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Welcome to the Saturday edition of The Conversation U.S.’s Daily newsletter.
A smartphone video clip posted on Reddit shows a group of federal immigration enforcement agents in the parking lot of an apartment complex. As one of the agents holds his phone toward the license plate of a car, a woman off-camera – presumably the person holding the phone and whose license plate was photographed – says that it’s not illegal to record the agents and asks why the agent is taking her information. He turns to her and replies, “‘Cause we have a nice little database, and now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.”
Whether the agent was being facetious, factual or threatening when he said that, his actions provide a clear example of the risks people face when recording federal agents. In other documented instances, agents have pepper-sprayed, tackled and detained people for recording them.
Indiana University public affairs scholar Nicole Bennett explains that, while it is legal to record agents in public spaces – and doing so is an important form of holding government officials accountable – some of the risks people face when recording agents aren’t as obvious as getting pepper-sprayed in the face or having an agent tell you that he’s recording your information. She lays out how your phone leaves digital footprints and how your video clips can provide clues about your identity and the identities of the people around you.
This week we also liked stories about TikTok’s highly valuable and highly effective algorithm, a study on how artificial intelligence can lead to cultural stagnation, and what a bear attack in Nepal says about Asia’s aging rural populations.
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If you’re going to record ICE agents, recognize that the risks go beyond physical confrontation.
Madison Thorn/Anadolu via Getty Images
Nicole M. Bennett, Indiana University
Federal agents have pepper-sprayed, tackled and detained people recording their actions. If you post your recordings of agents, you also risk the feds tracking you and those around you.
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Using multiple digital devices at once can be highly distracting and overstimulating.
Riska/E+ via Getty Images
Robin Pickering, Gonzaga University
Many people may call it self-care to crash on the couch with your smartphone, but screen-based activities increase the load on your brain instead of resting it.
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Opportunities to show compassion often feel difficult, but exercising virtue seems to help people cope.
FG Trade/E+ via Getty Images
Michael Prinzing, Wake Forest University
Philosophers from Aristotle to Nietzsche have debated whether being virtuous only helps others, or if it benefits the virtuous person, too.
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Kelsey Norman, Rice University; Nicholas R. Micinski, American University
Militarized immigration enforcement used to be confined to near the US-Mexico border, far away from most Americans’ front lawns.
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David L. Weimer, University of Wisconsin-Madison
The decision to bring a dog into the family should recognize that, like other family members, they will require medical care.
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John E. Jones III, Dickinson College
Since the republic’s beginning, it has been uncontested law that to invade someone’s home, the government needs a warrant reviewed and signed by a judicial officer. ICE is turning that law on its head.
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