Today I learned the hard way that icloud has stopped backing up files and remains a "syncing" service only. I was scolded by an Apple engineer on the phone for not backing up my files on four different hard drives and not reading terms carefully (!) What kind of scam is this?

Fourteen episodes later @ekoshy.bsky.social and I are taking a break until fall! Our season finale reflects on the term "democratic backsliding" and we discuss how useful (or not) the concept is for making sense of global authoritarianism itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-14...

and they found that the recipe for success is "be a dick!"

Fourteen episodes later @ekoshy.bsky.social and I are taking a break until fall! Our season finale reflects on the term "democratic backsliding" and we discuss how useful (or not) the concept is for making sense of global authoritarianism itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-14...

“Dave Maass, director of investigations for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on civil liberties related to digital technology, said the technology has made the border area ‘a hostile environment’ for locals and would-be migrants.”

Labour’s outdoing the Tories in democratic backsliding

The DOGE rats are still in the regime, still criming. Did you know passports.gov is now run by the White House, not the State Department, running illegal tracking technology? #doge

NATO denies accreditation to 'non-pro-government media' ahead of Ankara summit Following criticism, NATO said it took the decisions "based on the host nation's assesments" and were in contact with Turkish authorities on the issue. bianet.org/haber/nato-d...

Here’s a link the Ta-Nehisi’s latest w/o a paywall. READ IT. archive.md/SSLbJ

This is great! That said, having spent nearly two weeks in London, I'm genuinely surprised by how patchy the bandwidth is. I ended up testing this map on several different connections (mobile data, home internet, cafe wifi, etc.) before I could load the whole thing.

One of today's political prisoners. Cartoonist & zine maker Daniel Rolando Sanchez Estrada wasn't even at the ICE protest. He was accused of "moving" a box of anti-Trump zines THE NEXT DAY. A rightwing judge sentenced him to 30 years! Just for possessing zines. The darkness is descending.

Prairieland sentencing update: today’s rulings don’t just close a case, they clarify the direction of power. What happened is not only about eight defendants sentenced in Texas; it is about the rapidly expanding power of the state to redefine dissent itself as terror. Full update in the link below.

The top frame is from 2015, when French meteorologists did a “forecast” from a #climate heated August 2050 - a warning on what could possibly happen in 35 years time. Bottom frame: well, it’s happened in barely a decade, only it’s already *much* worse than predicted. It’s a runaway train.

What does Brazil's fight against Bolsonaro teach us about resisting authoritarianism? This week @ekoshy.bsky.social and I talk with @karabekir.bsky.social about Lula's return and the fragile politics of a "rainbow coalition" itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-13...

What does Brazil's fight against Bolsonaro teach us about resisting authoritarianism? This week @ekoshy.bsky.social and I talk with @karabekir.bsky.social about Lula's return and the fragile politics of a "rainbow coalition" itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-13...

“Israeli firm BlackCore, suspected of interfering in France's local elections in March, is also ‌suspected of meddling in elections in New York City and Scotland, and operating in Angola and Togo” www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

Is there hope amid democratic backsliding ? @baykurt.bsky.social and I talk about Brazil (and Turkey, US and more) with @karabekir.bsky.social —Lula, Bolsonaro, coup convictions, and what coalition-building across polarization might teach us about fighting back. itallhappenedbefore.substack.com

@drnikko.bsky.social and I are putting together a special issue proposal for Big Data and Society on "Trans Data"! If you're an #STS nerd, or a #transstudies nerd, or ideally both, do submit ideas if you have them - docs.google.com/document/d/1...

This week's newsletter is coming from Cape Town and reflects on a wonderful panel I chaired on challenging authoritarianism, which was also the theme of our podcast episode with Dr. Maria Repnikova #ica26 @acsj-ica.bsky.social itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/what-does-...

University administrators at TU-Berlin have forced socialist student organizers to cancel a number of sessions for this weekend’s conference under pressure from the fascist AFD. Our panel is still on and so is The Dig social afterwards: come out and show your solidarity with anti-student organizers

Fabulous from @baykurt.bsky.social. Her recent post unpacks the quiet, sometimes boring, stages of resistance. These less-shiny periods of horizontal "muscle-building" can be formative, even essential, for later vertical challenges. Check it out: itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/what-does-...

If you're still in Cape Town tomorrow, join me at the African Centre for Cities at 1 pm for a conversation on smart cities, test-beds, and urban inequalities #ICA26

If you're still in Cape Town tomorrow, join me at the African Centre for Cities at 1 pm for a conversation on smart cities, test-beds, and urban inequalities #ICA26

I don't normally advertise each panel, but this is a special one. If you're around #ICA26 at noon today, please come join @acsj-ica.bsky.social panel on reflecting on activism/activist scholarship at ICA as a one-year-old division 🥳

#ICA26: Please take a few minutes to support efforts to create an ICA Urban Communication Interest Group www.TinyURL.com/ICA-UrbanComm

I didn't know that Delaney Hall is named after Geraldine O. Delaney, who got sober in 1947 and ran a rehab center in New Jersey for decades. The prison was originally supposed to be a rehab-centered facility. What a fucked up thing to have this woman's legacy now tied to these horrors.

#ICA26: Please take a few minutes to support efforts to create an ICA Urban Communication Interest Group www.TinyURL.com/ICA-UrbanComm

Folks going #ICA26 in Cape Town: if you’re still around on June 9th, please join me at the African Centre for Cities where I will talk about Smart as a City @icahdq.bsky.social

From Russian journalists in exile to Chinese journalists who never left, @ekoshy.bsky.social & I talked with Dr. Maria Repnikova this week about what political action looks like when it walks around autocratic obstacles instead of confronting them itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-12...

From Russian journalists in exile to Chinese journalists who never left, @ekoshy.bsky.social & I talked with Dr. Maria Repnikova this week about what political action looks like when it walks around autocratic obstacles instead of confronting them itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-12...

Love that the book is coming to Cape Town! Can't wait to see you soon @katiemontalbano.bsky.social

Folks going #ICA26 in Cape Town: if you’re still around on June 9th, please join me at the African Centre for Cities where I will talk about Smart as a City @icahdq.bsky.social

In this post, I am also announcing the launch of the Data Center Policy database, which my incredible team of RAs and I have been working on for the past 9 months or so. We hope you find it useful: www.datacenterpolicy.com

My latest in @techpolicypress.bsky.social on data center policy trends. “While the era of unchecked growth fueled by tax breaks is waning, the new regulatory regime is fragmented, reactive, and heavily contested.” www.techpolicy.press/the-state-of...

When political transformation happens to large populations, we try to make sense of it — from up close and from a distance. Why has this happened? Has it happened before? If so, why now, or again? What is the story? open.substack.com/pub/itallhap...

This 👇

As Turkey's "too late to stop" keeps unfolding, understanding what happened there matters — not just for us, but for everyone trying to make sense of this global transformation. New episode @baykurt.bsky.social and I talk with with Suzy Hansen. A must-read book. open.substack.com/pub/itallhap...

The people of Karagümrük in Istanbul watched Erdoğan improve their lives for a decade before noticing what was being taken from them. @ekoshy.bsky.social & I talk to Suzy Hansen who wrote about this shift and what it feels like to watch the US thru TR itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-11...

Sava is always right and this is a fascinating investigation into VFS around the world: www.lighthousereports.com/investigatio...

The people of Karagümrük in Istanbul watched Erdoğan improve their lives for a decade before noticing what was being taken from them. @ekoshy.bsky.social & I talk to Suzy Hansen who wrote about this shift and what it feels like to watch the US thru TR itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-11...

But that partly happens because the UK only processes visa applications thru a third party company with zero clear instructions to navigate that company's website. Applicants are scrambling to get the application right because one mistake/typo may trigger a rejection.

Global waves of authoritarianism rely on the belief that each country's crisis is someone else's problem (until it is not). This week's newsletter is on how Erdoğan's AKP is dismantling Turkey's main opposition party open.substack.com/pub/itallhap...

We worked really hard to produce and get this report to you. Hoping that our report reaches as many people as the other Yale report from a few weeks ago. This one was faculty grass roots, and paints a slightly different picture. (No shade on my colleagues working on the commissioned one. Honest).

Global waves of authoritarianism rely on the belief that each country's crisis is someone else's problem (until it is not). This week's newsletter is on how Erdoğan's AKP is dismantling Turkey's main opposition party open.substack.com/pub/itallhap...

Here’s the gift link A remarkable life.

For anyone who needs context on how Turkey's main opposition party ended up here, listen to political scientist Aytug Sasmaz explain this itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-9-...

This isn’t an internal battle over party leadership no matter how global media keeps framing it. Riot police stormed the CHP’s headquarters today, firing tear gas and rubber bullets at party members and supporters gathered outside. This is state violence against Turkey’s main opposition party.

The question we're sitting with on this episode of It All Happened Before: when the newsroom becomes a channel, what do we gain in reach—and what quietly gets lost? @baykurt.bsky.social ans I talk to Turkish journalist Gulsin Harman - Listen: substack.com/@baykurt/not...

From the TikTok dancer reporting on breaking news to the YouTube news channel that doubles as a content production studio, we talk about what independent journalism looks like in Turkey & increasingly everywhere w/ Gülsin Harman @ekoshy.bsky.social itallhappenedbefore.substack.com/p/episode-10...