The Public Square Project

The Public Square Project

Reimagining Our Digital Future Nov 30, 2021 Peter Lewis, Jordan Guiao I wrote a chapter in this book about the Paris Commune and how we need to invest in human capacity as part of building an online public square. A new blueprint for a more democratic digital space...
The misinformation engine

The misinformation engine

By Lizzie O’Shea and Mark Andrejevic It is now six months since Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code was passed into law, and it presents an opportunity to assess the impact of this controversial piece of legislation. The Code entrenches large tech companies...
The growth of digital surveillance

The growth of digital surveillance

Lucie Krahulcova is an international digital rights activist and Executive Director of Digital Rights Watch. Lizzie O’Shea is a writer, lawyer and co-founder and chair of Digital Rights Watch. “It should worry us that we are losing rights as surveillance systems grow...
Vaccine passports are catnip for Big Tech

Vaccine passports are catnip for Big Tech

Just over a year ago, international borders closed as part of the unprecedented emergency response to the pandemic. Governments began to experiment with technological solutions to managing the movement of people, specifically at borders, but also more broadly for the...
Searching the past for a new digital democracy

Searching the past for a new digital democracy

Ada Lovelace, the daughter of poet Lord Byron and collaborator with mechanical computer pioneer Charles Babbage, is credited with being the world’s first computer programmer. Lawyer and writer Lizzie O’Shea thinks Lovelace has lessons for us today about we deal with...
Why the COVIDSafe app didn’t work

Why the COVIDSafe app didn’t work

Lizzie O’Shea explains why the COVIDSafe app didn’t work via ABC The Drum Twitter thread: “One of the reasons – there were a few – is that many people don’t trust the government to get these projects right. They don’t trust...
Alternative Futures of the Paris Commune

Alternative Futures of the Paris Commune

If we are to think of alternatives to the heedless, vampire-like drive of technology capitalism, there are examples from history that are worthy of consideration. In looking back we should not dwell on the elites, who tend to dominate the social and cultural life of...
Treated like children

Treated like children

As published in The Saturday Paper March 11 2021 Public policy should not be left to the cult of personality, no matter how amicable the current eSafety Commissioner may be. The best protection against unintended consequences is for this legislation to be surgically...
The Judgment of Paris – Facebook VS the Communards

The Judgment of Paris – Facebook VS the Communards

Published in Baffler March 2021 In August 2019, Facebook settled an eight-year legal dispute with a French schoolteacher. The complaint, made by Frédéric Durand, accused the platform of deleting his account because he posted an image of Gustave Courbet’s iconic oil...
Can Australia Save Journalism From the Internet?

Can Australia Save Journalism From the Internet?

As published in The New York Times | Opinion on Wednesday, 24 February, 2021. Last week Facebook carried out what may have been the single largest content takedown in its history. Any content that looked vaguely like news, even if it very much was not, disappeared...
Facebook VS the media code: whoever wins, we lose

Facebook VS the media code: whoever wins, we lose

Published in Overland Thursday, 18 February, 2021. Facebook has followed through on its promise, banning news content on its platform in response to the media bargaining code currently before parliament. Although it was something that Google had talked about most...
Australia’s flawed push to make Big Tech pay for news

Australia’s flawed push to make Big Tech pay for news

As published in Nikkei Asia on Friday, February 12, 2021. Lizzie O’Shea is a human rights lawyer. She is author of “Future Histories: What Ada Lovelace, Tom Paine, and the Paris Commune Can Teach Us about Digital Technology.” The experience of online...
The trouble with the media bargaining code

The trouble with the media bargaining code

Published in the Overland. Sunday, 14 December, 2020. The proposed news media bargaining code tabled last week has been praised by many journalists. It’s also deeply flawed. The scheme requires that organisations apply to the Australian Media and Communications...
Regulators! Stand Back

Regulators! Stand Back

This election has come at a critical moment for the elite of Silicon Valley. In July, the CEOs of the big four tech companies gave evidence before the House Judiciary Committee investigating breaches of antitrust law. Since then, the Committee released their 449 page...