Tactical Tech

In The Loop March 2025

14 minutes read | First published: March 26, 2025
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💡🤖💪 AI & us, not over us: How to Navigate AI Responsibly? Demystify, confront, and navigate AI with us.

AI & Us, Not AI Over Us. Get ready to navigate AI critically and responsibly while staying safe.💡

On the one hand, AI can automate processes, increase efficiency, and improve decision-making. But its use has also been shown to deepen social inequalities, reinforce prejudices, and even threaten democratic institutions. Understanding what AI is, how it works, and its power structures, limitations, and impacts will help individuals, communities, and organizations navigate AI and AI-powered tools responsibly.
In his latest article, Hello AI, Tactical Tech’s Executive Director, Marek Tuszynski, explores these issues and highlights why it’s crucial to ask: What power does AI grant its owners? And what does this mean for democracy itself? Read the full article here.
Quote by Marek Tuszynski from his article Hello AI: As long as AI remains a black box controlled by its creators, as long as one side owns the infrastructure and holds all the power, we cannot see these developments as democracy-enhancing. the conversation needs to shift to a deeper question: What power does AI give to its owners and investors? More critically, what are the implications of this power imbalance for democratic institutions, processes, and the future of democracy itself?
Quote by Marek Tuszynski from his article Hello AI

🔍 1. Demystify AI: AI is not magic! It is a machine created by humans.

AI is not magic; it’s a set of human-designed tools that recognize patterns and solve problems based on vast amounts of data at a speed and scale beyond human capability. But like any tool, AI is designed and programmed by humans, which is why AI has inherent limitations and biases. Understanding that AI tools are automated systems with human-influenced constraints can give you more confidence to navigate this landscape. Tactical Tech’s resources to demystify AI:
Exhibition participant interacting with the posters
A visitor at the exhibition interacting with the engaging poster.

💥 2. Confront AI: Recognize its impact on our lives and why it matters.

How does AI impact our lives and our world? Why does it matter? AI is deeply embedded in our daily lives, from virtual assistants to critical systems like healthcare, education, and law enforcement. While it enhances efficiency, it also amplifies risks: spreading misinformation, reinforcing biases, and impacting privacy and democracy. It’s crucial to look beyond its ‘cool’ factor and recognize its benefits and its potential harms. Tactical Tech’s resources to confront AI:
A visitor of Supercharged by AI exhibition taking picture of the poster
A visitor of Supercharged by AI exhibition taking picture of the poster.

🚢 3. Navigate AI: Equip yourselves with tools and knowledge to engage responsibly.

After understanding what AI is, how it works, and its limitations and impacts, we can critically evaluate AI tools by weighing their potential benefits and risks. Do I really need to use AI? Are there alternative solutions? In what situations and contexts should AI be used, and how? Taking preventive digital safety measures and adopting strategies for critical engagement with AI-powered tools allows you to make informed choices and develop your own well-founded opinions. Tactical Tech’s Resources to Navigate AI:
Data Detox Bar
Data Detox Bar.

Let's work together!

Are you looking for activations, toolkits, workshops, and masterclasses on AI—what it is and how to use AI-powered tools safely and responsibly? We've got you covered. Contact us at partnership@tacticaltech.org

Digital Influence & Climate Crises 🌳

🌱 How does digital influence shape and slow down climate action—and what can we do about it?

Misinformation, corporate influence, attacks on activists, and narratives that hinder climate action were among the 10 key discussions at the Digital Influence and Climate Friction Gathering 2024. Organized by Tactical Tech’s Influence Industry project with support from the Swedish Postcode Lottery Foundation, the event brought together 35 researchers, journalists, artists, community organizers, and communications professionals from 14 countries. Together, they examined how digital influence tactics are used to delay climate action and explored cross-disciplinary collaboration strategies to counter them. Read the full recap about the event

Digital Influence & democracy 🗳️

📲 Digital influence trends: Lessons from the Berlin Campaign Conference 2024

From TikTok’s role in youth engagement to AI-generated deepfakes, digital technologies played a key role in 2024, the election super-year. Tactical Tech’s Influence Industry Project takes you inside the Berlin Campaign Conference 2024, where center-right campaigners gathered to share tips, skills, and contacts, focusing on digital tools and strategies to influence voter opinions and election outcomes. This article analyzes the conference’s content alongside the 2024 elections worldwide, reflecting on key campaigning trends. Read the full analysis from the conference.

Tech, media, and investigative journalism 🔍

✔️ Tips for investigating big tech platform [in]transparency

Big Tech has long made promises about transparency but often failed to deliver. While the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) is a step forward in demanding more platform openness, many transparency gaps remain. In the new guide “What can the Digital Services Act do for you? Tips for navigating platform [in]transparency”, John Albert outlines how journalists, researchers, digital rights advocates, and everyday users can make use of DSA tools to push for greater accountability. Read full guide here
List for transparency tools under the DSA
Transparency tools under the DSA

Tech, gender & women 💪

March, the month when we commemorate women's fight for equality, is a crucial time to raise awareness of the many ways technology impacts our lives through a gendered lens, from AI-driven harassment to gender-based online violence and the tracking of reproductive health data. Here is a selection of Tactical Tech’s resources on tech, gender, and women:.
Poster about the resources by Tactical Tech on gender and tech.
  • ✅ [Data Detox guide] The elephant in the room: AI and online harassment. How AI is being used to supercharge harassment, especially non-consensual intimate imagery NCII. You’ll learn more about what’s happening and learn how to regain control.Explore
  • ✅ [Data Detox guide] Cycles of influence: decide who knows your body. Explore ways to track your cycle, and you may even discover a method that works best for you and how to do it as safely as possible. Explore
  • ✅ [Article] None of their business: how to choose a private cycle-tracking app. What are tracking apps, and what can you do to use them while keeping your data as safe as possible? Explore
  • ✅ [The Glass Room Poster] The Many Hands on Your Intimate Data. Lots of mobile phone apps are designed to support women's sexual and reproductive health... but what else do they know about you? Explore
  • ✅ [Data Detox Kit Article] Cycles of control: private companies and reproductive health surveillance. Data about reproduction, and especially menstruation, is being tracked and gathered by many different companies, without people’s awareness of the extent or the financial value this data has, nor the possible consequences for them individually or the collective harm. Explore
  • ✅ [Digital Enquirer Kit webinar] Fighting Gender-Based Online Violence. These sessions offer an introduction to the concept of gender-based online violence and explore five types of gendered attacks used to limit confidentiality, integrity, and access to information by women and sexual and gendered minorities. Explore Part 1, Explore Part 2.
  • ✅ [Digital Enquirer Kit webinar] Digital Security Risk Assessment. This session will offer a step-by-step tutorial on how to produce a digital security risk assessment from a holistic perspective. It will focus on identifying threats, vulnerabilities, and measuring impact, with an emphasis on developing resilience and recovery strategies after an attack. Explore.

Media Literacy for all 💬

✨ Tactical Tech's Glass Room: Misinformation Edition is now available in Latvian

Our educational activation, The Glass Room: Misinformation Edition, which explores how misinformation works and spreads, will soon be available in Latvian, thanks to our partner Goethe-Institut Latvia, bringing the total number of languages to 30. Find out more about this activation. Want to host The Glass Room: Misinformation Edition at your next event, festival, or conference? Contact us at partnership@tacticaltech.org

🤖 "What's the Buzz with AI" our latest toolkit on AI is available in 9 languages

Ready to learn the basics of AI? Our printable digital literacy toolkit, "What's the Buzz with AI?", which covers what AI is, how it works, and its impacts—along with practical tips for navigating them—has been translated into nine new languages, including Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Ukrainian, and Portuguese. This was made possible by library associations and networks from the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the support of the European Media & Information Fund. Want to get access to this toolkit on AI? Contact us at partnership@tacticaltech.org

OPEN CALLS 🔊

Call for Applicants: Funded Participation in a Training on “AI for Non-profit Newsrooms”. July 7-8, 2025. Berlin, Germany. Deadline 25 May 2025.

Tactical Tech is providing travel and subsistence support of a maximum of 1000 Euro per person to Europe-based journalists and other media professionals from independent newsrooms and non-profit media interested in enhancing their skills, knowledge, and ethical considerations for leveraging AI in journalism. Selected applicants will travel to attend an in-person training on “AI for Non-Profit Newsrooms” in Berlin, Germany, on 7-8 July 2025. Application deadline: 25 May 2025, midnight CEST (Central European Summer Time). Read more for event details and application criteria

EVENTS THAT EMPOWER YOU 💡

✔️ The Killings They Tweeted: Screening and Q&A with Airwars and Tactical Tech. March 28, 2025. Publix, Berlin.

How can publicly available military footage be used to uncover the human cost of conflict? Join us for a discussion with Rowena De Silva from Airwars, a civilian harm watchdog, as we explore their latest investigation—the largest public analysis of Israeli military strike footage to date. In collaboration with Sky News, Airwars examined hundreds of IDF videos from the first month of the war in Gaza, cross-referencing 17 strikes with verified geo-coordinates where civilian casualties had already been documented. The session includes a screening of key footage, followed by a Q&A with Rowena De Silva, who will unpack Airwars’ methodology, the challenges in analyzing military footage, and the broader impact of their work. Register here.
Poster of The Killings They Tweeted event
Poster of The Killings They Tweeted event.

✔️ Information sickness Talk with Marek Tuszynski, co-founder of Tactical Tech. March 28, 2025. Milan, Italy.

In this talk, Marek Tuszynski examines technology's hidden political and societal impacts, particularly AI. While acknowledging its benefits, he critiques its darker aspects, such as hyper-profiling, targeted manipulation, and the erosion of critical thinking through "synthetic trust." He challenges techno-solutionist narratives that weaken democratic trust and focuses on practical insights into digital security and protection. More information.

✔️ Dive into Quantum Computing – A Hands-on Workshop for Teens in Berlin! Book a private workshop for school or youth group now.

We've all heard about quantum computing in the movies, but do we really know what the buzz is about? In this Tactical Tech and LAS Art Foundation workshop, young people will explore quantum computing through interactive exercises and immersive experiences, connecting it with Laure Prouvost’s artwork WE FELT A STAR DYING. Workshops are available in German or English. More info here. Want to bring this workshop to your school or youth group? Contact LAS Art Foundation to book a session at visit@las-art.foundation!
Poster about the workshop on Quantum Computing by LAS Art Foundation and Tactical Tech

✔️ Palestine Digital Activism Forum 2025. May 20-21, 2025. Online

PDAF provides a space to exchange knowledge, build strategies, and foster global solidarity among activists, organizations, and movements. Tactical Tech will contribute to these conversations, sharing insights on navigating technology's socio-political and environmental impacts. More information.

OUR CREATIVE EXHIBITIONS AROUND THE WORLD 🖼️

➡️ The Glass Room in the Fake News exhibition. El valor de la información. Until July 31, 2025. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Tactical Tech's The Glass Room: Misinformation Edition is featured in the Fake News exhibition, showcasing artworks that explore various types of misinformation and ways to combat its spread. Find out more

➡️ The Glass Room at Weldon Library, Western University. Until April 1, 2025. London, Ontario.

What happens when people rely on social media for information? How do they know if a picture is truthful? What data is being collected about them—and why? These are questions explored in this exhibition organized by the Starling Centre, which has partnered with the Weldon Library at Western. Find out more.

TACTICAL TECH: TRAINING AND ADVANCING THE SKILLS OF COMMUNITIES WORLDWIDE 🧠

Tactical Tech's team led conversations, hosted workshops and sessions, and participated in various events to advance knowledge and build the capacities of individuals and communities to address technology-related challenges. Here’s a recap of last month’s events:
➡️ Tactical Tech at the Voices-European Festival of Journalism and Media Literacy 2025. The Voices Festival brought together citizens, journalists, and media professionals to highlight journalism’s role in informed public discourse and encourage critical thinking about disinformation. Our Executive Director, Marek Tuszynski, participated in the panel “Media Information Literacy: What Does It Take to Succeed Against All Odds?”, sharing strategies to combat misinformation and support resilient communities. We’re proud to announce that our educational experience, The Glass Room: Misinformation Edition, won the Voices - European Festival of Journalism and Media Literacy Award for Media Literacy in the Empowering Citizens' Engagement and Participation category. We also received an Honorary Mention for the Data Detox Kit. More information.
Picture of Marek Tuszynski in Voices Festival as a representative of Tactical Tech
➡️ Our Executive Director, Marek Tuszynski, participated in the first phase of the "Solitude: Loneliness and Freedom" art project by the Goethe Institut Korea that delves into the concepts of loneliness and voluntary solitude through various artistic expressions. 30 curators, artists, and project partners from Kyoto, Taipei, Tokyo, Berlin, Beijing, Bishkek, Shanghai, Seoul, Almaty, Ulaanbaatar, Tashkent, and Hong Kong participated in a five-day workshop in Seoul.
➡️ Corporate transparency & open data: Does reporting support accountability? Laura Ranca from Tactical Tech joined a panel discussion at Wikirate’s Berlin office to explore the evolving role of open data in ESG advocacy and corporate accountability. The session with representatives from Business & Human Rights Resource Centre and World Benchmarking Alliance focused on how data informs their work, the challenges of accessing corporate transparency information, and the impact of potential rollbacks to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
➡️ Shaping tomorrow: Collective efforts for the future of European journalism Conference. On March 12, Tactical Tech team members Laura Ranca, Amber Macintyre, and Ana Maria Salinas participated in the “Journalism Circles: Speed Networking with Journalism Experts” session at Shaping Tomorrow: Collective Efforts for the Future of European Journalism—a conference organized by the European Press Prize and Publix in Berlin. Their session focused on investigative and collaborative journalism practices as part of a day-long program exploring the challenges and opportunities facing journalists across Europe.
Tactical Techs Ana Maria Salinas moderating a speed networking session on collaborative journalism

WHAT WE ARE READING 🔍

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