Michael Kwet

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Michael Kwet is a Visiting Fellow at Yale Law School and a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Johannesburg. He is editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Race and Surveillance (2023), host of the...

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TD Original

Empire of Ones and Zeroes

Michael Kwet / Truthdig Mar 13, 2025 ‘Digital justice’ intellectuals are right to condemn Big Tech for enabling Israel. But the problem is much bigger than they are willing to admit. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

TD Original

Toward a People’s AI

Michael Kwet / Truthdig Feb 19, 2025 DeepSeek isn’t fully “open source.” But the Chinese-made artificial intelligence does raise the question of what an AI, by and for the people, rather than corporations, might look like. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Ear to the Ground

What’s Missing from the TikTok Ban Circus

Michael Kwet / Truthdig Jan 23, 2025 Both sides of the debates over national security and free speech share the same stunted vision of what social media can be. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

TD Original

Punching Down to Silence the Radical Left

Michael Kwet / Truthdig Jan 13, 2025 The Stop Terror-Financing bill would strangle nonprofits on the political and financial edge. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

TD Column

The Disaster of Our Own Making Got Worse This Year

Michael Kwet / Truthdig Dec 27, 2024 How the climate emergency deepened in 2024. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

TD Column

Why the Left Should Keep One Foot in Big Social Media (For Now)

Michael Kwet / Truthdig Dec 5, 2024 The ‘Xodus’ ignores the bigger problem of corporatized media. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

Book Excerpt

The Case for Digital Degrowth

Michael Kwet / Truthdig Nov 29, 2024 AI and data center energy consumption has been overhyped. Greening the digital society requires confronting deeper structural problems. Dig deeper ( 10 Min. Read )

TD Original

The Truth Behind Musk v. Brazil

Michael Kwet / Truthdig Nov 18, 2024 The Brazilian government’s position on social media threatens the left that brought it to power. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

TD Original

The Limits of Lina Khan and the ‘Neo-Brandeisians’

Michael Kwet / Truthdig Aug 5, 2024 Democratic donors want to gut Biden’s antitrust brain trust. But even if they survive a Harris victory, what can they really accomplish? Dig deeper ( 11 Min. Read )

TD Original

What’s Missing From the TikTok Debate

Michael Kwet / Truthdig Apr 8, 2024 The problem isn’t Chinese ownership. It’s U.S. control of the digital economy and the need for community-run social networks. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

TD Original

The Big Tech Behind Israel’s Digital Apartheid

Michael Kwet / Truthdig Oct 26, 2023 As they once did in South Africa, U.S. tech companies maintain a system of surveillance and control in Gaza and the West Bank. Dig deeper ( 5 Min. Read )

TD Original

The Farce of Microsoft’s Anti-Racism and the Capture of Academia

Michael Kwet / Truthdig Apr 17, 2023 In recent years, most large tech corporations have begun pushing anti-racism public relations and touting their donations to Black causes. There is no company more steeped or skilled in this practice than the elder of the group, Microsoft. By deploying fleets of flacks, messaging professionals and hired intellectuals, the company has managed to maintain a pristine image as a “moral leader” of Big Tech, while avoiding and deflecting attention from its deep and sordid history of collaboration with police, prisons, intelligence agencies and militaries. Dig deeper ( 11 Min. Read )

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