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A hearing happened yesterday that could radically change how we use the internet. Depending on how the Supreme Court rules on Van Buren vs U.S., third-party scraping could become a criminal activity. #scrapingisnotacrime 
Scraping of publicly available data makes a more equal & inclusive internet. By blocking third-party scrapers, we would lose monitoring by data journalists, watchdog orgs, and researchers.
Here’s some of the stuff that would disappear due to being labeled criminal activity:
Here’s some of the stuff that would disappear due to being labeled criminal activity:
❌ Researcher projects & civil society institutions that monitor big tech uses data like @LauraEdelson2’s NYU Ad Observatory that observes political ad targeting thehill.com/policy/technol…
—GONE
—GONE
🧵 We think that the Van Buren v. United States case before the Supreme Court today is a threat to data journalism. So much so that we filed an amicus brief. This is why:
The case deals with the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and its definition of "exceeds authorized access" in relation to one’s intentionally accessing a computer system they have authorization to access.
Van Buren was a police officer arrested by the FBI and convicted of computer fraud in Georgia after he used his access to work databases for personal financial gain.
Today, the Supreme Court will hear a case about an old hacking law from the 1980s. Interpreted the wrong way, this law — the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act — threatens journalism you love.
I mean, who wants to know *less* about the technology that shapes everything we do online?
I mean, who wants to know *less* about the technology that shapes everything we do online?
The power of reporting lies in our devotion to hard facts. This was true in the days of Ms. Ida B Wells-Barnett, and it’s true now.
These days, we just have more tools to collect facts — and for data journalists, that means “scraping” data from websites that we all use.
These days, we just have more tools to collect facts — and for data journalists, that means “scraping” data from websites that we all use.
At @themarkup we use tech to investigate tech. Scraping lets us analyze more data at scale — think about how long it would take to review 100,000 webpages manually!
So scraping helps take our analysis beyond anecdote, which is good. Unless you don’t like independent reporting...
So scraping helps take our analysis beyond anecdote, which is good. Unless you don’t like independent reporting...
