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Chhaya Kapadia

@chhayakapadia.bsky.social
124 followers 150 following 57 posts

Chief of Staff at Open Technology Institute, tech policy geek, inveterate public interest-ite, native of Boston, but home is DC. Opinions are all mine. #taxationwithoutrepresentation

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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Hostage taking of state funding for closing the digital divide is all about prioritizing ISP profits over the public good. It's counterproductive: to undermine broadband access/affordability/adoption only kneecaps those who have the most to gain.
arstechnica.com
California may gut state net neutrality law to comply with Trump admin demand
Trump admin broadband grants forbid states from enforcing net neutrality laws.
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The Objective @objectivejournos.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
“Somebody is going to say, ‘Why am I talking to you? Why are you doing this story? I can't talk to you, because what happens if this winds up in Palantir?’ And that should not be the job of a reporter to answer for.” objectivejournalism.org/2026/08/hund...
objectivejournalism.org
Hundreds of journalists demand USA Today Co. end Palantir partnership
Palantir's products have been used by the U.S. government to support immigration raids.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
The FCC this week proposed to change or sunset E-Rate-which supports internet service and equipment in schools + libraries. This fits right into the trend to limit poor kids' education opps for unrelated reasons, i.e. school having help paying the ISP bill = kids having too much screen time.
benton.org
The FCC Is Asking Whether to End E-Rate. Every School and Library Should Answer.
Schools, Health, and Libraries Broadband Coalition response to FCC's latest E-Rate proposal
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
That any gov't cares enough abt digital rights orgs to make a stink shows just how important surveillance and censorship are to preserving + expanding their power. But also shows the calls for privacy, security, freedom of expression are increasing...which means digital rights orgs are succeeding.
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Doctora Malka Older @older.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Please think of your friendly neighborhood digital rights organizations in these days. Pay attention to what they're doing, so often unnoticed, as Big Tech and govts chip away at your rights online. Send them a few bucks if you can. It's rough out there.
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Rightscon being postponed by the Zambian government days before thousands of people from hundreds of countries fly in is quite chaotic: www.404media.co/rightscon-hu...
404media.co
World’s Largest Digital Human Rights Conference Suddenly 'Postponed'
RightsCon was delayed by Zambia's Ministry of Information for "thematic issues" and problems with speakers.
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Trades Union Congress @tuc.org.uk · 16/04/2026
An advert promoting an AI company at Bristol Airport has been pulled after backlash. The advert showed a female AI worker who will 'never ask for a raise'.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
I talk about how succeeding at using or advancing or knowledgeably regulating AI depends upon first closing the digital divide. You gotta crawl before you walk, and it's the same here. Which is why jerking states around on using fed $ on broadband access/affordability/adoption is counterproductive.
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Evan Greer @evangreer.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
The best way to protect kids (and everyone else) online is to pass strong privacy legislation that prevents these companies from collecting so much data in the first place and using that data to power manipulative and addictive recommendation algorithms. www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2024-07...
fightforthefuture.org
We’ve been fighting each other while Big Tech gets away with murder. To win liberatory tech policy, we need a unified strategy and a clear division of labor.
This is a post from Evan Greer (she/they), director of Fight for the Future The movement to hold Big Tech accountable is growing, but we’re struggling. As the clock runs out on this Congress, it looks...
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Exactly. This is why the big push over banning TikTok never made sense to me. China doesn't need to use TikTok to do bulk collection of user data...cuz they can just BUY data on anyone (whether they're on TikTok or not). n.pr/4t5Y8GQ
n.pr
Your data is everywhere. The government is buying it without a warrant
Data brokers buy up huge amounts of information from cell phones and browsers to sell for targeted advertising. But the government, including ICE, also buys the data.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
Watching a Japanese figure skater compete to Stevie Wonder in the #winterolympics in Italy on global tv, and I guarantee most viewers knew the (awesome) song. The soft power of cultural dominance ain’t nothing.
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Runa Sandvik @runasand.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
The FBI was able to access Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson's Signal messages because she used Signal on her work laptop. The laptop accepted Touch ID for authentication, meaning the agents were allowed to require her to unlock it. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
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Alvaro M. Bedoya @bedoyausa.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
ICE isn’t just brutal. It’s also big business. From 2008 to 2021 ICE spent *$1.2 billion* on geolocation tracking, $561M on data analysis, $252M on government databases, and $97M on data brokers. Most of that went to companies who will lobby for this system to stay in place.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
A trenchant insider warning on how tech co's shameless pivot for short-term gain will bite them. He's right abt the coming techlash. It's already starting w/ people pushing back on AI data centers, gov't + corps sharing data, state AI preemption, kids on social media, privacy x.com/kumareth/sta...
x.com
Kumar Abhirup on X: "The big techlash is coming, and we will deserve it." / X
The big techlash is coming, and we will deserve it.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
I feel ya, guy - we don't want you here any more than you want to be here. washingtonian.com/2026/01/21/a...
washingtonian.com
An Anonymous DC National Guardsman Tells All
“This is not what I signed up to do.”
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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 09/01/2026
Again, "I only make CSAM for money" would not help an ordinary person's defence, but would aggravate their sentencing.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
Wildly off topic…but I want to express my gratitude for every single ice dance team who didn’t use the Backstreet Boys as part of their rhythm dance music this season. I have my Backstreet moments I guess but So. Much. Backstreet. #figureskating #prevagenuschamps
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Gregory Pratt @royalpratt.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
64 days in Chicago: The story of Operation Midway Blitz. Our team fanned out to cover the before, during and after of the federal government’s months-long raid on an American city. This is worth your time to understand the United States today www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/28/c...
chicagotribune.com
64 days in Chicago: The story of Operation Midway Blitz
President Donald Trump’s federal immigration enforcement operation led to most surreal autumn in Chicago history. What happened during those 64 days will be remembered for a long time.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
A good explanation from @meredithmeredith.bsky.social on why AI agents present a risk to our privacy, our security (hello, encryption back door), and the future of encrypted comms tools like @signal.org. Hopefully these are all things we can agree on over the Thanksgiving weekend!
megaphone.link
Signal’s Meredith Whittaker on AI hype and the end of privacy by POLITICO Tech
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Shira Ovide @shiraovide.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
Love this on the power of listening and being heard. Alyssa is one of the very best. www.notus.org/perspectives...
notus.org
The Washington Post Got 21,000 Emails After It Didn't Endorse. I Read Them All.
Reading and editing letters gave me a theory about what is wrong with America — and how it could be fixed.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
We need to know how much our internet bill is going to cost so we can manage our budgets, and that's what the broadband nutrition label tells us. Yet the FCC is considering chipping away at it. Tell 'em what you think under “Proceeding 22-2,” choose “Express Reply” here: www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/...
fcc.gov
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New America @newamerica.org · 06/11/2025
New America in the news: 1️⃣ @kevincarey1.bsky.social for @usatoday.com bit.ly/3XaeGj4 2️⃣ @ehaspel.bsky.social for @theguardian.com bit.ly/4qPiAvy 3️⃣ @chhayakapadia.bsky.social in @washingtonpost.com wapo.st/4omP4eH
Protesters holding a banner in front of a building with the text 'New America in the News.' The USA Today headline on a phone screen reads 'Trump's education plan leaves kids, parents to suffer,' dated October 26, 2025.Screenshot of a Guardian news article from November 1, 2025, discussing the enduring inequality in the American healthcare system, highlighted by pay-to-play aspects impacting families, written by Elliot Haspel, a fellow at Culture of Care Narrative.Text displayed on a mobile device screen showing an article from The Washington Post with the headline "The Washington Post subscription service that's going to complicate things..." by Chhaya Kapadia.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Divali 2025: late but not ignored. Biryani, lapsi (sorta Gujarati bulgar pudding), candles for light to banish the darkness, a gin and tonic to make the darkness easier to manage, and a playoff baseball game that will make someone’s baseball dreams might come true. #divali #lightoverdarkness
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
Listening to D’Angelo’s Spanish Joint on Voodoo and the impeccable guitar solo by Chuck Brown. #mwahh #dcpride
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American Library Association @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
Special #BannedBooksWeek edition of the @projectcensored.bsky.social show with Youth Honorary Chair Iris Mogul, ALA President @samhelmick.bsky.social, and Lee Rowland from @ncacensorship.bsky.social. www.projectcensored.org/banned-book…
projectcensored.org
Banned Books Week: Censorship Is So 1984, Read For Your Rights!
Celebrate Banned Books Week with voices defending the freedom to read and the fight against censorship on the Project Censored Show.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
Glad to see more on the risks of an AI bubble. Yes, and...will lack of value to people be what slows the AI train enough to let public interest & human rights impacts (finally) catch up to the tech? Or do open source AI models (see: DeepSeek) demonstrate VC $$$$ aren't nec to build AI for all uses?
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
Enjoying today’s OTI’s 15th anniversary event today, and looking forward to a great discussion with OTI’s former and current leaders @saschameinrath.bsky.social @abdavidson.bsky.social @bankston.bsky.social @lcoral.bsky.social and Sarah Morris.
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Shalin Jyotishi @shalinjyotishi.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
FABBS is hiring a short-term Tech Policy Fellow to focus on behavioral science and AI (link below). Share with early career policy wonks @ilpfoundry.bsky.social @asa-scipol.bsky.social @scipolguy.bsky.social @abankston.bsky.social @matthourihan.bsky.social @snapcoalition.bsky.social #scipoljobs
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 07/08/2025
I just gave to support @51st.news and you should too if you can. National news is important but local news coverage is how you learn about the stuff that impacts your day to day living, which is even more valuable, so I’m glad to support.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
“The societal benefit of a comprehensive guide to the cultural sector can’t be readily calculated on a balance sheet.” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv... This was me too, and the ground level awareness of what was out there to see and do was so eye-opening for me.
theatlantic.com
A Love Letter to Music Listings
Publications like Time Out New York were my bible and my road map.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
If we really want to "win the global race to AI," it makes no sense to toss out gov't goals for faster speed and decide it doesn't matter whether people can afford their internet bills. Speed/service goals matter if you want people to use AI...as does being able to pay your internet bill.
arstechnica.com
FCC to eliminate gigabit speed goal and scrap analysis of broadband prices
Analysis of broadband affordability deemed “extraneous” by FCC chair.
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WIRED @wired.com · 10/07/2025
DHS is urging law enforcement to treat even skateboarding and livestreaming as signs of violent intent during a protest, turning everyday behavior into a pretext for police action. www.wired.com/story/dhs-te...
wired.com
Skateboards and Livestreams: DHS Tells Police That Common Protest Activities Are ‘Violent Tactics’
DHS is urging law enforcement to treat even skateboarding and livestreaming as signs of violent intent during a protest, turning everyday behavior into a pretext for police action.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
I haven’t read Judge Alsup’s AI #fairuse case yet [she adds to stack/tabs], BUT noting that “training AI” makes it sound like it’s a person learning how to write by reading lots of books, to which they add their own thought and life experiences to create something original. /1
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Here's how much of my personal data DOGE has access to. The results aren’t pretty. Take the quiz yourself now to discover how much of your sensitive info is now exposed. (And props to my colleagues at @techanddemocracy.newamerica.org!) #HandsOffMyData dogequiz.newamerica.org/share/?share...
dogequiz.newamerica.org
Quiz: What Does DOGE Know About You?
The Department of Government Efficiency has unauthorized access to millions of Americans' data. Take New America's quiz to see how much of your data is at risk.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Last night in northwest DC
Rainbow over DC street
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
The recent clowning of D's rural broadband infra efforts has been so disappointing and lazy. There's a bigger story about gov't capture by corporate interests that's much more illustrative of why we don't have nice things. Here's an ex:
theatlantic.com
Red Tape Isn’t the Only Reason America Can’t Build
The failure to deploy rural broadband has become synonymous with excessive bureaucracy. The real story is more complicated.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Imagine the world were all of your data could only be shared or sold if you OPTED IN. And if the default were that nothing you shared with a tech company could be shared or sold otherwise…that’d be a game changing shift of power. wapo.st/4kBQ8d5 (gift article)
wapo.st
In 23andMe case, a fight brews over who can sell your genetic code
State attorneys general are seeking a ruling in 23andMe’s bankruptcy that the DNA testing firm needs explicit consent from customers before transferring their genetic data to another company.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Certainly an argument for humans (both the engineering of the scam and their actual labor), but also perhaps an argument for open source AI??
mashable.com
Microsoft-backed AI startup chatbots revealed to be human employees
AI-washing at its finest.
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American Library Association @amlibraryassoc.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Thanks to the FCC's Learn Without Limits program, libraries across the country are using #ERate discounts to support wi-fi hotspot lending. But some in Congress want to end the program. Tell your Rep to keep communities connected & protect this funding: bit.ly/TakeActionHotspots #ForOurLibraries
Show up for our libraries, American Library Association
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Peter Baker @peterbakernyt.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
RIP Loretta Swit, known in her time in homes across America as Major Houlihan on M*A*S*H, a character she transformed over the course of more than a decade on the show from from a hardass villain to a sympathetic protagonist. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/o...
nytimes.com
Loretta Swit a.k.a. Hot Lips of TV’s ‘M*A*S*H,’ Dies at 87
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
So asking permission of artists before you use their life’s work to create tech that will be used to supplant them is unreasonable and unworkable. Huh.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
I appreciate this piece from @annalenhart.bsky.social on how kneecapping states' ability to regulate AI means that we undervalue states as incubators of ideas. After all, you need those ideas even more when the rest of the nat'l policymaking players seem poised to let AI co's do whatever they want.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Sometimes the “equity” in Digital Equity Act means that some people in rural areas are less likely to have high speed internet access than others and nothing more nefarious than that. Here’s a good take from @gregsargent.bsky.social on how cutting Digital Equity Act funds hurts red-state voters.
newrepublic.com
Angry Trump Kills “Woke” Program—and Accidentally Screws MAGA Voters
It’s called the Digital Equity Act. That word—“equity”—caught the White House’s attention. So now Trump is moving to nix funding—but it could cut off millions destined for red America.
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Future of Music Coalition @futureofmusic.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
Just hours after the Copyright Office released its report on AI training—stating the obvious, that much unlicensed commercial training of AI on copyright-protected material is unlikely to qualify as fair use—President Trump has fired the Register of Copyrights. www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/tru...
cbsnews.com
Trump fires director of U.S. Copyright Office, sources say
Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter was appointed to the post by now former Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, who herself was fired by President Trump earlier this week.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
"Ending" the Digital Equity Act is such a sad, unnecessary self-own. The digital inclusion work of DEA is 1 on 1, time-intensive, community-driven, and community-based--helping folks in rural areas, vets, seniors, people w/ disabilities, and yes, members of minority or ethnic groups. 1/
newamerica.org
Ending the Digital Equity Act Would Harm and Isolate Millions of Americans, Says OTI
We need the Digital Equity Act to achieve the benefits of making America a fully digitally-connected nation.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Your occasional reminder that while inappropriate uses of Signal for highly sensitive gov't work are bad for #nationalsecurity, there's still a FIRE HOSE of geolocation data on US citizens available for *anyone* worldwide to buy from unregulated data brokers. (article from Nov but still true!)
wired.com
Anyone Can Buy Data Tracking US Soldiers and Spies to Nuclear Vaults and Brothels in Germany
More than 3 billion phone coordinates collected by a US data broker expose the detailed movements of US military and intelligence workers in Germany—and the Pentagon is powerless to stop it.
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 27/04/2025
Nifty little 1 minute video on how Wikipedia works
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Chhaya Kapadia @chhayakapadia.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
A little joy for your day and a small reminder why living in a city can be randomly awesome (and a chance to say the word “Ronkonkoma,” which also brings me joy):
nytimes.com
Penn Station’s Not-So-Secret Other Life: The People’s Dance Studio (Gift Article)
Smooth floors. Public restrooms. A built-in audience: The lower level of Moynihan Hall doubles as a rehearsal space for a variety of dance groups, including K-pop, salsa and Brazilian Zouk.
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