Rebecca Williams
banner
rebeccawilliams.info
Rebecca Williams
@rebeccawilliams.info
Writer, lawyer, artist exploring how technology and power shape one another.
Privacy @ACLU.org, Board @MuckRock.com, Teaching @Pratt.edu.
🌐 rebeccawilliams.info Signal: rebecca.411
Pinned
what if technology wasn't something that was done to us, but instead something that we do?
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
Every time someone’s like “put that in the louvre,” my head now goes “and then steal it from the louvre, the security password is louvre”
November 11, 2025 at 3:33 AM
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
Participants found fact-checking images significantly harder than verifying written content.

www.niemanlab.org/2025/11/audi...
Audiences doubt the benefits of AI-generated imagery in news are worth the risks, new study finds
What do readers really think of AI-generated images in their news? There has been substantial research on how audiences respond to AI-generated text, but far less dedicated research on image…
www.niemanlab.org
November 9, 2025 at 6:25 PM
me all day
Explaining that we don't post photos of faces to the public internet to the elder child
November 7, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
This story in the Boston Globe that quotes @ethanz.bsky.social reminds me of the fascinating story over the last decade of how to moderate dopers who cheat their way onto the leaderboards of online sports platforms like Strava (1/n)

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/01/b...
Why Strava, Letterboxd, Beli, and other niche social media apps are having a moment - The Boston Globe
The apps serve as both a personal diary and a tight-knit social network that some users prefer over larger sites networks that they believe have grown toxic.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Awful
November 7, 2025 at 12:54 AM
this is art
November 6, 2025 at 11:50 PM
I appreciate the data mines framing/aesthetic!
November 6, 2025 at 7:19 PM
DC’s food pantries are overwhelmed this season due to furloughed gov workers, consider donating to help support them! fundraise.breadforthecity.org/fundraiser/6...
Holiday Helpings 2025
{{MetaTags.description}}
fundraise.breadforthecity.org
November 6, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
The positions on tech issues Mamdani presents here are well informed, nuanced and sophisticated. And the tech bros will absolutely hate them. bsky.app/profile/tech...
By resisting surveillance and extraction and pursuing goals such as affordability, dignity, and justice, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani can show how technology can truly serve people, writes Rebecca Williams. The first step, she says, is to protect immigrants.
buff.ly/Mwk8vRu
November 6, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
Lots of very good ideas in here for @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social about what it might look like to have a tech policy agenda aligned with human rights principles.
By resisting surveillance and extraction and pursuing goals such as affordability, dignity, and justice, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani can show how technology can truly serve people, writes Rebecca Williams. The first step, she says, is to protect immigrants.
buff.ly/Mwk8vRu
November 6, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
I will be advocating for a Digital Sanctuary City everywhere.
For @techpolicypress.bsky.social I laid out a tech agenda for Mayor-elect zohrankmamdani.bsky.social that resists surveillance and extraction while advancing his goals for affordability, dignity, and justice.
Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social)
Mayor-Elect of New York City
zohrankmamdani.bsky.social
November 6, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
SCOOP (free, as it's FOIA-based!): I obtained 1,665 pgs of documents about "Bicken Ben," a growing private school the Zuckerbergs ran illegally out of their Palo Alto compound

Neighbors complained the school for years. Then, in 2024, they reached their breaking point:
www.wired.com/story/mark-z...
Mark Zuckerberg Opened an Illegal School at His Palo Alto Compound. His Neighbors Revolted
Neighbors complained about noise, security guards, and hordes of traffic. An unlicensed school named after the Zuckerbergs’ pet chicken tipped them over the edge.
www.wired.com
November 6, 2025 at 1:29 PM
what if technology wasn't something that was done to us, but instead something that we do?
November 6, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
YouTube publicly decries Biden pressuring it to censor, then quietly does this at Trump's behest: theintercept.com/2025/11/04/y...
YouTube Quietly Erased More Than 700 Videos Documenting Israeli Human Rights Violations
The tech giant deleted the accounts of three prominent Palestinian human rights groups — a capitulation to Trump sanctions.
theintercept.com
November 5, 2025 at 7:26 PM
A trilogy!
The second in my trilogy on Mamdani & the NYPD. The department’s mass surveillance programs and intelligence division may face their first serious reckoning in decades - or not, if the De Blasio/mainstream Dems climbing onto Zohran’s bandwagon have their way
NEW: NYC's mayor-elect must now grapple with the sweeping NYPD surveillance apparatus that has historically targeted Muslims and other minority groups. @awinston.bsky.social reports for @wired.com www.wired.com/story/welcom...
November 5, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
Wow I didn't even note the time and place --

This Saturday at STARR BAR in Brooklyn, 7 PM, the second New York Luddite Tribunal.

RSVP below if you could, as last time we packed the house.
November 5, 2025 at 9:50 PM
🫡
look if a bunch of us work together we can be humanistic tech criticism voltron the zohran administration needs right now
November 5, 2025 at 9:48 PM
my one precious life
November 5, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
Grateful to @rebeccawilliams.info for staying up late to do this on election night- her proposed tech agenda for NYC Mayor-elect @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social:
By resisting surveillance and extraction and pursuing goals such as affordability, dignity, and justice, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani can show how technology can truly serve the people, writes Rebecca Williams. The first step, she says, is to protect immigrants.
Mayor-Elect Mamdani Can Build a Tech Agenda for New York and a Model for the Country | TechPolicy.Press
By resisting surveillance, extraction, and exploitation, Mamdani can show how technology truly serves the people, writes Rebecca Williams.
www.techpolicy.press
November 5, 2025 at 8:10 PM
For @techpolicypress.bsky.social I laid out a tech agenda for Mayor-elect zohrankmamdani.bsky.social that resists surveillance and extraction while advancing his goals for affordability, dignity, and justice.
Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social)
Mayor-Elect of New York City
zohrankmamdani.bsky.social
November 5, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Your boy has plans, I have plans too.
Former FTC chair Lina Khan was just named to NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's transition team—just one sign that his new administration will take tech matters seriously, writes Rebecca Williams. She offers a tech agenda for the new mayor to advance his campaign goals:
Mayor-Elect Mamdani Can Build a Tech Agenda for New York and a Model for the Country | TechPolicy.Press
By resisting surveillance, extraction, and exploitation, Mamdani can show how technology truly serves the people, writes Rebecca Williams.
www.techpolicy.press
November 5, 2025 at 5:49 PM
let’s go
TRANSITION CO-CHAIR LINA KHAN!?!?!??!
November 5, 2025 at 4:57 PM
the perfect line for all of your enemies forevermore: I wish ________ only the best in private life, but let tonight be the last time I utter their name ....
November 5, 2025 at 4:26 AM
Reposted by Rebecca Williams
magnificent
Mamdani cracks 1M votes, the first NYC mayor to do so since John Lindsay in 1969
November 5, 2025 at 3:26 AM