Writing

I write about AI governance, platform accountability, digital rights, and public-interest technology.

My work is interested in a simple question: how do we turn digital harm from something people experience privately into something institutions can measure, contest, and respond to publicly? These essays sit between policy analysis and technical practice — some are critiques of current governance frameworks, some are notes from building CivicSec Lab. All of them are concerned with evidence, power, and accountability.

Builder's NotePublic-Interest Technology

From Content Moderation to Civic Risk Intelligence

Content moderation treats online harm as a platform enforcement problem. Civic risk intelligence treats it as a governance problem: evidence, context, escalation, response, and accountability.

CivicSec Labplatform accountability

9 min read

Research EssayPlatform Accountability

Why Platform Accountability Fails in Fragile Democracies

Platform accountability fails in fragile democracies because the institutions that must pressure platforms are often weak, captured, under-resourced, or themselves complicit in digital repression.

platform accountabilityelections

11 min read

Research EssayAI Governance

The Case for Contextual AI Auditing in South Asia

AI auditing cannot be universal if the harms are contextual. South Asia needs auditing methods that account for language, political repression, social hierarchy, religious vulnerability, gendered abuse, and weak remedy systems.

AI auditingSouth Asia

11 min read

Policy CritiqueDigital Rights

Internet Shutdowns Are Bad Governance Disguised as Security

Internet shutdowns are often justified as security measures. In practice, they are admissions of governance failure: states that cannot manage risk choose to blind the public instead.

internet shutdownsdigital rights

9 min read

Policy CritiquePlatform Accountability

The EU Digital Services Act Is the Best Experiment We Have, But Transparency Is Not Accountability

The DSA is the most serious platform governance experiment currently underway, but it will fail its democratic promise if transparency becomes the ceiling rather than the floor.

Digital Services ActEU

10 min read

Policy CritiqueDigital Rights

The UK Online Safety Act: Safety Without Due Process Can Become Private Censorship Infrastructure

The UK Online Safety Act tackles real harms, but its long-term legitimacy depends on whether safety duties are matched by due process, transparency, and safeguards against over-removal.

Online Safety ActOfcom

9 min read

Policy CritiqueDigital Rights

Pakistan’s PECA 2025 Problem: When “Fake News” Law Becomes State Capacity for Silence

Pakistan’s PECA amendments show how vague anti-disinformation law can become a tool for speech control when institutions lack independence, safeguards, and rights-based limits.

PakistanPECA

9 min read

Policy CritiqueAI Governance

The Global Digital Compact Has the Right Vocabulary. It Still Needs Teeth.

The Global Digital Compact recognises the right themes: inclusion, human rights, AI governance, digital public goods, and cooperation. Its weakness is enforcement: global principles still need accountability mechanisms.

Global Digital CompactUnited Nations

9 min read

Research EssayAI Governance

Human-in-the-Loop Risk Scoring Is Not a Feature. It Is a Governance Position.

Human-in-the-loop design is often treated as a UX feature. In risk systems, it should be treated as a governance commitment: the system supports judgment, but does not replace responsibility.

human-in-the-looprisk scoring

10 min read

Research EssayAI Governance

AI Incident Governance Needs a Memory, Not Another Set of Principles

AI governance has no shortage of principles. What it lacks is institutional memory: shared incident records, severity thresholds, disclosure norms, and learning loops.

AI incidentsAI safety

9 min read

10 essays