https://znetwork.org/category/topic/science/internet/ Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and Strategy Thu, 15 Jan 2026 20:03:01 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.png https://znetwork.org/category/topic/science/internet/ 32 32 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/takebacktiktok-from-ellison-let-palestine-live/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/takebacktiktok-from-ellison-let-palestine-live/#respond Mon, 12 Jan 2026 13:02:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1293399 CODEPINK co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans call on TikTokers across the world to flood the platform for Palestine to #TakeBackTikTok from billionaire Larry Ellison, the media mogul soon to control TikTok’s US app. “We don’t have Ellison’s billions, his private Hawaiian island or his cushy ties with Trump, but we do have people power [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/takebacktiktok-from-ellison-let-palestine-live/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/soft-surveillance-and-control-artificial-intelligence-as-a-tool-of-gradual-and-deep-political-repression-in-the-service-of-contemporary-capitalist-hegemony/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/soft-surveillance-and-control-artificial-intelligence-as-a-tool-of-gradual-and-deep-political-repression-in-the-service-of-contemporary-capitalist-hegemony/#respond Sun, 13 Jul 2025 14:52:37 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1286126 Digital Surveillance and Control Digital corporations, in collaboration with major powers, actively monitor individuals’ movements through smart devices and various communication tools. Virtually all digital activities—including supposedly secure private meetings—are subject to continuous observation and analysis. In reality, there is no digital space that is 100% secure. Data is systematically collected and used to assess [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/soft-surveillance-and-control-artificial-intelligence-as-a-tool-of-gradual-and-deep-political-repression-in-the-service-of-contemporary-capitalist-hegemony/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/google-has-been-convicted-of-monopolization-will-it-matter/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/google-has-been-convicted-of-monopolization-will-it-matter/#respond Fri, 23 Aug 2024 16:46:04 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1271230 For years, Google has been synonymous with its main search product. Generations have grown up relying on the company’s flagship service to search the web, answer questions, and cheat on exams prepared by innocent, hard-working professors. But now all this has been called into question, as this month Google was formally adjudicated to have been running a [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/google-has-been-convicted-of-monopolization-will-it-matter/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-us-big-tech-monopolies-colonized-the-world-welcome-to-neo-feudalism/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-us-big-tech-monopolies-colonized-the-world-welcome-to-neo-feudalism/#respond Mon, 19 Aug 2024 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1271044 US Big Tech corporations have essentially colonized the world. In almost every country on Earth, the digital infrastructure upon which the modern economy is based is owned and controlled by a small handful of monopolies, based almost exclusively in Silicon Valley. This system is looking more and more like neo-feudalism. Just as the feudal lords [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-us-big-tech-monopolies-colonized-the-world-welcome-to-neo-feudalism/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/queer-youth-are-derailing-the-controversial-kids-online-safety-act/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/queer-youth-are-derailing-the-controversial-kids-online-safety-act/#respond Wed, 14 Aug 2024 17:56:58 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1270842 As millennials become parents and Gen Z grows up glued to smartphones, Congress has come under massive pressure to do something, anything, to protect children and teens from online harm and hold Silicon Valley accountable. Since Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s infamous testimony before the Senate in 2018, determined parents have met with lawmakers in both parties and showed [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/queer-youth-are-derailing-the-controversial-kids-online-safety-act/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/liberal-democracys-had-a-good-run/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/liberal-democracys-had-a-good-run/#respond Mon, 29 Jul 2024 15:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1270064 One thing that all past human societies and civilizations have in common is that they all eventually collapsed. While each of us may be aware of this in the abstract, we don’t necessarily follow the logic to the depressing conclusion: why should we expect this one—global capitalism which is responsible for countless atrocities and yet, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/liberal-democracys-had-a-good-run/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/big-tech-consolidation-amplified-the-crowdstrike-outage/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/big-tech-consolidation-amplified-the-crowdstrike-outage/#respond Mon, 22 Jul 2024 16:28:54 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1269660 A little more than a year before Microsoft’s systems crashed on Friday, creating global chaos in the banking, airline, and emergency service industries, the company pushed back against regulators investigating the risks of a handful of cloud services companies controlling the world’s technological infrastructure, according to documents we reviewed. “Regulators should carefully avoid any intervention [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/big-tech-consolidation-amplified-the-crowdstrike-outage/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-case-for-a-socialized-internet/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-case-for-a-socialized-internet/#respond Sun, 07 Jul 2024 14:30:48 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1268966 During an episode of his program in 2015, the late right wing talk radio demagogue Rush Limbaugh devoted part of a segment to attacking Bill Gates for an interview the latter had recently given to The Atlantic. Limbaugh was particularly upset by Gates’s following statement: “since World War II, US government [funded] R&D has defined [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-case-for-a-socialized-internet/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-tiktok-revolution/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-tiktok-revolution/#respond Fri, 21 Jun 2024 16:19:05 +0000 Something truly remarkable happened in Nairobi on June 18. For the first time since Kenya’s independence, a people-driven movement, ignited largely by Gen Z (those born after 1997, also known as the fully “digitally native” generation because they were born during the internet age) took to the streets in droves to protest against the Finance [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-tiktok-revolution/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/vermin-united-biden-trump-blueleaks-and-the-repression-of-left-protests/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/vermin-united-biden-trump-blueleaks-and-the-repression-of-left-protests/#respond Tue, 28 May 2024 00:27:45 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1267038 “Dissent must never lead to disorder.” – Joe Biden, 5/2/24, Remarks on recent events on college campuses[1] “We pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left Thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our Country…The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave, [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/vermin-united-biden-trump-blueleaks-and-the-repression-of-left-protests/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ai-chatbots-hype-meets-reality/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ai-chatbots-hype-meets-reality/#respond Sun, 28 Apr 2024 14:58:30 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1265652 Artificial Intelligence (AI) seems to be everywhere. Companies use powerful AI chatbots on their webpages or phone systems to handle customer questions. Newsrooms and magazines use them to write stories. Film studios use them to produce films. Tech companies use them to program. Students use them to write papers. It seems like magic. And with [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ai-chatbots-hype-meets-reality/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-take-back-the-internet/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-take-back-the-internet/#respond Thu, 15 Feb 2024 16:54:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1262241 Platforms that once represented a promise of freedom are now monopolies based on data extraction and surveillance. Users who joined social media to stay in touch with their friends find themselves trapped in a toxic environment. How did it all go wrong and what can citizens and regulators do to restore a healthy digital ecosystem? [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-to-take-back-the-internet/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-the-shadow-of-silicon-valley/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-the-shadow-of-silicon-valley/#respond Wed, 14 Feb 2024 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1262171 Seeing cars​ with no human inside move through San Francisco’s streets is eerie enough as a pedestrian, but when I’m on my bicycle I often find myself riding alongside them, and from that vantage point you catch the ghostly spectacle of a steering wheel turning without a hand. Since August, driverless cars have been available [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/in-the-shadow-of-silicon-valley/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-refusal/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-refusal/#comments Tue, 17 Oct 2023 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1255906 “Solitude, the very condition which sustained the individual against and beyond his society, has become technically impossible.” — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man.1 Internet sobriety is what I call it. Or The Refusal. I’m pretty sure I didn’t kick cigarettes, then booze and pills, just to end up addicted to a ‘Like’ button. I’m also relatively [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-refusal/feed/ 1 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-fight-big-tech-we-must-seize-the-means-of-computation/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-fight-big-tech-we-must-seize-the-means-of-computation/#respond Fri, 29 Sep 2023 16:01:15 +0000 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-fight-big-tech-we-must-seize-the-means-of-computation/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/meet-the-left-youtubers-blowing-up-the-alt-right-pipeline/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/meet-the-left-youtubers-blowing-up-the-alt-right-pipeline/#respond Mon, 21 Aug 2023 15:37:40 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1252331 If you are worried about whether the kids are alright, you should be. The Right has inundated social media with accessible misinformation, to put it charitably — and social media is exactly where teens spend half their waking hours, according to independent research group Common Sense. From disgraced psychologist Jordan Peterson’s bigotry masquerading as self-empowerment to media hubs [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/meet-the-left-youtubers-blowing-up-the-alt-right-pipeline/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-censors-down-under-the-acma-gambit-on-misinformation-and-disinformation/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-censors-down-under-the-acma-gambit-on-misinformation-and-disinformation/#respond Mon, 14 Aug 2023 14:36:36 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1251948 In January 2010, the then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, doing what she does best, grasped a platitude and ran with it in launching, of all things, an institution called the Newseum. “Information freedom,” she declared, “supports the peace and security that provide a foundation for global progress.” The same figure has encouraged the prosecution [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-censors-down-under-the-acma-gambit-on-misinformation-and-disinformation/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-build-a-movement-for-democracy-we-have-to-win-the-internet/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-build-a-movement-for-democracy-we-have-to-win-the-internet/#respond Tue, 04 Jul 2023 16:30:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1248874 Looking towards the 2024 presidential election, we must face the real possibility that we may be headed into an electoral autocracy. For those of us who have experienced repression and violence at the hands of the state, we recognize that the punishments will be swift and sustained, will be central to the regime’s maintenance of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/to-build-a-movement-for-democracy-we-have-to-win-the-internet/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/snowden-warns-todays-surveillance-technology-makes-2013-look-like-childs-play/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/snowden-warns-todays-surveillance-technology-makes-2013-look-like-childs-play/#respond Sun, 11 Jun 2023 14:11:39 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1247519 With this week marking 10 years since whistleblower Edward Snowden disclosed information to journalists about widespread government spying by United States and British agencies, the former National Security Agency contractor on Thursday joined other advocates in warning that the fight for privacy rights, while making several inroads in the past decade, has grown harder due [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/snowden-warns-todays-surveillance-technology-makes-2013-look-like-childs-play/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/congress-might-want-a-tiktok-ban-but-their-questions-suggest-going-even-further/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/congress-might-want-a-tiktok-ban-but-their-questions-suggest-going-even-further/#respond Sat, 25 Mar 2023 14:06:30 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1242135 What if the United States government banned every single social media app? Not just TikTok. All of them. Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter–sayonara. It may sound ludicrous, but if you apply the logic behind the kinds of questions posed at Thursday’s House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the data security risks and alleged harm to children posed by [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/congress-might-want-a-tiktok-ban-but-their-questions-suggest-going-even-further/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-social-networks-became-a-subsidiary-of-the-fbi-and-cia/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-social-networks-became-a-subsidiary-of-the-fbi-and-cia/#respond Mon, 20 Feb 2023 15:33:38 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1239779 The Twitter Files have lifted the lid on a secret alliance between Silicon Valley, intelligence agencies and the political establishment  The US Congress last tried to grapple with what the country’s ballooning security services were up to nearly half a century ago. In 1975, the Church Committee managed to take a fleeting, if far from complete, snapshot of the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/how-social-networks-became-a-subsidiary-of-the-fbi-and-cia/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gaslighting-oligarchy-and-other-media-forecasts/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gaslighting-oligarchy-and-other-media-forecasts/#respond Wed, 15 Feb 2023 19:12:50 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1239459  “Gaslighting” was Merriam-Webster’s 2022 word of the year, a selection based on the frequency of searches in their online dictionary. The term makes good sense on cultural grounds as well, given the ongoing influence of political and economic chicanery on the US psyche. But “oligarch” was number two, and it may well prove to be [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gaslighting-oligarchy-and-other-media-forecasts/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/teenage-iphone-rebellion-in-brooklyn/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/teenage-iphone-rebellion-in-brooklyn/#respond Tue, 17 Jan 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1237208 Every Sunday about a dozen high school teenagers gather without their iPhones on a little hill in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, USA. They form a circle and quietly start to read serious books (Dostoevsky, Boethius) (paperbacks or hardbacks), or draw in sketchbooks, or just serenely sit listening to the wind. As the New York Times reporter Alex Vadukul wrote [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/teenage-iphone-rebellion-in-brooklyn/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/under-musk-twitter-continues-to-promote-us-propaganda-networks/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/under-musk-twitter-continues-to-promote-us-propaganda-networks/#respond Sat, 07 Jan 2023 15:31:42 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1236431 Twitter’s “state-affiliated media” policy has an unwritten exemption for US government-funded and -controlled news media accounts. Twitter even boosts these accounts as “authoritative” sources for news during the Russian/Ukrainian war. Elon Musk’s controlled release of the documents known as the “Twitter Files” has given us some insight into the inner workings of the social media platform. The [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/under-musk-twitter-continues-to-promote-us-propaganda-networks/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/could-julian-assange-be-released-in-two-months/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/could-julian-assange-be-released-in-two-months/#respond Wed, 04 Jan 2023 19:32:40 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1236205 This article was funded by paid subscribers of The Dissenter Newsletter. Become a monthly paid subscriber to help us continue our analysis and coverage. As the new year began, ABC Global Affairs Editor John Lyons stated during a broadcast segment that he expected WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would be released “within the next two months or so.” “I know [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/could-julian-assange-be-released-in-two-months/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-the-twitter-files-are-in-fact-a-big-deal/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-the-twitter-files-are-in-fact-a-big-deal/#respond Fri, 30 Dec 2022 15:35:51 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1235745 The so-called Twitter Files, which started being released at the start of December, have so far generated a lot more discussion of the metacontroversies surrounding their release than of what’s actually in the “files” themselves: controversies about who released the files, who reported on them, the way they were reported, the wrong-headed political beliefs of [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/why-the-twitter-files-are-in-fact-a-big-deal/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/zvideo/noam-chomsky-chris-hedges-edward-snowden-jill-stein-greenwald-on-the-assange-case/ https://znetwork.org/zvideo/noam-chomsky-chris-hedges-edward-snowden-jill-stein-greenwald-on-the-assange-case/#respond Tue, 27 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 This video compiles excerpts from interviews we published on our channel about the Julian Assange case. To see the full interviews Watch the full interviews: Chris Hedges: https://youtu.be/SwdPQm1IEBI Jill Stein: https://youtu.be/kaJpOC59x7g Glenn Greenwald: https://youtu.be/_PtbZdVBjBM Noam Chomsky: https://youtu.be/QMY9-zJJm-M Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 0:26 Chris Hedges 5:47 Jill Stein 9:43 Noam Chomsky 22:40 Edward Snowden FOLLOW US ONLINE: [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/zvideo/noam-chomsky-chris-hedges-edward-snowden-jill-stein-greenwald-on-the-assange-case/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/twitter-aided-the-pentagon-in-its-covert-online-propaganda-campaign/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/twitter-aided-the-pentagon-in-its-covert-online-propaganda-campaign/#respond Wed, 21 Dec 2022 17:32:46 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1235154 TWITTER EXECUTIVES HAVE claimed for years that the company makes concerted efforts to detect and thwart government-backed covert propaganda campaigns on its platform. Behind the scenes, however, the social networking giant provided direct approval and internal protection to the U.S. military’s network of social media accounts and online personas, whitelisting a batch of accounts at the [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/twitter-aided-the-pentagon-in-its-covert-online-propaganda-campaign/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/can-the-left-disagree-without-being-disagreeable/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/can-the-left-disagree-without-being-disagreeable/#respond Tue, 20 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1235016 I have been a reporter for thirty years. During this period, I have been to many former war zones and to active war zones, including in Iraq, Libya, and Syria. I have seen things that I wish I had not seen and that I wish had not been seen by anyone, let alone experienced by [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/can-the-left-disagree-without-being-disagreeable/feed/ 0 https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/on-establishing-an-online-democratic-platform-for-the-general-public/ https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/on-establishing-an-online-democratic-platform-for-the-general-public/#respond Tue, 20 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1235037 Preface to essay It is quite fitting that the publication of this essay is happening in a time when social media corporations are under increasing scrutiny about the way they operate and present themselves to the public as responsible and healthy structures for human interaction.  Without a strong voice demanding the restructuring of all or [...]]]> https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/on-establishing-an-online-democratic-platform-for-the-general-public/feed/ 0