Disruptions

Editorial comment: Sometimes, the most disruptive personal technology is a gun in the hands of a racist, used for the most uncivil of acts. To help the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in this time of tragedy and need, please consider making a donation to it.

Melissa Healy of the Los Angeles Times reports on the continued efforts by some gun control advocates to develop “smart gun” technology and the success that gun rights advocates have had in blocking any sales of such devices in the U.S.

The FCC has voted to move forward with a plan to subsidize broadband for poor Americans, Rebecca Ruiz reports for the New York Times.

The FCC has affirmed that consumers have the same right not to be spammed via text message as they do by mobile phone call, responding to a three-year push by Revolution Messaging, the digital firm founded by Scott Goodstein. In a statement applauding the decision, Goodstein commented, “When not abused, text messaging is one of the best ways for people to stay in touch with the campaigns they support—from quick information surveys to sharing event details or breaking big news or announcements directly with supporters.” It remains to be seen if and how the agency will enforce this decision.

The House Appropriations Committee has approved a spending bill that fails to provide the additional funding requested by the White House to keep growing the U.S. Digital Service, Jack Moore reports for NextGov.com.

The Huffington Post’s Alex Howard reports on Brigade’s launch, adding insight from Tufts University’s Peter Levine, an expert on civic engagement, who observes of the app, “If you use it as designed, you are being civically engaged. Sharing ideas and participating in discussions is a public good.” At same time, Levine warns: “Down the road, the data they’re collecting could be misused. If they had some kind of dominant market position in the discussion of current events, that would make them very powerful. We would worry about many things, including microtargeting.”

Ex-Hill staffers who have become civic tech entrepreneurs—Aneet Makin of LegCyte, Marci Harris of PopVox, and Ted Henderson of Capitol Bells—get profiled in this story by Steven Overly of the Washington Post.

Engadget’s Devindra Hardawar reports on Google’s launch of YouTube Newswire, a curated feed of verified eyewitness videos.

Related: How Witness, the nonprofit founded by Peter Gabriel to give human rights activists video cameras to document and fight violations, is partnering with YouTube and Google on its new Witness Media Lab, and the role of former White House deputy CTO Nicole Wong in helping Witness navigate the legal challenges that come with real-time live video, as reported by Neal Ungerleider for Fast Company.

This nifty visualization from Google Trends shows current searches worldwide on topics related to climate change.

Twitter’s plans to demote the timeline and make curated news its central feature gets unveiled by David Pierce in Wired.

Weekend reading: Politico’s Luke O’Brien on Michael Bloomberg’s return to running his business. A sample: “Cracking the Bloomberg empire is a challenge. The company lauds transparency and practices secrecy.”