In The Loop February 2026

6 minutes read | First published: February 24, 2026

🛡️🖋️ Staying safe online amid rising censorship: resources, guides, kits & more

In a world facing growing internet controls, online censorship, and violations of freedom of speech that threaten democracies, conversations about how to respond are more urgent than ever. On March 12, the world marks the Day Against Cyber Censorship, reaffirming the importance of a global internet that remains free and accessible to all. The internet has transformed how we find and share information, enabling unprecedented collaboration among activists, journalists, artists, technologists, and civil society to uncover hidden truths and expose corruption.

Yet this work comes with serious risks: from information overload and disappearing data to surveillance, censorship, and cyber attacks. Tactical Tech’s Exposing The Invisible project supports those navigating today’s information landscape with resources such as guides, toolkits, films, interviews, podcasts, and training materials co-created by experienced experts from the community. These resources are designed to build the capacity of those working in the information landscape, while mitigating the risks and prioritising safety practices.

Explore Exposing The Invisible and discover:

Image of person reading the Exposing The Invisible Kit

🌱📱DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AND CLIMATE ACTION

📽️ Watch Tactical Tech co-founder Stephanie Hankey share tactics on how to counter climate disinformation

Scroll, stop, verify. How the EU is bringing climate facts forward? Stephanie Hankey, co-founder of Tactical Tech, joined Jeremy Herry from the European Commission, and Ana Romero Vicente from the EU DisinfoLab to discuss how the European Union is tackling climate disinformation, on a webinar hosted by the EU DisinfoLab. She shared some powerful, solutions-oriented insights from Tactical Tech's latest publication, The RePlaybook, A Field Guide to the Climate and Information Crisis, which offers climate actors in any sector with critical tactics to navigate the climate information disorder we're living through.

Check out the full webinar here

Curious about tools and tactics to counter climate misinformation? Head on over to our website and grab a copy of The RePlaybook!

👩‍💻💭TECH, MEDIA AND INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM: CHECK OUT OUR NEW LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

📢 Apply to this paid collaboration opportunity to develop learning resources and training for investigators. Deadline: 20 March 2026

Calling all experienced investigators and media professionals! Tactical Tech is seeking collaborators to co-produce learning resources (investigation guides, method tutorials, workshop curricula) and to conduct training for journalists and media on a range of investigation methods and topics, between March and October 2026. Collaborators must have proven investigative journalism or socially engaged research experience, OSINT expertise and demonstrated writing and training skills in the following thematic areas:

💡AI and us — AI systems; tech innovation politics and powers in the tech sector; tech finances and connections across various sectors; global politics behind AI; emotional dependency on Gen AI;
💡Climate and information crisis — overlap between information disorder and climate crisis in the context of digital influence and climate action; tech innovation and climate friction;
💡Growing up with tech — young people caught in the machine; business models monetizing youth’s tech addictions, and related power struggles;
💡Mapping the depths, the depth of mapping — who, why and how is mapping the bottom of the seas and oceans? Who has the data?

Apply now! Details here.

📡👥YOUTH AND TECH

🤝Discover Mycelia mentorship, a mentorship programme for young activists and cultural practitioners

As a part of the Critical Change Lab, European Alternatives launched an open call for young activists and cultural practitioners (under 25) who are already (or not yet) navigating political, artistic, and social engagement, and who are looking for time, space, and dialogue rather than ready-made answers. Interested? Sign up to join this conversations:

ℹ️ Human rights, Social change with Nadia Della Gasperina. 26 February 2026, 5-6pm (CET)
ℹ️ Social rights and justice. Giving young people a voice in foreign policy with Maximilian Rau. 27 February 2026, 5-6pm (CET)
ℹ️ Climate, Social rights and justice, End war in Gaza or Ukraine or other, Housing with Jasper Schut. 27 February 2026, 5-6pm (CET)
ℹ️ Climate, Social rights and justice with Massimo Rotunno. 27 February 2026, 6-7pm (CET)

📚📱WHAT ARE WE READING?

[🎤PODCAST] "How We Got Here: The Rise, Backlash and Future Of Counter-Disinformation" with Eliot Higgins and Dr Claire Wardle. Go to Stage Talks with Bellingcat
[[📰ARTICLE] Moltbook was peak AI theater - The viral social network for bots reveals as much about our own current mania for AI as it does about the future of agents. Go to MIT Technology Review
[📰ARTICLE] What AI “remembers” about you is privacy’s next frontier. Go to MIT Technology Review
[📰ARTICLE] Death isn't the end: Meta patented an AI that lets you keep posting from beyond the grave. Go to Business Insider
[🔍REPORT] Not Safe for Politics - Cellebrite Used on Kenyan Activist and Politician Boniface Mwangi. Go to The Citizen Lab
[🔍RESEARCH] European children's use and understanding of generative AI: EU Kids Online 2026. Go to LSE
[✍️ESSAY] Books and screens - Your inability to focus isn’t a failing. It’s a design problem, and the answer isn’t getting rid of our screen time. Go to Aeon
[📰ARTICLE] Can social media age verification really protect kids? - As countries start enforcing new age-limit laws, platforms like Roblox use facial technology — but critics warn of privacy leaks and surveillance. Go to Rest of World
[🔧GUIDE] How to Organize Safely in the Age of Surveillance. Go to Wired
[📰ARTICLE] The market for spyware is growing – and it’s being used differently against women. Go to Fuller
[📻RADIO] Zamaneh Media secured a shortwave frequency to broadcast to Iranian audiences following one of the longest and most severe internet blackouts on record in the country. Go to Radio Zamaneh