Yale Suspends Palestine Activist After AI Article Linked Her To Terrorism
- Reference: 0176706341
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/03/13/2156226/yale-suspends-palestine-activist-after-ai-article-linked-her-to-terrorism
- Source link:
> Helyeh Doutaghi, the scholar at Yale Law School, told the [2]New York Times that she is a "loud and proud" supporter of Palestinian rights. "I am not a member of any organization that would constitute a violation of U.S. law." The article that led to her suspension was published in Jewish Onliner, a Substack that says it is "empowered by A.I. capabilities." The website does not publish the names of its authors out of fear of harassment. Ironically, Doutaghi and Yale were reportedly the subject of intense harassment after Jewish Onliner published the [3]article linking Doutaghi to terrorism by citing appearances she made at events sponsored by [4]Samidoun , a pro-Palestinian group. [...]
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> Jewish Onliner is vague about how it uses AI to produce its articles, but the technology is known for making lots of mistakes and hallucinating information that is not true. It is quite possible that Jewish Onliner relied on AI to source information it used to write the article. That could open it up to liability if it did not perform fact-checking and due diligence on its writing. Besides the fact that Doutaghi says she is not a member of Samidoun, she attended events it sponsored that support Palestinian causes, Yale Law School said the allegations against her reflect "potential unlawful conduct."
[1] https://gizmodo.com/yale-suspends-palestine-activist-after-ai-article-linked-her-to-terrorism-2000575148
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/us/yale-suspends-scholar-terrorism.html
[3] https://jewishonliner.org/p/member-of-us-designated-terror-group
[4] https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2646
Problem with federal funding (Score:4, Interesting)
The problem with accepting federal funding is it allows the government to control you. From the article:
> "Yale’s peer institution, Columbia, lost $400 million in federal funding last week after being named on a list of schools accused of tolerating antisemitism. On Monday, the Trump administration announced that Yale was among 60 schools that could face funding cuts if federal investigations show evidence that they have permitted antisemitic behavior."
It seems she is actually linked to the 'terrorist' group, "The news site cited postings referring to appearances she made on panels at Samidoun-sponsored events, but a lawyer for Dr. Doutaghi said she is not a member of Samidoun." Of course, "terrorist group" being a label created by the US government.
I don't think the situation has anything to do with AI.
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And Samidoun linked itself to Hamas and Hezbollah, and officially called for "death to Canada", so the link to terrorism is real enough.
Not a hallucination and nothing to do with AI.
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> And Samidoun ... officially called for "death to Canada",
Big deal - Trump himself has done that.
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To be fair, Yale didn't let Trump attend there, either.
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Welp, that would do it.
Though looking around, I don't seem to be the only one figuring that this is at least somewhat performative in order to keep/protect federal funding.
Looking at the article itself, it mentions that Samidoun is sanctioned by the fed already.
And sorry, but under Trump, just supporting Palestine is a deportable offense. And Samidoun was added to the sanction list last year , thus under Biden.
If she isn't a US Citizen, I'd advise her to be very, very careful right now.
Go to the source (Score:5, Informative)
Well, Samidoun, which is sanctioned by the US and Canada as a terrorist group, has [1]this article on its own website [samidoun.net] that says that Helyeh is "a member of the international Samidoun Network".
So even if it was an AI article, it seems like it wasn't hallucinating about the connection.
[1] https://samidoun.net/2022/07/fedayin-screening-in-iran-highlights-case-of-georges-ibrahim-abdallah/
Re:This is the same crap from the '50s (Score:4, Informative)
The left wing is a bunch of rich people, too.
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"The whole tech industry is very left wing" [citation needed]
They became "left-wing" to oppose Bush's invasion of Iraq. That's not left-wing, that's opposing neocons.
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Citation: I was there. Which is better than your citation, which is nothing.
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Actually a pretty accurate assertion.
It was really anti-neoconservatism that first made me give a shit about political parties at all.
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Joe McCarthy died in 1957.
Ronald Reagan became president in 1980.
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Please re-read the subject line. And [1]here [alphahistory.com] is an account of him before the house un-american committee accusing people who didn't agree with him as being communists to shut them up. Yup, same crap from the 40-50's.
[1] https://alphahistory.com/coldwar/ronald-reagan-testifies-huac-1947/
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I believe Reagan did that back when he was president of the Screen Actors Guild - he was ratting out other actors and actresses.
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[1]This article provides additional context (rather more sympathetic to Reagan) [latimes.com].
[1] https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-dec-12-la-oe-meroney-reagan-20101212-story.html
Re:This is the same crap from the '50s (Score:5, Informative)
Back then Dems believed in free speech. Free Speech Movement and all that. Today Dems are as pro-censorship, just for different topics.
Re: This is the same crap from the '50s (Score:2)
Whoâ(TM)s censoring speech right now?
I donâ(TM)t see democrats arresting people and trying to deport them before the courts can act.
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Name one person democrats tried to deport for supporting something they don't like. Sidenote - you're not a terrorist or antisemitic for supporting Palestine.
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Oh look, another retard who hasn't kept up with the last 35 years of current events.
It turns out that the Kremlin archives (opened to western researchers in the early 1990s) and the Venona intercepts have essentially vindicated McCarthy. According to official Soviet records and communications, nearly everyone that McCarthy named actually was a Soviet agent.
Not surprising, really, since McCarthy had access to all of our intelligence. Also, not surprising since all investigation into communist infiltration
Censorship from all sides (Score:3, Insightful)
How can we get back to normalcy when on one side there are DEI fanatics trying to censor and on the other side there are Israeli fanatics trying to censor everyone that disagrees with them? Fuck Israel. Fuck LGBTQ. Fuck every last one of these censorious fucks.
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> Fuck Israel. Fuck LGBTQ. Fuck every last one of these censorious fucks.
I don't know about getting back to normalcy, but if you stop swearing, you won't get censored as much.
On other websites. On Slashdot, swearing is fine. We're fucking cool that way.
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s/Israeli fanatics/AI bots/ but sure, why not.
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On what basis would you sue them?
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And that fact that she actually is associated with the 'terrorist' group just not a member, even if the justice were fair, she doesn't really have a let to stand on.
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> And that fact that she actually is associated with the 'terrorist' group just not a member, even if the justice were fair, she doesn't really have a let to stand on.
Well, other than the fact she in fact has no association with any "terrorist" group. The 'actual' bit is functioning a little bit strangely in your assertion there.
While labeling groups you disagree with as "terrorists" might work rhetorically, it has no history of being particularly useful with Judges. "terrorism" has a very specific de
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There's an article on the [1]Samidoun website [samidoun.net] that says she's a member of their organization.
Now, their claim might be false, but if the organization claims you are a member, and you're attending and speaking at their events, do you still need to be on some sort of official membership list?
The organization got added to the list last year - under Biden. If Biden's organization felt the need to add it to the list, I figure that there's a good chance it actually is associated with terrorists.
Not that it is diffi
[1] https://samidoun.net/2022/07/fedayin-screening-in-iran-highlights-case-of-georges-ibrahim-abdallah/
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Wrongful dismissal, duh.
Universities almost universally have charter protections for free speech, and a lot of this going after palestine advocates is blowing straight past those protections, and that would generally be more than enough to sue for wrongful dismissal.
Its a University, and while there are standards to be expected around conduct, this is pretty unnaceptable.
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Problem being, considering our current president, what are the odds that, in this case, he'll attempt to pardon the university? Never mind that it's a civil case and likely state level?
I figure that this sort of stuff is often a show by the universities of "bending their knee" to placate Trump.
Meanwhile, I'd expect discovery to get intense. The university will want to show that the AI article is correct, so deep dive into her life, both will want further information about the article, so discovery/deposit
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Never gonna work. Look around at America now.
She is brown, and not rich. The people at Yale are neither. Even were it to be proven they acted inappropriately, 'rich' and 'white' beats trivialities like 'laws' now.