Instagram might not be reading minds, but it’s getting close. As Meta begins weaving AI deeper into Instagram’s system, the line between reflection and manipulation is thinning. The app already tracks emotion through what we watch and linger on, soon, AI could amplify that feedback loop. This piece explores how emotion is quietly becoming data, and why that shift should concern us.
In Nepal, the line between connection and control blurred when the government banned 26 social media platforms. What followed was a youth-led uprising that revealed deep fractures in its fragile democracy. This article reflects on how digital tools can empower or silence, and why Nepal’s struggle offers lessons for a world wrestling with the politics of technology.
Data is the defining resource of the 21st century, but the question of who owns, controls, and benefits from it has become strangely opaque. This article revisits the idea of digital sovereignty in light of three technological frontiers: the Internet of Things, Brain-Computer Interfaces, AI and its acceleration through quantum computing. It traces how regulatory retreat and public disengagement have opened the door to unprecedented forms of data extraction, including from the human brain itself. The fight for data rights may well be the defining democratic struggle of our digital future. This article calls for a renewed public conversation about data as the foundation of democratic self-determination.
