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持続可能な地方行財政のあり方に関する研究会（第6回）

　国際人権NGOアムネスティ・インターナショナルは、２０２４年の世界の死刑状況を発表した。24年は15カ国で1,500人以上が処刑され、15年以降、最多の死刑執行数となった。増加は、イラン、イラク、サウジアラビアで急増したことによるもので、この3カ国だけで1,380件に上る。　中東では、死刑判決が人権擁護者、反体制派、抗議者、政敵、少数民族の声を封じる方法として用いられており、特にイランとサウジアラビアではその傾向が顕著。また死刑執行の40%以上は、薬物関連犯罪だ。死刑が麻薬..

　岩手県大船渡市の沿岸部で２月19日から山林や民家の火災が相次ぎ甚大な被害が生じた。３月10日で避難指示は解除となったが、自宅の焼失などで避難生活を送る人は多数にのぼっており、避難の長期化が懸念される。絶えず複数の煙が立 […]

　あなたは「承認欲求」が強い方だろうか？「むちゃくちゃ強いです！」と即答する人は滅多にいないはずだ。ちなみに「あの人、承認欲求強いよね」と言う時、名指された人は決してよくは思われていない。 　では私はどうかと言えば、若か […]

　日本弁護士連合会（日弁連）は２月25日、シンポジウム「マイナ保険証で何がどうなる？」を東京・千代田区の弁護士会館で開催。昨年12月に従来の健康保険証の新規発行が停止されて以降も医療現場でマイナ保険証をめぐるトラブルが続 […]

　アジア太平洋戦争中に山口県宇部市の海底炭鉱で起きた大規模水没事故で、朝鮮人労働者１３６人を含む１８３人が生き埋めのまま海中に放置されてきた問題で、遺骨の発見に取り組んでいる市民団体「長生炭鉱の水非常を歴史に刻む会」の井 […]

「自民、公明と日本維新の会の３党が高校授業料の無償化で合意。２０２５年度予算案は維新の修正を受け入れて成立の見通し」との報に、朝鮮学校が排除されたままであるとして「教育の機会均等との看板を掲げながら、朝鮮の子どもたちをい […]

Florida’s SB 868 is a deeply invasive bill that puts the privacy and safety of young people at serious risk.

This Earth Day, we revisit the 2020 edition of GISWatch on the theme of “Technology, the environment and a sustainable world”, where authors around the world have proposed recommendations to help…

We’re in the midst of a long-overdue resurgence in antitrust litigation. In the past 12 months alone, there have been three landmark rulings against Google/Alphabet (in search, advertising, and payments). Then there’s the long-running FTC v. Meta case, which went to trial last week. Plenty of people are cheering these cases on, seeing them as a victories over the tech broligarchy (who doesn’t love to see a broligarch get their comeuppance?).

But we’re cautiously cheering for another, more fundamental reason: the Big Tech antitrust cases could and should lead to enforceable changes that will foster more vibrant online expression and more meaningful user privacy protections.

Antitrust doctrine isn’t just about prices – it’s about power. The cases are nothing less than a fight over who will control the future of the internet, and what that future will look like. Will social media platforms continue to consolidate and enshittify? Or will the courts create breathing room for new ways of connecting to emerge and thrive?

Take FTC v Meta: The FTC argues that Meta’s control over Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram – the latter two being companies Facebook acquired in order to neutralize them as competitors— gives it unfair monopoly power in personal social media, i.e. communications with friends and family. Meta disputes that, of course, but even if you take Meta at their word, there’s no denying that this case is directly concerned with online expression. If the FTC succeeds, Meta could be broken up and forced to compete. More important than competition for its own sake is what competition can deliver: openings in the canopy that allow green shoots to sprout – new systems for talking with one another and forming communities under different and more transparent moderation policies, a break from the content moderation monoculture that serves no one well (except for corporate shareholders).

These antitrust cases aren’t the sole purview of government enforcers. Private companies have also brought significant cases with real implications for user rights.

Take Epic Games v Google, in which Google insists that the court order to open up its app store to competition will lead to massive security risks. This is a common refrain from tech giants like Google, who benefit from the system of “feudal security” in which users must depend on the whims of a monopolist to guarantee their safety. Google claims that its app store security measures keep its users safe – reprising the long-discredited theory of “security through obscurity.” As the eminent cryptographer (and EFF board member) Bruce Schneier says, “Anyone, from the most clueless amateur to the best cryptographer, can create an algorithm that he himself can’t break.”

It’s true that Google often does a good job securing its users against external threats, but Google does a much worse job securing users against Google itself – for example, there’s no way to comprehensively block tracking for Google’s apps on Android. Competition might make Google clean up its act here, but only if they start worrying that there’s a chance you’ll switch to an upstart with a better privacy posture. Enabling competition—as these cases are trying to do—means we don’t have to rely on Google to get privacy religion. We can just switch to an independently vetted rival. Of course, you can only vote with your feet if you have somewhere else to go.

Related Cases: Epic Games v. Google

情報通信審議会　情報通信技術分科会　IPネットワーク設備委員会（第85回）

政策統括官（統計制度担当）統計企画管理官付庶務担当　 非常勤職員採用情報

村上総務大臣閣議後記者会見の概要

「インターネット上の偽・誤情報等への対策技術の開発・実証事業」に係る実証団体の公募