EdTech platforms as infrastructural blackholes

This post by Vanessa Richter is part of our series “Global Digital Cultures in times of COVID-19”, written by students of the research master Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Online schooling seems to be the best and most obvious solution to the current predicament of ongoing school lockdowns. However, the best solution for…

Global Digital Inequalities

You can now watch the full seminar on “Global Digital Inequalities”, featuring Nishant Shah and Padmini Ray Murray How does digitisation reshape the distribution of cultural, economic, and political resources around the globe? Over the past decades, this has been a central question in activist, scholarly, and policy debate. In this webinar, feminist technologist Nishant Shah…

Engaging with Online Sex Work

You can now watch the full seminar on “Engaging with Online Sex Work”, featuring Lorelei Lee and Antonia Hernandez Many concepts ‘meet’ each other in the practices of online sex work; physical & digital, pleasure & power, intimacy & publicness, body & labour. Not to forget how gender, race, class, ethnicity, and sexuality intersect in…

Crypto Art – The new kid on the block

This post was written by Monika Kackovic, Giovanni Colavizza Andrea Leiter as part of the GDC-funded project “Global digital art: Perspectives on categories, place, and economic value in the crypto art market”.   Art markets are increasingly going digital and online sales have been growing. Perhaps the most innovative digital space is crypto art. Crypto art…

Pandemic Memes and Zoom Fatigue

This post by Laura Schäfer is part of our series “Global Digital Cultures in times of COVID-19”, written by students of the research master Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. If you ever felt guilty laughing at Covid-19 and Zoom-Fatigue-related memes – do not be! Depression, anxiety, and tiredness are only part of a long…

Deplatforming Politicians and the Implications for Europe

This post was written by Ronan Fahy, Judith Möller and Rocco Bellanova as part of the GDC-funded project “Digital Platforms and the Digitisation of Expression and Surveillance“.   Global digital platforms deplatforming prominent politicians has brought widespread public attention to the “unchecked power” these platforms have over online freedom of expression. Some companies, in an…

Artificial Intelligence for Ethical Integrity? Questions and Challenges for AI in Times of a Pandemic 

This post by Dieuwertje Luitse is part of our series “Global Digital Cultures in times of COVID-19”, written by students of the research master Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Artificial Intelligence (AI) ethics are on the rise. As is increasingly clear, big data and algorithmic systems risk reproducing bias and inequalities towards historically disadvantaged…

Platform moderation and users’ migration 

This post by Veronica Fanzio is part of our series “Global Digital Cultures in times of COVID-19”, written by students of the research master Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam. How does the president of the United States almost overnight get banned from Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube? The answer resides, at least in good…