Federal workers across US health agencies say they are nervous and on edge after a conservative group published more than 50 of their names and photos on a website that at one point described them as “targets.”The so-called “DEI watchlist,” registered in November, triggered alarm among civil servants as it gained traction amid President Donald Trump’s efforts to purge the government of positions and programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).The website — which initially described the workers as “targets” — now displays “dossiers” for workers it claims have promoted such initiatives, most of whom are Black and women.The group behind it, the nonprofit American Accountability Foundation, says it plans to add another 40 names on Tuesday.One federal worker profiled by the site said they were concerned for their safety when a colleague alerted them to the list and its tipline.”First, it was a little bit of fear,” the person, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told AFP.”Is my life about to change forever? Then, I think it turned into a bit of anger.”Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said he felt “dismayed” to see the website named mostly people of color who are not major policymakers, including friends he said have gone “absolutely silent.””It shocks me, hurts me, makes me afraid for my friends,” he told AFP. “They’re ruining lives.”He said the use of photos was especially troubling and likened it to the harassment faced by Ruby Freeman, a Georgia elections worker falsely accused of fraud in 2020 who later received millions of dollars after filing defamation lawsuits.”People have done this kind of doxxing before, and it puts people at physical risk.”- ‘DEI offenses’ – Each worker’s page contains their name, photo, job title and other publicly available information under the headline: “A quick summary of DEI offenses.”Those “offenses” include donating to Democrats and using pronouns online. They also include posting — or interacting with — messages supportive of Black Lives Matter or critical of Trump.One person’s “dossier” highlights how she liked a LinkedIn post from a connection who contributed to a book on race.Another was singled out for helping people sign up for the Affordable Care Act during an internship roughly a decade ago. A third had updated their Facebook profile picture during the coronavirus pandemic to say: “Stay Home Save Lives.”One of the few white people included is listed for a prior role with the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group.The federal worker who spoke to AFP said many people featured on the website focus on issues of health equity, such as offering mobile health screenings in low-income neighborhoods.The American Accountability Foundation has previously published lists of workers at other agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security, where it identified officials it accused of hindering efforts to secure the border.Last year, the group received a $100,000 grant from the Heritage Foundation, which produced the controversial Project 2025 memo laying out a vision for Trump’s administration.Spokesperson Yitz Friedman rejected concerns that the new “DEI watchlist” could endanger workers as a “false premise,” saying the fears are “based on a hypothetical.”He said his team have themselves received threats since the launch of the website.”We simply reviewed public information,” Friedman told AFP, saying the group created the site to “expose” government workers who push “extreme, left-wing, racist ideologies.”But the federal worker who spoke to AFP said they heard that some others on the list had pizzas anonymously delivered to their homes last week, an act the person described as “a message to say, ‘We know where you live.'”More than a dozen of the workers named appear to have deleted their LinkedIn profiles. One wrote on Instagram that he scrubbed his bio because he was “being harassed.”The “DEI watchlist” is now the top result Google returns when searching some of the workers names, an AFP analysis found. The worker told AFP they consulted a lawyer, filed a hate crime complaint with a state attorney general and alerted lawmakers and the NAACP civil rights group.The FBI has also been contacted, they said.”We are even more dedicated now to staying in our jobs and fighting back,” the person said, adding that the “DEI watchlist” is “creating our class-action lawsuit for us.”

YouTube has evolved from a dinner party lark 20 years ago into a modern lifestyle staple poised to overtake US cable television in paid viewership.PayPal colleagues Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim conceived YouTube in 2005, reportedly during a dinner party. The domain YouTube.com launched on Valentine’s Day that year.Video uploading capabilities were added on April 23, when Karim posted the first video, titled “Me at the Zoo.” The 19-second clip showing Karim at the San Diego Zoo’s elephant exhibit has garnered 348 million views.Over the next 20 years, the site has expanded beyond what was imagined possible back in 2005.”YouTube was started by tech bros who wanted a video hosting service to watch reruns of Janet Jackson’s ‘wardrobe malfunction’ during the Super Bowl,” said eMarketer analyst Ross Benes.”Now, it’s the world’s largest digital video service in terms of time spent and ad revenue — it’s an utter behemoth.”YouTube reached more than 2.5 billion viewers globally last year, with its music and premium tier subscribers hitting 100 million, according to market tracker Statista. Users worldwide watch more than a billion hours of YouTube content daily on television sets alone, Google reported.”If you go back 20 years, it would have seemed laughable that this website with kids making parody videos would become a threat to Disney, ABC, and CBS,” Benes said. “That’s what they were able to accomplish.”- ‘Firehose’ of videos -YouTube’s breakthrough came from challenging traditional television titans without requiring studios or production costs — it was users who were creating and uploading the content. The platform hosts everything from concert clips to political campaign ads to how-to videos — and much more.”The amount of new stuff coming out is a firehose that you can’t turn off, so people are always tuning in,” Benes said. According to Google, more than 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.Analysts consider Google’s 2006 purchase of YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock a pivotal moment, combining Google’s search and advertising expertise with a video-sharing platform that had passionate users.”YouTube was part of the recovery from the dot-com collapse, when people realized monetization was actually important,” said tech analyst Rob Enderle. “YouTube became an example of how dot-coms should have been done, as opposed to how they were done in the late 1990s.”Google used its advertising know-how to build a successful model, sharing revenue with creators who attract significant audiences. The company also enhanced technology and negotiated with studios to address copyright violations on what was once considered the Wild West of video content.”The piracy aspect isn’t quite there the way it used to be at YouTube,” Benes noted. “They used to have nudity too.”YouTube also worked its way past concerns that disturbing content, like parody videos of popular cartoon characters in violent or risque situations, were being served up to children by its recommendation software.The company launched a free “Kids” app promoted as a safe space for children, and is constantly tweaking its algorithm to avoid offending users, advertisers, and governments.Analyst Enderle credited much of YouTube’s development into a formidable platform to former chief executive Susan Wojcicki, who died last year. “She was phenomenal at her job and showcased how something like this should be done,” Enderle said.- ‘Part of me’ -YouTube is projected to surpass all US cable television services in paid subscribers within two years, according to Benes. The platform now competes with streaming services like Netflix, Disney, and Amazon Prime, as well as short-form video platforms like TikTok and Instagram’s Reels.In response to TikTok’s popularity, YouTube introduced its “Shorts” feature, which averages more than 70 billion views daily.”As the original streaming video platform, YouTube has continued to evolve and differentiate,” Mike Proulx, vice president and research director at Forrester, told AFP. “It’s the de facto standard for long-form user-generated video, literally defining the modern ‘creator.'”While YouTube’s recommendation algorithm has traditionally favored established creators, longtime content maker “Robert G” noted that emerging creators are once again being featured on the home page.”I’m really happy that YouTube is changing,” said Robert G, who began uploading videos in 2009. “YouTube is part of me; it is what I do.”

Joseph Lynskey was quietly waiting for the New York subway on New Year’s Eve when someone shoved him from behind onto the tracks as a train pulled into the station.Highly publicized horror stories like Lynskey’s have had a chilling effect on many New Yorkers even as authorities say crime is down on the metro system and across the city.Lynskey survived because he fell into a deeper, recessed space under the train and between the tracks, and was not hit by the wheels but rather the undercarriage.”I knew instantly… that somebody had pushed me and tried to kill me,” the music producer told AFP of the attack at the 18th Street subway station in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.”When I hit the tracks and I opened my eyes, the train was on top of me. It was so fast.”He recalled thinking “I’m going to get hit by the train and I’m going to die.” A 45-year-old adopted New Yorker, he has not been able to return to the subway, used by four million people daily who flock to the sprawling network of 472 stations and more than 660 miles of track, running day and night.When he looked around after falling onto the tracks, Lynskey recalled being just inches from the high-voltage rail that powers trains, and seeing his blood pooling on the rail bed.He was left with a fractured skull, four broken ribs and a ruptured spleen.”I knew that I had to remain calm. There was nobody on the platform answering my calls for help. For about 90 seconds, I was alone, screaming for help,” he said. “A woman started answering me… a Good Samaritan. She asked me what my name was. She asked me if I could move. She asked me if I could wiggle my fingers and wiggle my toes to see if, I guess if I was paralyzed, and I think she was trying to keep me awake.”Within minutes firefighters, police and subway workers arrived, with two firefighters retrieving him from the tracks, having been trained to do so just days before.Lynskey later met his rescuers to give them a hug and thank them properly.His rescue was captured on film and widely shared on social media, with rescuers expressing surprise that he was alive once he was lifted through the gap between two carriages.Lynskey still struggles to understand why his attacker, a 23-year-old man with criminal convictions and mental health issues, would want to harm him.He chooses instead to focus his attention on the kindness of strangers, like those who have written to him from around the world to express solidarity.- ‘Back against the wall’ -Last year 26 people were pushed or fell onto tracks, one of whom died, an increase of nine on 2023, police say.Cases like Lynskey’s, though rare, attract a disproportionate share of headlines and public awareness.Another subway tragedy that shocked New Yorkers became front page news in May 2023 when Jordan Neely, an unhoused Michael Jackson impersonator who had struggled with psychiatric issues, was choked to death by a former US Marine, Daniel Penny. Penny was charged with murder despite claiming he acted in self-defense when Neely became agitated, and a jury acquitted him.Similarly shocking was the killing of a woman who was set alight by another passenger.One rider, Marissa Keary, 24, said that she had “definitely heightened” her vigilance when riding the metro.”If I have to wait, I’ll have my back against the wall, and I’ll also stand near another woman,” she said.Lynskey said that the subway operator could do more to make passengers feel safe.”I think everyone deserves to feel safe when they go down into their commute,” he said.Despite chronic issues with reliability and dirtiness, the subway remains the fastest way for the city’s eight million people to crisscross the tightly packed urban jungle.In mid-January, authorities stepped up police patrols at stations and on trains, while also steeping up mental health outreach and erecting barriers on the edges of some platforms.Administrators said they hope that President Donald Trump does not scrap a $9 per car congestion charging scheme despite his opposition to the measure which will be used to fund a $65 billion subway overhaul bill, and the system’s $48 billion debt pile.