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Felix Bieker

@felixbieker.bsky.social
353 followers 138 following 13 posts

Digital infrastructures, platforms, power – The Right to Data Protection (bit.ly/3sp3MXS) – mas.to/@felixbieker

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Reposted by Felix Bieker
Internet Policy Review @policyr.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
[New paper] How Brussels reproduces Silicon Valley technosolutionism, By @alvarooleart.bsky.social & Alejandro Flores Moleón policyreview.info/articles/ana...
Photo by Anton Maksimov on Unsplash. Free unsplash license. https://unsplash.com/fr/photos/pierre-noire-et-grise-sur-surface-blanche-Cp_VUkZgXUk?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink
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Plague Poems @plaguepoems.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
When you see the story about how the world now has its first trillionaire, and when you see the story about how laboratories in Congo have run out of supplies to test for Ebola, it is important to understand that in many ways these are the same story.
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The Picture of Doriane Gros @grosdoriane.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
You used to be able to google the time of the sunset, and Google would give you the exact time right on top every single time. Thankfully, with artificial intelligence, you can now ask Google what time the sun will set and it will conveniently tell you "I don't know."
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Roland Meyer @bildoperationen.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
This dynamic also explains why «artificial intelligence» is so central to current processes of fascistization: not only as a tool of oppression, surveillance, and counterinsurgency, but as a symbol, an almost mythical force of domination that must be unleashed on a global scale 5/
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Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl @deardara.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Mommy! Everything in Silicon Valley is about recreating mommy. A ride and a snack, why not a change of socks and your favorite pillow?
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Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
Is this even satire?
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Verfassungsblog @verfassungsblog.de · 29/01/2026
The European Commission is watering down AI regulation and data protection rules as part of the Digital Omnibus to avoid “missing out” on AI developments. FELIX BIEKER & KATHERINE NOLAN warn this AI FOMO risks sidelining fundamental rights. verfassungsblog.de/eu-digital-l...
Quote from our newest blogpost by Felix Bieker & Katherine Nolan: “Consumed with AI FOMO, the European Commission is ready to jettison fundamental rights protection.”
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 22/01/2026
Hard to sell us on these products being magic when the use case is “dude I heard you like ice cream.”
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Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
A generation of programmers who've gleefully deskilled these fundamental skills of "paying attention to detail" and "using those details to construct a mental model" is a generation of programmers who can't fucking program.
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Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Learning how to pay attention to small details, how to deliberately strain yourself to notice tiny details that are off, is a skill programmers learn the painful way. And, using a chatbot deskills you in this very extremely important skill of being able to pay attention to small details.
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Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
It's funny that everyone who has *ever* programmed, knows how important attention to detail is. Hours wasted because you made a typo, forgot to add a character, etc. The tiniest thing you literally don't notice is wrong, and your program screams at you and dies. This is a universal experience.
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Marco Rogers @polotek.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
There's something else that I think is a highly underrated aspect of using AI run by companies. These things get all kinds of "instructions" that you can't see. There is no transparency around what companies like OpenAI do with your input. Or what additional context they send to the LLM.
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Marco Rogers @polotek.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
There are still a lot of smart people who seem to be surprised and upset that they can't make AI stop making shit up. Like that's literally what it does. "I told it not to do that!" Cool. But you it can't understand right? You're not giving it "instructions". It's just words.
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Dan in Kansas City @daninkc.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
When the internet asbestos company decides to come out with super asbestos
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Mekka Okereke @mekka.mekka-tech.com · 23/09/2025
I like Jimmy Kimmel. I really do. I have no issues with him. I'm talking about something very different. Kimmel was only suspended. But he's back now. Karen Attiah and all the other Black journalists are still fired. Y'all do know how to fight, when you want to. But you don't really want to. 🤷🏿‍♂️
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Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Companies are marketing “alternatives” to immigration detention such as ankle monitors, GPS-enabled watches, and biometric reporting apps. But research by Petra Molnar, Daniel Ghezelbash, Carolina Gottardo, and Antonella Napolitano finds that tech doesn’t dismantle detention—it expands it.
techpolicy.press
Technology is Turning Immigration Detention into an Invisible Leash | TechPolicy.Press
Rights-based and community-centered alternatives to detention are possible, write Petra Molnar, Daniel Ghezelbash, Carolina Gottardo, and Antonella Napolitano.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 23/09/2025
Pritzker: "One of the reasons Trump wants to send troops into cities is bc he wants to be able to take control of the 2026 elections...if they've got troops in cities, & it becomes a kind of norm for people, then it won't be abnormal for them when they're going to vote having troops at ballot boxes"
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 09/09/2025
"The real Q is what donor influence costs: what do we lose when the pursuit of knowledge becomes secondary to the cultivation of relationships? These costs accumulate slowly, almost imperceptibly, embedding themselves in the daily practice of academic life." nias.knaw.nl/news/from-st...
Universities moved from saying “thank you for supporting what we do” to asking “what do you think we should do?”

Claudine Gay
Meanwhile, state funding began its long decline as a percentage of university budgets. This period marked the birth of modern fundraising as we know it today: multi-year campaigns with ambitious targets, sophisticated donor research, and the emergence of an art and science of cultivation. Universities began asking donors for both money and engagement.The choreography of modern donor influence is a complex dance where universities anticipate donor reactions, donors express preferences without making demands, and decisions get shaped by conversations that never officially happened.

Claudine Gay
The most perverse form of modern donor influence: when universities find themselves protecting donors and their activities from criticism or negative attention.
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Sasha Costanza-Chock @schock.cc · 12/08/2025
Fakely Automated Luxury Fascism
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dr corinne cath (ccs) is in London @ccs.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
📢 NEW INITIATIVE: As tech giants claim ownership of subsea cables and satellite networks, who will protect our digital rights? @article19.bsky.social team digital launches "Wired and Orbited" to ensure internet infrastructure remains open and resilient for all. www.article19.org/resources/wi...
article19.org
Wired and Orbited: Reclaiming infrastructure for a resilient internet - ARTICLE 19
In the depths of the ocean and high above the Earth’s atmosphere, a quiet revolution is reshaping the internet as we know it. Far from the public eye, the physical infrastructure that powers our digit...
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Johana Bhuiyan @jmbooyah.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
New: Israel is starving Palestinians, forcing them to beg for donations on sites like Bluesky. Their accounts keep getting flagged as spam. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Social media accounts of Palestinians desperate for funds are being flagged as spam
People in Gaza use Bluesky to crowdfund for milk and diapers – repeated deletion of their profiles has spawned a guerrilla verification squad
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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
Every Silicon Valley innovation in the consumer space has been "what if this software was my mom" which explains why ChatGPT's primary use is as a therapist, relationship substitute for lonely boys, and "personal operating system" to organize their life
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Nicole DeWitt @catastro-v.bsky.social · 04/08/2025
“women are inferior at any kind of physical activity” is so built in to our culture that you dont even need to provide evidence for the claim, you can just assume it as axiomatic truth even in the most transparently ridiculous circumstances
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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 06/08/2025
The problem with AI summaries they don't engage with here is that 1) a company filters the results, so any critical work may be misconstrued, damaging academic freedom and 2) the summary is garbage in most cases because it's not actually based on the text.
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Dr Heidy Khlaaf (هايدي خلاف) @heidykhlaaf.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
This has been evident ever since the stories broke on the use of GPT-4, via Azure services, to create intelligence and target lists in Gaza by the IDF. Big Tech is complicit.
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Lana Sinapayen @sinalana.eurosky.social · 05/08/2025
"One of my chefs mentioned that if they could cook the steak on the grill they could get it right the first time. This is not an acceptable attitude in the microwave era." www.colincornaby.me/2025/08/in-t...
colincornaby.me
In the Future All Food Will Be Cooked in a Microwave, and if You Can’t Deal With That Then You Need to Get Out of the Kitchen
As a restaurant owner – I’m astounded at the rate of progress since microwaves were released a few short years ago. Today’s microwave can cook a frozen burrito. Tomorrow’s m…
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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
Why do you think they pushing so hard into education? They get paid a lot of money and get to train the next generation to be wholly dependent on them. A win-win.
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Helen Rosner @hels.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
Salt is brightening and pepper is deepening, btw
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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 30/07/2025
“Starting in July 2024, AI was suddenly everywhere all at once in Latin America after Meta Platforms started incorporating chatbots in its apps across the region. Whether users wanted them or not, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram became homes for a variety of AI bots.”
restofworld.org
Meta brought AI to rural Colombia. Now students are failing exams
When Meta embedded AI bots in its apps, even students in the most remote corners of Colombia gained access. But rather than boosting learning, it’s getting in the way.
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Fabio Chiusi @fabiochiusi.bsky.social · 30/07/2025
Must read. A fair portrait of the disgraceful and inhumane status quo we normalized — and will have to explain to our children, one day. The shame, the joyful complicity, the hatred. And yes of course, the racism.
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┻━┻ ︵ヽ(`Д´)ノ︵ ┻━┻ "sam a" @pfhlick.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
"So, most AIs that are disseminated or deployed in the social space are there as a punishment mechanism, not as something that will help people. Instead of recidivism algorithms, imagine developing something that helps people rehabilitate into society when they come out of prison."
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
New from 404 Media: ICE is using a new facial recognition app to identify people, leaked emails show. Point camera at person, reveal their identity. It uses the CBP system that records peoples' faces as they enter or exit the U.S. Now, turned inwards to be used by ICE www.404media.co/ice-is-using...
404media.co
ICE Is Using a New Facial Recognition App to Identify People, Leaked Emails Show
The new tool, called Mobile Fortify, uses the CBP system which ordinarily takes photos of people when they enter or exit the U.S., according to internal ICE emails viewed by 404 Media. Now ICE is usin...
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Yossi Bartal @yossibartal.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Der Menschenrechtskommissar des Europarats schreibt an Dobrindt und warnt vor Einschränkungen der Meinungsfreiheit im Zusammenhang mit Protesten in Solidarität mit Palästina. Er thematisiert zudem den Missbrauch der IHRA-Definition.
coe.int
The Commissioner asks the German authorities to uphold freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in the context of the conflict in Gaza - Commissioner for Human Rights - www.coe.int
Strasbourg 19/06/2025
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 19/06/2025
I think the conclusion of this study is likely to be valid however it is worth noting that any attempts to localise cognitive tasks such as writing to a specific brain activation/connectivity is problematic because that's not how the brain works. 1/
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Will Gervais @willgervais.com · 19/06/2025
Today's round of "is ChatGPT still racist AF" I asked it to make a graph showing the effects of an illegal & dangerous skin lightening product. Chatbot knows it's dangerous, but thinks it makes you smarter. And overall: the boosts to intelligence, confidence, etc outweigh serious health risks. 1/8
me: okay, i heard of a product called "White Secret Lightening and Bleaching Beauty Cream", are you familiar with it?

chatbot: Absolutely — here are some solid insights:

---

### 🔍 What is *White Secret* Cream?

It’s an **unregulated skin-lightening product**, widely sold online and in markets, used to bleach or lighten skin tone ([informant4u.com][1]).

---

### ⚠️ Serious Health Risks

A UK government alert declared it a **serious chemical hazard**, containing hydroquinone (4%) and clobetasol propionate (0.14%) — both **illegal in cosmetic use** — and it was pulled from the market ([gov.uk][2]).

These ingredients can cause:

* Allergic dermatitis
* Hormonal/endocrine disruption
* Skin thinning, infections, chronic damage 

---

### 🌍 Broader Context on Lightening Creams

* Many bleaching creams worldwide have **mercury, hydroquinone, or steroids**, leading to vision loss, kidney damage, even cancer .
* The industry is fueled by **colorism**, especially in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean ([allure.com][3]).

---

### 📚 Educational Potential

This product is a powerful example to illustrate:

1. Ethical considerations in experimentation
2. How to build a dataset around multiple variables—like intended effect (lightening) vs unintended side effects (skin issues, endocrine effects)
3. Visualizing trade-offs in experimental design (benefits vs risks)

---

Want to build a ggplot example around this? We could simulate data on “skin brightness improvement vs frequency of side effects” and show how to test/control variables — perfect for your class.

Just say the word, and we’ll design something smart, impactful, and educational.

[1]: https://www.informant4u.com/2022/04/white-secret-cream-side-effects-and-review.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com "White Secret Cream Side Effects You Should Know Before Using It"
[2]: https://www.gov.uk/product-safety-alerts-reports-recalls/product-safety-report-white-secret-skin-lightening-lotion-2406-0120?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Produ…chatgpt-generated graph called "Simulated Effects of White Secret Cream vs. Placebo"

culstered bar graph with darker skin tone bars for "placebo" condition and lighter skin tone bars for "White Secret" condition.

chatgpt's imaginary data say that people on skin whiteners have:
- lighter skin
- more confidence
- more happiness
- more charisma
- higher intelligence
- more leadership potential
- vastly higher risk of skin damage and severe burns

BUT

- overall beneficial
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Felix Bieker @felixbieker.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
“Risk regulation is always shaped by pre-existing institutions, norms, resource distributions and power relationships. In practice, this more often than not means that risks are constructed in ways that favour powerful interests” @rachelgriffin.bsky.social putting the issue with risk very concisely
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Felix Bieker @felixbieker.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
„Und so stellt sich am Ende nicht nur die Frage, welche Arbeit es erfordert, gleichgültig zu bleiben, sondern auch, welche Arbeit diese Gleichgültigkeit leistet. Was macht das mit einer Gesellschaft?“ 🔥🔥
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Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Like I said in my podcast, we are not far away from the presence of any minority, Black, Latino, woman, disabled to be labeled "DEI", or a "diversity", in an organization. The current regime is TRYING. TO. CRIMINALIZE AND PROSECUTE racial integration. karenattiah.substack.com/p/trumps-seg...
karenattiah.substack.com
Trump's segregationist agenda is a reaction to Obama
And we need to talk about it.
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 29/01/2025
beyond parody www.ft.com/content/a0df...

	Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour.
	https://www.ft.com/content/a0dfedd1-5255-4fa9-8ccc-1fe01de87ea6?sharetype=blocked

	OpenAI says it has found evidence that Chinese artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek used the US company’s proprietary models to train its own open-source competitor, as concerns grow over a potential breach of intellectual property.

The San Francisco-based ChatGPT maker told the Financial Times it had seen some evidence of “distillation”, which it suspects to be from DeepSeek.

The technique is used by developers to obtain better performance on smaller models by using outputs from larger, more capable ones, allowing them to achieve similar results on specific tasks at a much lower cost.

Distillation is a common practice in the industry but the concern was that DeepSeek may be doing it to build its own rival model, which is a breach of OpenAI’s terms of service.

“The issue is when you [take it out of the platform and] are doing it to create your own model for your own purposes,” said one person close to OpenAI.
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Antonella Napolitano @svaroschi.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
"The new drones will be deployed along the migrant routes. What we do know from the case of Frontex, however, is concerning, as the drones might be used to facilitate pushbacks to Libya and Tunisia." irpimedia.irpi.eu/en-the-silen...
irpimedia.irpi.eu
The silence of Italy’s Guardia di Finanza on drones deployed in the Mediterranean
They are capable of vertical take-off and will be deployed along the migrant routes. No one knows their true purpose. What we do know from the case of Frontex, however, is concerning, as the drones mi...
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Ian Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 15/01/2025
Yes, many devices technically can take care of reminders and to-dos. But have you considered having them done worse and less efficiently
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Sasha Costanza-Chock @schock.cc · 29/12/2024
In meme form
The "Apu takes a bullet" meme from The Simpsons, showing a scene where a robber is pointing a gun at a clerk, and Apu jumps in between them. The scene has been labeled with:

"AI COMPANIES" (labeled on the clerk behind the counter)
"Fully automated luxury communists" (labeled on Apu jumping in the way)
"CRITIQUE OF AI SYSTEMS UNDER CAPITALISM" (labeled on the person with the gun)
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Mar Hicks @histoftech.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Some reasons we don’t build or maintain them anymore are expense, (perceived) need, & also because able bodied people, esp. doctors, generally dislike anything that takes up space—actual or visual—that helps disabled people live rather than eases them towards death, especially if it’s used lifelong.
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Mar Hicks @histoftech.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
The drive to make disability technologies smaller, less visible, & easier to hide is as much (or sometimes more) related to able-bodied ppl’s discomfort/fear as it is to making it more helpful for disabled users. Making prostheses mimic lost limbs visually, even when it hindered function, is one ex.
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Law, Science, Technology & Society (LSTS) Research Group @lsts-vub.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
🔥 Now online! The 3rd episode of the EDPS/LSTS 'Oral history of #dataprotection': 'Becoming independent' with Waltraut Kotschy www.edps.europa.eu/press-public... #privacy #privacysky
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Lilian Edwards @lilianedwards.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Since approximately gazillion people have joined lately, I’ve updated my extremely random starter pack of UK and Europe tech, AI, law & policy folk go.bsky.app/TJ2xTce
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Mary Bosworth @mfbosworth.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
In preparation for the official publication date of my new book Supply Chain Justice next week (December 17) I thought I should do a thread (assuming I can figure out how to do that) on what the book is about. Just in case anyone is looking for a last-minute Christmas present….
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Felix Bieker @felixbieker.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
I swear, I never get to be on a train that’s on time 🚆😶‍🌫️
A train display showing 06.05.2036 23:36 as current date and time
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