01 Jun 2026 AI everything – Except humanity
We’re talking about AI but with little, if any, convergence between industry and civil society. If the silos endure, risks will too. ...
18 May 2026 Digital justice – the good news
I seem to spend a lot of my working days reading, writing, and speaking about the harms and risks of our increasing digitalization, especially artificial intelligence. Granted, this all gets channelled into plans and actions to address harms and strengthen benefits: what individuals, institutions, networks can...
04 May 2026 Reclaiming digital technology to build a fairer, safer, and more inclusive world
Is it any wonder people are in thrall to the power and vicarious thrill of digital technologies when many acclaimed films and TV series extol the apparent virtues of digital surveillance. At the same time, they fear that State surveillance has gone too far. A swift...
20 Apr 2026 The beginning of the end of the attention economy?
On 25 March 2026, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google negligent for designing social media platforms that harmed a young user through addictive features, awarding $6 million in damages. Just one day earlier, a New Mexico jury had ordered Meta to pay $375...
23 Mar 2026 When a free press comes under fire, we all suffer
We see daily examples of pressures on press freedom in countries around the globe. Then there is a particularly chilling moment when such pressure becomes an overt threat from one of the oldest democracies in the world, in which freedom of speech is enshrined as...
09 Mar 2026 Data protection: Burden or obligation?
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...
23 Feb 2026 A cautionary tale of “The Russian Guy”: The gender AI divide, ethics, and regulation
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...
09 Feb 2026 Spain takes a stand: Regulating Big Tech to protect children
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...
26 Jan 2026 The red thread in the news
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...
12 Jan 2026 Trust, civic engagement, and shared responsibility in the digital age
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...