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| Morocco’s Surveillance Infrastructure Expands Ahead of Sports Mega-Events |
| As Morocco gears up for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations and 2030 World Cup, it is scaling up AI-driven surveillance and facial recognition systems across major cities like Rabat, Fez, and Marrakesh—an expansion rooted in surveillance systems first introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this op-ed, Our Board Member, Dima Samaro explores the role of private companies and European funding in this build-up, calling for a rights-based approach that includes stronger data protection safeguards, human rights due diligence, and the meaningful inclusion of civil society in government-led projects. Read more: Skyline International for Human Rights (SIHR) |
| Indian Income Tax Bill 2025: Expanding Digital Search & Seizure Powers |
| In a sweeping new proposal, the Indian government is set to replace the Income Tax Act, 1961, with the Income Tax Bill, 2025, granting tax authorities the power to override online access codes and search digital communications without prior notice or warrant. Critics argue that these enhanced powers could pave the way for unchecked state surveillance. The debate is heating up as lawmakers and activists call for a thorough review of these measures. Read more: Indian Express, IFF Statement, Hindustan Times |
| Follow the debates on ‘Silicon Savannah’ |
| > Read “The state as auteur: Timing digitisation in Africa’s Silicon Savannah” by Ayona Datta and Fenna Imara Hoefsloot. The paper has been published at Dialogues on Digital Society’s forum and is accompanied by five commentaries from experts and the authors’ response. > Read “Making sense of funding inequalities in the venture capital space: a state of the art review paper with views from Africa” by Ben Mkalama and Stefan Ouma at Socio-Economic Review. > The same authors have also mapped the race, nationality, class and gender of all funded founder teams between 2019 and 2022 in Kenya. Read “To whom does the money go? Mapping the uneven financial geographies of venture capital in ‘Silicon Savannah’, Kenya” at Finance & Space. |
| Digital Public Infrastructures: A Critical Inquiry |
| This paper examines the evolution of the concept of “digital public infrastructure”, tracing a history from an initial phase of openness through the phase of global popularisation to a current phase of localisation. It cautions against simplistic solutions like substituting foreign tech giants with domestic monopolies that may perpetuate surveillance and crony capitalism. Instead, the piece emphasises the importance of grounding technological development in the diverse needs of communities, ensuring public accountability in digital governance. Read more: Open Future |
| An Intellectual History of Digital Colonialism |
| This article reviews significant historical precedents to the current critique of digital colonialism and shows how digital rights activists from the Global South have been actively developing and popularising these ideas over the last decade. It also proposes a typology of digital colonialism around six core features. Read more: Journal of Communication |
| Special Issue: Latin American Critical Data Studies |
| The papers in this issue aim to challenge both the universalist narratives of datafication and essentialist accounts of the “Global South” in critical data studies. They interrogate how datafication, power, and AI intersect with historical legacies in the region, advancing non-extractive, dialogical approaches to studying data. The papers debate the role of capitalism, coloniality, and dependency theory while highlighting Latin America’s diverse epistemological contributions. Read the Special Issue’s editorial by Rafael Grohmann at Big Data & Society |
| USA Disappeared Tracker: A Data-Driven Call to Action |
| See how Danielle Harlow, a public policy and data solutionist professional has created the USA Disappeared Tracker. The tracker seeks to document and bring visibility to cases of deportations, detentions, and renditions during the Trump administration. Explore: USA Disappeared Tracker |
| De Gruyter Handbook of Digital Criminology: An Interdisciplinary Guide |
| Edited by Mareile Kaufmann and Heidi Mork Lomell, this handbook brings together multidisciplinary perspectives on how digital technologies are reshaping crime, justice, and state surveillance. The book covers a wide range of topics, from cybercrime and artificial intelligence to privacy concerns and digital policing. Although the book, unfortunately, does not have many contributors from the Majority World, it provides a glossary of key theoretical, methodological and criminological concepts in a rapidly developing field of digital criminology. Download the open-access handbook |
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