Where I Go: My Small, Queer Corner of the Internet

After Years of Searching for an LGBTQ Community, I Found it on Discord During the Pandemic

I remember Ángelo Ponce. He was a teenage boy in my hometown of Maracay, Venezuela, whose classmates set on fire for being gay. That was 2012. I was 21 at the time and finally accepting that I was attracted to men. I knew, from what I could read in the scant news coverage it got, that he survived the assault and was taken care of by his mother. How bad his wounds were or what happened to him afterward is a mystery to me. Every now and then I find …

The Internet Needs Its Own Government | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

The Internet Needs Its Own Democratic Government

The Digital World Should Be Ruled by an Independent Coalition Beyond the Reach of Big Tech and Nation-States 

Today’s methods for governing the internet do not constitute a coherent system, much less a democratic one.

Instead, internet governance is a contest for power between the most powerful tech companies, …

Can We Tame the Wild West of Big Tech Media? | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Can We Tame the Wild West of Big Tech Media?

To Retain the Promise and Decrease the Danger of the Internet, the Federal Government Needs to Rebuild Our Digital Infrastructure—Starting With Revoking Section 230

Why do so many people, including both former President Donald Trump and new President Joe Biden, keep talking about getting rid of an obscure law called Section 230?

The short …

Ending the Disinformation Era | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Ending the Disinformation Era

In an Age of Distrust, Local Media Is Our Secret Weapon

After an election, an attempted insurrection, and a transfer of power defined in part by a massive amount of disinformation, what would it take to get Americans to begin trusting …

How Minnesota Teachers Invented a Proto-Internet More Centered on Community Than Commerce

In 1967, Eighteen School Districts Around the Twin Cities Created a Computing Network Connecting More Than 130,000 Students

In 1971, three student-teachers in the Minneapolis public school system created the computer game The Oregon Trail for students in their American history class. In this game, players could imagine …

When You Live Online, Will Anyone Know When You Die?

Public Grieving on Social Media Hides a Darker Private Reality

I suspected that something was wrong on the Sunday morning when I saw the beginning of a Facebook post in my newsfeed sidebar that said, in French, “Our dear AJ …