Ruth Castel-Branco, explores how labor organizing in Africa is adapting to the realities of platform work where solidarity has to be built across apps, algorithms, and isolation. Read more: open.substack.com/pub/datasyn/... #GigWork #PlatformEconomy #LaborRights #FutureOfWork #TechPolicy

Placed at the faultline between technological change & political choice, platform work has become a crucial battleground within the modern labor movement. What is at stake is not only the future of millions of platform workers across Europe, but the credibility of labor law itself.

Existing policy frameworks still treat culture as an economic sector rather than a social infrastructure. But artistic and aesthetic labor are essential to our civic and political health. Why is the artists’ fight against AI central to preserving our cultural commons?

As AI industries expand globally, many African content moderators and data labelers continue to face exploitative conditions, poor pay, and severe mental health impacts.

#NewsletterAlert Commemorating #MayDay, we turn to the frontlines of labor struggle against platform capitalism. From Africa to the EU, from data labeling to community healthcare work, this issue traces how workers are resisting, reshaping, and negotiating platformized workplaces:

AI governance isn’t neutral—it’s shaped by power, profit, and geopolitics. From global summits to voluntary “safety” promises, who really decides the future of AI?

In our latest piece, Ahlem Faraoun examines how misogyny shapes the creative economy, exposing the harassment, gendered violence, and policing of feminist identities that restrict women’s rights and participation. #OnlineMisogyny #WomensRights #CreativeEconomy

This issue features a piece by Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini Chami from @itforchange.bsky.social who use the recent #IndiaAISummit as a point of departure, to map out the broader trajectory of global #AIgovernance and the pathway to just digital futures. botpopuli.net/a-brief-hist...

In the latest edition of the DataSyn newsletter, the editorial analyzes how the tech sector is implicated in the devastating #Iranwar: from the worrying ties between #AI and the military, to the disruption in #SiliconValley’s own economic foundations. botpopuli.net/editorial-ma...

As the WSIS+20 process concludes, this article by Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini Chami reflects on what the moment reveals about today’s fractured multilateral landscape, taking stock of two decades of engagement and the path forward for global digital governance.

As technology allows governments to increase the reach and granularity of connection with the public, it also opens the door to abuses of power to take place at an unprecedented scale and speed. Read our latest story by @juanof9.bsky.social: botpopuli.net/digital-gove...

In this edition of the DataSyn newsletter, we break down the Supreme Court’s ruling on Trump-era tariffs and why it matters for the next phase of digital trade politics. We also track major AI shifts right now: Anthropic’s sweeping new Claude product suite, the market tremors around it.

Crypto is no longer just a financial experiment. In this piece, Antulio Rosales unpacks how crypto ecosystems are shaping authoritarian governance—fueling elite capture, weakening regulation, and accelerating today’s political, financial, and environmental crises.

Inviting proposals for the final evaluation of the project “Re-wiring India’s Digitalising Economy for Women’s Rights and Well-being.” Deadline: 31 Jan 2026 Learn More: itforchange.net/tenders

Our latest article explores the potential political implications of the Stablecoin phenomenon and what it means for the global financial order. Read now: botpopuli.net/stablecoins-...

AI is reshaping global economies—but not evenly. This piece unpacks how AI may deepen existing inequalities, urging a shift from tech hype to place-based, value-chain–focused policymaking. #AI #GlobalInequality #DigitalEconomy #TechPolicy #GlobalSouth #PoliticalEconomy #FutureOfWork

Behind the promise of digital public infrastructure lies a growing dependence on private cloud providers. This piece traces how India’s e-governance increasingly runs on privately owned cloud and platform rails. Read the full story: botpopuli.net/who-owns-the...

Cautioning against neutral framings of #syntheticdata, the authors remind us that these tools actively shape the worlds we imagine and the inequities we reproduce. Read the full story: botpopuli.net/synthetic-dr...

Interrogating the hype around #syntheticdata, the authors reveal how Global South realities—like Brazil’s #PIX—challenge tech-solutionist narratives and spotlight deeper governance gaps. Read the full story: botpopuli.net/synthetic-dr...

Our latest piece interrogates the myths of the digital economy and the unequal structures that sustain its global dominance. Read here: botpopuli.net/whither-digi...

Cautioning against an uncritical appropriation of the platform model, Vinit Ravishankar makes a case for pushing beyond capitalist fetters whilst envisioning alternative digital futures. Read the full piece here: botpopuli.net/whither-digi...

In our latest piece, Dr. Vishwas Satgar unravels the shallow digital futurism at work that conflates digital monopoly interests, human progress, development, and the future.

Drawing on a range of critical perspectives from his recent edited volume ‘Digital Capitalism and its Limits: Technotopia, Power and Risk’, Vishwas Satgar carefully untangles the real political stakes of our technocapitalist moment in our latest piece. Read here: botpopuli.net/digital-tech...

We are excited to share the latest issue of DataSyn, delving into The Mythology of Platform Capitalism.

The fight against AI-generated film isn’t a Luddite rejection of technology, but a defense of the human spirit. Our latest piece positions this fight as a move towards a right to work, to collaborate, to fail, and to create something that bears an undeniable fingerprint.

Cinema operates as a form of embodied knowledge production, a practice that depends on the presence of human consciousness engaged in storytelling.

⚙️ In our latest piece, Madhulika Tatigotla and Eshani Vaidya expose the hidden costs of convenience, uncovering the exploitative labor practices that continue to define Amazon’s warehouse work. #LabourRights #PlatformEconomy #DigitalCapitalism #WorkersRights #DataSyn #BigTech

Don’t miss Nandini Chami in conversation with Susan Sreemala on the stakes for digital justice today! Read More: botpopuli.net/claiming-the...

Following up on the dispatches from the WSIS high level event in July, Susan Sreemala caught up with Nandini Chami for a substantive debrief on #WSIS, the #GDC, and the future of #digitaljustice on the international stage. Read Now: botpopuli.net/claiming-the...

Have you read Shobhit S.’ transformative proposals for democratic and worker-led digital futures, grounded in collective agency, socio-economic justice, and transnational solidarity? Read now: botpopuli.net/platform-pow...

In this second part of the report we published last month, Shobhit S. follows up with a detailed excavation of the political economy of platform work with a framework for mitigating the injustices therein.

#NewsletterAlert📣 The latest issue of DataSyn is here! This edition engages with the ongoing crises within the digital economy and delves into the path forward. The editorial focuses on the various facets of the AI arms race with an emphasis on the geopolitical tensions between the US and China.

Marking two decades of vigorous activism, this month’s WSIS+20 High Level Event was a significant milestone for many who have long been in the trenches in the struggle for digital justice.

In our latest article, Shobhit S. situates the global push for standards on platform work within the broader political economy of platform capitalism and the North-South divides that characterize it. Read the full piece here: botpopuli.net/platform-pow...

The ILO is expected to adopt a binding Convention and a non-binding Recommendation at its 2026 conference, with substantive protections for platform workers.

TAAK (2024) examines how surveillance at the workplace impinges on the privacy of workers, bleeding into their everyday lives. Our interview with the filmmaker, Udit Khurana, offers a glimpse into how caste and class further propel these ideas of surveillance capitalism.

In our latest piece, writer and director, Udit Khurana discusses his new film, TAAK, which delves into the harms caused by intrusive technologies to workers’ rights, and privacy. Read the full interview here: botpopuli.net/on-taak/

In this article,Sally Burch traces the WSIS process through decades of social movement history, revealing its enduring significance for civil society’s struggle for digital justice. #WSIS #DigitalJustice #CivilSociety #InternetGovernance #CommunicationRights #GlobalSouth #TechJustice

Sally Burch reflects on the WSIS process, situating it within decades of social movement history and underscoring its enduring importance for civil society’s fight for digital justice. #WSIS #DigitalJustice #CivilSociety #TechForGood #InternetGovernance #CommunicationRights

#NewsletterAlert📣 The latest issue of DataSyn is here! In this issue, we turn our attention to the ongoing multilateral discussions around the digital economy.

The fight for fair rules in the platform economy is gaining momentum. Global standards for gig work are on the table but will they challenge inequality or entrench it? @botpopuli.bsky.social breaks down the stakes: botpopuli.net/platform-pow...

In our latest piece, @karishmabanga.bsky.social explores how digital trade governance can entrench asymmetries in global taxation, undermining economic recovery and tax justice in the Global South. Read here: botpopuli.net/trade-rules-...

Our latest piece features an interview with @karishmabanga.bsky.social as she delves into how digitalization has recalibrated the landscape of taxation and how this change impacts the fiscal autonomy of poorer countries. Read the full story here: botpopuli.net/trade-rules-...

Drawing on inputs from key perspectives across the Global South, our latest piece by Abhineet Nayyar maps how the US’s desire to consolidate its geoeconomic position will impact developing countries. Read more: botpopuli.net/trumps-tarif...

How are countries in the Global Majority world responding to the US’s sudden demand for trade (re)negotiations in the digital economy? Our latest piece by Abhineet Nayyar investigates. Read here: botpopuli.net/trumps-tarif...

What does the India–UK Free Trade Agreement mean for India’s digital future? 📲 In our latest piece, we unpack how the deal’s digital trade provisions may undermine India’s ambitions for digital sovereignty—handing more power to Big Tech. link in bio!

In our latest article, we examine how the India–UK Free Trade Agreement challenges India’s digital sovereignty, revealing who gains and who loses in the new digital trade order. Read this article: botpopuli.net/analyzing-th... #DigitalSovereignty #IndiaUKFTA #DigitalTrade #TradeJustice

Have you read our latest piece “On Humans In The Loop” yet? Susan Sreemala speaks with Aranya Sahay for a filmmaker’s view on telling the story of AI from the margins in his latest film, Humans in the Loop. Read now: botpopuli.net/on-humans-in...

The film Humans in the Loop tells the story of an adivasi woman in India’s state of Jharkhand, who, in the aftermath of a personal upheaval, decides to take up the enigmatic new job of becoming a data labeller.

Laurenz Sachenbacher reflects on the factors that motivated the Data Workers' Inquiry and the critical insights that have emerged from its first phase. Read Now: botpopuli.net/the-data-wor...