April 16, the Japanese government took action against LINE, the most popular messaging app in Japan, following a hacking incident in 2023 that compromised the data of 510,000 users. They issued unusual administrative guidance to LineYahoo, the company operating LINE in Japan, demanding a shareholder restructuring. This guidance called for...
As the global community grapples with various mis/disinformation laws, regulatory frameworks, community standards, and other governance efforts put forward by states, social media companies, and academia, the pivotal role of traditional media and journalists often slips under the radar. The article discusses information integrity efforts in East Asia, including digital...
On December 6th, the United States and Japan formalized their commitment to collaboratively address foreign information manipulation by signing a memorandum of cooperation. The Department of State further disclosed that a similar memorandum with the same objectives is imminent with South Korea. While specific nations were not explicitly identified as...
Disinformation during emergencies (DiE) can critically undermine government efforts to mitigate socioeconomic harm and damage the relationship between the state and citizens. With the production of nuclear power growing in multiple countries and widespread concern over generative-AI-fueled disinformation online, we are researching the impact of DiE on transnational nuclear emergency responses....
Dispatches from the evolving digital political economy Is De-Dollarization fueled by the rise of Digital Currencies? Nations, particularly within the BRICS alliance, are increasingly exploring alternatives to the US dollar. The rise of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) is playing a pivotal role in shaping the conversation around De-dollarization. The...
Dispatches from the evolving digital political economy Taiwan Internet Governance Forum Taiwan will hold its own Internet Governance Forum a week before the UN IGF in Kyoto, Japan, which Taiwanese will not be allowed to attend. Organized around the theme “Critical Moment: Fragmentation, Geopolitics, AI Revolution and Resilience,” the program...
Reports on the evolving digital political economy A Victory for Free Speech on Social Media A federal appeals court has upheld a finding that U.S. federal officials violated the First Amendment by coercing or strongly encouraging social-media platforms to censor content. The court also narrowed the scope and targets of...
Reports on the evolving digital political economy Human Authorship and AI Images A lot of bad policy about AI is being made because people are overstating its risks. These overstatements usually derive from overestimating the autonomous nature of the AI. Now we are getting some bad law for the same...
Reports on the evolving digital political economy Oral arguments in Missouri v Biden appeal On August 10 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit listened to oral arguments related to an injunction that restricts the Biden administration from communicating with social media platforms to request suppression of constitutionally...