Economics and and personal finance are in the news each and every day now and have been for some time. Swedes are generally interested in personal finances, because of the hype around stock markets and the freedom money creates. Now, though, the focus is on debts, the increase in energy prices, the inflation and what those entail for the population in general, and (almost always) the houseowner specifically.
Author: danni
Dead soldiers in Clearview AI (Revised June 15th)
The war between Russia and Ukraine rages on. One method for the Ukrainian resistance to raise awareness of the number of dead Russian (and Ukrainian) soldiers is to use Clearview AI, the facial network services company, which can detect faces and connect them to, for instance, social media profiles.
Perspectives on the war in Ukraine
I have been listening intently to a number of podcasts because of the war in Ukraine. One that is not mainly on the daily “progress” of the war, but rather from a higher perspective is The Ezra Klein Show from New York Times.
Book review: Computational propaganda
Oxford Internet Institute is a go-to-zone whenever I need some knowledge about cyberspace, cybersecurity, Internet research or many other topics. It’s a fascinating interdisciplinary institute, blending what is called social data science, data science with social science. The book comprises case studies of digital disinformation efforts (a main focus is certain types of bots) in nine countries, ranging from Canada and Poland to Russia and, naturally, Ukraine.
Book review: The perfect police state
This could well be a follow-up to Beijmo’s De kan inte stoppa oss. Instead of Syria as the main stage, the story and its focus are China. Writer Geoffrey Cain presents himself early as the journalist he is, when travelling Xinjiang in western China, though the main character in the narrative is Maysem, an Uighur who has escaped Xinjiang.
Russian cyberwar in the dark forest?
Russia has been turned into a dictatorship in two weeks. No journalists are allowed to mention the word “war” in combination with “Ukraine”, resulting in several journalists or news agencies shutting down their activity or agreeing to self-censorship. Many foreign journalists are thus going home for fear of their reporting being in conflict with these hard measures.
Book review: De kan inte stoppa oss
Mattias Beijmo is a Swedish public speaker, opinion writer and analyst focused on technology and its implications for privacy, democracy and society. In the book They can’t stop us, Beijmo tells us a story of the Arab spring mainly through the lens of two young Syrians, Bassel and Noura.
State of the world after one week of war in Ukraine (Revised May 5th)
It’s been one week of war now. One week of immense sorrow. One week of reading more news than ever before in such a short time: Zelensky, Putin, Kiev, Kharkiv, Cherson, Territorial Defense Unit/Brigade, women signing up for frontline duty – the list in my dreams and nightmares go on and on.
Book review: The Perfect Weapon
“The Perfect Weapon is the startling inside story of how the rise of cyberweapons transformed geopolitics like nothing since the invention of the atomic bomb” it says on the back cover, and Sanger dives into cyberweapons and their implications on national and international security.
Book review: Twitter and tear gas
Occasionally I acquire a book that simply gives me goosebumps and a joy to read. I feel honored to even hold the book in my hands. Zeynep Tufekci is the programmer turned sociologist, the associate professor studying technology’s impact on social movements, protests and surveillance capitalism.