“This sure looks like a violation of the foreign emoluments clause, and more to the point, it looks like a bribe.” "A five-alarm fire about the federal government being for sale.” www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

UK-based pair behind messaging app accused of giving data to Iranian regime www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

“I think there are very few people in this country that are safe,” said CVT's Scott Roehm on @skynewsrss.bsky.social about the militarized immigration enforcement in Minnesota & across the United States. He notes the need to completely dismantle ICE in its form. news.sky.com/story/minnea...

“Our clients are telling us this is the very thing that they fled in their home countries & they’re starting to see it play out in front of them,” Alison Beckman, Lab & @cvt.org, tells @kare11.bsky.social. See the impacts clients & Minnesotans are facing. www.kare11.com/article/news...

EXCLUSION BY DESIGN The report explores how errors in the Home Office evisa system are leading to significant stress, anxiety, and fatigue among migrants in the UK. It also highlights the impact and lack of support for effected people. www.openrightsgroup.org/publications...

People are already in the streets after an ICE agent shot a woman in her vehicle in Minneapolis today. Here are some @wired.com tips for protecting yourself from your government. www.wired.com/story/how-to...

“Boys at her school shared AI-generated, nude images of her. After a fight, she was the one expelled.” Despite seeking help, the whole educational system has failed her. And eventually, when she reacted, her pain became visible, yet she was the one to be punished. abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory...

www.theguardian.com/technology/2... Grok AI still being used to digitally undress women and children despite suspension pledge.

The rise of the Emirati dis-influencers and why we all should be worried @marcowenjones.bsky.social www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/rise...

For years, TNR experts like @nateschenkkan.bsky.social have long warned that immigration policy is key to confronting transnational repression. This piece shows how host states are now contributing to the repression of Uyghur exiles and diaspora communities. #TNR www.economist.com/china/2025/1...

"Her family has now been told she has been deported, despite US District Judge Brendan Hurson ruling Thursday that she could not be deported pending a hearing...attorneys said Monday that they have...confirm[ed] with the hospital she was born in Maryland." https://bit.ly/3MMdJvz

Who will own TikTok in the US and Why it Matters for Democracy www.techpolicy.press/who-will-own...

@hrw.org published in November a very important report on the torture of Venezuelan deportees. www.hrw.org/news/2025/11...

AI tools are being used to subject women in public life to online violence. theconversation.com/ai-tools-are...

‘Before its fall, the Assad regime adapted and employed various techniques to spy on Syrians and then entrap them—…. after the regime had received training from the People’s Republic of China and Iran.’ #Syria #DigitalAuthoritarianism #China #Iran sirajsy.net/how-china-an...

New Analysis on my Substack: I Detected Over 5,000 Bot-Like Accounts Amplifying UAE-Aligned STC Narratives in Southern Yemen open.substack.com/pub/marcowen...

@kxraja.bsky.social: “Immigrant journalists face the double threat of trying to stay safe while running headlong into unsafe situations in order to do their jobs.” www.niemanlab.org/2025/12/prot...

How French spies, police and military personnel are betrayed by advertising data www.lemonde.fr/en/pixels/ar...

Who is Amjad Taha? From Bahrain-era provocateur to “Emirati expert,” from front organisations to UK court rulings, this is a deep dive and long read into one of the most consistently platformed disinfluencers in Western media. #Dysinfluence marcowenjones.substack.com/p/who-is-amj...

Yesterday marked the launch of our new resource center to answer all of your questions about online age verification mandates! Head over to EFF.org/Age to explore our explainers, user-friendly guides, technical breakdowns, and advocacy tools—all indexed in the sidebar for easy browsing. EFF.org/Age.

It has been one year since the end of the Assad family dictatorship and its crimes against the Syrian people. Dictators will never rule forever.. #FreeSyria ✌🏻

I A powerful testimony from a young man who lived through Assad’s brutality, speaking on behalf of thousands of Syrian children who have grown into resilient adults determined to rebuild their country. #FreeSyria youtu.be/1lcHRkUyAy8?...

📢‼️Civil society urges the Member States of the Council of Europe to support the adoption of a Convention on Transnational Repression, establishing legally binding mechanisms for prevention, protection, and accountability. https://iphronline.org/articles/appeal-for-a-coe-convention-on-tnr/

PODCAST: Senior fellow @cyn-k.bsky.social discusses the issues with Canada’s ‘national sprint’ on AI, calling it “a slap in the face to anyone who’s been harmed by these kinds of reckless approaches to technology.” Listen to the episode here: rabble.ca/podcast/the-... #cdnpoli

ICE officers shouldn't be allowed to stick a phone in anyone's face to run face recognition without their consent. A coalition of privacy and civil rights advocates are telling DHS to end the program immediately. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

Syrian survivors and victims’ families file landmark case against Danish company for its potential involvement in war crimes‎‎ scm.bz/https-scm-bz...

Join us tomorrow at 9:30 am EST.

Nearly a year has passed since Assad’s regime collapsed. Disinformation has only intensified, shaping public opinion and deepening uncertainty. Back in January, I explored this in an article with @timep.bsky.social The patterns I described remain active in post-Assad Syria today. #Disinformation

Join us next week for an interesting conversation on WPS and digital authoritarianism.

EFF is focused on your data privacy. That means opposing law enforcement’s all-too-easy access to commercial data brokers and the illegal sharing of your info held by the government. takebackctrl.org/reclaim-you...

Former immigration minister says Canada’s reputation on welcoming refugees is at risk www.ctvnews.ca/politics/art...

Researchers at the Citizen Lab and director @rondeibert.bsky.social sign open letter to the Canadian Minister of AI and Minister of Industry rejecting the “National Sprint” on AI strategy. Read it here: bccla.org/policy-submi...

Social media footage and satellite imagery show killings as Rapid Support Forces took over Al Fashir (El Fasher). Bellingcat geolocated one incident on the city’s outskirts and showed it to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/11...

Along with numerous orgs and individuals, I have signed on to an Open Letter to the 🇨🇦 Minister of AI raising serious concerns about the government's approach to AI strategy. Details are here 👇 bccla.org/policy-submi...

New from 404 Media: you can't refuse to be scanned by ICE's new facial recognition app, according to internal DHS document I obtained. Photos captured by the app are stored for 15 years, including U.S. citizens. We've seen officers scanning faces w/ phones on streets www.404media.co/you-cant-ref...

Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces issued a statement after photos of Syrian diplomats’ late-September visit were leaked online. The images spread quickly, exposing individuals’ private data and raising serious privacy concerns. isf.gov.lb/ar/news/%D9%...

We at EFF hate it when a certain kind of contract—you know the ones, where you hit accept after scrolling for ages just so you can use the app—is used to constrain users’ rights. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

AI is learning disinfo. A fake quote about Hamas spread on X… and now Google’s Gemini is repeating it as fact. From rumour → news → “AI truth.” Read how it happened How Google’s Gemini AI is Learning Pro-Israel Disinformation From Social Media open.substack.com/pub/marcowen... #Dysinfluence

"The Vanishing Act: How Assad’s Top Henchmen Fled Syria, and Justice. As Syria’s regime collapsed, the world’s eyes were on Bashar al-Assad’s getaway flight. Behind him, officials key to his brutal rule made a mass exodus, virtually undetected." #Syria #Justice www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/w...

Important piece by @nateschenkkan.bsky.social on how the US deportations of Russian and Iranian dissidents mark a shift from combating to enabling transnational repression. #TransnationalRepression #TNR

NEW: breach of Discord age verification data. Including some users passports & DLs Age verification is a badly implemented data grab wrapped in a moral panic. Mark my words, as age verification mandates expand, we'll end up more surveilled and less secure. 1/

New investigation. "Nobody Talks Like This: Meet 50 AI-Powered Propaganda Accounts in Sudan's Social Media War" How 50 AI-generated accounts are flooding Twitter with pro-UAE and anti-Muslim (Brotherhood) propaganda on Sudan's civil war marcowenjones.substack.com/p/nobody-tal... #disinformation

UPDATE: ICEBlock developer Joshua Aaron asked Apple to reinstate the app after the company removed it from the app store under pressure from AG Bondi... www.cnbc.com/2025/10/03/a...

I wanted to share some of the sources and inspirations for my new @jodemocracy.bsky.social essay this week on transnational repression. Like with anything, there are citations but then there's also stuff that doesn't make it into the piece www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/the...

so the US government just forced a tech company to delete an app it doesn’t like, which is totally normal stuff www.404media.co/iceblock-own...

Read @nateschenkkan.bsky.social excellent essay on The Golden Age of Transnational Repression.