February 2022 – The Surly Subgroup

By Diane Ring

We are back again this week looking at the role of misinformation and disinformation in democracy, good governance, and well-grounded decisionmaking! On Friday, we are hosting the second Roundtable in the Whistling at the Fake research project (with Dr. Costantino Grasso as PI, and funded by NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division). In our first Roundtable, we focused on disinformation in the private sector.

This Friday February 25, 2022 at 10:00am EST, the subject is Disinformation and the Public Sector.

The Roundtable includes three sessions: (1) Democracy and Disinformation – the Political Level; (2) Disinformation and Public Administration; and (3) Special Issues and Final Recommendations. The international panel includes experts from law, media, government, and civil society, along with whistleblowers. To join this exciting Roundtable session, register here!

By Samuel D. Brunson

Over the last couple weeks, I’ve seen people in a couple very disparate groups worry about the 1099s they’re going to receive. (One group is saxophone enthusiasts who occasionally sell instruments and mouthpieces on eBay and Reverb.)

And why are they worried? Basically because the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 makes it much more likely that they’ll receive 1099s, even for casual selling. Section 6050W of the Code requires companies like Paypal and Venmo (and other non-credit card payment processors) to report payments made, both to the payees and to the IRS.

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