I've received this email from #Amazon Turkey, announcing a public health recall regarding a wet wipe brand (Deep Fresh). I then searched online to read more about the decision of the public regulator. I discovered that Doğu Gazetesi, a local newspaper in #Erzincan, covered the story 5 days ago. +

A U.S. court has suspended the policy challenged in #CITRvRubio, blocking the gov't from denying or revoking visas of researchers, fact-checkers, and others working to understand the societal impacts of digital technologies. Let's inform all affected scholars. Kudos @thecoalition.bsky.social

Our colleague @erolonderoglu.bsky.social has left @rsf-tr.bsky.social after 30 years. No individual has monitored more journalist trials or tracked press freedom violations in #Turkey as closely as he has. The #journalism community will miss his honesty, sincerity, and dedication to human rights.

What it does: ◆ Autonomous deep research & academic synthesis ◆ Computer use & desktop automation ◆ Writing & executing #Python code with natural language instructions ◆ Local PDF parsing & offline OCR ◆ Self-healing Repo: github.com/ekizilkaya/IntelAgent #OpenSource #LocalLLM #DataPrivacy #AI

I've just open-sourced #IntelAgent, a multi-agent system that I started building some six months ago. It is a free, privacy-first AI assistant for investigative journalists and academic researchers. It has 19 specialized sub-agents. All processing stays on your own hardware by default. 🧵

"It's intentional slop. You need to be so skilled to be this intentional with your slop." Here is the "VibeOS - Fully Hallucinated Operating System," recently presented by programmer @stevesanderson.bsky.social at Microsoft Build 2026 on June 2 in San Francisco:

As part of a new Turkish benchmark for LLMs, we tested 20 models with an evaluation dataset, HCBfT-TR200, developed at Galatasaray University. The results highlight significant performance gaps across the industry. 🧵 1/7

"An automaton is a soulless creature but it may temporarily have a place & a function in the bodies of revolutions. But if an enlightened person becomes an automaton, this is first & foremost a denial of themselves, & their existence within the social structure is now a loss for society as a whole."

The @globalfreemedia.bsky.social published its 2026 Freedom of Information (FoI) Report. Data from more than 400 applications reveals persisting barriers to #FoI transparency in Turkey. Only 32% of requests received a meaningful response containing the information: turkiye.ipi.media/wp-content/u...

Over the last 16 years, EU member states rejected 1M+ #Schengen visa applications from #Turkey. Since application fees are non-refundable, these rejections resulted in a €73M windfall for EU states. This a significant financial penalty for Turkish citizens. 1/5

A year has passed since the abrupt dismissal of Prof. Cemal Kafadar, who I believe is the leading Turkish historian today, from Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. This anniversary highlights how administrative actions undermine #AcademicFreedom. 🧵 1/7

1/2 Despite my affinity for #Italy, I found myself supporting #Bosnia in yesterday's #WorldCup qualifiers. This prompted some self-reflection regarding why we gravitate toward the disadvantaged. Evolutionary #psychology and #neuroscience suggest a strong human predisposition to favor the #underdog.

1/5 🧵 Today I attended Cédric Villani’s lecture at Galatasaray University on "AI and Civil Society." A key takeaway: his deliberate reluctance to use #AI in his own work. He argues that the routine, time-consuming steps of labor are cognitively essential to human #reasoning.

The railway networks of Britain and the Ottoman Turkey at the end of the 19th century

I'm deeply saddened by the passing of Professor İlber Ortaylı, which marks the loss of one of Turkey's most significant historians. His defining trait was not unearthing new documents, but a vast memory that made him an exceptional synthesizer and our foremost history communicator. 1/3 #İlberOrtaylı

#AI industry leaders argue Universal Basic Income, or #UBI, will solve automation-induced #unemployment. To test this premise, I developed a Python/Mesa #agent-based simulator integrating Bourdieu’s capital theory, bid-rent theory, and network homophily. (GitHub link to the model repository below)

Territory claimed. A warning sign on a door at Istanbul University reads: “A #cat has given birth inside. Please do not use lecture hall.” Years ago, I sat in that very classroom as a student, taking the very same Political Organizations course, on a campus accustomed to coexisting with #animals.

I find it hard to believe that it's already been 10 years since the great Umberto Eco passed. He had said that "those who love #books know that a book is anything but a commodity."

"We knew that international #law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim," says Canadian PM Mark Carney in one of the most significant speeches by a head of government in the 21st century.

The Observer is asking readers to select the top books of the 21st century so far. It is a tough list to narrow down, but I’ve locked in my three votes: 1. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐦 by Shoshana Zuboff 2. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡 by Sunil Amrith 3. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 by Michael Lewis

RAM sticks I bought for $160 last year are now listed at $629. It’s unbelievable that cartel-like price-fixing by companies like #Nvidia and #Micron is now treated as normal, 20 years after the DRAM #antitrust cases. They’re gutting the consumer market to feed #AI data centers. The EU needs to act.

I wrote a discussion paper for @harvard-carr-ryan.bsky.social as part of our #Technology and #HumanRights fellowship on #SurveillanceCapitalism. It examines how authoritarian states and #BigTech create a system of "dual domination" in fragile democracies: www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr...

4️⃣ Why this matters: 🔹 Planners: Reveals stratified accessibility. 🔹 Tech firms: Shows need for more inclusive, serendipity-driven maps. 🔹 Universities: Helps understand international student mobility & belonging.

3️⃣ Key findings: 💡 Algorithmic Urbanism – Navigation apps reinforce centrality, making peripheries digitally invisible. 💡 Mobility Bubble – Metro networks compress the city into a 50 km² triangle of accessibility. 💡 Bosphorus = Super-Element – The city’s key symbolic and orientational anchor.

2️⃣ We analyzed: • 265M transit journeys • Surveys with 208 international students • Gamified digital diaries and walk & talk sessions

1️⃣ Our new paper “𝐁𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐮𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫-𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭” is out in 𝘔𝘰𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴! 🚀 A 2-year mixed-method study on how locative algorithms and transit systems shape how international students see and move through Istanbul. 🔗 www.tandfonline.com/eprint/QBQ8I... #UrbanStudies #BigData #Istanbul #Lynch #Lefebvre

We had a great discussion with @courtneyr.bsky.social on "Big Tech + Big Brother: Resisting ‘techno-fascism’ and the surveillance state" at the @globalfreemedia.bsky.social World Congress & Media Innovation Festival in Vienna on October 25. Credit © Ronja Koskinen / IPI

Thousands gathered in Tel Aviv last night to mark 30 years since the assassination of Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin. Valerie Hamaty performed Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah in Arabic as tens of thousands listened in awe. Leaders like #Rabin are deeply missed in today’s divided world. #Peace #Gaza #Democracy

Yesterday in #Vienna's Auer Welsbach Park, an oak tree full of animals reminded me of Rumi's parable of the caged parrot. He longed for his free friends in India, imagining them able to fly to the grass or sit on the trees as they wish. That ability to #choose, for him, was #freedom.

I'll be in Vienna next week for the 2025 @globalfreemedia.bsky.social World Congress & #Media #Innovation Festival. Join our panel with Courtney Radsch, "Big Tech + Big Brother: Resisting ‘techno-fascism’ and the surveillance state", on Oct. 25 at 12:00 CEST. ipi.media/ipi-world-co... #IPIWoCo25