| Friend,
Yesterday, we convened a panel of experts and advocates for a conversation about Elon Musk’s coup and the grave threat he poses to everyone’s privacy and our democracy.
Our panelists were keen to emphasize the stakes here, as John Davisson of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) summed up: “The breach of that data empowers unaccountable people to work all sorts of harms and exert all sorts of pressure … on people that disagree with them politically.” Last night, EPIC filed a lawsuit challenging DOGE’s recent actions, describing them as “the largest and most consequential data breach in US history.”
WIRED’s Vittoria Elliott has reported on Musk since well before he muscled his way into federal power. In recent weeks, her reporting has also shed light on the young, inexperienced engineers Musk has brought in to carry out DOGE’s agenda. She pointed out, “The idea that they're going into these systems and possibly changing them or extracting data from them … is the thing that is so scary because the consequences for getting it wrong are so dire for so many people.”
Lisa Gilbert, representing Public Citizen, gave us great insight into the legal actions her organization is taking: “Last Wednesday, we appeared before a federal judge and argued for a temporary restraining order to block Musk and DOGE from accessing the Treasury Department information … And if we’re successful, it means that they will no longer have access, but also that all the information they’ve shared will be taken back.” It’s certainly inspiring to see such a fierce defense of our rights and democratic institutions.
You’ll definitely want to hear the rest of what these leading voices had to say: We’ll be in touch as this authoritarian power grab continues to unfold.
Thank you for your generosity,
Jenna and the rest of us at Free Press
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