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ubisurv.net
keep your electric eye on me
@ubisurv.net
4.2K followers 1.9K following 1.8K posts

David Murakami Wood (DMW)
Canada Research Chair in Critical Surveillance & Security Studies
Director, CSS/Lab, uOttawa
Co-editor-in-Chief, Surveillance & Society
Surveillance / Security / Cities / Technology / Human Rights / Environment
https://ubisurv.net .. more

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ubisurv.net
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · Nov 24
For those just arriving here, I have 3 starter packs (bsky only allows 150 people/pack):
1. #Surveillance Studies Starter Pack (full): go.bsky.app/HYGu6oX
2. #Surveillance Studies Extension Pack (growing): go.bsky.app/HoDHyNe
3. Critical #SmartCities Starter Pack (growing): go.bsky.app/H1Xd6SL

ubisurv.net
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 6d
6/6 There is actually nothing else other than to say Happy Holidays, and see you all in the new year!

ubisurv.net
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 6d
5/6 - Lastly, coming out last month, although it's the oldest piece of them all: Wood, D.M. (2025) Platform City People, in V. Steeves and B. Roessler (eds.) Being Human in the Digital World: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Cambridge University Press. doi.org/10.1017/9781...
Platform City People (Chapter 2) - Being Human in the Digital World
Being Human in the Digital World - November 2025
doi.org

ubisurv.net
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 6d
4/6 - Third, a short intervention in a brilliant collection of short interventions: Wood, D.M. (2025) Post-smart cities as digital authoritarian polities: a geopolitical sociology of the Praxis Network State, Dialogues on Digital Society 1(3). doi.org/10.1177/2976...
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
doi.org

ubisurv.net
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 6d
3/6 - Second, something I felt very good about since it was rejected from an edited collection and ended coming out as a refereed article: Wood, D.M. (2025) Only (dis)connect: Facing the intertwined (in)security of self, systems and society, First Monday 30(8). doi.org/10.5210/fm.v...
Only (dis)connect: Facing the intertwined (in)security of self, systems and society | First Monday
doi.org

ubisurv.net
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 6d
2/6 - first up, from early in the year: Akbari, A. and D.M. Wood (2025) Towards a Critical Political Economy of Surveillance and Digital Authoritarianism, Special Dialogue Section on Surveillance and Authoritarianism, Surveillance & Society 23(1): 152–158. doi.org/10.24908/ss....
Towards a Critical Political Economy of Surveillance and Digital Authoritarianism | Surveillance & Society
doi.org

ubisurv.net
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 6d
I'm signing out for the holidays here. It's been a long time since I've had a year to remember in terms of research #publications but this year, after virtually nothing for 2-3 years, I had 4 pieces come out, all fully #OpenAccess.. Here is a threaded list for those interested. #AcademicSky 1/6

ubisurv.net
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 6d
One of a lot of reports out there on another new Próspera-style neocolonial cryptobro tax avoidance scheme / Special Economic Zone #SEZ / post- #smartcity... this time on the island of #Nevis. I wish it nothing but disaster. h/t for this story to @rosamundevb.bsky.social
brusselstimes.com The Brussels Times @brusselstimes.com · 6d
Belgian crypto billionaire Olivier Janssens is planning to establish a "libertarian community" with its own legal system in Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Belgian crypto-billionaire wants to build the ‘Dubai of the Caribbean’
Belgian crypto-billionaire wants to build the 'Dubai of the Caribbean'
www.brusselstimes.com

ubisurv.net
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 6d
Just in case anyone is unclear: the principle of Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources (PSNR) passed by the UN General Assembly in December 1962, means the #USA has no legal claim over Venezuelan #oil.

Reposted by David Murakami Wood

aljazeera.com
Al Jazeera English @aljazeera.com · 6d
US companies developed Venezuelan oil fields until the country nationalised its oil reserves in the 1970s.
Does the US have any real claim on Venezuelan oil as Stephen Miller says?
US companies developed Venezuelan oil fields until the country nationalised its oil reserves in the 1970s.
www.aljazeera.com

ubisurv.net
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 6d
I do love how mainstream critics engage with #sciencefiction. This interesting reissued Danish novel by Anders Bodelsen, apparently, "uses the armature of science fiction to frame urgent questions about the present" –as if that's not what science fiction does.

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...
Freezing Point by Anders Bodelsen review – a prescient classic of cryogenics
This resurrected Danish novel about a man who is ‘frozen down’, awaking in an Orwellian dystopia two decades later, is inventive, funny and all too timely
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by David Murakami Wood

dhilrukshi.bsky.social
Dhilrukshi Pathman @dhilrukshi.bsky.social · 6d
“The three hundred largest yachts in the world emit as much carbon dioxide as the ten million inhabitants of Burundi.”

Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet Hardcover – 14 January 2026
by Chuck Collins
Cover of Burned by Billionaires by Chuck Collins. It has a lit match on the cover.

ubisurv.net
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 6d
I read articles that were published in that issue - but didn't see they had dedicated the final version to him.

ubisurv.net
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 6d
Thomas Piketty on how the Heritage Foundation's #Project2025 has become reality. #Trump #USA

thomaspiketty.wordpress.com/2025/12/16/p...
Project 2025, from nightmare to reality
The year 2025 was marked by the Trump shock: an unprecedented wave of extreme brutality, unapologetic nationalism, and unrestrained extractivism that shook the world as never before since 1945. To …
thomaspiketty.wordpress.com

ubisurv.net
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 6d
The onward march of free trade zones continues... #cities

Reposted by David Murakami Wood

reuters.com
Reuters @reuters.com · 6d
China launches $113 billion free-trade experiment on Hainan island reut.rs/3Y1yiX7
China launches $113 billion free-trade experiment on Hainan island
China on Thursday split off a Belgium-sized island with an economy comparable to a mid-ranked country from the mainland for customs processing, part of a bid to join a major trans-Pacific trade deal and establish a new Hong Kong-style commercial hub.
reut.rs

Reposted by Will Jennings, Fabián Muniesa, Margot C. Finn , and 2 more

brusselstimes.com
The Brussels Times @brusselstimes.com · 6d
Belgian crypto billionaire Olivier Janssens is planning to establish a "libertarian community" with its own legal system in Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Belgian crypto-billionaire wants to build the ‘Dubai of the Caribbean’
Belgian crypto-billionaire wants to build the 'Dubai of the Caribbean'
www.brusselstimes.com

Reposted by David Murakami Wood

larryneufeldsk.bsky.social
Larry Neufeld @larryneufeldsk.bsky.social · 6d
The Koch Network Is Pushing Trump to Accelerate AI, Documents Show
www.desmog.com/2025/12/11/t...
The Koch Network Is Pushing Trump to Accelerate AI, Documents Show
Right-wing political group Americans for Prosperity, backed by oil and gas billionaire Charles Koch, sees data centers as part of a larger pro-fossil fuel agenda.
www.desmog.com

ubisurv.net
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 7d
How come I am only now discovering that Michel Callon died earlier this year? 😢 #ANT #AcademicSky

www.tandfonline.com/eprint/AREJA...
Michel Callon (1945–2025): A life with passion for economies
Published in Journal of Cultural Economy (Ahead of Print, 2025)
www.tandfonline.com

Reposted by Fabián Muniesa, David Murakami Wood, Henry Jones

dell.bsky.social
dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 7d
NEW: CBP is doubling down on a surveillance strategy built around small, human-portable drones, pushing border enforcement toward a distributed surveillance network that can operate in harsh climes and mixed terrain to rapidly cue agents.
Border Patrol Bets on Small Drones to Expand US Surveillance Reach
Federal records show CBP is moving from testing small drones to making them standard surveillance tools, expanding a network that can follow activity in real time and extend well beyond the border.
www.wired.com

Reposted by David Murakami Wood

aramsinn.bsky.social
Aram Sinnreich @aramsinn.bsky.social · 7d
This is one of many reasons why I use my “smart” TV as a dumb monitor, and don’t connect it to the internet.

As @jesgilbert.bsky.social & I discuss in “The Secret Life of Data,” all networked devices are Trojan horses, whose function can be flipped long after we’ve invited them into our homes.
LG TV users baffled by unremovable Microsoft Copilot installation — surprise forced update shows app pinned to the home screen
Users report Copilot appearing after a recent software update, with no option to uninstall.
www.tomshardware.com

ubisurv.net
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 7d
Great piece by Jimmy Wu on the new #SiliconValley "intelligentsia", and the cultural support for we the slide into #fascism...

bayareacurrent.com/meet-the-new...
Meet the New Right-Wing Tech Intelligentsia
Libs and the far-right ‘link and build’ in the Bay’s tech publication scene.
bayareacurrent.com

Reposted by David Murakami Wood

jobmaynooth.bsky.social
Prof John O Brennan @jobmaynooth.bsky.social · 7d
Brilliant piece from, Dr Johnny Ryan, on why Europe needs to confront directly on AI and tech regulation.

Every chancellery in Europe has should read this.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
This is Europe's secret weapon against Trump: it could burst his AI bubble | Johnny Ryan
Growth in the US economy – and the president’s political survival – rest on AI. The EU must use its leverage and stand up to him, says the Irish Council for Civil Liberties’ Johnny Ryan
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by David Murakami Wood

michhham.bsky.social
Michèle Champagne @michhham.bsky.social · 7d
No journalist from The Globe and Mail or Le Devoir – who understands IP and the new economy – should be under the illusion that the “Buy Canadian Policy” will buttress domestic Canada-owned firms. The policy recognises Amazon Canada, Google Canada, and Microsoft Canada as “Canadian” firms.
Buy Canadian policy lets foreign-owned firms qualify as Canadian, Lightbound says - The Logic
Companies must "actively operate" in Canada to bid on big federal contracts, says Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound. For some business groups, that's not Canadian enough.
thelogic.co

Reposted by Katharine Hayhoe, Elizabeth Saunders, Rebecca Solnit , and 66 more

usatoday.com
USA TODAY @usatoday.com · 7d
Exclusive: The Trump administration is moving to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, according to a senior White House official, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
Trump moves to dismantle major US climate research center in Colorado
The Trump administration is breaking up the National Center for Atmospheric Research, taking aim at one of the world's leading climate research labs.
bit.ly

Reposted by Timnit Gebru, Shannon Vallor, Margaret Mitchell , and 14 more

cfiesler.bsky.social
Dr. Casey Fiesler @cfiesler.bsky.social · 7d
The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.
Screenshot of a paper entry: Fictional Failures and Real-World Lessons: Ethical Speculation Through Design Fiction on Emotional Support Conversational AI Authors: Faye Kollig, Jessica Pater, Fayika Farhat Nova, Casey Fiesler (There are tabs with "abstract" and "summary" and "summary" is selected.)

Reposted by Timothy Snyder, Scott A. Imberman, Dana R. Fisher , and 1 more

senorajauregui68.bsky.social
Marla Flores-Jauregui @senorajauregui68.bsky.social · 7d
I'm a veteran criminal justice reporter. I've never seen anything like ICE-occupied Memphis. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
I'm a veteran criminal justice reporter. I've never seen anything like ICE-occupied Memphis.
“It’s about as sad as you can possibly imagine."
www.motherjones.com

ubisurv.net
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 7d
Some good news! There will be no #Trump Tower in #Belgrade, instead a minister will be prosecuted for corruption and the authoritarian President of #Serbia is furious...

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Serbian president threatens reprisals after plans for Belgrade Trump Tower thwarted
Development abandoned after Serbian minister indicted over $500m project, in setback for Trump family empire
www.theguardian.com

ubisurv.net
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 8d
FFS
justinhendrix.bsky.social Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 8d
OpenAI has hired former UK chancellor George Osborne to lead the start-up’s work building “democratic” artificial intelligence for the world. He will head of "OpenAI for Countries, an overseas expansion of the $500bn 'Stargate' initiative to build data centers in the US."
OpenAI hires George Osborne to spearhead global ‘Stargate’ expansion
Former UK chancellor to lead start-up’s effort to spread ‘democratic’ AI across the world
www.ft.com

Reposted by David Murakami Wood

justinhendrix.bsky.social
Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 8d
OpenAI has hired former UK chancellor George Osborne to lead the start-up’s work building “democratic” artificial intelligence for the world. He will head of "OpenAI for Countries, an overseas expansion of the $500bn 'Stargate' initiative to build data centers in the US."
OpenAI hires George Osborne to spearhead global ‘Stargate’ expansion
Former UK chancellor to lead start-up’s effort to spread ‘democratic’ AI across the world
www.ft.com

Reposted by David Murakami Wood, James A. Benn

alerigolon.bsky.social
Alessandro Rigolon @alerigolon.bsky.social · 8d
When mad drivers tell you that you, a cyclist, don't belong on roads because you don't pay registration and the gas tax, show them the Road Damage Calculator. Compare, for example, the damage made by a small SUV and a longtail cargo e-bike. Very different orders of magnitude roaddamagecalculator.com
Damage calculator output: https://roaddamagecalculator.com/?vehicle_one=longtail-cargo-bike&vehicle_two=small-suv