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On 15 June 2026, the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), as part of its 25th Anniversary lecture series, presented Dr danah boyd speaking on the topic ‘Dreaming of a Networked World: Reflections on the Political Economy of the Internet‘.
It’s easy to scoff at Facebook’s old mission to “connect the world,” but the stark reality is that many of us genuinely believed that the internet could be used to empower everyday people in new and uplifting ways. We were hopeful. We were also naive. We were focused on what youth and hobbyists and activists were doing with the new tool at their disposal. We weren’t attending to how the rich and powerful were limiting which futures were possible in order to ensure that their desired futures were inevitable.
Sociotechnical futures are never inevitable. Many people have leveraged the internet to do things that strengthen humanity. And yet, there is little doubt that parts of the internet are now a toxic dumpster fire. As we watch a new and powerful technology emerge and gobble up the internet, we are once again forced to reckon with how political and economic forces interact to configure futures. What AI will become is still unknown, but whether it is primarily a benevolent or malignant force depends on choices we make today.
In her talk, danah weaves through Internet pasts, presents, and futures to shed light on the good, bad, and ugly so that we may leverage our knowledge of what happened in pursuit of a more just and generous future.
SPEAKER
Dr danah boyd – Geri Gay Professor of Communication, Cornell University
MODERATOR
Dr Bernie Hogan – Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow, and Director of Graduate Studies, OII
#OII25 #InternetGovernance #AI #PoliticalEconomy
