Petra Molnar
@petramolnar.com
#Bordertech ethnographies | Author of The Walls Have Eyes | @refugeelab.ca + @migrationtechmonitor.com, York | Faculty Associate with Berkman Klein Center, Harvard | She/ هي 🇵🇸🍉| https://petramolnar.com/
Nothing about us, without us: Reclaiming power in an age of border technology
Nothing about us, without us: Reclaiming power in an age of border technology
We met with migrants to reflect on how tech is reshaping movement, borders, and power. This is what they told us
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Special Issue: The World of Fluid Technology and Moving People
Special Issue: The World of Fluid Technology and Moving People
Our weekly newsletter
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👋 We're back! We know it's been a while, but just because we've been quiet, doesn't mean we have not been busy! Check out some of the things we have been working on over the last few months - also on our website: www.migrationtechmonitor.com
🚨NEW INQUIRY! @joan1k.bsky.social from @datalabelers.bsky.social discusses beginnings, gratitude, and partnerships in this piece. @dataworkersinquiry.bsky.social is an active partner of the DLA, and we remain united in the fight for the rights of data workers worldwide! data-workers.org/DLA/
Organizing Across Borders, by Joan Kinyua
The Data Labelers Association is developing mutual support structures and fighting for better working conditions. This inquiry recounts our path to founding it and acknowledges our ongoing partnership...
data-workers.org
'Strong,' but at what cost? Petra Molnar (@petramolnar.com) warns that Canada’s new Strong Borders Act—a sweeping overhaul of immigration and border policy—aims to appease the Trump administration, but threatens the rights of Canadians and endangers vulnerable communities.
The Great White North: Canada’s New Border Bill Appeases the Trump Administration | TechPolicy.Press
Petra Molnar argues that Canada’s Strong Borders Act expands surveillance and threatens refugee rights to appease the Trump Administration's demands.
techpolicy.press
On Canada Day, a reflection on the Strong Borders Act, a draconian new bill that tries to appease the Trump administration, while harkening back to Canada’s historically exclusionary immigration policies The Great White North, indeed www.techpolicy.press/the-great-wh... @techpolicypress.bsky.social
The Great White North: Canada’s New Border Bill Appeases the Trump Administration | TechPolicy.Press
Petra Molnar argues that Canada’s Strong Borders Act expands surveillance and threatens refugee rights to appease the Trump Administration's demands.
techpolicy.press
The White House has ordered the US Dept. of Justice to prioritize denaturalization: voiding the citizenship of US citizens. Who will it denaturalize? "Any" case that it "determines to be sufficiently important". Point 10 leaves the criteria opaque and arbitrary. substack.com/redirect/169...
We run out of in-person tickets. But the event will be live streamed! youtube.com/live/54i0VSo...
Book Presentation "THE AI CON: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want"
Presenting her groundbreaking new book co-authored with Emily M. Bender, “THE AI CON: How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want”, Alex Hanna unpacks the myths and marketing that surro...
youtube.com
Milagros Miceli@milamiceli.bsky.social · last yr.Just casually fan-girling over my signed copy of The AI Con. And the best part? I get to chat with the brilliant @alexhanna.bsky.social about the book tomorrow at 6 PM @weizenbauminstitut.bsky.social. If you're in Berlin, come join the conversation. It's going to be a good one! 🎟️ lnkd.in/dUedwiRM
In case you were wondering what Enrique Tarrio was up to...
Petra Molnar@petramolnar.com · last yr.ICERAID is a new platform that offers crypto rewards for border vigilantism. It is a clear reflection of a broader system – one that criminalises migration, rewards suspicion, and expands enforcement through private tech and public fear. My latest @aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...
New from 404 Media: ICE is using a new facial recognition app to identify people, leaked emails show. Point camera at person, reveal their identity. It uses the CBP system that records peoples' faces as they enter or exit the U.S. Now, turned inwards to be used by ICE www.404media.co/ice-is-using...
ICE Is Using a New Facial Recognition App to Identify People, Leaked Emails Show
The new tool, called Mobile Fortify, uses the CBP system which ordinarily takes photos of people when they enter or exit the U.S., according to internal ICE emails viewed by 404 Media. Now ICE is usin...
404media.co
Just out: 'Resisting the Techno-Fascist Takeover: Are We Ready for Decomputing?' berlinergazette.de/resisting-th... in which I diagnose DOGE as institutional cyberattack and argue that the way to stop it spreading is to revive an alternative technopolitics.
Resisting the Techno-Fascist Takeover: Are We Ready for Decomputing?
Because they are based on centralization and abstraction, our current sociopolitical structures are susceptible to being replaced by AI. This is not only exemplified by the Department of Government Ef...
berlinergazette.de
ICERAID is a new platform that offers crypto rewards for border vigilantism. It is a clear reflection of a broader system – one that criminalises migration, rewards suspicion, and expands enforcement through private tech and public fear. My latest @aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...
AI is fuelling a new wave of border vigilantism in the US
A new AI app pays civilians to track people crossing the border – no training, no oversight, no rules.
aljazeera.com
"The largest data centers can guzzle millions of gallons of fresh water a day. Roughly 40% of US ones, Business Insider found, are in the most water-stressed areas of the country." www.businessinsider.com/how-data-cen...
As drought deepens, big tech has put nearly half of its data centers in water-scarce regions
The largest data centers can guzzle millions of gallons of fresh water a day. Roughly 40% are located in the most water-stressed areas of the country, Business Insider found.
businessinsider.com
NEW: Records of hundreds of emergency calls from ICE detention centers obtained by WIRED—including audio recordings—show a system inundated by life-threatening incidents, delayed treatment, and overcrowding. Unpaywalled from @dell.bsky.social and @dmehro.bsky.social:
'They're Not Breathing': Inside the Chaos of ICE Detention Center 911 Calls
Records of hundreds of emergency calls from ICE detention centers obtained by WIRED—including audio recordings—show a system inundated by life-threatening incidents, delayed treatment, and overcrowdin...
wired.com
Amsterdam’s struggles with its welfare fraud algorithm show us the stakes of deploying AI in situations that directly affect human lives.
What does it mean for an algorithm to be “fair”?
Amsterdam’s struggles with its welfare fraud algorithm show us the stakes of deploying AI in situations that directly affect human lives.
technologyreview.com
Despite a massive judgment against NSO Group, developer of the notorious Pegasus spyware, the battle against surreptitious surveillance software is far from over. For Tech Policy Press, Tim Bernard reviews legal and policy avenues for combating spyware: www.techpolicy.press/legal-and-po...
Legal and Policy Responses to Spyware: A Primer | TechPolicy.Press
Following a judgment against NSO Group, developer of the notorious Pegasus spyware, Tim Bernard reviews legal and policy avenues for combating spyware.
techpolicy.press
The US government has collected DNA samples from 133,000+ migrant children and teenagers and uploaded them into a national criminal database originally built for convicted sex offenders and violent criminals, according to documents reviewed by WIRED.
The US Is Storing Migrant Children’s DNA in a Criminal Database
Customs and Border Protection has swabbed the DNA of migrant children as young as 4, whose genetic data is uploaded to an FBI-run database that can track them if they commit crimes in the future.
wrd.cm
Pres. Trump’s deportation plans are making the U.S.’s biggest private prison companies lots of money, with ICE set to spend billions more on detention. @petramolnar.com says the system “profits off misery” and @rachelbarkow.bsky.social credits a “targeted lobbying machine” for the profits. #Velshi
‘Billion dollar border industrial complex’ blossoms under Trump’s deportation program
Private incarceration companies are playing a huge role in Trump’s deportation plans. The biggest detention centers in the country are run by private companies – many of which have tried to curry favor with the Trump Administration by donating to Republican campaigns or Trump’s inaugural committee. NYU Law Professor Rachel Barkow says the dynamics mimic the larger prison industrial complex. Co-Creator, Migration and Technology Monitor Petra Molnar says some tracking apps developed by these companies can be efficient, “But right now, what technology is doing is actually replicating racism, discrimination, carceral logic.”
msnbc.com
Yes, it's long. Yes, it's complex. Yes, it's detailed. And yes, it will make you sad unto nihilistic depression. But it's also necessary to read because AI is going to fuck the planet beyond expression. www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1...
We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard.
The emissions from individual AI text, image, and video queries seem small—until you add up what the industry isn’t tracking and consider where it’s heading next.
technologyreview.com
Meta is a defense contractor. "The company announced on Thursday that it will work with defense technology start-up Anduril to offer the U.S. military and its allies technology for soldiers involving augmented reality and artificial intelligence software."
Meta is working on a high-tech helmet for the U.S. military
Social network company Meta is partnering with weapons-maker Anduril to develop military technology for the Pentagon using AI and augmented reality.
washingtonpost.com
"Records reveal how deeply the government’s biometric surveillance reaches into the lives of migrant children, some of whom may still be learning to read or tie their shoes—yet whose DNA is now stored in a system built for convicted sex offenders & violent criminals" www.wired.com/story/cbp-dn...
The US Is Storing Migrant Children’s DNA in a Criminal Database
Customs and Border Protection has swabbed the DNA of migrant children as young as 4, whose genetic data is uploaded to an FBI-run database that can track them if they commit crimes in the future.
wired.com
Lessons from the intersections of Sudan and Palestine in politics, media, and organizing. mondoweiss.net/2024/10/fail...
Failing Palestine by failing the Sudanese revolution
Lessons from the intersections of Sudan and Palestine in politics, media, and organizing.
mondoweiss.net
The @pulitzercenter.bsky.social South-to-South AI Accountability CoLab aims to strengthen #AIAccountability reporting and civil society engagement in the Global Majority. From June to July 2025, it will host Peer Learning Circles for academics, researchers, and civil society.
South-to-South AI Accountability CoLab’s Peer Learning Circle
PEER LEARNING CIRCLE The Pulitzer Center is seeking applications from civil society, academia, or researchers operating in Africa, Latin America, and South and Southeast Asia for a three-day virtual...
buff.ly
local and state authorities have used a license-plate lookup tool on behalf of ICE more than 4,000 times "while Flock does not have a contract with ICE, the agency sources data from Flock’s cameras by making requests to local law enforcement" www.404media.co/ice-taps-int...
ICE Taps into Nationwide AI-Enabled Camera Network, Data Shows
Flock's automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras are in more than 5,000 communities around the U.S. Local police are doing lookups in the nationwide system for ICE.
404media.co
“Sadly, I think the true cost of these walls will be felt by generations to come...The continent has never seen a barrier of this magnitude in ecological history.” Borders walls hurt not only people but wildlife too! www.sierraclub.org/sierra/new-b... by @aprilreese.bsky.social @sierraclub.org
New Border Wall Sections Threaten Remaining Wildlife Corridors
President Trump’s plan to finish his wall along US-Mexico border puts wildlife conservation at risk
sierraclub.org
A researcher calculates that, without increased production, AI will consume up to 82 terrawatt-hours of electricity this year—around the same as the annual electricity consumption of Switzerland.
AI Is Eating Data Center Power Demand—and It’s Only Getting Worse
A new analysis of AI hardware being produced and how it is being used attempts to estimate the vast amount of electricity being consumed by AI.
wrd.cm
I'm helping organize this conference. What would you like to see at this conference? www.decolonialconference.org
Decolonial Conference | Join to Organize & Fight for Liberation
Engage with activists, movements, and politically committed scholars at the Decolonial Conference.
decolonialconference.org
As big tech continues to push their agenda into our lives, opposition in rural areas and cities is growing to AI data centers and the threat they pose to our communities and environment. Grassroots organizing is halting projects and pushing back. www.datacenterwatch.org/report
