BotPopuli
@botpopuli.bsky.social
We are an alternative media platform dedicated to looking at all things digital from a social justice and Global South perspective. https://botpopuli.net/
Is Big Tech creating a new feudal order, or intensifying capitalism? Taking a Global South perspective, our essay of the week argues that the technofeudalism thesis misreads the imperial hierarchies produced by platform power. By Rudraksh Lakra in @botpopuli.bsky.social buff.ly/TT4eNgv
Fresh off the press for 'Knowledge Futures' on Bot Populi. A series that asks what it means to govern Artificial Intelligence for the cultural commons beyond intellectual property.
Who pays for the commons? Generative AI was built on the open web, but little value has flowed back. @paul.eurosky.social’s latest at @botpopuli.bsky.social argues copyright can't fix this on its own — and makes the case for a levy on commercial AI deployment. Read it: botpopuli.net/who-pays-for...
Who Pays for the Commons?
Three and a half years after the emergence of generative AI as a new technology paradigm, there is broad agreement that AI companies have extracted enorm...
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In her latest essay for Bot Populi, Bama Athreya draws a sharp line between today's AI adoption push and older colonial patterns: cultural conversion, dependency, and the quiet erasure of inconvenient knowledge.
Here's what caught our attention this month. 📩 This edition's Sins & Synergies Lounge includes critical essays, investigative reporting, podcasts, and research unpacking the infrastructures of AI, the politics of digital sovereignty, platform labor, and the concentration of Big Tech power.
When gig workers’ accounts are “deactivated,” platforms often point to the algorithm. But algorithms don’t fire workers — employers do.
Kenzo Soares Seto, Associate Research Scholar at Yale Law School, shares insights from his new report from the Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy (ICDE), ‘Platform Cooperativism and the State: Lessons from Brazil’s Public Policies (2023–2026)’.
Read 'Knowledge Futures' on Bot Populi. A series that asks what it means to govern Artificial Intelligence for the cultural commons beyond intellectual property.
#NewsletterAlert From the BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Relations meeting in New Delhi to the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, there is a broad consensus...
The Multiple Scales of Resistance
Editorial
open.substack.com
ASHA workers across the country have been protesting for better pay, increased incentives, and more recognition for their key role as the backbone of India’s public health system. Just this week, the state of Kerala announced an INR 3000 hike for these community healthcare workers.
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...
A Brief History of Global AI Governance
AI regulation talk — the rules are that there are no rules The dust is yet to settle after the India AI Impact Summit, but the UN process for the Glob...
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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...
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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...
Digital Governance Stacks and the Infrastructure of Empires
Today’s state-run digital public infrastructure, in general, and decision-making tools that conform to governance stacks in particular, enable an unpre...
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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...
Who Owns the Digital Rails?
For the last two decades, India’s approach to electronic governance has evolved leaps and bounds. In 2004, the introduction of basic e-governance websi...
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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...
