News — At The Edge — 3/31

Only two articles this week — illegal to talk about Trump, and iffy data idea —but they illustrate how screwed up our situation has become.

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Feds prohibit candidates from commenting on Trump, despite constitutional questions —

“[2018] candidates are also running in 36 states for governor and…more than 6,000 state legislative seats…[who] will say something good or bad about [Trump]….When they do, they will break an obscure federal law….

The Federal Election Commission recently released two enforcement matters concerning the federal gag on state candidates…[because] outlawed by Congress in 2002 as part of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA)…prohibits state candidates from sponsoring any ad that ‘promotes or supports’ or ‘attacks or opposes’ a federal candidate unless they use…donations within the federal contribution limits_…_.

[But] vast majority of states have contribution limits…higher than the federal limits, or have no limits at all….Corporate contributions, which are prohibited under federal law, also are permitted in a majority of states….

[Also] their campaign finance reports with state and local authorities…do not comply with the federal reporting requirements…and therefore are prohibited by BCRA from discussing federal elected officials in their campaign ads….

[This] was a dumb idea when passed…[yet] the Supreme Court upheld this provision based on a mere conjecture….[Ironically] Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision shredded the rationale for this gag law….

So now state candidates [that]…want to attack or praise Trump…will be violating federal campaign finance laws…[while]independent groups may support or oppose federal candidates as much as they want.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/feds-prohibit-candidates-from-commenting-on-trump-despite-constitutional-questions/ar-BBKI75r?ocid=spartandhp

Silicon Valley Has Failed to Protect Our Data. Here’s How to Fix It —

“Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google…[were] way to see kid pix, next thing you know they’re reconfiguring democracy, governance, and business….

Facebook’s recent debacle is illustrative….Facebook responded that, no, this was not a ‘breach’…[but] how things were designed to work.

That’s the problem….

[W]e’re dealing with global entities that own the means whereby politicians garner votes, have vast access to capital to fund lobbying efforts…[saying] their platforms are used for awful ends is just a side effect…

So are we doomed to let them take our data….Yes, frankly….Our sense of control over our own destinies is being challenged by these leaks…[and] dumping trillions of units of toxic brain poison into our public-thinking reservoir. Then they mop it up with…a message that reads, ‘We take your privacy seriously’….

Given that the federal government is…one angry man with nuclear weapons and a Twitter account…it’s futile to expect reform or self-regulation….Let’s make a digital [EPA]…[a] Digital Protection Agency…to clean up toxic data spills, educate the public, and calibrate and levy fines….

You give it your email, and it tells you if you’ve been found in a data breach…[and] have a framework for legally exploring, copying, and dealing with illegally obtained information….At least we could start to understand how bad it is….

You’d go to the website to get good information about recovering from identity theft or a new social security number…[and] restore your identity, assert that you’d been hacked, and protect yourself….

Imagine ranking banks and services by the number of data breaches they’ve experienced. Or a national standard for disclosure of how our private information is shared…[and] track just how badly you’ve been screwed, and, ideally, some teeth….T

The giants have so much money it would hardly matter….Facebook never expected to be an engine that destroys America….Twitter didn’t expect to become the megaphone of despots and white nationalists….

[But] ethics don’t scale [well]….Given the money and power at stake, it’s going to be hard to get everyone to admit we’re sick…[and] be more pragmatic about treating the symptoms.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-21/paul-ford-facebook-is-why-we-need-a-digital-protection-agency

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May you live long and prosper!Doc Huston