The 25th anniversary meeting of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation in the Kyrgyz capital may offer a glimmer of hope that international relations do not need to be defined by endless confrontation, writes KENNY COYLE
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The ‘great hack’ – data-scraping for the far right
In our condemnation of Cambridge Analytica we must not rebuke its methods more than its motives, explain ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and JOEL HELLEWELL
The artist, who has just died, is embedded in the subconscious of the Palestinian people
The five young men killed in the A66 crash were responsible for a devastating tragedy — but the crash should force us to ask difficult questions about wider society, argues RENATA MEDEIROS MIRRA
Britain funds the policing of black culture 16 times better than the culture itself. The Diamond Jubilee is the moment to end that, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
Despite Andy Burnham’s declaration defending the continued partition of the island, all major international and internal trends are converging to make Irish reunification inevitable
Humans are part of the ‘animal kingdom’ – and of nature in general – but also distinct from it and labour (work) is part of what makes us unique, declared Engels. His insights 150 years ago into how our species came to be and how we differ from the rest of nature, are as important today as they were then, says the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People’s Rights general secretary GAWAIN LITTLE discusses the impact of the US-Israeli war on the Iranian people and economy
THE Cambridge Analytica scandal blended together many modern worries: powerful computing technology, oversharing on social media, whistleblowers and shadowy figures undermining democracy around the world.
How information was harvested on you and your friends, perhaps even without your consent, before being used to influence the outcomes of elections was a huge story in the media. It was summarised recently in the documentary on the subject, The Great Hack.
Yet the media’s focus (which is replicated in the documentary) on the supposed uniqueness of the technology deployed by Cambridge Analytica means that it loses sight of the fact that the capitalist class has always had various means of disseminating propaganda to influence elections, of which this is merely the next generation.
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