Kate Ruane
@kateruane.bsky.social
Free expression advocate. Whiskey drinker. Friend of dogs. Views my own
Reposted by Kate Ruane
“Providing tech services to supercharge ICE operations while blocking tools that support accountability of ICE officers is entirely backwards." - @kateruane.bsky.social www.404media.co/google-has-c...
Google Has Chosen a Side in Trump's Mass Deportation Effort
Google is hosting a CBP app that uses facial recognition to identify immigrants, while simultaneously removing apps that report the location of ICE officials because Google sees ICE as a vulnerable gr...
www.404media.co
November 13, 2025 at 2:16 PM
“Providing tech services to supercharge ICE operations while blocking tools that support accountability of ICE officers is entirely backwards." - @kateruane.bsky.social www.404media.co/google-has-c...
The Future of Speech Online Conference starts tomorrow! Join us and many incredible experts to talk about jawboning, the First Amendment, and government efforts to shape private speech. @cdt.org
standtogether.swoogo.com/foso25/9611110
standtogether.swoogo.com/foso25/9611110
Home
standtogether.swoogo.com
October 27, 2025 at 3:27 PM
The Future of Speech Online Conference starts tomorrow! Join us and many incredible experts to talk about jawboning, the First Amendment, and government efforts to shape private speech. @cdt.org
standtogether.swoogo.com/foso25/9611110
standtogether.swoogo.com/foso25/9611110
Reposted by Kate Ruane
“If we’re a country that values free speech, then we should value it for everyone who’s here,” Cope says. “Otherwise, it doesn’t really mean very much.”
www.theverge.com/policy/80111...
www.theverge.com/policy/80111...
Unions are trying to stop Trump from kicking out immigrants over social media posts
The State Department recently said it revoked visas for immigrants who criticized Charlie Kirk after his death.
www.theverge.com
October 17, 2025 at 2:31 AM
“If we’re a country that values free speech, then we should value it for everyone who’s here,” Cope says. “Otherwise, it doesn’t really mean very much.”
www.theverge.com/policy/80111...
www.theverge.com/policy/80111...
Are people wearing inflatable frog costumes doing the Cha Cha Slide as part of protests outside of ICE detention centers in Portland "domestic terrorists"? Of course not.
cdt.org/insights/wha...
cdt.org/insights/wha...
What “Domestic Terrorism” and Non-Citizen Speech Have in Common
The Fight Must Continuestic-terrorism">The Common Thread Between Non-Citizen Speech and “Domestic Terrorism”hor">A Victory for Non-Citizen Speech ation to people in the United States through coercion,...
cdt.org
October 14, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Are people wearing inflatable frog costumes doing the Cha Cha Slide as part of protests outside of ICE detention centers in Portland "domestic terrorists"? Of course not.
cdt.org/insights/wha...
cdt.org/insights/wha...
A gentle reminder that Wikipedia is a global treasure and that if you dislike what you see on there the door is open to you to contribute to the community.
Radical transparency and cooperation is how Wikipedia works:
medium.com/freely-shari...
Radical transparency and cooperation is how Wikipedia works:
medium.com/freely-shari...
Keeping information reliable in the digital age: Lessons from Wikipedia
A new series explores how Wikipedia can inspire new standards of knowledge integrity for our times
medium.com
October 3, 2025 at 3:31 PM
A gentle reminder that Wikipedia is a global treasure and that if you dislike what you see on there the door is open to you to contribute to the community.
Radical transparency and cooperation is how Wikipedia works:
medium.com/freely-shari...
Radical transparency and cooperation is how Wikipedia works:
medium.com/freely-shari...
#TechPromCDT is back this October! It’s a night of connection, conversation, and celebration of 30+ years of tech policy. Can’t wait to see this incredible community come together again.
Oct 23 | 📍 The LINE DC
@CDT.org
cdt.org/event/2025-t...
Oct 23 | 📍 The LINE DC
@CDT.org
cdt.org/event/2025-t...
2025 Tech Prom
Join us on October 23, 2025, at The LINE DC for this year’s Tech Prom! 🎟️ [ Reserve Your Seat ] | 🏛️ [ Sponsor the Event ] At the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), we fight to advance civil...
cdt.org
October 3, 2025 at 3:24 PM
#TechPromCDT is back this October! It’s a night of connection, conversation, and celebration of 30+ years of tech policy. Can’t wait to see this incredible community come together again.
Oct 23 | 📍 The LINE DC
@CDT.org
cdt.org/event/2025-t...
Oct 23 | 📍 The LINE DC
@CDT.org
cdt.org/event/2025-t...
Reposted by Kate Ruane
A series of short posts from leading scholars about the constraints the First Amendment imposes on the government's authority to impose conditions on federal funding. Seems relevant! This is a @knightcolumbia.org series from earlier this year. knightcolumbia.org/research/fed...
Federal Funding and the First Amendment
knightcolumbia.org
October 2, 2025 at 4:21 PM
A series of short posts from leading scholars about the constraints the First Amendment imposes on the government's authority to impose conditions on federal funding. Seems relevant! This is a @knightcolumbia.org series from earlier this year. knightcolumbia.org/research/fed...
Reposted by Kate Ruane
It says something about Trump’s all-out war on free speech that the New York Times couldn’t find a more credible person than “presidential historian” Craig Shirley to defend it. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/u...
September 21, 2025 at 4:50 PM
It says something about Trump’s all-out war on free speech that the New York Times couldn’t find a more credible person than “presidential historian” Craig Shirley to defend it. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/u...
Reposted by Kate Ruane
Our own study of multilingual AI finds that these systems are trained on mostly English-lang data, machine translated speech, or data scraped from the web which doesn't represent how people speak. Translation is an art form. AI is creating six-fingered mimicry of language: cdt.org/insights/los...
Since 2023, translators and interpreters have seen work dry up, rates plummet and their jobs reduced to editing AI-generated output. Some are leaving the field, others are considering bankruptcy. All despite any major upgrade in translation quality.
This is how AI is killing translation work:
This is how AI is killing translation work:
AI Killed My Job: Translators
Few industries have been hit by AI as hard as translation. Rates are plummeting. Work is drying up. Translators are considering abandoning the field, or bankruptcy. These are their stories.
www.bloodinthemachine.com
August 22, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Our own study of multilingual AI finds that these systems are trained on mostly English-lang data, machine translated speech, or data scraped from the web which doesn't represent how people speak. Translation is an art form. AI is creating six-fingered mimicry of language: cdt.org/insights/los...
Reposted by Kate Ruane
I have lost all patience with the apparently unshakeable conviction that striking a reasonable, moderate pose means assuming the sincerity of transparently pretextual horseshit. Donald Trump does not care about reducing crime in DC. He is testing and normalizing paramilitary deployments in cities.
Is that what he is doing? Fighting crime? Phew. I thought he was using federal power to assert power over the country’s capital
August 15, 2025 at 9:52 PM
I have lost all patience with the apparently unshakeable conviction that striking a reasonable, moderate pose means assuming the sincerity of transparently pretextual horseshit. Donald Trump does not care about reducing crime in DC. He is testing and normalizing paramilitary deployments in cities.
This.
The SCOTUS decision on age verification is bad. Really bad.
But it does not mean that most age-gating or "online ID check" laws are constitutional.
The Texas law was narrowly focused on "adult content." This decision won't apply to, say, a law like KOSA that covers all kinds of protected speech
But it does not mean that most age-gating or "online ID check" laws are constitutional.
The Texas law was narrowly focused on "adult content." This decision won't apply to, say, a law like KOSA that covers all kinds of protected speech
June 30, 2025 at 7:15 PM
This.
I was honored to join this conversation with @knightcolumbia.org about federal funding the the First Amendment and to write this piece, in which I ask, what if Congress decided to exercise its power in this moment to protect our First Amendment rights?
@kateruane.bsky.social outlines multiple avenues for Congress to exert its authority over the funding process to prevent executive abuse in a new blog post for our federal funding & 1A series. Read it here: knightcolumbia.org/blog/congres...
Congress Could Do Something About the Weaponization of Federal Funding to Silence Speech. For Now, It Probably Won’t.
knightcolumbia.org
June 12, 2025 at 2:15 PM
I was honored to join this conversation with @knightcolumbia.org about federal funding the the First Amendment and to write this piece, in which I ask, what if Congress decided to exercise its power in this moment to protect our First Amendment rights?
I want #40MoreYearsofEvanGreer giving us essential security lesson via pop song covers! We sing this one in my house constantly. @evangreer.bsky.social
youtu.be/EJW7v_Emw8k?...
youtu.be/EJW7v_Emw8k?...
Pink Pony Club but it's about ... encryption?
YouTube video by Evan Greer
youtu.be
May 17, 2025 at 3:51 PM
I want #40MoreYearsofEvanGreer giving us essential security lesson via pop song covers! We sing this one in my house constantly. @evangreer.bsky.social
youtu.be/EJW7v_Emw8k?...
youtu.be/EJW7v_Emw8k?...
Reposted by Kate Ruane
CDT’s @beccabranum.bsky.social in the @nytimes.com on the unconstitutionality of the TAKE IT DOWN Act that recently passed in the House this Monday. www.nytimes.com/2025...
House Passes Bill to Ban Sharing of Revenge Porn, Sending It to Trump
The Take It Down Act, which united a coalition of conservative and liberal lawmakers, criminalizes the nonconsensual sharing of sexually explicit images of others and requires companies to remove them.
www.nytimes.com
May 1, 2025 at 7:02 PM
CDT’s @beccabranum.bsky.social in the @nytimes.com on the unconstitutionality of the TAKE IT DOWN Act that recently passed in the House this Monday. www.nytimes.com/2025...
Much more than six times
April 28, 2025 at 12:05 AM
Much more than six times
Imagine seeing the Venus de Milo for the first time and thinking “filth.” How broken and sad.
The Federalist is coming for your artistic nudes. By which I mean the ones in museums.
"A number of Christian men I’ve known have expressed discomfort at viewing nudity in high art... these are honest men who care about honoring God and womanhood.
"A number of Christian men I’ve known have expressed discomfort at viewing nudity in high art... these are honest men who care about honoring God and womanhood.
April 26, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Imagine seeing the Venus de Milo for the first time and thinking “filth.” How broken and sad.
Wikipedia is the ground truth of the internet. It has over 260000 dedicated people engaged in radically transparent content moderation and that’s why it’s the last best thing on the Internet. Targeting it says more about the one doing the targeting. www.theverge.com/news/656720/...
Trump DOJ goon threatens Wikipedia
Wikipedia is facing another threat.
www.theverge.com
April 25, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Wikipedia is the ground truth of the internet. It has over 260000 dedicated people engaged in radically transparent content moderation and that’s why it’s the last best thing on the Internet. Targeting it says more about the one doing the targeting. www.theverge.com/news/656720/...
Reposted by Kate Ruane
Leading us off, CDT CEO @alexreevegivens.bsky.social: “We’re convening this event because the U.S. is facing a crisis moment for the future of free speech."
"Who Will Fight for the First Amendment?" is happening now. Tune in LIVE! www.youtube.com/live/Zdczxmq...
April 24, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Leading us off, CDT CEO @alexreevegivens.bsky.social: “We’re convening this event because the U.S. is facing a crisis moment for the future of free speech."
Join CDT for this important discussion tomorrow!
Who Will Fight for the First Amendment? Join CDT and a panel of experts to discuss ways to defend free expression at this critical moment.
🗓️ April 24 | 2-3pm ET | Online
cdt.org/event/who-wi...
🗓️ April 24 | 2-3pm ET | Online
cdt.org/event/who-wi...
Who Will Fight for the First Amendment? Protecting Free Expression at a Critical Time
Time: 2:00 – 3:00 pm ET Date: Thursday, April 24, 2025 Format: Online Webinar On the day of his second Inauguration, President Trump issued an Executive Order, entitled Restoring Free Speech and Ending Federal Censorship. Since that moment, he and members of his Administration have commenced an all-out assault on the First Amendment and the […]
cdt.org
April 23, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Join CDT for this important discussion tomorrow!
A bop.
As promised here’s Pink Pony Club but it’s about encryption
April 14, 2025 at 9:09 PM
A bop.
Reposted by Kate Ruane
I think Mel Brooks once said something like: Tragedy is when I stub my toe, comedy is when you fall in an open sewer and die. By extension, "censorship" is when I can't use racial slurs on a private social media platform; "free speech" is when you get abducted off the street for political opinions.
April 10, 2025 at 8:00 PM
I think Mel Brooks once said something like: Tragedy is when I stub my toe, comedy is when you fall in an open sewer and die. By extension, "censorship" is when I can't use racial slurs on a private social media platform; "free speech" is when you get abducted off the street for political opinions.
Reposted by Kate Ruane
From CDT’s @kateruane.bsky.social: “Automated tools are error-prone & guaranteed to improperly categorize an unknown number of applicants’ viewpoints as violent, terroristic, or antisemitic, even by the Administration’s broad definitions of those terms.” www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...
Inside the DHS task force scouring foreign students' social media
A critic called the review a return to “McCarthyism,” a reference to tactics used to identify alleged communists during the Cold War.
www.nbcnews.com
April 10, 2025 at 8:52 PM
From CDT’s @kateruane.bsky.social: “Automated tools are error-prone & guaranteed to improperly categorize an unknown number of applicants’ viewpoints as violent, terroristic, or antisemitic, even by the Administration’s broad definitions of those terms.” www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...
Reposted by Kate Ruane
From CDT’s @kateruane.bsky.social: “DHS is targeting people based on nothing more than their First Amendment-protected expression, which is wrong in the first place. To make matters worse, it will almost certainly use error-prone automated tools to detect disfavored speech.” bsky.app/profile/npr....
Effective immediately, the government says it will begin screening immigrant social media for activity that officials think indicates support for antisemitism.
U.S. says it is now monitoring immigrants' social media for antisemitism
Effective immediately, the government says it will begin screening immigrant social media for activity that officials think indicates support for antisemitism.
www.npr.org
April 9, 2025 at 8:27 PM
From CDT’s @kateruane.bsky.social: “DHS is targeting people based on nothing more than their First Amendment-protected expression, which is wrong in the first place. To make matters worse, it will almost certainly use error-prone automated tools to detect disfavored speech.” bsky.app/profile/npr....