Reuters recently reported that US diplomats worldwide have been ordered to track and counter data localization efforts, naming the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as an example of “unnecessarily burdensome” regulation. According to Reuters, “Experts say the move signals the Trump administration is reverting...
The plot could easily have been from a Netflix dystopian thriller. “The Russian Guy” approaches ordinary women and girls leading ordinary lives, one walking her child to school, another stocking supermarket shelves, and a young girl walking by. “Hello. What’s your name? You look beautiful. Come with...
According to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, social media platforms have become a “toxic, unpunished world” that “children were never meant to navigate alone.” This sharp critique, delivered at the World Governments Summit in Dubai on 4 February, reflects growing global concern about the unchecked power...
Recent headlines I read run from the latest attempts by Donald Trump to own Greenland to Taylor Swift becoming the second–youngest ever inductee to the Songwriters Hall of Fame. There doesn’t seem to be a connection, but there is – digital technology. Whether it’s the semi-conductors and...
Germany’s far-right political party Alternative für Deutschland recently relaunched a youth wing called Generation Deutschland. One of its posters portrays a young blond Aryan woman instantly recalling – for those who have not forgotten 20th century European history – Hitler’s League of German Girls and...
After all, that is the vision of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), whose +20 outcomes will be finalized by UN member states this week (December 16–17). Both at the WSIS+20 High-Level Meeting in July in Geneva and in the negotiations involved in drafting...
In 1960s Britain it was common for travelling salesmen (hardly ever women) to go from door to door selling subscriptions to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Twenty-four volumes whose cost could be spread over monthly repayments. Parents who could afford it, and even those who couldn’t, coveted Britannica...
Over the past few years, climate change has become a lighting rod issue in many countries of the Global North. Populist right-wing figures like Donald Trump (USA), Nigel Farage (UK), Alice Weidel (Germany) and Santiago Abascal (Spain) have either denied climate change, sought to undermine its...
In recent years, a lot has been said about the “extractivist” nature of today’s digital information ecosystem. While there has been some focus on the environmental impact of digital devices, the extractivism accusation has been directed primarily at the economic model of Big Tech, which...
The Internet is the world’s digital lifeline. For the approximately 5.6 billion people connected to the Internet (some 70% of the global population), access is essential. The entire Internet cannot be switched off, but governments and other actors can temporarily disrupt or restrict access by shutting...