Category: Public Policy and National Security

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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”

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Where is the beef in the T&T (Twitter&Trump) outrage?

Some newspapers are outraged about the closure of the former US president’s account. Instead, they should re-think their role and contents they deliver by Andrea Monti – Originally published in Italian by Infosec.News

Frankly, it is hard to understand the outrage about Twitter & Trump and, in general, about the “power” of social networks to silence anyone.

Unlike newspapers, Twitter, Facebook and Google are private companies. They provide services against the acceptance of a contract. The contract gives them the power to accept as a customer whomever they want, to do what they want with the published content and to close accounts at will. Not unlike proprietary software producers who reserve the right to withdraw – at their discretion – the licence they have paid for, which is often very expensive.

Twitter & C. do nothing different from newspapers and ‘traditional’ media. Indeed, one could even say that the latter do worse, in the name of adherence to the ‘editorial line’. We witness political factionalism, superficial and coarse information, or ‘free inspirations’ from foreign newspapers passed off as original articles every day. Just as, daily, we witness the ‘usual celebrities’ talking about everything and anything on any television programme, even beyond their sectoral expertise. Continue reading “Where is the beef in the T&T (Twitter&Trump) outrage?”