Abolition of Technologies for Social Justice
This is the core of my contribution to a Nethope 2022 seminar at the invitation of Oxfam US: The Abolition of Some Digital Technologies Is Essential to Human Development and Social Justice…
Repressive Governments Play Whack-a-Mole with Citizen’s Digital Rights
Like so many aspects of our life, democratic debate is increasingly moving online. Yet it seems like every time citizens adopt a new digital tool or enter a new digital space to voice opposition, repressive governments respond with a whole arsenal of tactics to dampen dissent and deny their right to opinion and expression. For every new activist tactic there are three or four state countermeasures. New research has found that this digital game of whack-a-mole is playing out across Africa…
Digital rights in closing civic space: lessons from ten African countries
The publication of Digital Rights in Closing Civic Space by the African Digital Rights Network is the first comprehensive analysis of the range of digital technologies and tactics being used across Africa by citizens to open democratic space online and by governments to close it down…
‘Lie Machines’ with Phillip Howard
In this episode of the IDS podcast series Between the Lines I discuss with Professor Phillip Howard his latest book ‘Lie Machines: How to Save Democracy from Troll Armies, Deceitful Robots, Junk News Operations, and Political Operatives’
Trump Disinformation Machine must be a wake-up call
In 2020 Donald Trump was reportedly the biggest source of political disinformation in the world, fuelling social unrest, voter supression, and distrust in democracy. The US election forced us to stare over the precipice at what happens if the political deployment of digital disinformation is allowed to go unchecked…
Podcast with Serena Natile
In this episode of the IDS Between the Lines podcast, I speak to Serena Natile to discuss her book, ‘The Exclusionary Politics of Digital Financial Inclusion: mobile money, gendered walls’, in which she uses the example of Kenya’s extremely popular mPesa programme to critique mobile money more generally as part of a historical succession of finance solutionism. Serena proposes an alternative strategy for gender equality in the form of a politics of redistribution to guide future digital financial inclusion projects…
Covid-19: how can we avoid locking in bad digital development outcomes?
Co-authored with Becky Faith and first published here by the Institute of Development Studies. As Covid-19 tracing apps proliferate this month, governments of all hues will gain the ability to track citizen movements in real time and to collect the largest ever trove of personal and real-time location data in history. This could save thousands of lives. It could also be a historic inflection point in civil liberties, the depth and scale of which was unimaginable to George Orwell or…
Rebooting the Principles of Digital Development
The Principles for Digital Development were written in 2012 by a group of international donors and multilateral organisations. They are a great point of reference to guide practitioners applying digital technologies to development programs. In 2015 USAID led a successful process to recruit 50 other agencies to sign-up the Principles including the World Bank and DFID. Who could be against the good advice provided by the Principles (below), which include Use Open Standards and Open Source Software; Reuse and Improve; Address Privacy and Security; Design With The User and Be Collaborative? I support these principles whole-heartedly…
Tackling Toxic Masculinity in Technology Workplaces
Toxic masculinity and everyday sexism create a hostile environment for women in technology workplaces and in online spaces. In an increasingly digital world the male-domination of technology design, software production, and digital content is a serious problem that demands urgent remedy…
Top Ten Books on Digital Development
Following a popular Twitter Thread I wrote on this subject recently, I thought it might be useful to have these all in one place…