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GitHub reportedly fired a Jewish employee after he posted a message in Slack that said “stay safe homies, Nazis are about” the day of the attack on the US Capitol, according to Business Insider.

The message sparked controversy inside the company, with one colleague criticizing him for using divisive language. GitHub’s HR team chastised the employee for using the word “Nazi” in a company Slack channel. Two days later, GitHub allegedly fired him, citing vague patterns of behavior. The employee asked Business Insider to remain anonymous for fear of online harassment.

The move shows a lack of understanding on the part of GitHub management, both about the gravity of the attack on the US Capitol and the contextual use of the word Nazi. After Business Insider published its report, the company was widely criticized on Twitter for trying to “both sides” the issue.

Now, roughly 200 of GitHub’s 1,700 employees have signed a letter asking executives to take a stronger stance against anti-Semitism and white supremacy. They also want to know why the employee was fired.

GitHub CEO Nat Friedman told workers that “the company is actively looking into the circumstances surrounding the separation of an employee last week and will take any and all appropriate action following a thorough investigation.”

The employee said he posted the message because he was concerned for his relatives and co-workers living in Washington, DC. He had family who died in the Holocaust and saw that some of the rioters were associated with neo-Nazi organizations.

GitHub, an open-source developer platform, was acquired by Microsoft in 2018. The day of the attack on the US Capitol, Microsoft President Brad Smith retweeted a statement calling on President Trump to “put an end to the chaos and to facilitate the peaceful transition of power.” Microsoft also said it would pause political contributions, much like Facebook and Amazon.

Before his Slack account was deactivated, the employee expressed bewilderment at the blowback he’d received from his message. “I did not know that, as a Jew, it would be so polarizing to say this word,” he said in a Slack channel for Jewish employees. “We grew up saying [Nazi]. It was a story we told because we had to— the decimation of whole lines of ancestry were at the hands of people who went by that title.”

This is the second time GitHub has faced significant criticism from employees in recent years. In 2019, more than 150 workers signed a letter asking the company to cancel a $200,000 contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It also comes on the heels of recent employee activism at companies like Twitter and Google. In December, Google fired AI ethicist Timnit Gebru, prompting a wave of condemnation from tech workers across Silicon Valley.

GitHub did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge.

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>Slashdot reader ytene writes: As reported by The Intercept, U.S. Customs and Border Protection have just spent $456,063 for a package of technology specifically designed to access smartphone data via a motor vehicle. From the article: "...part of the draw of vacuuming data out of cars is that so many drivers are oblivious to the fact that their cars are generating so much data in the first place, often including extremely sensitive information inadvertently synced from smartphones." This data can include "Recent destinations, favorite locations, call logs, contact lists, SMS messages, emails, pictures, videos, social media feeds, and the navigation history of everywhere the vehicle has been, when and where a vehicle's lights are turned on, and which doors are opened and closed at specific locations" as well as "gear shifts, odometer reads, ignition cycles, speed logs, and more. This car-based surveillance, in other words, goes many miles beyond the car itself." Perhaps the most remarkable claim, however, was, "We had a Ford Explorer we pulled the system out, and we recovered 70 phones that had been connected to it. All of their call logs, their contacts and their SMS." Mohammad Tajsar, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), is quoted as saying, "Whenever we have surveillance technology that's deeply invasive, we are disturbed," he said. "When it's in the hands of an agency that's consistently refused any kind of attempt at basic accountability, reform, or oversight, then it's Defcon 1."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Just two weeks into his new role as a local prosecutor in Michigan, Eli Savit has already accomplished two of his many priorities: His office won’t pursue charges for consensual sex work among adults, nor cases involving the use, growth, or sale of “magic mushrooms.” 

“Criminalization can lead to violence. Criminalization can lead to murder,” Savit, the prosecutor for Washtenaw County, told VICE News on Thursday about his office’s new policy regarding sex work. “And these are lessons that we’ve learned over and over again from, for example, the prohibition of alcohol and the war on drugs. Whenever you criminalize something, it takes place in the shadows. People are less likely to come forward to report adjacent harm. And people end up losing their lives.” 

Savit took office January 1 and unveiled both policies relating to sex work and entheogenic plants—a category that can include psilocybin mushrooms and ayahuasca—this week. The drug reform was a relatively straightforward decision, since the Ann Arbor City Council effectively decriminalized the plants in September. But Thursday’s announcement that his office won’t pursue cases regarding consensual sex work sets his jurisdiction apart, even as progressive prosecutors like him gain prominence nationwide. 

“We looked at the research, and we looked at the data, and we looked at what subject matter experts—and those who work directly with sex workers and with trafficked people—were telling us, which is that criminalization harms sex workers,” Savit said. 

Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit. (Photo courtesy of his office)

Savit’s office emphasized in its announcement Thursday that prosecutors will still pursue cases in which violence or sexual assault follows “a planned exchange of sex for money,” in addition to cases involving human trafficking, minors, and “other charges not covered by this policy.”

But allegations of consenting adults exchanging sex for money won’t be part of that. And if those previously prosecuted under such circumstances apply for expungement, the prosecutor’s office won’t contest it, either. That could be immensely meaningful for the populations often punished for engaging in sex work, including transgender people of color.

Savit noted that by avoiding charges over consensual sex work, his also office will be able to give vulnerable people the assurance that they can come forward with reports of sexual assault, physical assault, or trafficking, all without fear of prosecution.

It’s unclear if Savit’s wide-ranging sex work policy is the first of its kind, since other reform prosecutors have made efforts to avoid charging sex workers in recent years, too. But it’s certainly rare. David Alan Sklansky, a Stanford Law School professor who studies prosecutors, said in an email to VICE News that he couldn’t think of an announcement similar to Savit’s, though he acknowledged that doesn’t mean it’s never happened. 

“I think the policy Savit has announced is another sign that the prosecutor movement is widening its ambitions: what it means to be a progressive prosecutor is changing; the bar is moving upwards,” Sklansky said.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner also asked prosecutors in his office to not charge sex workers with prostitution if they have fewer than two convictions, according to the public radio station WHYY. Chesa Boudin, a similarly progressive prosecutor leading San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, had said before he was elected in November 2019 that he would not prosecute people for offering or soliciting sex. And George Gascón, the new district attorney for Los Angeles, said he would not prosecute sex workers if elected in an interview with the Appeal, adding that San Francisco actually stopped charging sex workers around 2012, when he was in charge.

Savit, a former public school teacher and civil rights attorney, was elected on a progressive platform to serve a county of nearly 368,000 people that includes Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan. He also quickly eliminated cash bail—making his county the first jurisdiction in the state to do so, according to WDIV-TV, a Detroit NBC affiliate. 

Savit said he ran for office in the first place because he had witnessed the “cascading adverse consequences of the criminal legal system on other parts of society, on education, housing, workforce development, and the like.” He wanted to build a justice system that prioritizes public safety in a “rehabilitative and restorative way,” he said. 

To that end, his office has also partnered with the American Civil of Liberties Union of Michigan and the University of Michigan Law School to do a deep dive into his office’s files to uncover racial inequities in prosecutorial decisions.

“Eli Savit didn’t waste any time getting to work fulfilling promises made in his successful campaign to become Washtenaw County’s prosecutor,” Shelli Weisberg, legislative director at Michigan’s ACLU, wrote in a news release January 10. “In the process, despite just taking office January 1, he’s already begun setting a standard that local prosecutors across the state should follow.” 

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Lauren Boebert tweeted out Nancy Pelosi’s location as the Capitol was being breached

68 elected officials from Colorado have sent a letter to lawmakers requesting a probe into Rep. Lauren Boebert’s actions before and during the day of the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to multiple reports.

The letter was addressed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Kevin McCarthy.

Rep @laurenboebert warrants close watching. I wouldn’t trust her as far as I could throw Trump. With one broken arm. https://t.co/CCSIJK5sAE

— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) January 16, 2021

In the letter published by KUSA, Colorado officials of the 3rd Congressional District, expressed “deep concern about Boebert’s actions leading up to and during the protests that turned into a violent deadly mob.”

Read More: Pelosi imposes fines for GOP House members refusing metal detectors

The calls for the newly-elected Republican Congresswoman to resign intensified after she tweeted out Nancy Pelosi’s location as the Capitol was being breached.

“Representative Boebert’s actions, including her statements on the floor immediately preceding the insurrection and her social media posts leading up to the riots were irresponsible and reprehensible,” the officials wrote. The letter says the congresswoman’s speech and tweets encouraged the “mob mentality” of her followers, as well as those who directly participated in the mob.

In this screenshot taken from a congress.gov webcast, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) speaks during a House debate session to ratify the 2020 presidential election at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. Congress held a joint session today to ratify President-elect Joe Biden’s 306-232 Electoral College win over President Donald Trump. A group of Republican senators said they would reject the Electoral College votes of several states unless Congress appointed a commission to audit the election results. (Photo by congress.gov via Getty Images)

According to The Washington Post, Boebert, a gun rights advocate with links to the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory, has denied the allegations which she said have led to “death threats and hundreds of vile phone calls and emails.”

The Colorado officials asked not only for an investigation but for any appropriate disciplinary action against Boebert, who has been in office for less than two weeks.

Read More: Rep. Sherrill says colleagues gave ‘reconnaissance’ tours day before Capitol riot

“Our bigger concern is that hate groups are proliferating in America and they are heavily armed. We request that you create a Congressional panel to thoroughly investigate these groups. They pose a real threat to American democracy, to our communities and to our residents,” the lawmakers wrote.

Aide to Lauren Boebert resigns following Capitol riots https://t.co/SVCJ8PyuqT

— The Independent (@Independent) January 16, 2021

Amid the calls for Boebert to resign, her communications director, Ben Goldey has resigned. In a statement to Axios, Goldey said: “Following the events of January 6th, I’ve decided to part ways with the office. I wish her and the people of Colorado’s Third District the best.”

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The post 68 officials push for probe of congresswoman who tweeted lawmaker locations during riot appeared first on TheGrio.

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

On Wednesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a massive antitrust lawsuit against Facebook, claiming the social media giant has harmed competition by buying up smaller companies like Instagram and WhatsApp to squash the threat they posed to its business. Forty-seven other state and regional attorneys general are joining the suit.

The lawsuit centers on Facebook’s history of acquisitions starting, particularly its $1 billion purchase of Instagram in 2011. In addition to its acquisition strategy, the attorneys general allege that Facebook used the power and reach of its platform to stifle user growth for competing services.

“Facebook has broken the law. It must be broken up.”

“For nearly a decade, Facebook has used its dominance and monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and snuff out competition,” James said in a press conference today. “Facebook used vast amounts of money to acquire potential rivals before they could threaten the company’s dominance.”

The Federal Trade Commission is expected to bring a lawsuit against Facebook on similar grounds later today. The FTC case goes even further than the state case, explicitly calling on the court to unwind the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, spinning off both into independent companies.

“Our aim is to roll back Facebook’s anticompetitive conduct and restore competition so that innovation and free competition can thrive,” said Ian Conner, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, in a statement.

The FTC case also echoes the state AGs’ claims about anticompetitive use of platform power, particularly Facebook’s practice of “cutting off API access to blunt perceived competitive threats.” The FTC case cites Facebook’s decision to block Vine’s friend-finding feature after the Twitter acquisition as a particularly flagrant instance of this behavior.

In a newsroom statement, Facebook said both acquisitions had been cleared by regulatory agencies, and that overturning them after the fact would set a dangerous precedent. “Years after the FTC cleared our acquisitions, the government now wants a do-over with no regard for the impact that precedent would have on the broader business community or the people who choose our products every day,” the company said.

In emails revealed by the House of Representatives’ antitrust subcommittee hearing this summer, Zuckerberg characterized his intent to buy Instagram in emails to his David Ebersman, who was then Facebook’s chief financial officer, as a way to neutralize a competitor while at the same time improving Facebook — by incorporating the features its competitor invented before any other upstart has enough time to catch up and pose a similar threat.

“It appears Facebook simply bought these firms to expand its dominance”

“One way of looking at this is that what we’re really buying is time. Even if some new competitors springs up, buying Instagram, Path, Foursquare, etc now will give us a year or more to integrate their dynamics before anyone can get close to their scale again. Within that time, if we incorporate the social mechanics they were using, those new products won’t get much traction since we’ll already have their mechanics deployed at scale,” Zuckerberg explained.

Within the hour, Zuckerberg sent a follow-up reply, writing, “I didn’t mean to imply that we’d be buying them to prevent them from competing with us in any way,” he wrote. Antitrust lawyers saw that as an admission of guilt from Zuckerberg, who appeared to realize that what he wrote in those emails regarding his acquisition strategy constituted anticompetitive behavior.

Another pillar of the states’ antitrust lawsuit is whether Facebook acquiring a company made the product worse off from a consumer benefit standpoint — in particular, with regard to privacy. Facebook has long claimed that its resources and scale are responsible for turning apps like Instagram and WhatsApp into gigantic platforms with billions of users. But investigators targeting the deals for anticompetitive behavior are examining how, for instance, Facebook’s purchase of WhatsApp and its decision to later utilize WhatsApp user data may have harmed consumers and stifled competition from rivals with better privacy practices.

Notably, the creators of both Instagram and WhatsApp have left Facebook — some, like WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton, vocally disagreeing with the direction Facebook took his product and what the company has done to privacy in general. WhatsApp’s other co-founder, Jan Koum, left shortly after Acton, having reportedly clashed with Facebook leadership over its data-sharing initiative. Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger left the company over years of built-up tensions between the photo-sharing app and its relationship to Facebook’s business.

The actions are already drawing applause from antitrust advocates in Congress. Representative David Cicilline (D-RI), who led the House Antitrust hearing in July, cheered on the lawsuits in a statement to the press. “Facebook is a monopoly,” said Rep. Cicilline. “Facebook has broken the law. It must be broken up. I applaud the FTC and state attorneys general who are leading this effort today.”

Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) echoed the comments, taking particular aim at the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions. “Rather than competing with Instagram and WhatsApp, it appears Facebook simply bought these firms to expand its dominance,” said Rep. Nadler. “This should never have happened in the first place, and accountability is long overdue.”

The lawsuit marks the second major regulatory effort from the US government to rein in Big Tech, following the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Google in October for alleged illegal monopolization of the search and online ad markets.

Developing...

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