‘Fight Club’ Ending Is Restored in China After Censorship Outcry; The New York Times, February 8, 2022

Mike Ives and John Liu, The New York Times; ‘Fight Club’ Ending Is Restored in China After Censorship Outcry

Last month, viewers noticed that the ending of the 1999 film had been replaced with a pro-government message. Now the ending is back, and the message is gone.

"Some viewers who watched “Fight Club” on a popular Chinese streaming platform last month noticed that its violent, dystopian ending had been cut, and replaced with a message promoting law and order.

Now the original ending is back on the platform — and the pro-government message is gone. The only parts still missing from the Chinese version of the 1999 cult classic appear to be nude sex scenes.

The changes, which drew international attention, were spotted in recent weeks by people watching the film on a streaming platform owned by Tencent, a giant Chinese entertainment company.

Tencent has now restored 11 of the 12 minutes that were previously cut, The Hollywood Reporter said in an article this week. The New York Times confirmed that about one minute remains missing, mostly consisting of sex scenes involving the characters played by Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter."

Google plans privacy change similar to Apple’s, which wiped $230 billion off Facebook’s market cap; CNBC, February 16, 2022

Jessica Bursztynsky , CNBC; Google plans privacy change similar to Apple’s, which wiped $230 billion off Facebook’s market cap

"Google on Wednesday announced it’s adopting new privacy restrictions that will cut tracking across apps on its Android devices, following a similar move made by Apple last year that upended several firms’ advertising practices."

Defenders of Patron Privacy; American Libraries, September 1, 2021

Sanhita SinhaRoy , American Libraries; Defenders of Patron Privacy

"When the FBI approached George Christian in 2005 with a national security letter (NSL) and lifetime gag order, the then–executive director of the Library Connection—a Connecticut library consortium—convened a meeting with the organization’s executive committee. The NSL would have forced them to turn over customer information without a judge’s order or a grand jury subpoena. They refused to comply and later came to be known as the Connecticut Four.

With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), they challenged the climate of surveillance and government overreach that followed the September 11 attacks, showing the nation that librarians would stand by the rights of patrons and civil liberties.

Here, the four share their memories of the experience and its resonance today with American Libraries.They are Christian, retired executive director of Library Connection; Barbara Bailey, director of Welles-Turner Memorial Library in Glastonbury, Connecticut; Peter Chase, retired director of Plainville (Conn.) Public Library; and Janet Nocek, director of Portland (Conn.) Library."

Your sense of privacy evolved over millennia – that puts you at risk today but could improve technology tomorrow; The Conversation, February 11, 2022

Laura Brandimarte Alessandro Acquisti, The Conversation ; Your sense of privacy evolved over millennia – that puts you at risk today but could improve technology tomorrow

"Many people think of privacy as a modern invention, an anomaly made possible by the rise of urbanization. If that were the case, then acquiescing to the current erosion of privacy might not be particularly alarming.

As calls for Congress to protect privacy increase, it’s important to understand its nature. In a policy brief in Science, we and our colleague Jeff Hancock suggest that understanding the nature of privacy calls for a better understanding of its origins. 

Research evidence refutes the notion that privacy is a recent invention. While privacy rights or values may be modern notions, examples of privacy norms and privacy-seeking behaviors abound across cultures throughout human history and across geography. 

As privacy researchers who study information systems and behavioral research and public policy, we believe that accounting for the potential evolutionary roots of privacy concerns can help explain why people struggle with privacy today. It may also help inform the development of technologies and policies that can better align the digital world with the human sense of privacy.

The misty origins of privacy

Humans have sought and attempted to manage privacy since the dawn of civilization. People from ancient Greece to ancient China were concerned with the boundaries of public and private life. The male head of the household, or pater familias, in ancient Roman families would have his slaves move their cots to some remote corner of the house when he wanted to spend the evening alone.

Attention to privacy is also found in preindustrial societies. For example, the Mehinacu tribe in South America lived in communal accommodations but built private houses miles away for members to achieve some seclusion.

Evidence of a drive toward privacy can even be found in the holy texts of ancient monotheistic religions: the Quran’s instructions against spying on one another, the Talmud’s advice not to place windows overlooking neighbors’ windows, and the biblical story of Adam and Eve covering their nakedness after eating the forbidden fruit. 

The drive for privacy appears to be simultaneously culturally specific and culturally universal. Norms and behaviors change across peoples and times, but all cultures seem to manifest a drive for it. Scholars in the past century who studied the history of privacy provide an explanation for this: Privacy concerns may have evolutionary roots."

Opinion: A lawsuit against Google points out a much bigger privacy problem; The Washington Post, February 14, 2022

Editorial Board, The Washington Post; Opinion: A lawsuit against Google points out a much bigger privacy problem

"The phenomenon the recent suits describe, after all, is not particular to Google but rather endemic to almost the entirety of the Web: Companies get to set all the rules, as long as they run those rules by consumers in convoluted terms of service that even those capable of decoding the legalistic language rarely bother to read. Other mechanisms for notice and consent, such as opt-outs and opt-ins, create similar problems. Control for the consumer is mostly an illusion. The federal privacy law the country has sorely needed for decades would replace this old regime with meaningful limitations on what data companies can collect and in what contexts, so that the burden would be on them not to violate the reasonable expectations of their users, rather than placing the burden on the users to spell out what information they will and will not allow the tech firms to have.

The question shouldn’t be whether companies gather unnecessary amounts of sensitive information about their users sneakily — it should be whether companies amass these troves at all. Until Congress ensures that’s true for the whole country, Americans will be clicking through policies and prompts that do little to protect them."

What internet outrage reveals about race and TikTok's algorithm; NPR, February 14, 2022

Jess Kung, NPR; What internet outrage reveals about race and TikTok's algorithm

"The more our lives become intertwined and caught up in tech and social media algorithms, the more it's worth trying to understand and unpack just how those algorithms work. Who becomes viral, and why? Who gets harassed, who gets defended, and what are the lasting repercussions? And how does the internet both obscure and exacerbate the racial and gender dynamics that already animate so much of our social interactions?"

The Positives—and Perils—of Storytelling; HBR IdeaCast, Episode 840, February 8, 2022

Curt Nickisch, HBR IdeaCast, Episode 840; The Positives—and Perils—of Storytelling

"JONATHAN GOTTSCHALL: Ever since I published The Storytelling Animal, I became part sort of on the edges of what I’ve called the storytelling industrial complex – keynoters and book writers and consultants who’ve traveled around the country and are giving lessons to businesses and other big organizations about how to tell more persuasive stories, more memorable stories, more contagious stories. And I’ve also been spreading the good news that stories are a good thing. They’re good in the sense that they do good in the world. And they’re good in the sense that they also happen to make good business. And I’ve become increasingly troubled by the overstatements or the things left out of the messaging.

So the first thing is that stories aren’t good. They just aren’t. Stories are just powerful. I think it’s better to think of the force of storytelling as a mercenary that sells itself just as eagerly to the bad guys.

The other thing about storytelling is as soon as you’re telling a story, you’re in an ethically fraught situation, because basically what you’re doing is you’re trying to use a form of messaging that’s not quite explicit. Storytelling is always sort of indirect. And that’s the power of storytelling, and so people don’t get as skeptical and they don’t get as suspicious.

In my years in the storytelling industrial complex and attending conferences and reading other people’s books, I’d noted quite frequently that the power of storytelling was often likened to a Trojan horse. And this is a pretty good analogy for how stories work. The idea is that you have this beautiful structure, this thing we all love. The Trojan horse is this beautiful work of art, but it’s smuggling in something else. It’s smuggling in a message." 

Congress approves bill to end forced arbitration in sexual assault cases; NPR, February 10, 2022

Deirdre Walsh, NPR ; Congress approves bill to end forced arbitration in sexual assault cases

"The Senate approved legislation banning the practice of using clauses in employment contracts that force victims of sexual assault and harassment to pursue their cases in forced arbitration, which shields accused perpetrators.

Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., introduced the bill five years ago and lawmakers negotiated with business leaders to get support for the bill. In a sign of the overwhelming support for the measure, it was approved by voice vote in the chamber.

The bill, called the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, was passed with a large bipartisan vote by the House of Representatives on Monday and heads to President Biden's desk for his signature.

The bill gives individuals a choice between going to court or going to arbitration to resolve allegations in cases related to sexual harassment or assault. The measure is also retroactive — invalidating any existing forced arbitration clauses in ongoing cases that could make it difficult for any survivors to litigate cases against their employers.""

The Supreme Court needs a code of ethics; The Hill, February 10, 2022

STEVEN LUBET, The Hill; The Supreme Court needs a code of ethics

"A Supreme Court ethics code could delineate the circumstances in which a justice may address an overtly political audience, as well as the appropriateness of making secret speeches at all. 

The specific provisions of a Supreme Court ethics code would be up to the justices, whose public approval has been plummeting in recent years. As my colleagues and I wrote in our open letter, “even if primarily aspirational [a code] would have a broad salutary impact, assisting current and future members of the Court to transparently address potential conflicts and other issues in a way that builds public trust in the institution.” Supreme Court ethics should not be a black box."

Ginni and Clarence Thomas draw questions about Supreme Court ethics; ABC News, February 8, 2022

Devin Dwyer andGabriella Abdul-Hakim, ABC News; Ginni and Clarence Thomas draw questions about Supreme Court ethics

"There are no explicit ethics guidelines that govern the activities of a justice's spouse, experts say, but there are rules about justices avoiding conflicts of interest. Federal law requires federal judges to recuse from cases whenever their "impartiality might reasonably be questioned."

Roth notes, however, that there is no independent enforcement mechanism in place; it's entirely up to the individual justice...

Members of Congress and outside experts say new enforceable ethics rules for the court are needed now more than ever. Even Chief Justice John Roberts acknowledged in his 2021 year-end report that "public trust is essential, not incidental" to the court's function. ​

But Roberts opposes outside efforts to impose a new ethics code."

The Sandy Hook Father Who Refused to Let Alex Jones Win; The New York Times, February 10, 2022

Kara Swisher, The New York Times; The Sandy Hook Father Who Refused to Let Alex Jones Win

Conspiracy theories have loomed over the school shooting in which his son, Noah, died. Leonard Pozner reflects on how the truth can triumph online.

"I’m Kara Swisher, and you’re listening to “Sway.” Today I want to talk about how the information age has become the misinformation age. From Covid deniers to QAnon enthusiasts and big lie believers, it sometimes feels like we live in a post-truth world. In fact, it feels like we already live there all the time now.

My guest today is no stranger to that. Leonard Pozner is the father of Noah, who, in 2012, at only age six, was murdered at the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. Noah was one of 20 children and six educators who lost their lives in that massacre. And while much of America mourned the tragedy, some did not. Rumors abounded online, calling Sandy Hook a hoax. Amongst the chief conspiracists, conservative talk show host and founder of Infowars, Alex Jones."

TikTok bans misgendering, deadnaming from its content; NPR, February 9, 2022

RINA TORCHINSKY , NPR; TikTok bans misgendering, deadnaming from its content

"TikTok is updating its community guidelines to ban deadnaming, misgendering and misogyny.

The changes, announced Tuesday, are a part of a broader update designed to promote safety and security on the platform. The app will also remove content that promotes disordered eating and further restrict content related to dangerous acts. 

Last year, a report by GLAAD said TikTok and other top social media sites are all "effectively unsafe for LGBTQ users...

Along with the new guidelines, TikTok published its most recent quarterly Community Guidelines Enforcement Report. More than 91 million videos — about 1% of all uploaded videos — were removed during the third quarter of 2021 because they violated the guidelines. 

Of all videos removed from July to September 2021, about 1.5% were removed due to hateful behavior, which includes hate speech on the basis of race, sexual orientation and gender, among other attributes."

15 boxes of White House records have been recovered at Trump's Mar-a-Lago; NPR, February 7, 2022

Jonathan Franklin , NPR; 15 boxes of White House records have been recovered at Trump's Mar-a-Lago

"The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) said it retrieved 15 boxes of White House records and other items last month that were stored at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property instead of at the National Archives.

As first reported by The Washington Post, the documents retrieved from the Florida property contained important records of communication along with Trump's self-described "love letters" with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as a letter addressed to Trump from his predecessor, former President Barack Obama.

According to the newspaper, the boxes of records at Mar-A-Lago violated the Presidential Records Act (PRA) — which requires the keeping of all forms of documents and communications related to a president's or vice president's official duties.

As required by the Presidential Records Act (PRA), the records discovered at Mar-a-Lago should have been transferred to NARA from the White House at the end of the Trump administration in January 2021.

"The Presidential Records Act mandates that all Presidential records must be properly preserved by each Administration so that a complete set of Presidential records is transferred to the National Archives at the end of the Administration," said David S. Ferriero, archivist of the United States.""

Republicans censure Cheney, Kinzinger, call Jan. 6 probe attack on 'legitimate political discourse'; Reuters, February 4, 2022

Doina Chiacu, Reuters; Republicans censure Cheney, Kinzinger, call Jan. 6 probe attack on 'legitimate political discourse'

"The Republican Party on Friday censured U.S. Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for joining Congress' investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack and Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat, calling the probe an attack on "legitimate political discourse."...

The resolution censuring Cheney and Kinzinger, approved at a Republican National Committee meeting in Salt Lake City, accused them of "participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse."

Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol that day, smashing windows, assaulting police officers and sending lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence running for their lives after Trump made a fiery speech repeating his false claims that his election defeat was the result of widespread fraud."

‘Dangerous and Cruel’: YA Authors Say Unprecedented Book Bans Hurt Kids Most; Rolling Stone, February 4, 2022

ANDREA MARKS, Rolling Stone; ‘Dangerous and Cruel’: YA Authors Say Unprecedented Book Bans Hurt Kids Most

"YA fantasy novelist Kalynn Bayron, who is Black and queer and who writes Black and queer characters, says the fervor over book banning worries her about her ability to reach readers — whether they relate to the characters or not. “It’s important for young readers who share the marginalized identities of my characters. I want them to know that I see them, and their life experience counts, that it matters, and it means something,” she says. “But I think it’s equally important for young readers whose identities have historically been represented to see these stories, as well. It lets them have a window into someone else’s existence.” 

To author Brendan Halpin, winding up on Krause’s list felt like a badge of honor, at least at first. Halpin co-write Notes from the Blender (2011) with Trish Cook, about a girl whose parents are getting divorced and whose father is marrying another man. “So that’s the dangerously gay part, I guess,” he says. “I was thrilled, at first. I was like, ‘This is fantastic. If somebody like this doesn’t want people to read my book then I’ve done something worthwhile.’” As he’s seen the ire surrounding these books intensify, however, he worries about kids seeing LGBTQ stories being de-legitimized by institutions. “Your school library can’t have these books; your existing can’t be seen to be officially acceptable.”

Others push back on the glorification of being on a banned list like Krause’s. Pérez points out that while being on a banned list can boost sales for some established authors, she’s heard from some people whose first published book is on that list. For them, getting passed over by libraries can have devastating consequences, which Pérez says creates a chilling effect on the proliferation of authors from marginalized communities, something the YA book world has been pushing for in recent years."

UI professors violated ethics policy, free speech, investigation finds; The Daily Iowan, February 3, 2022

Rylee Wilson, The Daily Iowan; UI professors violated ethics policy, free speech, investigation finds

"An investigation found that three University of Iowa professors violated the university’s ethics policy after threatening a graduate student with discipline because of remarks he made that fellow students found to be homophobic.

Jacob Johnson, a second-year graduate student in the Occupational and Environmental Health department, lodged a formal complaint against the university in November, assisted by the Kirkwood Institute, a conservative public-interest law firm.

The complaint, written by attorney Alan R. Ostergren, alleges that Johnson’s due process rights were violated, and that the professors involved violated UI policies about academic freedom, and free speech rights provided by the Iowa and U.S. constitutions."

China’s Peng Shuai says there was ‘misunderstanding’ over her allegations, announces retirement; The Washington Post, February 7, 2022

Christian Shepherd, The Washington Post; China’s Peng Shuai says there was ‘misunderstanding’ over her allegations, announces retirement

"Lu Pin, a prominent Chinese women’s rights activist and founder of the media platform Feminist Voices, who now lives in the United States, said Peng’s new account of what happens “demonstrates a great deal of absurdity.” But Peng, Lu adds, should not be blamed for falling into a “trap set by a violent system” that engages victims to be part of denying that violence to the world.

“We should allow Peng to be safe in the way she can be,” but at the same time, “we must be aware of the system’s brutality and the harm it causes to our universal humanity and moral standards,” Lu said.

While Chinese feminist activists have praised the WTA for demanding an independent investigation and canceling tournaments in the country over Peng’s allegation, they have accused the IOC of being complicit in the Chinese government’s effort to end international scrutiny of the case."

Ridgeland leaders respond to library controversy; WJTV, February 2, 2022

Cianna Reeves, WJTV; Ridgeland leaders respond to library controversy

"It’s been a week since the Ridgeland Public Library announced that the city was withholding more than $100,000 in funding due to a display of books featuring LGBT content.

At the City’s board meeting on Tuesday, the City’s attorney read a statement from Mayor Gene McGee and the City’s Board of Aldermen...

The Library System said that they aim to provide a diversity of viewpoints including political, social, and religious topics."

Opinion: Putin is trying to wipe out the work of his strongest opponent. He won’t succeed.; The Washington Post, February 2, 2022

Editorial Board, The Washington Post; Opinion: Putin is trying to wipe out the work of his strongest opponent. He won’t succeed.

"Dictatorship has a body language, a way of conveying grievance, grudge and vulnerability. Mr. Putin has once again revealed his acute anxiety about Mr. Navalny and all that he stands for. On Tuesday, the Russian censor, Roskomnadzor, instructed five Russian news media outlets — television, radio and online — to remove articles and broadcasts based on Mr. Navalny’s investigations of Mr. Putin and his inner circle within 24 hours — just in time for the anniversary of his sentencing. The radio station Echo of Moscow was ordered to delete 34 items; television channel TV Rain six items; the news websites Znak, 13 items, Meduza, 17 items and Svobodnye Novosti, nine. Some of them said they would comply.

What’s so offensive? Svobodnye Novosti was ordered to remove material about “Putin’s Palace,” the sprawling Black Sea pleasure palace that Mr. Navalny exposed as having been secretly constructed for Mr. Putin. The other eight items, published between 2018 and 2021, all stemmed from Mr. Navalny’s anti-corruption probes, including revelations about how Mr. Putin’s coterie accumulated expensive real estate, fancy cars and lavish clothing. The television channel said it was ordered to remove reports about an investigation of secret residences held by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin among other items."

No Way Home Foreshadows The Greatest Problem With The X-Men; ScreenRant, February 3, 2022

Thomas Bacon, ScreenRant; No Way Home Foreshadows The Greatest Problem With The X-Men

"Spider-Man is the only Avenger to date who has been a teenager in this shared universe. That's given his solo films a unique feel in the MCU, but it's also posed serious ethical questions about whether or not the Avengers should allow Spider-Man to join in with their superhero fights. It didn't take long for War Machine to pick up on this in Captain America: Civil War, with Tony Stark brushing the question of Spider-Man's age aside. "I don't know, I didn't carbon-date him," Iron Man defended himself. "He's on the young side." The question of Spider-Man's age surfaced again in Spider-Man: No Way Home, when Peter Parker's beloved Aunt May was accused of child endangerment because she had allowed him to act as a hero. "Child endangerment's a nasty rap," Agent Cleary accused her. "A boy was entrusted to you, and as his legal guardian - essentially his mother - you not only allowed him to endanger himself, but you actually encouraged it. Who does that?" It's true this was just a throwaway scene, and the ethical considerations weren't subsequently explored in greater depth - but the question is a chilling one nonetheless, and it has serious implications for the future of the MCU, particularly how it relates to the X-Men."

Public’s Views of Supreme Court Turned More Negative Before News of Breyer’s Retirement; Pew Research Center, February 2, 2022

Pew Research Center ; Public’s Views of Supreme Court Turned More Negative Before News of Breyer’s Retirement

"The U.S. Supreme Court, which typically attracts only modest attention from the American public, is about to occupy the national spotlight with the possibility of a history-making change among the court’s justices and a series of highly anticipated rulings on matters ranging from abortion to gun policy.

The court enters this pivotal period with its public image as negative as it has been in many years, as Democrats – especially liberal Democrats – increasingly express unfavorable opinions of the court.

In a national survey by Pew Research Center, 54% of U.S. adults say they have a favorable opinion of the Supreme Court while 44% have an unfavorable view. The survey was conducted before Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement from the court and President Joe Biden reiterated his pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court to replace Breyer.

Over the past three years, the share of adults with a favorable view of the court has declined 15 percentage points, according to the new survey, conducted Jan. 10-17 among 5,128 adults on the Center’s American Trends Panel. Looking back further, current views of the court are among the least positive in surveys dating back nearly four decades."

Legal Scholars Push For Supreme Court Ethics Code As Gorsuch And Thomas Come Under Fire; Forbes, February 4, 2022

 Alison Durkee, Forbes; Legal Scholars Push For Supreme Court Ethics Code As Gorsuch And Thomas Come Under Fire

"More than two dozen legal ethics scholars asked Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Thursday to impose a code of conduct for the court’s judges, as the conservative-leaning court faces declining public trust and Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas spark new ethics concerns...

A code of conduct would help the Supreme Court “transparently address potential conflicts and other issues in a way that builds public trust in the institution,” the 25 scholars wrote in their letter to Roberts, which was released through activist group Fix the Court.

The scholars said their request wasn’t in response to any particular concern, and they “do not question the integrity of any justice,” but it comes amid concern about ethical conflicts.

Gorsuch will speak Friday evening at a conference in Walt Disney World for the conservative Federalist Society, drawing criticism because of the event’s overt political nature—other speakers include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Vice President Mike Pence and Trump White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany—and because it’s closed to the press."

THE BANGALORE PRINCIPLES OF JUDICIAL CONDUCT; The Judicial Integrity Group

The Judicial Integrity Group , THE BANGALORE PRINCIPLES OF JUDICIAL CONDUCT

"THE BANGALORE PRINCIPLES OF JUDICIAL CONDUCT

The Bangalore Principles are intended to establish standards for ethical conduct of judges. They are designed to provide guidance to judges and to offer the judiciary a framework for regulating judicial conduct. Six core values are recognized: Independence, impartiality, integrity, propriety, equality and finally competence and diligence. The Principles define their meaning and elaborate in detail on what kind of conduct is to be expected in concrete terms of the persons concerned in order to put the respective value into practice. A number of specific instructions are given under each of the values. Not only have some States adopted the Bangalore Principles but others have modelled their own Principles of Judicial Conduct on them. International organisations have also looked at it with favour and given it their endorsement. The United Nations Social and Economic Council, by resolution 2006/ 23, has invited member States consistent with their domestic legal systems to encourage their judiciaries to take into consideration the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct when reviewing or developing rules with respect to the professional and ethical conduct of the members of the judiciary. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has actively supported it and it has also received recognition from bodies such as the American Bar Association and the International Commission of Jurists. The judges of the member States of the Council of Europe have also given it their favourable consideration."

Judges vote unanimously to adopt new conduct and ethics guidelines; The Irish Times, February 4, 2022

Mary Carolan, The Irish Times; Judges vote unanimously to adopt new conduct and ethics guidelines

"Judges have voted to adopt new conduct and ethics guidelines which will be the framework for the first judicial misconduct complaints procedure here. 

At a remote meeting on Friday of the 167 member Judicial Council, the guidelines were unanimously supported by the participants. The guidelines were circulated to the judiciary last month. 

In a foreword to the judges, Chief Justice Mr Justice Donal O’Donnell recommended their adoption. He said public confidence in the justice system “depends on the integrity and authority of the judiciary”. 

As well as promoting the “highest standards” of judicial behaviour, the guidelines will also provide a framework for the conduct review function of the council, he said. 

Prepared by the council’s Judicial Conduct Committee (JCC), the guidelines are based on international principles known as the Bangalore Principles, aimed at ensuring judicial independence, impartiality, integrity, propriety and the appearance of propriety, competence and diligence and equal treatment of all who come before the courts.

They are intended to guide judges as to their conduct and to form the framework for a detailed judicial misconduct complaints procedure which, under the Judicial Council Act 2019, must be operable by June 28th next."

Two members of Google’s Ethical AI group leave to join Timnit Gebru’s nonprofit; The Verge, February 2, 2022

Emma Roth, The Verge; Two members of Google’s Ethical AI group leave to join Timnit Gebru’s nonprofit

"Two members of Google’s Ethical AI group have announced their departures from the company, according to a report from Bloomberg. Senior researcher Alex Hanna, and software engineer Dylan Baker, will join Timnit Gebru’s nonprofit research institute, Distributed AI Research (DAIR)...

In a post announcing her resignation on Medium, Hanna criticizes the “toxic” work environment at Google, and draws attention to a lack of representation of Black women at the company."

Where Automated Job Interviews Fall Short; Harvard Business Review (HBR), January 27, 2022

Zahira Jaser, 

Dimitra Petrakaki, Rachel Starr, and 

Ernesto Oyarbide-Magaña

, Harvard Business Review (HBR) ; Where Automated Job Interviews Fall Short

"The use of artificial intelligence in HR processes is a new, and likely unstoppable, trend. In recruitment, up to 86% of employers use job interviews mediated by technology, a growing portion of which are automated video interviews (AVIs).

AVIs involve job candidates being interviewed by an artificial intelligence, which requires them to record themselves on an interview platform, answering questions under time pressure. The video is then submitted through the AI developer platform, which processes the data of the candidate — this can be visual (e.g. smiles), verbal (e.g. key words used), and/or vocal (e.g. the tone of voice). In some cases, the platform then passes a report with an interpretation of the job candidate’s performance to the employer.

The technologies used for these videos present issues in reliably capturing a candidate’s characteristics. There is also strong evidence that these technologies can contain bias that can exclude some categories of job-seekers. The Berkeley Haas Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership reports that 44% of AI systems are embedded with gender bias, with about 26% displaying both gender and race bias. For example, facial recognition algorithms have a 35% higher detection error for recognizing the gender of women of color, compared to men with lighter skin.

But as developers work to remove biases and increase reliability, we still know very little on how AVIs (or other types of interviews involving artificial intelligence) are experienced by different categories of job candidates themselves, and how these experiences affect them, this is where our research focused. Without this knowledge, employers and managers can’t fully understand the impact these technologies are having on their talent pool or on different group of workers (e.g., age, ethnicity, and social background). As a result, organizations are ill-equipped to discern whether the platforms they turn to are truly helping them hire candidates that align with their goals. We seek to explore whether employers are alienating promising candidates — and potentially entire categories of job seekers by default — because of varying experiences of the technology."

IRS plan to scan your face prompts anger in Congress, confusion among taxpayers; The Washington Post, January 27, 2022

Drew Harwell, The Washington Post; IRS plan to scan your face prompts anger in Congress, confusion among taxpayers

"The $86 million ID.me contract with the IRS also has alarmed researchers and privacy advocates who say they worry about how Americans’ facial images and personal data will be safeguarded in the years to come. There is no federal law regulating how the data can be used or shared. While the IRS couldn’t say what percentage of taxpayers use the agency’s website, internal data show it is one of the federal government’s most-viewed websites, with more than 1.9 billion visits last year."

Book Ban Efforts Spread Across the U.S.; The New York Times, January 30, 2022

Elizabeth A. Harris andAlexandra Alter, The New York Times; Book Ban Efforts Spread Across the U.S.

Challenges to books about sexual and racial identity are nothing new in American schools, but the tactics and politicization are.

"“It’s a pretty startling phenomenon here in the United States to see book bans back in style, to see efforts to press criminal charges against school librarians,” said Suzanne Nossel, the chief executive of the free-speech organization PEN America, even if efforts to press charges have so far failed.

Such challenges have long been a staple of school board meetings, but it isn’t just their frequency that has changed, according to educators, librarians and free-speech advocates — it is also the tactics behind them and the venues where they play out. Conservative groups in particular, fueled by social media, are now pushing the challenges into statehouses, law enforcement and political races...

So far, efforts to bring criminal charges against librarians and educators have largely faltered, as law enforcement officials in Florida, Wyoming and elsewhere have found no basis for criminal investigations. And courts have generally taken the position that libraries should not remove books from circulation.

Nonetheless, librarians say that just the threat of having to defend against charges is enough to get many educators to censor themselves by not stocking the books to begin with. Even just the public spectacle of an accusation can be enough.

“It will certainly have a chilling effect,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s office for intellectual freedom."

What the Banning of Maus and V for Vendetta Tell Us About Comic Book Censorship; CBR, February 1, 2022

Tommy Ebbs, CBR; What the Banning of Maus and V for Vendetta Tell Us About Comic Book Censorship

"What is of particular interest is the fact that both Maus and V for Vendetta are innately political texts. While Maus is a genre-bending memoir about the Holocaust and V for Vendetta is a fictional tale about an anarchist revolt, both books deal with themes relating to fascism and authoritarianism. In 2014, Russia banned Maus due to it featuring the swastika on its front cover during a crackdown on anything involving Nazi paraphernalia, even though the comic is one of the most anti-fascist works in all of fiction. In 2020, China also banned the film adaptation of V for Vendetta, and although no official reason was given, the Guy Fawkes mask from the comic and film was worn by many Hong Kong protesters during the 2019-2020 unrest.

While the rationale of removing the books from Tennessee schools is due to a belief that it will make students “uncomfortable”, many of the books are written by members of the LGBTQ+ community and address issues related to race and gender. When the CCA was first introduced, comics were still in their infancy and regarded as children's entertainment that did not address social and political issues. Since then, however, both Maus and V for Vendetta have been considered challenging literary works that deal with political topics in a mature fashion. This is an incredibly concerning development, considering how both books are anti-fascist and deliberately warn against the limitation of free speech and the curbing of artistic expression, as well as what can happen when these issues go unchallenged."

Remembering Thich Nhat Hanh, Brother Thay; On Being with Krista Tippett, January 27, 2022, Original Air Date September 25, 2003

On Being with Krista Tippett; Remembering Thich Nhat Hanh, Brother Thay

"Tippett: I wonder if you can think of, say, a situation where you think you might have done something differently than you would have before, a concrete way in which it changed your action or reaction in some way.

Ward: When my mother passed away, about seven years ago, I was actually on vacation with my wife and some friends in Costa Rica. And I was in a small village that only had two telephones, one private, one public; the public one did not work. This was around Christmastime. So when I was finally able to get a phone and call, I found out my mother died. And so I went — took three days to get back to Cleveland, where she was, and by that time, she was already buried. And my father was overwhelmed with grief. And he was so overwhelmed with grief that after the burial, he went home and he shut the door and he wouldn’t let any of the children in the house.

So I started sending him flowers and love letters over six months’ time. And I would go visit, and I’d sit outside the house and bring my flowers and put them on the porch — and this is after flying from Idaho or wherever I was — and I knew he was in there, and I’d leave them, and then I’d go on and visit my sister, you know, etc., etc. And finally he opened the door, which was, to me, opening the door to himself. And so now we’re in a totally different environment and a different situation. And I’m certain that without the practice, that is not how I would have responded to an experience of “rejection.”

I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. If I’d have been operating out of that mindset of my youth, I would’ve just said, you know, Forget you. And instead, I was able to understand what was happening to my father. I could see and feel his suffering, his tremendous heartbreak. I knew that he didn’t have any training in dealing with emotion — none. And I knew that in my family, my mother was the emotional intelligence, and that when she passed away, he had no skills, no capacity to handle the huge ocean of grief he found himself in. So my practice was to communicate to him that I was there for him, that I supported him, and that I loved him, but my practice also was to hold compassion for him and myself and my family so that we could all go through our grieving process peacefully, and at our own pace...

Tippett: A cynic would say, well, he can give these beautiful teachings about ending violence,  and then there are these individuals who come to a retreat like this, who are clearly taking this seriously and taking this back to their lives, but they’re just drops in the ocean.

Ward: That is true. I am a drop in the ocean; but I’m also the ocean. I’m a drop in America, but I’m also America. Every pain, every confusion, every good and every bad and every ugly of America is in me. And as I’m able to transform myself and heal myself and take care of myself, I’m very conscious that I’m healing and transforming and taking care of America. Particularly I’m saying this for American cynics — [laughs] but this is also true globally. And so as we’re able, however small, however slowly, it’s for real.

Tippett: Larry Ward co-founded The Lotus Institute, a meditation center devoted to the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh. In 2020 he published a new book, America’s Racial Karma: An Invitation to Heal."