There is something profoundly human about the Internet, its infrastructure. The ability of people to join without permission and innovate, the ability of actors to act independently, yet obey to certain standards and the ability to provide the services that allow people to communicate - are all features of a very human technology. At the same time, beyond this heavy machinery, humans feed the Internet constantly with data that affects their lives and those of others. While we talk about issues of speech in the Internet, we rarely pose to consider the impact speech suppression has on humans.
In this episode, Jillian and I talk with Robin Berjon and Juan Caballero about the value of decentralisation and federated systems and what it means reimagining the Internet and the web. We also discuss about how best technology can serve its users and what the role of regulation is in achieving this.
For this episode, we sit down with Justin Hendrix, CEO and Editor of Tech Policy Press, a new nonprofit media venture concerned with the intersection of technology and democracy. With years of experience in covering tech policy issues, we chat about a bunch of different issues, including privacy, misinformation and disinformation, elections and the future of tech.
In this episode, we talk with Rumman Chowdhury, a data scientist and social scientist and the CEO of the tech nonprofit Humane Intelligence, which builds a community of practice around evaluations of AI models. Rumman the United States Science Envoy for Artificial Intelligence. We ask Rumman about AI and how it intersects with humanity, the role of human rights in AI, what responsible AI means and what is the best way to govern it, given the current geopolitical tensions. Rumman also walks us through her thoughts on AI accountability and her term "moral outsourcing".
In this episode, Konstantinos Komaitis and Jillian York speak with Tin Geber. Tin is a creative technologist and founder of Draftlab, a digital agency for social change makers. In the past decade he was Design and Tech Lead for The Engine Room, Social Innovation Specialist with Hivos, and Managing Director of Greenhost. tools
In this episode, Konstantinos Komaitis and Jillian York speak with Rose Jackson, Director, Democracy and Tech Initiative at the Atlantic Council. We discuss her work on human rights and promoting democracy and how it relates to the Internet and Internet governance, especially the ongoing processes happening at the UN. We also discuss disinformation, its impact on societies and how best to address it. Like all other episodes, this episode was edited by Javier Pallero.
For this episode, Konstantinos and Jillian talk to Mona Shtaya, the Campaigns and Partnerships Manager (MENA) and Corporate Engagement Lead at Digital Actions. We discuss with Mona about the way social media platforms are performing in moderating content since the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel and how their actions have affected, and continue to affect, Palestinian people. We also discuss the challenges Palestinian Internet users are facing regarding infrastructure, connectivity and communication. This episode was edited by Javier Pallero. The music in this episode is Nightlapse by Arthur Vyncke | https://soundcloud.com/arthurvost Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons / Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US
In this episode, Konstantinos Komaitis and Jillian York talk with Meredith Whittaker,the President of the Signal Foundation. Meredith is also the current Chief Advisor, and the former Faculty Director and Co-Founder of the AI Now Institute. Meredith shares with us the role of Signal in ensuring the privacy and security of communications and her plans for the messaging service. We also discuss the fight for encryption, as pressure to undermine it in jurisdictions across the world is increasing. Finally, we also discuss about AI, its governance and the concerns that have recently manifested by policy makers. This podcast is edited by Javier Pallero. The music in this episode is Nightlapse by Arthur Vyncke | https://soundcloud.com/arthurvostMusic promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.comCreative Commons / Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US
For this episode, Jillian York and Konstantinos Komaitis talk with Thomas Lohninger, the Executive Director of the digital rights NGO, epicenter.works based in Vienna, Austria. Focusing both on European and international Internet policy, we talk about the highly controversial "fair share" debate, about the nexus between privacy and encryption, digital identity as well as the cybercrime convention.
In the first episode of Season 3 of the Internet of Humans podcast, Jillian and Konstantinos speak with Raegan MacDonald, who has has been a part of the digital rights scene for more than a decade, working with such organizations as Access Now, EDRI and Mozilla. She now serves as the Director of Policy Leadership for Aspiration Tech. Among others, we discussed the biggest changes and challenges that have happened in the digital rights movement, the real impact of the Brussels effect and what takes to be a leader.
In this episode, Jillian and Konstantinos talk to activist and musician Evan Greer about Elon Musk's Twitter acquisition and his first six weeks, content moderation all the way down the "Internet stack", antitrust and surveillance capitalism and punk rock. Evan is an active writer and you can find her body of work through her personal website: https://evangreer.org. Her latest piece on Twitter was for TIME magazine: https://time.com/6228045/elon-musk-twitter-free-speech-future/
In this episode, Jillian and I talk with Anriette Esterhuysen, former Chair of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and former executive director of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). We discuss a variety of issues, including the future of the Internet Governance Forum, the upcoming World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) and what it means for the future of the Internet and the IGF, human rights and the role of civil society in Africa. This episode is edited by Javier Pallero.
There is nothing normal with the case of Alaa Abd El Fattah, arguably Egypt's highest profile political prisoner. This episode is a special one - I chat with Jillian who has met Alaa and they are friends. In light of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference, which starts on Sunday and is hosted by Egypt, it important that the case of Alaa remains front and centre. In our conversation, Jillian remembers meeting Alaa, his role during the Arab Spring, his contribution to the Internet and what his current state is. There is an ongoing campaign for Alaa -- #FreeAlaa! We can all help him by continuing to mention his name!
In this episode, Jillian and I talk to Mahsa Alimardani and Nima Fatemi. Mahsa is an Internet researcher, looking at the intersection of technology and human rights, particularly in Iran; Nima is an activist and security researcher as well as the founding director of Kandoo, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering civil society and vulnerable populations through educational and information security services. In our discussion, Mahsa and Nima take us through the protests in Iran and what makes this movement different, both on the ground and digitally, the role of sanctions, how the Internet and social media have facilitated or prohibited people on the ground, how they understanding digital human rights, and the role technology companies, big and small, have been playing and can play in Iran. This episode was edited by Javier Pallero.
Season 2 of the Internet of Humans podcast starts with Javier Pallero, Access Now's International Policy Director. We discuss about the future of the internet in a world of increasing internet shutdowns, internet infrastructure and content moderation, civil society and inclusion in the digital rights space.
In this episode, we talk to Chris Riley, a global internet policy and technology executive. We talked about disruption and the internet, user agency, platform moderation and competition policy. As Mozilla's former director for public policy, we also talked a bit about the fight for freedom and where things currently stand. Finally, we discussed a bit his concept of "modularity" in the context of platform accountability, which he is currently researching. You can see Chris writing: https://www.rstreet.org/team/chris-riley/
After the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, abortion rights have become centre in American politics. One of the main concerns is the role technology and, the internet in general, can play in this new world, especially when it comes to issues of privacy and security. In this episode, we talk with Amanda Bennett, who works at the Digital Defense Fund, an organisation established in 2017 in response to the increased need for security and technology resources in the abortion rights movement after the 2016 election. Here are some of the links for organisations Amanda mentions: Midwest Access Coalition: https://midwestaccesscoalition.org Online Abortion Resource Squad: https://abortionsquad.org https://www.ineedana.com Repro Legal Helpline: https://www.reprolegalhelpline.org National Association for Pregnant Women: https://twitter.com/NAPW
In this special episode of the Internet of Human, Jillian York narrates what would the Internet say if it had a voice. The story is based on an oped by me, Konstantinos Komaitis for the Tech Policy Press, available https://techpolicy.press/my-name-is-the-internet/.
In this episode, Konstantinos and Jillian speak with Heather Burns about the Online Safety Bill in the United Kingdom. The Bill, which has been promoted as the one to make the UK the safest place to be online, has received significant criticism about the way it undermines human rights as well as important security protocols. Heather elaborates on these issues as well as why she believes the Online Safety Bill is the UK's "Internet Brexit" moment, why she has called the bill the "Nick Clegg law" and what she believes the future of the UK will be after the passage of the Bill.
In this episode, we talk with Dia Kayyali, a digital rights activist and researcher who currently serves as the Associate Director for Advocacy at Mnemonic. We touched on several issues, from extremism content online to community organising and, of course, Elon Musk and Twitter. Dia is an expert on content moderation focusing on marginalised communities and they have spent many years talking about the outsized impact that content moderation has on such communities.
In this episode, Konstantinos and Jillian speak with Mike Masnick, founder & editor of the popular TechDirt blog as well as the founder of the Silicon Valley think tank, the Copia Institute. During the discussion we touched on a range of issues, including Internet regulation, focusing on the Internet's infrastructure, big tech and how it shapes much of the current regulation and we also tried to do some predictions for the future.
In this episode, Jilian and Konstantinos talk to David Kaye, who was the United Nations special rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression between August 2014 and July 2020. He is clinical professor of law at the University of California, Irvine on public international law, international humanitarian law, human rights and international criminal justice. During our chat we discussed a wide range of issues, including encryption, content moderation, platform governance, democracy and the safety vs. security argument that is underlying currently the Internet regulation narrative.
In this episode, Konstantinos and Jillian are speaking with Maria Farrell. Maria is an Irish author and speaker working on how to change tech so it supports us as individuals and as a species, and helps us fix the huge challenges we collectively face. During our chat, we discussed the Facebook Papers and the role of whistleblowers and, in particular, that of Frances Haugen, internet regulation and her now famous piece on the "Prodigal Tech Bro". At some point, during the discussion we touched on James C Scott: "Seeing it like a State" and the need to organise and support the tech workers movement in the US.
In this episode, Jillian York and Konstantinos Komaitis talk to Rebecca MacKinnon. Rebecca, a long advocate of human rights who currently serves as Vice President for Advocacy at Wikimedia Foundation, talks about about how the convergence of unchecked government actions and unaccountable government practices is threatening the future of democracy and human rights around the world. Focusing on the way the Internet has evolved over the past years, Rebecca discusses the role platforms play in the exercise of human rights and how relevant her book, "The Consent of the Networked", still is 10 years later.
In this first episode, Jillian and Konstantinos introduce themselves and have a conversation about their experiences, concerns and observations over a coffee and a smoothy. They remember when they discussed the idea of the podcast, they reminisce about the first time they interacted socially with the Internet, they touch on current events and they talk about some of the issues they want to address as part of this podcast series.
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