'American Action Forum estimated a citizenship verification requirement could add... $2.6-5.6 billion in costs. "Verifying new accounts is the tip of the iceberg; the lack of details makes it difficult to estimate the costs of verifying existing accountholders."' www.cnbc.com/2026/04/15/b...

Happy to share that my latest research article on how regulatory entrepreneurship challenges digital sovereignty is now out in Science and Public Policy doi.org/10.1093/scip... cc @uvadatascience.bsky.social, @mediastudies.bsky.social, @uvaresearch.bsky.social Message me if you'd like a PDF copy

Co-Opting AI: Geopolitics will examine the geopolitical dimensions of AI – from national security aspects, to global political economy concerns, ethical dimensions, and diplomacy implications. Register for this virtual event today: https://bit.ly/4vi5qJz

Pope Francis: "In this age of artificial intelligence, we cannot forget that poetry and love are necessary to save our humanity."

"These smart CCTVs [in Mombasa] will help us nab those not paying parking fees and those breaking other laws. We are also looking to partner with stakeholders to enhance the system’s capacity, including number plate and facial recognition." www.kenyans.co.ke/news/122151-...

On the Amtrak to DC for the “Internet Scraping and the Future of the Open Web in the Internet Age” workshop at Georgetown Law!

"Starlink’s control over a critical communications layer gives the company outsized geopolitical influence—especially in conflicts; emergencies; and other settings where connectivity can shape military, political, and humanitarian outcomes." foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/20/s...

It is a sobering thought that, if Starlink launches stopped today, the entire constellation would cease to exist in 5 years time.

"Russia has been testing a system that Iran used as it sought to suppress recent protests in January. When Tehran shut down the internet..., it activated a parallel network. So-called white SIM cards allowed regime insiders and VIPs to maintain access to the web." www.wsj.com/world/russia...

"[Flock] is expanding into other technologies such as gunshot detection devices and drones, data sources that can be rolled together into a 'real-time crime centre' to provide instant intelligence for law enforcement." www.ft.com/content/5c3b...

<< @world.org claims nearly 18m unique humans have verified their identities on one of nearly 1,000 physical orbs around the world. Now, with Agent Kit, it wants to let those users tie their confirmed identity to any AI agent, letting it work on their behalf... >> arstechnica.com/ai/2026/03/w...

"Space-based comms in near-Earth orbit are essential for our next generation of GPS systems, internet, data management & political economy. Controlling access to space is a way to leapfrog the mundane worlds governed by US regulation..." - @cyberlyra.bsky.social www.techpolicy.press/in-the-twent...

NS: Can we shape the next government of Iran without boots on the ground? I think there are a lot of things we can do... EK: What would those things look like? NS: Everything from providing the ability to communicate, Starlink, to providing economic resources. 🛰️ www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/o...

"Flock claims it doesn’t share data with ICE directly, but reports show that local police have shared their own access to Flock cameras and its databases with federal authorities." techcrunch.com/2026/02/23/a... Wouldn't this be a ToS violation in normal times?

"The emergence of new actors in humanitarian action not only tests established data protection approaches, it also confronts our understanding of humanitarian data and the ways in which this data may be sourced and later exploited." www.datastudiesbibliography.org/blog/all-dat...

“The FCC issued a public notice this week warning that the US would retaliate should the EU prioritise European satellite operators over US alternatives such as Starlink. The warning comes as the EU has to decide on how to allocate a slice of its satellite spectrum.” www.ft.com/content/f56e...

Risk management in action: “This technology needs to be utilised by democracies. I think it has to be a partnership with a number of different private companies.” www.ft.com/content/653f...

"In addition to doling out Worldcoin to new World ID holders, Tools for Humanity awards its cryptocurrency to independent Orb operators in some markets outside the US each time they issue a new ID. Nearly 18m people have received World IDs, including 1.1m in N. America." www.wsj.com/cmo-today/sa...

Having worked with UN Refugee Agency to understand the impact of identification requirements on displaced people's access to digital connectivity and financial services all over the world, it's disappointing to read the USG is pursuing such a regressive policy www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

"This is a public procurement failure... Palantir’s tools were embedded in the [UK Ministry of Defense] and the company was awarded a second contract worth over three times as much as the first... A so-called land-and-expand tactic by the company." www.ft.com/content/5207...

There is an inherent irony in Palantir listing the immigration crackdown that it is powering as being a potential risk for the company. www.404media.co/palantir-whi...

"'Starlink bans' are better understood as assertions of telecom sovereignty, with governments applying existing tools to force LEO providers back inside national regulatory and security perimeters." www.ictworks.org/stop-fightin... Good stuff from @wayanvota.bsky.social h/t @emryss.bsky.social 🎩

Is anyone monitoring AI companies' compliance with California's Generative Artificial Intelligence Training Data Transparency Act (AB 2013), which came into effect on January 1st?

"Social media age limits would be better set at a European level — rather than nationally — the EU’s digital chief [Henna Virkkunen] said on Tuesday. The European Commission aims to present a proposal before the summer." www.mlex.com/mlex/technol...

Our new research initiative @digsovobs.bsky.social has a page! Give us a follow. The Digital Sovereignty Observatory examines how emerging technologies reshape social and political boundaries. @kerenweitzberg.bsky.social @sixfouronea.net @emryss.bsky.social www.kcl.ac.uk/research/the...

“A full technological ‘decoupling’ from the United States is neither a realistic objective nor one that would serve Europe’s broader strategic interests,” said Lithuania’s economy minister, Edvinas Grikšas. www.politico.eu/article/eu-c...

Kenya's data protection authority has confirmed that the biometric data collected by various Worldcoin affiliated companies has finally been deleted after its illegal collection 👁️ thekenyatimes.com/law/data-pro... Grace Mutung’u, Magda Brewczyńska and I have a paper on this case coming out soon 🖋️

"Global humanitarianism is in crisis. The movement that grew up after the Holocaust, drew strength from the cold war and fed off the international outrage at the genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda in the 1990s is bewildered and besieged." www.ft.com/content/8600...

@anupamchander.bsky.social with the money quote: “My worry all along is that we may have traded fears of foreign propaganda for the reality of domestic propaganda.” www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/t...

"Cybersecurity expert Fleur van Leusden likens tech company attempts to sell sovereignty as a service to vegan chicken breast; it cannot be both. Technology is either sovereign or it is foreign." www.ft.com/content/8fc2...

"The governor of New York is considering regulating online sports betting with requirements for biometric age checks." www.biometricupdate.com/202601/new-y...

Refreshing my undergrad data ethics syllabus. Making decisions on the most instructive controversies to include as case studies. Any obvious omissions? 23andMe data sale AVs/safety Facial recognition/bias Algorithmic sentencing (COMPAS) Mental health (Crisis Text Line) Gen AI & IP TikTok in the US

"Children are the easiest targets for tech companies because they don’t know the difference between suffering and friction — one difference between children and adults is that adults do. Or at least, we’re supposed to." www.thecut.com/article/broo...

<< In Ernest Hemingway’s novel “The Sun Also Rises,” the character Mike Campbell explains how he went bankrupt: “Gradually and then suddenly.” The decades of imperfect but transformative peace that the U.N. Charter helped create now faces the same fate. >> www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/o...

OpenAI and Anthropic will start predicting when users are underage

Pleased to share my article examining how circulations of data, capital, and discourse shape migrants' im/mobilities through the case of the UK's ASPEN Card – proudly in Ulla Berg, Carolina Sánchez Boe & @dbyler.bsky.social's SI in @survstudiesnet.bsky.social ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/su...

"[Corporate humanitarianism] began around two decades ago but has now become the dominant model of humanitarian engagement... Can the UNHCR profit from being led by IKEA’s CEO?" aje.io/r7ifs3

Tim Wu: "In some ways, the American AI race looks not unlike the race to build the grandest cathedrals in late medieval Europe. Then, the motives were a mixture of pride, economics and a sincere religious belief the structures would bring humanity closer to salvation." www.ft.com/content/1258...

This entire grift relies on convincing people that they don't know how to do the things they have always known how to do, and ironically, if it works, we will, in a very short amount of time, forget how to do all the things we have always known how to do.

Excited to announce @leverhulmecal.bsky.social posts - we are looking for 7 interdisciplinary fellows to join our Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life, closing date 30 January 2026 (1/3) durham.taleo.net/careersectio...

So it sure looks like someone invented a fake Russian advance in Ukraine to manipulate the online gambling market Polymarket. Gamblers are making money by betting on the outcomes of battles big and small in the war. Edited map is run by DC-based think tank www.404media.co/unauthorized...

6️⃣6️⃣6️⃣ "Pockets of resistance to data centres are growing across the US, which now has more than 4,000, the most in the world, according to research company Data Center Map. Georgia has 163, making it seventh. Virginia, at the top, hosts 666 facilities." www.ft.com/content/7f39...

There is currently about $100m of bets staked on moves in the Ukraine war on Polymarket. To make a more compelling interface on this war betting, the guys who do the Pentagon Pizza thing are accused of scraping frontline mapping data without permission. #NotBlackMirror dev.ua/en/news/deep...

Silicon Valley, 1990s: Free and open access to all the world’s knowledge will usher a new utopian age of information! Silicon Valley, 2025:

We are proud to share that Professor Aaron Martin (@empo11on.bsky.social) co-edited Data Protection in Humanitarian Action, marking 10 years of ICRC & UNHCR data frameworks. A milestone on how data protection drives responsible humanitarian action. Read open access: https://bit.ly/47TYiIm

"At least 49 family members and colleagues of Afghans affected by the UK Ministry of Defence's mass data breach have been killed, according to research submitted to a parliamentary committee." www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

This is sounding more and more like the Council of Nicea who meet behind closed doors and poke the chatbot until it says it feels something. arstechnica.com/information-...

Call for Abstracts / Panels PLANETARY SURVEILLANCE #SSN2026 – the 11th Biennial Surveillance Studies Network Conference 9-12 June 2026 Université Catholique de Lille, France Details: surveillance-studies.net/conference/ Submissions (open soon): ssn2026.sciencesconf.org

💥 New book out with @icrc.org's @massimomarelli.bsky.social and @universityofexeter.bsky.social's Ana Beduschi 💥 ᴅᴀᴛᴀ ᴘʀᴏᴛᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ɪɴ ʜᴜᴍᴀɴɪᴛᴀʀɪᴀɴ ᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ: ʀᴇꜱᴘᴏɴᴅɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ᴄʀɪꜱᴇꜱ ɪɴ ᴀ ᴅᴀᴛᴀ-ᴅʀɪᴠᴇɴ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ 👉 doi.org/10.4324/9781... It's an open-access collection thanks to @ecpcmaastricht.bsky.social 🧡

deleted social media from my phone a while back so haven't been around much lately but dropping in here to share something I wrote about d'angelo, whose music meant the world to me slate.com/culture/2025...