82 human rights and faith groups, including Media Alliance, wrote to object to Trump Administration plans to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group.
The letter states “Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization could lead to a witch-hunt against Muslim civil society in the U.S. It could also open the door to the threat of legal action by the government against Muslims and civil society organizations by invoking overbroad and unfair laws and executive orders regarding designated entities. For example, individuals could
be criminally prosecuted for providing support, services, resources, expert advice or assistance to the Muslim Brotherhood without any intent to support terrorist activity. A designation could also result in unconstitutional asset seizures and effective shut-downs of civil society and rights groups”. Continue reading Civil Rights Groups Oppose Terrorism Designation for Muslim Brotherhood→
Ajit Pai’s FCC, which is by its own description, taking a weed-whacker to the last 40 years of broadcast regulation, moved to rapidly dismantle the Lifeline modernization program put into place by his predecessor.
The California Public Records Act is a crucial piece of legislation for journalists and activists. The 1968 law, modeled on the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) promoted maximum public disclosure based on the “The people have the right of access to information concerning the conduct of the people’s business” statement contained in the California State Constitution.
Cell phone interceptors are some of the most controversial types of surveillance equipment in existence. Long subject to nondisclosure agreements so onerous that prosecutors deliberately threw out criminal cases in order not to disclose the source of evidence derived from their use, the fake cell phone towers that sweep up cell phone traffic have been used without warrants and undercover all over the country.
Here in the Bay Area, Alameda’s “hailstorm”, a second generation stingray device precepitated the development of a use policy in 2015 followed by even stronger memorandums of understanding in place with Oakland’s police department and Fremont’s police department regarding their use of the device. Continue reading East Bay Stingray Use Restrictions→
The Media Action Grassroots Network (www.mag-net.org) met in Washington DC to grapple with surveillance and the police state and how to center the issue with the most deeply impacted communities and use racial justice strategies to fight surveillance and tracking.
