Steven Rosenfeld

Steven Rosenfeld covers national political issues for AlterNet, including America's democracy and voting rights. He is the author of several books on elections and the co-author of Who Controls Our Schools: How Billionaire-Sponsored Privatization Is Destroying Democracy and the Charter School Industry (AlterNet eBook, 2016).

Zuckerberg Pledges To Fix Facebook’s Privacy Problems—No One Trusts Him

Dozens of senators told the Facebook CEO that the social media giant was failing Americans.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 10, 2018, about the use of Facebook data to target American voters in the 2016 election. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony before nearly half the Senate Tuesday may mark a historic turning point for Silicon Valley. Members of both parties expressed substantive concerns about how high-tech’s surveillance economy preys on privacy and elevates propaganda—followed by wide skepticism that Facebook and the tech sector can be

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Mark Zuckerberg Makes a Sudden 180 on Privacy—Is It for Real?

Civil liberties and human rights groups want Big Data to sign security pledge to protect user privacy.

Mark Zuckerberg, chairman and CEO of Facebook, speaks at the CEO summit during the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Lima, Peru, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

The backlash against high-tech’s privacy-invading business model is growing—but one hard-hit Silicon Valley institution, Facebook, announced a potentially far-reaching reform late on Wednesday. Over a 24-hour period, it appears that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg went from endorsing, “in spirit,” soon-to-take-effect European Union privacy rules,

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2020 Census Citizenship Question Trump’s Latest Move in War on Immigrants

“A naked attempt to politicize the census, with the goal of suppressing minority participation.”

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to discuss preparing for the 2020 Census, on Capitol Hill, Oct. 12, 2017 (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)

The Trump administration’s decision to add a controversial question on citizenship status to the 2020 Census questionnaire is its latest attack on immigrant communities—a far-reaching power grab disguised as a technicality. Legal advocates for Latinos and communities of color are seeing it as a declaration of domestic political war. “MALDEF

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Trump Infrastructure Plan: Pay Tolls and Privatized Highways

$200 billion taken from other programs. Taxpayers borrow $800 billion plus interest. Then come tolls and user fees.

President Donald Trump, accompanied by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, holds a flowchart of highway projects as he speaks to the media in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, Aug. 15, 2017. (AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

As President Donald Trump delivers his first State of the Union address Tuesday, pay close attention to his next big priority—an infrastructure plan—which, over time, could eclipse the trillion-dollar giveaway to the rich in the GOP’s just-passed tax plan. And track the response from Democrats, who will have to decide if they will back a plan

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