Dr Pen

@DrPen
725 Followers
959 Following
7K Posts

Tech society posts and shares from Dr Pen, Digital Media & Humanities academic based in Malta, from London. Late bloomer, a bit pithy.

#UserExperience #UGC
#DataSociety #DigitalSociety #SmartCities
#smalltech #webdev
#Fediverse #openeducation #knowledgecommons #opensocialweb

World Citizen

Orcidhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-1071-693X
Internet Gardenerhttps://penworks.net
Creative alt culture@penworks
Original joined16 Dec 2022 bird migration

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The ecosystem behind Telegram’s abuse networks.

An AI Forensics investigation revealed a network of nearly 25 000 users across Italy and Spain spreading non-consensual sexual images of women, and child sexual abuse material (CSAM), on Telegram.

“There is a sort of shared pedagogy of sexual violence – one that is facilitated by the platform and knows no geographic borders”.

https://mediafaro.org/article/20260504-the-ecosystem-behind-telegrams-abuse-networks?mf_channel=mastodon&action=forward

#Telegram #CSAM #SocialMedia #Tech #Italy #Spain #Doxxing #Deepfakes

The ecosystem behind Telegram’s abuse networks.

An AI Forensics investigation revealed a network of nearly 25 000 users across Italy and Spain spreading non-consensual sexual images of women, and child sexual abuse material (CSAM), on Telegram. …

The European Correspondent

The era of unchecked tech monopolies is over.

We're taking decisive action to enforce open, fair, and contestable digital markets. Our measures had real consequences:

🛡️ Fined major platforms for anti-competitive practices and ignoring consumer data choices
⌚ Required strict hardware interoperability for smartwatches and connected wearables
☁️ Launched three investigations into dominance in cloud services and into search engines hiding media

Accountability is here 👉 https://link.europa.eu/YTddh6

Interesting book: "**Transforming universities with an equity focus"**, focusing on decentralisation. This complements my submitted paper to Digital Society (Transformation through decentralisation: learning, democracy and technological sovereignty). If I get the chance I'll add this book to citations.
- blogpost: https://blogs.openbookpublishers.com/transforming-universities-with-an-equity-focus/
- download PDF/epub: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0520

via Radical Open Access Collective

#fediverse #decentralisation #digitalsovereignty #academia #academicchatter

Transforming universities with an equity focus

Inequity is everywhere in higher education, and my book Distributing Knowledge: Openness, Equity and Higher Education Transformation offers an equity lens through which the sector could transform itself.

Open Book Publishers Blog
Waymo's robotaxi service is now suspended in both Atlanta and San Antonio, as the company works to stop its vehicles from driving into flooded roads. https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/21/waymo-pauses-atlanta-service-as-its-robotaxis-keep-driving-into-floods/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon
Almost half of Gen Z says AI is making them dumber

AI is making employees dramatically more productive, but many workers say the technology is also making them lose confidence in their skills.

Fast Company

LinkedIn has always been trash. But now it's almost entirely slop.

Corporate executives are paying Filipinos to use AI to ghostwrite posts which these same people then reply to with congratulatory comments.

This is the doom loop future internet that oligarchs want everywhere. https://restofworld.org/2026/virtual-assistant-linkedin-engagement/

The Filipino virtual assistants behind LinkedIn’s “thought leadership” content mill

For $7 an hour, virtual assistants use AI tools to write LinkedIn posts and comments on behalf of Western executives.

Rest of World

People worry AI will replace programmers.

Lol. Have you seen the code it trains on? Half the internet is one regex away from a national emergency.

Thank God I listened to @gruber when he said to try Kagi. I’ve been using it for a year, and just renewed with a family pro plan last week!

https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/19/google-search-as-you-know-it-is-over/

Google Search as you know it is over | TechCrunch

Google is transforming Search from a list of links into an AI-powered experience filled with conversational answers, autonomous agents, and interactive interfaces — a shift that could further reduce traffic to publishers across the web.

TechCrunch
I've been thinking about #Mastodon Starter Packs and something occurred to me: before following someone I see if they tend to be parasocial.1000 followers and only following 10? That person likely won't talk back to me so while I'm glad they're here, they're not for me.
If Starter Packs tend towards people with high follow counts, those more often boosted, will this lead newcomers finding their home feed full of people who never reply to them,never interact? That would feel both busy and lonely.