Shaping the future at Building Digital Platform Observatories

Professor Liz McFall, presenting at Building Digital Platform Observatories (Photo credit: Jess White) How can observatories help researchers and wider civil society better understand, scrutinise, and hold digital platforms to account? This was the question at the heart of Building Digital Platform Observatories, a one-day event hosted by the Centre for Digital Cultures and Societies […]

Online ads are becoming harder to spot – but we’re not powerless to stop it

Instagram and Facebook recently eliminated their familiar “sponsored” labels in favour of smaller “ad” markers.

It may look like a minor interface tweak, but it signals something larger: the steady erosion of clear boundaries between advertising, entertainment, recommendation, and ordinary social interaction.