Washington, D.C., Feb. 9, 2026 — On Friday, Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) filed an attorney disciplinary complaint against Gordon Kromberg, the federal prosecutor who reviewed and signed the search warrant application targeting Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson.
The complaint notes that Kromberg appears to have violated an ethical rule that requires lawyers to reveal relevant legal authority to the court, even if it undermines their arguments. Recently unsealed court records disclose what many suspected: The government failed to alert the court that authorized the warrant to the Privacy Protection Act of 1980, a federal law that, in most cases, forbids the use of search warrants for journalistic work product and documentary materials.
The following statement can be attributed to Seth Stern, chief of advocacy for FPF:
“Kromberg and the government omitted a federal law that should have prohibited the raid of Hannah Natanson’s home when applying for a search warrant. That choice now threatens to expose Natanson’s sources and cripple her ability to report, while also sending a warning shot to journalists and whistleblowers nationwide.
“Disciplinary bodies cannot look the other way and ignore misconduct that threatens the First Amendment, particularly from an administration with a long history of misleading judges and everyone else. When prosecutors abuse their power to facilitate efforts to silence reporting and intimidate news sources, disciplinary authorities must hold them accountable and impose real consequences.”
The BBC recently published an exposé revealing that some Chinese subscription sites charge for access to their network of hundreds of hidden cameras in hotel rooms. Of course, this is presumably without the consent of the hotel management and probably isn’t specifically a problem in China. After all, cameras can now be very tiny, so it is extremely easy to rent a hotel room or a vacation rental and bug it. This is illegal, China has laws against spy cameras, and hotels are required to check for them, the BBC notes. However, there is a problem: At least one camera found didn’t show up on conventional camera detectors. So we wanted to ask you, Hackaday: How do you detect hidden cameras?
How it Works
Commercial detectors typically use one of two techniques. It is easy to scan for RF signals, and if the camera is emitting WiFi or another frequency you expect cameras to use, that works. But it also misses plenty. A camera might be hardwired, for example. Or store data on an SD card for later. If you have a camera that transmits on a strange frequency, you won’t find it. Or you could hide the camera near something else that transmits. So if your scanner shows a lot of RF around a WiFi router, you won’t be able to figure out that it is actually the router and a small camera.
Fire alarm? Camera? It is both! The other common method uses a beam of light or a laser to try to see reflections of lenses, which will be retroreflective. The user views the room through a viewfinder, and any light that comes directly back will show up in the view. Despite some false positives, this method will find cameras even if they are not powered or transmitting. Even shining a flashlight, maybe from the same cell phone, around a dark room might uncover some camera devices.
There are a few other techniques. If you assume a spy camera probably uses IR lighting to see you at night, you can scan for that. A good tip is that your cell phone camera can probably see IR. (Test it on an IR remote control.) So looking around with your phone camera is a good, free way to find some cameras. A thermal imager might show hidden equipment, too, although it might be hard to determine if it is actually a camera or not.
You might be thinking: just look for the camera. But that’s not always simple. In the BBC article, the camera was the size of a pencil eraser. Not to mention, a quick search of your favorite retailer will reveal cameras made to look like smoke detectors, stuffed toys, USB chargers, and more. You can even get small cameras that can mount a fake button or screw head on the lens.
Testing
[Project Farm] has a video that tests a few detectors. The problem, of course, is that there are different kinds of cameras. Detecting the test camera doesn’t mean it will detect all cameras. Still, you can get some idea of how effective some detectors are compared to others.
Given that none of the current ways to detect cameras work perfectly, what would you build to find them? Maybe an NLJD? Or maybe some tech to blind them? Tell us what you think in the comments.
Even though there was no meeting, there’s plenty to update!
Arizona – AZPP’z first party rally is planned for March 1st from 4PM to 6 PM. They will have a table with all the information provided. Speakers are being lined up and anyone interested in speaking should reach out to do so. Light food and drink will be provided. Further, there are plans on coordinating with other organizers and sending invites to other minor parties.
The state of Arizona has moved the deadline for petition signatures up two weeks, meaning the Blase Henry campaign now is two weeks behind schedule. Instead of the previous deadline of April 6th, it is now March 23rd. The signature threshold is high and the challenge is a tough one, but the Blase Henry campaign is committed to collecting the signatures (currently needing less than 60 per day) and being an option come November. If you are in the Tucson area, we are seeking out volunteers to assist with signature collection!
Illinois – Two volunteers recently worked on the Joey Ruzevich campaign, assisting with handing out literature and canvassing. Joey Ruzevich is presently not a candidate endorsed by the national United States Pirate Party, but is a favorite among Illinois Pirates. Ruzevich is currently running in the Democratic Primary for IL-06 in the U.S. Congress.
Nevada – Hunter Rand will be hosting a Meet and Greet event on February 10th at MF International in Sparks. It is an RSVP event with information in the graphics below.
Pennsylvania – Drew Bingaman recently launched his new campaign website, which you can find here. Speaking of the campaign, there will be two (2) Meet and Greet and Petition Signing events on February 19th in Danville and February 21st in Sunbury, respectively. Information regarding those two events can be found on the Drew Bingaman campaign Facebook page.
Pirate National Committee – there are two (2) vacancies on the Pirate National Committee board, following resignations from our PR Director and Webadmin. The role is expected to be filled by the Feb. 22nd meeting. The Feb. 15th has been moved to livestream, meaning the Feb. 15th and 22nd meetings will both be livestreamed to YouTube.
Pirate National Conference – the Pirate National Conference, marking 20 years of the United States Pirate Party, will be held in Boston, MA on June 6th-7th. Saturday June 6th will commemorate twenty years since the party was founded in Athens, GA on June 6th, 2006. You can expect the 6th to feature more festivities and celebrations, while both days will still heavily feature conference business, including but not limited to electing a new board. Speakers, keynote or otherwise, will be announced in the coming weeks. All Pirate candidates will be offered time to speak.
Super Bowl – Congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks on winning Super Bowl LX, but allow us to take a moment to send our love to Bad Bunny for the Pan-American love letter during his Halftime Performance. Juntos somos América. Hell of a show.
The European Pirates concluded their 20th Council Meeting on 31 January 2026 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, focusing on discussion, collaboration, and policy dialogue. The new Board for the European Pirates was also elected during the meeting.
The weekend started with a pre-event by our Slovenian Pirates on 30 January in the form of a panel discussion titled “Chat Control: A Bad Idea That Won’t Go Away”. The topic was discussed by Markéta Gregorová, Member of the European Parliament; Jasmin Feratović, City Councillor of Ljubljana; and Thomas Kranz, Team Leader of the European Pirates Policy Team. The panel was moderated by Mattias Bjärnemalm, Secretary General of the European Pirates.
The Council Meeting took place on 31 January 2026 and was chaired by Marco Confalonieri. The meeting was held in a hybrid format, with online participants attending via Jitsi. It began with the registration of delegations and the Chair’s opening remarks, followed by the approval of the agenda. The meeting lasted five hours.
A total of 26 delegates attended, representing Pirate parties from different European countries.
Decisions During the Meeting
The Ukrainian Pirate Community proposed joining as an observer member, and the proposal received favourable votes.
PP-CAT (Pirates de Catalunya, Spain), one of the founding members, proposed becoming an observer member. The proposal was approved by voting.
A motion to adopt statutory changes in compliance with Luxembourgish law and to streamline the organisation’s operations was proposed. The motion was approved. This proposal had previously been presented at the 19th Council Meeting but did not pass due to insufficient delegates in attendance.
Reports, Discharge, and Elections
Annual reports for 2025, including the annual activity report, financial accounts, and Code of Conduct report, were submitted. The previous Board and the Lay Auditor’s report were formally discharged.
The meeting continued with the adoption of the 2026 work plan and budget.
Following the submission and discharge of reports, elections were held. The 11th European Pirate Party Board was elected. All nominations and voting were conducted via Discourse.
The newly elected Board is as follows:
Chairperson: Florian Roussel (re-elected)
Vice Chairperson: Paul Diegel
Vice Chairperson: Marietta Le
Treasurer: Alessandro Ciofini (re-elected)
Board Member: Matěj Bělohoubek
Board Member: Giuseppe Calandra (re-elected)
Board Member: Petr Kadlec
Board Member: Natalie Nanninga-Dorigo
Board Member: Nathalie Ylitalo
Closing
The 20th Council Meeting concluded after five hours of deliberation, marking an important step in the continued organisational development of the European Pirates. With the approval of statutory updates, the discharge of reports, the election of the 11th Board, and the adoption of key motions, the Council set the course for the organisation’s work in 2026.
The European Pirates extend their appreciation to the Slovenian Pirates for hosting the meeting and to all delegates for their active participation, both in person and online.
Previsioni meteo direttamente dal terminale? Arriva Clawea, l'utility scritta in Rust che unisce velocità e precisione grazie alle API di OpenWeatherMap. L'articolo Clawea: il meteo nel terminale Linux con la potenza di
The European Pirates concluded their 20th Council Meeting on 31 January 2026 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, focusing on discussion, collaboration, and policy dialogue. The…
Il presidente degli Stati Uniti ha firmato un nuovo ordine esecutivo che ridefinisce in modo significativo la politica di trasferimento di armamenti verso l’estero. L’obiettivo dichiarato è riallineare le esportazioni militari alle priorità strategiche e industriali di Washington, superando un approccio basato
Martedì 10 Febbraio 2026, ore 17:00 presso la Fondazione Luigi Einaudi, Via Della Conciliazione 10, Roma Hanno finora aderito: Gian Domenico Calazza, Stefano Ceccanti, Anna Paola Concia, Marilisa D’Amico, Claudia Mancina, Enrico Morando, Tommaso Nannicini, Mario Oliverio, Raffaella Paita, Giovanni Pellegrino, Cesare Salvi,
Ente è un servizio open source per archiviare e sincronizzare foto e video con crittografia end‑to‑end, multipiattaforma e senza tracciamento. Un’alternativa
Stmicroelectronics annuncia un ampliamento della collaborazione con Amazon Web Services. Ma l'accordo, al di là dei semiconduttori, prevede anche la possibilità per Amazon di comprare azioni. A cosa punta il colosso tech di startmag.it/innovazione/amazon…
Cascina Torchiera - Piazzale Cimitero Maggio 18, Milano (lunedì, 9 febbraio 20:00) Café Pantheon, opera prima di Gennaro Pollaro è un'antologia di racconti dal piglio surrealista.
Ad impreziosire le due presentazioni milanesi (lun 9 in Cascina Torchiera, mer 11 in biblioteca Baggio) il percussionista e polistrumentista Renato Taddeo.
Un viaggio in buona musica e belle parole, tra paradosso e realtà.
Biblioteca Baggio - via Pistoia 10, Milano (mercoledì, 11 febbraio 20:45) Opera prima di Gennaro Pollaro, Café Panthéon è una raccolta di racconti a sfondo surrealista che esplora l’immobilità contemporanea e la credenza fideista in divinità effimere. I protagonisti,
intrappolati in mondi distorti, vivono l’illusione del progresso e del futuro, mentre cercano risposte in una realtà che si sfalda.
Café Panthéon si pregia di uno stile originale e sorprendente, fatto di sintassi imprevedibile e cortocircuiti linguistici, che producono eventi bizzarri e visioni paradossali, svelando il vuoto esistenziale che pervade l’uomo del nostro tempo e costringendo il lettore a confrontarsi con l’assurdo e il mistero del non-senso.
L'incontro sarà impreziosito dal contributo musicale di Renato Taddeo.
Gennaro Pollaro nasce a Napoli nel 1992. Dopo la laurea in ingegneria civile, si trasferisce a Parigi, dove anima atelier di scrittura per un’associazione culturale.
Zamboni 38 - 38, Via Zamboni, Irnerio, Santo Stefano, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, 40126, Italia (mercoledì, 11 febbraio 18:00) 🧩Crediamo che l’antifascismo debba saper abitare il presente. Un antifascismo capace di ascoltare, di intrecciare le lotte, di parlare a chi vive sulla propria pelle la precarietà esistenziale e soprattutto un antifascismo capace di farsi pratica quotidiana, per una vita bella, per tutte!
Zamboni 38 - 38, Via Zamboni, Irnerio, Santo Stefano, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, 40126, Italia (mercoledì, 11 febbraio 21:00) 💥 38 OCCUPATO 💥 La zona universitaria non è uno spazio da militarizzare o normare. È un luogo vivo, attraversato da desideri, relazioni e rabbia. Per questo continuiamo a prenderla e autogestirla, contro ogni tentativo di controllo e svuotamento.
📍 Mercoledì 11 febbraio al 38 di via Zamboni Dalle 21 per una serata di musica e socialità: stare insieme e riempire gli spazi è una pratica collettiva che rompe l’isolamento.
🎶 Alla console Federico Inzerillo Techno / breaks / jungle
🕕 Alle 18 rilanciamo di nuovo l’assemblea cittadina antifascista: Per organizzarci, intrecciare lotte e costruire un antifascismo vivo, conflittuale, dal basso. Bologna è partigiana e antifascista. La zona universitaria è partigiana è antifascista. 🔥🔥🔥
CSOA La Strada - Via Passino, 24 (mercoledì, 11 febbraio 19:00) Mercoledì 11 febbraio alle ore 19 apriamo la campagna 100x100 Gaza a Roma
Dalle 21:00, in contemporanea con altre 100 sale in tutta Italia, la proiezione di “Disunited Nations” insieme al cineforum controvisioni e a sostegno della campagna 100x100Gaza
Nel marzo 2024, Francesca Albanese, Relatrice Speciale delle Nazioni Unite per i Territori Palestinesi Occupati, ha denunciato un genocidio a Gaza. Seguendo i suoi passi tra missioni, incontri istituzionali e pressioni politiche, questo documentario ci porta nel cuore della crisi delle Nazioni Unite, messa di fronte alla propria incapacità di impedire il massacro dei civili. Attraverso interviste, materiali d’archivio e il dietro le quinte del lavoro diplomatico, il film racconta il difficile equilibrio tra diritto internazionale, informazione e potere, mostrando come l’ONU e la comunità globale appaiano sempre più divise di fronte al conflitto. Le Nazioni Unite nacquero nel periodo in cui, nel 1947, venne deciso il Piano di Partizione della Palestina. Oggi la questione palestinese è la prova decisiva: l’Organizzazione saprà reggere, o ne uscirà irreversibilmente indebolita?
Al termine della proiezione in diretta streaming, la giornalista de Il Fatto Quotidiano Giulia Zaccariello dialoga con Francesca Albanese e Cecilia Strada.
Inizia:Mercoledì Febbraio 11, 2026 @ 7:00 PM GMT+01:00 (Europe/Rome)
Mercoledì 11 febbraio alle ore 19 apriamo la campagna 100x100 Gaza a Roma
Dalle 21:00, in contemporanea con altre 100 sale in tutta Italia, la proiezione di “Disunited Nations” insieme al cineforum controvisioni e a sostegno della campagna 100x100Gaza
Nel marzo 2024, Francesca Albanese, Relatrice Speciale delle Nazioni Unite per i Territori Palestinesi Occupati, ha denunciato un genocidio a Gaza. Seguendo i suoi passi tra missioni, incontri istituzionali e pressioni politiche, questo documentario ci porta nel cuore della crisi delle Nazioni Unite, messa di fronte alla propria incapacità di impedire il massacro dei civili. Attraverso interviste, materiali d’archivio e il dietro le quinte del lavoro diplomatico, il film racconta il difficile equilibrio tra diritto internazionale, informazione e potere, mostrando come l’ONU e la comunità globale appaiano sempre più divise di fronte al conflitto. Le Nazioni Unite nacquero nel periodo in cui, nel 1947, venne deciso il Piano di Partizione della Palestina. Oggi la questione palestinese è la prova decisiva: l’Organizzazione saprà reggere, o ne uscirà irreversibilmente indebolita?
Al termine della proiezione in diretta streaming, la giornalista de Il Fatto Quotidiano Giulia Zaccariello dialoga con Francesca Albanese e Cecilia Strada.
NON FINIRÒ DI AMARTI MAIÈ da questa certezza che nasce 100x100gaza, la mobilitazione popolare che a maggio 2025 ha dimostrato una verità semplice e potentissima: quando le comunità si muovono insieme, la solidarietà diventa forza concreta.
Presentazione di "Ci muove il desiderio. Una storia di femminismi e spazi più sicuri” con l’autrice Giada Bonu Rosenkranz
Sobilla - Salita Santo Sepolcro 6B (sabato, 21 febbraio 18:30) CI MUOVE IL DESIDERIO Una storia di femminismi e spazi più sicuri (Meltemi 2025)
Presentazione del libro con l'autrice Giada Bonu Rosenkranz
Sabato 21 febbraio – dalle ore 18:30 La Sobilla, Salita S. Sepolcro 6b, VR
Che cosa significa sentirsi al sicuro? E perché la sicurezza è diventata una questione così urgente per donne, persone trans e non binarie?
Oggi il concetto di sicurezza è al centro del dibattito pubblico, con i dati sulla violenza di genere che mostrano solo la punta dell’iceberg di un problema strutturale. In un contesto segnato dalla crisi della democrazia, dalla precarizzazione della vita e dalla crescita dei nazionalismi, la sicurezza diventa una parola contesa: strumento di controllo per alcuni, necessità quotidiana per chi vive condizioni sistemiche di vulnerabilità.
Una delle risposte dei movimenti femministi è la creazione di spazi fisici nei quali ritrovarsi, intraprendere percorsi di autocoscienza e rintracciare le radici sociali delle proprie esperienze.
Basata su una ricerca etnografica condotta per quattro anni in sei spazi femministi tra Roma e Madrid, l’indagine di Giada Bonu Rosenkranz rivela come questi luoghi diventino “strutture dei sentimenti” in grado non solo di riscrivere il concetto di sicurezza, ma anche di trasformarlo in un atto di resistenza collettiva: la riconquista del corpo e dello spazio diventa così una forma di liberazione dalle strutture oppressive che definiscono le nostre città e il mondo contemporaneo.
///// Giada Bonu Rosenkranz vive a Firenze ed è una studiosa e attivista femminista, attualmente ricercatrice presso la Scuola Normale Superiore e il Centro di ricerca sui movimenti sociali (COSMOS). È parte della redazione della rivista “DWF – donnawomanfemme” e ha curato Feminist Movements in Time and Space (con D. della Porta, 2025).
///// Ingresso libero con tessera (5€) / NO parking
@Informatica (Italy e non Italy) Criminalità digitale, tensioni geopolitiche e intelligenza artificiale stanno innescando un'evoluzione delle minacce online. Ecco cosa riporta l'indagine di Tinexta Cyber che fotografa la frequenza degli attacchi hacker in Italia L'articolo Un cyber
Psichedelici: ricerca scientifica, realtà clinica, impieghi terapeutici e implicazioni regolatorie nazionali e internazionali.
6 e 7 marzo 2026 Auditorium del CAST, Centro di Studi Avanzati e Technologia, dell’Università G. d’Annunzio di Chieti-Pescara E’ necessario registrarsi QUI per assistere in presenza o online
Il convegno, nato dalla sinergia e dalla proposta dell’Associazione Luca Coscioni con tre grandi realtà universitarie (Università di Chieti, La Sapienza e L’università di Tor Vergata) si terrà il 6 e 7 marzo a Chieti, città che per prima ospiterà una sperimentazione italiana con la psilocibina, principio attivo dei funghi magici, sotto la direzione del Prof. Martinotti.
L’interesse clinico e scientifico per i molti promettenti studi in corso sulle molecole psichedeliche rende necessario un momento di riflessione anche accademica e di studio, con un approccio scientifico e non ideologico, volto ad inquadrare e superare le difficoltà culturali che avvolgono le sostanze sottoposte a controllo internazionale. Al contempo è necessario allargare il campo d’osservazione e inquadrare le molte sfaccettature del tema relativo all’uso medico delle sostanze psichedeliche, raccontarne le complessità.
L’evento si articolerà dunque in 3 moduli tematici.
Un primo modulo (venerdì mattina) si concentrerà sugli aspetti della ricerca con psichedelici, con apertura dei lavori del Direttore AIFA e del Prof. Giovanni Martinotti, autore della prima sperimentazione con psilocibina. Saranno esaminati gli aspetti farmacologici, neuroscientifici, i meccanismi di azione del farmaco, gli strumenti di indagine, le diverse metodologie sperimentali e le particolarità della ricerca con psichedelici, per poi passare alle diverse applicazioni cliniche in corso nel mondo, nella salute mentale come in altre patologie e nell’ambito delle cure palliative e nel fine vita, per interrogarsi, infine, sulle prospettive attese dalla comunità scientifica;
Il secondo modulo (venerdì pomeriggio) si concentrerà sul ruolo del terapueta nell’assistenza e dell’accompagnamento in tutte le sue fasi preparatorie e di integrazione dell’esperienza, con esame dei concetti di set e setting, e sulle diverse opzioni di psicoterapia assistita con uso di psichedelici: specificità, oneri, e le difficoltà classificatorie ai fini regolatori e di integrazione nel sistema sanitario nazionale. Infine una particolare attenzione sarà rivolta al loro uso nel fine vita e come cura palliativa del dolore e dello stato d’ansia correlato al morire.
Terzo ed ultimo modulo (sabato mattina) sarà dedicato agli aspetti legali e regolatori relativi alle possibilità di sperimentazione e di applicazione del farmaco sperimentali, in una prospettiva comparata con quanto accade nel resto del mondo, con interventi da remoto di professionisti, pazienti ed esperti esteri.
Il #10febbraio 2026 si celebra, in contemporanea in oltre 100 nazioni di tutto il mondo, il #SaferInternetDay, la giornata mondiale per la sicurezza in Rete. L’evento nazionale si svolgerà dalle ore 10.
Il #10febbraio 2026 si celebra, in contemporanea in oltre 100 nazioni di tutto il mondo, il #SaferInternetDay, la giornata mondiale per la sicurezza in Rete. L’evento nazionale si svolgerà dalle ore 10.
IT'S MONDAY, AND THIS IS DIGITAL POLITICS. I'm Mark Scott, and will be in Amsterdam next week to present this work at this year's DSA and Platform Regulation Conference. If you're also in town, drop me a line to say hi.
— As defense types meet at the Munich Security Conference this week, the importance of protecting the online information environment from abuse has never been more important. But it comes with significant perils.
— The European Commission's latest regulatory move against TikTok is less to do with potential harm on the platform, and more about sending a policymaking message, at home and abroad.
— The rise of a polarized social media has led to many users disengaging with these online platforms.
Let's get started:
THE PUBLIC SECURITY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
IF DAVOS IS WHERE THE GREAT AND THE GOOD of the business world meet to swap notes, then the Munich Security Conference, which gets underway on Feb 13, is where their equivalents in the defense world similarly gather to break bread. They will have a lot to talk about. From the almost 4-year war between Russia and Ukraine to the fraying transatlantic alliance to Europe's renewed efforts to stand up on its own two feet, this year's gathering in the southern German town represents a marker of a new era that has yet to be defined.
Among the topics to be discussed (alongside the ubiquitous AI hype-vest) will be the ongoing toxic nature of the online world and how that potentially harms countries' public security.
For many policymakers, this represents the sweet spot of ongoing accusations — some real, some not — that Russia continues to meddle in Western elections via a spidery web of disinformation agents and so-called hybrid attacks. It also includes an increase in public spending for government efforts to thwart such digital trickery, as well as proposals like the European Commission's Democracy Shield aimed at boosting collective resilience through a mixture of media literacy, public support for independent media and greater research into social media platforms.
It wouldn't be an international conference without some shade from the United States. Details are still thin on the ground. But I would expect senior White House and federal government officials to double down on accusations that Europe's online safety rules are akin to censorship; that Europe needs to embrace its historic culture heritage; and that only more free speech can combat the legitimate real-world harms seeping out of some of these global digital services.
Let's leave aside the US' significant critique on any form of online safety or disinformation-busting efforts. More on that here.
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For other countries realizing there's a significant public security threat associated with unfettered — and, for most jurisdictions, unregulated — online spaces, many fall into a policymaking fallacy about where the real threat lies. That reduces their ability to truly marshal sufficient resources to provide a safe online environment — while, it should go without saying, upholding fundamental free speech rights.
First, the fallacy. While each country is different — and some jurisdictions face significantly more Russian meddling (like Moldova and Germany) than others — the Kremlin, on average, is not the main driver of politically-motivated disinformation and online polarization that many would believe. This over-indexing on Russian actors therefore pushes national security and digital policymaking to focus on a small subset of threats compared to more comprehensive issues currently affecting social media.
Yes, Russian state-affiliated actors are still doing what they can to shift public opinion. That includes everything from creating spoofed websites that pretend to be Western media outlets so they can spread falsehoods to significant bot farms — on all social media platforms — to try and shift the conversation, one way or the other.
These tactics have evolved since they first hit the headlines in 2016 around the US presidential election. Though, arguably, they existed decades earlier, often in analogue form. But what also has shifted over the last decade is online attention economy. Now, roughly the top two percent of online creators garner more than 60 percent, if not more, of time in people's social media feeds. That means most Russian-affiliated content just doesn't get the eyeballs that it once did.
If a Kremlin bot creates a sophisticated disinformation campaign, but no one (apart from other bots) sees it, does it even exist? In my view, no. No it doesn't.
Such ongoing attempts to create Russia as the bogeyman — especially due to its ongoing atrocities in Ukraine — has fixated many policymakers and, increasingly, national security types on the "what," and not the "why" of social media. By that, I mean it's too easy to focus on finding potentially harmful, politicized disinformation (see here) and not on the systems that amplify potential polarizing content to national audiences.
The 'why' in this context is the increasingly sophisticated social media recommendation algorithms that have made each user's feed a bespoke make-up of content which these companies believe will keep people interested (and, therefore, glued to the platform.)
Gone are the days where people typically received updates from friends and family — those posts now represent between seven and 17 percent on Instagram and Facebook, respectively.
Instead, these recommender systems, whose operations remain closed off from scrutiny, have been tailored to maximize engagement, even if that comes through party-political polarization and other content that potentially harms wider public security.
This is where I start to get queasy. I am a big fan of free speech, and I do not believe national security agencies should be poking around into either my, yours or companies' business. But just as too much time is spent hunting down Russian actors online, not enough time is dedicated to unpicking how these social media algorithms operate. These systems can actually harm people in the real world — more so, in my opinion, than the specter of Kremlin-back botfarms.
There needs to be greater coordination between outward looking national security agencies and inward looking regulators and policymakers focused around online safety. Currently, that is a relationship that either doesn't exist, or is only starting to take shape.
That will involve national security officials finding a way to maintain their independence from monitoring what happens within their countries' borders — a barrier which, legitimately, must be upheld to protect people's fundamental rights.
But to suggest that protecting the information environment is merely a foreign issue — that whatever foreign actors do overseas to target a country's population stands apart from how social media promotes specific content, at home — is a false dichotomy.
To combat online threats that may affect public security — all while upholding free speech rights and other individual freedoms — new connections must be formed between national security and online safety officials. That is not going to be an easy lift, given how each community approaches the digital topics that fall within their overlapping mandates.
But to not try is to relegate ourselves to live in a world defined by what happened in 2016 (and the specific characteristics of a singular US presidential election.)
The world has moved on. So should we.
Chart of the Week
A RESEARCHER AT THE UNIVERSITY AMSTERDAM discovered a correlation between the rise of polarization of posts (at least on Facebook and X) and the number of users who disengaged on those platforms during the 2020 and 2024 US presidential elections.
The first set of charts (on the left) highlight how between the 2020-2024 election cycles, all social media sites — with the exception of TikTok and Reddit — lost users, particularly among the young and elderly.
The second set of charts (on the right) shows the level of posting on both X and Facebook rose significantly, over that period, for those users who were more polarized than their more mainstream counterparts.
THE BERLAYMONT BUILDING in central Brussels can be a weird place. Amid the smattering of European languages and EU officials busily going about their business, the center of the European Commission is a labyrinth of complexity, double-speak and really (and I mean really) bad coffee.
So when the EU's executive branch announced on Feb 6 it had found TikTok in preliminary violation of the bloc's Digital Services Act, I took note. But not for the reason you might think.
Under the still-yet-to-be-finalized decision, the European Commission said it believed the China-linked app had not adequately assessed the addictive features baked into the popular social media service. That included allegedly rewarding users with new content to keep them doomscrolling and sending people (and particularly children) notifications during the wee hours of the morning.
"Social media addiction can have detrimental effects on the developing minds of children and teens," Henna Virkkunen, the European Commissioner in charge of tech policy, said in a statement. In response, TikTok denied the accusations and said it would fight Brussels' preliminary decision.
So far, so good.
But the European Commission's announcement wasn't really about TikTok. I mean, it was about the China-linked platform, as the investigation that led to this preliminary ruling dated from 2024. But the true audience, for my money, was Europeans and, to a lesser degree, Americans.
On the first, the TikTok ruling was specifically designed to tee up the EU's upcoming Digital Fairness Act, which is slated to be published in the fourth quarter of the year. Those proposals are aimed, in part, at so-called "dark patterns" of addictive design that — shockingly — are central to Brussels' claims against TikTok.
What better way to show the need for more rulemaking than demonstrating a real-world case of harm (via the TikTok preliminary decision), which then can be used to make the case for the Digital Fairness Act in late 2026.
On the second, it's telling the European Commission chose TikTok, and not Facebook, for its preliminary ruling. Officials say that separate case (around similar issues linked to addictive design) is still ongoing, and may (or may not) lead to a preliminary ruling.
But in the wake of the US House of Representatives holding another hearing around alleged European online censorship — and US officials traveling to Munich this week to make similar accusations — it's helpful, politically, to show that Europe's digital rulebook isn't just targeting Silicon Valley. In truth, more Chinese firms (AliExpress, Temu, TikTok) have faced decisions under the bloc's online safety rules than US counterparts (which only includes X, so far).
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This is where you have every right to call me a conspiracy theorist. That's not how regulatory enforcement works, I hear you saying. Brussels is just enforcing the rules as outlined within its regulation.
To which, I say yes. But to a point. As I mentioned above, the Berlaymont Building is a strange place. The European Commission sits in a weird regulatory position where it both writes and enforces the rules. Political decisions — particularly in light of the strained relationship with the US — are always taken into account in how the bloc's legislation is enforced. That's especially true for something like the Digital Services Act that includes new enforcement powers which no one within the European Commission has ever wielded before.
In that context, a regulatory decision is not just a regulatory decision.
It's a political marker to demonstrate, to both internal and external audiences, where the region is heading with its digital rulebook. Choosing TikTok and its alleged addictive design therefore meets two purposes. It provides political cover for the upcoming Digital Fairness Act and it allows EU leaders to tell Washington the bloc's rules apply to everyone — and not just US Big Tech.
What I'm reading
— The European Artificial Intelligence & Society Fund outlines its strategy for the next five years. More here.
— The Lowy Institute published a deep dive into the so-called "sovereign citizen movement" has gone global via digital platforms. More here.
— Ahead of next week's AI Impact Summit in India, researchers have written the second annual International AI Safety Report which documents efforts to safeguard the emerging technology. More here.
— Media companies still want to work with online platform to access their audience and global reach, despite reservations about how their content is monetized by these tech companies, argues Rasmus Kleis Nielsen in Digital Journalism.
— Australia's eSafety Commissioner hosts a series of analyses of emerging technologies and their impact on online safety. More here.
Sometimes you just know that you have the best ever idea for a hardware product, to the point that you’re willing to quit your job and make said product a reality. If only you can get the product and its brilliance to people, it would really brighten up their lives. This was the starry-eyed vision that [Simon Berens] started out with in January of 2025, when he set up a Kickstarter campaign for the World’s Brightest Lamp. When your product starts shipping and you hope everything went right. (Credit: Simon Berens) At 50,000 lumens this LED-based lamp would indeed bring the Sun into one’s home, and crowdfunding money poured in, leaving [Simon] scrambling to get the first five-hundred units manufactured. Since it was ‘just a lamp’, how hard could it possibly be? As it turns out, ‘design for manufacturing’ isn’t just a catchy phrase, but the harsh reality of where countless well-intended designs go to die.
The first scramble was to raise the lumens output from the prototype’s 39K to a slight overshot at 60K, after which a Chinese manufacturer was handed the design files. This manufacturer had to create among other things the die casting molds for the heatsinks before production could even commence. Along with the horror show of massive US import taxes suddenly appearing in April, [Simon] noticed during his visit to the Chinese factory that due to miscommunication the heatsink was completely wrong.
Months of communication and repeated trips to the factory follow after this, but then the first units ship out, only for users to start reporting issues with the control knobs ‘scraping’. This was due to an issue with tolerances not being marked in the CNC drawings. Fortunately the factory was able to rework this issue within a few days, only for users to then report issues with the internal cable length, also due to this not having been specified explicitly.
All of these issues are very common in manufacturing, and as [Simon] learned the hard way, it’s crucial to do as much planning and communication with the manufacturer and suppliers beforehand. It’s also crucial to specify every single part of the design, down to the last millimeter of length, thickness, diameter, tolerance and powder coating layers, along with colors, materials, etc. ad nauseam. It’s hard to add too many details to design files, but very easy to specify too little.
Ultimately a lot of things did go right for [Simon], making it a successful crowdfunding campaign, but there were absolutely many things that could have saved him a lot of time, effort, lost sleep, and general stress.
C’è bisogno di una “massa immaginaria per descrivere il mondo”. Così Antonino Zichichi, nel luglio del 2012, definiva la portata della scoperta del bosone di Higgs, subito ribattezzato dai media “la particella di Dio”, all’indomani dell’annuncio da p…
Si svolgerà dal 10 al 12 febbraio, in modalità online, il Festival internazionale del Film cattolico “Mirabile Dictu”, che giunge quest’anno alla diciassettesima edizione.
“Molte persone cominciano ad aprirsi a una ricerca più onesta e autentica, una ricerca che, accompagnata con pazienza e rispetto, le sta conducendo nuovamente all’incontro con Cristo”.
The European Commission preliminarily found that TikTok was in breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA) due to the addictive design of its platform. EDRi welcomes this decision and urges TikTok to swiftly mitigate the risks to which its users are exposed.
o rispetti trump o rispetti la vita e la libertà. e il fatto che anche solo più del 10% degli americani rispetti trump qualifica l'"america". c'è poco da fare.
@Notizie dall'Italia e dal mondo Le nuove misure approvate dal gabinetto di sicurezza israeliano prevedono acquisti diretti di proprietà, interventi edilizi senza consenso palestinese e applicazione più ampia delle leggi israeliane nei territori occupati. L'articolo Israele annette la Cisgiordania e cancella Oslo proviene da Pagine Esteri.
NetXMS è una piattaforma open source per il monitoraggio di reti e infrastrutture, altamente scalabile e personalizzabile, ideale per aziende L'articolo NetXMS: la piattaforma open source per il monitoraggio di
Tra poche settimane Samsung consegnerà a Nvidia le sue nuove memorie Hbm4. L'azienda sudcoreana sembra aver recuperato lo svantaggio rispetto ad altre aziende ed essersi messa nelle condizioni di cavalcare il boom della domanda di chip di memoria da parte dell'industria
Sapere cosa accade e capirne il significato è la chiave per gestire qualsiasi realtà, anticipandone e influenzandone gli sviluppi. Le realtà geopolitiche di questi anni Venti del terzo millennio sono straordinariamente complesse, veloci e contraddittorie, tali da
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.
Meta non può escludere gli assistenti IA di altre aziende dalla sua app di messaggistica WhatsApp, ha affermato lunedì la Commissione Europea. L’annuncio delle misure provvisorie
6 e 7 marzo 2026
Auditorium del CAST, Centro di Studi Avanzati e Technologia, dell’Università G. d’Annunzio di Chieti-Pescara
