At #IGF2025 in June, experts from @heartlandorg.bsky.social, BHRRC, @openmicmedia.bsky.social, and UN B-Tech held a roundtable on dual-use tech, used by both civilians + military. Key takeaways here: https://loom.ly/-h_Wn0k#IGF2025

Union shareholders are fighting back against abusive AI. Audrey Mocle of @openmicmedia.bsky.social weighs in on the power shareholders have to hold Big Tech accountable. More from @inthesetimes.com: https://loom.ly/NZz5RTA

In our new Future of Finance episode, @michaelconnor.bsky.social, Executive Director of @openmicmedia.bsky.social, explains how shareholder proposals drive change — even when they don’t pass. Watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkWF... Listen: www.podbean.com/eas/pb-kcutz...

Our director joined @georgesdyer.bsky.social on the @ien-online.bsky.social Future of Finance podcast to unpack how investors can steer AI toward long-term value — and how engagement can move the market toward safer innovation.

Understanding AI: Four-Part Series starts today — 6:00 PM ET @datasociety.bsky.social is co-hosting a four-part event series exploring the societal implications of #AI. 🌐 Visit the Data & Society website for information and livestream: https://loom.ly/OgpNTyo

Human Rights | Technology | Artificial Intelligence Upcoming global events offer insights and opportunities to shape policy on emerging technologies and their impacts on communities around the world 👇

"Layoffs described as progress" Tech companies and the politicians who love them 💕🤖 are cutting jobs with the excuse that AI is better than people. Not only is that bad for workers, but in most cases it's just not true. AI is not nearly as advanced as they're claiming.

Going a big step beyond simply hiring tech companies to build out defense systems, the U.S. Army is actually swearing in tech executives to consult internally. Palantir, OpenAI, Meta and Thinking Machines Lab are represented by newly minted lieutenant colonels.

To AI startups, it looks like the only certainty right now is national defense spending. DOGE cuts and Pentagon budget increases are pushing tech companies to move away from products that support health or international development and instead build the AI-powered war machine of the future 👇

"...transparency and accountability can no longer be optional." One of the key findings in the latest Ranking Digital Rights Index shows that privately owned platforms (like X and TikTok) are failing to provide basic transparency on governance, risks, and corporate responsibility.

NEW REPORT: Artificial Power, our 2025 Landscape Report, is out. Today’s AI isn’t just being used by us, it’s being used on us. We urgently need to reclaim public power over the future trajectory of AI. Another path is possible. Read the report: ainowinstitute.org/2025-landscape

📣 Open MIC will attend this year's Internet Governance Forum in Oslo! @intgovforum.bsky.social‬ is an annual event established by United Nations mandate that brings together governments, NGOs and companies in collaboration to solve pressing issues related to internet governance.

Hidden in the "Big Beautiful Bill" is a 10-year moratorium on state and local laws regulating AI. @techpolicypress.bsky.social‬ reports in their May tech policy roundup:

"Optimizing for engagement" is tech-industry shorthand for increasing the time people spend scrolling, swiping or chatting with bots. It's bad enough with old-school social media, but harms are compounded with AI-powered friends, girlfriends, and therapists.

"This proxy season, over 98% of investors have voted in support of maintaining current corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs." Proposals from right-wing think tank NCPPR have targeted DEI programs at 13 corporations so far. 13 times the proposals have been decisively voted down.

"The AI boom has taken off at an awkward time for the fight against climate change," says journalist ‪@kenzabryan.ft.com‬. Despite commitments to clean energy and decarbonization, Big Tech's data centers are increasing our reliance on fossil fuels. loom.ly/fQssNbg

Chinese tech companies have historically been some of the least transparent in the Ranking Digital Rights Index – not surprising, given the country's "tightly controlled" internet. This year that changed: three Chinese companies showed significant improvements in governance transparency.

This week several Big Tech companies are holding their annual meetings, and shareholders are already expressing concern that the companies will backslide on their environmental promises due to AI's heavy use of energy and water.

AI study aid chatbots are supposed to help kids with homework. Instead, they provide date rape-drug recipes and “pickup artistry” advice. KnowUnity’s ‘SchoolGPT’ chatbot was “helping 31,031 other students” when it produced a detailed how-to for synthesizing fentanyl www.forbes.com/sites/emilyb...

⏰ Application deadline in 1 week 🚨 Opportunity to support our work investigating and exposing the use of data and technology in the migration context. If you are a legal researcher interested in migration, please apply before EOD 30th May 2025: privacyinternational.org/opportunitie...

Essay by @janrydzak.bsky.social as part of the 2025 Ranking Digital Rights Index outlines the state of Big Tech's human rights impacts. "The U.S. tech giants had three years to make progress. But our results strongly suggest they don’t have much to show for it." loom.ly/HFLRtu4

#FacialRecognition is a privacy nightmare, and is rightly banned in many jurisdictions. But a new tool called Track gives law enforcement agencies a loophole: instead of faces, it tracks non-biometric parameters like bodyweight, height, gender, hair color, and shoe color.

📫 The latest Open MIC newsletter is out: -New Report ranks Big Tech on human rights -“WTF Are Data Centers?”: Open MIC joins video panel -Webinar on changing EU regulations -Upcoming AGMs to watch mailchi.mp/openmic/apri...

📺 Panel video from MediaJustice explores the real harms Big Tech data centers are causing to communities, feat. Michael Connor of @openmicmedia.bsky.social, @keshaunpearson.bsky.social of Memphis Community Against Pollution, and Vincent Acuña of @athenaforall.bsky.social and @powerswitchaction.org.

DOGE isn't just cutting the fat in Washington. It's also combining data on U.S. citizens in an unprecedented way -- potentially creating a "database of ruin," as warned by @georgetownlaw.bsky.social prof. @paulohm.bsky.social.

The @sdgbenchmarks.bsky.social Ranking Digital Rights index, just released this week, ranks major tech companies around the world on more than 300 metrics related to human rights. It’s been 3 years since the last index, and A LOT has changed. #RDR2025

Looking forward to joining @mediajustice.bsky.social this Wed to talk talk data centers and the risks they pose, both to communities and the environment 🏭 For more background check out the shareholder proposal we supported at Alphabet, up for a vote this June: www.openmic.org/data-center-...

📣 Annual meeting season is coming! Companies like Amazon, Meta and Alphabet have important shareholder proposals up for a vote. AI development is a big issue this year, and we're pushing for more transparency from companies building & deploying AI systems.

This #EarthDay memo from the The White House reads like satire, but sadly is not 🤦 The list actually includes expanded logging, deregulating coal emissions, canceling wind power projects, and opening public lands to oil extraction as positive environmental actions. loom.ly/Wcv5ToQ

"Allowing Big Tech to pursue unfettered AI development that is environmentally and culturally destructive...could pave the way for techno-fascism on a global scale." -Courtney Radsch of @openmarkets.bsky.social urges governments to stand up to the alliance of Trump and Big Tech. loom.ly/G5JKrrw

⌛ This Wednesday: join @iccr.bsky.social for the webinar: "Aligning Proxy Voting with Values." The webinar invites panelists from within the ICCR community to share their experiences on how they work to align proxy votes with their investor values. 🗓️ April 16, from 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET

The US government will officially start collecting immigrants' social media handles and searching for "antisemitic activity," effective this week. According to the DHS, the policy will apply to anyone seeking lawful permanent resident status, students, professors and researchers. loom.ly/O5c9rs4

In her recent op-ed, Audrey Mocle of Open MIC asks the question: how will generative AI possibly be worth all the harms and risks it is already causing? loom.ly/AobxZWY

Pension funds hold a lot of sway as investors 💪💰, and they are increasingly updating their voting policies to call out companies for irresponsible AI deployment. A new tool these funds are using is casting their proxy votes against company directors. www.responsible-investor.com/us-pension-f...

Our panel is up for a vote in the @socapglobal.bsky.social Open. We're joining forces with @heartlandorg.bsky.social to create a panel on generative AI's material benefits and material risks. Session title: Can GenAI Deliver Positive Impact? It Depends.

"If Musk wants waste, A.I. can give him numbers to prove waste exists." Op-ed by professor and author @tressiemcphd.bsky.social shows how AI's very average-ness is what makes it so dangerous as a political tool. loom.ly/hM4Ix5g

📢 CALL FOR PAPERS: Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI) 2025 is looking for two, four, and eight-page submissions on topics broadly relating to Internet freedom. The deadline for submissions to Issue 2 (in-person event) is April 21. Learn more: foci.community#cfp

🌬️ Stiching NLnet is #hiring a Junior or Senior Technology Assessor! See this and other job openings in our Digital Rights Job Board: buff.ly/yzvCTUR #TechJobs #DRJobs #JobSearch

Big Tech is making a major shift to embrace the use of its AI products in surveillance and weapons systems. This ESG Investor article voices investors' pressing concerns about what could create huge risks for companies, and major breaches of human rights.

Thank you for creating this invaluable resource! If you haven't seen this already, take a look at these company dashboards that display and quantify info on Big Tech's impact on human rights ⬇️

"We currently have the makings of another tech bubble." Audrey Mocle, Deputy Director of @openmicmedia.bsky.social, challenges the two big promises AI companies keep making: AI will produce major financial returns, and AI will solve the world's problems.

"Investors, particularly those with stakes in the #bigtech hyperscalers and limited partnerships in venture funds exposed to generative #AI, should be critical of overselling the benefits of this new technology — financial or otherwise." @openmicmedia.bsky.social www.techpolicy.press/artificial-g...

The FTC's only Democrats, @bedoyaftc.bsky.social and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter were recently fired from the Commission. The Tech billionaires standing behind Trump at his inauguration were all under investigation by the FTC for different reasons. loom.ly/xbqmC3A

Statement by Becca Kelly Slaughter, FTC Commissioner who was just illegally fired:

I am a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission. Earlier today, the president attempted to illegally fire me. This is corruption, plain and simple. I will see the president in court. My full statement:

We signed onto a letter opposing a new law in Delaware that would undermine shareholder rights related to public companies incorporated in the state (in 2024 there were over 280,000).

Investors continue to push corporations to support DEI and sustainability, despite the Trump administration's pressure tactics. @openmicmedia.bsky.social weighs in on the choice tech companies have to make:

"...a high school student’s disclosure about their sexual orientation could lead to unwanted consequences if shared without consent." Yes, obviously. If you're going to offload school counseling to AI, at least take privacy seriously. loom.ly/lQKK2qQ

New report from Valentin Weber and the National Endowment for Democracy explores the ways authoritarian governments use data for social control. The focus here is on China, but technologies in the U.S. are already primed for the same kind of exploitation. loom.ly/uJVrcuA

An important warning from the @brennancenter.bsky.social: we have not even seen the worst effects of AI-driven disinformation yet. "The long-term consequences of AI-driven disinformation go beyond eroding trust — they create a landscape where truth itself becomes contested." loom.ly/ELMouQo