All posts by Midnightschildren

Press Room

Activists tell Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to ‘Zuck off’

by David Horowitz. Originally published in the SF Examiner

Dozens of activists chalked the sidewalk and chanted outside Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Mission District townhouse Monday to protest false advertising by political campaigns on the site.

“In 2016 Facebook was used to manipulate voters and suppress voter turnout,” said Andrea Buffa, a spokesperson for the “Don’t Let Facebook ZUCK UP Our Democracy” coalition. “A lot of times (we’re) not sure how we can have an impact on national elections unless we go to another state, but in this case we can have an impact because this company is right in our backyard.”

The coalition of activist groups opposes Facebook’s policy allowing false advertisements paid for by politicians to stay posted on the company’s platforms. On Monday, the local group rallied in San Francisco while a second group in Palo Alto protested with a handheld billboard on a U.S. Highway 101 overpass, according to coalition representatives.

Continue reading Activists tell Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to ‘Zuck off’ →
Press Room

‘Wake up Zuck’: Protesters gather outside of Facebook founder’s home, demand regulation of political ads

by Loi Almeron and Justin Mark. Originally printed in SF Gate and Mission Local

On Monday morning around 10 a.m., about 50 protesters gathered outside of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s home in the Mission District to protest the social media giant’s use of personal data and refusal to regulate misleading political advertisements.

“We’re sick and tired of waiting for the government to regulate Facebook,” said Tracy Rosenberg, the executive director of Media Alliance and one of the protest’s organizers. “You’re profiting off of us — you’re selling our information.”

Continue reading ‘Wake up Zuck’: Protesters gather outside of Facebook founder’s home, demand regulation of political ads →
Accountability and Representation, Media Ownership

#ProtestFacebook

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On February 17, President’s Day, activists organized by Media Alliance and Global Exchange took to the streets in San Francisco and Palo Alto to tell the world’s biggest social network to stop sabotaging democracy for profit.

In San Francisco, FB founder Mark Zuckerberg’s pied a terre in Dolores Heights was surrounded with chalk and signs and besieged with kazoos and whistles, as locals told a bevy of observing press that AI formulas sold to political candidates to abet the spread of viral disinformation was an unacceptable business plan.

Images courtesy of Pro Bono Photos

And in Palo Alto, “TRUTH MATTERS” hung over the Oregon Expressway overpass on Highway 101.

Image courtesy of Pro Bono Photos

Neighbors in Dolores Heights and SF General (Chan-Zuckerberg) Hospital workers joined the San Francisco protest to highlight other disproportionate impacts from the Facebook founder on local communities.

For more on why SF’s safety net hospital should not bear the name of the Facebook founder, see this op-ed from Sasha Cutler from SEIU 1021.

Press Coverage: Newsweek, CNET, SF Gate, SF Examiner, KCBS Radio, SFIST, Xinhua, Mission Local, Breitbart

The President’s Day actions were the third in a series that began on January 9, 2020 with a protest outside Facebook headquarters and were followed by a Truth Matters human billboard the following week.

On February 28th, there will be an action at the headquarters of the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation.

On April 9, Earth Day, the campaign will speak up again with an emphasis on viral climate change denial.

For more on the campaign, visit the Protest Facebook website.

Press Room, Surveillance

40 Civil Rights Groups Ask Colleges to Keep Facial Recognition Off Campuses

An open letter from an assortment of civil rights groups, including Media Alliance, asked university administrators to keep their campuses free of facial recognition.

On March 2, students and faculty at schools across the country will organize to reject facial recognition’s false promises of safety, and stand against the idea of biased 24/7 tracking and analysis of everyone on campus.

Dozens of schools have clarified that they don’t use or plan to use the technology, while about one third have not responded. Three schools—George Washington University, Duke University, and American University—gave vague statements that implied they may have plans to use facial recognition in the future. And UCLA and Tufts University currently use or have plans to use the technology on its campus.

Campuses that have stated they have no intention of using facial recognition include Boston College, Brown University, Columbia University, Colorado State University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, DePaul University, MIT, Michigan State University, Georgia Tech, NYU, Hampshire College, Kent State University, Rice University, University of Florida, Oregon State University, UPenn, and John Hopkins University. University of San Francisco clarified that it abandoned its controversial facial recognition program in 2016. Activists made multiple attempts to contact every institution on the scorecard. More than 30 schools did not respond after multiple attempts, including Harvard, Yale, Oberlin, Howard University, Ohio State, Reed, and Sarah Lawrence College.

Consumer Privacy

Kick The Tires of the CCPA

In celebration of Data Privacy Day (earlier this week), and the operational start of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), privacy advocates invited CA legislators to take the law out for a spin.

Our practice companies: Tik-ToK, a youth-oriented social media network, and Experian, one of the 3 leading credit bureaus in the country

While legislators are trying out their new law, you can also join the impromptu test. See if you can find out what Tik-Tok and Experian have collected about you, and ask them to stop selling it, and tell us how it goes!

Continue reading Kick The Tires of the CCPA →
Surveillance

40 Groups Ask Oversight Board For Facial Recognition Moratorium

40 groups, including Media Alliance, wrote to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) urging it to call for the suspension of all facial recognition use pending further review.

The letter states: The PCLOB has a unique responsibility, set out in statute, to assess technologies and policies that impact the privacy of Americans after 9-11 and to make recommendations to the President and to the executive branch. The rapid and unregulated deployment of facial recognition poses a direct threat to “the precious liberties that are vital to our way of life”. We urge the PCLOB to act now to safeguard the privacy rights of Americans.

Accountability and Representation

Legal Battle on Trump’s Public Charge Rule Not Over: Amici Curae in 9th Circuit Court

On January 27, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision allowed the “public charge” rule to temporarily go into effect by voiding a nationwide injunction issued by a federal judge.

However, the underlying legal process continues. Media Alliance is one of several parties to an amici filing coordinated by the National Consumer Law Center NCLC charging that the public charge rule was enacted in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and constitutes an improper use of the credit reporting system.

Here is the amici filing.