Author: Andrea Monti

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The United States and Tik Tok, between national security and protection of fundamental rights


The latest episode in the TikTok saga is the US deceleration on the Chinese company’s compulsory sale. However, the problems opened by the little Sicilian girl’s death caused by participation in a challenge are still unresolved. The analysis of Andrea Monti, professor of law of order and public security at the Gabriele d’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara originally published in Italian by Formiche.net

The old ‘carrot and stick’ metaphor explains how the President Joe Biden is going to handle the relationships with China. On the one hand, the Biden administration reaffirms its commitment towards human rights. On the other hand, it reduces the aggressiveness towards Chinese companies that operate (also) in the US. This translates into keeping the Hong Kong and Uighur dossiers open and relenting the pressure to force-sale of Tik Tok. Its activity is going to be re-assessed before the final decision. Continue reading “The United States and Tik Tok, between national security and protection of fundamental rights”

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National Security, Social Singularity

In the next book on technology and national security written together with professor Raymond Wacks, we examine the consequences of what we called ‘social singularity’. Social singularity is the pretence (or the delusion) of being part of an online ‘community’ while being not.

Being a community member means sharing values, being ready to help and work for the common benefit, protecting each other. By contrast, living in a social singularity condition (favoured by social networking platforms) turns an individual into a part of a swarm whose only reason to team up with somebody else is personal motive. Once the need is satisfied, the swarm disappears, only to resurface with different members to pursue a different goal. There are plenty of examples of this social singularity phenomenon, from the various rabid outbursts of cancel culture to the Reddit traders Wall Street take over in the Gamestop case. Continue reading “National Security, Social Singularity”

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Gamestop, Public Order and Social Singularity

Organised individuals can alter financial market dynamics. A problem for public order that do not have a solution – Originally published in Italian by Formiche.net

A group of self-organised investors via the Reddit platform managed to prevent a speculative action on the Gamestop video game chain’s stock by carrying out one opposite direction .

Goliaths of Wall Street had bet on the collapse of the stock of a company that was already in bad shape, the Davids of the Internet began to buy shares, causing the stock to soar. As a result, the professional investors who had sold out are running the risk of losing staggering sums of money, not because there are any objective reasons for this (e.g. Gamestop’s incorrect value assessment), but because a (large) group of people, coming out of practically nowhere, have used the same tools of great speculation against them. Continue reading “Gamestop, Public Order and Social Singularity”

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The EU and the rhetoric of fundamental rights

Twitter’s decision to close former US President Trump’s accounts has sparked heated controversy that have confirmed the absence of a vision on the role of fundamental rights in the European political agenda. The analysis of Andrea Monti Originally published in Italian by Formiche.net

In a somewhat reductive way, the closure of the Twitter account of the (soon to be) former US President Donald Trump and, in cascade, the blocking of other network services that hosted platforms related to the American right, have raised alarms about the excessive power assumed by Big Tech. These companies have shown that they can intervene autonomously and according to their agenda in exercising political rights in a sovereign state. Continue reading “The EU and the rhetoric of fundamental rights”

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Peter Doshi and vaccines data: “trust but verify

Peter Doshi’s (denied) request for access to the raw data of the vaccine trial published in the British Medical Journal is a starting point to analyse on the delicate relationship between science and the media by Andrea Monti  – Originally published in Italian by Scienza in rete

Those who practise the scientific method have the stubborn habit (incomprehensible to most) of drawing conclusions from the analysis of data according to the criteria of a research hypothesis and applying a method that allows the inter-subjective verifiability of the results.

This mental attitude is diametrically opposed to those who base their opinions and – worse – decisions on ‘trust’ (often turned into ‘faith’) and therefore on the authority of various eminences. I do not criticise this attitude in the religious sphere, but in the secular one, that of science, yes. If a dogma exists in the practice of science, it is that of the methodical doubt, together with that of the absence of certainty. An experimentally verified theory is valid as long as it is valid. It happened to give an example of which expertise overflows outside the laboratories, with Newton’s gravitation and quantum mechanics. Continue reading “Peter Doshi and vaccines data: “trust but verify”