Meta ends (at least for now) political ads in the EU today. Per their ad library data, they've run nearly 11,000,000 different political, social and issue ads in the EU since 2018 and made around €800m from them.
This is an EU proposed policy with the benign-sounding name "Child Sexual Abuse Regulation" which proposes to screen private online communications using sketchy image-scanning algorithms. It is technically unworkable, and would be a privacy catastrophe, especially for those in authoritarian states
Part of your information landscape is very likely fake and designed to influence you. Read @marcowenjones.bsky.social 's investigations to begin grasping the extent. marcowenjones.substack.com/p/nobody-tal...
Fascinating insights on Israel’s influence operations in the US, costing millions. Particularly striking is how the contracts openly talk about the usage of bots to “flood the zone”
This video was really painful to watch.
Following the recent violence #Libya lays in a dangerous place for a nation to be in
A ruling elite, acting like everything is normal
And a public desperate to live a normal, dignified, honest life and wondering why they must accept this as normal.
Labour’s immigration “strategy” is bad on three levels:
1. It’s unlikely to work politically. Pandering to the far right on immigration rarely ends well, even if you deliver.
2. Tied to that - don’t raise the salience of issues you’re weak on!
3. What should be the most important: it’s bad policy.
Earlier this month, Bluesky restricted access to 72 accounts in Turkey at the request of Turkish governmental authorities techcrunch.com/2025/04/23/g...
I don't think it's possible to be truly happy unless you believe your existence is positive sum and brings good to others.
As Trump settles into the White House for the second time, is right-wing populism destined to keep growing?
@iyadelbaghdadi.bsky.social and @gatnash.com explore the structural reasons for its continued rise:
kawaakibi.org/seven-forces...
FELLOWSHIPS for Scholars at Risk
Applications until 20.01.2025 at 23:59 (CET). #SAFE offers 60 fully-funded fellowships (up to 24 months) for doctoral & postdoctoral researchers of non-EU nationality.
Read the call carefully, contact potential supervisor in your academic field.
saferesearchers.eu
Really struggling to find good quality Arabic books for my toddler.
Her bookshelf is clearly two-standard: the English ones are well-illustrated, engaging and fun, the Arabic ones have 80s standard amateur illustration and transparently-moralistic stories.
About 3-4 years ago, I predicted that authoritarian governments would start using deepfakes to discredit and attack activists. I have no idea why this hasn't transpired yet, but I'm very grateful it hasn't.
Example: picking Proton instead of Gmail to host your organisation's emails
People who care about decentralisation should have a bias towards using services from a company which isn't the single globally dominant provider of that service.
Told my two-year-old that I love her hair. She looked at me for a second, processing, and replied "I love your ears!"
Kawaakibi congratulates the Syrian people on their historic liberation from the Assad regime!
We stand ready to support the rebuilding process of Syria with the Syrian people and remain steadfast partners in this endeavour every step of the way.
kawaakibi.org/kawaakibi-fo...
I wrote something about my experience attending #Devcon and Funding the Commons last week.
gatnash.com/posts/reflec...
Thank you!
Public mass protest is a tactic. Like all tactics, it can be effective when part of a wider strategy, and you understand why you're doing it and what the objective is.
It's not effective when the tactic *becomes* the strategy, with no wider theory of how this creates change.
Once we've all recovered enough to be able to think straight again, there will be a reckoning for the Western donors who decided that mid-genocide was the time to cut off funding to human rights groups. aje.io/haqhqv
The genocide in Gaza has made so many take their masks off and out themselves. So many who previously disguised themselves as pro -human rights. One of many things that will never be the same again.
lettertohrf.com
Antisemites, islamophobes, tankies, and general grifters are spreading their bs like wildfire right now.
Worried about what our world looks like after there is no longer even a pretence of or aspiration to moral universalism, and the idea of intentional law looks like nothing but a discredited colonial charade.
Shorter Duss: if you declare anti-civilian atrocities acceptable if your ally does them, or in the name of anti-imperialism, you're supporting a world where might makes right. www.politico.com/news/magazin...
This was a really outstanding listen. Beyond Twitter, plenty to learn from it about the way all our online public spaces are set up for failure.
Following Elon Musk’s lead, Big Tech is surrendering to disinformation Facebook and YouTube are receding from their role as watchdogs against conspiracy theories ahead of the 2024 presidential election By Naomi Nix and Sarah Ellison Updated August 25, 2023 at 7:34 a.m. EDT|Published August 25, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
Social media companies have figured out that regulators won’t MAKE them moderate disinformation (or anything else!), and that they won’t be meaningfully punished for failing to do so.
This won’t change until we start punishing big tech.
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Showing the small one nice things.
The world's largest reservoir of crushed dreams and rage.
