Big Brother News Watch
Seattle School Cancels Classes, Moves to Online Learning Because of Measles + More
Seattle School Cancels Classes, Moves to Online Learning Because of Measles
Aki Kurose Middle School will be closed Friday and shift to online learning next week after a student tested positive for measles, a highly contagious disease characterized by rash, fever and other potentially serious symptoms. The Hillman City school will be closed Friday so teachers can prepare for online learning, which will begin Tuesday and stretch through June 2. In-person classes will resume the next Monday.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the student who became infected is the same child public health officials referenced over the weekend or whether that child was vaccinated.
Lawmakers clamped down on vaccine requirements for public school students in 2020 following a large measles outbreak in southwest Washington in 2019. Families can no longer claim a personal or philosophical exemption from the MMR vaccine. And students are now required to show paperwork proving they received a list of shots and boosters including the combined tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis vaccine (Tdap), as well as vaccines for chickenpox, hepatitis B, polio and measles, mumps and rubella.
In early 2020, before the pandemic began, Seattle Public Schools went so far as to bar from class students who lacked complete vaccination records. As of the 2021-22 school year, about 92% of King County public school students were up to date on their vaccines; in Seattle, that number was 93%, county data suggests.
Banning TikTok Won’t Protect Kids. It’s the Opening to Mass Internet Censorship
If the pandemic taught me anything, it was that our government is filled with short-sighted, corrupt, and inept actors who will rationalize any action, no matter how damaging it may be for the majority, in the name of safety and for alleged security. Even the terms “safety,” “security,” and “emergency” have been bastardized to the point of it being rhetorically flexible terminology that can be adjusted to create the most desirable outcome not for the American people but for America’s governmental apparatus.
Montana’s ban on TikTok is another such episode. Last week, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a bill banning TikTok in the state and from Apple and Google app stores within its borders — in the name of keeping Montana residents safe from a foreign adversary and trending degeneracy. In reality, it’s a tragic example of another short-sighted governmental action that promises to be the beginning of a trend of infringing on the rights of Americans.
While the bill, known as SB 419, cites concerns over alleged surveillance from the Chinese government, it also rationalizes the ban on the grounds of what Gianforte’s administration believes is TikTok’s habit of encouraging “dangerous activities” among younger users, things like “throwing objects at moving automobiles” and “lighting a mirror on fire and then attempting to extinguish it using only one’s body parts.”
The “Twitter Files” repeatedly showed us how desperate departments of the U.S. government are to censor the speech of regular people under the guise of protecting the American public from “misinformation.” And I don’t see this action made by the state of Montana as any different.
It’s time to see this for what it is: an excuse to begin a program of mass censorship. Don’t be fooled, and don’t support it.
Tennessee School District Sues Social Media Companies Over Growing Mental Health Crisis Among Students
A Nashville school district became the latest education system to sue several social media companies over growing mental health concerns among students, joining more than 40 nationwide districts demanding accountability from big tech.
The Clarksville-Montgomery County School System (CMCSS) reportedly filed a lawsuit against Meta, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Google, WhatsApp and YouTube due to the “damages and growing mental health crisis among students.”
According to a Daily Mail analysis, more than 40 school districts across the U.S. have filed lawsuits against social media giants, including Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok, alleging the platforms knowingly cause harm to children with “malicious” algorithms.
Children have been subjected to dangerous social media trends, including the “Blackout Challenge,” which persuades minors to strangle themselves. Other trends promote self-harm content, such as suicide, self-injury and eating disorders.
Court Grants New Life to Lawsuit Challenging Maine’s Vaccine Mandate for Healthcare Workers
Portland Press Herald reported:
A federal appeals court has reversed a lower court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Maine’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers, a move that will reignite the debate over religious exemptions.
In a unanimous ruling Thursday, a panel of three judges for the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found U.S. District Judge Jon Levy had not properly weighed the possible public health impact of religious exemptions, which are not allowed by the state’s policy, and ordered the lower court to review that portion of the case.
The original case, which named Gov. Janet Mills, former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Nirav Shah and Maine Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew as defendants, was brought in 2021 by eight former healthcare workers who lost their jobs after refusing to get the vaccine for religious reasons, as well as one former employer.
The Surgeon General Is Pushing for a Misguided Social Media Policy
This week, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a long-overdue message warning Americans what they already know: Social media is harming kids. But looking through the 19-page advisory, the surgeon general’s solutions appear potentially more dangerous than these pariah platforms themselves.
He is pushing for a critically misguided policy that many state legislatures and regulators have already enacted, a mistake that threatens to undo what little internet privacy we have left. To protect kids from social media, he argues, platforms and lawmakers must enforce age minimums. This is tantamount to requiring ID to go online.
Looking at the states that already require proof of age to access a given website or make an online account, the situation is grim. One of the easiest ways to verify age is to require users to submit a government ID in order to access a particular service. This should be concerning to everyone who claims that they want to protect younger users. Requiring a government ID to access The New York Times or to create a Wikipedia account, for example, will prevent millions of Americans without IDs from reaping the benefits of these sites.
And even worse, those who do have IDs will have their legal names linked to everything they do online. And this isn’t just for teens. The only way to identify teen users is to card every user of any age every time they log in. This paper trail will make it easier than ever before for police and other law enforcement agencies to search our online histories.
Eating Disorder Helpline to Replace Human Staff With AI Chatbot
The National Eating Disorder Association has disbanded its long-running, telephone helpline. NEDA has fired the small group of human staff that coordinated and ran the helpline, effective June 1.
In lieu, the nonprofit plans to offer people seeking help access to an AI-powered chatbot named “Tessa” next month, as reported by NPR on Wednesday and confirmed by NEDA to Gizmodo over phone and email.
As the helpline’s workers approach their last days employed and the volunteer network disbands, NEDA plans to pivot to Tessa — a mental health chatbot developed by company Cass (formerly X2AI). Tessa is a separate, older AI model from OpenAI’s buzzy ChatGPT.
Helpline associate and union member Abbie Harper told Gizmodo in a pre-written, texted statement: “A chatbot is no substitute for human empathy, and we believe this decision will cause irreparable harm to the eating disorders community.”
Elon Musk Is About to Pull Twitter out of a Major Online Disinformation Agreement in Europe, Report Says
Elon Musk will next week sign off on Twitter‘s plan to pull out of a disinformation agreement in the European Union, Politico reported.
Google, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok signed up last June to the EU’s code of practice on disinformation. It’s a voluntary rulebook that includes commitments like preventing fake news from making money, ensuring transparency on political ads, and cooperating with fact-checkers.
Twitter is expected to end its participation in the code in the coming days, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told Politico. One of them said Twitter will officially withdraw as a co-signatory once Musk officially approves the plan next week.
The Fed Could Pop the AI Bubble, and Investors Shouldn’t Chase the Hype as Financial Conditions Tighten, Bank of America Says
The Federal Reserve could pop the artificial intelligence bubble in stocks, and investors shouldn’t chase the craze as financial conditions are set to stay tight, according to Bank of America.
In a note on Friday, the bank’s investment strategists pointed to Wall Street’s excitement for artificial intelligence, with even obscure AI stocks soaring in recent months on investors’ enthusiasm for the sector.
Central bankers are set to discuss their next policy move on June 13-14. Markets have priced in a 59% chance that the Fed will raise interest rates another 25 basis points, which would lift the Fed funds rate target to 5.25-5.5%.
Congress to Investigate WHO Plans to Use ‘Listening Surveillance Systems’ to Identify ‘Misinformation’
If you’ve been following our reporting on the issue, you’ll already know that the new World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic prevention initiative, the Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats (PRET), recommends using “social listening surveillance systems” to identify “misinformation.” But as more people are learning about how unelected bodies are being used to suppress speech and potentially override sovereignty, it’s starting to get more pushback.
According to documents from the UN agency, PRET aims to “guide countries in pandemic planning” and work to “incorporate the latest tools and approaches for shared learning and collective action established during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) is holding a Congressional hearing on the WHO’s pandemic accord. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, recently met with Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the WHO, to discuss the accord and the “critical role” of the U.S. “in global health security.”
U.K. Pandemic Programs Failed to Protect Citizens’ Health Data, Say Campaigners
The U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) repeatedly failed to take action over clear breaches of data protection law by the government, according to privacy campaigners. The Open Rights Group (ORG) analyzed the use of data in three key COVID-19 health programs: NHS Test and Trace, NHS Contract Tracing App and the NHS Datastore.
And, it says, all three programs failed to comply in full with the requirement in Article 35 of the GDPR for Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) — especially Test and Trace and Datastore, where no DPIA was carried out with providers prior to signing them up.
The programs were subject to several data breaches, including the leaking of confidential contact tracing data on social media channels by Test and Trace personnel, data being abused to harass women, and data being lost because it was stored on an Excel sheet.
They involved very large-scale and often novel processing of special category personal data by public authorities, as well as by a number of third parties — some of which were based in the U.S., with its far lower data protection standards. Sharing data with Palantir, in particular, could give predatory private researchers and pharmaceutical companies access to sensitive public health data for profit, says the ORG.
COVID-Style Lockdowns to Be Imposed on U.K. by WHO Under New Treaty
Lockdown measures could be imposed on Britain by the World Health Organization (WHO) during future pandemics under new powers, MPs fear.
Member states would have to follow instructions by the agency when responding to pandemics which could see the introduction of vaccine passports, border closures and quarantine measures under a draft update to its regulations.
The new “pandemic treaty” proposals mean Britain would be required to spend 5% of its health budget on preparing for another virus outbreak.
MPs have fears over plans to increase the WHO’s powers which would see countries required to hand over the recipe of vaccines, regardless of intellectual property rights, and to counter misinformation.
Nurse Who Lost Job Due to COVID Vaccine Requirement Unsure of Future After Mandate Enters Repeal Process + More
Nurse Who Lost Job Due to COVID Vaccine Requirement Unsure of Future After Mandate Enters Repeal Process
The COVID-19 vaccine requirement for healthcare workers in New York State is now in the process of being repealed, according to the Department of Health.
With the future of the requirement now in question, News 4 spoke with registered nurse Jackie Ettipio, who lost her job because of the mandate. Ettipio, who’s been a nurse for 31 years, spent most of her career at Mercy Hospital in South Buffalo and was the president of the local CWA union before she was terminated on Dec. 4, 2021.
Ettipio partially retired with some benefits, thinking the situation wouldn’t last that long and she would return to nursing. However, she eventually got another part-time job elsewhere.
“I think nurses, radiology, respiratory — I think they’re exhausted — the people who stayed I think are exhausted beyond belief because they had to pick up when we were terminated,” Ettipio said. “I think it’s a little sad too because what happened was many of us were old-timers that left, who had a lot of knowledge, who were replaced by first-year travelers. And you just don’t get that, generally, we take them under our wings and we teach them.”
Regarding whether Ettipio is considering a return to her old job if the mandate gets repealed, she said she doesn’t know.
State Officials Hope COVID Vaccine Mandate Repeal Will Relieve Staffing Crisis
With a healthcare staffing shortage across New York, Governor Kathy Hochul continued the declaration of a statewide disaster emergency last month. Some workers had left their jobs over the COVID vaccine requirement. Some believe repealing the mandate will help with the staffing crisis. But Stephen Hanse from the New York State Health Facilities Association says it may not encourage everyone to return.
Government officials are hoping for the vaccine mandate repeal to ease the crisis. In 2021, hospitals like Albany Medical Center lost more nurses than hired. And the New York State Department of Health announced earlier this year that by 2030, New York will have a shortage of 40,000 nurses.
But Hanse says the process will not be simple since the mandate will also have to be repealed at the federal level. “So until that process commences and is concluded, hospitals, the nursing homes, and certain assistant living home providers in New York are still required to have the vaccine,” he said.
The New York State Department of Health says effective immediately, they will stop citing providers who don’t comply with the requirements.
Schools Using Facial Recognition Creating ‘Out of Control’ Surveillance Society: Campaigners
Over 60 schools are using facial recognition in what privacy campaigners say is making Britain a “surveillance society growing out of control.”
A new report on the lawless gathering of facial data, published by Big Brother Watch, reveals how schools are investing “huge sums” of money in the technology despite calls for the practice to be banned completely in the U.K.
“Biometric Britain: The Expansion of Facial Recognition Surveillance” lays out in detail how some schools — along with police, retailers, and tech companies — are expanding facial recognition while the European Union is legislating to restrict its use.
Microsoft Chief Says Deep Fakes Are Biggest AI Concern
Microsoft President Brad Smith said Thursday that his biggest concern around artificial intelligence was deep fakes, realistic looking but false content.
In a speech in Washington aimed at addressing the issue of how best to regulate AI, which went from wonky to widespread with the arrival of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Smith called for steps to ensure that people know when a photo or video is real and when it is generated by AI, potentially for nefarious purposes.
“We need to take steps to protect against the alteration of legitimate content with an intent to deceive or defraud people through the use of AI.” Smith also called for licensing for the most critical forms of AI with “obligations to protect security, physical security, cybersecurity, national security.”
Smith also argued in the speech, and in a blog post issued on Thursday, that people needed to be held accountable for any problems caused by AI and he urged lawmakers to ensure that safety brakes be put on AI used to control the electric grid, water supply and other critical infrastructure so that humans remain in control.
How the Internet Dodged a Bullet at the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court’s decision last fall to hear a case about one of the legal cornerstones of the internet was concerning. Nothing good, it seemed, could come from its review of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the law that protects those who maintain online forums from liability for how people use those spaces.
Advocacy groups and nonprofits submitted dozens of briefs and arguments seeking to influence the justices’ decision. During oral arguments in February, justices were encouragingly concerned about what narrowing or removing Section 230 protections would do to free expression online. Still, given its tumultuous, precedent-agnostic recent history, it seemed possible the court could, despite its stated reservations, pick apart the internet’s free-expression machinery.
Fortunately, last week the court declined to weigh in on what First Amendment scholar Jeff Kosseff has labeled “the 26 words that created the internet.” It dismissed Gonzalez v. Google in an unsigned, three-page decision that concluded that the case had “little if any, plausible claim for relief.” Emergency averted.
The most sensible step forward is a serious, nonpartisan effort to update a law that was written before social media, artificial intelligence, and other defining characteristics of online life took hold. That would be cause for real celebration.
Microsoft Says China Installed Malware in U.S. Systems in Guam
China may have conducted digital espionage against the U.S.’s Pacific interests. Microsoft and the National Security Agency (NSA) have revealed that an alleged state-sponsored Chinese hacking group, Volt Typhoon, installed surveillance malware in “critical” systems on the island of Guam and elsewhere in the U.S. The group has been operating since mid-2021 and reportedly compromised government organizations as well as communications, manufacturing, education and other sectors.
U.S. officials speaking to The New York Times believe the Guam infiltration is part of a larger Chinese intelligence collection system that includes the reported spy balloon that floated across American nuclear sites early this year. The focus on Guam is concerning as it’s home to Andersen Air Force Base, a major station that would likely be used for any U.S. answer to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. It’s also a key hub for ships in the Pacific.
The Biden administration has stepped up efforts to protect critical infrastructure, including plans for common security requirements. The U.S. fell prey to multiple attacks on vital systems in recent years, including gas pipelines and meat suppliers. The Volt Typhoon discovery underscores the importance of tougher defenses — malware like this could compromise the U.S. military at a crucial moment.
Rubio Issues Stark AI Warning Regarding National Security: Fakes Could ‘Do Tremendous Damage’
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., issued a warning on Wednesday about impending artificial intelligence threats to national security.
In an op-ed in The Washington Examiner, the Florida Republican stressed that the dangers of AI would only increase as time passes, including those from large language models like OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT.
He said actions from the Biden administration to create a U.S. AI content aggregator to identify AI fakes is “not enough” because of “two distinct challenges.”
First, there is a limited understanding of artificial intelligence inside government. Secondly, Rubio said institutions “would not be up to the task of effective regulation,” placing blame on Democrats and the Biden family over the Russia investigation.
People Hate QR-Code Menus. Now Restaurants Are Ditching Them.
The QR-code restaurant menu may soon be a relic of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many restaurants are switching back to physical menus, in part because customers hate QR-code menus, The New York Times reported.
QR-code menus became prolific at restaurants during the pandemic, enabling customers to view menus, order, and pay and tip all at once. These digital menus rose to prominence during the pandemic for sanitary purposes, as they helped to eliminate contact between restaurant staff and customers.
The QR menus have also sparked privacy concerns around tracking customer data, Insider reported.
Los Angeles Approves $278,000 Robot Police Dog Despite ‘Grave Concerns’ + More
Los Angeles Approves $278,000 Robot Police Dog Despite ‘Grave Concerns’
A $278,000 robotic dog was approved by the Los Angeles City Council, despite some council members expressing “grave concerns” about the Boston Dynamics-manufactured device.
The “Quadruped Unmanned Ground Vehicle” was offered as a donation to the Los Angeles Police Department by the Los Angeles Police Foundation, according to CBS Los Angeles. If the council hadn’t accepted the donation, the offer would have expired, it reported.
On Tuesday, the L.A. city council voted 8-4 in favor of accepting the robot dog, which is unarmed but has surveillance technology. Members of the public spoke at the meeting, with most urging the council against taking up the offer, citing fears that the machine could violate resident’s civil rights, CBS LA reported.
Los Angeles councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez had previously said she had “grave concerns” about accepting the donation. She wasn’t present at the vote on Tuesday, according to ABC7.
NY to Repeal COVID Vaccine Mandate for Health Workers, AG Attorney Says in Appeals Court
New York health officials announced plans to repeal the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers just minutes before an appeals court was to hear oral arguments connected to a lawsuit challenging the mandate, an attorney said.
The striking development was disclosed inside the courtroom in Rochester, as an attorney for the Attorney General’s Office informed the panel of judges that state health officials would soon issue public statements regarding New York’s plan for repealing the vaccine mandate.
On Wednesday, Jonathan Hitsous, the Attorney General’s Office attorney representing the state, told judges that the vaccine mandate repeal would take effect immediately. But it remains unclear what role other key state health panels would play in the decision.
Previously, the state appeals court issued a stay that kept the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health workers in place during the ongoing court battle.
The mandate prompted about 34,000 medical workers, or 3% of the workforce at the time, to quit or be fired instead of getting the shots.
FTC Accuses Defunct Edtech Company Edmodo of Violating Kids’ Privacy
The Federal Trade Commission announced a proposed $6 million settlement with education technology company Edmodo Tuesday for collecting data from kids without parental consent and using it to sell ads in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
The case is unusual for several reasons, including the fact that Edmodo went out of business while the government was still investigating. The FTC is on a tear in recent months, upending the status quo and making an example out of companies to show that you can’t, in fact, just ignore what few privacy laws exist in the United States.
Edmodo was an education company serving 600,000 children, some kindergarten-age, in 2020 alone, the FTC says. It provided classroom resources and let teachers give out and collect assignments and quizzes using the platform, which meant students and parents often had no choice but to use it. It was also free, and, you guessed it, Edmodo made its money showing ads to all those little kid eyeballs, propped up by personal data including kids’ names, birthdays, ages, emails, and locations, according to the FTC.
Australian Authorities Made 4,000 Requests to Big Tech to Censor COVID Content
The Australian Home Affairs Department — normally responsible for dealing with terrorism and border security — made over 4,000 requests to U.S. tech giants to review COVID-19-related content during the pandemic years.
The revelations come after a Freedom of Information request from Senator Alex Antic and highlight the extent to which government authorities attempted to control public discourse around issues like vaccine efficacy, lockdowns, and mask mandates.
Between Jan. 1, 2017, to Dec. 15, 2022, the Home Affairs Department made 4,213 “COVID-19-related content referrals” to digital platforms like Facebook and Twitter to review content against their own terms of service — the height of the pandemic was from 2020 to 2021.
ChatGPT Maker OpenAI Calls for AI Regulation, Warning of ‘Existential Risk’
The leaders of OpenAI, the creator of viral chatbot ChatGPT, are calling for the regulation of “superintelligence” and artificial intelligence systems, suggesting an equivalent to the world’s nuclear watchdog would help reduce the “existential risk” posed by the technology.
In a statement published on the company website this week, co-founders Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever, as well as CEO Sam Altman, argued that an international regulator would eventually become necessary to “inspect systems, require audits, test for compliance with safety standards, (and) place restrictions on degrees of deployment and levels of security.”
Critics have warned against trusting calls for regulation from leaders in the tech industry who stand to profit off continuing development without restraints. Some say OpenAI’s business decisions contrast these safety warnings — as their rapid rollout has created an AI arms race, pressuring companies such as Google parent company Alphabet to release products while policymakers are still grappling with risks.
In his first congressional testimony last week, Altman issued warnings on how AI could “cause significant harm to the world,” while asserting that his company would continue to roll out the technology.
TikTok CEO Brushes Off Montana Ban: ‘We Are Confident That We Will Prevail’
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew on Tuesday brushed off Montana’s recent move to ban TikTok in the state, saying the company is “confident” it will “prevail” as it sues Montana over the new law.
“We believe that the Montana bill that was recently passed is simply unconstitutional,” Chew said in an interview with Bloomberg at the Qatar Economic Forum.
“We very recently filed a lawsuit to challenge this in the courts. And we are confident that we will prevail.”
Elon Musk Raises Concerns Over Advanced AI That ‘Eliminates or Constrains Humanity’s Growth’
Elon Musk again warned about the dangers of artificial intelligence in an interview on Tuesday. “There is a risk that advanced AI either eliminates or constrains humanity’s growth,” the billionaire said at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit, adding that the technology is a “double-edged sword” and compared it to a mythical genie.
“If you have a genie that can grant you everything that can also do anything, that necessarily presents a danger,” he continued.
Musk expects that the first government uses of AI to be in weapons technology. Musk also said the world is only three to six years away from artificial generative intelligence. “Arguably, we are on the event horizon of the black hole that is artificial superintelligence,” he said.
Google to Work With Europe on Stop-Gap ‘AI Pact’
Google’s Sundar Pichai has agreed to work with lawmakers in Europe on what’s being referred to as an “AI Pact” — seemingly a stop-gap set of voluntary rules or standards while formal regulations for applying AI are still being worked on.
Pichai was meeting with Thierry Breton, the European Union’s internal market commissioner, who put out a statement after today’s confab — saying: “There is no time to lose in the AI race to build a safe online environment.”
The memo added that the bloc wants to launch an AI Pact “involving all major European and non-European AI actors on a voluntary basis” ahead of the legal deadline of the aforementioned pan-EU AI Act.
However — at present — the only tech giant’s name that’s been publicly attached to the initiative is Google.
‘Growing Evidence’ Social Media Harms Kids’ Mental Health, Says Surgeon General + More
Surgeon General: ‘Growing Evidence’ Social Media Harms Kids’ Mental Health
There is “growing evidence” that the use of social media by kids and adolescents could be detrimental to their mental health, according to the U.S. surgeon general. Dr. Vivek Murthy is sounding the alarm about the negative effects of social media on the mental health and well-being of young people, amid what he calls “a national youth mental health crisis.”
In a new advisory issued Tuesday, Murthy highlighted the “significant” public health challenge posed by the use of social media by U.S. youth — specifically those between the ages of 10 to 19, who “are undergoing a highly sensitive period of brain development.”
“Nearly every teenager in America uses social media, and yet, we do not have enough evidence to conclude that it is sufficiently safe for them, especially at such a vulnerable stage of brain, emotional, and social development,” Murthy said in a statement.
He urged policymakers and tech companies, as well as families of young people in the U.S., to take immediate action to “maximize the benefits and minimize the harms of social media platforms” and create “safer” and “healthier” environments for young users.
Pandemic’s Toll on Reading Still Being Seen in Classrooms Across the Country
The desks, once spread apart to fight COVID-19, are back together. Masks cover just a couple of faces. But the pandemic maintains an unmistakable presence.
Look no further than the blue horseshoe-shaped table in the back of the room where Richard Evans calls a handful of students back for extra help in reading — a pivotal subject for third grade — at the end of each day.
Here is where time lost to pandemic shutdowns and quarantines shows itself: in the students who are repeating this grade. In the little fingers slowly sliding beneath words sounded out one syllable at a time. In the teacher’s patient coaching through reading concepts usually mastered in first grade — letter “blends” like “ch” and “sh.”
In a year that is a high-stakes experiment on making up for missed learning, this strategy — assessing individual students’ knowledge and tailoring instruction to them — is among the most widely adopted in American elementary schools. In his classroom of 24 students, each affected differently by the pandemic, Evans faces the urgent challenge of having them all read well enough to succeed in the grades ahead.
TikTok Sues Montana After State Passes Law Banning App
TikTok filed a widely expected federal lawsuit against Montana alleging that the state’s new ban on the app — which was signed into law last week and would take effect January 1, 2024 — “unlawfully abridges one of the core freedoms” allowed under the First Amendment by suppressing free speech.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Montana, seeks to have the Montana law overturned, permanently prevented from implementation and declared unconstitutional; the suit is against the state’s attorney general, Austin Knudsen, who is tasked with enforcing the ban.
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the first-of-its-kind bill banning the app from being downloaded in the state last week, saying he did so “to protect Montanans’ personal and private data from the Chinese Communist Party.”
Increased Oversight: Discord Tests New Parental Controls for Teens
New usernames aren’t the only change coming to the popular chat app Discord, now used by 150 million people every month. The company is also testing a suite of parental controls that would allow for increased oversight of Discord’s youngest users, TechCrunch has learned and Discord confirmed.
In a live test running in Discord’s iOS app in the U.S., the company introduced a new “Family Center” feature, where parents will be able to configure tools that allow them to see the names and avatars of their teen’s recently added friends, the servers the teen has joined or participated in and the names and avatars of users they’ve directly messaged or engaged within group chats.
However, Discord clarifies in an informational screen, parents will not be able to view the content of their teen’s messages or calls in order to respect their privacy.
This approach, which toes a fine line between the need for parental oversight and a minor’s right to privacy, is similar to how Snapchat implemented parental controls in its app last year. Like Discord’s system, Snapchat only allows parents insights into who their teen is talking to and friending, not what they’ve typed or the media they’ve shared.
FTC Issues Warning on Misuse of Biometric Info Amid Rise of Generative AI
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a warning on the potential for consumers’ biometric information to be misused in connection with emerging technologies like generative artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
A policy statement published by the FTC last week warned that the increasingly pervasive use of consumers’ biometric data, including by technologies powered by machine learning and AI, poses risks to consumers’ privacy and data. Biometric information is data that depicts or describes physical, biological or behavioral traits and characteristics, including measurements of an identified person’s body or a person’s voiceprint.
“In recent years, biometric surveillance has grown more sophisticated and pervasive, posing new threats to privacy and civil rights,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Today’s policy statement makes clear that companies must comply with the law regardless of the technology they are using.”
Mother of Unvaccinated Girl Denied Kidney Transplant by Duke Shares Huge Update
Yulia Hicks, a child who was denied a kidney transplant by Duke Children’s Hospital last year, will finally be receiving the life-saving operation at another North Carolina hospital.
The teen has a genetic kidney disorder that requires a transplant, but her family said last year that Duke was refusing to put Yulia on the kidney wait list because she is unvaccinated against COVID. Notably, the family says Yulia has already recovered from the virus.
The Daily Wire reported last year that a phone call, the recording of which was obtained by journalist Alex Berenson, revealed a Duke health official telling the Hicks family that Yulia must get vaccinated against COVID before she could become a candidate for the kidney transplant.
Her family said Yulia has already contracted COVID and recovered, but doctors told them Yulia’s natural immunity was not enough, according to the recorded call.
Alberta Worker Who Refused COVID Shot Wins Case for Another Chance to Appeal for EI Benefits
An Alberta woman denied Employment Insurance (EI) benefits for refusing COVID-19 vaccination has appealed the ruling and won reconsideration of her case.
Amanda Michaud, a biomedical equipment technologist with Alberta Health Services (AHS) in Grande Prairie, was placed on an unpaid leave of absence during the pandemic due to non-compliance with her employer’s mandatory vaccination policy. Michaud, with AHS for some 15 years, received a letter from her employer on Dec. 6, 2021, that explicitly stated the leave of absence was not disciplinary.
Her lawyer, James Kitchen, told The Epoch Times that when Michaud applied for EI on Dec. 22, 2021, the Canada Employment Insurance Commission decided that her suspension was for “misconduct” and that she wasn’t entitled to EI benefits as a result.
