Tony Roberts
@phatcontroller.bsky.social
Academic working on digital citizenship, digital rights, digital authoritarianism, digital disinformation, civic tech, digital surveillance and all that jazz. Free typo with every post.
If you missed the live event on Internet Shutdowns in Africa you can watch it on YouTube. Felicia Anthonio from Access Now highlighted the global issues before Juliet Nanfuka from CIPESA brought her experience from Uganda and Yohannes Ayalew his insights on Ethiopia. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLVP...
Internet shutdowns in Africa: Technology, rights and power
YouTube video by Institute of Development Studies
www.youtube.com
November 27, 2025 at 12:43 PM
If you missed the live event on Internet Shutdowns in Africa you can watch it on YouTube. Felicia Anthonio from Access Now highlighted the global issues before Juliet Nanfuka from CIPESA brought her experience from Uganda and Yohannes Ayalew his insights on Ethiopia. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLVP...
Reposted by Tony Roberts
Join us tomorrow for an important event to discuss the future of internet freedom, and what we can do to protect digital rights. @phatcontroller.bsky.social
Date: 26 November 2025
Time: 16:00–17:30 UK time
Sign up here 👇
www.ids.ac.uk/events/inter...
Date: 26 November 2025
Time: 16:00–17:30 UK time
Sign up here 👇
www.ids.ac.uk/events/inter...
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
lnkd.in
November 25, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Join us tomorrow for an important event to discuss the future of internet freedom, and what we can do to protect digital rights. @phatcontroller.bsky.social
Date: 26 November 2025
Time: 16:00–17:30 UK time
Sign up here 👇
www.ids.ac.uk/events/inter...
Date: 26 November 2025
Time: 16:00–17:30 UK time
Sign up here 👇
www.ids.ac.uk/events/inter...
UAE to invest $1bn in DPI in Africa. Africa’s digital public infrastructure drive to get $1B boost from UAE govt | Biometric Update share.google/BnS2g1RZ687m...
Africa’s digital public infrastructure drive to get $1B boost from UAE govt | Biometric Update
The implementation of DPI and AI projects is set to get a nudge from the UAE after the government pledged to set aside a whopping $1billion for that purpose.
share.google
November 25, 2025 at 8:01 AM
UAE to invest $1bn in DPI in Africa. Africa’s digital public infrastructure drive to get $1B boost from UAE govt | Biometric Update share.google/BnS2g1RZ687m...
How the digital economy works and why the crash is inevitable.
Almost half the US economy is now based on Nvidia selling GPUs to itself using other companies as proxies
November 22, 2025 at 1:42 PM
How the digital economy works and why the crash is inevitable.
What did you expect?
An emerging global consensus says online harms are the predictable outcomes of platforms designed for attention, engagement, and data extraction, writes Lena Slachmuijlder, author of a new guide to “Prosocial Tech Design Regulation.”
How to Rethink Regulation with Prosocial Design | TechPolicy.Press
An emerging global consensus says online harms are the outcomes of platforms designed for attention, engagement, and data extraction, writes Lena Slachmuijlder.
www.techpolicy.press
November 21, 2025 at 6:00 PM
What did you expect?
Join us on Weds to talk about Internet Shutdowns with Felicia Anthonio from Access Now. www.ids.ac.uk/events/inter...
Internet shutdowns in Africa: Technology, rights and power - Institute of Development Studies
Africa has experienced around 200 instances of internet shutdowns in the last decade, this event discusses how these shutdowns violate citizens’ rights to function in society.
www.ids.ac.uk
November 21, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Join us on Weds to talk about Internet Shutdowns with Felicia Anthonio from Access Now. www.ids.ac.uk/events/inter...
Kylie Jarret @robkitchin.bsky.social and co-authors
useful identify these three sites of digital authoritarianism:
(a) repression using digital technologies
(b) repression within digital spaces and
(c) repression over digital system governance.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
useful identify these three sites of digital authoritarianism:
(a) repression using digital technologies
(b) repression within digital spaces and
(c) repression over digital system governance.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
November 21, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Kylie Jarret @robkitchin.bsky.social and co-authors
useful identify these three sites of digital authoritarianism:
(a) repression using digital technologies
(b) repression within digital spaces and
(c) repression over digital system governance.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
useful identify these three sites of digital authoritarianism:
(a) repression using digital technologies
(b) repression within digital spaces and
(c) repression over digital system governance.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Did Karl Marx Predict Artificial Intelligence 170 Years Ago in his 'fragment on the machine' in the Grundrisse?
An almost-unknown piece of his writing offers insight on robotics and AI in today’s world. medium.com/@MichaelMcBr...
An almost-unknown piece of his writing offers insight on robotics and AI in today’s world. medium.com/@MichaelMcBr...
November 19, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Did Karl Marx Predict Artificial Intelligence 170 Years Ago in his 'fragment on the machine' in the Grundrisse?
An almost-unknown piece of his writing offers insight on robotics and AI in today’s world. medium.com/@MichaelMcBr...
An almost-unknown piece of his writing offers insight on robotics and AI in today’s world. medium.com/@MichaelMcBr...
The Digital Africa series of collected edition books by African activist scholars is rapidly expanding into the most comprehensive body of open access digital rights scholarship on the continent. 4 more titles are scheduled for publication in 2026. #DigitalRights
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/series/di...
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/series/di...
November 17, 2025 at 1:06 PM
The Digital Africa series of collected edition books by African activist scholars is rapidly expanding into the most comprehensive body of open access digital rights scholarship on the continent. 4 more titles are scheduled for publication in 2026. #DigitalRights
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/series/di...
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/series/di...
What kind of goverment has a Department of War and a Department of Deportation?
The cost of Trump's immigration surge: Stalled investigations into child sexual abuse, Iranian oil smuggling and human trafficking, among others. My latest piece is a big team effort on how DHS has been transformed into the Department of Deportation.
Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/u...
Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/u...
Homeland Security Missions Falter Amid Focus on Deportations
www.nytimes.com
November 17, 2025 at 12:50 PM
What kind of goverment has a Department of War and a Department of Deportation?
What could possibly go wrong if you buy AI toys for kids?
"Powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4o model by default...tests repeatedly showed that the AI toy dropped its guardrails the longer a conversation went on, until hitting rock bottom on incredibly disturbing topics."
AI-Powered Stuffed Animal Pulled From Market After Disturbing Interactions With Children
FoloToy says it's suspended sales of its AI-powered teddy bear after researchers found it gave wildly inappropriate and dangerous answers.
futurism.com
November 17, 2025 at 12:48 PM
What could possibly go wrong if you buy AI toys for kids?
Reposted by Tony Roberts
Sovereignty as a service, sovereignty washing. The fact is that Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet are selling "local clouds" to governments and businesses and calling it sovereignty lol. More in the article we published last week in Media, Culture & Society. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Sovereignty-as-a-service: How big tech companies co-opt and redefines digital sovereignty - Rafael Grohmann, Alexandre Costa Barbosa, 2025
This article introduces the concept of sovereignty-as-a-service to describe how Big Tech companies, specifically Microsoft, Amazon, and Google/Alphabet, are str...
journals.sagepub.com
November 17, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Sovereignty as a service, sovereignty washing. The fact is that Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet are selling "local clouds" to governments and businesses and calling it sovereignty lol. More in the article we published last week in Media, Culture & Society. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Reposted by Tony Roberts
Find myself constantly vacillating between pragmatism and critical realism.
I've thought for a while now that we ie Africa, but honestly I'd settle for Nigerian, perhaps West African, need African pragmatist theory for AI policy/ethics but also (geo)politics because all these ones I'm seeing
I've thought for a while now that we ie Africa, but honestly I'd settle for Nigerian, perhaps West African, need African pragmatist theory for AI policy/ethics but also (geo)politics because all these ones I'm seeing
November 16, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Find myself constantly vacillating between pragmatism and critical realism.
I've thought for a while now that we ie Africa, but honestly I'd settle for Nigerian, perhaps West African, need African pragmatist theory for AI policy/ethics but also (geo)politics because all these ones I'm seeing
I've thought for a while now that we ie Africa, but honestly I'd settle for Nigerian, perhaps West African, need African pragmatist theory for AI policy/ethics but also (geo)politics because all these ones I'm seeing
Reposted by Tony Roberts
🚨SCOOP 🚨The Pentagon is spending millions on a secretive startup that’s making hacking AI to help carry out operations on hundreds of targets at once.
In-q-tel, the VC org founded by the CIA, is a backer of the startup, called Twenty.
www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...
In-q-tel, the VC org founded by the CIA, is a backer of the startup, called Twenty.
www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...
The Pentagon Is Spending Millions On AI Hacking From Startup Twenty
The U.S. government has been contracting stealth startup Twenty, which is working on AI agents and automated hacking of foreign targets at massive scale.
www.forbes.com
November 15, 2025 at 4:14 PM
🚨SCOOP 🚨The Pentagon is spending millions on a secretive startup that’s making hacking AI to help carry out operations on hundreds of targets at once.
In-q-tel, the VC org founded by the CIA, is a backer of the startup, called Twenty.
www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...
In-q-tel, the VC org founded by the CIA, is a backer of the startup, called Twenty.
www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...
Reposted by Tony Roberts
November 16, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Church provides no sanctuary as masked gangs disappear people of colour in the US with increasing frequency. No warrants. No identification of gang members. No due process.
www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politic...
www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politic...
Church members flee as federal agents arrive at east Charlotte place of worship
Witnesses say one man was detained while doing yard work while his wife and child were inside.
www.charlotteobserver.com
November 16, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Church provides no sanctuary as masked gangs disappear people of colour in the US with increasing frequency. No warrants. No identification of gang members. No due process.
www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politic...
www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politic...
Dan McQuillan on Resisting AI (Burning Platforms podcast).
We need public participation in risk assessment of new technologies prior to deployment to ensure that outcomes are convivial. #DigitalRights
pca.st/podcast/6f38...
We need public participation in risk assessment of new technologies prior to deployment to ensure that outcomes are convivial. #DigitalRights
pca.st/podcast/6f38...
Burning Platforms
Welcome to Burning Platforms: De-Coding the Power and Politics of Big Tech. Join Peter Lewis, Lizzie O’Shea (Digital Rights Watch), Dan Stinton (HealthEngine CEO), and guests, fortnightly for analysis...
pca.st
November 16, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Dan McQuillan on Resisting AI (Burning Platforms podcast).
We need public participation in risk assessment of new technologies prior to deployment to ensure that outcomes are convivial. #DigitalRights
pca.st/podcast/6f38...
We need public participation in risk assessment of new technologies prior to deployment to ensure that outcomes are convivial. #DigitalRights
pca.st/podcast/6f38...
Tanzania's descent into digital authoritarianism. Internet shutdowns were used to silence the opposition, obscure state violation of human rights violations, and cut media access creating an information vacuum. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...
In digital silence and darkness, they massacred Tanzanians
The Tanzanian internet shutdown caused great suffering and serious injury through multiple mechanisms, including facilitating mass killings, but Tanzanians have found many ways to fight back and recor...
www.dailymaverick.co.za
November 14, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Tanzania's descent into digital authoritarianism. Internet shutdowns were used to silence the opposition, obscure state violation of human rights violations, and cut media access creating an information vacuum. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025...
Reposted by Tony Roberts
Stopgenai.com we are a mutual aid collective raising funds for people negatively impacted by slop tech…
November 13, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Stopgenai.com we are a mutual aid collective raising funds for people negatively impacted by slop tech…
Reposted by Tony Roberts
So these two trends—AI as smokescreen for management's ulterior motives/misplaced belief in its hype, and AI as an automation system for producing cheap knockoff art and writing (at the expense of artists and writers)—are what I think are the biggest impacts of AI on jobs so far.
More in the piece:
More in the piece:
What’s really going on with AI and jobs?
Record-breaking layoff reports, Amazon's mass firings, and a slump in entry level employment. Is AI behind it all?
www.bloodinthemachine.com
November 13, 2025 at 6:00 PM
So these two trends—AI as smokescreen for management's ulterior motives/misplaced belief in its hype, and AI as an automation system for producing cheap knockoff art and writing (at the expense of artists and writers)—are what I think are the biggest impacts of AI on jobs so far.
More in the piece:
More in the piece:
AI killing creative jobs?
How is AI *really* impacting jobs?
Henley Chiu, the CTO of Revealera, a jobs data analysis firm, analyzed 180 million jobs listings in 2024 and 2025, in an effort to find out. Chiu found an:
-8% drop in all jobs postings
-~30% drop in art, photography, writing jobs
-22% drop in journalism jobs
Henley Chiu, the CTO of Revealera, a jobs data analysis firm, analyzed 180 million jobs listings in 2024 and 2025, in an effort to find out. Chiu found an:
-8% drop in all jobs postings
-~30% drop in art, photography, writing jobs
-22% drop in journalism jobs
What’s really going on with AI and jobs?
Record-breaking layoff reports, Amazon's mass firings, and a slump in entry level employment. Is AI behind it all?
www.bloodinthemachine.com
November 13, 2025 at 9:46 PM
AI killing creative jobs?
Did you know that Huawei is owned by its workers? It's success can be attributed to continued investment in R&D, and to independence from and support from government. thetechylife.com/is-huawei-ow...
The Huawei Conundrum: Unraveling the Mystery of Ownership
The rise of Huawei as a global telecommunications giant has been nothing short of phenomenal. From its humble beginnings in the 1980s to its current status as
thetechylife.com
November 11, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Did you know that Huawei is owned by its workers? It's success can be attributed to continued investment in R&D, and to independence from and support from government. thetechylife.com/is-huawei-ow...
Reposted by Tony Roberts
New from 404 Media: a small town is fighting a $1.2 billion AI datacenter for America's nuclear weapon scientists. It is fighting the construction of a "high-performance computing facility" that would service a nuclear weapons laboratory 1,500 miles away.
www.404media.co/a-small-town...
www.404media.co/a-small-town...
A Small Town Is Fighting a $1.2 Billion AI Datacenter for America's Nuclear Weapon Scientists
Ypsilanti, Michigan has officially decided to fight against the construction of a 'high-performance computing facility' that would service a nuclear weapons laboratory 1,500 miles away.
www.404media.co
November 10, 2025 at 2:49 PM
New from 404 Media: a small town is fighting a $1.2 billion AI datacenter for America's nuclear weapon scientists. It is fighting the construction of a "high-performance computing facility" that would service a nuclear weapons laboratory 1,500 miles away.
www.404media.co/a-small-town...
www.404media.co/a-small-town...
Reposted by Tony Roberts
“In reality, because targeting is so easy, we have seen governments use surveillance malware to spy on a broad range of people, including relatively minor political opponents, activists, and journalists…”
Why a lot of people are getting hacked with government spyware | TechCrunch
Government surveillance vendors want us to believe their spyware products are only used in limited and targeted operations against terrorists and serious criminals. That claim is increasingly difficul...
techcrunch.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:05 PM
“In reality, because targeting is so easy, we have seen governments use surveillance malware to spy on a broad range of people, including relatively minor political opponents, activists, and journalists…”
Bug or Feature?
Digital welfare system incorrectly cut entitlements to thousands of citizens saving the government millions of pounds.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Digital welfare system incorrectly cut entitlements to thousands of citizens saving the government millions of pounds.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
HMRC trial of child benefit crackdown wrongly suspected fraud in 46% of cases
Exclusive: Almost half of families flagged as emigrants based on Home Office travel data were still living in UK
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Bug or Feature?
Digital welfare system incorrectly cut entitlements to thousands of citizens saving the government millions of pounds.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Digital welfare system incorrectly cut entitlements to thousands of citizens saving the government millions of pounds.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...