“Cheyenne's Board of Public Utilities said in recent public notices that water discharged by Goat Systems, a Meta contractor at the site, contaminated the city's wastewater treatment facility with a rare bacterium.”

A Wyoming city found a rare bacterium in wastewater tied to a Meta data center

Officials in Cheyenne, Wyoming, say a nearby Meta data center campus is responsible for contaminating part of its water recycling irrigation system.

businessinsider.com

On @nbc4i.com I discussed Ohio's data center hearings and whether foreign influence on social media is behind public opposition to data centers. My take: the evidence is thin, and I worry it'll be used to discredit legitimate concerns of local communities.

Foreign Influence On Data Centers?

Some blame opposition on Chinese government

nbc4i.com

Very pleased to have reviewed Samanth Subramanian's The Web Beneath the Waves for @lawfaremedia.org

Lawfare@lawfaremedia.org · 2mo ago

"While Subramanian’s book succeeds in offering a compelling and evocative narrative account of the significance and fragility of cables, its engagement with the governance implications of the vulnerabilities it documents is less developed." @roxanav.bsky.social reviews “The Web Beneath the Waves."

"The funniest possible outcome of the AI mandate era is about to be HR departments discovering that 'sincerely held religious belief' under Title VII has a much lower bar than they assumed, and Pope Leo handed every Catholic employee a written excuse" www.businessinsider.com/worker-got-r...

She won an exemption from using AI at her tech job. The Pope's remarks could fuel similar appeals.

Legal experts say employers must take AI-related religious objections seriously, as a 2023 ruling raised the bar for denying such accommodations.

businessinsider.com

New: Internal Microsoft planning documents say the company's goal is to "make people addicted" to its new Scout AI assistant www.404media.co/microsoft-wa...

Microsoft Wants to 'Make People Addicted' to its New AI Assistant, Internal Documents Reveal

Planning documents for "Scout" say the plan is to "make people addicted" to the tool before adding new features.

404media.co

How does the embrace of AI in universities play out? A cautionary tale from CA. A University System Went All In on A.I. Now It’s Tearing Itself Apart. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/m...

A University System Went All In on A.I. Now It’s Tearing Itself Apart.

nytimes.com

📢 On behalf of the ESIL Interest Group on International Law and Technology, I'm delighted to announce that today marks the launch of our new @opiniojuris.bsky.social symposium:📢 *Forensic and Counter-Forensic Approaches to International Law – A Cartography and Anatomy of Genocide*

Very much looking forward to discussing the Digital Divide in International Cyber Law in New York in October. #ILW25

ABILA (American Branch of the ILA)@abilaofficial.bsky.social · 11mo ago

The Digital Divide in International Cyber Law #ILW25 With: @chris4short.bsky.social, Jennifer Tridgell, Fabian Rogers, Roxana Vatanparast, and Rosey Wong. Register for International Law Weekend 2025 here: www.ila-americanbranch.org/ilw-2025-reg...

Unfortunately a still relevant piece I wrote 17 (!) years after I wrote it on the invocation of the preemptive use of force doctrine in relation to Iran's uranium enrichment program.

Pre-print of a short new piece of mine on critical marine infrastructure (CMI) is up! I outline some of the international legal principles applicable to CMI generally, focusing on the Law of the Sea, laws applicable to CMI damage, and their limitations. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Glad to have had the opportunity to review The New Knowledge: Information, Data and the Remaking of Global Power, for the journal Regulation & Governance. Pre-print available on @ssrn.bsky.social papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Glad to have had the opportunity to review The New Knowledge: Information, Data and the Remaking of Global Power, for the journal Regulation & Governance. Pre-print available on @ssrn.bsky.social papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

i love that techbros reinvent buses every few years

TechCrunch@techcrunch.com · last yr.

Uber to introduce fixed-route shuttles in major US cities designed for commuters

Register to join this timely discussion on June 2, in person or on line, with @katecrawford.bsky.social @hofrench.bsky.social @tamigraph.bsky.social and @triofrancos.bsky.social, hosted by my Science, Technology, and Social Values Lab at the Institute for Advanced Study www.ias.edu/events/raree...

The Right Understands That All Governance Is Data Governance lpeproject.org/blog/the-rig...

The Right Understands That All Governance Is Data Governance

The tech arm of Trump 2.0 isn't just reshaping government — it's consolidating control over the data infrastructure that makes modern governance possible. By centralizing data flows and gutting public...

lpeproject.org

Absolutely beautiful talk by @ruha9.bsky.social. How to put technology in service of collective healing and worldmaking? Dystopia, Utopia, or UStopia? From Artificial Intelligence to Abundant Imagination www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYIi...

Tanner Lecture Two with Ruha Benjamin

YouTube video by Mahindra Humanities Center

youtube.com

New work with Gavin Sullivan in the German Law Journal! Informed by unique access, we trace the design of Cerberus: an AI-based risk tool deployed by the UK Home Office. Cerberus, we argue, enacts a governmentality of suspicion that evades our regulatory repertoire. cambridge.org/core/journal...

🚨New Paper🚨 (hi law reviews!) ‘Digitizing the Fisc’ is the first article to address the current separation of fiscal powers crisis, exemplified by Trump's takeover of the Treasury's payments IT systems, through a tri-dimensional legal, political economic, & technological lens.

Some of you might have received the ESIL president's email this morning. What you might not know is that a group had been preparing to publish a letter that is open for signatures - most of the points of which are not addressed in this morning's email. voelkerrechtsblog.org/statement-by...

Statement by International Lawyers, ESIL Members, and ESIL Interest Group Convenors related to the 2025 ESIL Annual Conference at Freie Universität Berlin

voelkerrechtsblog.org

Academic freedom lies at the heart of our profession and we must protect it at all costs. In consultation with colleagues, we have tried to articulate widespread concerns with respect to the upcoming ESIL conference in Berlin, in light of recent events.

Völkerrechtsblog@voelkerrechtsblog.org · last yr.

Statement by International Lawyers, ESIL Members, and ESIL Interest Group Convenors related to the 2025 ESIL Annual Conference at Freie Universität Berlin. voelkerrechtsblog.org/statement-by...

📣Academic freedom is a fundamental pillar of our profession. Read our statement by over 150 international lawyers & ESIL members on troubling decision by Freie Universiteit Berlin to curtail academic freedom ahead of ESIL 2025. Letter is open for signature. voelkerrechtsblog.org/statement-by...

Statement by International Lawyers, ESIL Members, and ESIL Interest Group Convenors related to the 2025 ESIL Annual Conference at Freie Universität Berlin

voelkerrechtsblog.org

Very happy to share the publication of this Special Issue on Law and Technology, guest edited with my wonderful colleagues of the @esil-sedi.bsky.social IG on Intl Law and Technology @roxanav.bsky.social, @barriesander.bsky.social, @dimitrivdm.bsky.social and Rebecca Mignot-Mahdavi. 1/

Roxana Vatanparast 🌹@roxanav.bsky.social · last yr.

📣Special Issue on Law & Technology, on the theme Is Fairness in Digital Governance a Trap?, available open access in the European Journal of Legal Studies, guest edited by the ESIL IG on International Law & Tech team.

📣Special Issue on Law & Technology, on the theme Is Fairness in Digital Governance a Trap?, available open access in the European Journal of Legal Studies, guest edited by the ESIL IG on International Law & Tech team.

🚨Elon Musk’s DOGE operatives are attempting to access confidential tax information — tax returns, bank data, Social Security numbers — for millions of Americans. Illegal access can lead to jail time under federal law. @wyden.senate.gov and I are investigating and fighting back.

"The best place to view Los Angeles of the next millennium is from the ruins of its alternative future." Mike Davis Absolutely heartbreaking to watch my hometown burn from afar. 💔 Praying for everyone in LA. www.latimes.com/california/l...

Firefighters continue to battle blazes as L.A. braces for more days of fire weather

Five people have died, more than 2,000 structures have burned and at least 130,000 residents are under evacuation orders because of the wildfires burning across Los Angeles County. “We are absolutely ...

latimes.com

Simulacra & Simulation

Social Media Lab@socialmedialab.ca · 2y ago

"AI-generated Instagram and Facebook profiles going viral right now have been on the platform for well over a year and all of them stopped posting 10 months ago after users almost universally ignored them." www.404media.co/metas-ai-pro...

The Estlink 2 submarine cable, which carries electricity between Finland and Estonia, was cut on Wednesday, Finland’s police said in a statement, the latest in a slew of disruptions to undersea infrastructure that are being investigated as acts of sabotage. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/w...

Finland Seizes Ship After Undersea Cable Is Cut

The country’s prime minister said the incident, the latest in a series of disruptions to undersea infrastructure, underscored the danger of a so-called Russian shadow fleet.

nytimes.com

A little Christmas Eve treat: French apple tart

AI is not replacing labor but creating new forms of human labor. If AI is being sold as more efficient and cost-saving, it’s a lie. It’s a resource intensive algorithmic system that is creating new costs and harms. In the health care context, those harms can be devastating.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 2y ago

“Algorithm glitches are one facet of a dilemma that computer scientists and doctors have long acknowledged but that is starting to puzzle hospital executives and researchers: Artificial intelligence systems require consistent monitoring and staffing to put in place and to keep them working well.”