Trump and Big Tech: Europe’s Sovereignty at Stake Published: 24 January 2025 Presidents’ column The EU still has strong rules for the major digital platforms. However, under Donald Trump and his allies – above all powerful tech CEOs such as Musk and Zuckerberg – the USA is becoming an open opponent of these regulations. By Jan Philipp Albrecht
Laptop generals and bot armies: The digital front of Russia’s Ukraine war Published: 1 March 2022 Analysis Digital technology plays a key role in the armed conflict in Ukraine – as a tool for cyberattacks and digital protest, and as an accelerator for information and disinformation. By Zora Siebert and Sabine Muscat
Proposals for detoxifying the debate culture: Less disinformation and hate in the election campaign Published: 30 September 2021 Analysis The German parliamentary election campaign played out on the internet as never before. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, this was certainly necessary, but it brought with it all the evils we have previously seen in US election campaigns: disinformation campaigns and hate speech were used to discredit candidates, paid political online advertising and foreign influence circumvented basic democratic values. By Vérane Meyer and Zora Siebert
Germany’s epic corona-tracing debate: a risky game with public trust Published: 15 May 2020 Analysis The debate over the data storage model of a coronavirus tracing app shows how the German government’s search for digital infection control tools became caught up between public health officials, privacy experts and the US tech industry. By Vérane Meyer
The Regulation of Online-harassment Published: 15 January 2015 Violent communication has relevant effects on queer feminist internet activism. This article focuses on options and necessities of regulating such forms of violent anti-feminist and racist communication. How to prevent or to stop violent online-communication? By Gitti Hentschel and Francesca Schmidt
How your innocent Smartphone passes on almost your entire Life to the Secret Service Published: 30 July 2014 Intelligence services collect metadata on the communication of all citizens. Politicians would have us believe that this data doesn’t say all that much. A guy from the Netherlands put this to the test and demonstrated otherwise: metadata reveals a lot more about your life than you think. By Dimitri Tokmetzis
HE, SHE, I.T. – Who are we without Privacy? Published: 6 January 2014 At the conference "Whatever happened to privacy" the British author and blogger gave a insightful keynote in regard to the issues privacy and surveillance, creating some depth inregard to the worldwide appeal of the 562 authors, that appeared in public two days after the conference. By Priya Basil
Conference Report: International Summit for Community Wireless Networks 2013 Published: 22 October 2013 The seventh annual International Summit for Community Wireless Networks took place in Berlin, Germany from October 2 – 4, 2013. By Patrick Lucey
"We have succumbed to some very weak arguments" Published: 17 April 2012 The British government is considering new Internet surveillance laws, which would allow investigation authorities to monitor users’ email traffic, visited websites, phone calls and text messages in real time and without court authorization. Civil rights activists fear a far-reaching intrusion into the privacy of British citizens. Heinrich Böll Foundation has talked to Nick Pickles, director of the privacy and civil liberties organisation Big Brother Watch, about the proposal.
