Ben Werdmuller
  • About me
  • Let's build together
  • Notable links
Sign in Subscribe

Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

Technology

Grammarly to acquire email startup Superhuman in AI platform push

"Grammarly has signed a deal to acquire email efficiency tool Superhuman as part of the company's push to build an artificial intelligence-powered productivity suite." I did not see this coming.

01 Jul 2025

Democracy

Schools serving undocumented kids go underground

"Some schools have asked staff to use secure messaging systems like Signal instead of text and email to keep sensitive conversations from public reach." They, like many others, need more private, self-hosted software.

01 Jul 2025

Democracy

Self-censorship and the ‘spiral of silence’: Why Americans are less likely to publicly voice their opinions on political issues

"I’m a political scientist, and I found that Americans were far less likely to publicly voice their opinions than even during the height of the McCarthy-era Red Scare."

29 Jun 2025
AI won't live on publisher sites

AI

AI won't live on publisher sites

The case for moving AI down the stack

24 Jun 2025

Democracy

Stephen Miller’s Financial Stake in ICE Contractor Palantir

Stephen Miller and at least a dozen other Trump appointees own stock in Palantir, the company that provides "mission critical" services to ICE.

24 Jun 2025

AI

Anthropic wins key US ruling on AI training in authors' copyright lawsuit

A federal court agreed that using copyrighted works to train AI is fair use - but that pirating them to do so infringes creator rights.

24 Jun 2025

Media

Substack's Secret

"Substack's One Weird Marketing Trick was leveraging the economic interests of traditional media employees against their publishers to get positive "earned media"."

23 Jun 2025

Democracy

The High Stakes of Biometric Surveillance

"There are clear indications from oppressive governments around the world that biometrics will be used to harm human rights, regardless of their accuracy or fairness."

23 Jun 2025

Democracy

The New Surveillance State: Why Data Privacy Is Now Essential to Democracy

"When the government can track where you go, whom you associate with, and what you spend your money on, it [...] chills freedom of expression, undermines your freedom to travel, and destroys the fundamental privacy right that underlies American liberty."

22 Jun 2025

AI

Publishers facing existential threat from AI, Cloudflare CEO says

Ten years ago, Google crawled two pages for every visitor it sent to a publisher. Today, Anthropic crawls 60,000.

22 Jun 2025
When people trust humans more than brands: the incubator newsroom

Future of News

When people trust humans more than brands: the incubator newsroom

How we might rebuild journalism from the ground up by rethinking what a newsroom is.

19 Jun 2025
Some of those who work forces

Democracy

Some of those who work forces

404 Media reveals collaboration between ICE and local police

17 Jun 2025
See all
Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

Writing at the intersection of technology, journalism, and community.

Recommendations

  • Elena Rossini
    Elena Rossini
    news.elenarossini.com

    Elena Rossini is an Italian filmmaker, photographer and activist. Her work focuses on issues of media literacy, digital sovereignty, and harnessing the power of the internet for change.

  • Relay, By We Distribute
    Relay, By We Distribute
    newsletter.wedistribute.org

    A weekly newsletter about the open social web. We Distribute is the best website about the next generation of social networks - their newsletter is a regular dive into what's going on.

  • Internet Exchange
    Internet Exchange
    internet.exchangepoint.tech

    Feminist perspectives on digital justice and tech from some of the most important voices in ethical tech.

  • When The Going Gets Weird
    When The Going Gets Weird
    newsletter.mathewingram.com

    Mathew Ingram, a longtime journalist whose bylines have chronicled the intersection of journalism and the web, shares links that interest him.

  • Point C
    Point C
    pointc.co

    Corey Ford has been a mentor and friend for over a decade. His advice changed my professional life, and now it can change yours, too.

Ben Werdmuller
Mastodon
Bluesky
Threads

Subscribe to new posts

Ben Werdmuller explores the intersection of technology, democracy, and society. Always independently published, reader-supported, and free to read.