Washington Post
The point of the Gen Z test was to independently evaluate whether Teen Accounts fulfilled their promises. “We think going right to the user, going right to those who can attest directly to what they see on a day-to-day basis is a real key in efficacy,” says Alison Rice, campaigns director at Accountable Tech.
admin “In the weeks following the 2024 election, Meta has gone out of its way to show fealty to Trump and join his far-right clique,” Accountable Tech co-founder Nicole Gill said in a statement Wednesday. “This settlement is the latest example of that — a signal that Meta is willing to do whatever it takes to appease this administration.”
admin “These companies have flourished because of a lack of regulation, and these leaders are now making choices that can insulate them down the road,” said Nicole Gill, director of Accountable Tech. She compared Zuckerberg to a school kid who befriends the class bully: “He is willing to do whatever he thinks it will take to stay afloat.”
Giliann Karon Accountable Tech campaign associate Zamaan Qureshi said the evidence “should worry every parent, young person, lawmaker and regulator in the United States.” Without more legislative action on child online safety, he said, lawsuits like the one by South Carolina have become effectively “the only accountability measures left to learn what these companies know about their products and know what kind of harm these products are causing young people.”
Giliann Karon Consider a wider study by the advocacy group Accountable Tech, which quantified the audience drop from five prominent liberal Instagram accounts, including the Human Rights Campaign and Feminist, that post almost entirely about politics. Over 10 weeks this spring, their average audiences fell 65 percent.
Q Chaghtai Bianca Recto, communications director for the liberal watchdog group Accountable Tech, said social media platforms have “outsize influence to tip the scales one way or another” in an election. And when an owner like Musk makes it “clear that he’s going to use his social platform to support one side,” she said, “the playing field isn’t level.”
Q Chaghtai Zamaan Qureshi, previously of the “Real Facebook Oversight Board” advocacy group, is joining Accountable Tech as a campaigns associate. He will remain as co-chair of the youth-led advocacy group Design It For Us.
Giliann Karon In February, the left-leaning advocacy group Accountable Tech launched a digital ad campaign calling on the two companies to leave NetChoice and “stop funding Big Tech’s lobbying against bipartisan legislation to protect kids online.”
Giliann Karon The letter was organized by Accountable Tech, a nonprofit that says its mission is “to curb the societal harms driven by Big Tech’s toxic business practices,” and GLAAD, an LGBTQ rights organization. LGBTQ creators have been particularly concerned by the limitations because they were imposed as some states were placing restrictions on medical treatments for transgender youths.
Giliann Karon “In July 2022, Google promised to delete sensitive location data to protect people seeking abortion care in a post-Roe America, but in the past year and a half, [it] has fallen short,” said Nicole Gill, executive director of the advocacy group Accountable Tech. “We are encouraged by their latest announcement to better protect the privacy of the millions of people who use their products every day.”
Giliann Karon The platform “will continue playing a key role in shaping political discourse so long as it remains the platform of choice for reporters,” said Jesse Lehrich, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and co-founder of the left-leaning advocacy group Accountable Tech.
Giliann Karon The lawmakers first introduced the AI Labeling Act in July and on Tuesday are unveiling a list of supporters backing the effort, including consumer groups like Common Sense Media, Public Citizen and Accountable Tech.
Zach Praiss While X executives blame the ADL in particular for the advertising boycott, numerous civil rights and advocacy groups had been part of the campaign, including GLAAD, Media Matters for America, Free Press, Accountable Tech and Color of Change. They used the hashtag #StopToxicTwitter.
Victoria Vinall A recent report by Accountable Tech, a nonprofit that advocates for better security and integrity in big tech, found that 360 of Trump’s posts on Truth Social would be in violation of Facebook’s Community Standards, dozens contained election-related disinformation and more than 100 posts amplify followers or supporters of QAnon.
Victoria Vinall Jesse Lehrich, co-founder of the left-leaning advocacy group Accountable Tech and a former spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, said that tech companies are “much more comfortable inviting widespread societal unrest than pissing off conservatives.”
Victoria Vinall Nicole Gill, executive director of the left-leaning advocacy group Accountable Tech, said in a statement that Musk’s “full-throated embrace of Ron DeSantis … is a new low for what was once one of the world’s most important communication platforms.”
Victoria Vinall A separate review by the left-leaning advocacy group Accountable Tech generated similar findings, with Google failing to delete location data in more than half of their visits. “No one should be tracked or targeted for their personal health decisions. But that’s exactly what Big Tech’s business model of surveillance advertising right now is designed to do,” Accountable Tech policy manager Aditi Ramesh told Geoffrey.
Victoria Vinall People who use Google Maps to search for abortion care for themselves or others are at risk of seeing their data turned over to prosecutors due to Big Tech's collection and retention of this sensitive data.
Zach Praiss I’m not the only one who’s spotted Google’s failure. Aditi Ramesh, a policy manager with the advocacy group Accountable Tech, has been doing her own version of this test over the last several months and found similar results. In about 60 percent of her tests, Google failed to delete location data.
Victoria Vinall Left-leaning advocacy group Accountable Tech has hired five new staff members: Robbie Dornbush as its chief of staff, who previously served as chief of staff and special assistant to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Bianca Recto as its communications director, who previously served as communications director for media start-up More Perfect Union. Nash Alam as its senior aampaign manager, who previous was a digital organizer for Groundwork Collaborative. Alison Rice as its campaign manager for youth initiatives, who previously worked with the Hub Project and NextGen America. Alyssa Sanchez as its operations manager, who previously worked with Oregon Futures Lab.
Victoria Vinall “Is [Trump’s rhetoric] safer, or is it that it wasn’t being broadcast to hundreds of millions of people on Facebook that kept it safer?” said Accountable Tech’s executive director, Nicole Gill, whose anti-Big Tech advocacy group has run digital and television advertisements urging the company not to reinstate Trump. “The absence of violence after the midterms is not at all reason to let him back on.”
Victoria Vinall A left-leaning watchdog group said Musk’s filing highlights why the deal has been fraught from the start. “While the fallout from Musk’s latest move still unfolds, one thing is clear: this chaotic crusade is nothing short of a five-alarm fire drill,” said Accountable Tech Executive Director Nicole Gill in a statement. “Our information ecosystem, safety, and democracy cannot remain at the whim of unaccountable billionaires — whether it’s Elon Musk or anyone else.”
Victoria Vinall Earlier this week, the advocacy groups Accountable Tech and Giffords urged Zuckerberg to replace the policy with a “more decisive two-strike policy” instead, according to a letter obtained by The Post.
Victoria Vinall Accountable Tech, a left-leaning watchdog group advocating for antitrust legislation targeting giants like Apple and Amazon, recently partnered with a group of TikTok creators “interested in supporting historic bipartisan legislation to #ReinInBigTech,” the group tweeted. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
Victoria Vinall Other new parents on Instagram tell me they also feel they’re being recommended posts that prey on our specific insecurities, from breastfeeding to vaccination. “I found Instagram to be particularly devastating to my already fragile mental state in the postpartum period,” says Nicole Gill, the co-founder of Accountable Tech, a progressive tech advocacy group. “Getting suggested posts on ‘how to lose baby weight in 6 weeks,’ for example, almost immediately after having my daughter was not pleasant.”
Victoria Vinall Accountable Tech, a left-leaning advocacy group, argued in a policy memo comparing U.S. and E.U. tech reforms that Europe’s incoming regulation “reads like an omnibus bill written by top American lawmakers” because of its overlap with many U.S. proposals.
Victoria Vinall Kaili Lambe is Accountable Tech’s new policy and partnerships director. She previously worked as a senior campaigner at the Mozilla Foundation.
Victoria Vinall Jesse Lehrich, co-founder of the left-leaning advocacy group Accountable Tech, said he’s not banking on lawmakers advancing new facial recognition and biometric rules this Congress."
Kenya Juarez "Accountable Tech, a progressive tech advocacy group, is urging the FTC in a new petition to write new rules to prohibit what it calls 'surveillance advertising' — or the pervasive use of hyper-targeted ads by dominant tech platforms."
Kenya Juarez Media Matters for America, a left-leaning nonprofit organization, and Accountable Tech are running online ads with quotes from Facebook employees criticizing the company’s announcement that it would allow Trump to return to the platform in 2023, after the company banned him in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. The advocacy groups are directing the ads to people who list Facebook as an employer or are located near the company’s offices.
Victoria Vinall 
Big Tech companies are some of the most powerful and profitable companies in history, presenting new threats to the safety of communities and the health of democracy. We’re taking them on through legislation, regulation and direct advocacy.