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Hardly anyone reports on TikTok as much as US journalist Emily Baker-White. In an interview, the Forbes editor tells how TikTok spied on her and what danger she sees in the Chinese parent company ByteDance.

Émile P. Torres, in the background a picture of the Virgo Supercluster

Émile P. Torres calls one of the most influential philosophies of our time an ideology: Longtermism is the central school of thought of tech giants like Elon Musk and Skype founder Jaan Tallinn. In an interview, Torres explains why it is so dangerous.

Giorgi Gobronidze bought one of the world’s most controversial face search engines. In his first in-depth interview the new PimEyes-CEO explains how his company wants to detect stalkers and why PimEyes is available in some authoritarian regimes.

Mikko Hyppönen is a security expert and author. In an excerpt from his new book “If It’s Smart, It’s Vulnerable” he writes about government malware and the techniques of law enforcers. He also reveals how he learnt about German law enforcement malware and how the Chaos Computer Club made sure that everybody could detect it.

Who we are

netzpolitik.org is a medium concerned with digital rights and freedoms. Most of our work is published in German, but occasionally translated into English. We address issues at the intersection of Internet, society and politics, and show ways in which people can be empowered to advocate for digital rights themselves. We describe how politics is changing the Internet through regulation and how the Internet is changing politics, public sphere, and everything else.

We critically accompany all areas of society in which a process of digitalization is taking place, from big data corporations and state security agencies, to education, media and environment. We aim to put technological change in the service of freedom, solidarity and the common good. We see ourselves as a journalistic website, but we are not neutral. Our stance is: We are committed to digital freedom rights and their political implementation.

Our work has been distinguished with numerous awards.

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They want to join forces and change TikTok. Around 1,000 creators have formed an alliance. One focus is discrimination against marginalized groups. In an interview, project manager Amelia Som tells why she loves TikTok – and where TikTok fails.

How can sexualized violence against minors be quantified? Many misleading figures are circulating – and on the basis of these figures politicians are calling for more surveillance. An analysis of the biggest misunderstandings.

Many young workers delivering food or driving cars are technically not even employed. How can a trade union work to improve their conditions? Tea Jarc, president of Slovenian union Mladi Plus, has worked for years advocating for them. And she has seen enough to be afraid of the platform companies’ lobbying power.

White hand with USA flag taking a shiny raw metall from a small black hand

Although neither smartphones nor many electric cars would work without cobalt, workers mining the precious raw material in Congo live a dangerous life. Some families of deceased workers tried to fight back, but it is hard to hold tech companies like Tesla or Apple accountable. Part 4 in our series on Digital Colonialism.

Unfair tax laws help Facebook, Google and Microsoft save billions in taxes in the global south – enough to employ 1.7 million nurses in 20 countries within three years. Part 3 of our series on Digital Colonialism.

The European Union debates a new law that could force platforms to scan all private messages for signs of child abuse. Its most prominent advocate is the actor Ashton Kutcher.

Western tech firms are outsourcing tasks like data labeling or content moderation to countries in the Global South. They are pitting off poor workers against each other – on a global scale. Part 2 of our series on digital colonialism.

Facebook has entered a deal with India’s largest corporation, Reliance Industries, in a bid to monopolize the entire food supply chain in India. This deal could put the food security of more than 820 million people at risk. Part 1 of our series on digital colonialism.

Crypto’s voracious appetite for electricity is causing alarm in Brussels. Behind closed doors, the European Commission and the German government are talking about countermeasures. We publish documents that show how the EU could ban Bitcoin.

The Meduza team together in one room. The picture is heavily pixelated.

The news website Meduza was among the last independent reporters for Russia. At the beginning of March the website was blocked in Russia. There are also problems with funding. We talked with Katerina Abramova about the work in exile and the future of Meduza.

House in Prague - address of the world's largest porn empire.

The world’s most visited porn site operates in the heart of Europe. Survivors of sexualized violence are raising serious accusations against XVideos. The trail of XVideos leads to the Czech Republic, France – and Germany.

Person hides behind raised hand, black background, red banner reads "content removal"

„Knocked out and fucked“: On XVideos clips dealing with rape are automatically recommended. Anonymous uploads raise doubts about whether recordings are consensual. Our research reveals how sexualized violence can spread on the platform.

Today, it is possible to observe crises unfold in unprecedented detail. A global community systematically evaluates publicly available information of all kinds and feeds it into the news flow. We spoke with someone involved as a volunteer for more than a decade.

The social media platform officially confirms that Max Otte violated the ban on political advertising several times. This was apparently possible because it did not properly control the advertisements.

Times Square, New York, colourful ad displays

As the era of cookie tracking is about to end, a new battle for control over the billion dollar adtech business has begun. An astonishing partnership between non-profit Mozilla and surveillance capitalist Meta is only a small chapter of a bigger story, argues Michael Veale. For the next phase of online advertising could be even worse.

When the Hungarian data protection authority concluded their investigation into the Pegasus scandal last week, they came to a surprising result: The surveillance of journalists and lawyers was supposedly legal, but those who helped uncover it should be investigated. Áron Demeter, head of Amnesty Hungary, talks about loopholes in the Hungarian judicial system.

To this day the German Federal Criminal Police Office BKA and other law enforcement agencies fail to systematically remove content from darknet forums where child abuse material is shared. Leading investigators claim it is more important to find the perpetrators. Is that really mutually exclusive?

Apple forces developers give clear privacy information to app users. But according to new research, four out of five tested apps that claim to not collect data from users actually do.

A scandal involving racial discrimination in the verification of childcare benefit claims continues to rock the Netherlands. Now the government accepts a fine in the millions. It is probably the first case in which a government has had to pay for data-based discrimination against citizens.

Star investor and Republican donor Peter Thiel thinks that competition is for losers. His radical views have shaped Silicon Valley.

Journalist under surveillance: „TikTok was scared and freaked out“

Longtermism: „An odd and peculiar ideology“

PimEyes-CEO: „The user is the stalker, not the search engine“

Mikko Hyppönen: The first time we encountered law enforcement malware

Who we are

We are funded by our readers!

Contact

TOCA: TikTok creators unite against opaque rules

NCMEC figures explained: How the spectre of millionfold abuse haunts European policy-makers

Platform work: “Fight for something more than just a Directive”

Series on Digital Colonialism: The bloody footprint of our digital devices

Series on Digital Colonialism: Western tech companies saving billions in taxes in the global south

Dude, where's my privacy?: How a Hollywood star lobbies the EU for more surveillance

Series on Digital Colonialism: Global labor chains of the western AI

Series on Digital Colonialism: How Meta aims to dominate India’s agriculture sector

Climate measures: Behind closed doors, EU officials talk about banning Bitcoin

Russian exile medium Meduza: „Everything has changed dramatically“

XVideos: The porn empire next door

World's largest porn site: How XVideos does very little against sexualized violence

OSINT in the Ukraine: Putting the Pieces in Place

Violation of Twitter’s ban on political ads: No consequences for far-right presidential candidate

Future of online advertising: Adtech’s new clothes might redefine privacy more than they reform profiling

Pegasus scandal in Hungary: „Not surprising, but still shameful“

Depictions of child abuse: The internet forgets nothing, as long as it’s not supposed to forget

Childcare benefits scandal: Dutch government to pay million Euro fine over racist data discrimination

Peter Thiel: Monopoly’s fiercest advocate