Author: mcequality

Facebook Pilots Anti-Hate Speech Moderation Team Because, Y’know, All the Nazis and Stuff

~ mcequality

Four million. That’s the number of pieces of content on Facebook that the platform claims it took action against for containing hate speech from January to March this year, according to its most recent transparency report. (And to put a fine point on it, that’s just the content it actually caught.) In a press briefing this afternoon, vice president of global operations Justin Osofsky teased a plan to pilot a subgroup of moderators who are specifically tasked with handling hate speech.

via Facebook Pilots Anti-Hate Speech Moderation Team Because, Y’know, All the Nazis and Stuff

Governors Can Succeed in Criminal Justice Reform Where Legislatures Fail | American Civil Liberties Union

~ mcequality

With legislative sessions winding down across the country, states have an opportunity to explore an often untapped resource for ending mass incarceration and addressing racism in the criminal justice system: the power of Governors.

The power of the executive presents significant and often untapped opportunities to shrink the jail and prison population. Unlike state legislation, policy decisions by a governor are less vulnerable to political infighting or trading. To address this problem, here are the top three ways a state’s governor should utilize their authority to end mass incarceration and address racism in the system.

via Governors Can Succeed in Criminal Justice Reform Where Legislatures Fail | American Civil Liberties Union

Immigrants’ Rights Aren’t Possible If We Don’t Stop Criminalizing Border Crossing | American Civil Liberties Union

~ mcequality

Last night’s Democratic presidential debate shined an unlikely spotlight on a little-known section of the federal code — 8. U.S.C. 1325. This law makes crossing the border without legal authorization a federal misdemeanor. Its counterpart, 8 U.S.C. 1326, makes re-crossing the border a felony. They are the laws the Trump administration has leveraged to take thousands of children from their parents at the border.

via Immigrants’ Rights Aren’t Possible If We Don’t Stop Criminalizing Border Crossing | American Civil Liberties Union

‘His only tool is racism’: why Trump’s bigoted tirade could be a vote winner | US news | The Guardian

~ mcequality

It was foul and repugnant. But was it a vote winner?

Donald Trump’s bigoted tirade against four congresswoman of colour, telling them to “go back” to the countries they came from, prompted widespread revulsion – the comments “drip with racism”, said the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer – and yet will not necessarily damage his chances of reelection.

On the contrary, the US president seems to regard divisive and nativist rhetoric as his best chance of clinging on to the White House next year. And, analysts say, he may be right.

via ‘His only tool is racism’: why Trump’s bigoted tirade could be a vote winner | US news | The Guardian

‘Shout queer!’ The museums bringing LGBT artefacts out of the closet | Culture | The Guardian

~ mcequality

It’s the hottest day of the year so far, and the people fanning themselves with gallery maps have come to join the monthly LGBTQ tour, which Vo, a volunteer, helped set up four years ago. “On the count of three,” he bellows, “we’re just going to shout ‘queer’ – celebrating Stonewall, remembering how hard we fought to be here. One, two, three…” The word echoes off the barrel vaults of the sculpture hall and subsides as we head off in different directions – the tour is so popular that the group has to be split into at least six parties.

via ‘Shout queer!’ The museums bringing LGBT artefacts out of the closet | Culture | The Guardian

Women Get Quietly Photoshopped In to Photo of Exclusively Male Tech CEOs

~ mcequality

Recently GQ ran a story about a group of major tech players, including Jeff Bezos and company executives from LinkedIn and Dropbox, who met up in an Italian village to hang out with designer Brunello Cucinelli, for some reason. But Buzzfeed reporter Ryan Mac noticed something peculiar about one of the photos used in the article. Mainly, he thought the only two women in the photo, CEO of solar power company Sunrun Lynn Jurich and CEO of Peek.com Ruzwana Bashir, had been Photoshopped in.

via Women Get Quietly Photoshopped In to Photo of Exclusively Male Tech CEOs

Hacker Conference Disinvites U.S. Congressman Over Abysmal Women’s Rights Voting Record

~ mcequality

U.S. Congressman Will Hurd has been disinvited to the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas this year where he was set to deliver a keynote address after questions were raised about his voting record.

Members of the security community this week drew attention to Hurd’s record on women’s issues, including the right to abortion, with some directly rebuking Black Hat over the decision to invite Hurd. TechCrunch first reported the story on Thursday.

via Hacker Conference Disinvites U.S. Congressman Over Abysmal Women’s Rights Voting Record

United Kingdom Bans Sexist Ads

~ mcequality

In the U.K., advertisers will no longer ask women if they are “beach body ready,” and no more will men appear perplexed by basic tasks like doing the laundry, preparing dinner, or changing diapers. That’s because the country’s Advertising Standards Authority has banned sexist messaging in commercials, eliminating ads that portray men as being clumsy when performing household tasks, ads that suggest a particular physical ideal leads to success, and ads that imply women are responsible for household tasks, the New York Times reports,

The regulations, announced in December, are now fully in effect. The ASA will enforce the rule by reviewing ads on a case-by-case basis, but offered examples of scenarios that are “likely to be problematic,” such as:

via United Kingdom Bans Sexist Ads

UK design student creates a smart chest binder for trans people

~ mcequality

A UK design student created a smart wearable that could make chest binding safer, easier and more comfortable for transgender men and non-binary people. Chest binding is the act of flattening one’s breasts using a tight garment in order to make the chest appear more masculine. While it can have immense mental health benefits, it can take a physical toll. Many people have reported broken ribs from too-tight wraps, and binding can be especially difficult in the summer, when the wearer is at risk of overheating. With this garment, called Breathe, Loughborough University industrial design student Miles Kilburn hopes to address many of those of common issues.

via UK design student creates a smart chest binder for trans people