Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Emrys Schoemaker @emryss.bsky.social · 6h

From Estonia to India, Starmers’ looking for solutions everywhere but home…where the govts already invested hugely in a very progressive approach to digital ID - setting the rules for a market place rather than locking in a specific technology solution

Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 7h

Starmer yesterday met the co-founder of Indian tech group Infosys - who set up India’s controversial ID system - to try and learn lessons for the UK version

www.ft.com/content/ce22...

India’s digital ID a ‘massive success’, says Keir Starmer

British prime minister shrugs off criticism of controversial database as he prepares plans for UK scheme

www.ft.com

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Lemon @lemonsquirts.bsky.social · 22h

New research paper confirms that acoustic gun detection systems like SoundThinking (formerly ShotSpotter) combined with CCTV don't work.

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computerweekly.bsky.social @computerweekly.bsky.social · 1d

A recent ESG study revealed it takes an average of 11 hours for enterprises to resolve a single identity-related security incident. How did we get here, and what do we need to do differently?...
👉 [read]

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Emrys Schoemaker @emryss.bsky.social · 1d

#sovereignty

computerweekly.bsky.social @computerweekly.bsky.social · 1d

Nato has chosen Oracle and Druid to secure private 5G networks for cyber defence, war gaming and research, using Oracle Cloud and edge technology....
👉 [read]

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computerweekly.bsky.social @computerweekly.bsky.social · 1d

In this week’s edition of Computer Weekly, we take a look at the government’s somewhat controversial plan to introduce a national, compulsory digital ID scheme. Ranil Boteju, chief data and analytics officer at Lloyds Banking Group, also runs us through how the financial services giant...
👉 [read]

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 2d

“The Luddite Club, a nonprofit group that supports taking smartphone breaks, has 26 chapters, nearly all of them at high schools or colleges.”

Young People Are Falling in Love With Old Technology

Driven by a feeling they’ve lost control to screens, twenty-somethings are resurrecting CDs, flip phones and digital cameras

www.wsj.com

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POLITICO Europe @politico.eu · 2d

The Danish government wants to introduce a ban on several social media platforms for children under the age of 15, PM Mette Frederiksen announced today.

Denmark aims to ban social media for children under 15, PM says

“We have unleashed a monster,” Mette Frederiksen tells Danish lawmakers.

ow.ly

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Middle East Eye (Unofficial) @middleeasteye-rss.bsky.social · 2d

Dubai airshow bars Israeli companies from exhibiting - https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/dubai-airshow-bars-israeli-companies-exhibiting-organiser

Dubai airshow bars Israeli companies from exhibiting

<article data-history-node-id="429762" about="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/dubai-airshow-bars-israeli-companies-exhibiting-organiser" class="live-blog-update default clearfix"> <h2> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/dubai-airshow-bars-israeli-companies-exhibiting-organiser" rel="bookmark"> <span class="field field-title">Dubai airshow bars Israeli companies from exhibiting</span> </a> </h2> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-field-text"><p>Israeli defence companies have been barred from the upcoming Dubai Airshow after a "technical review", its organiser said on Tuesday, without providing further details, two years into Israel's war on Gaza.</p> <p>"The (Israeli) exhibitors that were previously coming won't be participating," said Tim Hawes, managing director of Informa Markets, which organises the show, on the sidelines of a press conference to announce details of the exhibition.</p> </div> </div> </article>

www.middleeasteye.net

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Kathleen Romig @kathleenromig.bsky.social · 2d

New lawsuit alleging the Trump Admin used sensitive Social Security data “in secret, without the notice required by law and comment from the public or Congress, and without assessing the privacy implications or risks of error posed by repurposing the data in this way."

www.npr.org/2025/09/30/n...

A lawsuit tries to block the Trump administration's efforts to merge personal data

A class action lawsuit argues that the administration's efforts to combine databases of personal information on Americans violate privacy laws and the Constitution.

www.npr.org

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Emrys Schoemaker @emryss.bsky.social · 2d

Investing in people pays dividends

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 2d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

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Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 2d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

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Emrys Schoemaker @emryss.bsky.social · 3d

😂

Sam Jeffers @worklesshard.bsky.social · 3d

Linkedinese for "I went to a conference".

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Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 3d

New from @eileenguo.bsky.social:

“Trying to blunt these efforts to hold federal officers accountable” has the effect of “chilling speech and activism,” says David Greene, the director of civil liberties at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Another effort to track ICE raids was just taken offline

People over Papers was removed by Padlet, the platform it was built on, yesterday.

www.technologyreview.com

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Mustafa Qadri @mustafaqadri.bsky.social · 3d

Gov. Gavin Newsom signs bill giving 800,000 Uber, Lyft drivers in California the right to unionize abc7news.com/post/governo...

Gov. Gavin Newsom signs bill giving 800,000 Uber, Lyft drivers in California the right to unionize

More than 800,000 drivers for ride-hailing companies in California will soon be able to join a union and bargain collectively for better wages and benefits under a measure signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

abc7news.com

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Signal @signal.org · 5d

We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...

signal.org

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Emrys Schoemaker @emryss.bsky.social · 3d

More evidence of AI’s corrosive and disempowering effects:

Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · 3d

Preliminary results show that the current framework of "AI" makes ppl less likely to help or seek help from other humans, or to seek to soothe conflict, and that people actively prefer that framework to any others, literally serving to make them more dependent on it.

Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence

Both the general public and academic communities have raised concerns about sycophancy, the phenomenon of artificial intelligence (AI) excessively agreeing with or flattering users. Yet, beyond isolat...

arxiv.org

Reposted by Emrys Schoemaker

Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · 3d

Preliminary results show that the current framework of "AI" makes ppl less likely to help or seek help from other humans, or to seek to soothe conflict, and that people actively prefer that framework to any others, literally serving to make them more dependent on it.

Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence

Both the general public and academic communities have raised concerns about sycophancy, the phenomenon of artificial intelligence (AI) excessively agreeing with or flattering users. Yet, beyond isolat...

arxiv.org

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Emrys Schoemaker @emryss.bsky.social · 3d

Finally - but focusing on the AI stack limits attention to all the wider forms of dependency the EU should also be addressing:

EU pushes new AI strategy to reduce tech reliance on US and China

EU pushes new AI strategy to reduce tech reliance on US and China

Brussels to unveil plan targeting digital sovereignty as it warns technology can be ‘weaponised’ by geopolitical rivals

on.ft.com

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KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 4d

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

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Frames @oxinabox.bsky.social · 4d

as a girl with a PhD in natural language processing and machine learning it's actually offensive to me when you say "we don't know how LLMs work so they might be conscious"

I didn't spend 10 years in mines of academia to be told ignorance is morally equal knowledge.

We know exactly how LLMs work.

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Paul T. Levin @paultlevin.bsky.social · 4d

““They dragged little Greta [Thunberg] by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag. They did everything imaginable to her, as a warning to others,” the Turkish activist ErsinÇelik, a participant in the Sumud flotilla, told Anadolu news agency.”+

Israel accused of detaining Greta Thunberg in infested cell and making her hold flags

Activist tells Swedish officials she has been subjected to harsh treatment, including insufficient food and water

www.theguardian.com

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Alex Hern @hern.bsky.social · 6d

Six years ago, almost to the day, Apple removing a similar app from the Hong Kong App Store was seen as such a breach that Tim Cook wrote an all staff email to defend it www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

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Emrys Schoemaker @emryss.bsky.social · 6d

Great brief thread on what we mean / is actually feasible / desirable in pursuit of ‘digital sovereignty / autonomy’:

Diane Coyle @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social · 6d

I agree with quite a lot of this but don’t think sovereignty lies in national control over the whole stack. It’s infeasible short term and in any case mutual need isn’t a loss of sovereignty.

Noema Magazine @noemamag.com · 6d

“Whoever controls AI infrastructure—compute, models, data, & cloud—will shape the economic & political order of the 21st century. The U.S. & China understand this & are mobilizing every instrument of statecraft to secure supremacy. Europe must understand it too.”

— @francescabria.bsky.social

#ai