The National Conference for Media Reform brought together thousands of policymakers, advocates and tech experts who spent three days discussing issues like protecting the Internet from government and corporate control.
Last weekend’s National Conference for Media Reform, the largest conference devoted to media, technology and democracy, dove into serious issues concerning the media in America. Led by Craig Aaron, Free Press president and CEO, the convention discussed the future of the Internet and how large corporations are controlling the media.
The National Conference for Media Reform, an event devoted to media, technology and democracy, brought 2,000 people to the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel on April 5–7. “We’ve gathered this weekend to push back against corporate control of our media, to reclaim our airwaves, and to move toward a just and sustainable world,” said Mary Alice Crim, Free Press’ organizing and events manager.
The House Intelligence Committee passed a controversial cybersecurity bill on an 18-2 vote. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, known as CISPA, is expected to be voted on in the House next week with a set of other cybersecurity-focused bills.
New York Times tech journalist Jenna Wortham made a confession that could be used to send her to prison for a year or more. What was the startling criminal admission? She uses someone else’s HBO Go password to sign into the cable-subscriber-only app to watch Game of Thrones.
While the U.S. Air Force and other military branches have for a number of years been developing and using a host of cyber tools with offensive capabilities, only this week have a number of these tools been officially classified as weapons. Six unnamed tools have been classified as weapons by the Air Force. The weapons classification is, above all, an effort to get more funding for these cyber tools.
The ACLU has obtained internal IRS documents that say Americans enjoy “generally no privacy” in their email messages, Facebook chats and other electronic communications.
Another round of increases to federal science and research spending complement a significant cash boost for cybersecurity programs in the White House’s 2014 budget.
When officers from the New York Police Department raided the Occupy encampment in Zuccotti Park on Nov. 15, 2011, they arrested more than 10 journalists and threatened or harassed many others. They also destroyed an enormous amount of equipment that local journalists had been using to livestream from Occupy Wall Street. In a settlement, New York City agreed to pay the livestream collective Global Revolution TV $75,000 for damage done to their equipment and nearly $50,000 to cover the livestreamers’ legal fees.
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