Anna Bacciarelli

#UK's @phsombudsman.bsky.social finds:
1/ deep flaws in management of Home Office's #Windrush Compensation Scheme
2/ compensation offers should account for private pension losses. #WindrushScandal

@hrw.org will say it again: Windrush claimants need access to legal aid.

www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...

An advertising screen at a bus stop in central London showing an ad celebrating the birthday of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi

WTF? Thought it was a @ledbydonkeys.org job at first glance. In central London today.

Starmer going all the way by deploying a bot to head up DSIT 🤖

Brazil One Step Away from Protecting Children Online Brazil’s Senate has passed a long-awaited bill to protect children’s rights online. The bill now heads for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s signature into law.

🌟 Breaking good news! Brazil’s Senate just passed a bill to protect children’s rights online… for the second time. The bill now awaits President Lula’s signature. 🇧🇷

(En): www.hrw.org/news/2025/08...

(Pt): www.hrw.org/pt/news/2025...

The Raine v OpenAI Case: Engineering Addiction by Design The Deliberate Design Patterns That Made ChatGPT Dangerous

"ChatGPT's sycophantic design led it to validate his most dangerous thoughts. When he expressed suicidal ideation, instead of challenging these thoughts or redirecting the conversation, the system would affirm & even romanticize his feelings." centerforhumanetechnology.substack.com/p/the-raine-...

Government expands police use of live facial recognition vans The Home Office says the technology helps locate suspects but civil liberties groups warn of heightened surveillance.

Police forces across England following the Met's lead and increasing use of live facial recognition. This tech is classed as creating 'unacceptable risk' and is effectively banned in the EU, but increasingly commonplace in the UK, despite serious human rights concerns. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The Uber regulatory arbitrage playbook all over again: "We are not a transportation company, so those laws don't apply. We are Tech. Disrupting your silly laws is our MO." I discuss this strategy--and ways to try and counter it--in "Disrupting the Disruption Narrative" www.nae.edu/19579/19582/...

Palantir's growth spurt in government work Since 2008, Palantir has been paid just under $3 billion through federal contracts -- most of that in recent years. Last year the company received more than $615 million.

Palantir ❤️ America's military-industrial complex www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

UK Plans AI Experiment on Children Seeking Asylum The United Kingdom’s announcement on July 22 that it would use AI face-scanning technology to evaluate whether an asylum seeker is under age 18 threatens to harm children seeking refuge.

The UK government plans to use facial age estimation technology on child refugees at the UK border from 2026 - because they see it as the cheap option. But the tech wasn't designed or tested for this, and will create a host of serious risks for vulnerable young people. www.hrw.org/news/2025/07...

Gaza: Israeli Killings of Palestinians Seeking Food Are War Crimes Israeli forces at the sites of a new US-backed aid distribution system in Gaza have routinely opened fire on starving Palestinian civilians in acts that amount to serious violations of international l...

Israeli killings of Palestinians seeking food are war crimes. US-backed Israeli forces and private contractors have put in place a flawed, militarized aid distribution system that has turned aid distributions into regular bloodbaths. www.hrw.org/news/2025/08...

THREAD: What does it mean to seek food in Gaza today? For many Palestinians, it means risking death. These are the stories behind the hundreds killed. #Gaza #HumanRights www.hrw.org/news/2025/08...

🚨 BREAKING: Israeli forces and US-backed contractors have turned Gaza aid distribution into a death trap. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed while seeking food. Our new @hrw investigation exposes the system behind the slaughter. 1/6
🔗 www.hrw.org/news/2025/08...

The Online Safety Act assumes that all tech, social networks, etc, are run by big tech, raking in profit from illegal advertising. Community-run and funded networks/sites — real non-Big Tech alternatives — are left in the dirt. I have never seen OSA proponents consider their needs or their value.

UK Plans AI Experiment on Children Seeking Asylum The United Kingdom’s announcement on July 22 that it would use AI face-scanning technology to evaluate whether an asylum seeker is under age 18 threatens to harm children seeking refuge.

The UK gov plans to experiment with facial age estimation tech on vulnerable young people. But refugee children need care, not algorithms. This tech isn't the solution - instead, it creates new potentially life-changing risks, as @techchildrights.bsky.social and I write. www.hrw.org/news/2025/07...

UK Plans AI Experiment on Children Seeking Asylum The United Kingdom’s announcement on July 22 that it would use AI face-scanning technology to evaluate whether an asylum seeker is under age 18 threatens to harm children seeking refuge.

Did you know that the UK gov't is planning an AI experiment on children seeking asylum? 🤯

Experimenting with unproven tech to decide whether to protect a child is cruel and unconscionable. Do better, UK.

Here's my latest with @abacci.bsky.social:

www.hrw.org/news/2025/07...

Meta brought AI to rural Colombia. Now students are failing exams When Meta embedded AI bots in its apps, even students in the most remote corners of Colombia gained access. But rather than boosting learning, it’s getting in the way.

the enshittification of education is underway

restofworld.org/2025/colombi...

Met police to more than double use of live facial recognition Technology will now be used up to 10 times a week across five days, up from four times a week across two days

Live facial recognition tech is incompatible with human rights. Yet the Met police will double its use while installing London’s first permanent LFR cameras. This is powerful tech that rights groups & the UN have repeatedly said should not be used in public spaces www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

The gig economy runs on hidden rules. A new bill in the US Congress could help change that and start protecting the workers powering platforms like #Uber, #DoorDash & #AmazonFlex.

Read more @hrw.org: www.hrw.org/news/2025/07....

A 🧵

Excellent new research from @akruope.bsky.social and @hrw.org colleagues - a deep dive on internet and digital communications restrictions in Russia. An extensive range of technical and legal restraints from the government leaves the Russian population increasingly cut off and in the dark.

New Bill Could Curb Exploitation of US Gig Workers The gig economy runs on hidden rules. Every day, millions of workers in the United States log into apps like Uber, DoorDash, and Amazon Flex to earn a living, without knowing how much they’ll be paid,...

A new Congress bill proposes much-needed protections for US gig workers - including obligations for platform companies around algorithmic transparency, limitations on data collection and use, and whistleblower protections.

www.hrw.org/news/2025/07... by @lenasimet.bsky.social and me @hrw.org

Reconnaissance faciale : "Il est difficile d’avoir une vue d’ensemble précise sur les pays qui l’utilisent, parce que c’est souvent fait de façon très opaque. Il n’existe pas non plus de traité international pour encadrer son usage et poser des lignes rouges." @abacci.bsky.social‬ dans @lemonde.fr ⤵

Yeahhh!!! 😍

Disability rights activists march in London against social security cuts as the UK’s Chancellor Rachel Reeves presents her “Spring Statement” or mini-budget, March 26, 2025. © 2025 Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Dispatch for @hrw.org on the draft bill on social security in the UK.

The proposed benefit cuts will harm people with disabilities, worsen poverty, and undermine rights.

The government says the bill “will protect the most vulnerable.” Its own data belie that claim.

www.hrw.org/news/2025/06...

Reddit in talks to embrace Sam Altman’s iris-scanning Orb to verify users Reddit, racing to preserve “humanness and authenticity,” has discussed using Sam Altman’s World ID, sources say.

Nope nope nope www.semafor.com/article/06/2...

🚨 Big news from Geneva: the @ilo.org has agreed to develop binding global standards on decent work in the platform economy. This is a major breakthrough—but the real fight is just beginning.🧵

#ILC2025 #GigWorkersRights www.hrw.org/news/2025/06...

Through the case study report, "Ask Amina" and "Ask Abdalla" – experimental agents representing a refugee in Chad and a combatant in Sudan – participants will gain insights into how these technologies might transform field operations while navigating complex ethical terrain. The workshop will address critical questions about representation, power dynamics and data rights. Participants will:

this just started and i'm already losing my mind and screaming

Western white folk basically putting an AI avatar on stage and pretending it is a refugee from sudan — literally interacting with it as if it is a “woman that fled to chad from sudan”

just fucking shoot me

US: Major Companies Violate Gig Workers’ Rights Major digital labor platforms, also known as gig companies, operating in the United States misclassify gig workers as independent contractors, denying them labor rights.

NEW: Major companies operating in the US misclassify gig workers as independent contractors, denying them labor rights.

These companies claim to offer gig workers “flexibility” but often end up paying them less than state or local minimum wages.

The Gig Trap The 155-page report, “The Gig Trap: Algorithmic, Wage and Labor Exploitation in Platform Work in the US” focuses on seven major companies operating in the US: Amazon Flex, DoorDash, Favor, Instacart, ...

Our report reveals an industry that works for companies but not for their workers. We urgently need international regulation @ilo.org to protect platform workers' rights everywhere. Full report ⬇️
www.hrw.org/report/2025/...

The platform workers we spoke to live in constant fear of having their accounts automatically deactivated and losing access to work altogether. Nearly half of the workers we surveyed who had been automatically fired were later cleared of wrongdoing!

Workers are largely kept in the dark about how they are assigned work or how their wages are calculated, severely limiting their ability to plan their time or forecast income. It's extremely difficult for them to challenge automated decisions.