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On this day, December 8, 2005, federal prosecutors announced six arrests of eco-sabotage suspects following a nine-year investigation in four arson cases in Oregon dating to 1998 and 2001 and a toppled power line in Bend, Oregon in 1999.




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Republicans Blast Oregon SOS for Surveilling Citizens
“We urge the Secretary of State’s Office to halt implementation now!”

Several Republican legislators in Oregon are now blasting Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade for steps taken by the agency recently that enables to state of Oregon to constantly surveil, track, and attempt to suppress or manipulate the free speech of Oregon’s citizens. They have bicamerally penned a letter, it reads as follows:

We call on you and your office to immediately halt implementation of the "Misinformation, Disinformation, and Mal-information (MDM) Analysis Platform Services" Contract (IT Services Contract per Bid Solicitation S-16500-00007470). We have learned that the purpose of this system is to continually monitor and actively manipulate the free speech of Oregonians. We believe that this system as described in the Request for Proposal (RFP) violates Oregonians' First Amendment rights.

Logically (logically.ai), a UK-based company, was awarded the MDM contract last month. As detailed in the RFP (link here), the system will "…identify and mitigate harmful information online as it relates to elections (mis-, dis-, and mal- information, or “MDM”).” The Logically system will monitor Oregonians’ social media posts for MDM on a nonstop basis and use artificial intelligence to “identify perceived threats” and “recommend countermeasures”, including promoting an AI-generated counter-narrative to Oregonians’ speech. The system will also report anything it determines is a possible threat or constitutes speech that “violates community guidelines and/or policies” of different sites to those social media platforms. It will report "urgent information" to the FBI and State Police.

The problem is that the state will determine which content is labeled MDM. Also concerning is how such determinations will be made and by whom. These terms and processes are not defined either in the contract or in any Oregon statute. Instead of focusing on the primary role of ensuring confidence and transparency in Oregon’s elections, the Secretary of State’s Office has chosen to monitor and encourage the censoring of citizens who voice legitimate concerns, some of which may question government practices or policies, on public platforms such as social media.

We reject the idea that any elected official or agency has the authority to constantly surveil, track, and attempt to suppress or manipulate the free speech of Oregon’s citizens. We urge the Secretary of State’s Office to halt implementation now and we call on the Legislature to address this pressing Constitutional issue during the 2024 session. Oregonians deserve a transparent government that prioritizes service to its people. Our government should never use secretive processes and AI programs to tip the scales by suppressing some citizens and augmenting only those who voice consensus with the state. Using artificial intelligence in this manner does nothing to improve confidence or security in our elections; instead, it will deepen the ongoing divide we are all working to heal.

We look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,


--Ben Fisher

Post Date: 2023-11-08 16:20:46Last Update: 2023-11-08 18:10:37



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