Wednesday, November 03, 2021
City Council Meeting - 11/1/2021 + MEETING DETAILS FOR THU 04 NOV 2021
See what is next for this Thursday

| File #: | 21-1156 |
| Type: | Presentation | Status: | Agenda Ready |
| In control: | City Council Study Session |
| On agenda: | 11/4/2021 |
| Title: | Hear a presentation, discuss, and provide direction on a proposed American Recovery Plan Electric Customer Credit. |
| Attachments: | 1. Presentation |
HIKES IN FEES AND CHARGES
| File #: | 21-1160 |
| Type: | Presentation | Status: | Agenda Ready |
| In control: | City Council Study Session |
| On agenda: | 11/4/2021 |
| Title: | Hear a presentation, discuss, and provide direction on proposed utility rate adjustments. |
| Attachments: | 1. Presentation, 2. Utility Rate Report, 3. Attachment 1 - Utility Rate Recommendations for FY2122, 4. Attachment 2 - City of Mesa Utility Fund Cash Flow Projections |
| Meeting Name: | City Council Study Session | Agenda status: | Final |
| Meeting date/time: | 11/4/2021 7:30 AM |
| File #: | 21-1159 |
| Type: | Presentation | Status: | Agenda Ready |
| In control: | City Council Study Session |
| On agenda: | 11/4/2021 |
| Title: | Hear a presentation on and discuss the Mesa City Council District Boundary Map approved by the City of Mesa Redistricting Commission on October 26, 2021. |
| Attachments: | 1. Presentation |
LET IT BE THE WAY IT IS: The Impossibilty of Content at Scale
The Scale Of Content Moderation Is Unfathomable
from the it's-way-more-than-you-think dept
Sometimes it's difficult to get across to people "the scale" part when we talk about the impossibility of content moderation at scale. It's massive. And this is why whenever there's a content moderation decision that you dislike or that you disagree with, you have to realize that it's not personal. It wasn't done because someone doesn't like your politics. It wasn't done because of some crazy agenda. It was done because a combination of thousands of people around the globe and still sketchy artificial intelligence are making an insane number of decisions every day. And they just keep piling up and piling up and piling up.
Evelyn Douek recently gave a (virtual) talk at Stanford on The Administrative State of Content Moderation, which is worth watching in its entirety. However, right at the beginning of her talk, she presented some stats that highlight the scale of the decision making here. Based on publicly revealed transparency reports from these companies, in just the 30 minutes allotted for her talk, Facebook would take down 615,417 pieces of content, YouTube would take down 271,440 videos, channels, and comments, and TikTok would take down 18,870 videos. And, also, the Oversight Board would receive 48 petitions to review a Facebook takedown decision.
And, as she notes, that's only the take down decisions. It does not count the "leave up" decisions, which are also made quite frequently. Facebook is not targeting you personally. It is not Mark Zuckerberg sitting there saying "take this down." The company is taking down over a million pieces of content every freaking hour. It's going to make mistakes. And some of the decisions are ones that you're going to disagree with.
And, to put that in perspective, she notes that in its entire history, the US Supreme Court has decided a grand total of approximately 246 1st Amendment cases, or somewhere around one per year. And, of course, in those cases, it often involves years of debates, and arguments, and briefings, and multiple levels of appeals. And sometimes the Supreme Court still gets it totally wrong. Yet we expect Facebook -- making over a million decisions to take content down every hour -- to somehow magically get it all right?
Anyway, there's a lot more good stuff in the talk and I suggest you watch the whole thing to get a better understanding of the way content moderation actually works. It would be helpful for anyone who wants to opine on content moderation to not just understand what Douek is saying, but to really internalize it.
Tuesday, November 02, 2021
FACEBOOK SHUTS DOWN FACIAL RECOGNITION SOFTWARE...FBI SAYS RANSOMWARE TARGETS COMPANIES DURING M&A
FBI: Ransomware targets companies during mergers and acquisitions
-
Facebook deletes 1 billion faceprints in Face Recognition shutdown
Facebook announced today that they will no longer use the Face Recognition system on their platform and will be deleting over 1 billion people's facial recognition profiles.
- Lawrence Abrams
- November 02, 2021
- 04:08 PM
1
-
Over 30,000 GitLab servers still unpatched against critical bug
A critical unauthenticated, remote code execution GitLab flaw fixed on April 14, 2021, remains exploitable, with over 50% of deployments remaining unpatched.
- Bill Toulas
- November 02, 2021
- 01:46 PM
0
-
Microsoft 365 outage blocks access to OneDrive, SharePoint files
A Microsoft 365 outage prevents access to files, such as Excel documents, stored on the SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Office, and Microsoft Teams cloud storage services.
- Lawrence Abrams
- November 02, 2021
- 12:08 PM
0
-
Microsoft announces new endpoint security solution for SMBs
Microsoft today announced a new endpoint security solution dubbed Microsoft Defender for Business, specially built for small and medium-sized businesses.
- Sergiu Gatlan
- November 02, 2021
- 11:37 AM
0
-
Microsoft Edge for Linux out of beta, now generally available
Microsoft announced today that the Chromium-based Edge web browser is now generally available on the Linux platform via the stable channel.
- Sergiu Gatlan
- November 02, 2021
- 11:00 AM
2
-
macOS Monterey update causes some Macs to become unbootable
A growing number of Mac and Macbook owners report that their devices become unbootable after attempting to update to the latest version of macOS, codenamed 'Monterey.'
- Bill Toulas
- November 02, 2021
- 10:50 AM
2
-
MITRE shares list of most dangerous hardware weaknesses
MITRE shared a list of the topmost dangerous programming, design, and architecture security flaws plaguing hardware this year.
- Sergiu Gatlan
- November 02, 2021
- 08:27 AM
0
-
FBI: Ransomware targets companies during mergers and acquisitions
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warns that ransomware gangs are targeting companies involved in "time-sensitive financial events" such as corporate mergers and acquisitions to make it easier to extort their victims.
- Sergiu Gatlan
- November 02, 2021
- 07:59 AM
0
BEA News: Gross Domestic Product by State and Personal Income by State, 3rd Quarter 2025
BEA News: Gross Domestic Product by State and Personal Income by S...
-
Flash News: Ukraine Intercepts Russian Kh-59 Cruise Missile Using US VAMPIRE Air Defense System Mounted on Boat. Ukrainian forces have made ...
