Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is preparing banks to collect citizenship data Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the Trump administration expects banks to comply in collecting citizenship information from customers.

'American Action Forum estimated a citizenship verification requirement could add... $2.6-5.6 billion in costs. "Verifying new accounts is the tip of the iceberg; the lack of details makes it difficult to estimate the costs of verifying existing accountholders."' www.cnbc.com/2026/04/15/b...

Regulatory entrepreneurship’s threat to digital sovereignty: the case of Worldcoin in Kenya Abstract. This article analyses the case of Worldcoin’s entry into Kenya and the controversies that ensued. The company operated in regulatory grey areas w

Happy to share that my latest research article on how regulatory entrepreneurship challenges digital sovereignty is now out in Science and Public Policy doi.org/10.1093/scip...

cc @uvadatascience.bsky.social, @mediastudies.bsky.social, @uvaresearch.bsky.social

Message me if you'd like a PDF copy

Public speaker series poster titled "Co-Opting AI: Geopolitics." It includes names Pablo Chavez, Chinasa T. Okolo, Nick Srnicek, and Mona Sloane. Date and time: April 15, 2026, 4:00–5:15 pm ET, Zoom Webinar. Logos of University of Virginia, Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University, and Sloane Lab are displayed at the bottom.

Co-Opting AI: Geopolitics will examine the geopolitical dimensions of AI – from national security aspects, to global political economy concerns, ethical dimensions, and diplomacy implications. Register for this virtual event today: https://bit.ly/4vi5qJz

Pope Francis: "In this age of artificial intelligence, we cannot forget that poetry and love are necessary to save our humanity."

City Launches New Number Plate & Face Recognition System Targeting Offenders The rollout is part of the county’s push toward using modern technology to improve the city’s management, revenue collection and road safety enforcement.

"These smart CCTVs [in Mombasa] will help us nab those not paying parking fees and those breaking other laws. We are also looking to partner with stakeholders to enhance the system’s capacity, including number plate and facial recognition."

www.kenyans.co.ke/news/122151-...

On the Amtrak to DC for the “Internet Scraping and the Future of the Open Web in the Internet Age” workshop at Georgetown Law!

Starlink Has Privatized Geopolitics From Ukraine to Iran, Elon Musk’s service has become an arbiter of foreign policy.

"Starlink’s control over a critical communications layer gives the company outsized geopolitical influence—especially in conflicts; emergencies; and other settings where connectivity can shape military, political, and humanitarian outcomes."

foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/20/s...

How about a train to Richmond?! One day, inshallah

It is a sobering thought that, if Starlink launches stopped today, the entire constellation would cease to exist in 5 years time.

Russia Shuts Off Internet in Moscow as It Tests Nationwide Censorship System Mobile internet access has been shut off in Moscow in recent days after similar outages in dozens of regions.

"Russia has been testing a system that Iran used as it sought to suppress recent protests in January. When Tehran shut down the internet..., it activated a parallel network. So-called white SIM cards allowed regime insiders and VIPs to maintain access to the web."

www.wsj.com/world/russia...

World launches tool to verify humans behind AI shopping agents | TechCrunch As AI agents take the reins for online shoppers, Sam Altman's unconventional startup is looking to expand its verification offerings to support agentic commerce.

"The Chief Product Officer compared the new function to delegating 'power of attorney' to an agent. By verifying that the AI program is acting on behalf of a particular user, a website can decide whether to trust the transactions initiated by those agents or not..."

techcrunch.com/2026/03/17/w...

How AI licence plate readers became a flashpoint in US immigration battles Start-up Flock Safety targeted by city authorities and privacy advocates over growing use by law enforcement

"[Flock] is expanding into other technologies such as gunshot detection devices and drones, data sources that can be rolled together into a 'real-time crime centre' to provide instant intelligence for law enforcement."

www.ft.com/content/5c3b...

World ID wants you to put a cryptographically unique human identity behind your AI agents Iris-scan backed tokens could help stop agent swarms from overwhelming online systems.

<< @world.org claims nearly 18m unique humans have verified their identities on one of nearly 1,000 physical orbs around the world. Now, with Agent Kit, it wants to let those users tie their confirmed identity to any AI agent, letting it work on their behalf... >>

arstechnica.com/ai/2026/03/w...

Amen

In the Twenty-first Century, Space is the New Railroad for Billionaire Ambitions Billionaires are playing a game of orbital Monopoly, writes Janet Vertesi.

"Space-based comms in near-Earth orbit are essential for our next generation of GPS systems, internet, data management & political economy. Controlling access to space is a way to leapfrog the mundane worlds governed by US regulation..." - @cyberlyra.bsky.social

www.techpolicy.press/in-the-twent...

The entire discussion on the podcast is problematic!

Opinion | I Asked a Former Trump Official to Justify This War

NS: Can we shape the next government of Iran without boots on the ground? I think there are a lot of things we can do...

EK: What would those things look like?

NS: Everything from providing the ability to communicate, Starlink, to providing economic resources.

🛰️ www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/o...

Americans are destroying Flock surveillance cameras | TechCrunch While some cities are moving to end their contracts with Flock over its links to ICE, others are taking matters into their own hands.

"Flock claims it doesn’t share data with ICE directly, but reports show that local police have shared their own access to Flock cameras and its databases with federal authorities."

techcrunch.com/2026/02/23/a...

Wouldn't this be a ToS violation in normal times?

All Data Is Humanitarian Data — Data Studies Bibliography If in this new era all data has the potential to become humanitarian data, then it will be important for critical data scholars to further explore and theorize the humanitarian implications of seeming...

"The emergence of new actors in humanitarian action not only tests established data protection approaches, it also confronts our understanding of humanitarian data and the ways in which this data may be sourced and later exploited."

www.datastudiesbibliography.org/blog/all-dat...

“The FCC issued a public notice this week warning that the US would retaliate should the EU prioritise European satellite operators over US alternatives such as Starlink. The warning comes as the EU has to decide on how to allocate a slice of its satellite spectrum.”

www.ft.com/content/f56e...

OpenAI makes changes to ‘opportunistic and sloppy’ Pentagon deal Sam Altman says company is working with defence department on provisions covering mass surveillance

Risk management in action:

“This technology needs to be utilised by democracies. I think it has to be a partnership with a number of different private companies.”

www.ft.com/content/653f...

Sam Altman’s ‘Human Verification’ Startup Leans on Consumer Brands Tools for Humanity aims to promote World ID beyond the tech and crypto sets via partnerships with household names.

"In addition to doling out Worldcoin to new World ID holders, Tools for Humanity awards its cryptocurrency to independent Orb operators in some markets outside the US each time they issue a new ID. Nearly 18m people have received World IDs, including 1.1m in N. America."

www.wsj.com/cmo-today/sa...

Trump administration considers requiring banks to collect citizenship information The Trump administration is exploring measures to require banks to collect additional citizenship information from customers, part of its crackdown on illegal immigration.

Having worked with UN Refugee Agency to understand the impact of identification requirements on displaced people's access to digital connectivity and financial services all over the world, it's disappointing to read the USG is pursuing such a regressive policy

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

"This is a public procurement failure... Palantir’s tools were embedded in the [UK Ministry of Defense] and the company was awarded a second contract worth over three times as much as the first... A so-called land-and-expand tactic by the company."

www.ft.com/content/5207...

Palantir, Which Is Powering ICE, Says Immigration Crackdown May Hurt Hiring Regulation of immigration or work visas means "it could be more difficult to staff our personnel on customer engagements and could increase our costs," Palantir wrote.

There is an inherent irony in Palantir listing the immigration crackdown that it is powering as being a potential risk for the company.
www.404media.co/palantir-whi...

"'Starlink bans' are better understood as assertions of telecom sovereignty, with governments applying existing tools to force LEO providers back inside national regulatory and security perimeters."

www.ictworks.org/stop-fightin...

Good stuff from @wayanvota.bsky.social

h/t @emryss.bsky.social 🎩

Amen!

Is anyone monitoring AI companies' compliance with California's Generative Artificial Intelligence Training Data Transparency Act (AB 2013), which came into effect on January 1st?

"Social media age limits would be better set at a European level — rather than nationally — the EU’s digital chief [Henna Virkkunen] said on Tuesday. The European Commission aims to present a proposal before the summer." www.mlex.com/mlex/technol...

The Digital Sovereignty Observatory | King's College London The Digital Sovereignty Observatory examines how emerging technologies reshape social and political boundaries.

Our new research initiative @digsovobs.bsky.social has a page! Give us a follow.

The Digital Sovereignty Observatory examines how emerging technologies reshape social and political boundaries.

@kerenweitzberg.bsky.social @sixfouronea.net @emryss.bsky.social

www.kcl.ac.uk/research/the...