 Welcome to the audio version of the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Affector Newsletter. This is a pilot project to give people a new way to learn about digital rights and offer more accessibility to our newsletter. This is the audio version of Affector Volume 32, Issue 27, published on October 30, 2020 and titled, Asking the Right Questions About Content Moderation, Big Tech, and Data Privacy. The editor of this issue is Activism Project Manager Lindsey Oliver and is read by me, Member Outreach Assistant Christian Romero. Affector is a semi-weekly newsletter on digital rights issues. Inside, EFF summarizes and links to updates, announcements, blog posts, and news stories to help keep readers on the bleeding edge of their digital rights. Remember that each of the following items has a link to a more detailed description that you can read in the online version of Affector. Let's start with some top features. Content Moderation and the U.S. election. What to ask? What to demand? Online disinformation is a problem that has had real consequences in the U.S. and all over the world. It has been correlated to ethnic violence in Myanmar and India and to Kenya's 2017 elections, among other events. But, it is equally true that Content Moderation is a fundamentally broken system. It is inconsistent and confusing and, as layer upon layer of policy is added to a system that employs both human moderators and automated technologies, it is increasingly error-prone. Even well-meaning efforts to control misinformation inevitably end up silencing a range of dissenting voices and hindering the ability to challenge ingrained systems of oppression. Congress fails to ask tech CEOs the hard questions. The Senate Commerce Committee met last week to question the heads of Facebook, Twitter, and Google about Section 230, the most important law protecting free speech online. The questions followed a familiar partisan pattern with Republicans scolding big tech for, quote, censoring and fact-checking conservative speech and Democrats demanding that tech companies do more to curb misleading and harmful statements on their platforms. Neither side recognized the severe, unintended consequences that undermining Section 230 would bring for free speech as a whole. Why getting paid for your data is a bad deal. One bad privacy idea that just won't die is the so-called data dividend, which imagines a world where tech companies have to pay you in order to use your data. Sounds too good to be true? It is. Let's be clear, getting paid for your data, probably no more than a handful of dollars at most, isn't going to fix what's wrong with privacy today. The data dividend scheme hurts consumers, benefits companies, and frames privacy as a commodity rather than a right. Next up, we've got some EFF updates. Celebrating Open Access Week. Open Access means making research and other materials freely available online, preferably with a license that preserves our ability to redistribute those materials. In other words, Open Access Publishing removes barriers to knowledge, culture, and ideas while unlocking our creative potential. Commemorating International Open Access Week, we wrote a series of blog posts outlining how Open Access should be the rule instead of the exception, how removing barriers to access government-funded research will benefit everyone, why Open Access should include open courts, and the necessity of open access for the maker community. Defending Fair Use in the Omegaverse. Copyright law is supposed to promote creativity, not stamp out criticism. Too often, copyright owners forget that, especially when they have a convenient takedown tool like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. EFF is happy to remind them about copyright law, as we did last month on behalf of Internet creator Lindsey Ellis. Ellis had posted a video about a copyright dispute between authors in a very particular fandom niche, the Omegaverse realm of Wolfkink Erotica. Make a pledge for EFF through the Combined Federal Campaign today. U.S. government employees can donate to EFF through the Combined Federal Campaign. The pledge period is underway and goes through January 15, 2021. Join EFF and many other employees and fight for digital rights by making the pledge using our CFC ID number 10437 today. San Francisco supervisors must rein in SFPD's abuse of surveillance cameras. Black, white or indigenous, while resourced or indigent, San Francisco residents should be free to assemble and protest without fear of police surveillance technology or retribution. EFF files comment opposing the Department of Homeland Security's massive expansion of biometric surveillance. EFF, joined by several leading civil liberties and immigrant rights organizations, recently filed a comment calling on the Department of Homeland Security, the DHS, to withdraw a proposed rule that would exponentially expand the biometrics collection from both U.S. citizens and non-citizens who apply for immigration benefits. It would also allow the DHS to mandate the collection of face data, iris scans, palm prints, voice prints, and DNA. Next up, we've got a job opening. Frank Stanton Legal Fellow from 2021 to 2023. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is now accepting applications for its 2021 through 2023 Frank Stanton Fellowship. Applicants should be recent law school graduates or law students who will be graduating no later than spring 2021 and have an interest in developing an expertise in first amendment issues implicated by new technologies. EFF will accept applications until November 30, 2020. And lastly, we've got some mini-links. This one's from Vice. Employees at Surveillance Company, Verkata, used company's own tech to harass co-workers. Three employees of face recognition and video analytics company have been fired. This one's from Firewall's Don't Stop Dragons. Big Brother is watching you. EFF's Lindsay Oliver and Jason Kelly talk in depth about the dangers of proctoring apps being used by millions of students across the nation. Next up, we've got a story from Wired. What AI college exam proctors are really teaching our kids? With the required use of proctoring apps, quote, what are we telling kids about what they should expect for the rest of their lives? Our last mini-link comes from Teen Vogue. Exam surveillance tools monitor and record students during tests. Teen Vogue dives deep into the problems with student proctoring software from privacy invasions and stress caused by overbroad surveillance to discrimination. And that's a wrap. Thanks for listening. Remember, the items in this newsletter are links and this is only a short summary. Please subscribe to EFF at EFF.org slash EFF for the full stories. You can also visit EFF.org slash deep links for the latest EFF blog posts, press releases, events, and announcements. Lastly, EFF is a member-supported organization. We have been defending free speech online, fighting illegal surveillance, promoting the rights of digital innovators, and working to ensure that the rights and freedoms that we enjoy are enhanced rather than eroded as our use of technology grows. This year is EFF's 30th anniversary and we need your support more than ever. Help us reach our 30th anniversary goal of 30,000 donors by visiting EFF.org slash EFF.org slash EFF ECT and sign up as a member today. You can become a member for only $25. Thanks for listening.