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#open-democracy — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #open-democracy, aggregated by home.social.

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  1. #AIBots may lead to the end of the internet as we know it

    In recent weeks, #OpenDemocracy’s website has been repeatedly brought down by an army of bots. We’re not the only ones

    Matthew Linares
    20 February 2026

    Excerpt: "Slater explained that 'the traffic often arrives through anonymous residential IPs', referring to residential proxy networks that route internet traffic through intermediary servers using IP addresses assigned by internet service providers to real homeowners. This, he said, makes it 'hard to distinguish ‘normal users’ from automated collection'. [That's not right and needs to be changed!!!]

    " 'We're being forced into permanent defence mode. #ResidentialProxyNetworks let #AIScrapers hide in plain sight, rotate identities, and extract data at scale. That shifts real costs onto projects that exist to serve people, not feed training pipelines."

    Read more:
    opendemocracy.net/en/ai-chatbo

    #AISucks #AI #DataMining #Internet #Websites #TechNews #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #BigTech #TechBros

  2. With UK politics in flux, Your Party may well surprise you yet
    Last weekend, two very different Your Party conferences took place: the one reported on in the press, and the real one
    #OpenDemocracy
    opendemocracy.net/en/your-part

  3. Algunos científicos y activistas piden frenar esta financiación y actuar como se hizo con la industria tabaquera Una investigación de #openDemocracy e #InvestigateEurope que #infoLibre publica en exclusiva en España www.infolibre.es/internaciona...

    infolibre.es/internacional/...

  4. // MANOUCHEHR SHAMSRIZI

    Manouchehr Shamsrizi – Fellow at DGAP & Co-Founder of gamelab.berlin – explores how digital tools like Linux & Signal can strengthen democracy. 🧠💻

    At Waterkant 2025, he shares why open tech and “concrete utopias” are key to shaping resilient, participatory democracies. 👥

    Tickets: waterkant.sh/festival?utm_sour

    #waterkant25 #futuresofdemocracy #techforgood #opendemocracy #shapingfutures

  5. The LGB Alliance "victory" in Supreme Court is another Tufton Street success in creating conflict on road to intolerance & UK fascism
    We can win by smart, happy, humourous behaviour: tolerant cohesion looking after all
    opendemocracy.net/en/5050/lgb-
    #trans
    #tuftonstreet
    #opendemocracy

  6. I'm currently listening to:
    𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲
    A story of how money, vested interests and digital skulduggery are eroding trust in democracy.

    While it was interesting and, I suppose, inciteful to start with, I've started to get bored shitless with it. I'm not sure if it's the narrator's Irish accent or the fact that the author sees conspiracies at every turn of the page, but it's becoming very dull.

    #Opendemocracy gets a few mentions. I've still got 4hrs 42mins to go. #Groan

  7. Report critical of human rights

    Report published by Policy Exchange claiming the HRA has curtailed the rights of Parliament

    November 2024

    Slightly amended 13 November

    An article appeared in the Daily Mail on 11 November under the headline ‘Rights Act ‘curtailed power of Parliament ”. It said ’eminent lawyers have compiled a dossier of 25 cases where the Human Rights Act was applied and have shown how its use removed power from Parliament’. It continued that ‘power once held in Westminster is increasingly being transferred to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg’ and quotes the example of the government’s wish to deport ‘illegal’ immigrants to Rwanda which was frustrated at the last minute by the Court.

    The Mail did not tell its readers however, who produced this report and a reference does not appear in the online version either. It was in fact written by the Policy Exchange and published on 11th. The organisation promotes itself ‘as an educational charity [and] our mission is to develop and promote new policy ideas which deliver better public services, a stronger society and a more dynamic economy‘.

    The problem is that the Exchange is an opaque organisation and does not reveal who funds it, does not reveal funding on its website nor tells us the amounts given by funders. Open Democracy is very critical about the secretiveness of this organisation, its ‘dark money’ and its influence in government both with the Conservatives and now, it alleges, Labour.

    It was revealed by Rishi Sunak who admitted that Policy Exchange received funding from US oil giant ExxonMobil who helped the government write its draconian anti-protest laws. It serves as confirmation by the then prime minister of Open Democracy’s revelations that last year’s controversial policing bill, which became the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Act, may have originated in a briefing from Policy Exchange. The organisation has form therefore in being hostile to rights and protests. It is curious that the Daily Mail, in the vanguard in promoting parliamentary sovereignty and a powerful force in the Brexit debate, failed to mention the influence of American money believed to be behind several of this and other think tanks. Quite where is this ‘sovereignty’ they are keen on?

    The limited information provided to Daily Mail readers meant they are unaware of who funds these reports or the motives of the assumed funders (if indeed ExxonMobil are one of the funders). The report’s arguments are thin and present the reader with the notion that human rights were amply protected by our common law and there is no need for this ‘foreign’ court. Were that so and the victims of Hillsborough for example might disagree having been let down by the courts, the police and elements of the media in their search for justice. They finally achieved justice partly with the aid of the Human Rights Act so despised by the Mail. There are many victims of injustice who have found our institutions to be less than favourable to their interests – the Post Office scandal anyone?

    #HumanRights_ #DailyMail #DarkMoney #OpenDemocracy #PolicyExchange

  8. It seems Barcelona is preparing me for going home! Epic thunder storms in the middle of the night and a misty, rainy start to the day!

    Homeward bound this evening after a wonderful time at @decidim 's conference, #DecidimFest.

    Lots of inspiration and many synergies between orgs who use Decidim and what @mautic could offer them. Food for thought!

    #OpenSource #OpenDemocracy #Mautic

  9. How incredibly dissappointing that #OpenDemocracy -- which appears to cc0 it's articles, even -- does not have a working RSS feed.
    After much searching I found a way to download (and only download) an .rss file. Which is a bad joke; there is no URL I can use.

    Shame, because the reporting is excellent. I won't remember to read it.

    opendemocracy.net/en/

  10. When you hear from a pundit from a UK think Tank on TV or radio and wonder whether they're 'on the level' or 'dodgey a/f' check them out here.

    Nice update from #OpenDemocracy

    opendemocracy.net/en/who-funds

    #UKThinkTanks #DarkMoney #WhosTalking

  11. Open Democracy is preparing a briefing for MPs calling for a review of how NHS contracts have been awarded to the US spy-tech firm Palantir. They want to demonstrate what openDemocracy readers think about this issue. The link to their survey is here:

    nhs-data.paperform.co/?_kx=Y6J

    Please complete it if you are concerned. In any case, please share.

    #Palantir #PeterThiel #NHS #Data #DataPrivacy #SpyTech #OpenDemocracy

  12. NHS officials knew Palantir would secure data deal, newly uncovered emails suggest

    Palantir has been awarded five consecutive NHS contracts without a competitive bidding process

    computing.co.uk/news/4122685/n

    #technews #nhs #uk #palantir #opendemocracy