How do surveillance, censorship, and technologies of control get weaponized—and how do we push back? Justin Hendrix talks with Jonathon W. Penney, author of "Chilling Effects: Repression, Conformity, and Power in the Digital Age," about his roadmap for reform.

A Roadmap for Confronting the Chilling Effects of Censorship, Surveillance and New Technology

A conversation with Jonathon W. Penney, author of Chilling Effects: Repression, Conformity, and Power in the Digital Age.

techpolicy.press

Canadian 🇨🇦 forensic company Magnet suing a former employee for disclosing an Apple zero-day the company was hoarding & exploiting to crack iPhones "the public disclosure...alerted Apple to the flaw and allowed it to be..fixed, reducing its value..." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

IPhone Hacking Firm Sues Ex-Worker Over Alleged Theft of Secrets

Magnet Forensics Inc., a Canadian cybersecurity firm, accused a former contractor of sharing trade secrets about a previously unknown flaw used to hack iPhones with a rival firm.

bloomberg.com

Canada's 🇨🇦 proposed lawful access law (Bill C22) is so bad it even has US Senators (like @wyden.senate.gov) worried it will create national security spying risks for Americans 🇺🇸! www.wyden.senate.gov/imo/media/do...

I'm an optimist so I think that maybe SS7 being used to track US military (rather than, say, journalists or activists) will help fix that gaping hole techcrunch.com/2026/07/14/i...

Iran abused mobile networks' vulnerabilities to locate US military in the Middle East, report says | TechCrunch

The Iranian government exploited well-known flaws in cellphone networks to locate and then strike U.S. military personnel in the build-up and beginning of the war.

techcrunch.com

knightcolumbia.org/content/fede...

Federal Court Suspends Trump Immigration Policy Targeting Technology Researchers

knightcolumbia.org

Days after writing this letter from prison, Egyptian poet Galal El-Behairy began a hunger strike after being denied books, writing materials and clothing. We call for his rights to be restored immediately. Read the full letter: www.pen-international.org/cases/galal-...

Spyware victim @nasoskoukakis.bsky.social asks the former Chair of the PEGA Committee to explain why he voted against holding a plenary debate after a member of his own committee was targeted with Pegasus while it was investigating #spyware abuses. x.com/nasoskook/st...

Former 🇬🇷PM Antonis Samaras has filed a motion with the country's Supreme Court prosecutor requesting a full investigation into how he was targeted with Predator #spyware. www.tovima.com/politics/for...

Former PM Antonis Samaras Files Motion Over Predator Spyware Case - tovima.com

Samaras says he has repeatedly asked the government for answers, with no response to date

tovima.com

Another win for survivors of torture; Syrian intelligence chief found guilty of torture by Austrian court. He was brought to Austria ⁠by the ​domestic intelligence service BVT at the request of the Israeli Mossad ​as part of "Operation White Milk.” #Justice #Syria www.bbc.com/news/article...

Syrian intelligence chief found guilty of torture by Austrian court

Two former Syrian officials went on trial in Vienna, Austria, accused of crimes against opponents of former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad

bbc.com

I’m shocked that many other members of the European Parliament are not protesting against this alarming escalation. Targeting one is targeting everyone around them, including former colleagues who chose to remain silent today.

Ron Deibert@rondeibert.bsky.social · last mo.

Politician who investigated spyware abuses had his phone hacked with Pegasus spyware | @lorenzofb.bsky.social techcrunch.com/2026/07/02/p...

⚠️ @citizenlab.ca notes that whoever perpetrated the #spyware attacks on MEP Stelios Kouloglou would have potentially gotten access to internal information about 🇪🇺PEGA's activities & findings. ✍️ @lhn.bsky.social @mattburgess1.bsky.social www.wired.com/story/eu-pol...

EU Politicians Investigated Pegasus Spyware. Then It Ended Up on One of Their Phones

“It is a direct attack on the rule of law,” says one European Parliament member of the new findings from Citizen Lab.

wired.com

NEW @citizenlab.ca report: Member of 🇪🇺 Euro Parliamentary committee (#PEGA) tasked with investigating spyware abuses himself hacked with Pegasus spyware 👇 citizenlab.ca/research/mem...

Espionage Against the European Parliament: Member of Committee Investigating Spyware Hacked with Pegasus - The Citizen Lab

We found that former Member of the European Parliament Stelios Kouloglou was hacked with Pegasus spyware while serving on the PEGA committee, which investigated Pegasus and other spyware abuses in Eur...

citizenlab.ca

A Member of the @europarl.europa.eu Stelios Kouloglou investigating #spyware abuse was hacked with #Pegasus while serving on the PEGA Committee. READ THAT AGAIN. They didn’t only target an MEP. They spied on the investigation into spyware abuse itself. 🧵1/9

Espionage Against the European Parliament: Member of Committee Investigating Spyware Hacked with Pegasus - The Citizen Lab

We found that former Member of the European Parliament Stelios Kouloglou was hacked with Pegasus spyware while serving on the PEGA committee, which investigated Pegasus and other spyware abuses in Eur...

citizenlab.ca

Canada’s Bill C-22 is riddled with privacy problems that affect millions of people. Instead of jamming it though on an arbitrary deadline, it should be debated fully. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

Canada Is Forging Ahead with Its Dangerous Surveillance Bill

With no serious debate, including on proposed amendments, Canada is blazing full speed ahead with Bill C-22, which would threaten encryption and increase surveillance. Also known as the Lawful Access

eff.org

Join senior researcher @noura.bsky.social for “Security Without Safety: Queering Cybersecurity in the Age of Digital Transnational Repression” as part of the University of Zurich's "Confronting Transnational Repression" workshop: www.ema.uzh.ch/en/register/...

🚨 Bill C-22 forces every Canadian internet provider, messaging app & cloud service to build surveillance backdoors and store a year of your data. Foreign state hackers exploited similar legislation in the US. Shut the backdoor: openmedia.org/StopC22-bsky #BillC22

Stop the Surveillance State: Stop Bill C-22!

🚨 Bill C-22 forces every Canadian internet provider, messaging app & cloud service to build surveillance backdoors and store a year of your data. Foreign state hackers exploited similar legislation in...

openmedia.org

From @citizenlab.ca @cyn-k.bsky.social : Bill C-22 could expose Canadian data to U.S. surveillance policyoptions.irpp.org/2026/06/bill...

Bill C-22 could expose Canadian data to U.S. surveillance

Ottawa should reject any data-sharing agreement that allows U.S. authorities to access Canadians' personal information without Canadian oversight.

policyoptions.irpp.org

"Uber and Lyft ... routinely charge different customers significantly different prices for the same rides, a monthslong Consumer Reports investigation has found. Across the routes we tested, the median difference between the lowest and highest price groupings was about 50 percent."

Different Prices for the Same Ride: How Uber and Lyft Use AI to Get More Money Out of You - Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports found Uber and Lyft use algorithmic pricing to give different consumers very different prices for the same rides.

consumerreports.org

Elon Musk accused of fuelling unrest after Belfast knife attack dpa-international.com/politics/urn...

NEW: malware developers added nuclear & biological weapons text to to their spyware. Goal? To trigger LLM safety refusals... so that their spyware wouldn't be analyzed by an AI security scanner. Cleanest practical example I can think of for why over-indexing on first order "safety" is risky. 1/

A court in Munich declared that Google is liable for their "AI summaries" and all its hallucinations. This brings "AI" slop in line with all other products: "AI" is basically the only product where a provider can deliver unchecked garbage and put all liability on the consumer.

Landmark German ruling declares Google's AI Overviews are Google's own words and makes it liable for false answers

A German regional court has ruled that Google is directly liable for the content of its AI search overviews. According to the court, previous limited liability protections for search engine operators don't apply to AI overviews. In this case, Google's AI had falsely linked two publishers to fraud and made claims that didn't appear in any of the linked sources. The ruling could set a precedent for AI-generated content liability worldwide.

the-decoder.com

Kudos to @kate-ro.bsky.social @cyn-k.bsky.social @digitalprivacy.ca for their remarkable analysis of Bill C-22. It's essential reading. Please read it and share it widely in your network.

Cynthia Khoo@cyn-k.bsky.social · 2mo ago

New joint publication by @citizenlab.ca + @cancivlib.bsky.social! In which @kate-ro.bsky.social & I join forces w/ Tamir @digitalprivacy.ca to explain the federal govt's many... "(Un)forced Errors: Analysis of Proposed Surveillance Law Expansion under Bill C-22, An Act respecting lawful access" 🧵1/x

Bruce Schneier (@schneier.com) and I have a new essay in @theconversation.com on the Trump administration's strategy of weaponizing law, technology, & surveillance to chill protest, dissent, & political opposition. In short, the chilling effects are the point. theconversation.com/chilling-eff...

Chilling effects of Trump’s war on free speech extend far beyond campus walls – and that’s the point

A persistent government strategy to sow fear through punitive measures has corroded freedom and democracy.

theconversation.com

danah boyd recently argued that social media (as we knew it) is mostly dead; what we have now is parasocial media: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... I agree. Networked social media is disappearing, replaced by a new logic/structure of content creator, creator-centered community, & algorithm.

Social Media Is Now Parasocial Media - danah boyd, 2026

When practitioners used the term “social media” to describe the internet tools that emerged in the mid-aughts, they were giving a name to the kinds of platforms...

journals.sagepub.com

Advocates call on Anand to raise transnational repression concerns with China’s top diplomat during Canadian visit. Concerns include family members imprisoned without a trial and an RCMP cooperation agreement with Chinese Communist police. www.ctvnews.ca/politics/art...

Advocates call on Anand to raise transnational repression concerns with China’s top diplomat during Canadian visit

Human rights advocates plan to protest on Parliament Hill when China’s top diplomat Wang Yi arrives to meet his Canadian counterpart.

ctvnews.ca

“Leaked Documents Reveal Russian ‘Cognitive Strikes’ Against the West — Including Islamophobic ‘Pig Head’ Attacks in Paris” @occrp.org www.occrp.org/en/investiga...

Leaked Documents Reveal Russian ‘Cognitive Strikes’ Against the West — Including Islamophobic ‘Pig Head’ Attacks in Paris

Leaked chats and documents showcase the Russian presidential administration’s role in false-flag vandalism attacks and election interference campaigns in Europe and beyond.

occrp.org

1/ New @Nature! We study how powerful institutions shape the information environment for LLMs. Commercial LLM training is opaque, so we trace a path from state-coordinated media -> training data -> model responses.

NEW today an essay from me in @thewalrus.ca on Bill C-22 (being rushed through committee in Canada this May), its implications for Can-US negotiations on data-sharing, and why the rule of law threats unfolding in the US may soon become Canada's problem too. thewalrus.ca/trump-wants-...

Trump Wants to Tap Your Phone. Ottawa Might Let Him | The Walrus

Bill C-22 will lay the legal groundwork for giving the US warrantless access to our data

thewalrus.ca

In the "open secret" news category, Canada's 🇨🇦 Ontario Provincial Police have been using spyware, but not disclosing it to the public, and even burying legal cases to keep it secret! www.thestar.com/news/ontario...

Ontario police are using spyware that lets them remotely take over your smartphone. They’re fighting to keep almost everything about it secret

The police use of ODITs is so secret that police forces have signed agreements to drop serious criminal investigations rather than reveal the name of their vendor.

thestar.com

“Meta’s workers are paying the price for management’s ⁠reckless and ​expensive bets. While executives chase speculative AI strategies,staff are facing ​devastating job cuts,draconian surveillance,and the cruel reality of being forced to train the inefficient systems being positioned to replace them”

Exclusive: Meta employees launch protest against mouse-tracking tech at US offices

Flyers at U.S. ‌offices ​encouraged staffers to sign an online petition against the move.

reuters.com