Matteo Nebbiai
@matteonebbiai.bsky.social
tech & political economy & EU regulation | PhD King's College London | GPEP Fellow at Georgetown University | previously at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna
https://matteonebbiai.site/
https://matteonebbiai.substack.com/
https://matteonebbiai.site/
https://matteonebbiai.substack.com/
Pinned
Matteo Nebbiai
@matteonebbiai.bsky.social
· Dec 18
I couldn't find a starter pack on the political economy of digitalisation, so I made one.
(Self-)recommendations accepted!
go.bsky.app/SGZAADH
(Self-)recommendations accepted!
go.bsky.app/SGZAADH
"That leaves one difficult solution and one bad solution for Europe. The difficult solution is to become more competitive and find new sources of value, as the US does with its technology industry... the bad solution: protectionism."
on.ft.com/4p6j4Mv
on.ft.com/4p6j4Mv
China is making trade impossible
Europe has nothing to offer and difficult decisions to make
on.ft.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:29 PM
"That leaves one difficult solution and one bad solution for Europe. The difficult solution is to become more competitive and find new sources of value, as the US does with its technology industry... the bad solution: protectionism."
on.ft.com/4p6j4Mv
on.ft.com/4p6j4Mv
Reposted by Matteo Nebbiai
Against Publishing: universonline.nl/nieuws/2025/...
Preprints are read, shared, and cited, yet still dismissed as incomplete until blessed by a publisher. I argue that the true measure of scholarship lies in open exchange, not in the industry’s gatekeeping of what counts as published.
Preprints are read, shared, and cited, yet still dismissed as incomplete until blessed by a publisher. I argue that the true measure of scholarship lies in open exchange, not in the industry’s gatekeeping of what counts as published.
October 14, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Against Publishing: universonline.nl/nieuws/2025/...
Preprints are read, shared, and cited, yet still dismissed as incomplete until blessed by a publisher. I argue that the true measure of scholarship lies in open exchange, not in the industry’s gatekeeping of what counts as published.
Preprints are read, shared, and cited, yet still dismissed as incomplete until blessed by a publisher. I argue that the true measure of scholarship lies in open exchange, not in the industry’s gatekeeping of what counts as published.
Reposted by Matteo Nebbiai
Every academic career is built on rejection, but we don’t show it.
CVs list publications, grants & awards, not rejected manuscripts, unfunded proposals, or failures.
But those invisible rejections shape us more than our successes ever do.
👉 catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/fail-bette...
🧵
CVs list publications, grants & awards, not rejected manuscripts, unfunded proposals, or failures.
But those invisible rejections shape us more than our successes ever do.
👉 catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/fail-bette...
🧵
Fail Better: Why Your Rejections Will Shape You More Than Your Publications
The Art of Learning from Rejection
catherineeunicedevries.substack.com
October 14, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Every academic career is built on rejection, but we don’t show it.
CVs list publications, grants & awards, not rejected manuscripts, unfunded proposals, or failures.
But those invisible rejections shape us more than our successes ever do.
👉 catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/fail-bette...
🧵
CVs list publications, grants & awards, not rejected manuscripts, unfunded proposals, or failures.
But those invisible rejections shape us more than our successes ever do.
👉 catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/fail-bette...
🧵
Reposted by Matteo Nebbiai
Increasingly, politics in West Europe is a mirror of East Europe, with a large radical right party against a rag-tag of centrist/liberal, centre-left, green and radical left parties and a rapidly declining centre right. The challenge is to coordinate the progressive opposition to the radical right.
Scholars & pundits have focussed a lot on the electoral demise of center left, but in doing so we paid to little attention to the electoral problems of the center right.
Case-in-points here not only British conservatives or center right in France, but increasingly also the center right in Spain.
Case-in-points here not only British conservatives or center right in France, but increasingly also the center right in Spain.
October 13, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Increasingly, politics in West Europe is a mirror of East Europe, with a large radical right party against a rag-tag of centrist/liberal, centre-left, green and radical left parties and a rapidly declining centre right. The challenge is to coordinate the progressive opposition to the radical right.
Reposted by Matteo Nebbiai
It is my opinion that introducing age verification now is irresponsible, mainly because we have now reached the point where Western governments *are* using "the database state" and exploiting online surveillance to be repressive - just as privacy activists warned for decades. This applies to UK & US
July 24, 2025 at 11:25 AM
It is my opinion that introducing age verification now is irresponsible, mainly because we have now reached the point where Western governments *are* using "the database state" and exploiting online surveillance to be repressive - just as privacy activists warned for decades. This applies to UK & US
Reposted by Matteo Nebbiai
One of those classic tales of the modern economy, a huge company nobody really knows is the middle of a supply chain. At this stage it seems such companies will be surviving Trump's efforts relatively unscathed. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
October 3, 2025 at 3:51 PM
One of those classic tales of the modern economy, a huge company nobody really knows is the middle of a supply chain. At this stage it seems such companies will be surviving Trump's efforts relatively unscathed. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
"Trump’s push to destroy democracy depends largely on creating a self-fulfilling prophecy...business leaders capitulate to his demands because they expect him to consolidate autocratic power - which, given his unpopularity, he can only do if businesses and other institutions continue to capitulate."
Is the Jimmy Kimmel Saga a Sign that the Tide is Turning?
Why we may not be Russia or Hungary
paulkrugman.substack.com
September 25, 2025 at 2:30 PM
"Trump’s push to destroy democracy depends largely on creating a self-fulfilling prophecy...business leaders capitulate to his demands because they expect him to consolidate autocratic power - which, given his unpopularity, he can only do if businesses and other institutions continue to capitulate."
Reposted by Matteo Nebbiai
One thing that remains fascinating to me is how much radical Trumpism wants to move down the value chain, instead of upwards to more value-add + complex production and research. Instead, RFK kills the NIH and NSF.
September 21, 2025 at 1:39 AM
One thing that remains fascinating to me is how much radical Trumpism wants to move down the value chain, instead of upwards to more value-add + complex production and research. Instead, RFK kills the NIH and NSF.
Reposted by Matteo Nebbiai
The firing of faculty and university staff and journalists for… reposting news articles about Kirk’s actual statements? And talking about other acts of political violence? … is staggering. Academic freedom and free speech are facing an incredible attack right now.
a professor of theatre at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee is fired reportedly for simply reposting a Newsweek headline on social media
clarksvillenow.com/local/apsu-f...
clarksvillenow.com/local/apsu-f...
UPDATE: APSU fires professor over ‘insensitive’ social media post following shooting of Charlie Kirk - ClarksvilleNow.com
Austin Peay State University has fired a professor over a post he shared on social media apparently in response to the shooting death of Charlie Kirk.
clarksvillenow.com
September 15, 2025 at 11:14 AM
The firing of faculty and university staff and journalists for… reposting news articles about Kirk’s actual statements? And talking about other acts of political violence? … is staggering. Academic freedom and free speech are facing an incredible attack right now.
Reposted by Matteo Nebbiai
Grok is being sent to the reeducation camp
September 14, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Grok is being sent to the reeducation camp
Reposted by Matteo Nebbiai
The professor has been fired and senior administrators removed from their post. No mention of this in the New York Times, The Free Press, The Atlantic or other outlets who drove the campus speech moral panic.
Texas A&M University System orders audit of all courses after gender identity lesson goes viral
Details: bit.ly/42jauQZ
Details: bit.ly/42jauQZ
September 10, 2025 at 11:59 AM
The professor has been fired and senior administrators removed from their post. No mention of this in the New York Times, The Free Press, The Atlantic or other outlets who drove the campus speech moral panic.
Reposted by Matteo Nebbiai
Literal cancel culture.
Texas A&M University System orders audit of all courses after gender identity lesson goes viral
Details: bit.ly/42jauQZ
Details: bit.ly/42jauQZ
September 10, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Literal cancel culture.
Reposted by Matteo Nebbiai
all those years of rw commentators complaining about cancellation, and here we are.
what they disliked was being challenged or criticized for their views. this, by contrast, is a system where academics are being sanctioned for saying something that disagrees with the president. slow clap
what they disliked was being challenged or criticized for their views. this, by contrast, is a system where academics are being sanctioned for saying something that disagrees with the president. slow clap
Texas A&M’s President just removed a dean and department head from their positions after they supported a professor whose lesson on gender was challenged by a student. www.kbtx.com/2025/09/09/a...
A&M Dean removed following student complaints over curriculum
The Department of Justice has also acknowledged the situation and said it would be investigating.
www.kbtx.com
September 9, 2025 at 11:27 AM
all those years of rw commentators complaining about cancellation, and here we are.
what they disliked was being challenged or criticized for their views. this, by contrast, is a system where academics are being sanctioned for saying something that disagrees with the president. slow clap
what they disliked was being challenged or criticized for their views. this, by contrast, is a system where academics are being sanctioned for saying something that disagrees with the president. slow clap
Reposted by Matteo Nebbiai
Daniel hits the nail on the head here. Not only are Silver's characteristics not particularly unique to any group on social media, they accurately describe the group that just *won multiple electoral victories in 2024*. MAGA and Trump have done 100% of the things centrists say Democrats shouldn't do
I wrote about Nate Silver's definition of Blueskyism and how I don't think it explains all that much. open.substack.com/pub/danieldr...
Is Blueskyism Really a Thing?
A few thoughts on Nate Silver's thesis that the weird politics of 2020 explains the authoritarian politics of 2025.
open.substack.com
September 9, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Daniel hits the nail on the head here. Not only are Silver's characteristics not particularly unique to any group on social media, they accurately describe the group that just *won multiple electoral victories in 2024*. MAGA and Trump have done 100% of the things centrists say Democrats shouldn't do
"The point... is that what we are witnessing today is not the failure of international law but rather the failure of international politics."
www.theguardian.com/law/2025/jun...
www.theguardian.com/law/2025/jun...
Are we witnessing the death of international law?
The long read: A growing number of scholars and lawyers are losing faith in the current system. Others say the law is not to blame, but the states that are supposed to uphold it
www.theguardian.com
September 9, 2025 at 10:28 AM
"The point... is that what we are witnessing today is not the failure of international law but rather the failure of international politics."
www.theguardian.com/law/2025/jun...
www.theguardian.com/law/2025/jun...
Reposted by Matteo Nebbiai
Reports of an attack, allegedly by a drone, on a vessel in the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), while anchored outside the port of Sidi Bou Said in Tunisia. The below video shows the moment of the incident. Keep it in mind when you read the next post. www.instagram.com/reel/DOXaR_M...
September 9, 2025 at 7:27 AM
Reports of an attack, allegedly by a drone, on a vessel in the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), while anchored outside the port of Sidi Bou Said in Tunisia. The below video shows the moment of the incident. Keep it in mind when you read the next post. www.instagram.com/reel/DOXaR_M...
Reposted by Matteo Nebbiai
NFT sort of geniunely were bullied and mocked out of existence because they were fundamentally a status good that’s basically worthless if it’s seen as stupid and stigmatized. People overindexed on that and think they can do the same with AI. You can’t though, because LLMs, etc are actually useful.
this is the really ineffective head-in-the-sand reaction a lot of folks on Bluesky tend to have if you talk about any harm reduction-based approach to the reality that millions of people are using AI tools today. The current approach to critiquing AI is obviously not working, but they don't care.
September 8, 2025 at 4:09 AM
NFT sort of geniunely were bullied and mocked out of existence because they were fundamentally a status good that’s basically worthless if it’s seen as stupid and stigmatized. People overindexed on that and think they can do the same with AI. You can’t though, because LLMs, etc are actually useful.
Reposted by Matteo Nebbiai
"Any time you ask an LLM system to summarize a web page, read an email, process a document or even look at an image there’s a chance that the content you are exposing it to might contain additional instructions which cause it to do something you didn’t intend."
I don’t think people yet fully appreciate how the “lethal trifecta” restricts agentic AI use cases. When private data access, untrusted inputs, and external actions converge, you create a structural vulnerability we don’t yet know how to contain.
simonwillison.net/2025/Jun/16/...
simonwillison.net/2025/Jun/16/...
The lethal trifecta for AI agents: private data, untrusted content, and external communication
If you are a user of LLM systems that use tools (you can call them “AI agents” if you like) it is critically important that you understand the risk of …
simonwillison.net
September 8, 2025 at 8:51 AM
"Any time you ask an LLM system to summarize a web page, read an email, process a document or even look at an image there’s a chance that the content you are exposing it to might contain additional instructions which cause it to do something you didn’t intend."
Reposted by Matteo Nebbiai
I don’t find this very convincing, either as a unique problem with Bluesky or as an electoral liability for democrats.
September 5, 2025 at 2:35 PM
I don’t find this very convincing, either as a unique problem with Bluesky or as an electoral liability for democrats.
September 5, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Centralising enforcement at the #EU Commission level strengthens consistency and coordination. Yet it also creates a single point of vulnerability, where regulatory enforcement can be more easily politicised.
Google’s adtech fine pulled at last minute over EU-US trade tensions | MLex | Specialist news and analysis on legal risk and regulation
An EU antitrust sanction against Google that was scheduled for today was put on hold hours before the planned announcement, following opposition from EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and lobbying ...
www.mlex.com
September 2, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Centralising enforcement at the #EU Commission level strengthens consistency and coordination. Yet it also creates a single point of vulnerability, where regulatory enforcement can be more easily politicised.
"This is how smart people become useful idiots: not through stupidity but through selective attention. They created information ecosystems where campus politics was the main character and everything else was background noise."
www.techdirt.com/2025/08/27/w...
www.techdirt.com/2025/08/27/w...
Were A Few Random DEI Programs Worth Killing Democracy?
Eight months ago, those of us actually paying attention—not just scrolling outrage bait about Biden’s age or the latest campus controversy, but genuinely tracking the systematic preparation for aut…
www.techdirt.com
August 28, 2025 at 10:00 AM
"This is how smart people become useful idiots: not through stupidity but through selective attention. They created information ecosystems where campus politics was the main character and everything else was background noise."
www.techdirt.com/2025/08/27/w...
www.techdirt.com/2025/08/27/w...
So, #Trump just asked the #EU to drop its rules on digital services, or prepare for new tariffs.
However, if the EU wanted to capitulate to Trump’s demands, how feasible is it to drop such rules?
My opinion: not that easy!
(1/)
matteonebbiai.substack.com/p/can-the-eu...
However, if the EU wanted to capitulate to Trump’s demands, how feasible is it to drop such rules?
My opinion: not that easy!
(1/)
matteonebbiai.substack.com/p/can-the-eu...
Can the EU trade away its digital rules?
It's not that easy.
matteonebbiai.substack.com
August 26, 2025 at 4:13 PM
So, #Trump just asked the #EU to drop its rules on digital services, or prepare for new tariffs.
However, if the EU wanted to capitulate to Trump’s demands, how feasible is it to drop such rules?
My opinion: not that easy!
(1/)
matteonebbiai.substack.com/p/can-the-eu...
However, if the EU wanted to capitulate to Trump’s demands, how feasible is it to drop such rules?
My opinion: not that easy!
(1/)
matteonebbiai.substack.com/p/can-the-eu...
Reposted by Matteo Nebbiai
“A year ago, the US appeared to have a coherent world view that tied together a particular perspective on AI with a particular view of American power. Now, both the AI story and the power story are crumbling. What next?” open.substack.com/pub/programm...
The twilight of tech unilateralism
Suddenly, America is in a whole different world
open.substack.com
August 20, 2025 at 11:28 AM
“A year ago, the US appeared to have a coherent world view that tied together a particular perspective on AI with a particular view of American power. Now, both the AI story and the power story are crumbling. What next?” open.substack.com/pub/programm...