"This report is an invitation to grapple with the complex interplay between infrastructure, media systems, civil society, and public sector institutions. Our findings suggest that effective policy solutions must: acknowledge the historical, political, economic, and social forces that shape informati
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on flows and sociotechnical systems; develop holistic approaches that consider the entire ecosystem rather than isolated interventions; understand how data governance and AI systems fundamentally influence information production, dissemination, and consumption; use a wider array of authorities and policy tools to create legal, regulatory and normative frameworks that protect democratic values while empowering communities and individuals who are embedded in increasingly opaque sociotechnical systems. By exploring both individual-level phenomena and systemic dynamics, this report suggests how legislative, regulatory, competition, education and other public authorities as well as tech platforms and citizens themselves all have a role to play in cultivating information ecosystems where democracy can better thrive." (Foreword by Courtney Radsch, page v-vi)
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"The fourth edition of the Greening Digital Companies: Monitoring Emissions and Climate Commitments report continues to track greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy use and climate commitments of 200 digital companies. It provides a critical foundation for setting science-based targets (SBTs), measu
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ring progress over time and addressing the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) role in tracking the environmental impact of the digital sector. As a driver of global innovation and economic growth, the digital sector is increasingly stepping up to its responsibilities in the low-carbon transition. Climate ambition is on the rise, with more companies setting emission reduction targets, increasing use of renewable energy and aligning with SBT frameworks. However, to fully realize this potential, persistent gaps in transparency, reporting and accountability must still be addressed as outlined in this report. The Greening Digital Companies report is based on the most recent full fiscal year for which consistent data can be obtained across all companies—currently 2023." (Executive summary)
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"Digital monopolies shape ever larger parts of our lives. The platforms are increasingly controlling the public formation of political opinion and at the same time abolishing our free market economy. Digital expert Martin Andree shows in detail how far the hostile takeover of our society by the tech
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giants has already progressed - and how we could reclaim the Internet." (Publisher description)
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"Das Versprechen der Digitalen Revolution ist die Heilserzählung unsererZeit. Dieses Buch erzählt eine andere Geschichte: Die des digitalen Kolonialismus. Statt physisches Land einzunehmen, erobern die heutigen Kolonialherren den digitalen Raum. Statt nach Gold und Diamanten lassen sie unter mensc
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henunwürdigen Bedingungen nach Rohstoffen graben, die wir für unsere Smartphones benötigen. Statt Sklaven beschäftigen sie Heere von Klickarbeiter:innen, die zu Niedriglöhnen in digitalen Sweatshops arbeiten, um soziale Netzwerke zu säubern oder vermeintlich Künstliche Intelligenz am Laufen zu halten. Der Kolonialismus von heute mag sich sauber und smart geben, doch eines ist gleich geblieben: Er beutet Mensch und Natur aus und kümmert sich nicht um gesellschaftliche Folgen vor Ort. Im Wettkampf der neuen Kolonialmächte ist Digitalpolitik längst zum Instrument geopolitischer Konflikte geworden - der Globale Süden gerät zwischen die Fronten." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"If you're not paying for the product, then you are the product. In the past, colonialism was a landgrab of natural resources, exploitative labour and private property from developing countries. It made shiny promises to modernise and civilise, but actually sought to control. It made native populati
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ons sign contracts they didn't understand, and took resources just because they were there. Colonialism has not disappeared it has taken a new form. In the new world order where data is the new oil, big Tech companies are grabbing our most basic natural resources, our data, exploiting our labour and connections, and repackaging our information to control our views, track our movements, record our conversations and discriminate against us. They tell us this is for our own good, to build innovation and develop new technology. But in fact every time we unthinkingly click 'Accept' on Terms and Conditions, we allow our most personal information to kept indefinitely, repackaged by big Tech companies to control and exploit us for their own profit. This is the era of data colonialism. The new colonial landgrab is a datagrab. In this searing, cutting-edge guide, two leading global researchers and founders of the concept of data colonialism reveal how history can help us understand the emerging future, and how we can fight back." (Publisher description)
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"Drawing from rich ethnographic materials and perspectives from both the Global North and South, authors Tiziano Bonini and Emiliano Treré explore how people appropriate and reconfigure algorithms to pursue their objectives in three domains of everyday life: gig work, cultural industries, and polit
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ics. They reveal how forms of algorithmic agency and resistance are endemic and mundane and how the platform society is a contested battleground of contrasting forces. Bonini and Treré begin by outlining their key theoretical framework of moral economies. This framework argues that algorithms exist on a continuum. At its two extremes are two competing moral economies: the user moral economy and the platform moral economy. From here, Algorithms of Resistance chronicles the various inventive ways that individuals can work to achieve agency and resist the ubiquitous power of algorithms." (Publisher description)
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"Plattformen konstruieren kulturelle Räume aus Kanälen, Memes, Videos, ‚lo-fi‘ Remixen, Cumbias und ‚piñatas‘. Diese Räume werden in der vorliegenden Studie literatur-, kultur- und medienwissenschaftlich betrachtet, wodurch sich transkulturelle und -mediale Perspektiven auf Konzepte wie
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Kultur und Nation eröffnen. Es werden Dynamiken und Akteure analysiert, welche die Räume der Plattformen auf der Ebene der Infrastruktur gestalten, und solche, die (web)-sprachlich-kulturell Communities und Genres produzieren. Sie reichen von bekannten Politikern und YouTubern bis hin zu indigenen Bewegungen in Mexiko. Die Akteure werden über die Figur des ‚señor YouTube‘, als anthropomorphisierter Uploadfilter, gefasst und als Repräsentationsformen untersucht. Die verschiedenen Dimensionen konvergieren in dieser Figur als gesellschaftliche Diskurse, soziokulturelle Räume und informationstechnische Systeme sowie lokalisieren Mexiko in den Welten der Plattformen." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Broadly speaking, the Chinese media and internet economy experienced considerable growth from $524.17 billion in 2019 to $652.11 billion in 2021, despite the inhibiting impact of the COVID pandemic on growth in many sectors of the global economy. The Chinese media and internet economy— estimated
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at $652 billion in 2021 based on our assessment across 25 sectors—is now the second largest in the world. $1,288.4 billion in 2021, the largest in the world. Across the various sectors, market concentration tends to be more extreme in “telecoms & internet access sectors” (e.g. wireline and wireless) and “core internet applications” (e.g. search engines, mobile OS and desktop OS) than “online and traditional media services (content media)” sectors. While state media enterprises dominate “telecoms & internet access services” and “online and traditional media services (content media)” sectors, private Chinese firms are market leaders in many “core internet applications” except for mobile/desktop operating systems and mobile/desktop browsers sectors, where foreign players—Google, Apple, and Microsoft—have a stronghold." (Executive summary)
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"This book addresses the issues raised by digital platforms in the Global South, with an emphasis on the cultural stakes involved. It brings together an interdisciplinary team of researchers - including political economists, socio-economists, geographers, media sociologists or anthropologists - who
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each explore these issues through an insightful case study at a local, national, regional or international scale. While studying the strategies of some of the main US-based Big Tech platforms or video streaming platforms towards the Global South, the chapters also consider the often-neglected active role local or regional actors play in the expansion of those Western digital players, and highlight the existence of a constellation of local or regional platforms that have emerged in Africa, Asia, Latin America or the Middle East. In addition to analysing the complex relationships of competition, collaboration or dependence between these diverse actors, this volume examines the ways in which the rise of these digital platforms has generated new forms of cultural entrepreneurship and participated in the reconfiguring of the conditions in which cultural contents are produced and circulated in the Global South." (Publisher description)
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"Digitale Monopole bringen immer größere Teile unserer Lebenswelt unter ihre Kontrolle. Die Plattformen dominieren zunehmend die politische Meinungsbildung und schaffen zugleich unsere freie Marktwirtschaft ab. Man fragt sich: Ist das überhaupt noch legal? Warum sollten wir uns das noch länger g
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efallen lassen? Der Medienwissenschaftler Martin Andree zeigt messerscharf, wie weit die feindliche Übernahme unserer Gesellschaft durch die Tech-Giganten schon fortgeschritten ist - und wie wir uns das Internet zurückerobern können." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"[...] la présente note d’orientation expose les principes potentiels d’un code de conduite qui aidera à guider les États Membres, les plateformes numériques et les autres parties prenantes dans les efforts qu’ils déploient pour rendre l’espace numérique plus inclusif et plus sûr pour
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tous et toutes, tout en défendant vigoureusement le droit à la liberté d’opinion et d’expression ainsi que le droit d’accès à l’information. Le code de conduite portant sur l’intégrité de l’information diffusée sur les plateformes numériques est en cours d’élaboration dans le cadre des préparatifs du Sommet de l’avenir. J’espère qu’il servira de guide dans la formulation de mesures de renforcement de l’intégrité de l’information. Les plateformes numériques sont des outils essentiels qui ont transformé les interactions sociales, culturelles et politiques partout dans le monde, en mettant en relation des citoyens préoccupés par des questions importantes. Grâce à elles, les Nations Unies informent le public et dialoguent directement avec les personnes qui oeuvrent en faveur de la paix, de la dignité et de l’égalité sur une planète saine. Ces plateformes ont donné de l’espoir aux peuples pendant les périodes de crise et de lutte, elles ont amplifié des voix qui n’étaient pas entendues auparavant et fait naître des mouvements mondiaux." (Objet de la présente note, page 2)
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"In a cross-platform analysis of Google Web Search, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, 4chan and TikTok, we found that hyperpartisan web operators, alternative influencers and ambivalent commentators are in ascendency. The book can be read as a form of platform criticism. It puts on disp
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lay the current state of information online, noting how social media platforms have taken on the mantle of accidental authorities, privileging their own on-platform performers and at the same time adjudicating between claims of what is considered acceptable discourse." (Publisher description)
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"The Guidelines outline a set of duties, responsibilities and roles for States, digital platforms, intergovernmental organizations, civil society, media, academia, the technical community and other stakeholders to enable the environment where freedom of expression and information are in the core of
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digital platforms governance processes. The Guidelines were produced through a multi-stakeholder consultation that gathered more than 10,000 comments from 134 countries. These global-scale consultations fostered inclusive participation, ensuring a diversity of voices to be heard, including those from groups in situation of marginalization and vulnerability. Cultivating an Internet of Trust is a shared responsibility among all stakeholders. It calls upon us all to sustain an enabling environment for freedom of expression and the right to information." (Short summary)
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"Tracing, first, the formative development of an international and global media landscape throughout the 20th century from the telegraph, television and film export, and transnational television to the Internet, the book then focuses on developments in the 21st century. This includes: the digitizati
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on of the global media and communications sector; the popularization of the Internet and digital infrastructure such as the smartphone and platforms; the emergence of global online media and services; the production and distribution of digital media content; and the exploitation of user data. Case studies illustrate key developments throughout the book. The book shows how the field is characterized by a continuity of critical concerns in relation to power, influence, and domination; media user empowerment and exploitation; and social and sustainable development and democratic conditions, as well as geopolitical shifts, in a global context." (Publisher description)
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"Access Rules mounts a strong and hopeful argument for how informational tools at present in the hands of a few could instead become empowering machines for everyone. By forcing data-hoarding companies to open access to their data, we can reinvigorate both our economy and our society. Authors Viktor
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Mayer-Schönberger and Thomas Ramge contend that if we disrupt monopoly power and create a level playing field, digital innovations can emerge to benefit us all. Over the last twenty years, Big Tech has managed to centralize the most relevant data on their servers, and data has become the most important raw material for innovation. Dominant oligopolists like Facebook, Amazon, and Google, contrary to their reputation as digital pioneers, are in fact slowing down innovation and progress for the benefit of their shareholders--and at the expense of customers, the economy, and society. As Access Rules compellingly argues, ultimately it is up to us to force information giants, wherever they are located, to share their treasure troves of data with others. In order for us to limit global warming, contain a virus like COVID-19, or successfully fight poverty, everyone must have access to data - citizens and scientists, start-ups and established companies, as well as the public sector and NGOs. When everyone has access to the informational riches of the data age, the nature of digital power will change. Information technology will find its way back to its original purpose: empowering all of us to use information so we can thrive as individuals and as societies." (Publisher description)
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"Worldwide, the revenue base for journalism has been disrupted by digital innovation and the dominance of technology platforms in the audience and advertiser-facing markets. Revenue models relied upon by news and information services have collapsed, and credible journalism and its social function ar
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e at risk. Future-proofing the viability and sustainability of public interest journalism in Africa must encourage platforms to pay fair value for the benefit derived. This will require trust and collaboration between governments, the news and information services that produce public interest journalism, and civil society. To achieve this, three pillars grounded in the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa are proposed, namely: i) designation of public interest journalism as a public good, ii) incorporation of national public media funds to resource the supply of public interest journalism and safeguard its public value, and iii) draw revenue for these funds from a collective fee mechanism paid by digital indexing and publishing platforms." (Page 1)
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"The traditional business model of the news media has been deeply eroded by a shift in advertising revenues to online platforms. Media outlets must intensify efforts towards more inclusive journalism, alternative business models and diversified revenue streams. Urgent action from other actors is als
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o required in order to save – and ideally expand – the range of news providers serving the public. Injections of essential revenue for trustworthy journalism can come from donors, public subsidies, and financial support from tech companies. But such investment should come without strings attached. Multi-stakeholder task-forces or commissions of inquiry can tailor solutions – and help to prevent new funding from compromising editorial independence." (Key trends, page 1)
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