Democracy & Digital Societies

Today, two million New Yorkers do not have access to the Internet. Mesh, a project designed for the unemployed living on the outskirts of Brooklyn could overthrow the power of the "super providers" by providing free connections or a solid emergency network, as it did in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. House by house, one balcony at a time, this revolution advances one router at a time. 

In April 2016, the European Parliament passed the General Data Protection Regulation. Green MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht was the parliament’s Rapporteur for the new law and led the negotiations. Heinrich Boell Foundation Program Director Hannah Winnick spoke with Jan Philipp Albrecht following a screening of the documentary “Democracy” on May 17, 2016.

This February our Berlin-based Transatlantic Media Fellow Lena Schnabl traveled to California to find out how Donald Trump is using digital tools to mobilize his supporters.

This Spring, Hbs North America selected its second round of Transatlantic Media Fellows, this time for its Digital Societies program. After a competitive selection process open to both European and American journalists, four outstanding fellows were selected.

Nowadays, almost every new car has internet access. That makes it easy for hackers to take control of a car with only a laptop—a danger that the police seem powerless to prevent.

Chris Valasek can control cars remotely – without the drivers being able to do anything about it. He works together with his friend Charlie Miller, a hacker and former NSA employee, and together they’re the most famous car hackers in the world. Now both of them work for Uber, and insist: "we are definitely not hacking the taxi industry." 

Since Snowden’s disclosure of the NSA’s massive global surveillance programs, organizations like EFF and the ACLU have brought countless legal challenges to protect civil liberties, technologists have developed new tools to safeguard data privacy, and even policymakers have begun to rein in surveillance authorities. Andrew Crocker, staff attorney on the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s civil liberties team, takes stock of what’s changed since Snowden first revealed a cache of classified NSA documents in June 2013. 

In the United States, it's normal for cars to be connected to each other through data exchange. It's considered safe and practical--until hackers get involved. Today, even police cars aren't safe from outside interference.

Is this journalism or activism? This is a question Glen Greenwald was frequently faced with. But in a time of mass surveillance, we need journalists like him, journalists that don't hide behind a superficial balance between being fair and telling the truth.