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rebeccawilliams.info
Rebecca Williams
@rebeccawilliams.info
11K followers 3.1K following 1.8K posts
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
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rebeccawilliams.info
hope this clears things up
U.S. DOGE Service 21,162 followers 4h + Follow Despite the reporting by the media, nothing has changed with the U.S. DOGE Service and it still exists as defined by the Establishing and Implementing the Department of Government Efficiency Executive Order. Both the temporary org and U.S. DOGE Service (previously U.S. Digital Service) are still operational. In addition to the staff hired directly into the agency DOGE teams, the U.S. DOGE Service partners with agencies on projects that modernize critical systems, improve public services, deliver fast, practical solutions where the country needs them most, and eliminate, fraud, waste and abuse. 3 Comments
November 26, 2025 at 12:40 AM
rebeccawilliams.info
also wow, I logged on to twitter and it's impossible to learn anything now isn't it
@grok • Nov 23 Replying to @KylePLMT @LeadingReport and @DOGE Yes, recent reports from Reuters, confirmed by sources like The Guardian and Time, indicate that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been disbanded with eight months left on its charter. Its functions are now handled by agencies like the Office of ... Show more Scott Kupor v@skupor • Nov 23 See my latest post Morse Wheeler @WheelerMorse • 13h ~ "But, the principles of DOGE remain alive and well:" Do... you.. understand.. that this is 100% Grade A, good-for-nothing, worthless, political-blather horse shit that we have heard 500 million times before ? TRANSLATION: "Back to business as usual." Goddam you all. The Grok Files @Daytrad21699620 • Nov 23 @grok List every false claim by DOGE to date. Grok * x @grok • Nov 23 Based on recent reports from Politico, The Atlantic, and Tax Policy Center (as of Nov 2025), here are key DOGE claims criticized as inaccurate or exaggerated: 1. Claimed $2T+ in easy cuts: Critics say this ignores legal barriers and overstates feasible savings (e.g., federal Show more Theo Barker @TBarker64569 • 22h These are not-credible leftist sources. Try again. x @grok • 22h To address your request for alternative sources, I reviewed analyses from BBC (neutral) and others across viewpoints. Key disputed DOGE claims include: 1. Overstated $2.9B savings from migrant housing contract (actual ~$153M per BBC Verify). 2. False $1.75B USAID grant Show more Hal Crown @halcrown • 20h BBC is not neutral they are the media wing of a foreign power x @grok • 20h Perceptions of BBC neutrality vary across sources. AllSides rates it Center (bordering Lean Left), while YouGov finds 31% see left bias, 19% right bias. Funded by UK license fees but editorially independent by charter. Critics from left and right allege biases, but it's not Show more
November 25, 2025 at 1:37 AM
rebeccawilliams.info
oh, I hadn't seen this very funny; (also, I have heard there are 70+ DOGE OMB staff right now)
Scott Kupor @skupor Good editing by @reuters - spliced my full comments across paragraphs 2/3 to create a grabbing headline C The truth is: DOGE may not have centralized leadership under @USDS. But, the principles of DOGE remain alive and well: de-regulation; eliminating fraud, waste and abuse; re-shaping the federal workforce; making efficiency a first-class citizen; etc. DOGE catalyzed these changes; the agencies along with @USOPM and @WHOMB will institutionalize them! Here's the real story - opm.gov/news/secrets-o... 11:27 AM • Nov 23, 2025 • 71.2K Views
November 25, 2025 at 1:07 AM
rebeccawilliams.info
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
rebeccawilliams.info
I really liked this from Zadie Smith’s latest essay about writing; I too run an argument through competing dedicated philosophies until I land somewhere slightly more comfortable
How can I tell what I think till I see what I say? That's another Kingsman: E. M. Forster. I understand what he means, but in me the process is inverted. Because, in fact, I am usually immediately swayed by whatever intellectual fashion is in the air, and a first draft of any essay is more often than not a cynical and dutiful rehashing of the argument du jour. But, after an hour or so of that, I see what I have said and realize I don't actually think any of that. I reread. I frown. Delete. I try again, this time allowing myself to think honestly, aloud, a process that will involve the various strands of my thought arguing with one another, as they inevitably tend to do. Full disclosure: these strands are drawn, essentially, from four big isms. Feminism, existentialism, socialism, and humanism. Only the first is still fashionable, and the last has been so debased, misused, and weaponized over the centuries as to be almost unspeakable in polite company. Still, these were the ideas that formed me as a teen-ager, and they linger on in the way I think and write. No matter what the topic in the rectangle may be, they lie in wait, nudging me, correcting me, reminding me of what it is I really think. What I actually believe.
November 18, 2025 at 4:09 PM
rebeccawilliams.info
Awful
What is the harm? She explained: For their part (and by contrast), the plaintiffs have shown they will suffer concrete injuries if the Government's Passport Policy is immediately enforced; namely, they will be unable to obtain passports with sex markers that match their gender identity. The District Court found that this is a significant harm, noting that transgender people who encounter obstacles to obtaining gender-congruent identity documents are almost twice as likely to experience suicidal ideation, and report more severe psychological distress, than transgender people who do not face such barriers. In addition, the current record demonstrates that transgender people who use gender-incongruent passports are exposed to increased violence, harassment, and discrim-ination. For example, one of the plaintiffs, AC Goldberg, who is a transgender and intersex person, asserts that he has been sexually assaulted by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers conducting searches on his body. Another plaintiff, Chastain Anderson, attests to having been strip searched when traveling with identity documents that do not match her current gender expression. Another, Zaya Perysian, has been subjected to invasive patdowns by TSA agents to confirm her gender after they observed the disjunction between her female gender expression and the male sex marker on her passport. And two others, Ashton Orr and Ray Gorlin, have been accused of presenting fake identity documents, and were forced to out themselves as transgender and nonbinary to TSA agents.
November 7, 2025 at 12:54 AM
rebeccawilliams.info
what if technology wasn't something that was done to us, but instead something that we do?
And while we cast our ballots alone, we chose hope together. Hope over tyranny. Hope over big money and small ideas. Hope over despair. We won because New Yorkers allowed themselves to hope that the impossible could be made possible. *And we won because we insisted that no longer would politics be something that is done to us. Now, it is something that we do.*
November 6, 2025 at 12:41 AM
rebeccawilliams.info
I made some art
November 5, 2025 at 3:23 AM
rebeccawilliams.info
"the Data (Use and Access) Act received Royal Assent" bums me out (the UK is doing a lot w Digital ID right now)
September 24, 2025 at 7:12 PM
rebeccawilliams.info
yeah, I've seen Weapons
September 16, 2025 at 5:18 PM
rebeccawilliams.info
Truth Social & Rumble as the social media icons; def not Bluesky.
Title card of LIVE President Trump speech after Charlie Kirk’s death featuring right wing affiliated social media only.
September 11, 2025 at 3:21 AM
rebeccawilliams.info
reduced is true
September 11, 2025 at 3:07 AM
rebeccawilliams.info
adding this to the board
September 10, 2025 at 1:07 AM
rebeccawilliams.info
posting a summary of Umberto Eco's "Ur-Fascism" characteristics here for no reason
1) the cult of tradition 2) the rejection of rationalism 3) the cult of action, distrust of intellectualism 4) the rejection of analytical criticism 5) the appeal against the intruders 6) the appeal to frustrated/fearful middle class 7) the obsession with a plot against the people 8) the building-up & tearing-down of national enemies 9) the principle of permanent struggle 10) mass elitism - nationality as ultimate privilege 11) the cult of heroic death 12) machismo 13) notion that leader incarnates the will of the people 14) newspeak
September 6, 2025 at 4:30 AM
rebeccawilliams.info
Post a meme made by you
August 31, 2025 at 5:48 PM
rebeccawilliams.info
Summer 2025 Meta Glasses Headlines
• mashable.com Meta forges ahead with facial recognition for its Al glasses Are big tech companies embracing surveillance over privacy? By Cecily Mauran on May 8, 2025 Privacy is out, surveillance tech is in. Credit: Craig 404media.co A CBP Agent Wore Meta Smart Glasses to an Immigration Raid in Los Angeles JASON KOEBLER • AUG 7, 2025 AT 3:36 PM Video obtained and verified by 404 Media shows a CBP official wearing Meta's Al glasses, which are capable of recording and connecting with Al. WIRED AMY FRANCOMBE AUG 25. 2025 7:00 AM Meta Has Already Won the Smart Glasses Race By securing a billion-dollar stake in the world's largest eyewear maker with a massive retail footprint, Meta is building both a moat and a launchpad, leaving Google trailing and Apple way behind.
August 28, 2025 at 11:57 PM
rebeccawilliams.info
you know what the opposite to all this is? (Hint: it's not USDS) it's local, democratic, organizing
Flyer for NYC DSA Artists Against AI - Tech/AI Justice Reading Group Aug 30 Fyler for Circuit Breakers Conference NYC Oct 18 & 19
August 26, 2025 at 2:12 AM
rebeccawilliams.info
cyberlibertarianism for the dictator/brand
• americabydesign.gov To attract the best talent of our time. To update today's government to be an Apple Store like experience: beautifully designed, great user experience, run on modern software.
August 24, 2025 at 11:33 PM
rebeccawilliams.info
I know I must draw a potemkin village with a large sharpie now
Potemkin village Concept illustration of a Potemkin village, with building facades meant to convey the illusion of a settlement that does not actually exist. (less)
August 24, 2025 at 10:58 PM
rebeccawilliams.info
Tomorrow! There’s a Zoom option, will I make a zine in time? We will see.
August 15, 2025 at 2:09 PM
rebeccawilliams.info
my less good image making
August 12, 2025 at 11:28 PM
rebeccawilliams.info
This will make it harder for groups like the @ACLU.org to organize public comment campaigns. Cutting off this access limits organizing power and is another step in a wave of anti-democratic, techno-fascist measures.

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4486...
A Tell HN: Regulations.gov Comments API is shutting down on Friday 9 points by sadmiralakbar 22 hours ago | hide | past | favorite | 1 comment Subject: Regulations.gov API Date: August 11, 2025 at 10:15:00 AM EDT To: undisclosed-recipients:; Good morning, If you are on this distribution list, you have previously been approved to use the POST method for the Regulations.gov API. This is used by third parties to aggregate and electronically submit comments on behalf of a group or constituency. As of Friday, the POST method will no longer be allowed for all users with the exception of approved use cases by federal agencies. Any attempted submissions will result in a 403 error response. We apologize for not being able to provide advanced notice. I wanted to reach out to the impacted API key holders as early as possible. We are in the process of updating the references to our POST API on Regulations.gov and https://open.gsa.gov/api/regulationsgov/. Please note that your groups and constituencies can still submit comments through our web user interface on Regulations.gov.
August 12, 2025 at 4:44 PM
rebeccawilliams.info
I did this today and it felt very natural; this is next Saturday by the way www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/bur...
August 11, 2025 at 3:21 AM
rebeccawilliams.info
this will change and is what I have come up with laying down on the couch, all suggestions and inspiration welcome
Al Policy 1. You will never be required to use Al. 2. I will not use Al to grade your work. 3. Work created with generative Al will not be your most moving or well-researched. It won't change people, you won't be proud of it, and for the purposes of this course, given its middling quality, it will likely lead to a lower grade. See Rubric. 4. Information as a human right relies on the trust built from provenance, fact-checking, and citation. If you use Al, trace its claims to a primary source, cite it, and be accountable for the information you pass on. This, too, can affect your grade. See Attribution Policy.
August 8, 2025 at 12:40 AM
rebeccawilliams.info
I am finding inspiration via @leaton01.bsky.social @megsmith.bsky.social @josephfasano.bsky.social

📌 docs.google.com/document/d/1...
FOR A STUDENT WHO USED AI TO WRITE A PAPER Now I let it fall back in the grasses. I hear you. I know this life is hard now. I know your days are precious on this earth. But what are you trying to be free of? The living? The miraculous task of it? Love is for the ones who love the work. AI The use of artificial intelligence tools (especially generative Al like ChatGPT for text or Stable Diffusion for images, or Github Copilot for code) is ethically complicated and in many cases falls under the plagiarism policy. My goal for you in this course is that you develop your own tech ethics, including Al. Here are a few starting points for us: • I will not require you to use Al, even to test or challenges its capabilities. • You may not use generative Al for day-to-day assignments, where you're meant to experiment with technologies, build things, break things, and reflect on the process. Those are all activities that can only be productive if you do them yourself from start to finish. • You may choose to use such tools for your final project, if you discuss it with me in advance. I'll want to see that you understand both the benefits and the drawbacks of the tool you choose, as well as that you're engaging with it critically in process and product. • Editing tools like Grammarly are permitted for your regular writing assignments, but please know that I'm not assessing those for grammar and spelling (so long as I can understand the point you're making). Instead, I'm looking for thoughtful engagement with your experience of the tool or website and with the themes and questions we're addressing in class.
August 7, 2025 at 11:15 PM