William Fitzgerald @william_fitz Twitter profile

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

Uber driver friend sent me this. Last night in San Francisco. Uber took 80% of the fare.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 months

PSA: Don't let any Google docs setting be: "Anyone on the internet with the link can view", they're scraping these docs for AI.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

1 year

one of the guys who writes the algorithms for chatGPT: $1.9m a year the people who clean up after him: less than $2 an hour

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

While you’re here, please donate to @BYACBalochistan who are doing great work to provide relief to flood survivors in Balochistan: Paypal:

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 months

I wrote an op-ed in @techreview about the moment we’re in regarding AI & the military,& the need for a sustained campaign (incl whistleblowers) to stop the mass assassination program its enabling in Gaza. Tks @DanRaile for help w/draft & @mat for edits.

Tech workers should shine a light on the industry’s secretive work with the military

Despite what happens in Google’s executive suites, workers themselves have tools to force change. Here's how.

www.technologyreview.com

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

4 months

You gotta watch this. YouTube Music workers were speaking at Austin City Council yesterday to call on Google to engage in fair negotiations with the union when they received an big update. "They just laid us all off" "Effective immediately"

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

Big vote today at Activison - about 20 QA workers are voting to unionize. "the Raven workers would form the Game Workers Alliance, the 1st union at a major North American video game publisher." story features @_TechJess , workers, @CODE_CWA

A Vote by Activision Workers Could Give Unions a Foothold in Gaming (Published 2022)

Employees at a company subsidiary complain about long hours and low pay. On Monday, they could vote to form the first union at a big U.S. gaming company.

www.nytimes.com

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

11 months

1. Google was found to charging for ads that weren't delivered to advertisers. On a massive scale. 2. Google denied the research and WSJ reporting. 3. Google is now refunding advertisers. sounds like healthy monopoly behavior

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

Google SVP and eighth employee out here discussing the merits of buying and selling people.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 months

took me 6 yrs but 1st time i admit to leaking info about the maven contract. it took me 10 yrs to speak about the snowden stuff, so progress. there's an urgent need to stop what alex karp & eric schmidt are doing. workers organizing is how we do it.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

I met my wife @sanasaleem the last time Pakistan had such bad floods. In 2010 over 20 million people were displaced. As a result of this years floods, 30+ million are displaced. 1,000+ dead. At the time I was working for google and led their govt relations in Pakistan 1/

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

3 years

I met this Haitian family in Oakland at a food bank last wk. Dee* is 8 months pregnant. Their journey here included stepping over 47 bodies in the forest btwn Colombia & Panama. They're sleeping on the floor of a cramped apartment. Plz give if you can.

Haitian Family in Oakland seeking support, organized by Diatha Bell

My name is Diatha and I arrived in the United States in September. I am original… Diatha Bell needs your support for Haitian Family in Oakland seeking support

www.gofundme.com

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

3 years

look mammy it’s me

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

10 months

Hours later a NYT profile of Google's top lawyer describes him as a "steady hand". Very steady of lawyer for company who's mission is to "organize the world's info & make it universally accessible & useful" to block public access to biggest antitrust trial of the century.

Matt Stoller

@matthewstoller

10 months

Google opposes public access to the Google antitrust trial that starts next week. At a pre-trial hearing, one procedural question is whether the public gets to listen in via Zoom. The government said yes, Google said no, the judge is undecided.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

11 months

When I worked on the google policy team Joshua Wright was the primary "third party authenticator" the antitrust team would rely on to give quotes and advocate for Google's point of view.

Law360

@Law360

11 months

Two women lawyers have told Law360 that former Federal Trade Commission member and George Mason University law professor Joshua D. Wright abused his power in order to engage them in sexual contact.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

1 year

does Brooke Jenkins think everyone is stupid? she literally got her job by advancing the narrative that SF is a lawless hellhole.

S.F. D.A. Jenkins slams Musk for ‘reckless’ comments about Bob Lee killing

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins slammed Twitter CEO Elon Musk at a press...

www.sfchronicle.com

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

i remember the pakistan govt pleading with me for google to be more like facebook, and showing me email from Joe Sullivan (from when he was at fb) to PK govt officials telling them to just send him any links and he'll get them taken down.

Jason Kint

@jason_kint

2 years

He was also Chief Security Officer at Facebook (2008-2015) while our personal data was leaking and sold to companies like Cambridge Analytica. But I guess that’s a different conversation.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

1 year

Proud of my role ensuring Snowden was able to access counsel at a time when the whole world was looking for him. Everyone has a right to legal counsel. When you do a good thing like Snowden did and take a risk, you never know what might happen.

Johana Bhuiyan

@JMBooyah

1 year

10 years ago, William Fitzgerald was a Google policy staffer when Snowden 1st revealed the NSA was using tech, then seen as a force of social good, to spy on people. For the 1st time, he shares the small role he played in Snowden’s story & how tech evolved

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

1 year

@mmitchell_ai @60Minutes i was part of a team at google that went to dhaka in 2012 and one of the projects we worked on was to purchase a massive dataset of english to bangla text so they could use it in google translate

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

Can a reporter please interview people who’s money he robbed? The exhaustive analysis of this man child’s character is nauseating

Jeet Heer

@HeerJeet

2 years

Stop the presses! Yglesias has a new SBF whitewash! It contains this amazing sentence: "It’s plausible that without SBF’s money, Trump would still be in the White House."

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

5 months

I honestly can't believe this story. Former OPD Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong shut down a program in Oakland that, per the data, was decreasing homicides. He then set up a new program and handed it to his wife to run it. Is that legal? And how is this not a headline story?

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

Google contractors wanted to go on strike, AWU offered strike fund, they were all set to start tomorrow, within hours of letting management know, management backed down. To "organize big tech" we only need relatively small # of workers to be in the union to have a huge impact.

Alphabet Workers Union (AWU-CWA)

@AlphabetWorkers

2 years

BREAKING:Google Maps Worker Victory! Today, the Google Maps contract workers informed management that they planned to go on strike due to the unsafe working conditions imposed by the 6/6 RTO date. In less than 3hrs workers won a 90 day extension—this is the power of organizing.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

10 months

Seneca Scott recently took credit for the work his PR firm has been doing to drive negative stories about Oakland. This is the impact of his craven behavior. Truly baffling that he's just out there threatening people/spreading hate & some media orgs present him as a regular guy.

Darwin BondGraham

@DarwinBondGraha

10 months

A notorious right-wing social media account criticized an Oakland school's "playdate social" event for BIPOC families. This apparently led to a deluge of racist harassment against the school community—culminating in a bomb threat this morning.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

Here’s Mostafa’s venmo. Give him some of your dollars to make up for what Uber stole from him:

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

Can’t stress enough how smart and effective the @CheckMyAdsHQ campaign is. Much respect @nandoodles and @catthekin

Ben Goggin

@BenjaminGoggin

2 years

Google stopped serving ads on Fox News host Dan Bongino's website. Bongino said on his show Friday that the company cited several articles that they labeled "harmful and unreliable," including articles criticizing Anthony Fauci and masks via @nbcnews

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

3 years

If you live in the Bay area, support the Hello Fresh workers in Richmond, who are on the receiving end of similar anti-union propaganda. Follow @unitehere for updates.

D. Taylor

@DTaylorUH

3 years

HelloFresh workers in Aurora, Colorado fell short in their vote to unionize after a long and particularly nasty anti-union campaign waged by a billion-dollar startup steeped in pandemic profits.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 months

Big tech corporations have some amount of lobbyists. This is a photo of Google's Europe policy team, posted by their global policy head. As the post says: this is just one of their 4 regions. This doesn't include their consultants, or PR teams, DevRel team, marketing teams, etc

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

3 months

thank you @IDoTheThinking and pals

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

We had our first child, Zaina, a baby girl a few weeks ago. Seeing the photos of the children in balochistan and taking care of Zaina this morning, has me in tears. Wish those families could live in peace like we do.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

"the only democracy in the middle east"

Rafael Shimunov

@rafaelshimunov

2 years

Since 2020 #HishamAbuHawash has been detained by Israel without charge or trial. For the world to notice, he went on a hunger strike. After 140 days he is in a coma and Israel has only responded by sending soldiers to remove the press covering the story.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

1 year

15 years ago Eric Schmidt pulled off a similar feat in DC. 10 years ago it was Mark Zuckerberg. Sam is the latest face on the same playbook. Kinda wild to see lawmakers fall for it time and time again.

Brian Fung

@b_fung

1 year

Tried to jot down some reflections on yesterday's AI hearing where lawmakers seemed completely charmed by OpenAI's Sam Altman, and what that says about Congress' view of the tech industry:

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

5 months

Fucking hell.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

Follow @nandoodles and the incredibly impactful @CheckMyAdsHQ campaign.

Nandini Jammi

@nandoodles

2 years

It's been 21 days since we launched Defund The J6 Insurrectionists. ✔️Charlie Kirk's website has been fully demonetized. ✔️Dan Bongino has just been permanently banned from YouTube. This isn't over. It's just the beginning. Join us:

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

We’re gonna match up to $1,000 in donations to @BYACBalochistan who are bringing supplies to the flood impacted areas. Please donate to their PayPal & reply here with the receipt. Once we add up $1,000 in receipts we’ll match:

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

9 months

Meta director speaking at the EU parl about disinformation: "this is an extremely complex issue. i can't agree with the fact that we profit from it... @catthekin from @CheckMyAdsHQ didn't let her get away with it: "you are not only profiting from disinfo, you are amplifying it"

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

1 year

the perennial question: live in ireland and maybe queue when i need surgery, or stay living in the US and maybe get shot at in the grocery store. oh the choices

Bhaskar Sunkara

@sunraysunray

1 year

I’d take an austerity riddled National Health Service and other declining public goods over “I was injured in a mass shooting but have to discharge myself from the hospital asap because I don’t have health insurance.”

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

3 years

This Haitian family are still without a home. Today they'll move from the airbnb to my neighbor's home. They can only stay there until Dec 22. Baby is due Jan 4. Bay Area: Does ANYONE have housing they can let this family stay in for a few months?

Haitian family members risked their lives to make it to Oakland. They ended up homeless

If the homeless safety net is already frayed, it is in tatters for those who have...

www.sfchronicle.com

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

such a wild story: "In 2021, about 81% of Google’s $257 billion in revenue was linked to its ads business, according to the company’s annual report. " and they pay the people making sure search quality is good $10 an hour

This 'rater' gets paid $10 an hour to teach Google's algorithm — and he's not alone

Google Search may feel like magic, but the engine’s efficacy relies on hourly employees who work for a subcontractor.

finance.yahoo.com

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

1 month

When Google had their own staff arrested a few weeks ago, they worked with NYPD to bundle handcuffed staff out a back entrance to damaging photos. Today they had to redirect guests at their biggest event of the year to a separate entrance. v @kari_paul

Gaza protesters block entrance to Google conference over Israel contracts

Google I/O attendees were redirected to another entrance as protesters denounced company’s ties to Israeli military projects

www.theguardian.com

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

My siblings and I surprised our bro with a billboard for Xmas to advertise his new triathlon business in youghal, co. cork. We got him good. Check out:

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

3 years

How it started: Notes from meeting @Kent_Walker (Google top lawyer) had w/Irish PM released under FOIA. How it's going: Before meeting w/Irish minister, Google et al. asked Irish govt not to take specific notes so that if FOIAd, there'd be no info for the public.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

10 months

Groups like Neighbors Together & Oakland NAACP are spreading disinfo & hate. This has led to real world impact: a bomb threat at a local school. It's time for city leaders to speak out against these dangerous tactics. via @CatsCommentary for @48hills

The Oakland school bomb threat is a dire warning about our current politics - 48 hills

Right-wing activism is happening at both the national and the local level.

48hills.org

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

What a legend

Meagan Day

@meagankday

2 years

A jaw-dropping interview with a 22-year-old Starbucks worker who was fired for unionizing, lost stable housing and healthcare, and says she’d do it all over again because she’s proud to stand up for workers’ rights

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

7 months

This is significant. Tech CEO (Founder of CircleCL: raised $300m+ from VCs) disavows @BessemerVP and other VCs for the culture of fear they've created where tech workers and execs are afraid to speak out. Kudos to you, Paul, for speaking out.

Paul Biggar 🇵🇸🇮🇪

@paulbiggar

7 months

I wrote about the genocide in Palestine, and how tech has been silent and complicit.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

4 months

I brought an "activist" mentality to my work at Google for a decade. Not only did I not get fired for doing so, it was often encouraged. And since leaving and continuing with this "activist" mentality, my career has gone from strength to strength.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

1 year

"Meta’s decision to axe the Sama contract just as Facebook moderators were organising for better conditions shows what cowards they are. The moment it looks like Meta is in legal hot water for its awful working conditions, they move to hide behind a diff firm." - @Foxglovelegal

Billy Perrigo

@billyperrigo

1 year

🚨Breaking: Facebook's content moderation partner for Sub-Saharan Africa, Sama, announced today it is quitting the content moderation business entirely. Full story:

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

5 months

Reporters & publishers need to start using their platforms & reach to proactively ensure bills like this (a "journalism usage fee" big tech would have to pay) become a reality. If they don't, it's not just all the journalists will lose their jobs but society will suffer greatly.

Sara Libby

@SaraLibby

5 months

Great reporting from @SophiaBollag on the status of a bill to force Google & Facebook to pay for news in the wake of the gutting LA Times layoffs:

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

We ultimately came up with a compromise - google maps would share the info with UNOSAT and they would only give info for flood area (eg not Kashmir). It worked. Afterwards UNOSAT said the army was able to access over 700,000 people because of these better maps

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

* contractors (who make up over half the workforce) not eligible to apply

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

+1 When i asked HR to investigate harassment by a VP & her chief of staff, HR found "no evidence". Of course HR won't find evidence, they're set up to protect the corp. If you work at google, or used to work at Google, and they did the same thing to you, quote this with a +1.

@[email protected] on Mastodon

@timnitGebru

2 years

“ “We thoroughly investigated this employee’s claims and found there was no retaliation,” Google spokesperson Shannon Newberry said in a statement.” Of course.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

5 months

do you think LeRonne mentions in his lawsuit that he handed a successful city violence prevention program to his wife? which ultimately led to a major spike in homicides? just wondering like - @rachelswan

Ex-Oakland police chief files blistering lawsuit against city, Mayor Thao

Former Oakland police chief LeRonne Armstrong has filed a scalding lawsuit against the...

www.sfchronicle.com

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

of relevance to this banger of a story today: juicy nugget in @mhbergen 's new book about youtube. goog hired the policy head for israel to oversee policy for the whole middle east, and asked staff not to share this info publicly.

Alphabet Workers Union (AWU-CWA)

@AlphabetWorkers

2 years

🚨🚨🚨 Ariel, an AWU member who's been speaking up about Google's AI contract w/Israel, was forced to resign today after Google's ultimatum: move overseas or leave. This is retaliation, pure & simple. Ariel's been ousted like so many others at Google.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

7 months

law is downstream of culture, this decision came within hours from a jury. maybe the tide is finally turning against tech monopolists

Jason Kint

@jason_kint

7 months

Epic win. Jury rules against Google in landmark antitrust lawsuit for its App Store. Also await details of State AGs settlement in matter…we’ll get a decision on Google’s search antitrust trial in a few months. And a trial on DOJ and states’ adtech lawsuit. Walls. Closing. In.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

11 months

the NLRB just affirmed that google IS a joint employer of contractors. this has hugely positive implications for 10s of millions of workers. the judges comments are worth reading. at every level goog asserts direct control. kudos to @AlphabetWorkers for making this happen

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

They wouldn’t hand over the data. I spent months trying to get others in the company to persuade Brian McClendon (google maps head at the time) et al to just do the right thing, but the Americans wouldn’t budge. The “war on terror” meant flood victims would go hungry.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

seemed fair that in this real time of need google would share the data, esp because it was people in Pakistan who’d made edits to mapmaker (for free) that made the google map so good. But sadly, no, google maps people in the US told me PK army were linked to terrorists so 🤷

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

So proud of how our small team @TheWorkerAgency punches way above our weight.

The Worker Agency

@TheWorkerAgency

2 years

Yesterday was a good day in the office.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

This whole saga went on for months. throughout it all I was following @sanasaleem on here because she was coordinating flood relief to interior Sindh from where she lived in Karachi. She seemed quite the force.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

4 months

it me!! and a shout out to all tech co comms and policy people, you too could have a life like mine we're hiring:

Careers — The Worker Agency

Page for listing the job opportunities currently at The Worker Agency

www.theworkeragency.com

Kane 謝凱堯

@kane

4 months

huh turns out the PR guy that got paid to organize the YC protest worked for google for a decade self-hating tech bros will start entire PR firms that larp working class instead of just seeing a therapist

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

Tech workers threaten a work stoppage: Get paid within minutes. This is the second major win for organized Facebook content moderators already this year. Follow @Foxglovelegal for more. (fyi @tech_actions , @Techmeme )

The Verge

@verge

2 years

Facebook contractors threaten to stop work over missing paychecks

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

1 year

matt has been silent on this since we found out who actually killed bob lee. what an honorable person.

Matt Ocko

@mattocko

1 year

Bob Lee was a friend to me & multiple people in my firm. My heart goes out to his loved ones. Chesa Boudin, & the criminal-loving city council that enabled him & a lawless SF for years, have Bob’s literal blood on their hands. Take action. Cc @garrytan @sampullara

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

After we got the data the pk army invited me over to Rawalpindi HQ to meet them, and to thank me for my efforts to get them the info. On the trip I met Sana for the first time. The rest is history.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

11 months

more here from @CheckMyAdsHQ : the refunds are in ad credits and as they rightly ask: "Why would anyone want store credit from a place that scammed them?"

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

3 months

I was a whistleblower when google had the contract to put AI into drones. Whoever shared this info did a brave thing & they won't regret it. Google & other tech cos who work w/the Israeli military are enabling a genocide. I encourage more tech workers to do the right thing.

Billy Perrigo

@billyperrigo

3 months

Exclusive: Google provides cloud computing services to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, and the tech giant has negotiated deepening its partnership during Israel’s war in Gaza, a company document viewed by TIME shows.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

They needed this better map to figure out how to access far flung and remote places, at a time when some bridges were ruined and main roads were inaccessible. Info on the PK mapmakers:

Map Makers respond to the Pakistan landslides

In January 2010, a series of landslides hit Atta Abad, in the Gilgit-Baltistan semi-autonomous region of Pakistan, causing loss of lives and...

maps.googleblog.com

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

9 months

It's fairly ironic that Google sucking up the ad dollars means most media companies don't have the resources to report on Google's monopoly.

Leah AntiTrustButVer1fy Nylen

@leah_nylen

9 months

As I was one of only two reporters left, I objected and asked that Bloomberg have an opportunity to have a lawyer present to argue for continued public access. Judge Mehta said he will rule in the morning

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

3 years

First day on corp comms team at google, advice from a colleague: “all you need to remember is “on background/ not for attribution”, say that at the start of every call and you’ll do great”

nilay patel

@reckless

3 years

Today we’re updating The Verge’s policy on agreeing to “background” from tech companies. We’re doing this publicly to provide cover for other newsrooms covering tech to do the same. It’s getting a little ridiculous out there.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

11 months

She literally makes up stuff every day. Wonder who's paying Sam to boost the berkeley scammer?

Sam Singer

@samsinger

11 months

Berkeley, Alameda County news junkies: if you aren't subscribing to @BerkeleyScanner you're missing some of the best, most insightful and timely news reporting in the Bay Area. Journalist Emilie Raguso is rocking the Berkeley/Alameda Co. crime beat

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

Airbnb partnered with National Domestic Workers Association, did anything good come out of that? Airbnb partnered with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBC), did anything good come from that?

Dave Jamieson

@jamieson

2 years

👀 Teachers union NEA is partnering with Airbnb. ‘The partnership is designed to empower our nation's educators to supplement their income as Airbnb hosts’

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

"He’d had four lung surgeries, and didn’t feel comfortable sitting in a maskless office after two years of working from home. HR’s advice: Start looking for a new job." via @sarahsholder

Google Maps Workers Clash With Management Over Remote Work Policy

Contractors say they can’t bear the financial cost and health risks of returning to the office. But they don’t have the same leverage as full employees to seek exceptions.

www.bloomberg.com

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

1 year

AI is a labor story. The CEOS don't want you to think of the people behind the products. Great reporting by @David_Ingram

The AI revolution is powered by these contractors making $15 an hour

Two OpenAI contractors spoke to NBC News about their work training the system behind ChatGPT.

www.nbcnews.com

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

1. Teachers shouldn't have to work a second job. 2. Doordash should cover medical expenses when their workers get shot.

Gig Workers Rising

@GigWorkersRise

2 years

And no, Doordash didn't help this teacher with his medical bills. A parent of one of the kids he teaches set up a gofundme. Support if you can:

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

this is big pressure on google because they're collecting location data that apple isn't.

Evan Greer is on Mastodon and Bluesky

@evan_greer

2 years

BREAKING: More than 40 lawmakers just sent a letter to Google demanding that they stop unnecessarily collecting troves of location data that can and will be used to target people seeking abortions if Roe v Wade is overturned

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

11 months

this cheap political stunt has gone too far "A 3 year old child has died on a bus chartered by the state of Texas, during a trip intended to dump asylum-seekers unannounced in Chicago."

Teresa Romero

@UFWPresident

11 months

Devastating. A 3 year old child has died on a bus chartered by the state of Texas, during a trip intended to dump asylum-seekers unannounced in Chicago. This should tell you exactly how little Gov. Abbot values human life. Absolutely despicable.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

I received a request from the Pakistan army asking if we could share access to google mapmaker for Pakistan w/them. Mapmaker is like Wikipedia for maps, only difference was goog owned it so it wasn’t open source which meant army doing disaster relief couldn’t access source info.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

The NYT has more reporters than practically every other newspaper. Why then, are they regurgitating google press releases? Read this whole story. There's not even one person even questioning possible benefits of this program. That's not journalism.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

4 months

my rv was stolen a few wks ago outside my house in berkeley. with help from an airtag i found it in oakland today at 1. i called the cops, they send they'd send help. i told them i'd wait at a nearby gas station to help identify. it's now 7pm, they've still not called or come.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

This is so wild. "Data centers are using an estimated 5.5 TWh – around 17% – of the power generated in Ireland." "People are worried about single use cups, but actually they (plastics and data) are both fossil fuel-based at the moment,"

Ireland’s data centers are an economic lifeline. But environmentalists say they’re wrecking the...

In the west of Ireland lies a medieval market town, its roots steeped in legend. Beyond the labyrinth of narrow streets of the center are the chimney stacks of housing developments that still puff...

www.cnn.com

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

3 years

From a nationwide wake-up call on police brutality and racism, to the mayor of San Francisco ramping up criminals to take on the “reign of criminals”. All in 18 months. Truly remarkable the flexibility of the liberal brain.

Demian Bulwa

@demianbulwa

3 years

Tomorrow's front page

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

Hey @PayPal can you approve this payment, please? I keep clicking the link after entering the 6 digit code you send me but it directs me to the “sorry” page

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

5 months

Impressive work by @ShomikMukherjee to debunk the @DailyMail Oakland fear-mongering story about "the most dangerous mile in America". The claim isn't based on crime stats, it's based on google reviews. @barclaycrawford , even for the Daily Mail this is embarrassing.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

This is a massive story. @ConMijente has unearthed how @LexisNexis is profiting from all of our info to help ICE deport people. ICE is explicitly using this tech to get around sanctuary city laws. #NoTechForICE

Mijente 🐜🐜🐜

@ConMijente

2 years

🚨 NEWS 🚨 ICE has been using a data broker, @LexisNexis , to skirt sanctuary laws. We're publishing documents showing ICE *explicitly* saying they need this contract to skirt sanctuary laws, for the first time, & detailing how it works. 👇👇👇

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

3 years

This is fascinating. Low paid datacenter workers working side by side with high paid full time workers are a serious force. We don't need for everyone tech worker to be in a union to get serious wins. Full time workers in FB, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, read this & get organizing.

Alphabet Workers Union (AWU-CWA)

@AlphabetWorkers

3 years

Google Data Center workers successfully won hazard pay following collective action✊ Over 100 workers at Modis, a Google subcontractor, organized last week to demand that the corporation pay workers the hazard pay they were promised. And they won!🧵

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

Google workers: Last wk it was Stripe & Twitter. This week possibly Salesforce & Facebook. Putting your head down, being 'better' than person beside you, won't save you. If you push back collectively you've more power than mgmt. Join @AlphabetWorkers before it's too late.

Matt Rosoff

@MattRosoff

2 years

Protocol reporting Salesforce planning to cut 2,000 - more bad news for SF:

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

"We recognize that employees have a legal right to choose whether to form or join a union" Microsoft workers: Brad is really good at writing blog posts that say nice things. You should form a union, and then we'll see if he's lying.

Brad Smith

@BradSmi

2 years

Our employees do not need to organize to have a dialogue with Microsoft’s leaders. But we also recognize the workplace is changing. That’s why we are sharing principles to guide our approach with labor organizations.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

3 years

“What’s our motto for Ireland again? We don’t pay tax and we don’t take flak” 😂😂😂

Tadhg

@TadhgHickey

3 years

Ever wondered what it's like for an Irish Trade Union to deal with a Big Corporation? For more about Unions, Organising and Collective Bargaining - check out: @garethmurphyIE @fsuireland #joinaunion

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

“There is no purgatory for war criminals. They go straight to hell.” - Ukraine rep looking straight at Russian guy

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

3 months

Sam!! so nice of you to hear from you! welcome the opportunity to talk about puppet masters, who's paying you to drive negative stories about Oakland?

Sam Singer

@samsinger

3 months

@william_fitz didn't have time to write a press release when his car and his RV were stolen (must be paid well at @TheWorkerAgency to afford both) because he was too busy attacking California AG @RobBonta for his puppetmaster @AlamedaCountyDA Pam Price.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

1 year

I got you bro

Edward Snowden

@Snowden

1 year

Remarkable story. I wonder how the internet—and world—would look now, ten years on, if big tech had elevated more courageous people dreaming of freer futures, and fewer of the sort of miserable bureaucrats that compete for ever-higher "compliance scores."

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

Late for her afternoon walk so she won’t let me type

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

google has more contractors than full timers. contractors (chefs, bus drivers, receptionists, etc) generally have more in-person contact than full-timers, yet goog doesn't give them test kits, just the full timers. this is google telling over 150k workers their lives don't matter

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

1 year

Courtwatch is such an amazing program

Scott Hechinger

@ScottHech

1 year

Injustice happens in empty courtrooms. But a growing movement of volunteer court watchers is showing up & documenting what they see. This powerful short film-"The Court Watchers"-tells the story. *Score by Fiona Apple. Narration by Jesse Williams.* Watch:

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

Is there ANY non profit in the Bay Area who’ll sponsor a family of asylum seekers’ housing application form? They don’t need money, literally just a non profit to “sponsor the” application. Cc @RESCUEorg , @CatholicCSF , @compasssf , @CommunitySvcs , @LiveLaFamilia , @hcnkids

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

If you work in tech and don't feel comfortable about stuff you are doing on behalf of the corporation. Save those emails. Save those text messages. Share them with the public. You have more power than you realize. #UberFiles

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

This is fucking horrific. A lawyer representing Facebook & @SamaAI asked a Judge in Kenya to "crack the whip" by issuing Daniel Motuang w/criminal contempt & gag order to silence him. Any ideas why FB would treat Daniel like this but not Frances Haugen?

Facebook Is Attempting to Silence a Black Whistleblower

A Facebook lawyer called on a judge to "crack the whip" against a whistleblower who accuses the company of forced labor and human trafficking

time.com

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

3 years

Matt oversaw global policy for FB while they enabled a genocide in Myanmar. He's currently a paid consultant for tech firms. He argues that whistleblowers lead to less open internal debates, but this cedes power to the corps & look where open internal debates has got us.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

2 years

@chelseyglasson fair play to you for the fight you led. don't know how you kept going after how the treated you. taking on one of the most powerful corporations in the world single-handedly, and winning, is an incredible achievement. hope you are able to heal now with your family.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

1 year

Oakland mayor looks cool here. Great job by this account set up to spread fear and misinfo for getting the word out that oakland has a cool new mayor.

Asian Crime Report

@activeasian

1 year

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao partying it up as she and her cronies run the city to the ground and make it lawless.

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

9 days

My bro @fitzyrichard built Dubai HQ for his biz @WeAreAugustus in 2022, I got to see it for the 1st time today. It's a fascinating media company, from popular Snap shows in Cairo, to live sports streaming in Abu Dhabi, I've not seen the likes anywhere. So proud of what he's built

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William Fitzgerald

@william_fitz

3 years

also, they fired a bunch of people since Maven for doing basic stuff like searching info so it's gonna look diff this time round. this: "mgmt is winning" ignores fact that a bunch of datacenter workers just hammered mgmt over hazard pay cut. So maybe hold up on the hot takes.

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