OUR PICKSFunding DHS | It’s Difficult to Get Off a Terrorist List | Technology Tackling People Smugglers, and more
· Homeland Security Chief: ‘We Are in a Heightened Threat Environment’
· It’s Time for Congress to Break the Continuing-Resolution Cycle for DHS
· QAnon Explained: Q Returns After 18 Months of Silence
· How Managers of Social Media Platforms Could Slow the Spread of Misinformation
· U.S. Funds Software for Russians to Slip Past Censors
· Technology Key to Tackling People Smugglers
· Don’t Buy Big Tech’s BS That Regulating Them Is a Threat to National Security
· Why Is It So Difficult to Get Off a Terrorist List?
· Thinking About the Unthinkable in Ukraine
· Unpacking the Federal STEM Initiatives and Immigrants’ Role in the U.S. Workforce
· U.S. Forms ‘Friendly’ Coalition to Secure Critical Minerals
Homeland Security Chief: ‘We Are in a Heightened Threat Environment’ (Shayna Greene, Politico)
The country is on edge because of extremist rhetoric and real threats, Alejandro Mayorkas said.
It’s Time for Congress to Break the Continuing-Resolution Cycle for DHS (Scott Recinos, HSToday)
Funding government agencies as large and complex as DHS in this manner has several deleterious impacts.
QAnon Explained: Q Returns After 18 Months of Silence (Oscar Gonzalez, CNet)
The pro-Trump, dangerous, and utterly false conspiracy theory is back.
How Managers of Social Media Platforms Could Slow the Spread of Misinformation (Bob Yirka, Phys.org)
A team of researchers at the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public has found social media platform managers could dramatically reduce the spread of misinformation on their sites by combining just a few simple measures. In their paper published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the group used Twitter data associated with the 2020 presidential election to create a model capable of predicting the spread of misinformation. The editors at Nature Human Behavior have also posted a short summary of the findings by the group in the same journal issue.
U.S. Funds Software for Russians to Slip Past Censors (Glenn Chapman, AFP / Phys.org)
A US-backed campaign is giving Russians access to anti-censor software to dodge Moscow’s crackdown on dissent against its invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has intensified its restrictions on independent media since attacking its neighbor in February, with journalists under threat of prosecution for criticizing the invasion or for even referring to it as a war.
The US government-backed Open Technology Fund is paying out money to a handful of American firms providing virtual private networks (VPNs) free of charge to millions of Russians, who can then use them to visit websites blocked by censors.
Technology Key to Tackling People Smugglers (Theodore Karasik, Eurasia Review)
People smuggling thrives in areas where trucks and other rigs can mix with other vehicles. Thousands of trucks cross borders every day in almost every country around the world. Research shows that smugglers operate their own logistics chains, but with safehouses instead of warehouses. (Cont.)
