Patrick Brian Smith
@patrickbriansmith.bsky.social
Assistant Professor and University Fellow at the University of Salford // media, forensics, human rights, law + doc/spatial/political theory // https://salford-repository.worktribe.com/person/2316413/patrick-brian-smith
New piece for @opiniojuris.bsky.social opiniojuris.org/2026/07/02/u...
Upstream Harms: OSI, AI Militarism, Big Tech, and Gaza
[Patrick Brian Smith is an Assistant Professor and University Fellow at the University of Salford, where his research critically examines how evidence is mediated with a particular focus on open-so…
opiniojuris.org
Presenting at #CSA2026. Drawing on Israel's Project Nimbus, the paper examines how cloud computing and AI are becoming increasingly embedded in contemporary architectures of warfare, and what this reveals about the evolving relationship between Big Tech, militarisation, and imperial power.
Interested in learning about how to protect civilians impacted by digital warfare? Join us virtually on June 4 for a panel with HRC's @betsypopken.bsky.social, @marwasf.bsky.social from @accessnow.org, @7amleh.bsky.social & others! 📅 6/4 ⌚ 9 AM PST 📍 Zoom berkeley.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
STATEMENT: The façade has crumbled. GLAN responds to reports that the UK’s Foreign Office unit tracking potential breaches of international law by #Israel in #Gaza and #Lebanon has been closed: glanlaw.org/news/glan-st...
GLAN statement: Foreign Office closes unit tracking breaches of international law - GLAN
As Israel expands its violent campaigns and illegal annexation in Palestine and Lebanon, the UK government has quietly closed the International Humanitarian
glanlaw.org
Looking forward to presenting this paper on the militarisation of big tech and its roles in global genocide and ecocide at the CMSSP conference on Sunday
I have recently joined @unidir.org 's Security & Technology Programme as a fellow to lead a project on decommissioning military AI systems. You can learn more about the project here 👉🏼 unidir.org/decommission...
This month’s Docalogue features 2 excellent pieces on The Perfect Neighbor - check out what @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social and Kelly Gates have to say about the film: docalogue.com/the-perfect-...
Some thoughts on The Perfect Neighbor (Gandbhir, 2025) and the structural racism that shapes both the murder of Ajike Owens and its aftermath. I ask whether the most radical gesture isn’t better evidence—but refusing the theatre of justice and forensics altogether... docalogue.com/the-perfect-...
Pleased to share this recording of Erik Reichborn-Kjennerud's book talk on The World According to Military Targeting www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWm2...
The World According to Military Targeting, book talk and discussion with Erik Reichborn-Kjennerud
YouTube video by Patrick Smith
youtube.com
Patrick Brian Smith@patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · 7mo agoUpcoming talk with Erik Reichborn-Kjennerud (Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs) on his new book "The World According to Military Targeting" (MIT Press, 2025). Register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-world-...
Check out the MST SIG's new spotlight in @jcmsjournal.bsky.social! Gary Kafer @gkafer.bsky.social and Patrick Brian Smith @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social take us through the history and future of @scmsmst.bsky.social. Read more here: quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/i...
Spotlight: Media, Science, and Technology SIG
quod.lib.umich.edu
Upcoming talk with Erik Reichborn-Kjennerud (Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs) on his new book "The World According to Military Targeting" (MIT Press, 2025). Register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-world-...
The World According to Military Targeting, talk w/ Erik Reichborn-Kjennerud
Erik Reichborn-Kjennerud talk and discussion on his new book The World According to Military Targeting
eventbrite.co.uk
New article co-authored with Patrick Brodie for this excellent issue of the Spanish language journal Ecología Política, focused on the theme of "militarisation." Our article is titled "Big Tech, AI, and the Political Ecology of Digital Militarisation" www.ecologiapolitica.info/en-profundid...
Big tech, inteligencia artificial y ecología política de militarización digital - Ecología Política
Big tech, inteligencia artificial y ecología política de militarización digital | En Profundidad | 70 Militarización | Ecología Política
ecologiapolitica.info
Pleased to share this recording of Matthew Ford's @warmatters.bsky.social book talk on War in the Smartphone Age: Conflict, Connectivity and the Crises at Our Fingertips, with respondent Miglė Bareikytė www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRDs...
War in the Smartphone Age, book talk and discussion with Matthew Ford
YouTube video by Patrick Smith
youtube.com
🔴 Nigel Farage’s Reform is more reliant on super-rich backers than any major party in modern British political history 75% of *all* Reform donations *ever* have come from just three rich men Is this what democracy looks like? New on Democracy for Sale democracyforsale.substack.com/p/75-of-refo...
75% of Reform UK’s donations have come from just three rich men
Calls grow for donation caps as Democracy for Sale research reveals that three-quarters of Reform’s funding comes from a trio of wealthy donors
democracyforsale.substack.com
Pleased to be talking with @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social and Miglė Bareikytė about my book at @salforduni.bsky.social' Emergent Nonfiction Lab on 3 December at 16:00 Stockholm time. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/war-in-the...
War in the Smartphone Age, book talk and discussion with Matthew Ford
Matthew Ford on his new book War in the Smartphone Age: Conflict, Connectivity and the Crises at Our Fingertips + respondent Miglė Bareikytė
eventbrite.co.uk
Upcoming event at the Emergent Nonfiction Lab, Nadia El-Shaarawi will present her recent book Collateral Damages: Tracing the Debts and Displacements of the Iraq War! You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/collateral...
Collateral Damages, book talk and discussion with Nadia El-Shaarawi
Nadia El-Shaarawi on her recent book Collateral Damages: Tracing the Debts and Displacements of the Iraq War
eventbrite.co.uk
Recording of recent talk with @byrontau.bsky.social on "Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government is Creating a New American Surveillance State" (2024). Discussion bridges investigative journalism, critical media studies, + surveillance studies! www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT3s...
Means of Control, Byron Tau book talk and discussion
YouTube video by Patrick Smith
youtube.com
Just a reminder that this event with @byrontau.bsky.social is coming up soon: Wednesday, October 15 at 3pm GMT
Patrick Brian Smith@patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · 11mo agoPleased to announce this talk with @byrontau.bsky.social on his recent book "Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government is Creating a New American Surveillance State." You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/means-of-c...
Pleased to announce this talk with @byrontau.bsky.social on his recent book "Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government is Creating a New American Surveillance State." You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/means-of-c...
Means of Control, book talk and discussion with Byron Tau
Byron Tau on his recent book Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government is Creating a New American Surveillance State
eventbrite.co.uk
"Just Evidence," the World Records volume that I edited with @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social and LaCharles Ward @blurrdblue.bsky.social, launches today! It asks: What does accountability look (and sound and feel) like? Read the intro here: worldrecordsjournal.org/just-evidence/
Just Evidence - World Records
worldrecordsjournal.org
Pleased to share the introduction from this special issue! More articles to follow in the coming weeks! worldrecordsjournal.org/just-evidence/
Just Evidence - World Records
worldrecordsjournal.org
Patrick Brian Smith@patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · last yr.Over the course of the summer, pieces from the forthcoming issue of World Records, titled "Just Evidence," co-edited by LaCharles Ward, Sasha Crawford-Holland, and myself, will be released. The full issue with introduction will be available late summer! worldrecordsjournal.org/category/vol...
"The US was born in war and has waged a war of some sort in every year of its existence. Silicon Valley knows that war is good for business. And many of its most powerful people want us to stop worrying about frivolities like ethics or ecology and love the bomb" www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Laleh Khalili · Collective Property, Private Control: Defence Tech
The United States was born in war and has waged a war of some sort in every year of its existence. Silicon Valley knows...
lrb.co.uk
Sasha Crawford-Holland, @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social, and Andrew Williams look at open-source investigation and propose tactics to counter epistemic injustice aimed at fostering pluralistic, decentralised, and solidarity-based OSI practices. academic.oup.com/lril/article...
Law’s capture of human rights focused open-source investigation
Abstract. With new protocols emerging to regulate the field of open-source investigation, this article critiques their widespread deference to the requirem
academic.oup.com
Our new issue of the London Review of International Law is out with articles by Tanja Aalberts, @ingovenzke.bsky.social, Gavin Sullivan, Wouter Werner, Sasha Crawford-Holland, @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social, Andrew Williams, and the Medellín Group. academic.oup.com/lril/issue/1...
Volume 13 Issue 1 | London Review of International Law | Oxford Academic
Publishes high-quality scholarship on international law from around the world. While no area of international legal interest is excluded, the journal prioritises non-doctrinal scholarship, including t...
academic.oup.com
New article that critiques dominant narratives in “media forensics," arguing for a decolonial reorientation grounded in Indigenous epistemologies. Examining the work of NRO, it calls for counter-hegemonic practices that challenge settler-colonial evidentiary regimes... csalateral.org/issue/14-1/f...
Patrick Brian Smith, "Futurist Forensics: Indigenous Evidence, Cosmo-Epistemologies, and the New Red Order" - Lateral
This article critically engages with the emerging “media forensic” turn at the intersection of visual culture, new media practice, and humanitarian and political activism. This field purports to subve...
csalateral.org
'Human rights OSI frequently privileges technoscientific and criminological modes of investigation over alternative methods of identifying or tracking violence and harm.'
Dr Benjamin Thorne @benjaminthorne.bsky.social · last yr.Interesting new piece challenging some of the assumptions on OSI contributions to atrocity accountability, particularly relating to the privileging of legal deference: there is a growing risk of excluding accounts of suffering in order to appease legal practices and norms - tinyurl.com/yc4v6y9z
Interesting new piece challenging some of the assumptions on OSI contributions to atrocity accountability, particularly relating to the privileging of legal deference: there is a growing risk of excluding accounts of suffering in order to appease legal practices and norms - tinyurl.com/yc4v6y9z
Law’s capture of human rights focused open-source investigation
Abstract. With new protocols emerging to regulate the field of open-source investigation, this article critiques their widespread deference to the requirem
tinyurl.com
"We were excited to have a panel accepted on the role of technology in genocide in Gaza at this year’s Computers, Privacy & Data Protection (CPDP) conference in Brussels. However, CPDP then requested that Access Now & others remove the word “genocide” from panel titles & descriptions. We declined."
This event is coming up next week! With Mark Griffiths (@casesofyou.bsky.social) and Kali Rubaii. You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/late-moder...
Late modern war and the geos, discussion with Mark Griffiths + Kali Rubaii
Mark Griffiths + Kali Rubaii on their article Late modern war and the geos: The ecological ‘beforemaths’ of advanced military technologies
eventbrite.co.uk
Patrick Brian Smith@patrickbriansmith.bsky.social · last yr.Pleased to share details for this forthcoming event at the Emergent Nonfiction Lab. You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/late-moder...
A new co-authored piece that critically examines open-source investigation’s increasing reliance on—and deference to—the law. Written with Sasha Crawford-Holland and Andrew Williams. doi.org/10.1093/lril...
Law’s capture of human rights focused open-source investigation
Abstract. With new protocols emerging to regulate the field of open-source investigation, this article critiques their widespread deference to the requirem
doi.org