Divij is a lawyer and independent researcher trying to understand our scrambled, networked society. He’s currently working on documenting and crafting participatory responses to ‘bad AI’ and automated decision making, with a focus on India.
What can be done?
Billions of new internet users are growing up in a climate of walled gardens controlled by large corporate platforms — a far cry from the innovative and creative potential of the early web. As networked technologies enter and shape our material realities (our roads, our homes, our environments), how can we claim the internet for ourselves — and celebrate the diversity, creativity and connectivity it enables, without ceding control to corporate agendas or authoritarian governments? These questions need to be discussed not only within boardrooms and cabinet meetings, but in democratic forums — schools, unions, and on the streets. We need to start listening to and privileging the democratic claims of affected people instead of technocratic claims of bureaucrats and businesses.