By analyzing phenomena like #Gamergate and QAnon, this book elucidates how Silicon Valley’s meritocratic and free speech ideologies have been exploited to amplify toxic narratives that marginalize disenfranchised groups. The study highlights the strategic use of memes, humor, and community-building in furthering far-right agendas, using insights from internet, game, and gender studies. This work critically examines how online platforms have become arenas where political extremism is gamified, influencing both American and global societal dynamics.

Through spotlighting the overlooked use of AI foundation models in military ISTAR operations, this paper highlights the associated risks for civilians and national security. It critiques the current policy focus on hypothetical CBRN threats, emphasizing the need for governance interventions that address personal data's role in AI proliferation. The authors argue for insulating military AI systems and data from commercial models, stressing the importance of securing military systems against expanding attack vectors and potential geopolitical consequences.

Advocating for policies that prevent reinforcing tech monopolies, address environmental impacts, and prioritize public benefit, this report critiques the EU's AI strategy. Recommendations include setting conditions on AI investments to promote transparency, labor, and climate standards, alongside fostering public interest in AI applications. It stresses that Europe’s digital future should support competitive, fair AI governance, and calls for bold regulation to ensure Europe’s AI trajectory benefits society and respects global responsibility.

Untangling the intersection of AI, streaming platforms, and music's future, this essay argues that AI's integration will transform music creation and consumption, blurring roles between platforms, users, and creators. Streaming services gather vast user data, influencing music personalization and potentially leading to AI-generated bespoke soundtracks. This shift, termed "Platform Musicking," challenges traditional music concepts, emphasizing the complex, evolving relationship between technology and artistic expression.

Centering on the concept of data colonialism, this conversation compares Silicon Valley's data extraction practices to historical colonialism, emphasizing the critical implications for power and exploitation in the digital age. The guests advocate for public awareness and resistance against these modern colonizing forces, underscoring the need to reclaim agency over personal data. Their discussion highlights the urgent call for ethical regulation and accountability within the tech industry.

This article explores activist and creative efforts to preserve non-mainstream internet histories amid growing concerns over vast data archives used for marketing and governance. Focusing on GeoCities, Indymedia, and ethical reuse of social media data, it discusses the political and ethical importance of archiving participatory online cultures at risk of disappearing. Using Jodi Dean's idea of displaced mediators, it argues these archives resist commercial pressures and open possibilities for alternative, user-centered online infrastructures.

The concept of "infrastructure" has broadened across disciplines, highlighting the critical role of information infrastructures (II) in governance. This article investigates the origins and evolution of II, distinguishing them from other technological forms. The innovative and implementational characteristics of II are dissected, with implications for the politics of technology and governance considered. The study is rooted in the analysis of diverse II within digitized societies, examining Internet, social security, platform, financial, energy, and health information systems.

Critiquing the inadequacy of existing models—sovereign and structural power—in describing the legitimacy of digital technology companies like Meta, this paper leverages Searle’s and Hart’s theories to highlight the transformative empowerment facilitated by these companies' minimalist permission structures. Consequently, it advocates for a custodial framework to assess the legitimacy of such empowerment dynamics, positing that digital legitimacy requires assigning responsibility to entities managing these versatile, but often unsteerable, digital empowerment systems.

The governance of semiconductors within the European Union reflects a paradox, balancing digital sovereignty with inherent global interdependence. Positioned as crucial for digital sovereignty, semiconductors are integrated into policies that seek economic and research legitimacy. However, their production is inevitably global, necessitating subsidization of international corporations to fortify the supply chain. This dynamic, the author contends, underlines the tensions between aspirations for autarky and the realities of a distributed production landscape.

The pursuit of effective Internet policy is increasingly complex, as diverse stakeholders seek influence over digital governance. This multifaceted challenge raises critical questions about the definition, targets, implementation, and evaluation of 'good' Internet policy. This introductory essay examines pivotal issues, including fostering democratic participation through digital systems, reconciling local norms with global rules, addressing algorithmic discrimination, understanding conspiracy theories' impact on democracy, and defining responsibilities in content moderation.