"Digital systems are significantly associated with inequality in the global South. That association has traditionally been understood in terms of the digital divide or related terminologies whose core conceptualization is the exclusion of some groups from the benefits of digital systems. However, wi
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th the growing breadth and depth of digital engagement in the global South, an exclusion worldview is no longer sufficient. What is also needed is an understanding of how inequalities are created for some groups that are included in digital systems. This paper creates such an understanding, drawing from ideas in the development studies literature on chronic poverty to inductively build a model of a new concept: ‘adverse digital incorporation’, meaning inclusion in a digital system that enables a more-advantaged group to extract disproportionate value from the work or resources of another, less advantaged group. This new model will enable those involved with digital development to understand why, how and for whom inequality can emerge from the growing use of digital systems in the global South. It creates a systematic framework incorporating the processes, the drivers, and the causes of adverse digital incorporation that will provide detailed new insights. The paper concludes with implications for both digital development researchers and practitioners that derive from the model and its exposure to the broader components of power that shape the inclusionary connection between digital and inequality." (Abstract)
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"In summary, digitalisation is gaining momentum in Africa as the continent experiences significant improvements in its digital infrastructure and a vibrant startup ecosystem. To harness this momentum across society, African governments and their partners will need to strike the right balance between
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policies that attract private investment in Africa’s digital infrastructure and promote local entrepreneurship, innovation, competition, and digital skills, while preventing unregulated new technologies from harming consumers. This will be a major challenge for African governments and their partners, but also a great opportunity for the continent to leap forward in the coming digital century." (Page 11)
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"Algorithms are not to be regarded as a technical structure but as a social phenomenon - they embed themselves, currently still very subtle, into our political and social system. Algorithms shape human behavior on various levels: they influence not only the aesthetic reception of the world but also
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the well-being and social interaction of their users. They act and intervene in a political and social context. As algorithms influence individual behavior in these social and political situations, their power should be the subject of critical discourse - or even lead to active disobedience and to the need for appropriate tools and methods which can be used to break the algorithmic power." (Publisher description)
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"Argues that what makes AI socially relevant and useful is not intelligence at all but something even more human: communication. If machines are going to improve their ability to address ever more important human issues, it will not be because they have learned to think like people, but because we h
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ave learned to communicate with them." (Publisher description)
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"En la era digital los equipos electrónicos y la información manejada por los activistas y defensores de Derechos Humanos también están en riesgo. La seguridad digital, está compuesta por un conjunto de herramientas, hábitos y métodos empleados para proteger los equipos electrónicos y la inf
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ormación manejada a través de ellos. Esta guia explica puntos sobre seguridad digital y da recomendaciones." (Publisher description)
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"Este informe elaborado por el Instituto de Desarrollo Digital de América Latina y el Caribe (IDD LAC) describe y analiza diversos modelos e iniciativas (tanto estatales como de la sociedad civil) sobre formas de institucionalidad para la supervisión de obligaciones de transparencia y rendición d
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e cuentas de las grandes plataformas digitales, dado su creciente rol en el flujo de información y comunicación en Internet. Como corolario, se presentan una serie de conclusiones y recomendaciones que puedan ser insumos útiles para enriquecer la búsqueda de soluciones democráticas y adecuadas al entorno digital." (Observacom)
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"Las páginas que siguen están estructuradas en tres partes. En la primera se exponen las bases teóricas y epistemológicas esenciales de la Alfabetización Mediática e Informacional (AMI), fundamentalmente en los capítulos de Divina Frau-Meigs y Tessa Jolls. La segunda, donde continúan las int
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ervenciones de carácter conceptual y se suman ejemplos de políticas y metodologías de AMI en diferentes países de Iberoamérica, pero sin perder contacto con las realidades específicas analizadas. Finalmente, en la última parte se muestran experiencias concretas de proyectos AMI de Argentina, pero con potencial de aplicación en otros contextos. Cada una de estas nos permite recuperar el saber que hoy encontramos en las practicas concretas que, de forma creativa y comprometida, dieron respuesta a la continuidad pedagógica en el contexto de aislamiento producido por la COVID-19." (Introducción, página 27-28)
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"This paper will discuss the challenges and opportunities of addressing both online and offline hate speech through education and recommend comprehensive approaches for effective educational strategies. Incorporating context-based teaching and learning practices that promote responsible global citiz
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enship are important first steps that must be accompanied by a whole school- and community-based approach to creating civic spaces that embrace different perspectives and opinions, respect difference and work towards a shared sense of belonging." (Introduction, page 3)
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"En este documento presentamos una secuencia didáctica para que las y los docentes trabajen en el aula sobre las desinformaciones en contextos electorales teniendo en cuenta que las y los adolescentes son parte fundamental de los debates públicos e incluso en varios países pueden ejercer el derec
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ho al voto. Si bien es de esperar que los contenidos específicos de las desinformaciones puedan variar a lo largo del tiempo y de país en país (y en niveles subnacionales), hay algunos elementos del fenómeno que son comunes en toda la región y en todos los períodos electorales. Proponemos abordar estos elementos en las aulas como una estrategia para mitigar la masiva circulación de estos contenidos y propiciar que jóvenes tomen decisiones informadas, un desafío que, por supuesto, tenemos también las personas adultas. En el Programa de Educación de Chequeado sabemos que la escuela en general y los docentes en particular pueden promover espacios de participación que fomenten la construcción de habilidades de pensamiento crítico para que, al momento de votar, las y los jóvenes lo hagan a partir de información verificada. Entendemos que enseñar en la escuela estas habilidades, especialmente aquellas vinculadas con la identificación de desinformación, como parte de la Alfabetización Mediática e Informacional (AMI) es prioritario para el fortalecimiento del sistema democrático." (Introducción)
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"Once a specialised and niche field within internet and digital media studies, internet governance has in recent years moved to the forefront of policy debate. In the wake of scandals such as Cambridge Analytica and the global 'techlash' against digital monopolies, platform studies are undergoing a
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critical turn, but there is a greater need to connect such analysis to questions of public policy. This volume does just that, through a rich array of chapters concretely exploring the operation and influence of digital platforms and their related policy concerns. A wide variety of digital communication platforms are explored, including social media, content portals, search engines and app stores." (Publisher description)
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"In the past few years, many countries across the continent have enacted various laws that permit surveillance, mandate telecommunication intermediaries to facilitate the interception of communication, stipulate the mandatory collection of biometric data, limit the use of encryption, require the loc
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alisation of personal data, and grant law enforcement agents broad search and seizure powers. This report therefore maps and analyses the laws and policies that impact on privacy, notably those that regulate surveillance, limitations on encryption, data localisation, and biometric databases. This analysis could inform remedial and mitigatory steps to protect the right to privacy, which may include strategic litigation and advocacy for legislative and policy reforms. Moreover, the results of this analysis are also crucial for monitoring developments and trends on privacy regulation and practice in the region." (Introduction, page 5-6)
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"This research was conducted to assess the digital security posture among independent media organizations in Lebanon. It is significant for media organizations in Lebanon to maintain a good standard of digital security, especially in an era when press freedom is increasingly under attack." (Introduc
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tion and Methodology, 5)
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"This paper presents an analytical review of the technological affordances of digital platforms in SSA. We adopted a systematic literature review methodology that entailed gathering evidence from relevant literature and digital platforms in three countries in SSA (South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya).
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Three research questions focusing on (i) critical issues of discussion on digital platforms in SSA and their distribution; (ii) understanding the technological affordances of digital platforms in SSA; and (iii) assessing the extent to which the technological affordances digital platforms can address the challenges of the informal sector in SSA drove the investigation. The study developed an affordances criteria framework, the first of its kind, to evaluate digital platforms affordances in SSA. Our findings revealed the key topics that have gained researchers' attention so far and digital platforms distribution in SSA. We also found that most digital platforms in SSA currently lack affordances that support multimodal interface and native language contents, limiting their accessibility to persons with minimal digital literacy. Most platforms also lack support for public/private partnerships. The lack of critical affordances that match the profile of the informal sector in SSA makes existing digital platforms incapable of addressing many critical challenges of the informal sector. These challenges include low literacy levels, minimal/lack of government support, lack of electricity or expensive power supply, expensive internet connectivity, and health and safety issues. However, existing digital platforms can reasonably address the absence of social protection, lack of formalization, and poor operational infrastructure." (Abstract)
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"In over 30 years of history, the field of Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) has asserted itself both within Information Systems (IS) and across disciplines. However, the core assumptions on which the field was built have been questioned over time, resulting in a situa
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tion in which such assumptions—on development, the role of ICTs towards it, and the meaningfulness of the term “developing countries”—have been problematized. As a result, this paper poses the question on whether it still makes sense to do ICT4D research: starting from older ICT4D landscape papers, it fleshes out three main assumptions made at the origins of the field. It then problematizes such assumptions through more recent works, noting that the old theoretical grounds of the field do not apply anymore today. Having said that, it states three reasons for renewed ICT4D research efforts: the reframing of “development” in terms of justice, the potential of multi-theoretical research approaches, and the turn to indigenous understandings of ICTs. For all these reasons, it concludes that doing ICT4D research is especially important today, in virtue of a juncture of history that problematizes its older assumptions." (Abstract)
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"An important 2019 paper applied a novel analytic technique called Specification Curve Analysis (SCA) to data from three large-scale community samples to investigate the association between adolescent technology use and mental health/well-being. The paper concluded that an association exists but is
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tiny, with median betas between -0.01 and -0.04. This association was reported to be smaller than links between mental health and various innocuous variables in the datasets such as eating potatoes, and therefore to be of no practical significance. The current paper re-ran SCA on the same datasets while applying alternative analytic constraints on the model specification space, including: 1) examining specific digital media activities (e.g., social media) separately rather than lumping all “screen time” including TV together; 2) examining boys and girls separately, rather than examining them together; 3) excluding potential mediators from the list of controls; and 4) treating scales equally (rather than allowing one scale with many subscales to dominate all others). We were able to reproduce the original results with the original configurations. When we used the revised constraints, we found several much larger relationships than previously reported. In particular: among girls, there is a consistent and substantial association between mental health and social media use (median betas from -0.11 to -0.24). These associations were stronger than links between mental health and binge drinking, sexual assault, obesity, and hard drug use, suggesting that these associations may have substantial practical significance as many countries are experiencing rising rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide among teenagers and young adults." (Abstract)
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"Die neuen sozio-technischen Verhältnisse der digitalen Transformation fordern neuzeitliche Konzepte des »souveränen Staates« und des »souveränen Subjekts« heraus, was in Debatten um »digitale Souveränität« problematisiert wird. Die Beiträger*innen des Bandes diskutieren diese Herausford
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erungen für zentrale gesellschaftliche Teilbereiche (u.a. Recht, Politik, Wirtschaft, Technik und Ethik) und tragen damit zu einer Systematisierung und Anreicherung der öffentlichen und wissenschaftlichen Diskussion bei. Zentrale Bruchlinien sind dabei neben Souveränitätskonzepten auch die Selbst- und Fremdbestimmung sowie der Umgang mit Daten." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"In this article we consider the notion of digital global public good and articulate our understanding of it. Against this conceptual foil, we examine the development of DHIS2 (District Health Information Software Version 2), a global health platform inspired by public goods, focusing on the paradox
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es that arise in the scaling process. We find that the scaling dynamics played out differently at the macro and micro levels, giving rise to the following paradoxes: addition of new functionalities to cater to the universe of users across the world (macro level) works counter to the needs of users in particular locations (micro level); responsiveness to the requests of the donors with a global view (macro level) distorts the production process, as the voices of users, situated in remote locations in developing countries, are not adequately heard; the system needs to be simultaneously relevant across the global (macro level) and the local (micro level), when the former calls for decontextualization and the later (re)contextualization. We then discuss challenges these paradoxes create with regard to attaining non-rivalry and non-exclusion, the defining characteristics of a public good." (Abstract)
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"Structured along two broad themes and providing empirical examples for how socio-technical changes and political responses interact, the first part of the book looks at the current use of cyberspace in conflictual settings, while the second focuses on political responses by state and non-state acto
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rs in an environment defined by uncertainties. Within this, it highlights four key debates that encapsulate the complexities and paradoxes of cyber security politics from a Western perspective – how much political influence states can achieve via cyber operations and what context factors condition the (limited) strategic utility of such operations; the role of emerging digital technologies and how the dynamics of the tech innovation process reinforce the fragmentation of the governance space; how states attempt to uphold stability in cyberspace and, more generally, in their strategic relations; and how the shared responsibility of state, economy, and society for cyber security continues to be re-negotiated in an increasingly trans-sectoral and transnational governance space." (Publisher description)
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"This paper examines the practices, performance, and perceptions of the messaging platform Telegram as an actor in the 2020 Belarus protests, using publicly available data from Telegram’s public statements, protest-related Telegram groups, and media coverage. Developing a novel conceptualization o
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f platform actorness, we critically assess Telegram’s role in the protests and examine whether Telegram is seen as playing an active role in Belarusian contentious politics. We find that Telegram’s performance and practices drive citizens to form affective connections to the platform and to perceive Telegram as an ally in their struggle against repressions and digital censorship. Meanwhile, the Belarusian state uses Telegram’s aversion to censorship and content moderation to intervene in contentious politics by co-opting grassroots approaches and mimicking manipulative efforts of other authoritarian regimes. Our conceptual framework is applicable to post-Soviet authoritarian contexts, but can also serve as a useful heuristic for analyzing platform actorness in other regime types." (Abstract)
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