We last looked at online ad spending by MEP candidates two weeks ago. Since then campaigning has ramped up, and we are starting to see patterns emerging that tell us about party strategies. It also sparks lots of questions about the role of money in Irish elections, something we ordinarily
I was on RTE’s Prime Time last night to talk about recent violent attacks against canvassers and candidates, and if this could be connected with heated policy debates on migration. My main point was that violence and criminality are not political speech; they are political violence, tactics to silence
Welcome new subscribers, who maybe heard about The Briefing on RTE's This Week, or the For Tech's Sake podcast. More about the newsletter here. I'm covering 3 things in 700 words this week, so lets dive in 1) European Parliament election ads Nomination for
The Local and European Elections are on June 7th, and until then The Briefing will be bringing you a weekly Political Ad Monitor of who is spending what online, and what we might gleam from this. Do reach out with any thoughts, questions or ideas that you have for this
Europe
Europe is likely to say "non" to the idea of "Pay or Okay". As regulators set the bar for consent higher when the social cost of opting out is also high, are the ideas of privacy and consent merging?
It is nine weeks today to the local and European Parliament elections. A lot has changed in the 4+ years since we last had a chance to pick any of our representatives; Covid, war in Europe, Brexit, the riots, etc. etc. etc. So what should we be looking out for,
A.I.
I’m in Brussels this week, and our 13 MEPs are up the road in Strasbourg voting on Europe’s first substantive piece of regulation on Artificial Intelligence, the A.I. Act. The regulation passed in a landslide - 523 of Europe’s elected reps voted for the regulation, or
Welcome to Issue One of The Briefing! I said I'd be brief, so I'm diving right in. We are voting in 2 referendums next week, so let's kick off with a snapshot of Irish online political ads. Energy for the referendum both off and
Thank you for signing up! The Briefing will formally launch next week; right now I am planning out the first few posts, starting to rope in a few friends to help, and getting some design work done. BUT - while you are here, one thing that is on my mind
Thank you for asking! This is a newsletter about technology and politics, through an Irish lens. It is about two big theses of how tech and politics come together on this beautiful island of ours: 1. That technology is having a profound effect on our democracy, and this is worth