Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Delete Nothing

@deletenothinglk.bsky.social

🧵2/2: Often sold as an assistive feature, a step towards national security,or protection for the vulnerable, modern surveillance wears the mask of a caretaker. But is it really?

Our newest installation in The DN Download series uncovers the uncomfortable truths about our surveilled 24/7 reality.

Who benefits from surveilling you?

The list is long, but the frontrunners are:

Law enforcement
Government agencies
Telecom service providers
Social media platforms
Advertising agencies
Scammers
Phone manufacturers
Stalkers

Each group potentially facilitates surveillance for a different group, creating a web that helps bad faith actors build comprehensive profiles on civilians.

SURVEILLANCE, CENSORSHIP,
AND CONTROL work together to allow oppressive groups to stay in power.

Surveillance

Monitoring to gather information on thoughts, location, political leanings, and more

Involves seeking patterns in behaviour and associations

Requires invading privacy to some degree

Greatly strengthened by technology

Censorship

Suppressing what can be said, who and what can be supported or spoken against

Restricting what information can be accessed

Can take place online and offline

Control

Direct or indirect influence over actions, speech, thoughts and associations

Widely exerted by individuals and groups in power

Through:

Predictive policing
Social credit systems
Unauthorised biometrics processing
Network eavesdropping

And other methods, these groups seek to dictate how people behave, and what liberties they gain and lose.

BUT WHY IS IT DANGEROUS?

More on this in our next installment of The DN Download.

October 28, 2025 at 5:41 AM

Delete Nothing

@deletenothinglk.bsky.social

🧵[3/3]

The world jumped to adopt AIs without proper guardrails in place, and we are seeing the impacts of this today.

But is ethical AI possible? Yes.

Here’s what it could look like.

#Day4 #DeleteNothing #WhatsInTheAI #NewSeries #AIbreakdown #WhatIsAI #AIExplained #TheDNDownload

Electricity usage by data centres causing higher bills for local communities
Continued overexploitation of countries providing precious raw materials with little/no compensation
Mis-, mal-, disinformation skyrocketing
Some private ChatGPT conversations being available for general public to view
AI being used for surveillance and repression of dissenters

An AI system that automates surveillance, control and punishment
against humans without proper oversight is dangerous.

If it lacks transparency,
then it cannot be in charge of transparency or accountability.

If it reinforces existing discrimination,
then it cannot be trusted to aim weapons at the right targets.

If it makes mistakes and constantly lies,
then it cannot be used to determine truth.

Instead, AI should be built on serving public interest,
cocreated by the communities most impacted.

Ethical AI would move from a model of maximum data extraction
to one of maximum data sovereignty,
and protect the rights of its users and the humans whose labour it is trained on.
The central goal would not be profit, war or any form of harm.

It would be to heal, explore, learn and protect.

September 26, 2025 at 1:25 PM

Delete Nothing

@deletenothinglk.bsky.social

🧵[2/3]

The world jumped to adopt AIs without proper guardrails in place, and we are seeing the impacts of this today.

But is ethical AI possible? Yes.

Here’s what it could look like.

#Day4 #DeleteNothing #WhatsInTheAI #NewSeries #AIbreakdown #WhatIsAI #AIExplained #TheDNDownload

WHAT WOULD ETHICAL AI LOOK LIKE?

Centred on a human rights framework
Accountability and transparency structures in place
Subject to regular review and public oversight
Centres voices and wellbeing of marginalised communities
Non-extractive and non-exploitative
Built by diverse teams
Causes minimal harm to the environment

ETHICAL AI OFFERS

Informed consent for all users
Copyright opt-outs
Privacy rules to protect public
Shared data governance structures
Responses inclusive of diverse cultural contexts and histories

AI is being sold as a tool for the greater good.

If so, it should mirror principles that uplift the people
and have a positive net contribution to society.

THIS IS NOT THE CASE.

The current model for creating and adopting AI is based on maximising efficiency, profit and surveillance.

These are goals that are causing serious harm to the public.

HOW AI HARMS

Establishment of digital welfare states
Increased dependence on AI for all mental labour
Reduced labour protections and increased unemployment
Water consumption by data centres depleting fresh water supplies

September 26, 2025 at 1:25 PM

Delete Nothing

@deletenothinglk.bsky.social

Narrow AI has already carved out its own space in society. We are handing serious decision-making power, along with swathes of sensitive information, to AI without adequate guardrails in place.

How is this affecting us?
🧵 🧵 🧵 Part 2 of 2

#WhatsInTheAI #WhatIsAI #AIExplained #TheDNDownload

We are now witnessing a new phenomenon that is being called ‘AI psychosis’.

In April 2025, a 16-year-old in California took his life after expressing suicidal thoughts to ChatGPT.

The chatbot provided him with specific ‘advice’ on how to do it.

This has happened before.

In 2024, a 14-year-old child in Florida grew obsessed with the Character.ai chatbot.

In the midst of his worsening depression, the AI convinced him to carry on with his plan to end his life.

Why is this happening?

Most AI chatbots are built to be agreeable.

This could look like:
Claiming you are right regardless of if you are
Encouraging dangerous acts
Repeatedly using flattery to respond to you

For many, including those who are battling depression, or are conflict-avoidant or in other ways susceptible, this could be dangerous.

REMEMBER!

AI is capable of making mistakes but not capable of analysing and self-correcting accordingly.

“A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision.”
(IBM Training Manual, 1979)

AI in its current form

Mirrors the biases of its creators
Frequently lies or does not provide accurate info
Drains vulnerable communities of vital resources
Consolidates and upholds power hierarchies
Causes extensive damage to the environment
Is capable of blackmailing its own creators

So, if a computer shouldn’t make a management decision, should AI be allowed to make other significant decisions in healthcare, hiring, surveillance, weapons targeting, etc.?

September 12, 2025 at 9:41 AM

Delete Nothing

@deletenothinglk.bsky.social

Why isn’t AI true intelligence and within what parameters can existing AI work?

🧵 🧵 🧵 Part 2 of 2

#DeleteNothing #WhatsInTheAI #NewSeries #AIbreakdown #WhatIsAI #AIExplained #TheDNDownload

The AI you’re used to encompasses facial recognition software, ChatGPT and your Gmail spam filter.

These are different tools with varying capabilities and uses but they all fall under the same category: Narrow (or Weak) AI.

Narrow AI is designed to work within a tight scope.

It can be:
Reactive Machine AI (E.g., IBM’s Deep Blue)

- Most basic AI
- Engages with very specific tasks by leveraging statistical analysis

Limited Memory AI (E.g., ChatGPT)
- Able to recall past interactions, events, identifiers, situations, etc.
- Capable of improving performance through data training

What other forms of AI are there?

How has AI proliferated across our society?

And how is it affecting us?

That’s for next time!

#WhatsInTheAI

August 29, 2025 at 9:16 AM

Delete Nothing

@deletenothinglk.bsky.social

14. SOURCES CONTINUED

2. 2024 Infographic Guide to Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence, UNFPA.

3. 2022 Mapping of laws and services for online and ICT-facilitated violence against women and girls in Arab States, UN Women Regional Office for the Arab States.

August 26, 2025 at 7:31 AM

Delete Nothing

@deletenothinglk.bsky.social

13. But we must persuade our governments, tech platforms, and other relevant stakeholders to consider it seriously.

SOURCES

1. 2021 Measuring the prevalence of online violence against women, Economist Intelligence Unit.

August 26, 2025 at 7:31 AM

Delete Nothing

@deletenothinglk.bsky.social

12. So, if a survivor of such online abuse needs support, where can they find it? There are global frameworks and foundational principles that have been put forth to address TFGBV and provide victims with vital support.

August 26, 2025 at 7:31 AM

Delete Nothing

@deletenothinglk.bsky.social

11. Abusers use victim-blaming, threats to leak confidential info, invasion of privacy, fear of retaliation, and in some cases, societal ostracism, among others, to silence their targets.

Inefficient reporting systems and uninformed law enforcement officials add to this burden.

August 26, 2025 at 7:31 AM

Delete Nothing

@deletenothinglk.bsky.social

10. If there are no real consequences, they have no reason to stop.

August 26, 2025 at 7:30 AM

Delete Nothing

@deletenothinglk.bsky.social

9. Abusers and cybercriminals take their offline prejudices and amplify it many times over online.

Now, the Internet is battling overwhelming levels of overt misogyny, queerphobia, racism, ableism and other forms of bigotry.

August 26, 2025 at 7:30 AM

Delete Nothing

@deletenothinglk.bsky.social

8. Additionally, the mechanisms in place to address TFGBV are lacking.

Often, the existing legal frameworks are full of gaps and resources for combatting TFGBV are insufficiently allocated.

August 26, 2025 at 7:30 AM

Delete Nothing

@deletenothinglk.bsky.social

7. Perpetrators are often anonymous and face little to no risk when committing TFGBV.

This makes online abuse easy to commit but hard to trace.

The reach of online platforms also helps abusers access staggeringly large audiences, allowing online harm to spread quickly.

August 26, 2025 at 7:30 AM

Delete Nothing

@deletenothinglk.bsky.social

6. How did it get this bad?

TFGBV thrives on the 'Triple A Engine',

Accessibility. Affordability. Anonymity.

Digital tools are easily accessible and cheap. Anyone with harmful intentions can access them and use them.

August 26, 2025 at 7:30 AM

Delete Nothing

@deletenothinglk.bsky.social

5. These are unsettling numbers.

But they are not unique to the Middle East.

For example, there is a significant underreporting of TFGBV overall, with 25% of all victims reporting online abuse to the platforms themselves, and just 14% reporting to offline organisations. [3]

August 26, 2025 at 7:30 AM

Delete Nothing

@deletenothinglk.bsky.social

4.

- 49% reported feeling unsafe due to online violence

- 70% of women who are openly activists reported feeling unsafe online

- Among the women who experienced TFGBV over the preceding year, only 31% reported it

August 26, 2025 at 7:30 AM

Delete Nothing

@deletenothinglk.bsky.social

3. The Initial Position Paper highlights more crucial findings from the UNFPA Middle East report [3]

- 65% of women in the region who are active online experienced TFGBV

August 26, 2025 at 7:30 AM

Delete Nothing

@deletenothinglk.bsky.social

2. According to a UNFPA regional report of the Middle East, nearly all women have witnessed online violence.

This number stands at:
- 9 in 10 women in Latin America
- 8 in 10 in the Asia-Pacific region
- 7 in 10 from North America and Europe [3]

August 26, 2025 at 7:30 AM