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M. Alessandro 🇨🇦

@manfrommolise.bsky.social
63 followers 481 following 30 posts

💼 Foreign policy and digital. Cyclist. Armchair urbanist. NCR.

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M. Alessandro 🇨🇦 @manfrommolise.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Good on @wired.com for being among the first and few major news organizations picking this story up... www.wired.com/story/the-ch...
wired.com
The Chinese Government Just Got the World’s Largest Digital Rights Conference Canceled
Access Now, the group that organizes RightsCon, says Zambian officials asked it to exclude Taiwanese participants if it wanted the event to proceed as planned.
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Ron Deibert @rondeibert.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
As many are aware by now, @accessnow.org 's annual @rightscon.org was cancelled because of pressure on the host govt Zambia 🇿🇲 by China 🇨🇳 www.rightscon.org/rc26-stateme... In their statement, @accessnow.org rightly flags this is as an example of transnational repression
rightscon.org
A statement to our community about why RightsCon 2026 will not take place in Zambia
Our official statement to the digital rights community about why RightsCon 2026 will not take place in Zambia
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RightsCon @rightscon.org · 29/04/2026
It is with heavy hearts that we share: RightsCon will not proceed in Zambia or online.
STATEMENT:

It is with heavy hearts that we share: RightsCon will not proceed in Zambia or online. We understand this news is deeply upsetting for our community and while we know everyone has questions, our goal right now is to notify you of the event’s status because many of you have imminent travel plans. We do not recommend registered participants travel to Lusaka for RightsCon.

Over the last 48 hours we have experienced an overwhelming surge of support from civil society, government representatives, sponsors, and our community as a whole. For this, we wholeheartedly thank you. We’ll communicate more information soon.
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M. Alessandro 🇨🇦 @manfrommolise.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
www.article19.org/resources/ir...
article19.org
Iran: Direct-to-Cell satellite connectivity amid internet shutdowns - ARTICLE 19
ARTICLE 19 joins civil society in launching a new campaign calling for Direct-to-Cell satellite connectivity amid Iran’s internet shutdowns.
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M. Alessandro 🇨🇦 @manfrommolise.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
www.techpolicy.press/internet-pro... “This is not sovereignty as exclusion, but as risk management—the recognition that structural dependence, however cooperative, is strategic exposure.” Great, smart piece in the vein of @himself.bsky.social & @abenewman.bsky.social
techpolicy.press
Internet Protocols, Power and the Rebirth of the Border
Connectivity is political, and governance must accept that fact, writes Konstantinos Komaitis. The age of innocence is over, and the age of empires is emerging.
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The Globe and Mail @theglobeandmail.com · 21/01/2026
theglobeandmail.com
Carney calls for resistance in a world of ravenous powers
Davos speech a rallying call for new middle-power alliances and a rejection of Trump’s threats
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M. Alessandro 🇨🇦 @manfrommolise.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
youtu.be/GxVM3cAxHfg?...
youtu.be
RARE/EARTH: The Geopolitics of Critical Minerals and the AI Supply Chain
YouTube video by Institute for Advanced Study
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M. Alessandro 🇨🇦 @manfrommolise.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
One of the hopeful responses to slop and algorithmic myopia is the deluge of content featuring real sets, as well as the steady rise of human-curated Internet radio like #NTS and others. youtu.be/G-xXA5Ofc60?...
youtu.be
NNS 014 | Balearic, Jazz, Psychedelic | Morning Mix by Harrison Guyett
YouTube video by Nonations.™︎ STUDIO
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Abe Newman @abenewman.bsky.social · 07/12/2025
5/The reason it seems so confusing is this is not about a specific dispute. It is an attempt to shift the underling principles of the international system to what @segoddard.bsky.social call neo-royalism -- a system based not on rules but hyper elite interests. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
Further Back to the Future: Neo-Royalism, the Trump Administration, and the Emerging International System | International Organization | Cambridge Core
Further Back to the Future: Neo-Royalism, the Trump Administration, and the Emerging International System - Volume 79 Issue S1
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M. Alessandro 🇨🇦 @manfrommolise.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
"Shifting international order..." Source: flowingdata.com/2025/05/22/m...
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M. Alessandro 🇨🇦 @manfrommolise.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
The more I work in digital policy the more I feel drawn, in other areas of life, to the analogue, the antiquated, the dogmatically unplugged version of moving through the wrold. (As I write this on a social media platform!) www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
newyorker.com
The Art of Taking It Slow
Contemporary cycling is all about spandex and personal bests. The bicycle designer Grant Petersen has amassed an ardent following by urging people to get comfortable bikes, and go easy.
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M. Alessandro 🇨🇦 @manfrommolise.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
Truly thoughtful and essential analysis of the AI field from @randomwalker.bsky.social @sayash.bsky.social. States what many felt, but haven't articulated. Pairs well with Shazeda Ahmed's "epistemic culture of AI safety" and others' work on risk and anti-trust. knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-a...
knightcolumbia.org
AI as Normal Technology
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M. Alessandro 🇨🇦 @manfrommolise.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
The erasure of labour, of toiling data labelling, of dehumanizing content moderation, of supply chains that start with brutal extractive industries and conflict minerals — these are the people who quite literally built the “modern world” and keep it running.
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Justin Ling @justinling.ca · 02/02/2025
Canadian officials are currently providing a background briefing on Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, and on Ottawa's response to them. Officials say there was a strategic selection of what things to tariff, with an eye to create a bit of shock on the American side.
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M. Alessandro 🇨🇦 @manfrommolise.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
freedomonlinecoalition.com/foc-issues-j... Timely statement given the trends we see in international tech governance..
freedomonlinecoalition.com
FOC Issues Joint Statement on the Future of the Multistakeholder Approach at the United Nations - Freedom Online Coalition
Today, the Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) has issued a Joint Statement on the Future of the Multistakeholder Approach at the United Nations. The drafting of the statement was spearheaded by […]
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M. Alessandro 🇨🇦 @manfrommolise.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
open.substack.com/pub/aisnakeo...
open.substack.com
We Looked at 78 Election Deepfakes. Political Misinformation is not an AI Problem.
Technology Isn’t the Problem—or the Solution.
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M. Alessandro 🇨🇦 @manfrommolise.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
www.techpolicy.press/openais-sora... As always, keen observations from Sam Gregory at WITNESS, including a critically underreported point about global inequities in the access to tools to uphold information integrity, especially in fragile media ecosystems.
techpolicy.press
OpenAI's Sora Is Here. There Is Still Time To Prepare For The Threat Such Technologies Pose | TechPolicy.Press
WITNESS executive director Sam Gregory says there are fundamental gaps in access to detection tools that disadvantage journalists and civil society.
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Carlos Diaz Ruiz @carlosdiazruiz.com · 10/12/2024
🧵 Disinformation is different from lying: The "Santa Claus" test. As the image below shows, it is common to think that disinformation is more or less equivalent to lying. While the intention is welcome, this belief is incorrect and unhelpful. Credit: @brentlee.bsky.social
An image uses the belief in Santa Claus to differentiate disinformation from misinformation. The image wrongly describes disinformation as lying and misinformation as spreading a false belief. 

credit: @brentlee.bsky.social
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M. Alessandro 🇨🇦 @manfrommolise.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgFC...
youtube.com
The World's Dumbest Bike Lane Law Just Passed in Canada
YouTube video by Not Just Bikes
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M. Alessandro 🇨🇦 @manfrommolise.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
The banality of automated decision-making. As "AI" has become synonymous with generative systems, the policy focus has shifted away from the inumerable, mostly inscrutable, ways ML and other automated systems affect lives - from surveillance to access to essential services.
techtonicjustice.org
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The Citizen Lab @citizenlab.ca · 29/11/2024
Digital transnational repression (DTR) is increasingly becoming the cornerstone of ‘everyday’ transnational repression, posing a significant threat to the rights and freedoms of dissidents and activists living in exile. youtu.be/FkPCec7jG5I
youtu.be
Digital Transnational Repression Explained
YouTube video by The Citizen Lab
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Noura Aljizawi @noura.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
1/ 📢 New Report: No Escape: The Weaponization of Gender for the Purposes of Digital Transnational Repression. We examine how gender shapes digital transnational repression—where governments target, suppress, and surveil activists across borders using digital tools 📖 citizenlab.ca/2024/12/the-...
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
“Critical Mass” is back in Toronto because of Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s vindictive and dangerous war on safe bike infrastructure and successful city-building. This was last night. #CriticalMass #Toronto #BikeLanes
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