November 2, 2021 by Ethics in Tech board member Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams Digital rights advocates on Tuesday welcomed Facebook’s announcement that it plans to jettison its facial recognition system, which critics contend is dangerous and often inaccurate technology abused by governments and corporations to violate people’s privacy and other Read more…
October 28, 2021 by Ethics in Tech board member Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams Tech ethicists and branding professionals on Thursday said consumers should not be hoodwinked by Facebook’s name change, which numerous observers compared to earlier efforts by tobacco and fossil fuel companies to distract attention from their societal harms. Read more…
October 20, 2021 by Ethics in Tech board member Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams Digital rights advocates on Wednesday shrugged off reports that Facebook is planning to change its name by accusing the company of attempting to divert attention from its failure to address problems plaguing the platform and calling for Read more…
August 2, 2021 by Ethics in Tech board member Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams Despite promises to crack down on hate speech, social media companies took no action against over 80% of the anti-Jewish posts—which included incitements to violence against Jews and Holocaust denial—reported on their platforms during a recent six-week Read more…
July 19, 2021 by Ethics in Tech board member Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday clarified his remarks from last week that social media companies like Facebook are “killing people” by allowing the spread of Covid-19 misinformation, explaining instead that users are posting deadly “bad information.” Read more…
May 4, 2021 by Ethics in Tech board member Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams After a coalition of digital rights and other groups launched a campaign on Monday aimed at thwarting Facebook’s planned privacy rollback on its popular WhatsApp messaging application, competitor Signal—which does not collect user data—on Tuesday began trolling the Read more…
November 30, 2020 by Ethics In Tech Board Member Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams Silicon Valley tech giants Facebook and YouTube have allowed themselves to become complicit in Vietnamese government repression, including censorship, harassment, and more, according to a report published Monday evening by Amnesty International. The report, entitled Let Us Read more…
October 8, 2020—By Ethics In Tech board member Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams Millions of U.S. Facebook users have viewed dozens of climate disinformation ads paid for by shadowy right-wing groups this year, a think tank revealed Monday. A study by InfluenceMap found that during the first half of 2020 at least Read more…
October 7, 2020—By Ethics In Tech board member Brett Wilkins for Common Dreams House Democrats on Tuesday released a major report calling on Congress to overhaul U.S. antitrust law and take action to curtail the power of tech titans Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust Read more…
By Brett Wilkins, August 24, 2020 The popular video sharing app TikTok announced on Monday that it is suing the United States government over an executive order from President Donald Trump banning the app because he claims it is a “national security threat.” The federal lawsuit, filed in the Federal Read more…