Technology

Age-Verification Laws Seek to Erase LGBTQ+ Identity from the Internet

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The internet age-verification craze that’s sweeping the nation isn’t really about protecting little Dick and Jane from Pornhub—it’s about giving government and companies the power to decide what’s “harmful” and rolling back all Americans’ rights, especially those of LGBTQ+ people. 

This growing legislative trend has sparked a lot of concerns and First Amendment challenges, including a case now pending before the Supreme Court, Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. These pernicious “for the children” bills would let politicians deem harmful LGBTQ+ content, or content about abortion rights, or even content about a political party other than their own. These are censorship bills, and let us assure you, porn is only a small aspect of these politicians’ real worries.

The Trump Administration’s Artificial Intelligence Rollback Is a Chance to Rethink AI Policy

With federal AI governance on hold, we have a unique opportunity to reassess our approach and address the growing AI divide. Rather than blindly pushing forward with inequitable systems, we can focus on building AI policies that prioritize fairness, access and inclusion. This moment offers a chance to shape AI’s future in a way that truly serves all communities, not just the privileged few.

Trump and His New Republican Congress Will Make *All* U.S. Taxpayers Fund Unregulated Crisis Pregnancy Clinics

While serial attacks on abortion rights seize the headlines, the anti-choice movement has quietly built an on-the-ground network of unregulated pregnancy clinics—also known as crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) and antiabortion centers (AACs)—that is eroding access to comprehensive reproductive healthcare and electioneering against abortion rights, mostly under the radar and increasingly on the public dime.

Sahra Mani’s ‘Bread & Roses’: A Documentary ‘About Afghan Women, by Afghan Women, When the World Had Stopped Seeing Them’

In her new documentary, Bread & Roses (available now on Apple+), filmmaker Sahra Mani reveals the fierce and courageous resistance of Afghan women defying the Taliban—who wish to make them disappear.

It’s a documentary about Afghan women, by Afghan women, at a time when the world had stopped seeing them.

Not Your Mother’s Activism: Young Women’s Political Expression on Social Media

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Young women are the avant-garde of political expression online, developing expressive forms of political communication that collapse traditional distinctions between personal and political, aesthetic and substantive, emotional and analytical. Their approaches suggest new possibilities for political discourse that acknowledges rather than suppresses the role of affect, identity, and visual rhetoric in political mobilization. This piece draws from research presented in the authors’ new book, Not Your Parents’ Politics: Understanding Young People’s Political Expression on Social Media (Oxford University Press, 2024).

‘Abortion Librarians’: The Online Abortion Resources Squad’s Vital Work on Reddit

If someone needs an abortion and is unsure how to get one, they’ll probably do what seems obvious to many of us: Use Google or another search engine and type “abortion options near me.” It’s likely they’ll find a mishmash of antiabortion crisis pregnancy centers, clinics that aren’t actually near them, and irrelevant information. 

That’s where the Online Abortion Resources Squad (OARS) comes in. We run the r/abortion subreddit on the social media platform Reddit. No matter who you are, where you live, or what you need regarding your abortion, you can write a post on the r/abortion subreddit any day at any time, and you’ll receive a quick, thorough, accurate and compassionate personal response.

The Digital War on Women: Sexualized Deepfakes, Weaponized Data and Stalkerware That Monitors Victims Online

The 2024 U.S. election is over, but the online abuse of women in politics is set to intensify.

Around the world, a growing number of female candidates have been targeted by manipulated explicit content; and while the harm escalates fast, legal recourse is lengthy. Moreover, nearly any system that collects and shares location data can now be weaponized against its users. Digital surveillance can have a devastating impact on women, especially given the lack of robust legal or social protections against gender-based violence. 

Angela Alsobrooks and Lisa Blunt Rochester Could Make History as First Two Black Women to Serve Simultaneously in U.S. Senate

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation. 

This week: Indigenous People’s Day, the New York Equal Rights Amendment, fostering trust in a time of misinformation, Angela Alsobrooks’ and Lisa Blunt Rochester’s campaigns, calls for increased women’s representation in the Sri Lankan parliament, and more.