Within hours of US-Israeli airstrikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Tehran imposed a near-total internet shutdown, cutting off 90 million people. Journalists now rely on VPNs, Starlink and smuggled videos—while risking arrest or even execution under new espionage laws.

Increasing reliance on AI-driven tools such as facial recognition is contributing to wrongful arrests and miscarriages of justice

Spain plans to ban social media for under-16s, joining global efforts to protect children online. Critics warn blanket bans may backfire, while governments push tougher laws on harmful content and AI-generated abuse

The Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) has published its fourth annual report, which documents a worrying trend: strategic lawsuits against public participation are on the rise, and existing protection measures are far from sufficient

Data intelligence firm Palantir has made a mint from Trump’s mass deportation campaign, and is scoring major deals from the UK’s Ministry of Defence too

Private security firms are exploiting regulatory loopholes to repurpose mobile advertising data for surveillance, enabling near-real-time tracking while sidestepping privacy laws and meaningful user consent

A private member’s bill could invigorate the sluggish process of beefing up legal protections for whistleblowers in South Africa, where assassinations are on the rise

Iran, Uganda and Tanzania have become the latest countries to shut down the internet as a way of cracking down on political opposition

Nigerian whistleblower and Blueprint Africa Whistleblowing Prize Winner Nnamdi Emeh appeared in court again this week on what have widely been described as trumped-up charges. He has languished in jail for almost three years despite being granted bail.

But do they amount to much in practice?

Launch is a significant step forward for accountability of AI systems and their developers

Commons-public partnerships are not a panacea. They are a tool in the toolbox of democratic transformation. Their strength lies in the fact that they bring together the three dimensions of the challenge: they create legal recognition and thus protection against modes of exploitation and intimidation. They enable collective data sovereignty instead of individual vulnerability. And they provide a framework for participatory technology design instead of technocratic external control.