In beta

We talk to Nick Couldry, Professor of Media and Communications and Social Theory at LSE, about the concept of data colonialism, and how it can help us understand the present moment.

Find out more about Professor Couldry's latest book, The Cost of Connection, here: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=28816

Subscribe to GPD's monthly email digest here: gp-digital.us11.list-manage.com/subscribe…2e2b17857

Links for the other resources mentioned in this episode:

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/sign-our-coronavirus-democracy-watch-newsletter/

https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/14/21219907/medium-coronavirus-covid-19-news-misinformation-conspiracy-theories-best-worst

https://medium.com/data-policy/mapping-how-data-can-help-address-covid19-a7be2e631aec

We speak to Lisa Vermeer of the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law (ICNL) about the COVID-19 Civic Freedom Tracker (https://www.icnl.org/covid19tracker/), a new tool which monitors government responses to the pandemic that affect civic freedoms and human rights.

Subscribe to GPD's monthly email digest here: https://gp-digital.us11.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=3f454c6af66e369bd02cf4ac4&id=82e2b17857

Links for the other resources mentioned in this episode:

https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/COVID-19.aspx

http://opiniojuris.org/2020/04/01/covid-19-symposium-covid-19-cyber-surveillance-normalisation-and-human-rights-law/

https://www.gsma.com/publicpolicy/resources/covid-19-privacy-guidelines

We talk to our Head of Legal, Richard Wingfield, about recent measures taken by governments and tech companies to counter disinformation in the context of COVID-19.

Links for the resources mentioned in this episode:

https://www.icnl.org/covid19tracker/

https://www.privacyinternational.org/examples/tracking-global-response-covid-19

https://www.derechosdigitales.org/14301/civil-society-from-latin-america-and-the-caribbean-demands-to-respect-human-rights-when-governments-deploy-digital-technologies-to-fight-against-covid-19/

https://www.accessnow.org/releases-recommendations-on-privacy-data-protection-covid-19/

https://twitter.com/cipesaug/status/1239559687948959744

https://cipesa.org/2020/03/covid-19-in-africa-when-is-surveillance-necessary-and-proportionate/

https://www.gp-digital.org/a-human-rights-based-approach-to-disinformation/

In the wake of the 2016 US election, and more recent incidents like the Cambridge Analytica scandal, media and political narratives increasingly posit digital technologies as a threat to democracy. Are they? We speak to Jamie Bartlett, author of a new book which makes this argument, to unpack and explore this question.

Governments and other institutions are increasingly avoiding the term "fake news", preferring disinformation.

But if the term has fallen out of fashion, policy responses to the issues it evokes show few signs of abating. In Singapore, the government has just signalled their intention to develop a new law to tackle “online falsehoods.” This follows an extensive public consultation which, on paper, seems like an admirable commitment to openness, transparency, and accountability. The reality, according to local activist Kirsten Han, was somewhat different. She tells us what happened in this episode, which also features an in-depth look at a new report on disinformation with Fanny Hidvegi of Access Now.

In California, a landmark piece of legislation recently passed which regulate the usage of internet bots in certain contexts. The original version of the bill was broader, and attracted significant opposition from human rights defenders – who argued that it posed a risk to freedom of expression.

To find out more about this story, and the questions it raises, we spoke to Jeremy Gillula of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and lawyer, author and Slate columnist John Frank Weaver. This episode – the first in the second season of GPD's In beta podcast – is also the first in a three-part focus on identity in the digital age.

GPD's Charles Bradley talks to Sonia Jorge, Executive Director of A4AI and head of digital inclusion programmes at the Web Foundation, about the challenge of achieving universal access to the internet.

In 1982, the Bell telecommunications monopoly in the US was broken up after a landmark antitrust suit, ushering in a wave of innovation and competition.

Today, companies like Alphabet and Facebook are capturing an unprecedented – and increasing – share of the world’s attention. Should we be thinking about breaking them up, too? We ask Gene Kimmelman of Public Knowledge.

GPD's executive director Charles Bradley talks to Gaus Rajnovic, chief financial officer and board member at the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), and GPD's Lead Strategist Matthew Shears, about multistakeholder approaches to cybersecurity.

GPD's executive director Charles Bradley talks to Emma Llansó, Director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) about the role of intermediaries like Facebook and Twitter, and how growing pressure on them to remove user content might affect our freedom of expression.