A new report from PEN America and Consumer Reports urges tech companies to treat online abuse like spam—by proactively filtering harm before it reaches users.
Women in Technology
How Reshma Saujani Makes the Invisible Work of Motherhood Impossible to Ignore
Most women are taught to make motherhood look effortless. Reshma Saujani wants you to see that we were never supposed to do it alone.
In a country that still treats caregiving as a personal responsibility rather than a public good, Saujani is changing the script. Not by asking for sympathy, but by exposing the architecture of the lie—and building something better in its place.
“I come from a long line of rule-breakers,” she told me. “My parents fled a dictator. They landed in Chicago with nothing. I grew up surrounded by refugees who were just trying to make it work. That kind of survival teaches you two things: one, that struggle is constant—and two, that silence is dangerous.”
She was a rule-breaker long before she was a movement-builder—always challenging authority, always in detention. “I’ve never been good at following the script,” she said. And that’s exactly what makes her effective.
I Asked Top Election Experts About 2024 Tampering Claims. Here’s What They Said.
In recent weeks, a wave of rumors has surfaced online suggesting the 2024 election may have been “stolen” or, more specifically, tampered with due to faulty machines. While many of these claims remain vague or speculative, some are beginning to gain traction across social media platforms and alternative news sites.
In the interest of democracy, transparency and election security, I reached out to a group of leading experts—many of whom work at the intersection of voting rights, cybersecurity and public trust—to share two examples of the kinds of articles I’ve seen on this topic, and ask for their take.
What follows are responses from some of the country’s most experienced voices on election integrity. Their insights are a valuable reminder that while election systems are not perfect, there is currently no credible evidence supporting claims of widespread vote manipulation in 2024. Instead, these experts highlight what’s real, what’s theoretical and where our attention should actually be focused as we work to protect democracy.
This July 4, Say No to AI Tyrants, Billionaire Bros and Modern-Day Kings
Recent headlines warn of a national budget bill that cuts Medicaid and food stamps, enabling billionaires to escape fair taxes.
The bill’s 1,000-plus pages contain another dangerous threat: freeing still-experimental AI from regulation, essentially turning Americans into lab rats in a billionaire-bro tryout without guardrails.
From Biden’s Cabinet to the Crisis Council: Isabel Guzman on AI, DEI, Elon Musk—and What Real Leadership Looks Like
Isabel Guzman previously served as the 27th administrator of the Small Business Administration under President Biden and was the fifth Latina woman to serve in the Cabinet. She cites serving in Biden’s Cabinet, which was majority-women and the most diverse Cabinet in U.S. history, as ‘humbling’ and an “honor.”
Since leaving the Biden administration, Guzman is now on the frontlines of corporate leadership, helping CEOs confront the reputational dangers of AI, DEI and disinformation. Guzman recently sat down with RepresentWomen’s digital media manager Ria Deshmukh to speak about her transformative journey through the public and private sectors. This is her first in-depth interview since finishing her tenure as the SBA administrator, providing a multifaceted perspective of life as a woman leader in public service and business development.
“The most critical moments in my career have been when I’ve taken myself out of my comfort zone.”
“Women need to continue to be bold about their worth and their value for inclusion.”
Silicon Valley’s Deal with the Devil: How Tech Billionaires Aligned with Misogyny and MAGA
We are learning just how deeply offended powerful men are by the idea that any limits might be placed on them. Faced with the most basic oversight, they have lashed out and are now determined to take bodily and economic autonomy away from the rest of us.
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.
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
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.