BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 02/09/2026The shutting down of Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) signals the end of an era. AMT pioneered home-based data annotation and other micro-tasks, providing the labor force that ultimately made today’s AI systems possible. Yet, it is these systems that are now rendering such work obsolete. 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 25/08/2026For years, platform workers have been subject to opaque systems that determine how they are paid, allocated work, monitored, and even deactivated—often with little insight into how these decisions are made. 110
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Has capitalism really given way to “technofeudalism”? Looking beyond the dominant narratives from the Global North, our latest article examines how digital platforms are embedded in longer histories of imperialism, unequal exchange, labor exploitation, and data extraction. 100
Reposted by BotPopuliThe Syllabus @the-syllabus.bsky.social · 05/08/2026Is Big Tech creating a new feudal order, or intensifying capitalism? Taking a Global South perspective, our essay of the week argues that the technofeudalism thesis misreads the imperial hierarchies produced by platform power. By Rudraksh Lakra in @botpopuli.bsky.social buff.ly/TT4eNgv 012
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 23/07/2026Fresh off the press for 'Knowledge Futures' on Bot Populi. A series that asks what it means to govern Artificial Intelligence for the cultural commons beyond intellectual property. 111
Reposted by BotPopuliOpen Future @openfuture.bsky.social · 20/07/2026Who pays for the commons? Generative AI was built on the open web, but little value has flowed back. @paul.eurosky.social’s latest at @botpopuli.bsky.social argues copyright can't fix this on its own — and makes the case for a levy on commercial AI deployment. Read it: botpopuli.net/who-pays-for...botpopuli.netWho Pays for the Commons?Three and a half years after the emergence of generative AI as a new technology paradigm, there is broad agreement that AI companies have extracted enorm... 186
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 20/07/2026In her latest essay for Bot Populi, Bama Athreya draws a sharp line between today's AI adoption push and older colonial patterns: cultural conversion, dependency, and the quiet erasure of inconvenient knowledge. 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 13/07/2026Here's what caught our attention this month. 📩 This edition's Sins & Synergies Lounge includes critical essays, investigative reporting, podcasts, and research unpacking the infrastructures of AI, the politics of digital sovereignty, platform labor, and the concentration of Big Tech power. 000
Reposted by BotPopuliThe Mothership @mothership2024.bsky.social · 30/06/2026New issue, new article - @botpopuli.bsky.social #BigTechWatch botpopuli.net/resisting-th...botpopuli.netResisting the AI MissionariesIn the First World. . .the oppressed, if given the chance . . .can speak and know their conditions. We must now confront the following question: On the o... 001
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 24/06/2026When gig workers’ accounts are “deactivated,” platforms often point to the algorithm. But algorithms don’t fire workers — employers do. 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 16/06/2026Kenzo Soares Seto, Associate Research Scholar at Yale Law School, shares insights from his new report from the Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy (ICDE), ‘Platform Cooperativism and the State: Lessons from Brazil’s Public Policies (2023–2026)’. 110
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 11/06/2026Read 'Knowledge Futures' on Bot Populi. A series that asks what it means to govern Artificial Intelligence for the cultural commons beyond intellectual property. 110
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 01/06/2026#NewsletterAlert From the BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Relations meeting in New Delhi to the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, there is a broad consensus...open.substack.comThe Multiple Scales of ResistanceEditorial 120
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 26/05/2026 ASHA workers across the country have been protesting for better pay, increased incentives, and more recognition for their key role as the backbone of India’s public health system. Just this week, the state of Kerala announced an INR 3000 hike for these community healthcare workers. 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 15/05/2026Ruth Castel-Branco, explores how labor organizing in Africa is adapting to the realities of platform work where solidarity has to be built across apps, algorithms, and isolation. Read more: open.substack.com/pub/datasyn/... #GigWork #PlatformEconomy #LaborRights #FutureOfWork #TechPolicy 021
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 13/05/2026Placed at the faultline between technological change & political choice, platform work has become a crucial battleground within the modern labor movement. What is at stake is not only the future of millions of platform workers across Europe, but the credibility of labor law itself. 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 11/05/2026Existing policy frameworks still treat culture as an economic sector rather than a social infrastructure. But artistic and aesthetic labor are essential to our civic and political health. Why is the artists’ fight against AI central to preserving our cultural commons? 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 11/05/2026As AI industries expand globally, many African content moderators and data labelers continue to face exploitative conditions, poor pay, and severe mental health impacts. 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 08/05/2026#NewsletterAlert Commemorating #MayDay, we turn to the frontlines of labor struggle against platform capitalism. From Africa to the EU, from data labeling to community healthcare work, this issue traces how workers are resisting, reshaping, and negotiating platformized workplaces: 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 22/04/2026AI governance isn’t neutral—it’s shaped by power, profit, and geopolitics. From global summits to voluntary “safety” promises, who really decides the future of AI? 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 15/04/2026In our latest piece, Ahlem Faraoun examines how misogyny shapes the creative economy, exposing the harassment, gendered violence, and policing of feminist identities that restrict women’s rights and participation. #OnlineMisogyny #WomensRights #CreativeEconomy 100
Reposted by BotPopuliBotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 14/04/2026This issue features a piece by Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini Chami from @itforchange.bsky.social who use the recent #IndiaAISummit as a point of departure, to map out the broader trajectory of global #AIgovernance and the pathway to just digital futures. botpopuli.net/a-brief-hist...botpopuli.netA Brief History of Global AI GovernanceAI regulation talk — the rules are that there are no rules The dust is yet to settle after the India AI Impact Summit, but the UN process for the Glob... 101
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 14/04/2026In the latest edition of the DataSyn newsletter, the editorial analyzes how the tech sector is implicated in the devastating #Iranwar: from the worrying ties between #AI and the military, to the disruption in #SiliconValley’s own economic foundations. botpopuli.net/editorial-ma...botpopuli.net 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 31/03/2026As the WSIS+20 process concludes, this article by Anita Gurumurthy and Nandini Chami reflects on what the moment reveals about today’s fractured multilateral landscape, taking stock of two decades of engagement and the path forward for global digital governance. 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 26/03/2026As technology allows governments to increase the reach and granularity of connection with the public, it also opens the door to abuses of power to take place at an unprecedented scale and speed. Read our latest story by @juanof9.bsky.social: botpopuli.net/digital-gove...botpopuli.netDigital Governance Stacks and the Infrastructure of EmpiresToday’s state-run digital public infrastructure, in general, and decision-making tools that conform to governance stacks in particular, enable an unpre... 110
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 25/03/2026In this edition of the DataSyn newsletter, we break down the Supreme Court’s ruling on Trump-era tariffs and why it matters for the next phase of digital trade politics. We also track major AI shifts right now: Anthropic’s sweeping new Claude product suite, the market tremors around it. 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 22/01/2026Crypto is no longer just a financial experiment. In this piece, Antulio Rosales unpacks how crypto ecosystems are shaping authoritarian governance—fueling elite capture, weakening regulation, and accelerating today’s political, financial, and environmental crises. 110
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 14/01/2026Inviting proposals for the final evaluation of the project “Re-wiring India’s Digitalising Economy for Women’s Rights and Well-being.” Deadline: 31 Jan 2026 Learn More: itforchange.net/tenders 000
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 13/01/2026Our latest article explores the potential political implications of the Stablecoin phenomenon and what it means for the global financial order. Read now: botpopuli.net/stablecoins-... 000
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 31/12/2025AI is reshaping global economies—but not evenly. This piece unpacks how AI may deepen existing inequalities, urging a shift from tech hype to place-based, value-chain–focused policymaking. #AI #GlobalInequality #DigitalEconomy #TechPolicy #GlobalSouth #PoliticalEconomy #FutureOfWork 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 23/12/2025Behind the promise of digital public infrastructure lies a growing dependence on private cloud providers. This piece traces how India’s e-governance increasingly runs on privately owned cloud and platform rails. Read the full story: botpopuli.net/who-owns-the...botpopuli.netWho Owns the Digital Rails?For the last two decades, India’s approach to electronic governance has evolved leaps and bounds. In 2004, the introduction of basic e-governance websi... 000
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 11/12/2025Cautioning against neutral framings of #syntheticdata, the authors remind us that these tools actively shape the worlds we imagine and the inequities we reproduce. Read the full story: botpopuli.net/synthetic-dr... 000
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 11/12/2025Interrogating the hype around #syntheticdata, the authors reveal how Global South realities—like Brazil’s #PIX—challenge tech-solutionist narratives and spotlight deeper governance gaps. Read the full story: botpopuli.net/synthetic-dr... 000
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 28/11/2025Our latest piece interrogates the myths of the digital economy and the unequal structures that sustain its global dominance. Read here: botpopuli.net/whither-digi... 000
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 26/11/2025Cautioning against an uncritical appropriation of the platform model, Vinit Ravishankar makes a case for pushing beyond capitalist fetters whilst envisioning alternative digital futures. Read the full piece here: botpopuli.net/whither-digi... 000
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 20/11/2025In our latest piece, Dr. Vishwas Satgar unravels the shallow digital futurism at work that conflates digital monopoly interests, human progress, development, and the future. 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 19/11/2025Drawing on a range of critical perspectives from his recent edited volume ‘Digital Capitalism and its Limits: Technotopia, Power and Risk’, Vishwas Satgar carefully untangles the real political stakes of our technocapitalist moment in our latest piece. Read here: botpopuli.net/digital-tech... 010
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 18/11/2025We are excited to share the latest issue of DataSyn, delving into The Mythology of Platform Capitalism. 150
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 21/10/2025The fight against AI-generated film isn’t a Luddite rejection of technology, but a defense of the human spirit. Our latest piece positions this fight as a move towards a right to work, to collaborate, to fail, and to create something that bears an undeniable fingerprint. 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 17/10/2025Cinema operates as a form of embodied knowledge production, a practice that depends on the presence of human consciousness engaged in storytelling. 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 06/10/2025⚙️ In our latest piece, Madhulika Tatigotla and Eshani Vaidya expose the hidden costs of convenience, uncovering the exploitative labor practices that continue to define Amazon’s warehouse work. #LabourRights #PlatformEconomy #DigitalCapitalism #WorkersRights #DataSyn #BigTech 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 01/10/2025Don’t miss Nandini Chami in conversation with Susan Sreemala on the stakes for digital justice today! Read More: botpopuli.net/claiming-the... 000
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 29/09/2025Following up on the dispatches from the WSIS high level event in July, Susan Sreemala caught up with Nandini Chami for a substantive debrief on #WSIS, the #GDC, and the future of #digitaljustice on the international stage. Read Now: botpopuli.net/claiming-the... 000
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 24/09/2025Have you read Shobhit S.’ transformative proposals for democratic and worker-led digital futures, grounded in collective agency, socio-economic justice, and transnational solidarity? Read now: botpopuli.net/platform-pow... 010
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 15/09/2025In this second part of the report we published last month, Shobhit S. follows up with a detailed excavation of the political economy of platform work with a framework for mitigating the injustices therein. 110
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 02/09/2025#NewsletterAlert📣 The latest issue of DataSyn is here! This edition engages with the ongoing crises within the digital economy and delves into the path forward. The editorial focuses on the various facets of the AI arms race with an emphasis on the geopolitical tensions between the US and China. 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 28/08/2025Marking two decades of vigorous activism, this month’s WSIS+20 High Level Event was a significant milestone for many who have long been in the trenches in the struggle for digital justice. 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 22/08/2025In our latest article, Shobhit S. situates the global push for standards on platform work within the broader political economy of platform capitalism and the North-South divides that characterize it. Read the full piece here: botpopuli.net/platform-pow... 000
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 21/08/2025The ILO is expected to adopt a binding Convention and a non-binding Recommendation at its 2026 conference, with substantive protections for platform workers. 100
BotPopuli @botpopuli.bsky.social · 18/08/2025TAAK (2024) examines how surveillance at the workplace impinges on the privacy of workers, bleeding into their everyday lives. Our interview with the filmmaker, Udit Khurana, offers a glimpse into how caste and class further propel these ideas of surveillance capitalism. 100