The systems that govern speech online were not built for Arabic-speaking users. Women across the Arab world are paying the consequences.

Aliya Nasif was campaigning for re-election to the Iraqi parliament in October 2025, when someone used AI face-substitution tools to superimpose her face onto the body of a Ukrainian dancer in a video originally posted to TikTok in 2023. The resulting clip, framed as a pornographic scandal, was posted to X. 

WWie lässt sich technologische Innovation so gestalten, dass ethische Verantwortung nicht auf der Strecke bleibt? Das bidt-Projekt „Ethik in der agilen Softwareentwicklung“ (EDAP) hat dafür nicht nur Problembewusstsein geschaffen, sondern konkrete Antworten entwickelt. Statt Ethik als nachgelagerte Prüfung oder moralischen Zusatz zu verstehen, rückte EDAP sie dorthin, wo über digitale Systeme tatsächlich entschieden wird: in den Entwicklungsprozess selbst.

Our times are marked not just by a crisis of facts, but a crisis of reality production. Oligarchs, platforms, reactionary movements and attention entrepreneurs have learned to stage fantastic parallel worlds, exploit all manners of anxiety and alienation, and scale their fictions as power, while the once grander fictions of capitalism and democracy are becoming less relevant by the day.

Two senior leaders from the Gates Foundation’s Africa team, Matshidiso Masire and Bahati Ngongo, visited the Policy Innovation Lab at Stellenbosch University to explore how the Foundation’s catalytic funding is unlocking further investment and impact. The visit also examined how the supported work is enabling practical learning between countries in the Global South.
Digital public infrastructure and South-South learning

On International Archives Day, June 9, 2026, the University Archives (N.0.55) will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. to answer your questions!
You’ve been carrying around questions about the University Archives for a long time that you’ve never dared to ask: What does a university archive do? What happens in the university archives? Why are university archives needed? Who hands over what to whom, when, and why?
Come to the University Archives’ Open Day and get answers to all these questions!
We look forward to your visit!
 

Location: Remote or hybrid, depending on your location.
Commitment: Part-time
Start Date: Immediately
Compensation: Negotiable.
 
About the Role

Frühling im Wald: Viele Insekten, vor allem Raupen, schlüpfen genau dann, wenn die nährstoffreichen Blätter der Bäume noch jung und weich sind. So finden sie einen reich gedeckten Tisch und können direkt mit dem Fressen anfangen.
Werden Eichen in einem Jahr stark von Raupen befallen, reagieren sie darauf im folgenden Frühjahr: Sie verzögern dann ihren Blattaustrieb um drei Tage. Für die Raupen ist das ungünstig. Sie stehen nach dem Schlüpfen wortwörtlich vor leeren Tellern, weil die Eichenblätter noch fest in den Knospen verborgen sind.

Gut möglich, dass in naher Zukunft Menschen einer KI ihre Symptome schildern müssen, bevor sie einen Arzttermin erhalten. Die KI entscheidet dann, ob es sich um einen Notfall handelt oder ob die Behandlung noch warten kann, und vergibt dementsprechend Termine.

Les Actes de la Conférence Cyberjustice Europe 2025, tenue le 3 décembre dernier à Strasbourg, sont désormais disponibles dès maintenant.

Across Europe, there are concerns surrounding the state of media freedom and the democratic decline that we have witnessed, with journalists facing a hostile environment, including threatening legal tactics, the rise of Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation (SLAPPs), online and physical harassment, and surveillance on journalists. 

AI Learning Labs, RightsCon, knowledge commons as critical digital infrastructure, Open Technology Research, and more.
The post Learning together, building together – OKFN Newsletter April 2026 first appeared on Open Knowledge Blog.

On April 16, The Datasphere Initiative hosted a new Global Sandboxes Forum (GSF) Insights Session focused on business engagement in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Sandboxes. Aiming to foster a rich debate with insights regarding corporate participation in sandboxes, the event brought together sandbox specialists, representatives from the private sector, ranging from Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and startups, to major industry players such as Mastercard and Nubank.

Now on its 16th edition, Wiki Loves Monuments still retains its crown as the world’s largest photo contest. Each year since 2010, photographers from around the globe have come together to celebrate cultural heritage through their camera lens—and donate it all to benefit Wikimedia’s freely shared knowledge. 

I recently finished Joshua Gooch‘s Capitalism Hates You: Marxism and the New Horror Film, where the author looks at contemporary horror movies and argues that monsters work like mirrors. They reflect whatever sociopolitical anxiety is boiling underneath—economic precarity, environmental collapse, the feeling that the whole system wants you dead.

aau_ubThe University Library will be closed from 1 May to 3 May 2026 due to the public holiday on first May.
 
The 24/7 library will be open as usual. Please register for this service in good time if you wish to use the reading rooms or the open stacks next weekend.
 
We look forward to seeing you at the library!

Our team and network will discuss pressing issues such as reimagining AI, experiencing brain-computer interfaces, leveraging digital public goods, and more; check the full agenda
The post Join Open Knowledge at RightsCon 2026, Zambia first appeared on Open Knowledge Blog.

Le CRDP vous invite à participer au colloque « Les 10 ans du code de procédure civile : l’épreuve du réel ». Le colloque s’inscrit dans le cadre d’un premier forum consultatif tenu par le Comité Institution judiciaire, procédure civile et justice participative pour la réalisation des États généraux de la justice.
 
Date : 15 mai 2026
Lieu :  Faculté de droit, A-3464, Salon François-Chevrette
Heure : 8H45 – 16H

On March 13, thousands of leaflets dropped over Beirut. At the bottom sat QR codes A month later, the question remains: why would a military drop QR codes for people to scan? Were they malicious? And what were they actually trying to collect? 

I believe they were after metadata.

In January 2026, the internet celebrated the 25th anniversary of Wikipedia, the original workhorse behind third-grade papers on giant squids and fourth-place social studies projects. Much like students debating the academic integrity of enlisting generative AI for their work today, it was once difficult to abstain from using Wikipedia articles as a source. After all, right at our fingertips were over 7 million articles in plainly written English, summarizing even the most complex, niche, and fraught subjects.
 

Always online – for many, this is increasingly the norm. When we’re offline, something’s gone wrong; we’re in a dead spot. This limits our options, including our ability to make payments. In areas with no network coverage, we have to pay with cash – if we have any. Now, offline functions aim to enable digital payments without network access. How is this supposed to work? Why does it make sense? Who is championing this and who thinks it’s impossible? This is the focus of episode 3 of the third season of Digitalgelddickicht on the topic of ‘Secure Money’.