Juan Ortiz Freuler

The Amazon Web Services outage shows how a handful of corporate players control sensitive information chokepoints.

These chokepoints can be leveraged to advance commercial or political agendas.

Here are 6 strategies Governments are using to neutralize them:
policyreview.info/articles/ana...

Epistemic rights help explain attacks on the press This concept can enhance investigations and connect concerns when journalists are targeted.

What are epistemic rights?

My latest explores how this concept can enhance our ability to define, expose, and confront threats to press freedom and democracy.

www.openglobalrights.org/epistemic-ri...

Newsletter #22 of the Non-Aligned Tech Movement is out:

Geopolitical shake-ups in the lower layers of the stack: Semiconductors, Chips, Minerals 🌋 nonalignedtech.net/22-geopoliti... #NAM -> #NATM

Will Human Rights Guide Technological Development? From surveillance and algorithmic identification to the automation of justice systems and the rise of digital discrimination, the complex and evolving relationship between tech and human rights requir...

Digital technologies impact what is visible and concrete (documents, borders, walls, institutions), while simultaneously unleashing an invisible layer that radically modifies existing relationships between people, states, and infrastructures
A series👇 www.openglobalrights.org/up-close/tec...

Screenshot of the editorial text: "The digitization of identities is reshaping how states see and interact with the public. Grace Mutung’u highlights how programs in Kenya and Uganda exclude vulnerable communities from essential services. For example, incorrect birth dates are denying elders pensions, and thousands are being stripped of citizenship, all under the guise of increasing efficiency. “Smart” borders: Despite the promises of a borderless digital world, the border walls are growing taller—and smarter. Petra Molnar reveals how “smart borders” have become systems of surveillance, exclusion, and violence. From drones patrolling the Mediterranean to AI lie detectors at checkpoints, “smart” border tech is turning humans into “problems to be solved.” Moreover, the right to asylum is being eroded at a moment in which the collapse of ecosystems and wars make the movement of humans inevitable. E-carceration apps: Carceral technologies, often marketed as humane alternatives to incarceration, are extending psychological torture beyond prison walls while stripping individuals of autonomy and dignity. Nedah Nemati and Dasha Pruss explain how ankle monitors and facial recognition systems transform everyday life into a state of constant surveillance and control. Incessant device alerts induce sleep deprivation, and bulky monitors lead to medieval-style public humiliation."https://www.openglobalrights.org/will-human-rights-guide-technological-development/

Will human rights guide technological development?
Here's a 5-part series featuring experts from around the world I curated for #OpenGlobalRights:
(Link in comment)

Networks over organizations: An infrastructural revolution for digital rights The digital rights movement faces a funding crisis, autocratic tech, and fragmentation. The antidote? Radically networking its resources and agenda.

We need an infrastructural revolution for supporting digital rights ↓ www.openglobalrights.org/networks-ove...

Newsletter #21 of the Non-Aligned Tech Movement is out: AI Action Plans, corporate Chin-exit🪂…and non-aligned dreams?
nonalignedtech.net/21-ai-action...

Newsletter #20 of the Non-Aligned Tech Movement is out!

–> Sovereign Tech Shifts 🔀 | South Korea’s AI Play, US-China Chip Tax, & Iran’s GPS Exit?

-> nonalignedtech.net/20-sovereign...
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#NATM #GPS #BeiDou #WhatsApp #China #USA #EU #NonAlignedMovement

'Kill Switch Shield' and the Recurring Erosion of Trust in US Tech | TechPolicy.Press Juan Ortiz Freuler examines how US sanctions reveal new risks to dependencies on US tech and prompt global shifts in internet governance and sovereignty.

If the Snowden revelations sparked concern that the US was leveraging global networks to pull data in for espionage, the current fear is that its control over the networks and today’s digital platforms means it can cut off its supposed adversaries altogether, writes Juan Ortiz Freuler.

NEW: Is NVidia baking kill-switches into AI chips? China thinks so...

"China’s cyber regulator...said US AI experts had “revealed that Nvidia’s computing chips have location tracking and can remotely shut down the technology”.
www.ft.com/content/e490...

'Kill Switch Shield' and the Recurring Erosion of Trust in US Tech | TechPolicy.Press Juan Ortiz Freuler examines how US sanctions reveal new risks to dependencies on US tech and prompt global shifts in internet governance and sovereignty.

If the Snowden revelations sparked concern that the US was leveraging global networks to pull data in for espionage, the current fear is that its control over the networks and today’s digital platforms means it can cut off its supposed adversaries altogether, writes Juan Ortiz Freuler.

'Kill Switch Shield' and the Recurring Erosion of Trust in US Tech | TechPolicy.Press Juan Ortiz Freuler examines how US sanctions reveal new risks to dependencies on US tech and prompt global shifts in internet governance and sovereignty.

If the Snowden revelations sparked concern that the US was leveraging global networks to pull data in for espionage, the current fear is that its control over the networks and today’s digital platforms means it can cut off its supposed adversaries altogether, writes Juan Ortiz Freuler.

🇩🇰🔓🇪🇺 [NEWS: Denmark embraces open source to avoid US companies] “Denmark wants to replace Windows and Office with Linux and LibreOffice The ministry aims to gain greater control over software updates, data storage, and security while avoiding vendor lock-in. This effort is not solely about cutting costs, although reduced licensing fees are expected to yield financial benefits.” https://www.techradar.com/pro/denmark-wants-to-replace-windows-and-office-with-linux-and-libreoffice-as-it-seeks-to-embrace-digital-sovereignty

Meanwhile, in Denmark....
be like Denmark....

Tomorrow at 11 AM, I’ll be presenting my research on how lessons from disarmament processes can help us dismantle propaganda systems and safeguard the internet as a shared space for knowledge. #IPSA2025 – Room 4F 402

🚨 Unilateral US sanctions weaponize tech...and the world is pushing back:

• ICC locked out of email after US sanctions
• UN Rapporteur sanctioned
• Denmark dumps Windows for open-source
...& more...

👇 Full analysis in #NATM Newsletter #19
nonalignedtech.net/19-as-us-hit...

The case for a digital non-aligned movement The world wide web is on a crash course that could lead to permanent fragmentation. Only coordinated international solidarity can stop it.

Originally published 5 years ago. Perhaps even more relevant today as

Governments lean into austerity;
Trump continues to block global tax reform; and
US-China rift continues to escalate, placing +pressure on the peripheries

We need Non-Alignment
#IGF2025

www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconom...

sketch of centralized networks with a point of control and different interventions aimed at solving them. Ref: https://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/infrastructural-power-state-strategies

Globalization & interdependence are increasingly being weaponized to advance narrow geopolitical agendas. From #Hormuz to #Panama; #Starlink to #AppStore

As existing institutions & norms shake, policymakers scramble to:

Identify chokepoints
+Define what
CAN be done
SHOULD be done
#IGF2025

Heading off to #IGF2025 !

Drop a line if you're planning to attend!

Sketch of a flower blooming in between a red and a blue block

NATM Newsletter #18:

🪖 The military turn among US tech corps
🏗️ Harnessing infrastructural power
🇨🇳🇺🇸 China more popular than the US in most countries polled
...and more-> nonalignedtech.net/18-the-milit...

Happening tomorrow (Saturday) 10:30–11:45am @ Mt. Princeton
(Grand 3 - #ICA25 / #ICA2025 ) #MediaInfrastructures

Tomorrow, at a pre-ICA conference, I’ll be presenting ongoing work tracing how Dependency theory is likely going to shape the ways in which South America approaches a Non-Aligned Tech response to geopolitical pressures and the weaponization of the internet

Heading to Denver for #ICA2025 ! On Saturday I will be dissecting how Latin American online newspapers depend on third-party infrastructure and the commercial and geopolitical risks this represents. Manuscript available on my website.

Figure 1 of the paper, showing networks and their chokepoints (like cobwebs with a central location) and strategies governments deploy to deal with the central point

Poster version of the paper

Heading to #GIGARTS2025!
I'll be presenting on #InternetGovernance & #DigitalSovereignty

1)State Strategies to deal w/ Points of Control: policyreview.info/articles/ana...

2)Threats to Informational Sovereignty: Latin American Newspapers papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Full agenda at gig-arts.eu

[New paper] Infrastructural power: State strategies for internet control, By @juanof9.bsky.social
policyreview.info/articles/ana... #undersea #telecom

Infrastructural power: State strategies for internet control This article explores how governments, shifting from an anti-interventionist stance and views of regulatory impossibility, are embracing an infrastructural turn through strategies that include hijacki...

The article is available in open access at policyreview.info/articles/ana... .

With thanks to Francesca Musiani, Nathalia Foditsch, Carolina Batista Israel, Hernan Galperin, Lucía Bosoer, as well as participants of #PTCouncil #FU_Berlin (Scripts) & #SOTN for their valuable feedback & suggestions!

KEY INSIGHT: Points of control move. A dynamic analysis is required

Discussion:

b) Design Choices Shape Governance
Infrastructures promote/enable/afford specific interactions

DISCUSSION:

a) Governance is shifting from consesus-driven and Global fora
to
an order emerging from the synthesis of LOCAL attempts at architectural control

(re: the "infrastructural turn" -> Musiani et al)

6. Governments can enact legislation and regulations to split large points of control to create a smaller, localised node, which is easier to manage and modulate by lo- cal authorities.
Eg. #DataLocalisation:
2000: 80% sampled countries =open data/free flow model
2022: Only 22%

5. Governments can redirect private infrastructural power to serve national or geopolitical interests. The US government’s capture of cable landing points and online platform infrastructure for surveillance shows how a point of control can be secretly exploited for strategic purposes. #NSA #ATT