Analysis | Digital Watch Observatory

13 Sep 2023

Key takeaways from the sixth UN session on cybercrime treaty negotiations

The 6th Session of the Ad Hoc Committee on Cybercrime finished its work, and one final round of inter-state negotiations is left. Is there a treaty text yet, and are states close to a final agreement?

12 Sep 2023

5G Transformation: The power of good policy

From South Korea’s spectrum leadership to the EU’s harmonisation and Africa’s context-specific solutions, each of these approaches underscores the link between policies and 5G’s potential. These efforts are indispensable to foster optimal policies for future development.

8 Sep 2023

Internet shutdowns: Can we find solutions?

Internet shutdowns have caused collateral damage, leading to infringement of human rights, while also affecting economies, and society. While the governments control such restrictions, is there a way to prevent them and find solutions?

1 Sep 2023

The consequences of Meta’s multilingual content moderation strategies

The inadequacies of Facebook’s content moderation strategies is a huge cost to Ethiopia, a multilingual society.

14 Aug 2023

Networked journalism and online media: Reimagining trust for digital reporters

Trust in news media has steadily decreased over the past years as more and more people, professionals and politicians from all walks of life, settle into the 21sts century post-truth world (no wonder it was named Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year in 2016). In an environment where truth and credibility, essential for trust, are being eroded, the role of traditional journalists is being questioned. How, then, can journalists adapt and evolve their functions to suit a landscape where truth is prismatic? How should they develop when the infrastructure of journalism is increasingly digital?

27 Jul 2023

Worldcoin: Eye-scanning ID is here

As digital identity online becomes more critical, Sam Altman’s old company Worldcoin announced the launch of a protocol that will use blockchain, zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) encryption and financial incentives (in the form of cryptocurrency) for biometric data verification. Worldcoin promises to fight misinformation and AI bot farms with its WorldID.

6 Jul 2023

MOVEit hack: what is it and why is it important?

The exploitation of the MOVEit Transfer vulnerability by the CLOP ransomware group and the ever-expanding list of victims has raised concerns about how we protect ICT supply chains. We look at what happened and what we’ve learned.

6 Jul 2023

Digital policy trends in June 2023

The top 3 digital policy trends in June 2023 were formulating guardrails for governing AI, digital identities gaining traction, and companies gearing up for the Digital Services Act (DSA).

9 May 2023

ChatGPT and GDPR: Balancing AI innovation with data protection

OpenAI’s ChatGPT’s ability to regenerate human-like text raised concerns over its compliance with data protection regulations. With other European countries following Italy’s example, the article explores how ChatGPT complies with the GDPR and its impact on the future of generative AI.

26 Apr 2023

How search engines make money and why being the default search engine matters

A critical question arises about the underlying business model of online search engines like Google, Bing, Baidu, Yandex, and Yahoo.