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      digital privacy

      Nebraska Teen Sentenced to 90 Days in Jail After Self-Managed Abortion

      Nebraska Teen Sentenced to 90 Days in Jail After Self-Managed Abortion

      The case of Celeste Burgess illustrates "the real, human cost of mass surveillance of everyone's private digital communications," said one digital rights advocate.

      Julia Conley
      Jul 21, 2023

      Advocates for digital privacy rights and reproductive rights alike were outraged Thursday over the jail sentence of a 19-year-old in Nebraska who self-managed her abortion last year—a case which one campaigner said highlights how prosecutors will "stretch laws far beyond their intended scope" to penalize people who end or attempt to end their pregnancies in the post-Roe v. Wade legal landscape.

      Self-managed abortion is only banned in two states—Nevada and South Carolina—but prosecutors charged Celeste Burgess with one felony and two misdemeanors last year, several months after she had a stillbirth at 29 weeks of pregnancy. Burgess, who was 17 at the time, had procured pills for a medication abortion shortly before the stillbirth, and had discussed the outcome of the pregnancy on Facebook Messenger with her mother, Jessica Burgess.

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      abortion rights
      A hand holds a black phone covered with the white Threads logo against a background of Twitter birds.

      We Hoped for a Better Social Platform; Instead, We’re Left Hanging by a Threads

      A small-government intervention will clean up the public market and force Threads—and Meta—to build a better, safer sewing machine.

      Scott Goodstein
      Jul 13, 2023

      As a kid, I worked in a men’s store tailor shop on the East Side of Cleveland. It was chaos, watching master tailors cut, sew, and press tiny threads into modern fashion. My job was to clean the shop, oil the machines, and keep the steam presses hydrated. Thread was everywhere and constantly needed to be swept up, as each garment was crafted with care and purpose.

      Whether Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg realized it or not, the name of his new text-based social media platform, Threads, is the perfect metaphor for the new platform we’ve all been craving. Will it be sewn into something beautiful or just another tangled mess that needs to be swept up?

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      Opinion
      social media
      ​"Encryption is a critical tool for user privacy, data security, safety online, press freedom, self-determination, and free expression," states an open letter published on May 3, 2023.

      To 'Uphold Human Right to Privacy,' Global Coalition Demands Safeguards for Encrypted Services

      "The need for privacy has never been more urgent," said one advocate. "Encryption is a shield that protects everyone but most especially the most targeted and vulnerable communities."

      Kenny Stancil
      May 03, 2023

      A global coalition of more than 40 companies and digital rights groups on Wednesday urged governments around the world to publicly vow to "protect encryption and ensure a free and open internet."

      The coalition sent its open letter to policymakers in Australia, Canada, the European Union, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States on World Press Freedom Day because digital privacy safeguards are particularly important to journalists and their sources, though advocates stressed they're essential to preserving democracy and human rights at large.

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      digital privacy
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