As part of a new Turkish benchmark for LLMs, we tested 20 models with an evaluation dataset, HCBfT-TR200, developed at Galatasaray University. The results highlight significant performance gaps across the industry. 🧵 1/7

In an unusual move, the #Turkey rapporteurs of the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Committee of the Regions, and the Congress of Local & Regional Authorities have co-signed a joint letter: www.coe.int/en/web/congr... #Türkiye #EU #democracy

"An automaton is a soulless creature but it may temporarily have a place & a function in the bodies of revolutions. But if an enlightened person becomes an automaton, this is first & foremost a denial of themselves, & their existence within the social structure is now a loss for society as a whole."

The @globalfreemedia.bsky.social published its 2026 Freedom of Information (FoI) Report. Data from more than 400 applications reveals persisting barriers to #FoI transparency in Turkey. Only 32% of requests received a meaningful response containing the information: turkiye.ipi.media/wp-content/u...

Over the last 16 years, EU member states rejected 1M+ #Schengen visa applications from #Turkey. Since application fees are non-refundable, these rejections resulted in a €73M windfall for EU states. This a significant financial penalty for Turkish citizens. 1/5

A year has passed since the abrupt dismissal of Prof. Cemal Kafadar, who I believe is the leading Turkish historian today, from Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. This anniversary highlights how administrative actions undermine #AcademicFreedom. 🧵 1/7

1/2 Despite my affinity for #Italy, I found myself supporting #Bosnia in yesterday's #WorldCup qualifiers. This prompted some self-reflection regarding why we gravitate toward the disadvantaged. Evolutionary #psychology and #neuroscience suggest a strong human predisposition to favor the #underdog.

The @globalfreemedia.bsky.social #IPI wrote to #Google CEO Pichai to raise urgent concerns about the destructive impact of the company's recent #algorithm updates on the independent #journalism in #Turkey: turkiye.ipi.media/letter-to-go... #PressFreedom #MediaPluralism #AlgorithmicTransparency

1/5 🧵 Today I attended Cédric Villani’s lecture at Galatasaray University on "AI and Civil Society." A key takeaway: his deliberate reluctance to use #AI in his own work. He argues that the routine, time-consuming steps of labor are cognitively essential to human #reasoning.

The railway networks of Britain and the Ottoman Turkey at the end of the 19th century

I have released a #Python port of the #simulation models from Smaldino's textbook, "Modeling Social Behavior." Agent-Based Models (ABMs) offer a practical technical resource for researchers studying emergent social behaviors like group #cooperation and #network effects. github.com/ekizilkaya/m...

I'm deeply saddened by the passing of Professor İlber Ortaylı, which marks the loss of one of Turkey's most significant historians. His defining trait was not unearthing new documents, but a vast memory that made him an exceptional synthesizer and our foremost history communicator. 1/3 #İlberOrtaylı

By advocating for #UBI, Sam Altman et al. transfer the burden of AI's negative impacts from corporations to public institutions. This will force nations' central banks to inflate the money supply, ultimately socializing the costs of mass #unemployment globally while tech lords privatize the gains.

#AI industry leaders argue Universal Basic Income, or #UBI, will solve automation-induced #unemployment. To test this premise, I developed a Python/Mesa #agent-based simulator integrating Bourdieu’s capital theory, bid-rent theory, and network homophily. (GitHub link to the model repository below)

Israeli authorities arrested two Turkish journalists, prompting protests from Ankara. Fatih Polat, former editor of Evrensel, shared a brilliant comment on X today: "Israel's arrest of Turkish journalists is a blow to press freedom. Only Turkey is allowed to arrest them!" x.com/fpolat69/sta...

Territory claimed. A warning sign on a door at Istanbul University reads: “A #cat has given birth inside. Please do not use lecture hall.” Years ago, I sat in that very classroom as a student, taking the very same Political Organizations course, on a campus accustomed to coexisting with #animals.

A Trump ally is about to acquire the parent company of CNN, mostly for political reasons. This is reminiscent of how an Erdogan ally bought the media group I worked for, which also owned CNN Turk, in 2018.

I find it hard to believe that it's already been 10 years since the great Umberto Eco passed. He had said that "those who love #books know that a book is anything but a commodity."

Shoshana Zuboff outlines her rigorous case for abolishing #surveillance-driven social media in an interview with The Observer: observer.co.uk/culture/inte...

Amara’s Law, coined by Stanford researcher Roy Charles Amara in 1978, states: “We tend to overestimate the effect of a #technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.”

Over the years, I've come to believe that the true measure of a society is found in how it treats its weakest and its wisest.

"We knew that international #law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim," says Canadian PM Mark Carney in one of the most significant speeches by a head of government in the 21st century.

#EndImpunity #Justice #HrantDink

The Observer is asking readers to select the top books of the 21st century so far. It is a tough list to narrow down, but I’ve locked in my three votes: 1. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐦 by Shoshana Zuboff 2. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡 by Sunil Amrith 3. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 by Michael Lewis

RAM sticks I bought for $160 last year are now listed at $629. It’s unbelievable that cartel-like price-fixing by companies like #Nvidia and #Micron is now treated as normal, 20 years after the DRAM #antitrust cases. They’re gutting the consumer market to feed #AI data centers. The EU needs to act.

Celebrating the short, witty, philosophical phrases known as aphorisms, THE WORLD IN A PHRASE is an entertaining tour through the wisest sayings in the world. In this interview, author James Geary reflects on how ancient literary art form fits into age of social media.

Great to see the new edition of James Geary’s 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘗𝘩𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘦: 𝘈 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘮 published this month, which brings together a wide range of aphorisms that continue to resonate in 2025: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n... #books #writing #language #culture #ideas

I wrote a discussion paper for @harvard-carr-ryan.bsky.social as part of our #Technology and #HumanRights fellowship on #SurveillanceCapitalism. It examines how authoritarian states and #BigTech create a system of "dual domination" in fragile democracies: www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr...

1️⃣ Our new paper “𝐁𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐮𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫-𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭” is out in 𝘔𝘰𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴! 🚀 A 2-year mixed-method study on how locative algorithms and transit systems shape how international students see and move through Istanbul. 🔗 www.tandfonline.com/eprint/QBQ8I... #UrbanStudies #BigData #Istanbul #Lynch #Lefebvre

We had a great discussion with @courtneyr.bsky.social on "Big Tech + Big Brother: Resisting ‘techno-fascism’ and the surveillance state" at the @globalfreemedia.bsky.social World Congress & Media Innovation Festival in Vienna on October 25. Credit © Ronja Koskinen / IPI

Institutions with #integrity face a built-in disadvantage: they hold themselves accountable. Their leaders resign when mistakes are made. Populists, who never admit errors, outlast them. That’s democracy’s dilemma: protecting integrity from shamelessness. #BBC #Accountability #Democracy #Ethics

📣 New paper! @harvard-carr-ryan.bsky.social Technology & Human Rights Fellow 2024-25 @nicoleozer.bsky.social traces California's historic legacy as a #privacy leader, as AI transforms society today: www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr... #PrivacyRights #AI #DigitalRights #California #TechPolicy

Thousands gathered in Tel Aviv last night to mark 30 years since the assassination of Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin. Valerie Hamaty performed Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah in Arabic as tens of thousands listened in awe. Leaders like #Rabin are deeply missed in today’s divided world. #Peace #Gaza #Democracy

New @harvard-carr-ryan.bsky.social discussion paper: Burcu Kilic argues that dismantling #surveillance #capitalism requires structural transformation, not only of markets, but of the political, legal, and epistemic arrangements that sustain it. Read it here: www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr...

Yesterday in #Vienna's Auer Welsbach Park, an oak tree full of animals reminded me of Rumi's parable of the caged parrot. He longed for his free friends in India, imagining them able to fly to the grass or sit on the trees as they wish. That ability to #choose, for him, was #freedom.

Ahead of the 75th anniversary of its foundation, @globalfreemedia.bsky.social publishes an inspiring list of 75 books written by IPI members and press freedom heroes across the world to celebrate independent journalism: ipi.media/ipi-75-books... via @eisaklica.bsky.social

I'll be in Vienna next week for the 2025 @globalfreemedia.bsky.social World Congress & #Media #Innovation Festival. Join our panel with Courtney Radsch, "Big Tech + Big Brother: Resisting ‘techno-fascism’ and the surveillance state", on Oct. 25 at 12:00 CEST. ipi.media/ipi-world-co... #IPIWoCo25

New research is here! @harvard-carr-ryan.bsky.social 2024-2025 fellow @sebasmartl.bsky.social reviews AI legislation in Latin America, uncovering significant gaps in rights-based safeguards. Read the full publication: www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr... #AI #HumanRights #LatinAmerica #TechLaw

We were in Spain last week for the 2025 Open Government Partnership Global Summit. With Oliver Money-Kyrle and Emre Ilkan Saklica, we contributed to sessions on civic participation in line with @globalfreemedia.bsky.social 's mission to promote open, accountable governance across Europe. #OGP2025

Macron remarks are notable- some quotes: "We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies."

A great discussion paper by Montori et al. for @harvard-carr-ryan.bsky.social. They warn that surveillance capitalism is reshaping healthcare into a system focused on data rather than people, enabling Big Tech to commodify human experience and consolidate power: www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr...

CEO pay is up 1,094% since 1978, while worker pay is up just 26%. Why do we always hear "we can't afford to pay our workers more" but never "we can't afford to pay our CEO more"?

I stumbled upon this on the interwebs today:

I'm honored to share that my Ph.D. thesis, 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐴𝑙𝑔𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑚𝑖𝑐 𝑉𝑒𝑖𝑙: 𝐴𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡, 𝐴𝐼 𝐵𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑆𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝐻𝑢𝑚𝑎𝑛-𝐶𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑁𝑒𝑤𝑠 𝑅𝑎𝑛𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔, has been accepted. My deepest gratitude goes to all my mentors, including my advisor Professor Kerem Rizvanoglu. I’ll share more about the findings soon.

Latest from my fellows at ‪@harvard-carr-ryan.bsky.social‬ : 🎧 ‪@lexzard.bsky.social‬ on #DMA in a podcast with Prof Mathias Risse: www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr... 📄 ‪@sebasmartl.bsky.social‬ on "Algorithmic #Discrimination in Latin American Welfare States": www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr...

📢Important read : OFE Publishes Landmark Study Calling for Funding Europe’s Open Digital Infrastructure through an EU Sovereign Tech Fund (EU-STF) 👉Read President of EOSA Daniel Stenberg's statement of support and OFE's full report here : europeanopensource.academy/news/stateme...

"One of my favorite things about America is my constitutional right to make fun of the powerful," #Colbert once proudly said in 2015 after reporting a Turkish man faced two years in jail for comparing President Erdoğan to Gollum from The Lord of the Rings: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Sv...

"Not since a series of coups in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s have such high-profile political leaders been removed from office on the basis of as yet unpublished evidence, which suspects' lawyers dismiss as fabricated." Reuters analysis on what is happening in #Turkey: www.reuters.com/world/middle...

To paraphrase a sentiment often attributed to Max Planck (and more accurately to Thomas Kuhn): Truth never triumphs, its opponents just die out.

"I've been under arrest for three months, stripped of my freedom because, as a communications professional, I managed election campaigns. Let me be clear: Winning an election is not a crime. There is no such offense in Turkish law," says Necati Ozkan, an aide to the jailed Istanbul Mayor Imamoglu.