Elon Musk is buying Twitter for $44 billion USD. Surely. Certainly. Maybe. It’s complicated. Regardless, the news have exploded in tech and mainstream news, everyone has a take. Musk announced that he would be a champion of free speech, prompting cheers from the right (who think that this means that Read more…
I am a big believer in the power of stories. In 1993, journalist Julian Dibbell wrote an article for the Village Voice entitled “A Rape in Cyperspace“, in which he described a series of moderating decisions that were taken at an early virtual community called LambdaMOO. The online shenanigans are Read more…
It’s been another interesting day in the wilderness that is NFT-land. While many people (myself included) have spent a good part of the legal commentary on the NFT art market, the most valuable tokens can be found in collectibles, these usually take the shape of a stock character that is Read more…
One of my favourite phrases from Gabriel García Márquez can be found in The Autumn of the Patriarch, and reads: “El día que la mierda tenga algún valor, los pobres nacerán sin culo.” (The day shit has any value, the poor will be born without an ass”. I was reminded Read more…
The events of last week require no introduction. The world looked in shock as the QAnon-MAGA mob stormed the US Capitol, disrupting the certification process for the US election. Disbelief, anger, sadness, in some circles. In others glee at the decay of a once great democracy. For me it felt Read more…
During my university years in Costa Rica, I used to be quite involved in student politics. You know, the usual stuff, marches, protesting, political parties, advocacy, but mostly sitting around talking about politics at the Law School’s cafeteria. I used to have quite a good collection of t-shirts, some with Read more…
On July 15, 2020, a remarkable hacking attack took place. The Twitter accounts of prominent public figures such as Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Kanye West, and Bill Gates, amongst many others, started to transmit a message stating that if a person deposited some Bitcoin to a wallet, it Read more…
(This is my presentation at Gikii 2019 at Queen Mary, London. Slides Here). Cyber-dystopianism For many years, we thought of the Internet as inherently good, a unique innovation that would bring about a better world through technology. The Internet could empower people to become educated and better versions of themselves. Read more…
It’s been an eventful couple of weeks for YouTube specifically, and for Internet moderation in general. It all started with YouTube’s controversial decision not to ban a famous content creator for instigating anti-gay and racist abuse. Then they were applauded in some circles for banning a number of neo-Nazi and Read more…
It’s no secret that many of the organisations involved in governing the Internet have had a strong involvement with US interests, both public and private. The Internet started as a US military project, and that country remained influential in key decision-making bodies, but most importantly, the Internet grew out of Read more…