Unless Congress takes more time to understand and then to craft careful remedies, the emerging challenges for open government that Facebook is implicated in – from automated activity to algorithmic transparency to public speech on private platforms to data ethics and protections to anti-trust concerns to artificial intelligence – will most likely be obscured by more sound and fury emanating from Washington that ultimately signifies nothing.
Continue readingHow Baton Rouge is engineering open data for community involvement
Baton Rouge wants to make sure residents know about new open datasets as soon as they’re available. Leaders see this as a way to keep residents in the know about new resources, as well as an important part of how governments can and should be transparent in a digital era. A new website brings together all this work in one place.
Continue readingWhy we’re launching the Web Integrity Project
The mission of the Web Integrity Project (WIP) is to monitor changes to government websites, holding our government accountable by revealing shifts in public information and access to Web resources, as well as changes in stated policies and priorities.
Continue readingWhat Trump’s release of the memo tells us about transparency in DC
The selective declassification of this memorandum -- but not the one drafted by Democrats on the committee – is an indicator of bad faith on open government, not a commitment to fully informing the public about how surveillance is used, abused or authorized in U.S. government.
Continue readingIn its first year, the Trump administration has reduced public information online
Almost a year into the Trump presidency, we have seen are substantial public information removals and overhauls of federal webpages, documents, and entire websites, as well as significant shifts in language and messaging across the federal Web domain.
Continue readingNational Park Service removes climate action plans from website
The National Park Service (NPS) removed 92 documents describing park climate action plans from their website. The NPS claimed that the removals are temporary while reports are updated to improve usability compliance, but no advance notice, public Web archive, or explanation why the documents could not remain on the site until material is prepared was provided.
Continue readingThe Honest Ads Act would be a “valuable step in normalizing the status of political ads online”
The Honest Ads Act is the first significant legislative effort to address the new challenges of network propaganda, writes Harvard Law School professor Yochai Benkler, who sits on Sunlight's advisory board.
Continue readingTweets by @realDonaldTrump are official statements of the @POTUS, says Justice Department
Listening and responding to members of the public that is a minimum expectation for public servants in any democratic state, whether those voices are raised in protest, petition, email, send letters or reply on social media. While there are practical challenges to making sense of millions of emails, tweets, call or letters, blocks that violate the First Amendment rights of the public are not the solution to filter failure.
Continue readingPlease tell the FEC why you support more sunshine in online political ads
If you agree that it's time for the Federal Elections Commission to extend the definition of electioneering to online communications and require disclaimers and disclosures for paid political advertising on Internet platforms, please tell them!
Continue readingGlobal headwinds for political transparency online
We shouldn’t be too sanguine though, because the common sense measures that comprise the Honest Ads Act are an important bulwark for a campaign finance regulatory system that has been eroded and attacked for decades. Here are the global headwinds we’re all facing in the fight for transparent, accountable election spending.
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