4,497 research outputs found
Conferring resistance to digital disinformation: the innoculating influence of procedural news knowledge
Despite the pervasiveness of digital disinformation in society, little is known about the individual characteristics that make some users more susceptible to erroneous information uptake than others, effectively dividing the media audience into prone and resistant groups. This study identifies and tests procedural news knowledge as a consequential civic resource with the capacity to inoculate audiences from disinformation and close this âresistance gap.â Engaging the persuasion knowledge model, the study utilizes data from two national surveys to demonstrate that possessing working knowledge of how the news media operate aids in the identification and effects of fabricated news and native advertising.Accepted manuscrip
Semi-Annual Report to Congress for the Period of April 1, 2009 to September 30, 2009
[Excerpt] I am pleased to submit this Semiannual Report to Congress, which highlights the most significant activities and accomplishments of the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG), for the six-month period ending September 30, 2009. During this reporting period, our investigative work led to 214 indictments, 221 convictions, and 7.4 million in payroll taxes. Because of our investigative expertise, the OIG is a member of the International Organized Crime (IOC) strategy headed by the U.S. Attorney General. The IOC is committed to combating crime by international organized groups.
Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to former DOL Inspector General Gordon S. Heddell, who is now serving as the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Defense. During his leadership of more than eight years, the DOL-OIG consistently achieved significant results similar to those presented in this report. As Acting Inspector General, I look forward to continuing to work with the Secretary of Labor and her management team in ensuring the effectiveness of DOL in delivering services and protecting the rights and benefits of American workers and retirees
The Rise of Mobile and the Diffusion of Technology-Facilitated Trafficking
In this report, researchers at the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy (CCLP) reveal how those involved in human trafficking have been quick to adapt to the 21st-century global landscape. While the rapid diffusion of digital technologies such as mobile phones, social networking sites, and the Internet has provided significant benefits to society, new channels and opportunities for exploitation have also emerged. Increasingly, the business of human trafficking is taking place online and over mobile phones. But the same technologies that are being used for trafficking can become a powerful tool to combat trafficking. The precise role that digital technologies play in human trafficking still remains unclear, however, and a closer examination of the phenomenon is vital to identify and respond to new threats and opportunities.This investigation indicates that mobile devices and networks have risen in prominence and are now of central importance to the sex trafficking of minors in the United States. While online platforms such as online classifieds and social networking sites remain a potential venue for exploitation, this research suggests that technology facilitated trafficking is more diffuse and adaptive than initially thought. This report presents a review of current literature, trends, and policies; primary research based on mobile phone data collected from online classified sites; a series of firsthand interviews with law enforcement; and key recommendations to policymakers and stakeholders moving forward
The Perilous Dialogue
The master metaphor in the national security dialogue is, indeed, âsecurity or freedomâ. It dominates the counterterrorist discourse both in the United States and abroad. Transcripts from debates in Irelandâs DaÌil EÌireann, Turkeyâs BuÌyuÌk Millet Meclisi, and Australiaâs Parliament are filled with reference to the need to weigh the value of liberty against the threat posed by terrorism. Perhaps nowhere is this more pronounced than in the United Kingdom, where, for decades, counterterrorist debates have turned on this framing. Owing in part, though, to different constitutional structures, what âsecurity or freedomâ means in America differs from what it means in Britain. In the United States, we tend to treat âsecurityâ and âfreedomâ as distinct phenomena: policy considerations set against pre-existing, political rights. Security becomes linked to decisions taken by the executive to preserve lifeâe.g., heightening protection against terrorist attacks by restricting entitlements specified in the Bill of Rights. Thus, Judge Richard Posner argues that in dangerous times, we must adjust constitutional rights to meet the demands of security. Professors Adrian Vermeule and Eric Posner propose âa basic tradeoff between security and liberty.â As Professor Holmes points out, the tradeoff framework is not limited to those who come down more heavily on the security side of the equation; civil libertarians also refer to the framework, arguing for the protection of rights in the face of security demands. In the United Kingdom, in contrast, scholars and policy makers tend to consider security versus freedom as a case of competing rights: the right to life or the right to freedom from fear set against the right to move freely. As Prime Minister Tony Blair announced on 9/11, the exercise of state power would be necessary to protect âthe basic civil liberty that people have to go about their business free form [sic] terror.â This framingâcompeting rights in tensionâreflects Britainâs constitutional structure. Measures introduced by Parliament do not have to conform to a written constitution. While some documents, such as the 1215 Magna Carta, or the 1689 Bill of Rights, carry special significance, they are part of a broader system that encompasses legal and non-legal rules. The multiplicity and fluidity of rights, and the constant effort to balance them, reflect Britainâs relationship with Europe, where the European Convention on Human Rights (incorporated into British domestic law through the 1998 Human Rights Act) and European Communities law weave together to create a complex system of rights and rules protecting them. Despite the manner in which the United States and United Kingdom interpret âsecurity or freedom,â reflective of their respective constitutional differences, in both countries the dichotomy between rights and security dominates the counterterrorist discourse. And in both regions, because the dichotomy ignores in its narrow terms of reference the far-reaching effects of counterterrorism, it stifles the debate. The âhydraulicâ assumption inherent in the âsecurity or freedomâ framework overlooks the possibility that rulesâindeed, the rule of law itselfâprovide security. There are multiple types of securities and liberties at stake. And the framework distorts the âreal tradeoffsâ that are being made, such as the risks inevitably entailed in the allocation of limited resources. Most importantly, âsecurity or freedomâ fails to capture the single most important characteristic of counterterrorist law: increased executive power that shifts the balance of power between the branches of government.
This article suggests that at each point where the legislature would be expected to push back against the executiveâs powerâat the introduction of measures, at the renewal of temporary provisions, and in the exercise of oversightâits ability to do so is limited. The judiciaryâs role is similarly restricted: constitutional structure and cultural norms narrow the courtsâ ability to check the executive at anything but the margins. With the long-term political and economic effects of this expanded executive strength masked by the immediacy of the âsecurity or freedomâ dichotomy, the true costs of anti-terror legislation in the United States and in the United Kingdom have gone uncalculated. Over the past four decades, both countries have seen the relationship between governmental branches altered, individual rights narrowed, and the relationship of the citizens to the state changed. Counterterrorist law has alienated important domestic and international communities, created bureaucratic inefficiencies, and interrupted commercial activity. As these two countries set global counterterrorist norms through important multilateral and bilateral organizations, such as the United Nations (âUNâ), the UN Security Council, the G7/G8, and the Financial Action Task Force, the risk increases that these detrimental effects will be transferred to other constitutional democracies. American and British provisions, moreover, have evolved outside the specter of terrorist groups actually using weapons of mass destruction to inflict mass casualties. The proliferation of weapons of mass destructionâand I would add biological weapons to Professor Holmesâs concern about fissile materialâtogether with a growing willingness on the part of extremists to sacrifice themselves, may drive the two countries to take increasingly severe measures. Such provisions could lead to a shift in the basic constitutional structure of both countries
No Security Through Obscurity: Changing Circumvention Law to Protect our Democracy Against Cyberattacks
Cybersecurity is increasingly vital in a climate of unprecedented digital assaults against liberal democracy. Russian hackers have launched destabilizing cyberattacks targeting the United Statesâ energy grid, voting machines, and political campaigns. America\u27s existing inadequate cyber defenses operate according to a simple assumption: hide the computer code that powers critical infrastructure so that America\u27s enemies cannot exploit undiscovered weaknesses. Indeed, the intellectual property regime relies entirely on this belief, protecting those who own the rights in computer code by punishing those who might access and copy that code. This âsecurity through obscurityâ approach has failed. Rightsholders, on their own, cannot develop effective countermeasures to hacking because there are simply too many possibilities to preempt. The most promising solution, therefore, is to open the project of cybersecurity to as many talented and ethical minds as possible. Openness, not civil remedies and secrecy, is a greater means of ensuring safety. This Article proposes that we adopt a âdefense in depthâ approach to security that will increase transparency by modifying anticircumvention laws and by facilitating communication between the security community and product vendors
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