Notable links
Notable links: April 17, 2026
How AI is affecting thinking and distribution – and why relationships are still at the heart of great teams.
Ben Werdmuller
Ben Werdmuller helps leaders at newsrooms, non-profits, and mission-driven organizations to navigate their biggest technology challenges.
Democracy
Google Broke Its Promise to Me. Now ICE Has My Data.
"Google had already disclosed my data without telling me. There was no opportunity to contest it."
Business
You Own Your Role, We Own The Outcome
"A mantra to clarify ownership while reinforcing shared responsibility." I agree with every word.
Technology
FBI Extracts Suspect’s Deleted Signal Messages Saved in iPhone Notification Database
An innocuous iPhone notifications setting could put your Signal contacts at risk.
Democracy
Stop Flock
Flock is building a national surveillance network. A protest movement is forming to tear it down.
Technology
One size fits none: let communities build for themselves
How open protocols and agentic development could lead to a whole new generation of social applications.
Technology
The bottleneck shifts to distribution
"There is a fixed amount of scarce attention to go around, and too many people want it. The metagame becomes: secure attention by any means necessary."
Democracy
When the President threatens to commit a genocide
This cannot continue.
AI
"Cognitive surrender" leads AI users to abandon logical thinking, research finds
"Experiments show large majorities uncritically accepting “faulty” AI answers." Increasingly, incentive structures are asking them to.
Notable links
Notable links: April 3, 2026
A dystopian week, with a glimmer of hope: alternatives are available.
Technology
The open web isn't dying. We're killing it
Julien Genestoux thinks the open web needs netizens. I agree – and in 2026, that's indistinguishable from citizenry.
AI
An AI company set out to fix news deserts. Instead, it copied local journalists’ work
"Nota shut down its news sites after Axios and Poynter found dozens of plagiarized quotes, phrases and photos."