COMMENT BLOG
A remark, a critique, an opinion…
The beginning of the end of the attention economy?
On 25 March 2026, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google negligent for designing social media platforms that harmed a young user through addictive features, awarding $6 million in damages. Just one day earlier, a New Mexico jury had ordered Meta to pay $375 million...
When a free press comes under fire, we all suffer
The moment the press becomes an instrument of state approval, it serves no one. Defend media freedom in every way you can.
Data protection: Burden or obligation?
Reuters recently reported that US diplomats worldwide have been ordered to track and counter data localization efforts, naming the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as an example of “unnecessarily burdensome” regulation. According to Reuters,...
A cautionary tale of “The Russian Guy”: The gender AI divide, ethics, and regulation
The plot could easily have been from a Netflix dystopian thriller. “The Russian Guy” approaches ordinary women and girls leading ordinary lives, one walking her child to school, another stocking supermarket shelves, and a young girl walking by. “Hello. What’s your...
Spain takes a stand: Regulating Big Tech to protect children
According to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, social media platforms have become a “toxic, unpunished world” that “children were never meant to navigate alone.” This sharp critique, delivered at the World Governments Summit in Dubai on 4 February, reflects...
The red thread in the news
Recent headlines I read run from the latest attempts by Donald Trump to own Greenland to Taylor Swift becoming the second–youngest ever inductee to the Songwriters Hall of Fame. There doesn’t seem to be a connection, but there is – digital technology. Whether it’s the...
Trust, civic engagement, and shared responsibility in the digital age
Germany’s far-right political party Alternative für Deutschland recently relaunched a youth wing called Generation Deutschland. One of its posters portrays a young blond Aryan woman instantly recalling – for those who have not forgotten 20th century European history –...
How far are we on the path to a people-centric, inclusive, and development-oriented Information Society?
After all, that is the vision of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), whose +20 outcomes will be finalized by UN member states this week (December 16–17). Both at the WSIS+20 High-Level Meeting in July in Geneva and in the negotiations involved in...
Subjugating news and information to partisan interests
In 1960s Britain it was common for travelling salesmen (hardly ever women) to go from door to door selling subscriptions to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Twenty-four volumes whose cost could be spread over monthly repayments. Parents who could afford it, and even...
Let’s not forget that climate change is a justice issue
Over the past few years, climate change has become a lighting rod issue in many countries of the Global North. Populist right-wing figures like Donald Trump (USA), Nigel Farage (UK), Alice Weidel (Germany) and Santiago Abascal (Spain) have either denied climate...
Time to get serious about AI extractivism
In recent years, a lot has been said about the “extractivist” nature of today’s digital information ecosystem. While there has been some focus on the environmental impact of digital devices, the extractivism accusation has been directed primarily at the economic model...
Shutting down the Internet subverts democracy
The Internet is the world’s digital lifeline. For the approximately 5.6 billion people connected to the Internet (some 70% of the global population), access is essential. The entire Internet cannot be switched off, but governments and other actors can temporarily...
PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Jeffrey/ACT Alliance