"People worry about what these technologies will do to work, to children, to politics, to privacy, and to society itself. Those fears are understandable. [...] What worries me is that fear has a way of making old mistakes look like new solutions" 💯 eternallyradicalidea.com/p/nico-perri...

The road to hell is paved with good intentions – and the road to the end of the open internet may well be paved with debates about protection of minors. Once introduced and enforced, it is easy to deny certain groups of people or individuals access to social media

One reading of the US government‘s restriction on foreign-national access to Claude's Fable 5 is that public focusing events and risk-centered discourse on AI create opportunities for restrictive regulation. www.anthropic.com/news/fable-m...

"In the name of safeguarding democracy, open societies are importing the policies of authoritarian regimes they rightly identify as enemies of free expression" @mchangama.bsky.social www.foreignaffairs.com/europe/end-o...

"Eintritt verweigert, Zugriff erweitert. Altersverifikation für soziale Medien: Blaupause für digitale Kontrolle?" Freue mich eine Gastbeitrag für @machine-vs-rage.net beigetragen zu haben in dem ich eindringlich vor der Einführung verpflichtender Altersverifikation für soziale Medien warne

The excessive targeting of government critics in Germany in the name of combating “hate speech” is unworthy of a liberal democracy. Harsh criticism of those in power must not trigger criminal proceedings or result in penalties for citizens. www.welt.de/politik/deut...

📢 Calling all UK online safety practitioners and enthusiasts I've created a free two-part introductory course on the UK Online Safety Act, as a starting point for lawyers, public affairs practitioners, or frankly anyone who wants to learn the fundamentals of the OSA and its implementation by Ofcom.

The way to hell is paved with good intentions

There is tremendous global momentum behind today's efforts to age-gate the internet. The momentum is so strong and rights of young people so underappreciated that the conversation readily shifts to "how can we do this and protect privacy?" instead of "why do this?" I will keep trying to stop it. 7/7

A tribe’s collective stupidity is proportional to its demand for purity. The more closely a group must agree, the more must be trimmed from each brain to make it fit.

"Doch sollte unser Problembewusstsein nicht davon abhängig sein, wen es gerade zufällig „trifft“. Der „Kampf“ für die Demokratie verkommt schnell zu einem Kampf gegen die Demokratie, und dies unabhängig davon, gegen wen er sich richtet"

I'm delighted to join the academic constituency of @thegni.bsky.social as an individual expert. GNI’s multistakeholder forum serves as an important bulwark for freedom of expression and privacy in the tech sector. It is a great honour to contribute to this mission.

The internet radically expanded freedom of speech— but since then all we've been talking about is the risks. At our #FreeSpeechSummit2025, @celeup.bsky.social Director Agustina Del Campo explains why we need to redirect the conversation.

6246 criminal charges under Germany’s highly controversial offence of insulting politicians were filed in 2025 alone, an all-time high and a troubling signal for freedom of expression. www.stern.de/politik/poli...

"Social media democratised public opinion, shifting influence away from elites and experts to ordinary people. LLMs will partly reverse this trend. They are a powerful, new technocratising force" @danwphilosophy.bsky.social www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/how-ai-wil...

[jetzt auch hier] Ich hatte jetzt mal Zeit, in die Inszenierung von Milo Rau am Thalia Theater in Hamburg reinzuschauen. Beim zufälligen Reinzappen fiel mir folgende 👇 Szene aus der „Vernehmung“ des „Zeugen“ Feroz Khan auf, einem jungen deutsch-pakistanischen Influencer, der für die AfD wirbt. /2

New Year, same story: "The accused were summoned or visited by the local police stations, and evidence was secured from their smartphones. In some cases, searches were also carried out." (25.02.2026) www.bka.de/DE/Presse/Li...

Ein Rentner aus Heilbronn hat Friedrich Merz auf Facebook scherzhaft als „Pinocchio“ bezeichnet – mit langer-Nase-Emoji. Und jetzt ermittelt laut „Heilbronner Stimme“ offenbar die Kriminalpolizei wegen #Beleidigung (§ 188 StGB). #schwachkopf

Two years after the Digital Services Act came into full effect, what does civil society look like? Mateus Correia de Carvalho & Rachel Griffin explore how different civil society actors are engaging with the DSA, and the opportunities and barriers shaping their impact.

“I want to see real names on the internet. I want to know who is speaking up,” the German Federal Chancellor said yesterday. It is hardly surprising that calls for age verification and social media bans for minors are now being followed by demands for an end to online anonymity.

Important reminder! It is a mistake to equate every intervention against Big Tech with a defence of democracy, especially given the role these platforms play in empowering marginalised voices. Some proposed cures may produce consequences worse than the disease

Meta and Google pulling out of political ads in the EU has made it harder for the Hungarian opposition to be heard. The platforms are a long way from perfect, but they're not Orban government owned or controlled in the way much of the rest of Hungarian media is.

YouTube seems to be at least trialing out blocking VPNs and proxies I really fear what sort of internet the future has in store for us. Probably where you have to identity yourself to every service and where anonymity and VPN use are increasingly illegal. www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/s/3...

The situation in Iran stands as a clear example of how digital sovereignty empowers repression rather than protects rights, says Azadeh Akbari. It should be a warning against abandoning the idea of a free and global internet, she writes. buff.ly/9e3UUoO

Stop whatever you're doing and read @farzdusa.bsky.social rejoinder to "digital sovereignty" at @futurefreespeech.org's Bedrock Principle:

What if expressing an unpopular opinion could get your assets frozen—or stop you from entering or transiting a country? Europe has recently added to its fast-growing list of individuals sanctioned for speech deemed a threat to national security.

Some people in western democracies are so used to their basic freedom that they don't even notice when nation states take them away. Or support it even!

On Dec. 1, 2025, we partnered with Örebro University to convene leading academics, regulators, companies, and civil society experts to confront this challenge in an in-depth roundtable examining AI’s impact on freedom of expression.

My mom says Generative AI chatbots made a big difference in her life this year. In your fight with big tech, don't forget that these AI online services, can be essential for some of the most vulnerable people.

Another example of why the concept of top-down fact checking is inherently dangerous. The question "what if the other side were to use the same concept?" is no longer merely hypothetical [1/2]

The same instruments imposed by executive decisions are framed as a “defence of liberal democracy” when applied to political opponents, or as an “attack on liberal democracy” when applied to political allies (www.linkedin.com/posts/alexan...)

"This gap between user desires and current offerings indicates an opportunity: meaningful, accessible controls that provide substantive choices could meet this latent demand and increase adoption among users wanting greater agency over their digital environment"

In their latest risk assessment report (https://www.tiktok.com/transparency/en/dsa-transparency/) #TikTok claims that AI content with the #C2PA label that is uploaded is automatically labeled. I tested this yesterday with one video and it seems this is not true […] [Original post on chaos.social]

"In the case of the "little Nazi", the accused, an elderly, physically disabled woman in a wheelchair, admitted to the offence immediately after the police arrived. Nevertheless, her mobile phone was confiscated to secure evidence" www.welt.de/politik/deut...

"Die eigentliche Frage lautet inzwischen: Ist Europas hartes Vorgehen gegen Meinungsäußerungen zu einer größeren Gefahr für die Demokratie geworden als die Extremisten, die es eindämmen soll? " @mchangama.bsky.social www.ipg-journal.de/rubriken/dem...

Warnings that AI chatbots produce “biased” voting advice are fueling pressure for tighter controls on political outputs. Jacob Mchangama and Jordi Calvet-Bademunt warn that such moves could erode freedom of expression and pluralism.

Just 46% of Germans feel free to voice their opinions, while over 50% support banning certain unpopular ones. A recent poll by the Allensbach Institute shows a troubling climate for free expression in Germany www.faz.net/aktuell/poli...

A professor in Germany was banned from teaching for 16 months after the domestic intelligence service wrongly classified him as a “right-wing extremist” based solely on guilt by association: www.faz.net/aktuell/poli... German "militant democracy" is on a dangerous path

"Unter anderem soll der umstrittene Tatbestand der Politikerbeleidigung auf Journalisten ausgedehnt werden" Bitte, bitte liebe Zentristen, hört endlich auf mit diesem furchtbaren Quatsch, ihr macht alles nur noch schlimmer www.lto.de/recht/nachri...

wenn sich etwas tatsächlich so verhält, wie einer behauptet, dass es sich verhält, dann „insinuiert“ er eigentlich gar nicht, oder?

📊 The #DSA data access portal is live, and VLOPs/VLOSEs have begun publishing their data catalogues. Trying to collect the links again: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

German “hate speech” laws are already troubling, but their enforcement has become alarmingly disproportionate, unconstitutional, and incompatible with a free society, writes Affiliate Fellow @alhohlfeld.bsky.social.

German “hate speech” laws are already troubling, but their enforcement has become alarmingly disproportionate, unconstitutional, and incompatible with a free society. When investigation becomes punishment, the rule of law itself is at risk. Check out my latest blog post at @futurefreespeech.org

A dangerous trend continues www.politico.eu/article/germ...

Humans are humans on TikTok too.

We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...

“Every counterrevolution, like every revolution, begins by being afraid of its own people.” —Hannah Arendt, On Revolution (1963) 🇩🇪

20 years ago, Denmark upheld free speech even when cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad sparked deadly protests. But today, @mchangama.bsky.social says European democracies are increasingly choosing appeasement — and the violence hasn't stopped.

Those who point out falsehoods on their own side are assumed to be working for the enemy, because our hunter-gatherer brains struggle to comprehend that someone could genuinely care about the truth more than any tribe. This makes political movements hard to self-correct.

Free speech doesn’t belong to the left or the right. Both will claim it when it suits their purpose, and both will disavow it for the same reason. The only people who genuinely support free speech are those rare souls whose principles are strong enough to survive politics itself.