Alumni

In the twilight of a presidency characterised by 30,573 lies and constant misinformation, most social media platforms have permanently suspended Donald Trump’s accounts – a move also known as ‘the Great Deplatforming’. In doing so, platforms have taken away the megaphone Donald Trump had been using relentlessly and without accountability for years.

The way in which the humanitarian aid sector operates has been challenged for some time. It is increasingly acknowledged that UN agencies and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), often along with other actors such as the international bodies of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and donor governments of wealthier states, hold much of the programme design and financial power at the international level.¹

When the pandemic was declared last year, and lockdown measures were put in place, stress and anxiety levels were not the only things to spike. By April 2020, TikTok generated a staggering 2 billion downloads across the globe, just 5 months after having surpassed 1.5 billion downloads, making it the most downloaded app in the first quarter of 2020, or in any quarter until then.

The Internet, as we know it today, has evolved from a platform of the tech, academic, and research elite, to a tool for the general public, given its wide adoption by the mainstream modern society (Naughton, 2016). Without the benefit of hindsight, few could have predicted the evolution of the Internet and how it’s continuously being shaped by economic and social changes.

In recent years, DiploFoundation has received a growing number of calls from course participants to include video interaction in our online courses. This post reflects briefly on the use of Zoom meetings in Diplo’s online learning activities, and aims to inspire a wider discussion within Diplo’s community on the use of video chat.

Internet governance (IG) is a particularly challenging puzzle when viewed from the perspective of countries in the Global South. Many of these countries are asymmetrically integrated and constrained by structures of dependence established by more advanced countries. This is clear in the push for IG reform by countries in the Global South, arguing that the current model does not adequately address their concerns about access and affordability.

In 2019, the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) published the report Measuring digital development. The report presented several important facts and figures, including that an estimated 4.1 billion people have used the Internet in 2019. Among them, 83.9% came from developed countries (DC), while only 19.6% came from the least developed countries (LDCs).

The world is driven by information. That is almost an understatement in this era. In today’s hyperconnected world, marked by unprecedented opportunities for innovation and transformation, information stands as the foundation of all possible processes which affect human life and evolution. Staggering levels of information availability and access, spurred by information and communication technologies, have steadily fostered the understanding that the search for information is inextricably linked to the quest for individual and collective security and development.

A blog post from the perspective of a small state

The urgency of tackling climate change cannot be overstated. Bold action is desperately needed. Enter the role of digital technologies, touted as a panacea for addressing (all) the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Goal 13 specifies climate action. Back in the day, actions like ‘going paperless’ and ‘thinking before printing’ were popular calls to stir individual and collective environmental consciousness; we would save trees and the planet by switching to digital.