Banning disruptive online groups is a game of Whac-a-Mole that web giants just won't win

By Andrea Baronchelli, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics, City, University of London

From Washington DC to Wall Street, 2021 has already seen online groups causing major organised offline disruption. Some of it has been in violation of national laws, some in violation of internet platforms’ terms of service. When these groups are seen to cause societal harm, the solution from has been knee-jerk: to ban or “deplatform” those groups immediately, leaving them digitally “homeless”.

But the online world is a Pandora’s box of sites, apps, forums and message boards. Groups banned from Facebook migrated seamlessly to Parler, and from Parler, via encrypted messaging apps, to…

Read complete article

~	Nigeria’s minimum wage has never protected workers from poverty: here’s why

~	African countries can’t resolve their debt crisis under a system rigged against them

~	Hong Kong ranks low on global press freedom index as watchdog cites ‘unprecedented’ setbacks

~	Media coverage of campus protests tends to focus on the spectacle, rather than the substance

~	The good news is the government plans to cancel $3 billion in student debt. The bad news is indexation will still be high

~	Albanese government to wipe $3 billion in student debt, benefitting three million people

~	The Indigenous Peoples Camp that calls for rights every April in Brazil

~	Pillay: Israel is helped by ‘powerful States’ in violation of Palestinians’ rights

~	Debates on campus safety in response to Palestine solidarity activism show we need strategies to navigate discomfort

~	El Salvador: Constitution “à la carte” could deepen human rights crisis in coming years