Big money has bought British politics 75% of Reform’s money has come from three rich white men democracyforsale.substack.com/p/75-of-refo...

The financialization of everything is all that is left. Which is why we end up with the totally insane situation that people are betting on whether world leaders are going to get killed, or that a nuke will drop this year Watch, subscribe here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=paHM...

It's not up to me to prosecute the US 'fascism debate', but now that ICE has answered the "but there is no armed militia loyal to the leader" objection, Hegseth is now answering the "but there's no glorification of war for its own sake" objection.

Over 400 scientists have signed a letter calling for a moratorium on the deployment of age-verification technologies. The letter suggests the widespread deployment of untested AV tech is making the internet less safe. www.politico.eu/article/age-...

I have seen a lot of cursed stuff in my time in academia but this is among the *most* cursed. Grammarly is generating miniature LLMs based on academic work so that users can have their writing ‘reviewed’ by experts like David Abulafia, who died less than two months ago.

Loved working with Alain on this account of Schmitt's nomos and its disavowed sociotechnics.

"Only defending our allies from attack" is also how Britain entered WW1

Daniella Lock: In Defence of the Divisional Court’s Palestine Action Ruling ukconstitutionallaw.org/2026/03/02/d...

I keep thinking of @dylandifford.bsky.social's point that everything wrong with the McSweeney-Starmer governing strategy was obvious to anyone who had done the most basic and broad of first year political science.

The current argument of the British right is that Muslims turned out in "blocs" with "family voting" to cast their ballots for a party led by a gay Jewish man, and this shows that multiculturalism has failed, voting is "sectarian" and we are in a crisis. Hmmmmmm.

It’s a running joke in academia that Matt Goodwin is bad at maths. This sort of thing is why: the combined Labour/Green vote could have split in any way possible and Goodwin would have finished 2nd or 3rd. He did not lose because progressives coordinated. He lost *in spite of them not doing so*.

The Guardian/UCL have conducted an in-depth study of all of the immigration debates in parliament over a century. It shows sentiment more mixed, more negative today than in the past. (Though also that parliamentary sentiment historically is more pro than con) www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-...

This is utterly horrifying www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

The Trump regime is using AI for mass surveillance of Americans, and plans to integrate AI into their weapons systems. They are trying to extort Anthropic for refusing to go along. The oligarchs and their would-be King want to make human beings like us obsolete.

Three things are remarkable. 1) The Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill is mandating age gates on *any site or service* which falls in scope of the Online Safety Act, 2) Regardless of whatever compliance that service already did for the OSA and AADC; and 3) Nobody knows about this, or cares.

This week, 404 Media speaks to Harlo Holmes from Freedom of the Press Foundation about how to fight back against privacy nihilism, digital security practices everyone can use, and the arrests of journalists in the U.S. Watch/subscribe here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=chcN...

Meta's director of AI safety allowed an AI agent to... accidentally delete her inbox. This is supposedly the person at the company who is working to make sure that powerful AI tools don’t go rogue and act against human interests www.404media.co/meta-directo...

Persona, the age verification company used by Roblox & Discord was hacked. And despite the company & platforms claiming Persona utilised “zero knowledge” methodologies to verify age, they are gathering user data. Palantir is one of Persona’s main investors. www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...

Oh, the grand old duke of york He ██████████████████ He ██████████████████ And he ██████████████████

They’re so clearly going to try to fix the elections Every US outlet should be reporting on this every single day between now and mid terms

My first piece for @techpolicypress.bsky.social - a primer of sorts on Ireland’s role in EU tech regulation Context for the year ahead, as the 2 foundations of the economy - the 2 forces that dragged post independence Ireland out of poverty - the EU & US FDI - go to war

Since the government is about to introduce a social media ban for under-16s based largely on vibes – and Jonathan Haidt's shitty book – in the hopes it boosts its popularity (it won't), I'll re-up this. If we're banning under-16s, why not over-60s?

Here are some thoughts on the Palestine Action ruling for the @lrb.co.uk. The ruling shows the importance of the UK Government's national security assessments being challenged - which doesn't happen enough under our current system.

Breaking: on two counts, the High Court has ruled that the Labour government's proscription of the campaign group Palestine Action was unlawful – a win for its co-founder Huda Ammori, who sought a judicial review of the ban

The European Commission’s first DSA fine against X reveals an enforcement strategy focused on corporate ownership and control, interface design, and barriers to data access, writes Matteo Fabbri.

Discord recently announced that many more users will need to scan their face or upload ID, verifying their age so they can continue to access parts of the platform. Someone quickly made a tool that they say bypasses it with a simple 3D model you control www.404media.co/free-tool-sa...

'Jesse Nicholls represented al-Libi at the hearing ... describing it as ‘unprecedented’ and ‘extraordinary’, and expressing the conclusion that the targeted barrister had been singled out in order to gain a litigation advantage for the Defendants ... in al-Libi’s claim against the UK Government.'

I think this complaint is a kind of guilty conscience - Starmer was seen as safe because he was willing to put aside his personal convictions and pander to what the British media supposedly wants from a 'sensible' government... now the media isn't playing along, so it's their fault. Cynical reason.

"TikTok’s Terms of Service now explicitly include tracking of location and citizenship status (among other identity markers, such as sex)." newrepublic.com/article/2059...

People often jump to saying online propaganda is either the work of radicalised actors, or else Russia. In practice, it’s amazing how often the answer is much simpler – someone is chasing either (a) clout, (b) money, or (c) both.

This piece is as good as everyone's saying. It's striking how willing this bonehead is to outsource all ethical judgement to the tiktok algorithm. Just a humble participant in the market, responding to the incentives on offer.

Very sad news. criticallegalthinking.com/2026/02/05/e...

UCU GS election challenge next week should be interesting. Certification Office hearings are via zoom but can be joined remotely - www.gov.uk/government/n...

The CIA just stopped publishing their World Factbook and took every page, including the archived copies of previous versions! This sucks. It was public domain, so I recovered the 2020 edition (the last one published as a zip file) and shared it to GitHub simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/5/t...

PSNI remains undefeated in the art of data protection

UK pro-Palestinian activists not guilty of aggravated burglary at Israeli firm's factory reut.rs/4a0pqbe

Floored by this story. A man wrote a pollite email to a federal prosecutor objecting to the deportation of an Afghan seeking asylum. DHS responded with an administrative warrant to get the man's info from Google, then visited his home to intimidate him.

Incredibly good work from @techpolicypress.bsky.social - an inventory of the known AI and data surveillance arsenal being used by ICE and the Department of Homeland Security. www.techpolicy.press/dhs-ai-surve...

❤️

Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Really interesting thread on who actually has to bell the cat if the EU believes Grok is violating the DSA to apply sanctions and guess! What! It’s good ol’ Ireland 🙈

From the NY Post. You know they are really scrambling when they are running "The gun was no angel" stories.

I really loved speakigg bf to @stewartmotha.bsky.social about my book on interception powers, legal materialities, media theory and more for his excellent Cointersign podcast. Now online here: countersignisapodcast.com

“Personal Intelligence feels like Google has been quietly taking notes on my entire life and finally decided to hand me the notebook.”

peak UK to spend 5 years debating the Online Safety Act, 3 years enacting it, 1 month rendering it largely irrelevant before it's taken effect by banning the problem it was supposed to solve

I’m looking for my right-hand person to come help me run the @aial.ie - Job Title: Lab Coordinator, AI Accountability Lab (0.8 FTE) - Pay Scale: (€58,999 - €69,325 per annum pro-rata) - Closing Date: 11-Feb-2026 12:00 Apply here: my.corehr.com/pls/trrecrui... Main Responsibilities👇🏾

A new book, Governing Digital China, offers crucial insights into China's governance ecosystem. Written by the Hertie School and the Center for Digital Governance's Daniela Stockmann and the University of Birmingham's Ting Luo, the book reveals a more complex reality than simple top-down control.

Last week, I successfully defended my PhD Thesis, ‘Platform Politics and Data Publics: Sovereignty, Statecraft and Citizenship in the India Stack’, at the Faculty of Laws, University College London.