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.
Reposted by Tony Roberts
Long Beach health officials and local doctors are pushing back against a Trump administration disinformation campaign asserting that there could be a link between autism and vaccines.
Read more from @brandonrichardson.bsky.social on the Watchdog. lbwatchdog.com/long-beach-h...
Read more from @brandonrichardson.bsky.social on the Watchdog. lbwatchdog.com/long-beach-h...
November 29, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Long Beach health officials and local doctors are pushing back against a Trump administration disinformation campaign asserting that there could be a link between autism and vaccines.
Read more from @brandonrichardson.bsky.social on the Watchdog. lbwatchdog.com/long-beach-h...
Read more from @brandonrichardson.bsky.social on the Watchdog. lbwatchdog.com/long-beach-h...
Reposted by Tony Roberts
Reposted by Tony Roberts
“The people whose rights are being violated don’t have a lot of power, and the people responsible for the pollution are huge mega corporations with a lot of power…And they’ve been getting away with this for decades now.”
'The Precedent Is Flint': How Oregon's Data Center Boom Is Supercharging a Water Crisis
Amazon data centers constructed in eastern Oregon's farmland have worsened a water pollution problem that’s been linked to cancer and miscarriages.
www.rollingstone.com
November 29, 2025 at 3:01 PM
“The people whose rights are being violated don’t have a lot of power, and the people responsible for the pollution are huge mega corporations with a lot of power…And they’ve been getting away with this for decades now.”
Third person refuses doctorate from University of Galway share.google/PXIjdtcCbsz3...
Third person refuses doctorate from University of Galway
A third person has turned down an honorary doctorate that was due to be conferred by the University of Galway, at a ceremony tomorrow.
share.google
November 28, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Third person refuses doctorate from University of Galway share.google/PXIjdtcCbsz3...
Reform UK Durham Council policy deepens poverty of thousands of the town's poorest working families.
northeastbylines.co.uk/news/politic...
northeastbylines.co.uk/news/politic...
Council tax shock for thousands of Durham’s poorest – thanks to Reform UK
Durham will scrap full council-tax rebates, forcing 26,000 low-income working-age residents to start paying for the first time
northeastbylines.co.uk
November 28, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Reform UK Durham Council policy deepens poverty of thousands of the town's poorest working families.
northeastbylines.co.uk/news/politic...
northeastbylines.co.uk/news/politic...
Screenagers now dream of a surveillance-free life and abandoning their smartphones. www.codastory.com/surveillance...
The digital exiles: Why people are abandoning their smartphones - Coda Story
A growing movement of “former screenagers” is calling for a screen-free, surveillance-free life, for a chance to build a future beyond tech capture
www.codastory.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Screenagers now dream of a surveillance-free life and abandoning their smartphones. www.codastory.com/surveillance...
Third person refuses doctorate from University of Galway share.google/PXIjdtcCbsz3...
Third person refuses doctorate from University of Galway
A third person has turned down an honorary doctorate that was due to be conferred by the University of Galway, at a ceremony tomorrow.
share.google
November 28, 2025 at 8:38 AM
Third person refuses doctorate from University of Galway share.google/PXIjdtcCbsz3...
Third person refuses doctorate from University of Galway due to Israeli collaboration. share.google/PXIjdtcCbsz3...
Third person refuses doctorate from University of Galway
A third person has turned down an honorary doctorate that was due to be conferred by the University of Galway, at a ceremony tomorrow.
share.google
November 28, 2025 at 8:18 AM
Third person refuses doctorate from University of Galway due to Israeli collaboration. share.google/PXIjdtcCbsz3...
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...