis- and disinformation and the worst kinds of online harassment at higher rates than other candidates. 

The report, which is one of the first to examine the major issue ([link removed]), analyzes Twitter posts targeted at 2020 women of color candidates for the U.S. Congress, and includes more than a dozen interviews with these candidates and their teams about the impacts of online attacks. It also contains our recommendations for how social media platforms, other political candidates and their parties, and researchers working in the field can help combat abuse and mis- and disinformation targeted at women of color political candidates.

Dhanaraj Thakur, CDT Research Director and co-author of the report, says ([link removed]), "These findings should worry us all, because a healthy democracy requires political participation and representation of all segments of society. If a significant group of citizens — in this case, women of color — encounter additional barriers to running and staying in office, it means our democracy has a serious problem."

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Graphic for CDT report, entitled “De-Weaponizing and Standardizing the Post-Election Audit.” A column of ballots is arranged in blue, green, and red, overlapping with scanline patterns in bright blue, purple, and teal. Black background, and white text and CDT logo.

In Case You Missed It

A new report from CDT serves as a guide to the post-election audit landscape in 2022 ([link removed]), and offers a path forward for improving post-election audits in 2024 and beyond. We help to distinguish sham election reviews from true post-election audits, which play a key role in ensuring confidence in election outcomes.

Recently, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight board requested comments from stakeholders in anticipation of the late 2023 expiry of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. CDT has long been critical of the law, which allows the U.S. government to engage in warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. persons abroad, lacks necessary checks on its scope, and significantly harms the privacy of individuals around the world — including people in the U.S., whose communications are often swept up. With these concerns in mind, CDT submitted comments examining the scale and impact of collection under Section 702 ([link removed]), the conditions that result in collection of U.S. persons’ communications and data, and use of the program by domestic law enforcement.

In October, President Biden issued an Executive Order (EO) that limits surveillance directed abroad by U.S. intelligence agencies, and establishes a court to address claims of improper or unlawful surveillance of individuals in select countries. The EO seeks to satisfy requirements set out by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), when it determined that the Privacy Shield agreement — which governed the transfer of data between the U.S. and EU — did not adequately protect the privacy of people in the EU. In a report, CDT explains how the U.S. could supplement the EO to better protect the human rights ([link removed]) of people subjected to surveillance directed abroad, and establish a legal regime more likely to receive a positive judgment from the CJEU.

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#GivingTuesday is 11/29. Celebrate with CDT & suport our work. Dark blue box with white and teal text.

Support CDT This #GivingTuesday

With everything going on these last few months of the year, we hope you will take a moment to consider supporting CDT. Everything we do, from protecting reproductive rights and consumer privacy issues, to supporting election integrity and combatting unfettered surveillance, is supported by passionate people like you. Support CDT this #GivingTuesday ([link removed]), and support this work in the future.

CDT in the Press

In the context of recent changes at social media platform Twitter, CDT Director of Policy Samir Jain told Foreign Policy ([link removed]), “Moderation in non-English languages is significantly poorer than it is in English, both because of the lack of language expertise on the part of people at these companies but also because even the automated tools that help with content moderation work much less better for non-English languages. We were already in a situation where the social media companies weren’t as good at moderating speech online; the real fear is that they’re going to become materially worse.”

Emma Llansó, Director of CDT’s Free Expression Project, joined Tech Policy Press for a podcast on how the U.S. midterm elections will affect legislative debate over tech policy issues ([link removed]).

Screenshot of CDT President & CEO Alexandra Givens appearing on Fox 5 NYC. Shows a portrait of a woman with long blonde hair in front of a white bookcase.

CDT President and CEO Alexandra Givens spoke with Fox 5 in New York City ([link removed]) about new CDT research: "One of the things that we found through our studies is that women are… being targeted with mis- and disinformation, with online attacks because of their gender and because of their race. We have to think about the consequences of these online attacks on a representative democracy and having voices of diverse candidates in the public square."

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Event graphic for The Future of Speech Online, hosted virtually from December 6-8, 2022, by CDT and Stand Together Trust. A dark blue, purple, red and green gradient background with technical glitching throughout; text and logos in white.

CDT "in Person"

Join CDT December 6-8 for the sixth annual Future of Speech Online (FOSO) conference: The Supreme Court’s Pivotal Term. Experts will discuss the two cases currently pending before the Supreme Court, Twitter v. Taamneh and Gonzalez v. Google, as well as current litigation over Florida and Texas’s social media laws. Is content moderation “censorship”, or a necessary part of responsible online content hosting? When should intermediaries be liable for speech posted by their users? Learn more and register on the FOSO events page ([link removed]).

Join CDT on November 17 for the next installment of our Hidden Harms series: “How Student Activity Monitoring Increases Risk of Discipline and Police Contact.” Elizabeth Laird and Cody Venzke of CDT, as well as Clarence Okoh of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) and Lorraine Wright of I Vote for Me, will explore how safeguards can be put into place to make school safer for students of all backgrounds. Learn more and register on the Hidden Harms event page ([link removed])

This week, CDT and Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC hosted a discussion on online abuse targeting political candidates. We heard from two political candidates who have first-hand experience being targeted with identity-based online abuse, and after that, policy experts, scholars, and elections advocates talked with the authors of CDT’s new report about the chilling effects this kind of harassment has on women of color in politics, exploring how this phenomenon makes America an “Unrepresentative Democracy.” The recording is available on the "Democracy Compromised" event page. ([link removed]).

Earlier this month, Greg Nojeim, CDT’s Director of Security and Surveillance, joined the CSIS Strategic Technologies Program for a conversation on domestic and foreign government access to U.S. personal information in the evolving data broker ecosystem. Learn more about the panel and watch a recording on the event's page. ([link removed]) 

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Photo of Will Adler, CDT's Senior Technologist for Elections and Democracy. Image has a gray background and shows a portrait of a smiling man wearing glasses and a blue collared shirt.

Staff SpotlightWilliam T. Adler ([link removed]), Senior Technologist, Elections & Democracy

How long have you been working in digital rights? I have been working on tech and democracy issues since 2018, when I decided to leave my career in neuroscience research and turn my attention to problems in the American election system. At that point I started doing research on gerrymandering, advocating for fair redistricting and open election data. I’ve been at CDT since 2020, and I’m happy to work every day with such smart and talented people trying to uphold democracy and good government!

What is your proudest moment while here at CDT? Last month we released a report, De-Weaponizing and Standardizing the Post-Election Audit ([link removed]), that provides a few options for ensuring that post-election audits are used to improve confidence in our elections rather than tear it down. I hope that it advances the national conversation around how to provide public evidence that our elections are administered well. I’m proud to have it out there, especially as we turn our attention to policies we want to establish before the 2024 presidential election.

What is the most recent cultural activity you’ve been to? I just went to see a concert at Union Stage, down in the D.C. Wharf area. A Canadian dance-punk band called Death From Above 1979 was playing. It was my first time at the venue. It’s great to see new music venues opening and thriving in D.C.

Cats or dogs? I grew up with dogs and thought I would forever remain a dog person. But at some point my wife (then-girlfriend) insisted that we get two kittens. I fell in love with them and am now a total cat dad.

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