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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 2h

🫧The news is finally asking if we're in an AI Bubble, and when it will pop. Good!🎈

Our data shows how we got here: Big Cloud is frantically investing in AI startups to build cloud market share and justify their *massive* investments in AI infrastructure.

How Google, Microsoft & Amazon invests:

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · Aug 6

📣🚨NEW: ☁️ Big Cloud—Google, Microsoft & Amazon—control two thirds of the cloud compute market. They’re getting rich off the AI gold rush.

In new work with @nathanckim.bsky.social, we show how Big Cloud is expanding their empire by scrutinizing their *investments*… 🧵

📄PDF: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...

The cover of the report, with dark blue title "How Big Cloud becomes Bigger" with "Bigger" in bold, and subtitle in light blue "Scrutinizing Google Microsoft and Amazon's investments", and light grey author line "David Gray Widder and Nathan Kim" on light grey page background with three clouds: white, dark grey, and very dark grey getting bigger and going towards the top right until they're off the page.

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Burcu Baykurt @baykurt.bsky.social · 1d

A solid documentation of the 1990s-early 2000s era of internet policy & foreign policy. I draw on it a lot when I was writing a chapter on the intertwined histories of soft power and the global internet www.baykurt.org/wp-content/u... Never taught it though.

www.baykurt.org

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 6d

🚨🚨 My dear friend and fellow academic, the Palestinian American sociologist @emanabdelhadi.bsky.social has been taken by the Cook County Sheriff near Chicago. They have not mirandized her. Please signal boost. All eyes on Broadview for Eman and the community she was defending 🚨🚨

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Burcu Baykurt @baykurt.bsky.social · 8d

This is huge!! Congratulations & gratitude to everyone involved in this case and, of course, @aaup.org!

A screenshot from the AAUP page announcing the court ruling that the Trumpt admin violated the First Amendment by arresting, detaining, and deporting noncitizen students & faculty for their pro-Palestinian advocacy.

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Miriam Posner @miriamposner.com · 8d

Once again, it is *faculty*—not administrators—who brought this case and won. Including UC Faculty Association chapters of the AAUP.

Court Rules in AAUP v Rubio: Trump Admin Violated First Amendment

The AAUP and partners sued to block the Trump administration from carrying out large-scale arrests, detentions, and deportations of noncitizen students and faculty members for ideological reasons.

www.aaup.org

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Veena Dubal @veenadubal.bsky.social · 8d

WE WON: "This case -– perhaps the most important ever to fall w/in..this district court squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in US..have the same free speech rights as the rest of us. The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally “yes, they do.”"

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Burcu Baykurt @baykurt.bsky.social · 10d

Cok tesekkurler! 💜

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Burcu Baykurt @baykurt.bsky.social · 13d

Our special issue is finally out! 🎉

With Antoine Courmont, I had the privilege of working with a stellar group of scholars to examine Google as an urban actor and highlight its uneven, shape-shifting power across cities.

Please read, share, and let us know what you think!

Urban Studies Journal @urbanstudiesjournal.com · 13d

🚨 #UrbanStudies Vol. 62, Issue 13 (October 2025) out now!

✍️ Special Issue "Google, a stakeholder in local governance?"

Guest editors: Antoine Courmont & Burcu Baykurt

This collection explores how #Google has become a key actor in local #politics and urban environments.

📖 buff.ly/veREgdw

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Burcu Baykurt @baykurt.bsky.social · 12d

love this framing!

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Burcu Baykurt @baykurt.bsky.social · 12d

read the entire thread. this is why I've been talking nonstop about how capture of data re: meshing, uniting disparate stuff and capture of institutions should be our focus as much as surveillance. that's been the gov-tech vision for a while. I wrote more here: www.baykurt.org/wp-content/u...

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Burcu Baykurt @baykurt.bsky.social · 13d

Our special issue is finally out! 🎉

With Antoine Courmont, I had the privilege of working with a stellar group of scholars to examine Google as an urban actor and highlight its uneven, shape-shifting power across cities.

Please read, share, and let us know what you think!

Urban Studies Journal @urbanstudiesjournal.com · 13d

🚨 #UrbanStudies Vol. 62, Issue 13 (October 2025) out now!

✍️ Special Issue "Google, a stakeholder in local governance?"

Guest editors: Antoine Courmont & Burcu Baykurt

This collection explores how #Google has become a key actor in local #politics and urban environments.

📖 buff.ly/veREgdw

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 14d

Trump to Erdogan: "He knows about rigged elections better than anybody. But when I was in exile, we were still friends."

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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 14d

Microsoft will no longer allow Israel to use its cloud services to enable its mass surveillance of occupied Palestinians – "the first known case of a US technology company withdrawing services provided to the Israeli military since the beginning of its war on Gaza"

Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its technology in mass surveillance of Palestinians

Exclusive: Tech firm ends military unit’s access to AI and data services after Guardian reveals secret spy project

www.theguardian.com

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Rahul Bhatia @rahulabhatia.bsky.social · 17d

To anyone who followed Aadhaar’s rollout in India, the language is uncanny. Aadhaar’s ‘savings’ were derived from welfare denied. Countries need to pay attention to the language around surveillance tech in other countries. We’re all stumbling over different iterations of the same problems.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 17d

“The AI companies will receive a percentage of the savings the program generates.”

“Savings”

Ohio Medicare is part of new AI prior authorization program

A new federal program asks Ohio doctors to request prior approval to get certain medical treatments covered by traditional Medicare.

signalcleveland.org

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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 19d

One of the key ways you refuse to comply with fascism is by becoming even louder and more fearless in supporting vulnerable people. You SHOW that you are unwilling to throw the "undesirables" under the bus if only for self-preservation because under fascism you will also become undesirable one day.

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Brian Creech @briancreech.bsky.social · 19d

My department at Lehigh is hiring for an assistant professor of media law and policy, with an emphasis on media and tech. It’s a great gig, with a broad approach to scholarship and research agenda. Happy tonfield anuly questions. apply.interfolio.com/173289

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

apply.interfolio.com

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Crystal Fleming クリスタル @alwaystheself.bsky.social · Aug 7

🚨JOB ALERT🚨

We! Are! Hiring!

The Department of Africana Studies at Smith College invites applications for a tenure-track position in Black
Women’s Studies/Gender Studies at the rank of Assistant Professor, to begin 7/1/26

More info here: apply.interfolio.com/171572

#blackademia #academia #PhDSky

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

apply.interfolio.com

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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 24d

This technology is so clearly designed to profit off cheating and struggling students--its insidious. And yet universities keep announcing how they're allowing this company into its midst, to exploit and incapacitate our students even more

A photo from Jamie Keller Davis for the NYT: a color photo of a Chicago skyline showing three buildings photographed from street level. The one in the center has brown brick-like walls, and a very large poster advertising ChatGPT. The poster shows a conversation between a hypothetical student and ChatGPT: "Can you quiz me on the muscles of the leg?" "Can you build me a first time marathon training plan?" The text at the bottom of the poster reads: "ChatGPT Plus is free during finals.

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Burcu Baykurt @baykurt.bsky.social · 28d

Congratulations!!!

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Dr. Elinor Carmi @elinorcarmi.bsky.social · Sep 4

3. It’s always interesting which crime is being tackled by govs - tax evasion, which is 1 of the biggest crimes that are actually hurting our countries - is never discussed or handled. So billionaires and tech companies who do not pay appropriate taxes are getting away with crimes...
->

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Dr. Elinor Carmi @elinorcarmi.bsky.social · Sep 4

2. When tech companies take over our public bodies, their logic also enters and reshapes how we understand our societies - in terms of efficiency, profit, and productivity. See Burcu Baykurt's @baykurt.bsky.social fantastic article about "Gov-tech as capture." www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... ->

Gov-tech as capture: public infrastructures under data capitalism

This paper examines the U.S. ‘gov-tech' market, focusing on firms that partner with government agencies to redesign digital public infrastructures. Through interviews with founders and chief techno...

www.tandfonline.com

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Dr. Elinor Carmi @elinorcarmi.bsky.social · Sep 4

I was interviewed for France24 about the USA reviving a contract between ICE and the owner of the Paragorn spyware in order to "help" ICE's work.

www.france24.com/fr/%C3%A9co-...

Some of the things that I said that didn't get into the article were ->

États-Unis : quand la lutte antimigrants s'arme de logiciels espions

Un contrat de deux millions de dollars a été conclu entre l'ICE, l’agence américaine de contrôle de l’immigration, et Paragon, éditeur sulfureux de logiciels espions ultraperfectionnés. Le bras armé…

www.france24.com

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Burcu Baykurt @baykurt.bsky.social · Sep 2

Hello #4S2025! I’m looking forward to seeing friends in Seattle and presenting "Avoiding the F-word: How Test-Bed Urbanism Ends" this Thursday! And always happy to talk about the political economy of smart cities, government tech, infrastructural futures—come say hi!

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NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · Aug 19

Yes. I also felt this way about the assassinations in Minnesota. In fact, I continue to feel this way about the assassinations in Minnesota.

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · Aug 19

Feel like one political party kidnapping an opponent should be bigger news

MSNBC @msnbc.com · Aug 19

NEW:

“I’ve had enough…I’m refusing to back down.”

Texas state Rep. Nicole Collier speaks to MSNBC from the Texas State Capitol. She is stuck there after the Texas GOP required police surveillance as condition for release. She is refusing to sign a waiver for the law enforcement escort.

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Burcu Baykurt @baykurt.bsky.social · Aug 19

This is a fantastic paper in our forthcoming special issue!

constancecarr.bsky.social @constancecarr.bsky.social · Aug 18

New: Carr & Madron "Post-political clouds: Suspended failure in Google's data centre development".
doi.org/10.1177/0042...

In @baykurt.bsky.social Antoine Courmont Special Issue "Google, a major stakeholder in local governance?" @urbanstudiesjournal.com
@uni.lu @fnr.lu @markushesse60.bsky.social

Post-political clouds: Suspended failure in Google’s data centre development - Constance Carr, Karinne Madron, 2025

Digital corporations and governments alike are driving a post-political agenda around the expansion of data centres – the infrastructural backbone of expanding ...

doi.org

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