Canada 🇨🇦 proposed new Lawful Access Act #C22 is a total nightmare The Act would allow the govt to compel any electronic service provider (your ISP, telco, coffee shop, library, VPN provider, messenger app etc) to provide backdoor access to targets' accounts & much more Absolutely crazy

It won't be China replacing the United States as premier global power, doing things such as guaranteeing freedom of navigation. It'll be nobody.

I always say China and the US- despite their real differences - have many substantial similarities. This essay from @yilingliu95.bsky.social highlights on of them. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/o...

What I find to be uncomfortable is how Chinamaxxing doesn't treat the country as a real place with real problems, it's somewhere that is everything your country isn't

Again, Xi/🇨🇳 may believe this, & we are stupidly trying to commit hegemonic suicide, but it's important to note that everything folks are rightly worried about in 🇺🇸 (aging personalist authoritarians, corruption, debt, repression, concentration camps, etc.) is far worse in 🇨🇳: bsky.app/profile/mcop...

As many are aware by now, @accessnow.org 's annual @rightscon.org was cancelled because of pressure on the host govt Zambia 🇿🇲 by China 🇨🇳 www.rightscon.org/rc26-stateme... In their statement, @accessnow.org rightly flags this is as an example of transnational repression

Folks, this is how you do it. @accessnow.org not only held the line on foundational principles, but this statement itself is a brave act of resistance to authoritarianism. It illuminates the pressure, coercion, and transnational repression at play - all of which thrive in the shadows.

BREAKING: The Chinese government pressured Zambia to screen + exclude Taiwanese speakers attending @rightscon.org, leading to the largest international convention on digital rights being canceled a week before it takes place, the host org @accessnow.org tells WIRED. By @telliotter.bsky.social + me

"In a statement, Access Now says it was “told that diplomats from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) were putting pressure on the Government of Zambia because Taiwanese civil society participants were planning to join us in person.”"

NEW @citizenlab.ca report uncovers two separate China-based cyber espionage campaigns targeting journalists, human rights defenders, exiled ethnic and religious groups and many others. citizenlab.ca/research/how...

NEW: we caught 🇨🇳Chinese hackers... again. Twist: they're hacking journalists & activists, but we suspect they're private contractors. State repression... with a profit margin. Thread + how to protect yourself 1/ By my colleagues @citizenlab.ca + @icij.org citizenlab.ca/research/how...

Senior research associate @emiledirks.bsky.social spoke with Domino Theory about Xi Jinping’s view of national security in light of U.S. and Israeli cyber operations in Iran: dominotheory.com/from-stuxnet...

This continues to be just crazy in terms of matching priorities with capacities. How can Canada expect to implement an aggressive new diplomatic strategy in a rapidly changing world while gutting the staff tasked with actually implementing it? www.ctvnews.ca/politics/art...

Today, I will be warning a 🇨🇦parliamentary committee about a coming "tsunami" of digital transnational repression as a result of the authoritarian turn in 🇺🇸, AI-enabled DTR, & PM Carney's soft pedal on human rights Details: @theglobeandmail.com Robert Fife www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

Was thinking a little more about AI and pedagogy. People liken genAI to tools such as calculators, but we’d never say students don’t have to learn how to add because calculators exist. I worry a lot that the heavy use of genAI for research will be doing the equivalent: skipping skill acquisition.

My most succinct statement of why democracy is better than all other forms of government from a purely practical point of view (published January 3, 2025)

#China’s relentless policies of surveillance over #Tibet are suppressing the Tibetan people’s freedoms and culture. The world must come together to put a stop to their abuse of human rights. Read more: savetibet.org/party-above-...

This is not to minimise what’s happening in the US, but it is important to know how much worse things can get—partly because otherwise, a lot of it might look like improvement, because you’re not able to see the bad anymore. Current comparisons between the US and PRC illustrate this rather neatly.

So $1.2B is being cut from regular VIA rail and $113M is being added to the HSR proposal that may not ever exist. That's punishing math globalnews.ca/news/1173746...

Axworthy says for Canada, "our foreign policy is now an economic trade policy.” The just released Global Affairs department plan really showcases this Every priority has been reframed around trade and business interests. The exception is consular support international.canada.ca/en/global-af...

One thing that AI evangelists seem to assume, particularly legal AI evangelists assume, is that the thinking and analysis is quick, and the writing is just tedious busywork that slows us down. But the writing IS the thinking and analysis. You work out the thinking and analysis by writing it down.

I met with AI data labelers in Kenya who are organizing their colleagues to fight the brutal working conditions and horrible pay given to the workers at the "bottom of the AI supply chain." They believe the NDAs they've signed are unenforceable so are speaking out: www.404media.co/ai-is-africa...

"Transnational Repression in an Age of Upheaval: Global Policy Challenges for Canada" In a policy brief for CIGI, @emiledirks.bsky.social & co-authors argue that the Canadian government must do more to protect diaspora members from #transnationalrepression. www.cigionline.org/publications...

#China’s new “ethnic unity” law, to be passed this week, will accelerate the attempted forced assimilation of the country’s ethnic minorities into the dominant Han culture, according to academics and human rights groups. A piece by me: CLICK LINK TO READ www.bbc.com/news/article...

BOOK LAUNCH: Join the Citizen Lab’s @penney.bsky.social @rondeibert.bsky.social, and Kate Robertson as they discuss Penney’s new book, "Chilling Effects: Repression, Conformity, and Power in the Digital Age." 🕠 March 12, 5:30 pm ✅ RSVP: machformext.osgoode.yorku.ca/machform/vie...

Senior researcher @noura.bsky.social will share her insights at OSCE's meeting on legal and institutional strategies to address gender-based violence and violence against women in the public sphere. More info: odihr.osce.org/event/662392

Shaila Baran, Emma Dickinson, Andre Fajardo & I have a new policy brief for CIGI on transnational repression, arguing that Ottawa's ability to counter TNR is challenged by its warming ties with autocracies, its uncritical embrace of AI, & US authoritarianism. www.cigionline.org/publications...

MARCH 10: Get practical safety tips from the Citizen Lab's Rebekah Brown at @accessnow.org's Digital Security Helpline webinar on preventing spear-phishing attacks against civil society. Register: www.accessnow.org/event/digita...

Our submission aims to confront an inconvenient truth in governments' efforts - particularly those of the US - to counter CCP transnational repression: You cannot be instilling fear in immigrants while simultaneously expecting them to report CCP harassment or publicly speak out against the regime.

Cert glad to have worked with colleagues on this important issue, at a time when migrants are targeted with impunity by origin and host states

Our latest submission to the Committee on Enforced Disappearance and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances is out now. We highlight the role of digital technologies; spyware & location-tracking technologies in facilitating enforced disappearances of exiled dissidents

Sarah McKune, @nateschenkkan.bsky.social, an anonymous @citizenlab.ca researcher, @yaqiu.bsky.social & I have co-authored a UN submission on the enforced disappearance of migrants in the context of transnational repression: citizenlab.ca/submissions-...

Senior research associate @emiledirks.bsky.social spoke with @icij.org about a new report he co-authored on #transnationalrepression in the EU. Read it here: www.icij.org/investigatio...

Some good news! Guan Heng has just been granted asylum in the US, although DHS reserve the right to appeal the decision in the next 30 days.

Great to see @nateschenkkan.bsky.social presenting our report “Perpetrators & methods of transnational repression and possible counter strategies” (co-authored w/ @emiledirks.bsky.social @zecsaky.bsky.social & me) in the @afet.europarl.europa.eu Full report: www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en...

PM Carney 🇨🇦gave a courageous speech with a lot of real-talk about the "rupture" in the international order. But he left something out: the values that define us as a country & distinguish us from the fascist train wreck in the US 🇺🇸 My oped w Jason Stanley www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

It was a privilege to work on this report for the @europarl.europa.eu about transnational repression w/ @nateschenkkan.bsky.social @zecsaky.bsky.social & @emiledirks.bsky.social Check it out here: www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en...

I urge leaders of democracies worldwide to step forward and stand with Americans fighting on the ground.

And yesterday our study on transnational repression led by @nateschenkkan.bsky.social and co-authored with @alexdukalskis.bsky.social and @emiledirks.bsky.social went live on the European Parliament's website. Do check it out! www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etud...

It was a privilege contributing to this report on transnational repression in the EU. I learned a great deal working with @nateschenkkan.bsky.social, @zecsaky.bsky.social, & @alexdukalskis.bsky.social. A special thank you to the victims of TNR who shared their experiences & expertise with us.

🚨 New report alert! 🚨 Our new study for the European Parliament on transnational repression in the EU is live! Co-authored with @zecsaky.bsky.social, @emiledirks.bsky.social, and @alexdukalskis.bsky.social: a great team to work with.

"In the trial footage, General Xu explains that he refused the order as a matter of individual conscience and professional judgment...[S]aying that a commander who carried out martial law poorly would go down as “a sinner in history.”" www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/w...

"Mothers had to choose which of their kids to feed...Pregnant women with life-threatening anemia were so desperate for calories that they ate mud. Out of options and mortally afraid, refugees began fleeing...They said they’d rather risk being shot or dying on the perilous route than slowly starving"

Today, a lawyer for DHS suggested sending Guan Heng to Uganda, a country with close ties to China that is "more likely than not" to send him back, says Mr. Guan's lawyer. Due to increased public attention to the case, he has been scheduled for a 2nd hearing on Jan 12. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/u...

In this piece, I share lessons for Americans who are struggling with whether to protest Trump. Drawing from my years working with courageous Chinese activists, I argue that while acting on one’s moral convictions can be risky, it can also feel profoundly good. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Trump administration is threatening to deport a Chinese man who personally documented the Chinese government's massive detention system in Xinjiang. If forcibly returned to China, he faces the risk of state persecution for his invaluable & brave work. open.substack.com/pub/hrichina...

📣We’re hiring! There are two exciting new job opportunities in our foreign relations and economy and industry programs: 📌Analyst/Senior Analyst/Senior Economist (m/f/d) - Economy and Industry 📌Senior/Lead Analyst (m/f/d) Foreign Relations More info: merics.org/en/opportuni...

GOP: the Chinese Communist Party is evil because they harvest all your biometric and other data to empower social control. Also GOP:

Eye scans, licence plate readers, spyware: technology used to catch criminals and terrorists is being repurposed to fulfil Trump's pledge to deport 1mn undocumented migrants this year. Critics fear it’s the thin end of the authoritarian wedge. An #FTEdit thread on America’s new surveillance state 👇