Wafa Ben-Hassine
@wafa.bsky.social
By becoming overly engrossed in the networks on our screens, we lose sight of the networks within us and within the living beings that surround us.
Director @ Omidyar Network
Director @ Omidyar Network
If the cry of this child does not haunt your conscience, nothing else will. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/w...
Gazans Are Dying of Starvation
www.nytimes.com
July 26, 2025 at 12:06 AM
If the cry of this child does not haunt your conscience, nothing else will. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/24/w...
Thread! Unfortunately, there are way too many conferences like this. Even the ITU’s AI for Good Summit (UN, in Geneva) had no space for breastfeeding / nursing.
I'm at #TrustCon. Half the sessions are on tech companies' responsibilities on child safety (not Palestinian children though) and the well-being of trust and safety professionals, yet the conference design completely ignores the realities of working parents, especially for mothers. My experience 👇
July 25, 2025 at 2:28 AM
Thread! Unfortunately, there are way too many conferences like this. Even the ITU’s AI for Good Summit (UN, in Geneva) had no space for breastfeeding / nursing.
Reposted by Wafa Ben-Hassine
a couple of hours before my keynote, I went through an intense negotiation with the organisers (for over a hour) where we went through my slides and had to remove anything that mentions 'Palestine' 'Israel' and replace 'genocide' with 'war crimes'
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my keynote happening in a few mins. registration here to stream it
aiforgood.itu.int/summit25/reg...
aiforgood.itu.int/summit25/reg...
July 8, 2025 at 9:58 AM
a couple of hours before my keynote, I went through an intense negotiation with the organisers (for over a hour) where we went through my slides and had to remove anything that mentions 'Palestine' 'Israel' and replace 'genocide' with 'war crimes'
1/
1/
Trump levying tariffs on countries just because their populations are not as commercially crazed as ours is. How dare they not BUY BUY BUY. This makes no sense.
April 3, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Trump levying tariffs on countries just because their populations are not as commercially crazed as ours is. How dare they not BUY BUY BUY. This makes no sense.
Reposted by Wafa Ben-Hassine
james surowiecki has discovered where the completely fabricated trump tariff rate has come from for each country
"...for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us."
"...for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us."
April 2, 2025 at 10:32 PM
james surowiecki has discovered where the completely fabricated trump tariff rate has come from for each country
"...for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us."
"...for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us."
The (even crazier) part is that what’s keeping the news cycle going is the Signal chat and not the human beings killed as a result of these strikes.
March 26, 2025 at 8:30 PM
The (even crazier) part is that what’s keeping the news cycle going is the Signal chat and not the human beings killed as a result of these strikes.
Reposted by Wafa Ben-Hassine
If you wanted to cut waste, fraud, and abuse, you would empower the inspectors general.
If you wanted more waste, fraud, and abuse, you would fire them.
If you wanted more waste, fraud, and abuse, you would fire them.
February 17, 2025 at 2:17 PM
If you wanted to cut waste, fraud, and abuse, you would empower the inspectors general.
If you wanted more waste, fraud, and abuse, you would fire them.
If you wanted more waste, fraud, and abuse, you would fire them.
Reposted by Wafa Ben-Hassine
The Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org is fighting for the digital rights of everyone in the USA.
We demand accountability for this unconscionable collection and sharing of private data happening right now.
We demand accountability for this unconscionable collection and sharing of private data happening right now.
BREAKING: We are suing DOGE and the Office of Personnel Management to stop the brazen and illegal data sharing of federal employee data with the “government efficiency” group.
EFF Sues DOGE and the Office of Personnel Management to Halt Ransacking of Federal Data
EFF and a coalition of privacy defenders have filed a lawsuit today asking a federal court to block Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing the private information of mil...
www.eff.org
February 11, 2025 at 11:54 PM
The Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org is fighting for the digital rights of everyone in the USA.
We demand accountability for this unconscionable collection and sharing of private data happening right now.
We demand accountability for this unconscionable collection and sharing of private data happening right now.
Reposted by Wafa Ben-Hassine
Marco Rubio's new acting undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, ladies and gentlemen.
February 3, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Marco Rubio's new acting undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, ladies and gentlemen.
Democrats: missing in INaction. Are we really surprised, following nearly a decade of neglecting their base?
February 3, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Democrats: missing in INaction. Are we really surprised, following nearly a decade of neglecting their base?
Reposted by Wafa Ben-Hassine
Part of what we are seeing here is
a) Trump/DOGE officials claiming authority they do not have, trying to break the law
b) career officials pushing back
c) career officials punished: put on leave and likely fired when Schedule F returns.
a) Trump/DOGE officials claiming authority they do not have, trying to break the law
b) career officials pushing back
c) career officials punished: put on leave and likely fired when Schedule F returns.
This is illegal. These are crimes!
February 2, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Part of what we are seeing here is
a) Trump/DOGE officials claiming authority they do not have, trying to break the law
b) career officials pushing back
c) career officials punished: put on leave and likely fired when Schedule F returns.
a) Trump/DOGE officials claiming authority they do not have, trying to break the law
b) career officials pushing back
c) career officials punished: put on leave and likely fired when Schedule F returns.
Reposted by Wafa Ben-Hassine
I really thought taking over the US Government was more difficult than sending a teenager named Big Balls to demand everyone hand over the keys
Contrary to some info I've seen, 19-yr-old Doge staffer "BigBalls" Edward Coristine did not delete his X account, it's just renamed and is private.
Wired reported that govt tech workers had to defend their work to the Neuralink intern in an Office Space-esque scene.
/ more for Canadians
Wired reported that govt tech workers had to defend their work to the Neuralink intern in an Office Space-esque scene.
/ more for Canadians
February 2, 2025 at 8:50 PM
I really thought taking over the US Government was more difficult than sending a teenager named Big Balls to demand everyone hand over the keys
I haven't used this app for a while but this is my attempt to use it as I would have used Twitter in the past: anyone know of good photographers (for headshots and a slightly more editorial project) in the DC/Maryland/Viriginia area?
December 29, 2023 at 8:40 PM
I haven't used this app for a while but this is my attempt to use it as I would have used Twitter in the past: anyone know of good photographers (for headshots and a slightly more editorial project) in the DC/Maryland/Viriginia area?
Reposted by Wafa Ben-Hassine
This year's legislative agenda is an all-you-can-eat buffet of bad internet legislation. If you live in the US, now is the time to contact Congress and tell them that these bills are dangerous and wrong-headed.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/07/you-can-help-stop-these-bad-internet-bills
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/07/you-can-help-stop-these-bad-internet-bills
July 23, 2023 at 6:51 PM
This year's legislative agenda is an all-you-can-eat buffet of bad internet legislation. If you live in the US, now is the time to contact Congress and tell them that these bills are dangerous and wrong-headed.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/07/you-can-help-stop-these-bad-internet-bills
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/07/you-can-help-stop-these-bad-internet-bills
The fact that we continue to question what privacy means in different parts of the world puts the failure of the international human rights system on full display. Cultural relativism vis-à-vis human rights is still a very, very real thing.
July 11, 2023 at 2:41 PM
The fact that we continue to question what privacy means in different parts of the world puts the failure of the international human rights system on full display. Cultural relativism vis-à-vis human rights is still a very, very real thing.
On Threads: Many clauses in the Supplemental Threads Privacy Policy seem rather unconscionable (eg Section 4), and frankly worse from a user rights perspective than most of Meta’s other apps https://help.instagram.com/769983657850450
July 6, 2023 at 1:31 PM
On Threads: Many clauses in the Supplemental Threads Privacy Policy seem rather unconscionable (eg Section 4), and frankly worse from a user rights perspective than most of Meta’s other apps https://help.instagram.com/769983657850450
Can we please stop, once and for all, with all the pessimist/optimist framings of artificial intelligence? Super unhelpful, rather lazy, and lends too easily to armchair-critic-vibes
June 14, 2023 at 3:15 PM
Can we please stop, once and for all, with all the pessimist/optimist framings of artificial intelligence? Super unhelpful, rather lazy, and lends too easily to armchair-critic-vibes
Reposted by Wafa Ben-Hassine
“We would shut down before we adulterate” Signal - Meredith Whittaker
“We would rather be blocked than take away people’s privacy” - Will Cathcart
(Good lord, trying to tag someone you follow on Bluesky is terrible. I’m not wading through a list of all Merediths to tag the right one)
“We would rather be blocked than take away people’s privacy” - Will Cathcart
(Good lord, trying to tag someone you follow on Bluesky is terrible. I’m not wading through a list of all Merediths to tag the right one)
June 7, 2023 at 4:46 PM
“We would shut down before we adulterate” Signal - Meredith Whittaker
“We would rather be blocked than take away people’s privacy” - Will Cathcart
(Good lord, trying to tag someone you follow on Bluesky is terrible. I’m not wading through a list of all Merediths to tag the right one)
“We would rather be blocked than take away people’s privacy” - Will Cathcart
(Good lord, trying to tag someone you follow on Bluesky is terrible. I’m not wading through a list of all Merediths to tag the right one)
Reposted by Wafa Ben-Hassine
how the hell are data brokers still legal
May 25, 2023 at 5:12 PM
how the hell are data brokers still legal