Media Type Washington Post

Washington Post
Jul 09, 2024
Biden’s tech and telecom enforcers to face a hostile House GOP

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 Giliann Karon
Washington Post
Jun 12, 2024
Meta says it won’t support suit against major child safety law

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 Giliann Karon
Washington Post
Apr 10, 2024
Content creators ask Meta to reverse politics limits on Instagram, Threads

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 Giliann Karon
Washington Post
Dec 14, 2023
Google is rolling out new protections for our location data

“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 Giliann Karon
Washington Post
Dec 11, 2023
As advertisers flee Musk’s X, Democrats splurge on political ads

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 Giliann Karon
Washington Post
Oct 24, 2023
These lawmakers want you to know when you’re talking to AI

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 Zach Praiss
Washington Post
Sep 14, 2023
Musk expected to meet with Netanyahu as antisemitism controversy rages

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.

Avatar Victoria Vinall
Washington Post
Aug 25, 2023
Donald Trump marks return to X, formerly Twitter, with mug shot tweet

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.

Avatar Victoria Vinall
Washington Post
Jun 12, 2023
Trump charges will test social media rules on violent rhetoric

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.”

Avatar Victoria Vinall
Washington Post
May 25, 2023
Musk gives DeSantis a Twitter boost, breaking another tech norm

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.”

Avatar Victoria Vinall
Washington Post
May 24, 2023
Google is failing to uphold post-Roe privacy pledge, Democrats say

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.

Avatar Victoria Vinall
Washington Post
May 09, 2023
Aditi Ramesh on how Google is Endangering Abortion-Seekers

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 Zach Praiss
Washington Post
May 09, 2023
Google promised to delete sensitive data. It logged my abortion clinic visit.

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.

Avatar Victoria Vinall
Washington Post
May 02, 2023
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/02/ai-driven-political-ads-are-here-this-lawmaker-is-sounding-alarm/

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.

Avatar Victoria Vinall
Washington Post
Jan 09, 2023
Two years after Jan. 6, Facebook mulls if Trump is still a threat

“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.”

Avatar Victoria Vinall
Washington Post
Jul 11, 2022
As Musk moves to abandon deal, Twitter faces ‘worst case scenario’

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.”

Avatar Victoria Vinall
Washington Post
Jun 24, 2022
Senate Democrats urge Facebook CEO to bolster gun sales ban

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.

Avatar Victoria Vinall
Washington Post
Jun 22, 2022
Antitrust influencers? Big Tech allies, opponents draft social media stars into bout.

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.)

Avatar Victoria Vinall
Washington Post
May 12, 2022
I gave Instagram photos of my baby. Instagram returned fear.

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.”

Avatar Victoria Vinall
Washington Post
Mar 28, 2022
Europe is lapping the U.S. on tech regulation — again

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.

Avatar Victoria Vinall
Washington Post
Mar 10, 2022
Human rights groups warn that more sanctions could hurt Russian Internet access

Kaili Lambe is Accountable Tech’s new policy and partnerships director. She previously worked as a senior campaigner at the Mozilla Foundation.

Avatar Victoria Vinall
Washington Post
Oct 05, 2021
Facebook’s facial recognition rollback shows limits of self-regulation, officials say

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 Kenya Juarez
Washington Post
Sep 28, 2021
Will the U.S. follow the E.U. playbook to crack down on Silicon Valley giants?

"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 Kenya Juarez
Washington Post
Jun 10, 2021
The Technology 202: Advocacy groups target employees in fight to keep Trump off Facebook

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.

Avatar Victoria Vinall
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