Hello, friends,
This week I am handing over the newsletter to Nabiha Syed, president of The Markup, who has spent a decade defending protesters and journalists exercising their First Amendment rights. This moment feels like one that calls for her expertise.
Julia
Friends,
Black and brown communities in America know that overpolicing is a tragically familiar problem.
Now more people are reckoning with the full extent of overpolicing—and the surveillance that comes with it.
Your phone can be an easy surveillance target. Does that mean you should leave it at home if you attend a protest? Not necessarily. In this week’s Ask The Markup, investigative data journalist Maddy Varner has pulled together what you need to know about preparing your phone for a protest.
There are good reasons not to leave your phone at home. You might need to communicate with loved ones or a lawyer, or want a camera to document what is happening. Representing protesters and reporters has taught me that there is no perfect solution. You can (and should!) make your own choices about acceptable risk. So if you are wondering about turning off location tracking or sending messages while at a protest, or what to do about FaceID, Maddy’s guide is for you.
Please do take a look and share with friends who are heading out. (We’ve collected a few more resources for your digital safety here.)
Beyond the guide, we want to take this moment to pause and listen to you. Is the reporting at The Markup serving your needs? Since we do not track whether or not you open this newsletter, the only way we can know how you feel about our weekly letters is if we ask you.
Would you answer two important questions for us in a 90-second survey?
Click here to take our short survey
We appreciate your time. Please stay safe and strong.
Nabiha Syed
President
The Markup
P.S. This survey tool was built especially for you by our infrastructure engineer, Simon Fondrie-Teitler, and our graphics editor, Sam Morris. It contains none of the tracking technology that you might find in Google Forms or other commercial products. To keep our privacy promise to all our readers, The Markup builds the world we want to live in, one tool at a time.