In 2016, widespread misinformation fueled hate-filled public debate in the United Kingdon and was a major contributor to the outcome of the Brexit referendum. Since then, the country’s decision to leave the European Union has had very negative economic consequences, resulting in lower productivity, less...
Apple has been fined €1.8bn by the European Commission for breaking competition laws over music streaming. The EU Competition Commissioner said that Apple had restricted “developers from informing consumers about alternative, cheaper music services available outside of the Apple ecosystem.” Although Apple says it will appeal,...
Media Development 2024-1 Towards Democratic Governance of Digital Society Many actors in civil society worry that digital technologies, including those based on AI, can be appropriated by governments, security services, and global corporations to repress, control, manipulate, and profit from ordinary people – who have their own,...
Over one hundred years of sci-fi books, magazines, TV programmes, and films have made it easier (as Dr Who fans will testify) to believe that aliens from outer space are intent on taking over Earth. In 1938, courtesy of a notorious radio broadcast of “The...
Seán Ó Siochrú and Anita Gurumurthy At the turn of this century, many in civil society believed we were witnessing the dawn of a new era for the public sphere, one where the internet could realise the promise of a communication space where all voices could...
Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini Chami Long ago, and when we were still tentative in our vocabulary, Dalit women’s collectives in Mysuru – with very little material wherewithal, but the immense largeness of being – taught us how small is made beautiful. They ran a community radio...
IT for Change 2023 While AI is not new to the field of computational science, the release of ChatGPT by Open AI in November 2022 marked a watershed moment. In a short time, the tech sector has rolled out Large Language Models (LLMs) and other Generative...
Jim McDonnell In the development and deployment of technologies based on AI, how can the voices of civil society organisations be raised against their potential risks and harms, but also for values such as equity, ethics, digital rights, control, choice, and transparency? In 1847, the poet Ralph...
Vassilis Chryssos In the wake of a swiftly changing post-COVID landscape, there is a notable surge in digitization and datafication within economies and societies, raising concerns. Advocacy efforts for digital inclusion and internet rights face fragmentation, with diverse actors addressing overlapping issues. This article presents five...
Carlos F. Baca-Feldman Data on connectivity to telecommunications services in the world show very significant growth in the last five years. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) report Measuring digital development. Facts and Figures (2023),1 the number of internet users increased to 5.3 billion, or...