Category Archives: Press Room

Recent press releases issued by Media Alliance. Sometimes we’ll post newspaper, radio and broadcast interviews here as well.

Accountability and Representation, Press Room

Salesforce Faces Boycott Threat as RAICES Rejects $250,000 Donation Over CBP Contract

 

By Dell Cameron and Bryan Menegus – originally published in Gizmodo

Embroiled cloud computing company Salesforce tried to sanitize its image through a hefty donation to the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services—one of the highest-profile organizations resisting our draconian immigration policy. RAICES said no thanks—and at least six other high-profile organizations are now threatening to cut ties with the company.

Salesforce’s work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection—an agency that, along with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is chiefly associated with family separations—was first announced by the company in March, but meaningfully came to light last month when the company’s own employees pressured CEO Mark Benioff to cancel the contract. “Given the inhumane separation of children from their parents currently taking place at the border,” they wrote, “Salesforce should re-examine our contractual relationship with CBP and speak out against its practices.”

Continue reading Salesforce Faces Boycott Threat as RAICES Rejects $250,000 Donation Over CBP Contract →

Internet Freedom, Press Room

California Enacts Law Protecting Consumer Privacy, But There is Still a Ways to Go

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By Alexis Collins. Originally posted on Dissent Wire

The 2018 California Consumer Privacy Act is a law that will require technology corporations, such as Google and Facebook, to drastically alter their business models regarding data collection and privacy regulations. The legislation was unanimously approved by the state legislature on June 28 and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) the same day. The bill’s quick turn around resulted from pressures that legislators faced from an upcoming November ballot initiative, which would have created more stringent privacy rules. It will go into effect on January 1, 2020. Continue reading California Enacts Law Protecting Consumer Privacy, But There is Still a Ways to Go →

Accountability and Representation, Press Room, Surveillance

Richmond Cuts Ties To ICE Data Brokers

On May 15th, the City Council of Richmond, CA voted 6-1 to enact a Sanctuary City Contracting ordinance, sponsored by Councilmembers Jovanka Beckles and Ada Recinos.

The Sanctuary City ordinance (model legislation can be found here) was developed by the 19-member Deport ICE coalition which seeks to strengthen sanctuary protections in California cities.

Continue reading Richmond Cuts Ties To ICE Data Brokers →

Press Room

36 Major Netroots Groups Launch StopTheFCC.net To Save Net Neutrality

On the day the FCC order ending net neutrality rules goes into effect, some of the country’s largest netroots group are launching an effort urging representatives to force a floor vote to save net neutrality

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 11, 2018
Contact: Mark Stanley, 202.681.7582, press@demandprogress.org

Today, with the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality protections set to go into effect, a coalition of major netroots groups is launching StopTheFCC.net.

StopTheFCC.net is an activism site that will drive hundreds of thousands of emails and tens of thousands of phone calls to representatives’ offices urging them to sign a discharge petition to force a floor vote on the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to restore net neutrality. Continue reading 36 Major Netroots Groups Launch StopTheFCC.net To Save Net Neutrality →

Press Room

Victory Over Military Cop Convention

 

by Ann Garrison. Originally published in Black Agenda Report

“The best-selling t-shirt at the previous year’s expo: a picture of an assault weapon with the caption ‘Black Rifles Matter.’”

On March 27, the San Francisco Bay Area’s Stop Urban Shield Coalition claimed victory in its four-year battle to stop Urban Shield, a war games and weapons convention for cops held in Alameda County every year since 2007. Critical Resistance , one of the most active members of the coalition, wrote on its website:

Urban Shield represents everything our movements are fighting against — from collaborating and training with ICE, hosting the white supremacist militia the Oath Keepers, training with and sending officers to apartheid Israel, glorifying policing and militarization, exploiting tragedies and natural disasters and public health needs, and continuing to align with Alameda County Sheriff Ahern’s support of the Trump Administration — Urban Shield has no place in the Bay Area or anywhere.



I spoke to Tracy Rosenberg, Executive Director of Media Alliance and co-facilitator of Oa kland Privacy , a citizen’s coalition that works regionally to defend the right to privacy and enhance public transparency and oversight regarding the use of surveillance techniques and equipment. She has worked with the Stop Urban Shield Coalition since 2014.

Continue reading Victory Over Military Cop Convention →