The Tyranny of the “For You” Feed

October 21, 2024

Hi friends – Once upon a time, in the early days of social media, we were mostly in control of what we saw on our news feeds. We curated the feed by choosing...

Breaking Up Google is Not Enough

August 27, 2024

Hi friends – Last month, a federal judge told us what we already knew: Google is a monopolist in the Web search market with a huge market share—95% on mobile...

The Enshittification of Google Maps

July 11, 2024

Hi friends, Almost every time I drive down the West Side Highway in New York City, Google Maps tells me to get off at the ship terminal – even though I am...

AI is Not Living Up to Its Hype

May 15, 2024

Hi friends — Last week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman promised that the company would release “new stuff” that “feels like magic.” But this week’s announcement was...

What the TikTok Ban Reveals

March 14, 2024

Hi friends, Just when it seemed like Congress really wasn't going to pass any tech legislation -- not the bipartisan privacy bill, nor the bipartisan...

A New Journalism Adventure

February 27, 2024

Hi friends -- I’m delighted to announce that today I launched a new nonprofit journalism studio: Proof News. Proof is into proving things! Our goal is to...

Big Tech vs. the News

December 9, 2023

Hi friends – I have to admit, when I first heard about Australia’s plan to demand that Big Tech negotiate content licensing agreements with news publishers,...

The Lesson of the OpenAI Drama May Not Be What You Think 

November 21, 2023

Hi friends – If you’re a tech nerd like me, you may have spent the past few days glued to your phone, watching the twists and turns of the OpenAI drama as it...

Redefining AI Safety

October 11, 2023

Hi friends -- Next month, the U.K. is holding a high profile AI Safety Summit that will "consider the risks of AI, especially at the frontier of...

The Tragedy of the AI Commons

September 23, 2023

Hi friends – Last month, I was captivated by an investigation in The Atlantic that revealed that Meta's AI bot had been trained on a trove of more than...

We Need a Pro-Choice Movement for Algorithms

August 18, 2023

Hi friends – The other day I said to my daughter that I needed to “toot, skeet, and tweet,” – referring to writing posts on the social networks Mastodon,...

We Need Platform Transparency

July 15, 2023

Hi friends -- You may have noticed that some big tech platforms are getting less transparent and accountable to the public. Both Facebook and Twitter have...

Last Bastion of Digital Privacy under Threat

June 13, 2023

Hi friends -- Amidst rampant surveillance capitalism, one bastion of digital privacy remains – end-to-end encrypted messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp....

Countering Dangerous Speech

May 6, 2023

Hi friends -- There is so much debate about how the big tech platforms police hate speech, and whether they made the right call in kicking off Donald Trump...

Are Creepy Ads Worth It?

April 6, 2023

Hi friends -- You've probably heard that the creepy ads that follow you around the Internet are the price you have to pay for all the free services online....

Banning TikTok Won't Make Us Safe

March 20, 2023

Hi friends -- You may have noticed that Washington D.C. is in a frenzy about TikTok -- proposing to ban it, force it to sell or submit to state control. In...

An update from Julia Angwin

February 21, 2023

Hello kind person on my email list - Thank you for signing up to get updates from me. I am writing to let you know that the next stage of my adventures has...