Irish Politics
Campaigning likes it 1999 (when it feels like its 1938)
How do you run a political campaign without digital ads? I asked two of our best campaign gurus what we might expect.
elections
Seven weeks to polling day: what The Briefing will cover
We finally have a date: October 24th. Between now and then, The Briefing will run twice weekly: short, data-led analysis of campaign dynamics, plus curated reads on elections and tech policy. No horse race, just what the campaign reveals about our democracy, our economy, and our digital future.
Europe
A moment of truth for Europe's tolerance of Ireland's tech ties
All going well, I will be on The Tonight Show this evening to talk tech and tariffs. Sharing my thoughts here; please do reply / email me with your own if you think I'm wide of the mark. The tariff triple threat The Irish state faces at least three
A.I.
Are politicians' AI dreams making them the electric sheep?
What Keir Starmer’s recent policy announcements show about his hopes and fears for AI, and the potential folly of his FOMO
Europe
Audio: Ireland in the queasy middle
Mark Zuckerberg's comments on Europe yesterday seem to have gone under the radar, drowned out by his announcement of a radical shift in content moderation at Meta. But they really are striking. He said that Meta would: “work with President Trump to push back on governments around the
elections
Shuttershock: Ad spend roundup, plus last minute shenanigans
Happy Voting Eve. A last pre-election round up, bringing together as best anyone can spend data from the Meta and Google ad archives. Plus, a collection of election news covered by other people
Political Ads
Investigation: TikTok is failing to comply with EU rules on political ads
Our investigation shows multiple candidates are running ads on TikTok for Ireland's election, despite the company's claims to block political ads. TikTok is both not enforcing its own policies, AND, failing to comply with EU rules.
Europe
"Pay or Okay" not here to stay
Europe is likely to say "non" to the idea of "Pay or Okay". As regulators set the bar for consent higher when the social cost of opting out is also high, are the ideas of privacy and consent merging?
A.I.
Here's how our MEPs voted on Europe's new A.I. rules
I’m in Brussels this week, and our 13 MEPs are up the road in Strasbourg voting on Europe’s first substantive piece of regulation on Artificial Intelligence, the A.I. Act. The regulation passed in a landslide - 523 of Europe’s elected reps voted for the regulation, or