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Personal opinions only! All things tech And Human Rights ✨Policy and Advocacy @WITNESS German Chancellor Fellow @AvHStiftung 2021-2022 | Previously @DigitalActionCo, @WZB, @DataPrivacyBr, @direitosnarede| She/Her
At @witnessorg.bsky.social we have submitted input to Meta's Oversight Board on the recent call for public comments on non-consensual AI sexualized impersonation.
www.witness.org/witness-subm...
As we all recover from Delhi and endless news about it, last friday marked the end of the summit but also the day when India's IT Amendment Rules 2026 on synthetically generated information (SGI) or synthetic audio-visual content came into force.
www.techpolicy.press/india-bets-o...
The AI Act first COP on Transparency has been one of our team's main focus on the eu policy space these past months. In this blogpost we go over some of our advocacy points shared with the working groups and co-chairs: privacy-oriented transparency rules
blog.witness.org/2026/02/priv...
@wired.com and @mattburgess1.bsky.social have been doing an incredible job reporting on the creation of NCII-oriented Deepfakes by users of both Twitter and Grok. It was a pleasure to speak with him on this new article regarding the broader landscape of nudify tech.
www.wired.com/story/deepfa...
Happy to speak to @nrc.nl on the risks emerging AI systems and its intersection with adult content and creation of NCII content. As the risks are higher, we need more concrete safeguards from the companies themselves other than blank prohibitions of producing content in certain contexts.
I wrote about Iran's protests for @theatlantic.com: how AI manipulation and the suspicion of it is being weaponised to dismiss real footage of protests.
This piece draws on work from my stellar team at WITNESS and years of studying information controls in Iran and beyond.
On our latest for Tech Policy Press, shirin anlen and I highlight the urgency of addressing NCII and CSAM as we see new interactions between Generative AI and adult-related content. What happened with #Grok this week is not an isolated case, just the culmination of years of misogyny online.
On our latest for Tech Policy Press, shirin anlen and I highlight the urgency of addressing NCII and CSAM as we see new interactions between Generative AI and adult-related content. What happened with #Grok this week is not an isolated case, just the culmination of years of misogyny online.
Nothing says “we love free speech” like withdrawing from organizations that seek to protect it!!!
🙃🙃🙃🙃
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from 66 international bodies, including the Freedom Online Coalition. With this move, the US has formally stepped away from a core part of its leadership of the global Internet norms it once helped build, writes Konstantinos Komaitis.
WITNESS joined the call from brazilian organizations for more transparency in the Draft Bill 2338 process, which aims to regulate Artificial Intelligence in Brazil.
Dear @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu, the digital omnibus is the opposite of what we need.
In the era of hybrid warfare, we must make it HARDER to WEAPONISE our digital infrastructure against us — not EASIER.
cc @kajakallas.bsky.social @andriuskubilius.ec.europa.eu
defenddemocracy.eu/europe-secur...
🚨 Brussels, today 🚨Ursula! Stand up for Europe – not for Trump’s tech bros!
As the EU unveils its “Digital Omnibus” today, we're rolling out billboards calling on @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu to stop bending to US and Big Tech pressure and enforce our digital laws #StandUpUrsula✊
I really wish that the European Commission + member states integrated the narrative about fostering innovation with the good old speeches about protecting digital rights and sustainability. Because at the moment this conversation is looking like a blank check for the private sector.
The EU strategy for fostering sovereignty is about providing funds to foster innovation but ITS ALSO about making sure regulations are not overburdening for companies. And thereno acknowledgement that these efforts - incl. the omnibus - will benefit actors that have not complied with EU legislations
The good old fallacy that protecting rights can hinder innovation being deployed as the baseline for the deregulation efforts. The lack of rights protecting groups and civil society at the Summit are a good reinforcement of that (only Article 19 and Sovereign tech Agency are speaking).
Little to no interventions about market concentration of digital services, and a rather contradictory line from Commission Representatives about how the EU is fighting concentration while reminding the industry that the Omnibus efforts might not end tomorrow. Aka. we can expect more simplification
While following the sessions I noticed the following:
Way too many nods to how the US is fostering its innovation sector with very few guardrails to industry: a confirmation that the movement on sovereignty here in the EU is more about ensuring competitiveness than breaking up big tech monopoly;
Following the #EUSovereigntySummit and the feeling is of utter disappointment. To see the much needed sovereignty umbrella being used to legitimize the erosion of rights through the omnibus proposals is just not where i imagined a continent that was so blatant about digital regulations going.
WITNESS has a group of 127 civil society orgs, trade unions, and public interest groups urging the EU to halt changes to the AI Act and GDPR. Reopening landmark laws would weaken the very safeguards that keep surveillance and abuses in check. #digitalOmnibus
🔗 wit.to/EUopenletter
WITNESS submitted inputs to two recent EU Commission calls for input (a) Art. 50 of the EU AI Act and (b) the upcoming Digital Omnibus. Our recommendations regarding art. 50 outline how transparency can work in practice while safeguarding rights: lnkd.in/dDmjnaMq
WITNESS submitted an input to the EU Commission's call for evidence on the Digital Omnibus. Our input invites the Commission to deliver a consistent implementaton of the AI Act and ensure fundamental rights are not affected, amongst other things: ec.europa.eu/info/law/bet...
s/o to @bcmerchant.bsky.social for mentioning this site nyc-friends.vercel.app that is just an ongoing compilation of vandalized "friend" ads -- it is genuinely some of the most heartwarming stuff ive seen in a while
EU countries will tomorrow give input on which parts of the AI Act they would like to “simplify”, according to a Council discussion note obtained by Euractiv.
Read my story at @euractiv.com:
www.euractiv.com/news/exclusi...
"Brazil's Supreme Court put former President Jair Bolsonaro under house arrest on Monday ahead of his trial for an alleged coup plot, underscoring the court's resolve despite escalating tariffs and sanctions from U.S. President Donald Trump."
At the one year anniversary of the EU AI Act, we at WITNESS just published our comments to the recently published Code of Practice for General Purpose AI.
www.witness.org/the-eu-gpai-...
What a bizarre and strange world we live in. To see Brazil framed as a national security threat to the U.S. based solely on sovereign and legitimate decisions taken by the Supreme Court that helped save Brazilian Democracy is a real absurd. Colonialism 4.0.
www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/...
Publicamos ontem, no Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil, um texto de opinião sobre o Tarifaço do Trump no Brazil - com @rafaelzanatta.bsky.social e Ale Gonzales.
diplomatique.org.br/a-regra-da-p...
c/c @direitosnarede.bsky.social @dataprivacybrasil.bsky.social
E como a linha de questionamentos sobre a validade de regulações como o AI Act ou o DSA, e no brasil a recente decisão do STF, parece ser uma nova e sedimentada diretriz de politica externa de Trump.
Em ambas conversas destaquei a linha de completo desrespeito por decisoes soberanas legitimas adotadas por instituições brasileiras, e a forçada de barra do governo americano ao utilizar a aplicação de tarifas para tentar emplacar a agenda "desregulatoria" ao redor do mundo.