I’ll be talking about my latest paper “uneven datafication” today in Hamburg. Please join in person or online if you feel like talking theory ☺️ www.inf.uni-hamburg.de/home/news/cu...

Öffentlicher Vortrag: Uneven Datafication: Political Economy of Digital Colonial Capitalism

inf.uni-hamburg.de

I‘m not a native speaker but wasn’t it mutilation?

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2mo ago

Trump: "We don't want transgender mutilization of your children"

The summer has arrived… writing a response to all the generous and thoughtful comments on „uneven datafication“

🧵My paper on "Uneven Datafication" just came out! It draws on literature on coloniality, uneven development and dependency. Uneven datafication operates through three interrelated dynamics: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

If you needed one more reason why Zambia cancelled @rightscon.org:

How China Built its Technosphere in Zambia

China: Technosphere provides a biweekly deep-dive into China’s technological control at home and influence abroad.

open.substack.com

NEW: A @hrw.org report published today finds that despite a regulatory framework designed to prevent abuses, 🇪🇺EU is currently doing **too little** to prevent sales & transfers of #surveillance technology by its members to governments with a track record of serious human rights violations. 🧵

'Autocrats Are Collaborating on Next-Generation Internet Controls' I wrote about #China, #Iran, networked authoritarianism, & future frontiers of digital repression for the NED Forum, drawing on the recent @article19.bsky.social Tightening the Net report thinkdemocracy.substack.com/p/autocrats-...

Autocrats Are Collaborating on Next-Generation Internet Controls. Michael Caster Unpacks the Implications.

Satellite-based connectivity, open-source AI models, and other innovative technologies are transforming how people around the world share their views and access information.

thinkdemocracy.substack.com

Looks like a great development of Castells and of the Data Poor thesis

Azadeh Akbari@azadehakbari.bsky.social · 3mo ago

🧵My paper on "Uneven Datafication" just came out! It draws on literature on coloniality, uneven development and dependency. Uneven datafication operates through three interrelated dynamics: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

This is a really important (and big!) paper on the political geography of #data, which brings colonialism, dependency theory and unequal exchange back into the conversation about #datafication and #datajustice.

Azadeh Akbari@azadehakbari.bsky.social · 3mo ago

🧵My paper on "Uneven Datafication" just came out! It draws on literature on coloniality, uneven development and dependency. Uneven datafication operates through three interrelated dynamics: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

🧵My paper on "Uneven Datafication" just came out! It draws on literature on coloniality, uneven development and dependency. Uneven datafication operates through three interrelated dynamics: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Tensions arise with US deal that demands access to Zambian critical minerals and data in exchange for healthcare investment. Humanitarian aid as trade war.

Reuters@reuters.com · 3mo ago

US criticises Zambia for lack of engagement as $1 billion health deal stalls reut.rs/3QHJVSQ

Happy May Day! It’s my favourite holiday of the year. The only day that people like my parents are celebrated: no saints, no prophets, no kings. Just working class people and their supposedly anecdotal unimportant lives!

🧵1- It has been 57 days since the internet went down in Iran. For many, the only remaining option has been Starlink. In 2023, Iran invoked “digital sovereignty” at the International Telecommunication Union to push for disabling Starlink connections. Yet the number of terminals continued to grow.

Very excited to give a talk together w @nan-knust.bsky.social Knust on 22 April at 4.30 pm on "The use of predictive policing to control fisheries crime" which is part of a great series of talks organised @azadehakbari.bsky.social Join us in Frankfurt or online! www.c3s-frankfurt.de/what-we-do/e...

New paper in @proghumgeog.bsky.social. Some great colleagues' work is sampled @jennifer-clapp.bsky.social @landstuff.bsky.social @brettchristophers.bsky.social @azadehakbari.bsky.social @jamiepeck.bsky.social @reijer.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... #geosky #ipesky

Iranians are literally making human chains around bridges and power plants. This is what uncivilised people like Trump don’t understand. As much as we hate the Islamic Republic, we LOVE our country. دریغ است ایران که ویران شود…

This mad king wants to ruin our civilisation. He never cared about democracy. Never in the entire history of Iran, Americans have ever cared a sec about democracy. If anything , they have denied us our agency and undermined our collective efforts and sacrifices to become democratic.

Particularly alarming that this includes Lebanon & Gaza. I had just shared imagery from March 18 showing the demolition of villages along the southern border of Lebanon by the IDF and now not even that imagery is available: bsky.app/profile/godi... Mass demolitions haven't stopped in Gaza, either.

Eliot Higgins@eliothiggins.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Just had this from Planet Labs, the US government have asked satellite imagery providers for "voluntarily" restrictions on access to satellite imagery. Given a lot of them provide satellite imagery to the USG we can probably guess the outcome of not acquiescing to that request.

This week the UN ITU's Radio Regulations Board is meeting on IRI’s demand to disable Starlink in Iran. This will set an important precedent for one of the key ways people are circumventing Internet shutdowns. Read the full breakdown by @farzdusa.bsky.social: iranianwomen4internet.org/blog.html

I'm hiring a postdoc! @goetheuni.bsky.social Focus: CSS, political behavior, political communication & transforming information environments. 📍 Frankfurt | ⏳ 3 years | 📅 Deadline: 14 April 2026 Full job ad here: www.uni-frankfurt.de/48794987/Zen... (search for “political behavior” to find it)

Running a podcast doesn’t give you authority to talk about things you have no idea about them. Your dogmatic white male privileged interpretation of digital sovereignty leaves no space for nuances of connectivity in authoritarian regimes.

Paris Marx

Paris Marx is a Canadian tech critic, author, and host of Tech Won’t Save Us.

parismarx.com

Paris Marx@parismarx.com · 5mo ago

it’s fascinating to me that western media is obsessed with the internet blackout in iran, but can’t seem to posit there might be a reason to shut down the internet when it’s the target of a war of aggression that includes cyberwarfare from the US and israel

Funny, Iran's own spokesperson and Foreign Minister didn't use the cyberwarfare justification. They clearly said internet goes to those who can amplify the regime's voice. That's not a defensive posture. That's content policy.

Paris Marx@parismarx.com · 5mo ago

it’s fascinating to me that western media is obsessed with the internet blackout in iran, but can’t seem to posit there might be a reason to shut down the internet when it’s the target of a war of aggression that includes cyberwarfare from the US and israel

As the Hormuz crisis becomes a food security crisis, the @wfp.org is going into 2026 in a massive funding hole due to aid retrenchment by the US and many European donors facing the prospect of rearmament. The geopolitics driving the crisis are also leaving the cupboard bare for crisis response.

I just remember when the roof of Notre-Dame de Paris was on fire and how every Western leader became a cultural expert and lamented the damage and how everyone donated money to rebuild it. I am having a hard time finding a single article in any European or American publication about this.

Χοδαδαδίος Ρεζαχανίδης, PhD, KRT, Duc de Téhéran@sasanianshah.bsky.social · 5mo ago

This video of the damages to the Chehel Sotoun palace in Isfahan is hard to watch. The finest example of Safavid architecture, the palace is a marvel of art & architecture that has survived more than 400 years. It is unbelievable that the “most moral army in the world” has cared so little about it.

This is "our" Manifesto for a Free Internet. We are Iranian Women's Coalition for Internet Freedom. Happy International Women's Day! initiated by @azadehakbari.bsky.social @farzdusa.bsky.social @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social @royapak.bsky.social & Afsaneh Rigot

Manifesto for a Free Internet

Manifesto for a Free InternetIranian Women’s Coalition for Internet Freedom Today, people inside Iran are living through a near-total Internet and communications blackout imposed by the Islamic Repub...

docs.google.com

Well, congratulations to the US: after changing Taliban with Taliban, and Maduro with his VP, now they have changed Khamenei with Khamenei. Next time maybe improve your cover story for destruction of countries and killing people.

As AI becomes critical to national economies, cloud infrastructure becomes a wartime target. Drone strikes on Amazon sites in the Gulf may force the industry to rethink where it builds https://restofworld.org/2026/iran-amazon-data-center-strikes/?utm_campaign=row-social&utm_source=bluesky

Iranian drone strikes at Amazon sites raise alarms over protecting data centers

Tech industry’s past focus on cyberattacks and natural disasters overshadowed threats of physical attacks.

restofworld.org

I was asked by @techpolicypress.bsky.social‬ what I am watching for as a tech scholar in the ongoing war. Here is my take:

Tech Policy Press@techpolicypress.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The expanding war in Iran brought to the fore questions about the role of technology in armed conflict, including the controversial use of new artificial intelligence technologies. Tech Policy Press invited perspectives from experts on what they are watching for as the situation unfolds.

Surveillance in the Majority World Newsletter for February 2026 is out! surveillance-majority-world.net/2026/02/09/s...

Surveillance in the Majority World Newsletter | February 2026

We share research/stories/podcasts that caught our attention.

surveillance-majority-world.net

When the internet is shut down in Iran, gunfire begins. Since Jan 8, all connections are cut and families, journalists & activists are unreachable. Protesters are being killed in silence. Internet access is a human right. Please sign and share our letter to the ITU: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Iran: When the internet is shut down, gunfire begins

To the International Telecommunication Union and the international Internet community, When the internet is shut down, gunfire begins. People of Iran are once again on the streets, risking their li...

docs.google.com