Category Archives: Accountability and Representation

When the media does us wrong and community accountability

Accountability and Representation

Bad Apple Open Source Suite: Tools for Police Accountability

The Aaron Swartz Day Police Surveillance Project teamed up with Priveasy to create a set of tools designed to assist in the ongoing fight for police and sheriff accountability. Bad Apple (https://BadApple.tools) contains a) a searchable database of verified oversight commissions b) a searchable collection of public records act templates c) a growing database of officers and investigative reports and d) a private tip submission line.

All of the technology powering Bad Apple is completely open source (https://GitHub.com/P5vc) and released under a CC-BY-SA-4.0 license, allowing for maximum transparency. The Bad Apple website is available in both English and Spanish, and is designed to be completely accessible.

Read more here.

Accountability and Representation, Press Room

Supervisors Approve Resolution To Condemn Naming Of Hospital After Mark Zuckerberg

originally published on SFGate.com

San Francisco supervisors voted 10-1 in approval of a resolution condemning the naming of Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

The resolution, authored by Supervisor Gordon Mar, urges the city to establish clear standards for naming rights for public institutions and properties, reserving those rights only for organizations that align with the city’s values.

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Accountability and Representation, Press Room

S.F. Supes Again Condemn Zuckerberg’s Name on City General Hospital

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by Michael Cabanatuan. Originally published in SF Chronicle

A committee of San Francisco supervisors on Thursday condemned the naming of San Francisco General Hospital for Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, citing a long list of grievances against the social media giant and claiming its practices endanger public health.

The three-member Government Audit and Oversight Committee voted to condemn the hospital’s name and to develop a better policy for future naming of public facilities. The resolution, which carries no legal mandates, was mostly a statement of opinion by the board — and a chance to bash Facebook. The board is constrained in its contract with Zuckerberg in removing his name from the hospital.

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Accountability and Representation, Press Room

The Robber Barons of Big Tech

by Veronica Irwin. Published in SF Weekly.

Remember when we thought we were going to make the world a better place?

In the city where Jello Biafra once ran for mayor on a platform that would have required businessmen to wear clown suits, recently graduated engineers arrived wearing jeans and pocket-tees. Like the countercultural icons who came before them, they thumbed their collective noses at the stuffy protocols that had come to dominate the white collar workforce. While New York’s business elite had members-only clubs, local tech CEOs kept a kegerator in the office — right next to the ping-pong table and bean bag chair lounge. The Silicon Valley “campus,” complete with outdoor shopping centers and arcades, replaced the corporate headquarters, and open floor plans dismantled the sterile grid of cubicles.

This was the Left Coast. On this side of the country, the son of a teen mom and a cuban immigrant could rise to become the world’s first trillionaire and a couple of bearded, shaggy college dropouts could build a world-conquering personal computer company while pledging to Think Different.

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Accountability and Representation, Press Room

Protest Facebook – Protect The Results November 4

The Protest Facebook coalition organized a Protect the Results demonstration in front of Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters on the afternoon of November 4th.

ABC press coverage: Protesters Demand Twitter and Facebook Take More Action Against Election Disinformation

KTVU press coverage: San Francisco Bay Area Protestors Push Back on Trump’s Election Interference

Accountability and Representation

Protest Facebook: Protecting the 2020 Elections in the age of facebook.

The Protest Facebook coalition presented a special webcast on October 6, 2020 about protecting election integrity, voting rights, and democracy in the age of Facebook. It features:

Ángel Díaz is counsel in the Liberty & National Security Program of the Brennan Center for Justice.

Yaël Eisenstat is the former Global Head of Elections Integrity Operations for political advertising at Facebook.

Myaisha Hayes is the campaigns director at MediaJustice, where she oversees the launch of campaigns such as #NoDigitalPrisons and #ProtectBlackDissent.

Jesse Littlewood is the vice president of campaigns at Common Cause, which is training election protection social media monitors to combat cyber-suppression in their communities.

Sponsored by Global Exchange, Media Alliance, the Protest Facebook Coalition and others.

Accountability and Representation, Internet Freedom

Media Alliance comments on Section 230

Media Alliance filed these joint comments with Global Exchange on behalf of the Protest Facebook section in the FCC’s proceeding on Section 230 of the Telecom Act.

Section 230 exempts online platforms from liability for their content. It is one of the pillars of the Internet that has allowed alternative content to thrive on the Internet. And in an era of disinformation, we are seeing the dark side of freedom from liability.

Media Alliance categorically rejects that Section 230 should be abolished or ended. Just as categorically, we believe that tempered regulation of online platforms to address the viral spread of disinformation and online hatred is called for.

Here are the comments we submitted to the FCC.

Media Alliance and Global Exchange Comments on Section 230Download
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Accountability and Representation

Turn Up the heat on facebook

Update: The Facebook Logout begins on Wednesday November 10, 2021 and lasts until Saturday November 13, 2021.

We are sending our message. Without us, Facebook is nothing!

Artists Steuer and Davis have created a new piece of art to decorate your page after you log out.

Download the Steuer/Davis Logout graphic here.

Tag it with #TheFacebookLogout and #FireZuck.

Update: The Protest Facebook campaign is thrilled by this gift of original art from SF artist Sharon Steuer and Flora Davis. Download this poster/graphic for your Facebook mobilizing.

The artists add “Feel free to download these posters to share on social media, and/or to print out and post. Please tag with: #StopHateForProfit #FacebookHateGroups #RussianInterference #CoronavirusDisinformation #BlackLivesMatter #CambridgeAnalytica #WhenTheLootingStartsTheShootingStarts #FinePeopleOnBothSides #CitizensUnited #stopzuck. Created by Sharon Steuer <https://sharonsteuer> @sharonsteuer, and Flora Davis <https://floradavis.myportfolio.com/> @floralindadavis.To request a custom size or resolution, please send a message to sharonsteuer.com/contact“

Whether it’s racist rhetoric by Donald Trump, disinformation about the coronavirus, or lies in ads by political campaigns, Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg have failed to act. Their unwillingness to stop Facebook from being used to do harm is inflaming racial hatred and inciting human rights violations. It also has the potential to disrupt the 2020 elections.

Enough is enough! A growing chorus of organizations is calling on corporations to stop advertising on Facebook until the company changes its ways. Please join us in urging these corporations to use the power of the purse to insist that Facebook protect the public from lies, hate, and disinformation on its platform.

This toolkit tells you how to easily reach out to a baker’s dozen of major Facebook advertisers who have not yet signed on to the boycott.

  • Sample tweets 
  • Sample Facebook posts  
  • Sample email
  • Sample phone script
  • Contact information for top Facebook advertisers and their corporate HQs
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