税務システム等標準化検討会　軽自動車税ワーキング（第13回機能要件及び第14回帳票要件）

税務システム等標準化検討会　軽自動車税ワーキング（第14回機能要件及び第15回帳票要件）

「地域課題解決のためのスマートシティ推進事業」の交付式を津山市にて開催

「第2回　自動運転インフラ検討会」の開催

第729回　入札監理小委員会（開催案内）

消防防災科学技術研究推進制度の令和7年度研究開発課題の募集

9月20日からの大雨に関する被害状況等について（第23報）

一般職事務系（高卒・行政評価）の採用情報を更新しました。

　8月19日の午後１時過ぎにNHKラジオ国際などで生放送された中国語ニュースで、中国人のスタッフがニュース原稿にない内容を発言した問題は、ついに国際放送担当理事の引責辞任、総務省によるNHKへの行政指導という事態に発展した。問題矮小化で傷広をげる　NHKは放送当日、直ちに報道資料を公表し、ニュースウオッチ９でも伝えた。しかし、問題を「不適切発言」とし、内容も尖閣諸島を「中国の領土である」と発言したことに限定して公表した。　いつものように問題を矮小化し、NHKの責任を小さく見せ..

自民党の国会議員が政治資金パーティーなどで多額の裏金を捻出していたという前代未聞の事件が発覚した今、裏金事件に関与した議員の落選を呼びかける運動が街頭やSNS上で広がりつつある。（藤ヶ谷魁）

　自民党総裁選で石破茂氏が選ばれ、１０月１日に首相に選出された。総裁選に立候補した９人全員が改憲を叫ぶ中、９条かながわの会では９条の最大の危機として、９月２８日に横浜市で「憲法９条を守る運動の緊急交流会」を開催した。　共同代表で弁護士の岡田尚氏は、２０１４年の集団的自衛権行使容認の閣議決定から１０年。急激な戦争への下り坂でブレーキなき暴走が続くとして、「新しい石破政権のもとで改憲発議の可能性がある。世界は再び戦争と紛争の時代の中で、これまで何度も改憲の危機を乗り越えてきたこと..

この本は日本消費者連盟が発行するブックレットの最新刊で、一読してすごい本だなと思いました。内外の最新の知見と著者の実践を踏まえ、わかりやすく明快に、今何が起こっているか、その原因はどこにあるのか、ではどうすればいいのかが説かれている。おすすめの一冊です。著者は過敏症患者会「いのち環境ネットワーク」代表も務める環境ジャーナリストの加藤やすこさん。(大野和興)

EFF, along with the ACLU and the ACLU of Mississippi, filed an amicus brief on Thursday asking a federal appellate court to continue to block Mississippi’s HB 1126—a bill that imposes age verification mandates on social media services across the internet.

Our friend-of-the-court brief, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, argues that HB 1126 is “an extraordinary censorship law that violates all internet users’ First Amendment rights to speak and to access protected speech” online.

HB 1126 forces social media sites to verify the age of every user and requires minors to get explicit parental consent before accessing online spaces. It also pressures them to monitor and censor content  on broad, vaguely defined topics—many of which involve constitutionally protected speech. These sweeping provisions create significant barriers to the free and open internet and “force adults and minors alike to sacrifice anonymity, privacy, and security to engage in protected online expression.” A federal district court already prevented HB 1126 from going into effect, ruling that it likely violated the First Amendment.

Blocking Minors from Vital Online Spaces

At the heart of our opposition to HB 1126 is its dangerous impact on young people’s free expression. Minors enjoy the same First Amendment right as adults to access and engage in protected speech online.

“No legal authority permits lawmakers to burden adults’ access to political, religious, educational, and artistic speech with restrictive age-verification regimes out of a concern for what minors might see. Nor is there any legal authority that permits lawmakers to block minors categorically from engaging in protected expression on general purpose internet sites like those regulated by HB 1126.”

Social media sites are not just entertainment hubs; they are diverse and important spaces where minors can explore their identities—whether by creating and sharing art, practicing religion, or engaging in politics. As our brief explains, minors’ access to these online spaces “is essential to their growth into productive members of adult society because it helps them develop their own ideas, learn to express themselves, and engage productively with others in our democratic public sphere.” 

Social media also “enables individuals whose voices would otherwise not be heard to make vital and even lifesaving connections with one another, and to share their unique perspectives more widely.” LGBTQ+ youth, for example, turn to social media for community, exploration, and support, while others find help in forums that discuss mental health, disability, eating disorders, or domestic violence.

HB 1126’s age-verification regime places unnecessary barriers between young people and these crucial resources. The law compels platforms to broadly restrict minors’ access to a vague list of topics—the majority of which concern constitutionally protected speech—that Mississippi deems “harmful” for minors.

First Amendment Rights: Protection for All

The impact of HB 1126 is not limited to minors—it also places unnecessary and unconstitutional restrictions on adults’ speech. The law requires all users to verify their age before accessing social media, which could entirely block access for the millions of U.S. adults who lack government-issued ID. Should a person who takes public transit every day need to get a driver’s license just to get online? Would you want everything you do online to be linked to your government-issued ID?

HB 1126 also strips away users’ protected right to online anonymity, leaving them vulnerable to exposure and harassment and chilling them from speaking freely on social media. As our brief recounts, the vast majority of internet users have taken steps to minimize their digital footprints and even to “avoid observation by specific people, organizations, or the government.”

“By forcibly tying internet users’ online interactions to their real-world identities, HB 1126 will chill their ability to engage in dissent, discuss sensitive, personal, controversial, or stigmatized content, or seek help from online communities.”

Online Age Verification: A Privacy Nightmare

Finally, HB 1126 forces social media sites to collect users’ most sensitive and immutable data, turning them into prime targets for hackers. In an era where data breaches and identity theft are alarmingly common, HB 1126 puts every user’s personal data at risk. Furthermore, the process of age verification often involves third-party services that profit from collecting and selling user data. This means that the sensitive personal information on your ID—such as your name, home address, and date of birth—could be shared with a web of data brokers, advertisers, and other intermediary entities.

“Under the plain language of HB 1126, those intermediaries are not required to delete users’ identifying data and, unlike the online service providers themselves, they are also not restricted from sharing, disclosing, or selling that sensitive data. Indeed, the incentives are the opposite: to share the data widely.”

No one—neither minors nor adults—should have to sacrifice their privacy or anonymity in order to exercise their free speech rights online.

Courts Continue To Block Laws Like Mississippi’s

Online age verification laws like HB 1126 are not new, and courts across the country have consistently ruled them unconstitutional. In cases from Arkansas to Ohio to Utah, courts have struck down similar online age-verification mandates because they burden users’ access to, and ability to engage with, protected speech.

While Mississippi may have a legitimate interest in protecting children from harm, as the Supreme Court has held, “that does not include a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed.” By imposing age verification requirements on all users, laws like HB 1126 undermine the First Amendment rights of both minors and adults, pose serious privacy and security risks, and chill users from accessing one of the most powerful expressive mediums of our time.

For these reasons, we urge the Fifth Circuit to follow suit and continue to block Mississippi HB 1126.

In honor of Digital Inclusion Week, October 7-11th 2024, it’s an honor to uplift one of our Electronic Frontier Alliance (EFA) members who is doing great work making sure technology benefits everyone by addressing the digital divide: CCTV Cambridge. This year they partnered to host a Digital Navigator program. Its aim is to assist in bridging the digital divide in Cambridge by assessing the needs of the community and acting as a technological social worker. Digital Navigators (DN’s) have led to better outreach, assessment, and community connection. 

Making a difference in communities affected by the digital divide is impactful work. So far the DN’s have helped many people access resources online, distributed 50 Thinkpad laptops installed with Windows 10 and Microsoft Office,  and distributed 15 hotspots for wifi with two years paid by T-mobile. This is groundbreaking because typically people are getting chromebooks on loan that have limited capabilities. The beauty of these devices is that you can work and learn on them with reliable, high-speed internet access, and they are able to be used anywhere.

Samara Murrell, Coordinator of CCTV’s Digital Navigator Program states:

"Being part of a solution that attempts to ensure that everyone has equal access to information, education and job opportunities, so that we can all fully participate in our society, is some of the best, most inspiring and honorable work that one can do."

Left to Right: DN Coordinator Samara Murrell and DN’s Lida Griffin, Dana Grotenstein, and Eden Wagayehu

CCTV Cambridge is also slated to start hosting classes in 2025. They hope to offer intermediate Windows and Microsoft Office to the cohort as the first step, and then advanced Excel as the second part for returning members of the cohort.

Maritza Grooms, CCTV Cambridge’s Associate Director of Community Relations, says:

"CCTV is incredibly grateful and honored to be the hub and headquarters of the Digital Navigator Pilot Program in partnership with the City of Cambridge, Cambridge Public Library, Cambridge Public School Department, and Just-A-Start. This program is crucial to serving Cambridge's most vulnerable and marginalized communities and ensuring they have the access to resources they need to be able to fully participate in society in this digital age. We appreciate any and all support to help us make the Digital Navigator Program a continued sustainable program beyond the pilot. Please contact me at maritza@cctvcambridge.org to find out how you can support this program or visit cctvcambridge.org/support to support today."

There are countless examples of the impact CCTV’s DN’s have had already. One patron of the library who came in to take a tech class, had their own laptop because of the DNs. That enabled her to take a tech support class and advance her career. A young college student studying bioengineering needed a laptop and hotspot to continue his studies, and he recently got them from CCTV Cambridge.

Kudos to CCTV Cambridge for addressing the disparities of the digital divide in your community with your awesome digital inclusion work!
To connect with other members of the EFA doing impactful work in your area, please check out our allies page: https://efa.eff.org/allies