Rebecca Williams
@rebeccawilliams.info
Writer, lawyer, artist exploring how technology and power shape one another.
Privacy @ACLU.org, Board @MuckRock.com, Teaching @Pratt.edu.
🌐 rebeccawilliams.info Signal: rebecca.411
Privacy @ACLU.org, Board @MuckRock.com, Teaching @Pratt.edu.
🌐 rebeccawilliams.info Signal: rebecca.411
Pinned
what if technology wasn't something that was done to us, but instead something that we do?
me & whom (there will be 26 of you)
in the emergency room for a snake bite and they rush in a camel to watch The Notebook
November 28, 2025 at 10:18 PM
me & whom (there will be 26 of you)
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
How are opioid settlement funds being spent? Our new guide explains how to use FOIA requests to track opioid settlement funds in your state. www.muckrock.com/news/archive...
How are opioid settlement funds being spent in your state? You can use FOIA to find out
Over the last six months, MuckRock teamed up with a class of investigative journalism students at West Virginia University to request opioid settlement spending documents from all 55 counties in West…
www.muckrock.com
November 26, 2025 at 4:46 PM
How are opioid settlement funds being spent? Our new guide explains how to use FOIA requests to track opioid settlement funds in your state. www.muckrock.com/news/archive...
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
GOOD NEWS: “AI chatbots will dish on topics like nuclear weapons, child sex abuse material, and malware so long as users phrase the question in the form of a poem,” researchers found. Let @mjgault.bsky.social bring you some holiday cheer!
Poems Can Trick AI Into Helping You Make a Nuclear Weapon
It turns out all the guardrails in the world won’t protect a chatbot from meter and rhyme.
www.wired.com
November 28, 2025 at 3:54 PM
GOOD NEWS: “AI chatbots will dish on topics like nuclear weapons, child sex abuse material, and malware so long as users phrase the question in the form of a poem,” researchers found. Let @mjgault.bsky.social bring you some holiday cheer!
rotten tomatoes for books (new to me): bookmarks.reviews
‹ Book Marks Features Book Marks
bookmarks.reviews
November 28, 2025 at 12:53 AM
rotten tomatoes for books (new to me): bookmarks.reviews
I haven’t had to break the news that the raccoon domestication headlines are based on a flawed study (they didn’t control for raccoon breeds—some have smaller snouts—and relied too heavily on iNaturaliat photos) to the family yet, but I’m prepared to
November 27, 2025 at 6:01 PM
I haven’t had to break the news that the raccoon domestication headlines are based on a flawed study (they didn’t control for raccoon breeds—some have smaller snouts—and relied too heavily on iNaturaliat photos) to the family yet, but I’m prepared to
Here is the syllabus for the Information & Human Rights course that I taught at @pratt.edu this fall: rebeccawilliams.info/info-619-inf...
Many thanks to @edwardongwesojr.com, @samanthahinds.bsky.social, & the lawyers not on Bluesky for being guest speakers & for everyone we read!
Many thanks to @edwardongwesojr.com, @samanthahinds.bsky.social, & the lawyers not on Bluesky for being guest speakers & for everyone we read!
INFO 619: Information & Human Rights
Taught at the Pratt School of Information, this seminar introduced students to the foundations of information rights, the harms produced by information systems, and the creative and political strategi...
rebeccawilliams.info
November 26, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Here is the syllabus for the Information & Human Rights course that I taught at @pratt.edu this fall: rebeccawilliams.info/info-619-inf...
Many thanks to @edwardongwesojr.com, @samanthahinds.bsky.social, & the lawyers not on Bluesky for being guest speakers & for everyone we read!
Many thanks to @edwardongwesojr.com, @samanthahinds.bsky.social, & the lawyers not on Bluesky for being guest speakers & for everyone we read!
I missed this when it came out; worth the read!
We teamed up with more than a dozen international newsrooms on an 18-month odyssey to expose a shadowy surveillance firm whose phone-tracking tech has been used by repressive regimes, corporate spooks, and Vatican leak hunters.
It's worth the read: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
It's worth the read: www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
November 25, 2025 at 1:10 AM
I missed this when it came out; worth the read!
it’s interesting to think about this & how the internet and social media keeps getting more gated, algorithmically driven, and fractured into affinity groups
please do not imagine beyond your particular circle & circumstance
please do not imagine beyond your particular circle & circumstance
It's a combination of a bunch of things, I think -- history is just moving faster in general -- but if you had to single out a culprit, it's got to be the internet & social media. It's never been more visible to everyone that the social order *could be otherwise*, that's it's essentially arbitrary.
November 24, 2025 at 7:27 PM
it’s interesting to think about this & how the internet and social media keeps getting more gated, algorithmically driven, and fractured into affinity groups
please do not imagine beyond your particular circle & circumstance
please do not imagine beyond your particular circle & circumstance
Home Depot is running a surveil Santa ad that also has Santa dropping off more surveillance gear for the family, in this world there is only surveillance
November 24, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Home Depot is running a surveil Santa ad that also has Santa dropping off more surveillance gear for the family, in this world there is only surveillance
a beautiful graphic via betterimagesofai.org/images?artis...
November 24, 2025 at 5:26 PM
a beautiful graphic via betterimagesofai.org/images?artis...
Lina (and her team of scholars) didn’t just find dusty laws people forgot about, they creatively applied existing laws to new big tech harms, they threaded the needle through research & analogy, something many legal professionals have struggled to do
"I've long been inspired by Lina Khan's protection of people across this country in the face of corporate greed"
@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social Mamdani tells @mehdirhasan.bsky.social how Lina Khan will get creative to lower prices for New Yorkers
zeteo.com/p/exclusive-...
@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social Mamdani tells @mehdirhasan.bsky.social how Lina Khan will get creative to lower prices for New Yorkers
zeteo.com/p/exclusive-...
November 24, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Lina (and her team of scholars) didn’t just find dusty laws people forgot about, they creatively applied existing laws to new big tech harms, they threaded the needle through research & analogy, something many legal professionals have struggled to do
I’m seeing a comment from an OPM official that DOGE is disbanded reported in Reuters get picked up by other outlets, but the only thing that is real is the appropriation logs, don’t say it’s over until it stops being reported here: openomb.org/search?term=...
Search results
Search apportionments by contents, tafs, bureau, fiscal year, footnotes, and more
openomb.org
November 24, 2025 at 4:09 PM
I’m seeing a comment from an OPM official that DOGE is disbanded reported in Reuters get picked up by other outlets, but the only thing that is real is the appropriation logs, don’t say it’s over until it stops being reported here: openomb.org/search?term=...
For tech workers looking for organize; apps are due 12/1 collectiveaction.school
Collective Action School
Logic School is an online, experimental school for tech workers
collectiveaction.school
November 24, 2025 at 12:42 AM
For tech workers looking for organize; apps are due 12/1 collectiveaction.school
I spent a lot of time looking through the Hillary emails and I recall most of them were just fwding Washington Post or Politico links and I thought “impact journalism metrics”
Many things that make the UX of this compelling but there’s a real “banality of evil” demonstration at work too. Epstein’s most recent emails are a Quora digest and a Flipboard newsletter. Jarring to see those mixed in among depravity.
omg they made Jeffrey Epstein Inbox Simulator '25 jmail.world
November 21, 2025 at 5:45 PM
I spent a lot of time looking through the Hillary emails and I recall most of them were just fwding Washington Post or Politico links and I thought “impact journalism metrics”
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
this is a stunning piece of data journalism/art/whatever.
omg they made Jeffrey Epstein Inbox Simulator '25 jmail.world
Jmail, logged in as [email protected]
You are logged into [email protected], Jeffrey Epstein's email. Sourced from the November 2025 House Oversight Committee data release.
jmail.world
November 21, 2025 at 5:34 PM
this is a stunning piece of data journalism/art/whatever.
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
entering my mentor era is so funny, because my well honed advice is all over place, I’m like don’t have a phone case, protect your time & ability to express creatively at all costs, this is the exact paperwork you are going to need to sue
November 20, 2025 at 9:34 PM
entering my mentor era is so funny, because my well honed advice is all over place, I’m like don’t have a phone case, protect your time & ability to express creatively at all costs, this is the exact paperwork you are going to need to sue
every nyc tech policy person keeps telling me how they’re involved in the Mamdani transition the way that people in DC used to tell me that they had personally saved healthcare dot gov, it’s very funny (are you? did you?)
November 20, 2025 at 1:47 AM
every nyc tech policy person keeps telling me how they’re involved in the Mamdani transition the way that people in DC used to tell me that they had personally saved healthcare dot gov, it’s very funny (are you? did you?)
The comment period for this proposed rule closes in 7 days: www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...
Collection of Biometric Data From Aliens Upon Entry to and Departure From the United States
This final rule amends Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regulations to provide that DHS may require all aliens to be photographed when entering or exiting the United States, and may require non-e...
www.federalregister.gov
November 20, 2025 at 12:01 AM
The comment period for this proposed rule closes in 7 days: www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
Autocorrect has become our worst enema.
November 19, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Autocorrect has become our worst enema.
it was also just the Russ Vought project (which started during Trump 1), DOGE felt like a blip tied to one man that is over, but it was started before Elon and continues on after Elon
Musk launched DOGE in order to kill the investigations of himself & Tesla at the SEC and NHTSA. The rest of it (starving hundreds of thousands of kids by slashing USAID) was just collateral damage, a distraction.
Was just listening to a conversation between a VC and an author who writes about innovation, and they were discussing "why Elon couldn't successfully reform the government" and it was the dumbest conversation I've heard in a while. And I realized they were starting with the wrong premise...
November 18, 2025 at 6:33 PM
it was also just the Russ Vought project (which started during Trump 1), DOGE felt like a blip tied to one man that is over, but it was started before Elon and continues on after Elon
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
New from 404 Media: a contractor is paying random people $300 to physically track immigrants for ICE. Spoke to people briefed on plans. This isn't licensed PIs/bounty hunters. These are just former police/military; members of public
"Something doesn't sound right"
www.404media.co/contractor-p...
"Something doesn't sound right"
www.404media.co/contractor-p...
Contractor Paying Random People $300 to Physically Track Immigrants for ICE
“The more I listened to it, the more I’m like, something doesn’t sound right,” a person who was briefed on the pilot plans told 404 Media.
www.404media.co
November 18, 2025 at 3:08 PM
New from 404 Media: a contractor is paying random people $300 to physically track immigrants for ICE. Spoke to people briefed on plans. This isn't licensed PIs/bounty hunters. These are just former police/military; members of public
"Something doesn't sound right"
www.404media.co/contractor-p...
"Something doesn't sound right"
www.404media.co/contractor-p...
it’s like looking at my own screen
i love when people use search engines in movies but i love when people use search engines in hallmark movies most of all
November 18, 2025 at 4:05 PM
it’s like looking at my own screen
I really really like this because I’m always thinking about who can visualize the apple in their mind but I had never considered a worm
This guy just driving round RKF Jr’s brain the whole time!
November 18, 2025 at 4:43 AM
I really really like this because I’m always thinking about who can visualize the apple in their mind but I had never considered a worm
in me especially
“The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot.”
- Audre Lorde
- Audre Lorde
November 18, 2025 at 12:05 AM
in me especially