In reaction to the recent plan to “open a formal dialogue” with the US government on EU tech rules, EDRi and other civil society organisations urge the Commission to halt this plan that risks giving Big Tech a back door to weaken the EU digital rulebook and its enforcement.

The post Europe’s digital laws are not bargaining chips appeared first on European Digital Rights (EDRi).

One year ago, EDRi, European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL) and Lighthouse Reports launched the Civic Journalism Coalition with the aim of connecting investigative journalists with digital rights and civil society organisations. Today, that partnership is yielding tangible results, from journalistic investigations to a new practical guide for collaboration. Here is an overview of the activities - investigations, workshops and community-building efforts - that have shaped the Coalition.

The post A practical guide to joint investigations: lessons learned from one year of the Civic Journalism Coalition appeared first on European Digital Rights (EDRi).

In the fall the Think Twice conference will be held in Brussels. In preparation to this event the possibility to apply to speak at it is now opening up.

Initial deadline for submissions: May 1, 2026.

The major subject of the event will be: AI & Governance

1. AI for Governance
How can AI support democratic institutions, public services, civic participation, and open decision-making?

2. AI Governance
How can societies regulate and oversee AI to ensure accountability, fairness, openness, and the protection of rights?

Please write in with submissions for individual talks. The talks will be held in approximately 15 minute slots. Presentations and abstracts should be in English. Depending on de amount of speakers and available slots there might be opportunities for panel discussions or group roundtables when topics show a large amount of overlap.

There will also be room for those wanting to present posters, have a stand or want to participate in the conference in other ways.

The Think Twice Conference (TT5) Submissions

Participants from all government and non-government organizations and civil society, from all political ideologies, are welcome

europeanpirates.eu/think-twice…

Fill Out The Call for Speakers Form Here

The Think Twice Conference (TT5)
AI & Governance: Opportunities and Risks for Digital Freedom

Date and Location: October 16–17, 2026, Brussels, Belgium
Call for Speakers Deadline: May 1st, 2026

The following is the sign-up sheet for those interested in presenting at TT5. The Think Twice Conference brings together diverse voices to discuss emerging issues in technology and society. The conference takes place on a semi-annual basis in different locations around the world. This year’s theme focuses on artificial intelligence and its impact on governance and digital freedom.

When TT4 took place in Prague in 2022, AI was absent from the agenda. Today, AI is deeply embedded in public life. Governments are beginning to use AI to automate services, support decisions, detect anomalies, and manage resources. These tools can improve efficiency and transparency, but they can also create new risks: biased data, opaque systems, concentrated power, cyber vulnerabilities, and the erosion of trust.

TT5 explores two central questions:

1) How can AI strengthen governance while protecting digital freedom?

2) How can digital freedom shape the governance of AI?

Fill Out The Call for Speakers Form Here

All speakers must commit to physically presenting at the event. Limited seating will be available for the general public. A separate conference registration will be sent to the general public at a later date. Presentations will be broadcast with live feedback from a global online audience, abstracts and bios of accepted speakers will be published on the conference website.

Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 words along with a short bio about yourself.

Presentation Frameworks

1. AI for Governance

How can AI support democratic institutions, public services, civic participation, and open decision-making?

2. AI Governance

How can societies regulate and oversee AI to ensure accountability, fairness, openness, and the protection of rights?

Topics of Interest

• AI for public services and democratic participation
• Transparency and open data
• Automated regulation and oversight
• Digital freedom and user autonomy
• Impact of AI on political communication and civic life

Submission Guidelines

Initial deadline for submissions: May 1, 2026.

Submissions are welcome for individual talks. We will offer approximately 15 minute slots for individual speakers. Presentations and abstracts should be in English. Based on the amount of slots available, we will also offer some applicants to be participants in group roundtables.

We also welcome abstracts from those who would like to present posters, stands, or other forms of participation in the conference.

Presenters will be selected by a working group committee established by the boards of Pirate Parties International and the European Pirates.

Participants from all government and non-government organizations and civil society, from all political ideologies, are welcome.

Fill Out The Call for Speakers Form Here

pp-international.net/2026/04/t…

From the moment DJ Kool Herc busted out two turntables during a New York City party in 1973, showing the world his “breakbeat” style, Hip-Hop was born.

James Brown to Bongo Rock to “The Mexican” by Babe Ruth (the English band, not the baseball player), the entire basis was taking the break, the drum-heavy instrumental breakdown that Herc noticed people would dance hardest during, and making an entire set on back-to-back breaks.

Sampling became the blueprint in which Hip-Hop was built up around.

Hip-Hop is, by and large, remix culture. Artists constantly reusing each other’s lyrics, flows, and of course, instrumentals that know no genre.

It is, in essence, a true expression of a free and open culture.

While Hip-Hop started as a Black New Yorkers’ scene, focused on making cassettes of live performances, it would soon evolve into something much grander.

Even as Hip-Hop evolved, the concept of sampling was a staple in the creation of Hip-Hop records. “Rapper’s Delight” by Sugarhill Gang, one of the first commercial released and the first Top 40 Hip-Hop song, sampled/interpolated Chic’s “Good Times” (a song released the same year as “Rapper’s Delight”).

Two years later, they’d sample the Incredible Bongo Band’s cover of “Apache” for their own rendition.

Come 1986, Run DMC would hit Top 5 with their cover/remix of Aerosmith’s “Walk this Way”

Two years later, Tone Lōc would have two Top 3 hits with “Wild Thing,” which sampled Van Halen’s “Jamie’s Cryin’,” and “Funky Cold Medina,” which sampled from various tracks like “Hot Blooded” by Foreigner, “Christine Sixteen” by KISS, and “Can’t Get No Satisfaction” and “Honky Tonk Women” by the Rolling Stones.

Hip-Hop’s meteoric rise is nothing to overlook. What was considered “black music” was crossing over steadily into the mainstream, with audiences of all backgrounds learning to love Hip-Hop. It was unique and original, ironically enough when considering it is build on samplings.

But that’s the point. Nothing about you is original, either. You are pieces of everyone and everything you have ever met, experienced and loved. Hip-Hop, like you, is unique in how it was all put together.

Importantly, it was authentic. Authenticity was, in many aspects, one of the most important features of Hip-Hop. Even after leaving New York and entering cities all across the United States, the one constant expectation was that it was authentic.

Perhaps, in the same vein as Punk Rock before it, it became an indicator of something more raw and real than commercially produced pop or even rock.

So if a record label were to try and make a pop star out of a Hip-Hop artist, it might be met with skepticism.

Worse, what if a record label tried to do when they did with Elvis? Find a handsome white kid who makes predominantly black music and sell it to suburban audiences, then what would happen?

What would happen: you get Vanilla Ice.

Rob Van Winkle was born in 1967 and grew up in the Dallas and Miami areas. By ages 13-14, he had taken up breakdancing; just one of his many interests.

Being the only white breakdancer in his group, they bestowed upon him the nickname “Vanilla.”

After partaking in battle rapping, he would earn the additional label “MC,” becoming “MC Vanilla” before deciding to drop the “MC” entirely in favor of paying homage to one of his dance moves, “The Ice,” and becoming “Vanilla Ice.”

Vanilla Ice would be somewhat of an oddity, to say the least. He’s not the first white person to enter Hip-Hop, but Vanilla Ice’s combined rapping and breakdancing abilities made him stand out and help to deem him legitimate and talented enough to tour with fellow rappers. Vanilla Ice would be opening act for artists such as Ice-T and Sir-Mix-a-Lot during the “Stop the Violence” tour.

In early 1990, Vanilla Ice released his album “Hooked” as part of the independent record label “Ichiban Records.” The first single off the album sampled an earlier radio staple and could instantly be recognized by anyone listening.

That was “Play the Funky Music” by Wild Cherry.

The B-Side to the single was “Ice Ice Baby,” which sampled David Bowie + Queen’s “Under Pressure.”

Public Enemy, major Hip-Hop influences and hovering around the peak of their popularity, tried to convince Def Jam to sign the good-looking Vanilla Ice to a contract before he would ultimately sign with newcomers SBK Records.

Mistake #1.

Under SBK, Vanilla Ice would re-record “Hooked” and rerelease it under the name “To the Extreme.” “Ice Ice Baby” would become the lead single, released commercially on August 22nd, 1990 before “To the Extreme” would be released in full nearly three weeks later on September 10th.

By the week of November 10th, “To the Extreme” would top the Billboard Hot 200 charts and stay there until March 2nd. “Ice Ice Baby” was atop the Billboard Hot 100 charts during the week of November 3rd.

New and fresh to the scene, SBK’s Hip-Hop Elvis was seeing the successes they had hoped he’d see.

At first.

Pushed as a pop star instead of a Hip-Hop artist, there was a distinct lack of what Hip-Hop fans would call “credibility” to his fame and success.

Black artists for years have tried to achieve the successes Vanilla Ice made in short order. Run-DMC’s “Raising Hell,” the album featuring “Walk the Way” could only peak at Number 3. Tone Lōc’s “Lōc-ed After Dark” only held the top position for a week.

To the Extreme was only the fourth “Hip-Hop” album to go number one on the Billboard Hot 200, after the white Beastie Boys’s Licensed to Ill topped the chart in early 1987 for seven weeks, Lōc-ed After Dark’s week in 1989, and MC Hammer 21 non-consecutive weeks on top with “Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em” in 1990.

Sure, MC Hammer was atop the charts just earlier in the year, but the success of “U Can’t Touch This” made him a genuine crossover artist. Hip-Hop purists would hardly have considered MC Hammer real “Hip-Hop.”

Thus, it would ultimately serve as a disservice to be the follow up act of the mainstream’s safe-for-the-suburbs Hip-Hop. Especially if they’re trying to replicate that magic with you.

When trying to be taken seriously in Hip-Hop, your authenticity and credibility is a major factor. Trying to take Hip-Hop commercial was always going to be met with backlash if it lacked those two factors.

Unfortunately for Vanilla Ice, perception is reality, and he was perceived to be neither authentic nor credible.

Made worse was Vanilla Ice opening his mouth.

Vanilla Ice was asked directly about the “Under Pressure” sample, he famously said it was different and not the same beat.

It was.

“Their’s goes ‘Ding ding ding dingy ding-ding.’ Ours goes, ‘Ding ding ding ding dingy ding-ding.'”

MC Hammer never said “U Can’t Touch This” wasn’t sampling “Super Freak” by Rick James.

So in one fall swoop, Vanilla Ice made himself out to look like a liar and even a little dumb.

No amount of “I was only joking,” even if he was, was going to fix that.

Then, of course, when fighting off “Hip Hop Elvis” allegations, one might not be advised to tell critics, while accepting the the award for Favorite New Pop/Rock Artist at the American Music Awards, to “Kiss my white butt.”

Elvis never said that.

In his defense, someone in their mid-20s who was rocketed into superstardom wouldn’t have the PR training or common sense to not make such absurd claims or draw attention to his whiteness, as he’s winning Favorite New Pop Artist awards while making “Hip-Hop,” but the damage was already done.

Mistake #2.

While on tour in February of 1991, SBK Records released a book entitled “Ice by Ice: The Vanilla Ice Story in His Own Words.”

The book was, in fact, not in his own words, but was a total fabrication by his record label. They paid Vanilla Ice nearly a million dollars so they could “authorize” the book. Vanilla Ice wouldn’t be made aware of the contents until after the book’s release.

Mistake #3.

In October of 1991, the movie “Cool as Ice” starring Vanilla Ice would be released.

Mistake #4.

Vanilla Ice, a kid who by all intents and purposes was doing what he loved and had a passion for, was seen as a novelty act at best and a thief and liar at worst.

Hip-Hop was built around samples. This is not a tear down of “Ice Ice Baby” or a ripping apart of Vanilla Ice. Vanilla Ice is not a thief nor can he be merely written off as a culture vulture.

Vanilla Ice was propelled into fame by outside forces, trying to make money off of a handsome young white kid making black music. His record label used his rapping and breakdancing chops to make money, in hopes that he would be their next Elvis, only to gladly dump him aside when that wouldn’t be the case.

Take a step back and realize: Vanilla Ice isn’t the bad guy here. A twenty-something year old kid who gets told he can make money doing what he loved isn’t the bad guy. Yes, he has agency. Yes, he’s not entirely free of guilt. But in taking that step back, you need to look beyond Vanilla Ice and see the bigger picture.

The record label, the music executives, and those above him who put him out for the world to see are directly implicated in his rise and fall.

The United States Pirate Party not only believes in putting individuals before institutions, but we also believe in the promotion of a free and open society.

What Vanilla Ice represents is two fold: an individual getting taken advantage of by an institution (in this case, the commercial music business) and fair use of intellectual property.

Hip-Hop was built around the sample, and people only seemed to care about their songs getting sampled when they wouldn’t see their cut of the success of the new creation.

Vanilla Ice didn’t ask for permission from Queen or David Bowie for the same reason he didn’t ask Wild Cherry: he was an underground Hip-Hop artist who went mainstream on his single. Until he went mainstream, he was making no money off the song.

So who cared?

Vanilla Ice continued on with a tradition of sampling songs you loved to create something new, and say what you will about the output, but it’s hard to deny he was authentic in that endeavor.

Vanilla Ice deserves to be remembered as a kid who was a victim of his own success. The people who built him up and made money off of him were just as ready and happy to send him to the wolves when things weren’t good.

Vanilla Ice was not a thief. A liar? Maybe for a moment, but he backtracked in the years since and has been upfront about the sample.

People deserve to be credited and have their works properly attributed. The United States Pirate Party believes that. The USPP also believes remix culture is valid and, as long as credit and compensation (if monetary gains are there) is given, it should never been seen as “theft.”

The easy thing would be to ignore Vanilla Ice, but as the party founded around the basis of copyright and patents, it feels like the one time the Pirate Party niche can be held under scrutiny.

If one can only apply the Pirate Party belief system to upstanding citizens like Fannie Lou Hamer or John Quincy Adams, but have it fall apart when defending more complicated individuals, then those are not values; they are aesthetics and they are not worth upholding. We know far more Rob Van Winkles than we do Martin Luther Kings.

If you’re going to hate Vanilla Ice, don’t do it because he “stole” something or was “inauthentic.” Vanilla Ice was an individual, and a victim of an institution that didn’t want the best for him.

You can hate him for Cool as Ice though.

That’s right, dear reader. This wasn’t a joke.

April Fools!

uspirates.org/through-the-spyg…

What has the EDRi network been up to over the past few weeks? Find out the latest digital rights news in our bi-weekly newsletter. In this edition: Rushing, forcing, squeezing – EU’s deregulation & securitisation agenda makes a joke of our rights

The post EDRi-gram, 1 April 2026 appeared first on European Digital Rights (EDRi).

Greek courts have issued a landmark criminal first-instance conviction in the Predatorgate scandal, finding four individuals linked to the spyware vendor Intellexa guilty of unlawful surveillance, with cumulative sentences of 126 years and 8 months. Courts must now establish responsibility for who ordered this espionage. The case also resonates across the EU, challenging the widespread impunity of vendors and intensifying the calls for a ban on spyware.

The post Predatorgate: Breaking the chain of impunity of the spyware underworld appeared first on European Digital Rights (EDRi).

A March 2026 study by Bits of Freedom shows how gamification features of Snapchat influence young people. Some respondents experience negative effectslike more screen time than they want or feeling pressured to interact with the app. The results of the research support the importance of freedom of choice on online platforms: young people need to have more control over where their attention is going, what they are seeing and what they are displaying of themselves online.

The post New study reveals how young people are influenced by gamification features on Snapchat appeared first on European Digital Rights (EDRi).