There is one recurring theme: Young people feel robbed of their future Pratap Bhanu Mehta NB: A timely and typically thought-provoking essay by this scholar. I add some observations below 1/ The crisis of the 1960s and 1970s culminated in the Trilateral Commission’s 1975 report on The Crisis of Democracy, authored by Samuel Huntington et… Read More Nepal, France, America: democracy seems overtaken once more
Young protesters clash with police after breaking barricades outside the Federal Parliament in Kathmandu, on September 8, 2025. Demonstrators rallied against corruption and the government’s social media shutdown, while security forces responded with tear gas, water cannons, and rubber bullets. Photos: Skanda Gautam/THT Nepal has lifted a ban on social media platforms following mass protests against systemic… Read More Revolutionary upsurge in Nepal; as govt lifts social media ban. 19 killed in protests against corruption. All political parties under attack
One word, in particular, stood out to researchers as a kind of linguistic watermark. “Delve” has become an academic shibboleth, a neon sign in the middle of every conversation flashing ChatGPT was here. NB: I’ve found ‘delve‘ occuring very frequently in students assignments. DS Sara Parker Join any Zoom call, walk into any lecture hall, or… Read More You sound like ChatGPT
America’s epistemic challenges run deeper than social media. (NB: It’s not just an American problem) Dan Williams Many people sense that the United States is undergoing an epistemic crisis, a breakdown in the country’s collective capacity to agree on basic facts, distinguish truth from falsehood, and adhere to norms of rational debate. “The Yellow Press,” by… Read More Scapegoating the Algorithm
Experts establish four themes to the misinformation contained in videos with a #mentalhealthtips hashtag More than half of top 100 mental health TikToks contain misinformation, study finds Rachel Hall Thousands of influencers peddle mental health misinformation on social media platforms – some out of a naive belief that their personal experience will help people, others… Read More Most common mental health misinformation on TikTok
we may very gently suggest that if Mahmudabad used his analytical mind to issue such an incredibly subtle dog whistle that we need three police officers to tell us where the whistle was and who the dogs were, then it was very clearly a really terrible dog whistle. You might as well close the case… Read More Tell me why; and how to read a sentence
A perverse information ecosystem is being mined by big tech for profit, fooling the unwary and sending algorithms crazy Nesrine Malik There are two parallel image channels that dominate our daily visual consumption. In one, there are real pictures and footage of the world as it is: politics, sport, news and entertainment. In the other… Read More With ‘AI slop’ distorting our reality, the world is sleepwalking into disaster
By Brian Fung and Clare Duffy, CNN Google has illegally built “monopoly power” with its web advertising business, a federal judge in Virginia has ruled, siding with the Justice Department in a landmark case against the tech giant that could reshape the basic economics of running a modern website. The ruling that Google violated antitrust law marks the US government’s… Read More Google is an online advertising monopoly, judge rules
Turmoil spreads at company over Israel’s extensive use of its AI and cloud computing services in Gaza war Timothy Pratt For the second time in the last month, Microsoft employees disrupted high-level executives speaking at an event celebrating the company’s 50th anniversary on 4 April, in protest against the company’s role in Israel’s ongoing siege on Gaza.… Read More Microsoft faces growing unrest over role in Israel’s war on Gaza: ‘Close to a tipping point’
A generation who came of age online now feel deprived of real connections. The upside is they are doing something about it Gaby Hinsliff It’s the love-hate relationship that defined a generation. We think we know all about teenagers and the phones to which they’re so umbilically tied: sleeping with them under the pillow, panicking… Read More It’s the age of regret: gen Z grew up glued to their screens, and missed the joy of being human
After the truth-shower 