One Year Trump. Let the past year serve as a reminder of what a malicious, vindictive, greedy leader can do to a country in one year. And let it be a reminder that a strong opposition, strong institutions, and independent and free media are necessary guardrails in a strong democracy.

Trump pulls out of long list of international organizations, conventions, treaties.... including (of particular note to digital rights folks) the Freedom Online Coalition. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok has generated a flood of sexualized images of women and minors posted to the social media platform X. Regulators around the world are responding by opening inquiries, demanding takedowns, and threatening legal action. Tech Policy Press is tracking such responses.

New year, new (job) opportunities: Full professorship in Digital Society and Democracy. What: excellent conditions, start-up and transition packages, interdisciplinary and supportive environment, wonderful colleagues. [1/2] fa-eosd-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Today Dec 15 at 3.30pm Brazil (6.30 pm UK/7.30pm CET) I will be speaking about #digital #sovereignty at Brazil's Ministry of Management and Innovation organized by ENAP Join online: youtube.com/live/ABLeek8... This talk is part of @iipp-ucl.bsky.social 's applied learning program

While some elements of AI are genuinely new, the harms it enables are evolutions of those we have seen before, writes Sarah Barrington. It is time to recognize the myth of the “unprecedented” and hold tech accountable, she says.

Most of the discussion around America's AI strategy abroad has focused on the AI Action Plan - but perhaps more important was the Executive Order on exporting the AI stack. 🧵

This is one of the things I miss most about London. Radiohead will be performing there from November 21–25. And to think they once revolutionized the industry by releasing In Rainbows online in 2007, letting people download it and choose their own price. youtu.be/0vK0yCbVdQg?...

«Silicon Valley isn’t building apps anymore. It’s building empires.» The Authoritarian Stack: A mapping of firms, funds, and political actors turning core state functions into private platforms, by @francescabria.bsky.social et. al. for @fesonline.bsky.social www.authoritarian-stack.info

What can we learn from @awscloud.bsky.social and @microsoft.com recent cloud blackouts? The extent of dependency is so deep & widespread that we must develop #digital #sovereignty This is what @paologerbaudo.bsky.social & I explain for @tribunemagazine.bsky.social tribunemag.co.uk/2025/11/why-...

"This week Elon Musk proudly launched his latest venture — not electric cars, not space exploration, not satellites, not tunnels, not social media, not brain implants, not the rolling back of the administrative state... but something altogether more fundamental: a new version of the truth."

Today is the official UK publication day for Silicon Empires! I'm excited to have it out and hear what people think. There's an enormous amount happening every day in AI, and it's difficult to gain a stable perspective. I wrote the book to try and get some secure hold on that constant flux. 🧵

Lula says ‘Tyrania do Veto’ prevents UN from avoiding ‘atrocities’ and again says that Gaza suffers ‘genocide’ President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) said on Monday (22) that the "tyranny of the veto" prevents the United Nations Security Council (UN) from preventing "atrocities". The president…

Always a pleasure to come back to LSE, even for a short visit

In @nytopinion.nytimes.com “The U.S. government is using tariffs and the Magnitsky Act to seek impunity for former President Jair Bolsonaro, who orchestrated a failed coup attempt on Jan. 8, 2023, in an effort to subvert the popular will,” writes President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil.

Raining day in London (as always). It couldn't feel more nostalgic

"A majority of Brazil’s supreme court judges have voted to convict the country’s former president Jair Bolsonaro of plotting a military coup, leaving the far-right populist facing a decades-long sentence for leading the criminal conspiracy." www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

🫳 A MÃO INVISÍVEL DAS BIG TECHS | Ao longo de nove meses, 17 organizações de jornalismo, lideradas pela Pública e pelo CLIP, fizeram reportagens sobre as estratégias de influência das Big Techs em 13 países. A primeira parte desta série acaba de ser lançada. Siga o fio!

Western leaders have appeased Donald Trump since he returned to power, only to be hit with new demands after every concession. On Tuesday, Trump declared economic war on countries that regulate its tech companies. It’s time for the world to break from the US and aggressively target Silicon Valley.

Brazil offers a lesson in democracy to an America that is becoming more corrupt, protectionist and authoritarian econ.st/4peBqLR

One of the sharpest critiques I’ve read of the “techno-feudalism” hype is this essay by @evgenymorozov.bsky.social in Le Monde diplomatique. Well worth the read: mondediplo.com/2025/08/02te...

Loved this interview with @ceciliarikap.bsky.social on @techwontsave.us. A sharp and timely analysis of digital sovereignty and how countries can resist Big Tech dependence. Must-listen! techwontsave.us/episode/290_...

Powerful analysis by @beccalew.bsky.social in @theguardian.com what looks like a recent backlash against diversity on digital platforms is in fact rooted in the 1990s, when masculinity, entrepreneurship & deregulation fused into a high-tech civilizational project www.theguardian.com/technology/n...

Great piece on The Weaponized World Economy by @himself.bsky.social and @abenewman.bsky.social. Important contribution to the debate on weaponized interdependence, but still missing the Global South’s perspective. www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

"Do Trump and his advisors really think they can use tariffs to bully a nation of + 200 million people into dropping its efforts to defend democracy, when it sells 88 % of its exports to countries other than the United States?" Love it @pkrugman.bsky.social paulkrugman.substack.com/p/trumpbrazi...

Sharing my two cents on Trump’s Executive Order “Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government”: this is not merely a conservative project: it is fundamentally anti-democratic. www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-s...

Bolsonaro ordered to wear ankle tag over fears he may abscond as coup trial nears end

On July 11, OpenAI announced it would sign the EU Code of Practice for AI. At first glance, it sounds like a responsible move. But read between the lines: it’s about turning regulation into a growth strategy and presenting AI as both inevitable and already settled. www.linkedin.com/posts/carine...

IBM (1979)

Professor Virgílio Almeida discussing platforms as institutions, using Brazil as a case study at the Digital Humanism Conference @dighum.wien, including the case where Elon Musk’s X challenged Brazil’s Supreme Court authority. #dighum2025

Tech billionaires not only shape public debate, but also define the very boundaries of who can occupy that space with legitimacy and safety, writes Carine Roos. www.techpolicy.press/gendered-dis...

My first contribution to @techpolicypress.bsky.social is out! Platforms profit from silencing women, especially those in power. I write about gendered disinformation as infrastructure: www.techpolicy.press/gendered-dis... #GenderedDisformation #Democracy #HumanRights #TechPolicy #AIEthics

Quotes from the screening of Eno: An Ever-Changing Portrait of a Musical Visionary: 1. Art is how we synchronize our feelings 2. Honor your mistakes, they often carry hidden intentions 3. We live in complex systems, but treat them as linear 4. Surrender is an active verb Thanks @dighum.wien 💖

How to fix social media? While we still work hard to understand the exact problems we are facing, many people are also already working on solutions. I wanted to highlight some directions that I was lucky enough to be involved in (thread):

Very good thread. Nothing is inevitable but anything can happen in the absence of resistance.

For @thebulwark.bsky.social, I wrote about why I decided to testify before Congress on the censorship lie. This hearing had everything: -sexism -references to Goebbels -posthumous rehabilitation of McCarthy In other words, another day in today’s GOP 🫠 www.thebulwark.com/p/republican...

Most of the time, a man ..

Breaking News: Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s ex-president, will be tried on charges of attempting a coup in 2022, the country’s top court ruled.

O avanço da censura e das políticas excludentes nos EUA não é isolado, faz parte de uma estratégia global. No @nexojornal.bsky.social, analiso como isso amplia as desigualdades e afeta a democracia no Brasil. www.nexojornal.com.br/redes-sociai...

This should terrify every person in this country. The use of machine learning systems to approximate an individuals views on war and then, if they are here lawfully on a visa, tag them for deportation is about as sci-fi dystopian as it gets. www.axios.com/2025/03/06/s...

Mathias Risse’s piece does a great job explaining how gaslighting is being used to push funding cuts and silence dissent on U.S. campuses: www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr...

NOTE: The opponents of DEI are purging anyone who is not a white man from military leadership This is not about merit; it’s about normalizing racism and misogyny

The image of Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Musk alongside Trump is a clear reminder of how tech and politics can align to reinforce exclusion. Meritocracy, often framed as fairness, ignores structural inequities, legitimizing privilege and restricting access to progress and innovation.

Fed up with Meta? Avoiding Instagram or Facebook isn’t enough to stop Meta from harvesting and profiting from your private information. Here’s how to limit Meta’s ability to monetize your personal data.

Elon Musk and MAGA are already disrupting the status quo in Europe, and the continent seems ill-prepared. A senior official from the first Trump administration, who is in line for an even more senior role in the second, was blunt in his assessment: Europe, he said, has no idea what is coming.

I'm looking for a good-looking, authoritative sounding mediocre western white man to stand in and get things done on my behalf. I'm close to burning bridges as the institutions/people I'm dealing with refuse to take me seriously, yet my assertiveness is "unprofessional" and "aggressive"

My two cents on Meta's decision: Framing the end of its fact-checking program as a move for "freedom" is deeply concerning. It prioritizes profit and ideology over public safety, leaving society more vulnerable to misinformation and hate speech. Marginalized communities will face the greatest harm.

MPF oficiou hoje a Meta a explicar as medidas anunciadas ontem pelo Zuck. Procuradores querem saber se medidas valerão para o Brasil e quando; quantos contratos serão rompidos com agências de checagem e quando; e pediu mais detalhes sobre as mudanças na moderação de conteúdo:

Fui entrevistada pela Jules de Faria para a Fast Company Brasil sobre a decisão da Meta de flexibilizar o controle sobre postagens. Falamos sobre como essa mudança molda narrativas, perpetua desigualdades e desafia a governança democrática. Confira a entrevista. Quero ouvir a sua opinião!