Tag: freedom
Time Is on Your Side: Listening to Coldplay’s Amsterdam
Time Is on Your Side: Listening to Coldplay's Amsterdam Coldplay's Amsterdam begins with a star going out. A man is swerving, losing his grip, blaming himself for moving too soon and then insisting that he waited as long as he could. He can't get the timing right. That feels true to the way despair works....
On Freedom, and the Future
A reflection on the entanglements of freedom and responsibility, by way of Jim Collins, in his new book "What to Make of a Life"
Clinging on to sanity
"The implications of all this are profound. First, our understanding of political risk has to change. We are no longer dealing with actors who are constrained by norms, expectations, or even basic human decency. Second, the institutional safeguards that we assumed would provide protection look increasingly fragile. If those in power are willing to ignore...
Democracy, Kleptocracy, Dictatorship
Episode 11: 2026 - The Year Ahead
A New Year’s conversation exploring domination, free existence, law, language, and technology—connecting deep history to urgent questions shaping 2026.
Citizen Lab, 2025 Highlights
=> excerpt from the email newsletter here.
Chosen Role
We walk the narrow path.
Der Plan von der Abschaffung des Asyls
"Das Asylrecht setzt voraus, dass wir das Leid anderer als rechtlich relevant anerkennen. Wenn Empathie politisch diskreditiert wird, verliert das Recht seine Basis. Die Asylpolitik der Gegenwart lebt von dieser Empathieverweigerung. Sie setzt auf Distanz, auf administrative Neutralisierung. Wer Zuständigkeits- und Zulässigkeitsregeln so ausbaut, dass bereits die Möglichkeit der Antragstellung zur Odyssee wird, stiehlt sich...
The mad king’s digital killswitch
"The very worst-case speculative scenario for Huawei-as-Chinese-Trojan-horse is infinitely better than the non-speculative, real ways in which the US has killswitched and bugged the world's devices." Cory Doctorow explains why responsible governments should have to accelerate their countries' independence from US tech and not just Russian gas. pluralistic.net
Darth Android
"Tech bosses are fundamentally at war with the idea that our digital devices contain general purpose computers. The general-purposeness of computers – the fact that they are all Turing-complete, universal von Neumann machines – has created tech bosses' fortunes, but now that these fortunes have been attained, the tech sector would like to abolish that...
Fast Fash
What is called free speech?
Thought experiments in not knowing
Was Griechenland wusste: das tödliche Geschäft des Abu Sultan
"Eine monatelange Untersuchung unter der Leitung des griechischen Investigativmediums Solomon und des Netzwerks Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism in Zusammenarbeit mit El País und der taz ergab, dass die griechischen Behörden schon früh wussten, dass die 'Pylos 9' unschuldig waren, sie aber fast ein ganzes Jahr in Untersuchungshaft behielten." Griechenland kriminalisiert systematisch die Opfer eines...
Viele gute Gründe für das Fediverse
"Die vor uns stehenden Umwälzungen der digitalen Transformation sind von historischer Dimension. Sie sind in ihrer Bedeutung vergleichbar mit den Veränderungen im Zeitalter der Aufklärung, die die Grundlage für die Menschenrechte und ein friedlich vereintes Europa legten." Mario Birkholz sieht die Hochschulen in der Pflicht, ihre digitale Kommunikation mit den Anfoderungen des demokratischen Gemeinwesens in...
Letter from Birmingham jail
"Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
European Comission gives EU-US data transfers third round at CJEU
"This third attempt to pass largely the same unlawful decision also raises questions as to the larger role of the European Commission being the guardian of the EU treaties. Instead of upholding the 'rule of law' the Commission simply passes an invalid decision over and over again, despite clear rulings by the CJEU."
Aaron's army
This speech, in honor of Aaron Swartz, pretty much sums up why I work on the web. This is why it's worthwhile. He was part of an army of citizens that rejects kings and generals and believes in rough consensus and running code. [...] Aaron Swartz was not a criminal, he was a citizen, and he was a brave soldier in a war which continues today, a war in which corrupt and venal profiteers try to steal and hoard and starve our public domain for their own private gain. Read the full text of the spe
TBL
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, on August 19, 1991: [...] This project is experimental and of course comes without any warranty whatsoever. However, it could start a revolution in information access. We are currently using WWW for user support at CERN. We would be very interested in comments from anyone trying WWW, and especially those making other data available, as part of a truly world-wide web. Tim Berners-Lee's original WWW announcement. Almost twenty-one years later, Sir Tim tweeted from the Londo
SOPA and PIPA: how lawmakers are out to take my job
I joined both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union today. I also give regularly to the Open Rights Group in the UK. I urge you to do the same. SOPA and PIPA - the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act respectively (PDF links) - are legislative acts that undermine the structure, culture and universality of the Internet. As Stanford Law Review points out, they're unconstitutional and fundamentally in opposition to the principle of free speech: adversa
The 'net was never free from commercial interest; it's not a "new" threat to democratic speech
Blowing up markets
Banning sublets Last week, the State of New York passed a bill that bans short-term rentals: specifically, no homeowner or renter may sublet their home for less than a month. The target is sites like AirBNB, an up and coming website that allows travelers to eschew pricey hotels – and their accompanying hotel room occupancy tax - in favor of private homes. If the governor chooses to pass the legislation (as opposed to veto it), AirBNB will effectively be outlawed, and with it, a grassroots mark