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Azadeh Akbari

@azadehakbari.bsky.social
9K followers 1.1K following 242 posts

Prof. Critical Data & Technology Studies @ Goethe University Frankfurt / digital authoritarianism, surveillance, smart cities/ Co-Director @Survstudiesnet.bsky.social / Founder @surveillancemw.bsky.social *personal account*

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Reposted by Azadeh Akbari
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 22/09/2026
@azadehakbari.bsky.social & I have a chapter out on " #SmartCities as Control Cities ", in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Society. We thought this would be Open Access, but it's not. 🤐 If you want to a copy, please ask me... academic.oup.com/edited-volum...
academic.oup.com
Smart Cities as Control Cities
Summary. The rise of smart cities has been marked not only by rapid technological innovation but also by a deepening entanglement with systems of surveilla
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Reposted by Azadeh Akbari
Digital Geographies Research Group @dgrgrgs.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
🎙️ We’re delighted to welcome Professor Azadeh Akbari as one of our fantastic panellists for this year’s DGRG Annual Lecture at RGS-IBG AC26! See you in the Ondaajte Theatre on Thursday 3rd, 16:35–18:15 to hear more about @azadehakbari.bsky.social's work 🌍
The image shows a speaker profile for Prof Azadeh Akbari. On the right is a picture of the Prof, smiling at the camera. She wears an orange scarf and stands against a colourful background. On the left is a blue and pink urban image. The title reads "Digital Geographies Research Group Annual Lecture RGS-IBG AC26". This is followed by the Prof's profile, explaining that she is a Prof of Critical Data and Technology Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt. She is part of the Center for Critical Computational Studies and part of the Geography faculty. She researchs topics including the geopolitics of digital transformation and data justice. She directs the Surveillance Studies Network and has founded and directed the Surveillance in the Majority World Network. She was Assistant Professor at the University of Twente previously, and often featuring in the media on issues of surveillance At the bottom, is a final sentence "Join us in the Ondaajte Theatre on Thursday 3rd September, 16:35-18:15"
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
I’ll be talking about my latest paper “uneven datafication” today in Hamburg. Please join in person or online if you feel like talking theory ☺️ www.inf.uni-hamburg.de/home/news/cu...
inf.uni-hamburg.de
Öffentlicher Vortrag: Uneven Datafication: Political Economy of Digital Colonial Capitalism
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
I‘m not a native speaker but wasn’t it mutilation?
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
The summer has arrived… writing a response to all the generous and thoughtful comments on „uneven datafication“
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Reposted by Azadeh Akbari
Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
🧵My paper on "Uneven Datafication" just came out! It draws on literature on coloniality, uneven development and dependency. Uneven datafication operates through three interrelated dynamics: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Screenshot of the paper's title and abstract called uneven datafication, for the journal Dialogues in Digital Society
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
If you needed one more reason why Zambia cancelled @rightscon.org:
open.substack.com
How China Built its Technosphere in Zambia
China: Technosphere provides a biweekly deep-dive into China’s technological control at home and influence abroad.
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Reposted by Azadeh Akbari
Vas Panagiotopoulos @vaspanagiotopoulos.com · 12/05/2026
NEW: A @hrw.org report published today finds that despite a regulatory framework designed to prevent abuses, 🇪🇺EU is currently doing **too little** to prevent sales & transfers of #surveillance technology by its members to governments with a track record of serious human rights violations. 🧵
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Thank you 🙏🏽
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Thank you!
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Reposted by Azadeh Akbari
michael caster @mcaster.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
'Autocrats Are Collaborating on Next-Generation Internet Controls' I wrote about #China, #Iran, networked authoritarianism, & future frontiers of digital repression for the NED Forum, drawing on the recent @article19.bsky.social Tightening the Net report thinkdemocracy.substack.com/p/autocrats-...
thinkdemocracy.substack.com
Autocrats Are Collaborating on Next-Generation Internet Controls. Michael Caster Unpacks the Implications.
Satellite-based connectivity, open-source AI models, and other innovative technologies are transforming how people around the world share their views and access information.
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Reposted by Azadeh Akbari
Data controversies, James Stewart @datacontroversies.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Looks like a great development of Castells and of the Data Poor thesis
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Thank you 🙏🏽
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Reposted by Azadeh Akbari
keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 07/05/2026
This is a really important (and big!) paper on the political geography of #data, which brings colonialism, dependency theory and unequal exchange back into the conversation about #datafication and #datajustice.
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
4) This is a discussion paper for @dialoguesdigsoc.bsky.social and five responses will engage with the paper. I will eventually respond to the provided critique and comments. Exciting!
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
3) Third, unequal exchange sustains asymmetrical valuation and circulation of data and data labour, enabling Big Tech and core economies to extract surplus value from peripheral regions.
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
2) Second, dispossession enacts spatial, temporal and dehumanising violence, ranking populations as more or less valuable and enforcing biopower ‘within’ and necropower ‘beyond’.
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
1) First, territorialisation, deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation produce uneven geographies of digital colonial capitalism, from datafied bodies to platform infrastructures and space-based data centres.
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
🧵My paper on "Uneven Datafication" just came out! It draws on literature on coloniality, uneven development and dependency. Uneven datafication operates through three interrelated dynamics: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Screenshot of the paper's title and abstract called uneven datafication, for the journal Dialogues in Digital Society
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Reposted by Azadeh Akbari
Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
Tensions arise with US deal that demands access to Zambian critical minerals and data in exchange for healthcare investment. Humanitarian aid as trade war.
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Happy May Day! It’s my favourite holiday of the year. The only day that people like my parents are celebrated: no saints, no prophets, no kings. Just working class people and their supposedly anecdotal unimportant lives!
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Wonderful to have you here! I‘m glad you are enjoying Frankfurt!
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
10- We, the Iranian Women’s Coalition for Internet Freedom, believe in a globally accessible internet for everyone. This is not just a promise. It should be a right.
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
9- We are fully aware of the complexities of connectivity enabled by actors like Elon Musk. But we also know the pain and consequences of disconnection in a country that is bombed, oppressed, and surveilled.
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
8- Does this all seem too “bureaucratic”? It is. By treating satellite connectivity as a purely governmental issue, the global internet governance community fails to address shutdowns and exposes people in Iran to greater harm.
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
7- The issue will now move to the World Radiocommunication Conference 2027. If you want to learn more about D2C, follow @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social and www.direct2cell.org
direct2cell.org
When Governments Shut Down the Internet, Satellite Connectivity Keeps Communities Alive
Direct-to-Cell satellite technology can keep people connected when authoritarian regimes cut internet access. Join the movement to make humanitarian access a reality.
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
6- It also urges Norway and the United States to have SpaceX disable them remotely. This is not a neutral technical ruling. By encouraging Iran to identify these terminals, the decision risks enabling repression. It helps target people already under threat.
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
5- At the same time, the Iranian government submitted another request to the Radio Regulations Board on restricting satellite connectivity. The argument? Once again: digital sovereignty. The most recent RRB decision in March 2026 allows Iran to locate & deactivate Starlink terminals.
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
4- We founded the Iranian Women Coalition for Internet Freedom and published our manifesto: www.iranianwomen4internet.org We spoke with every representative at the ITU we could reach.
iranianwomen4internet.org
Manifesto for a Free Internet - Iranian Women's Coalition for Internet Freedom
Iranian Women's Coalition for Internet Freedom - Fighting for digital rights, free internet access, and challenging state censorship and surveillance systems.
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
3- In short, our submission was not even received because we are not government representatives. The ITU—the UN specialized agency for digital technologies—showed no capacity to include the voices of concerned experts and activists. So much for multistakeholderism as a model of internet governance.
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
2- In 2026, while the Iranian regime was killing protesters, it also jammed Starlink signals, raided homes, and arrested people for possessing terminals. We turned to the ITU. @farzdusa.bsky.social has written in detail about our correspondence here: digitalmedusa.org/itu-radio-re...
digitalmedusa.org
ITU, Radio Regulations Board, State Power, and the Silencing of Iranians’ Last Connection to the Internet - Digital Medusa
When the most recent wave of protests began in Iran in January and escalated across the country, the government responded in a way that has become disturbingly familiar: by shutting down the Internet....
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
🧵1- It has been 57 days since the internet went down in Iran. For many, the only remaining option has been Starlink. In 2023, Iran invoked “digital sovereignty” at the International Telecommunication Union to push for disabling Starlink connections. Yet the number of terminals continued to grow.
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Rosamunde Van Brakel @rosamundevb.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Very excited to give a talk together w @nan-knust.bsky.social Knust on 22 April at 4.30 pm on "The use of predictive policing to control fisheries crime" which is part of a great series of talks organised @azadehakbari.bsky.social Join us in Frankfurt or online! www.c3s-frankfurt.de/what-we-do/e...
c3s-frankfurt.de
The use of predictive policing to control fisheries crime - Center for critical computational studies
Talk series: Critical Data & Surveillance Studies Rosamunde Van Brakel & Nandor Knust
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Stefan Ouma @econgeo.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
New paper in @proghumgeog.bsky.social. Some great colleagues' work is sampled @jennifer-clapp.bsky.social @landstuff.bsky.social @brettchristophers.bsky.social @azadehakbari.bsky.social @jamiepeck.bsky.social @reijer.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... #geosky #ipesky
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Iranians are literally making human chains around bridges and power plants. This is what uncivilised people like Trump don’t understand. As much as we hate the Islamic Republic, we LOVE our country. دریغ است ایران که ویران شود…
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
This mad king wants to ruin our civilisation. He never cared about democracy. Never in the entire history of Iran, Americans have ever cared a sec about democracy. If anything , they have denied us our agency and undermined our collective efforts and sacrifices to become democratic.
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Reposted by Azadeh Akbari
Jake Godin @godin.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Particularly alarming that this includes Lebanon & Gaza. I had just shared imagery from March 18 showing the demolition of villages along the southern border of Lebanon by the IDF and now not even that imagery is available: bsky.app/profile/godi... Mass demolitions haven't stopped in Gaza, either.
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mahsa alimardani @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
This week the UN ITU's Radio Regulations Board is meeting on IRI’s demand to disable Starlink in Iran. This will set an important precedent for one of the key ways people are circumventing Internet shutdowns. Read the full breakdown by @farzdusa.bsky.social: iranianwomen4internet.org/blog.html
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Reposted by Azadeh Akbari
Lisa Oswald @lfoswaldo.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
I'm hiring a postdoc! @goetheuni.bsky.social Focus: CSS, political behavior, political communication & transforming information environments. 📍 Frankfurt | ⏳ 3 years | 📅 Deadline: 14 April 2026 Full job ad here: www.uni-frankfurt.de/48794987/Zen... (search for “political behavior” to find it)
uni-frankfurt.de
Goethe-Universität — Zentrale Einrichtungen
Die Goethe-Universität ist eine forschungsstarke Hochschule in der europäischen Finanzmetropole Frankfurt. Lebendig, urban und weltoffen besitzt sie als Stiftungsuniversität ein einzigartiges Maß an E...
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
If you want to educate yourself, here are Iranian women who have spent their lives defending digital rights speaking: www.iranianwomen4internet.org
iranianwomen4internet.org
Manifesto for a Free Internet - Iranian Women's Coalition for Internet Freedom
Iranian Women's Coalition for Internet Freedom - Fighting for digital rights and free internet access
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Running a podcast doesn’t give you authority to talk about things you have no idea about them. Your dogmatic white male privileged interpretation of digital sovereignty leaves no space for nuances of connectivity in authoritarian regimes.
parismarx.com
Paris Marx
Paris Marx is a Canadian tech critic, author, and host of Tech Won’t Save Us.
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mahsa alimardani @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Funny, Iran's own spokesperson and Foreign Minister didn't use the cyberwarfare justification. They clearly said internet goes to those who can amplify the regime's voice. That's not a defensive posture. That's content policy.
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Cullen Hendrix @cullenhendrix.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
As the Hormuz crisis becomes a food security crisis, the @wfp.org is going into 2026 in a massive funding hole due to aid retrenchment by the US and many European donors facing the prospect of rearmament. The geopolitics driving the crisis are also leaving the cupboard bare for crisis response.
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Χοδαδαδίος Ρεζαχανίδης, PhD, KRT, Duc de Téhéran @sasanianshah.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
I just remember when the roof of Notre-Dame de Paris was on fire and how every Western leader became a cultural expert and lamented the damage and how everyone donated money to rebuild it. I am having a hard time finding a single article in any European or American publication about this.
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
This is "our" Manifesto for a Free Internet. We are Iranian Women's Coalition for Internet Freedom. Happy International Women's Day! initiated by @azadehakbari.bsky.social @farzdusa.bsky.social @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social @royapak.bsky.social & Afsaneh Rigot
docs.google.com
Manifesto for a Free Internet
Manifesto for a Free Internet Iranian Women’s Coalition for Internet Freedom Today, people inside Iran are living through a near-total Internet and communications blackout imposed by the Islamic Repub...
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 08/03/2026
Well, congratulations to the US: after changing Taliban with Taliban, and Maduro with his VP, now they have changed Khamenei with Khamenei. Next time maybe improve your cover story for destruction of countries and killing people.
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Rest of World @restofworld.org · 05/03/2026
As AI becomes critical to national economies, cloud infrastructure becomes a wartime target. Drone strikes on Amazon sites in the Gulf may force the industry to rethink where it builds restofworld.org/2026/iran-amazon-da…
restofworld.org
Iranian drone strikes at Amazon sites raise alarms over protecting data centers
Tech industry’s past focus on cyberattacks and natural disasters overshadowed threats of physical attacks.
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
♥️
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Azadeh Akbari @azadehakbari.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
I was asked by @techpolicypress.bsky.social‬ what I am watching for as a tech scholar in the ongoing war. Here is my take:
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