Rebecca Scharlach
rscarlets.bsky.social
Rebecca Scharlach
@rscarlets.bsky.social
Postdoctoral researcher PGMT Lab @Uni Bremen | prev. DigitalValues project | Critical Platform Studies | European/German/feminist | first gen | she/her
Reposted by Rebecca Scharlach
The 2026 @aoir.bsky.social Flashpoint is in Malmö on 11-12 August, with wonderful keynotes by @annettemarkham.bsky.social, Susana Tosca, @katjungnickel.bsky.social and @ubiquity75.xyz Submit abstracts by 30 March.
February 10, 2026 at 6:10 AM
Governing TikTok - A US Power Play 🎭

Check out our new analysis published in Tech Policy Press wrapping up the last year of US tech policy shenanigans leading up to the #TikTokdeal that closed last week.
Shout out to @alexturvy.bsky.social for leading this endeavor!
The TikTok saga reads less as a successful US power play than as an accommodation that revealed how difficult it has become for the state to decisively govern technologies that are already socially indispensable, despite not being American-made, write Alex Turvy and Rebecca Scharlach.
US Power Play Over TikTok Did Nothing to Protect Americans
A year of limbo and a turbulent transition this month resolved very little, write Alex Turvy and Rebecca Scharlach.
buff.ly
January 31, 2026 at 8:22 AM
Wonderful @com-ai.bsky.social talk by @madianou.bsky.social sharing insights on her work on techno colonialism.
Inspired to practice some mundane resistance :)
January 27, 2026 at 6:37 PM
“there are windmills all over euprope. there are windmills are all over the place.“ yes, indeed, Donald
Europe is committing even more to wind energy and other renewables.

Yesterday’s Hamburg Declaration by 🇧🇪 🇩🇰 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇮🇪 🇱🇺🇳🇱 🇳🇴 and 🇬🇧 reaffirmed this.

The stronger the external threat, the stronger the pushback to wind energy by Trump, the stronger the commitment to wind in 🇪🇺
January 27, 2026 at 10:23 AM
Reposted by Rebecca Scharlach
rip aaron swartz you wouldve loved journal editors getting together and deciding submission fees is how we combat AI in academia
January 27, 2026 at 10:02 AM
New Preprint: Value-driven AI Governance

Excited to share a preprint of a collaborative article on value-driven AI governance: osf.io/preprints/so...

#AIAct #AIGovernance #Values
January 21, 2026 at 12:53 PM
Late to the party, but this is hands down best internet news in a bazillion years. Martha Root also created a website with leaked data from those right wing dating profiles (88% men) okstupid.lol chapeau #CCC

futurism.com/artificial-i...
Woman Hacks "Tinder for Nazis," Tricks the Racist Users Into Falling in Love With AI Chatbots
A hacker targeted a white supremacist dating website, lured users with an AI chatbot, and deleted the platform entirely live on stage.
futurism.com
January 15, 2026 at 8:35 PM
The #AoIR2026 Call for Papers is officially up on the www:
aoir.org/aoir2026/
This year marks AoIRs' first time in Mexico and it will be the second bilingual AoIR.
Please share with your networks. 🌮
AoIR 2026 |
aoir.org
January 8, 2026 at 9:10 AM
Reposted by Rebecca Scharlach
THREAD: I'll fact-check all the viral misinformation about the US military operation in Venezuela in this thread

This image, purporting to show the US military arresting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, is AI-generated.

According to Google's SynthID detector, it was created using Google AI.
January 3, 2026 at 5:55 PM
After more than a year since completing my doctorate, my PhD thesis, “The Construction of Values by Social Media Platforms,” has finally made its way into the library (open access)🥳

huji.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fu...
huji.primo.exlibrisgroup.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Good morning #Brussels!
November 19, 2025 at 8:36 AM
"[...] In the broadest spectrum of awareness about these matters we need to ask: Are the practices, relationships and institutions affected by people's involvement with networked computing ones we wish foster? Or are they ones we must try to modify or even oppose?" Winner, 1997.
November 3, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Scharlach
«Silicon Valley isn’t building apps anymore.
It’s building empires.»

The Authoritarian Stack: A mapping of firms, funds, and political actors turning core state functions into private platforms, by @francescabria.bsky.social et. al. for @fesonline.bsky.social
www.authoritarian-stack.info
The Authoritarian Stack
How Tech Billionaires Are Building a Post-Democratic America — And Why Europe Is Next
www.authoritarian-stack.info
November 2, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Reposted by Rebecca Scharlach
Michelle has been invaluable in that role for nearly a decade now, but the time has come for @aoir.bsky.social to find a new coordinator to take on these vital duties. 2/2

Job posting is on our listserv. Please share & apply! listserv.aoir.org/pipermail/ai...
[Air-L] AoIR is searching for a new Association Coordinator!
listserv.aoir.org
October 24, 2025 at 1:56 PM
@elinorcarmi.bsky.social tackling my pessimism with inspiring work on “the human data good practice” - very curious to see how this project will develop 🙂 #ZeMKI20
October 24, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Very much enjoyed this presentation on the role of social norms & demarcation in platform regulation by @nathalievanraemdonck.com - long story short “democracy is hard” @ckatzenbach.bsky.social #ZeMKI20
October 24, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Also very much enjoyed the presentation by @hheuer.bsky.social on co-creating social media with some peak visuals #ZeMKI20
October 23, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Throughly enjoyed this talk by Marilia Gehrke and @eedanamitdanhi.bsky.social on gendered disinformation as violence (as always, slides were 🔥) #ZeMKI20
October 23, 2025 at 9:55 AM
#ZeMKI20 started off with a fantastic —and optimistic—keynote by José van Dijck on how to achieve digital autonomy in Europe
October 23, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Last session on a Friday afternoon is always a hard one, but we made the most of our small round table discussing lessons of the @aoir.bsky.social flashpoint on platform & AI governance. thx to @tomdivon.bsky.social @taylorannabell.bsky.social @deeliu97.bsky.social & Thales Lelo!! #aoir2025
October 18, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Hey #AoIR2025 catch me today at 4 pm with a wonderful group of scholars - Taylor Annabell, Diyi Liu, Thales Lelo and Tom Divon - for a roundtable on the future of tech governance research. This is going to be an open discussion, so please join and share your thoughts!
October 17, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Olá #AoIR2025, I’m in Rio and have already been very much enjoying my time in this beautiful, beautiful city!

Feel free to reach out if you wanna chat! ☕️
October 15, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Scharlach
1/ A longtime Wired editor just wrote a mush-brained essay about how he totally missed the political rot of Silicon Valley (& still doesn't get it).

But in the late 1990s, a Wired journalist warned of a toxic ideology bubbling up from tech. Paulina Borsook has largely been erased. Let's change that
September 24, 2025 at 6:36 PM
I'm really trying to follow US news but what the actual f is even happening at this point?!
September 24, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Reposted by Rebecca Scharlach
"As for the algorithm, if the concern had been that TikTok could be a conduit for Chinese government propaganda—a concern the Supreme Court declined to even consider —people can now be concerned that TikTok could be a conduit for U.S. government propaganda."

www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...
EFF Statement on TikTok Ownership Deal
One of the reasons we opposed the TikTok "ban" is that the First Amendment is supposed to protect us against government using its power to manipulate speech. But as predicted, the TikTok "ban" has onl...
www.eff.org
September 22, 2025 at 11:17 PM