Technology | The Walrus

A checkered photo of a ventilator alternating with olive green squares.

COVID-19 / Technology

Hacking COVID-19

October 7, 2020October 7, 2020 - by Jonathan Garfinkel

Amateur inventors and app developers may be key to solving the pandemic’s many problems

Technology

The Rise of Digital Despots

September 23, 2020September 23, 2020 - by Ronald J. Deibert

How Facebook and Twitter became the favourite tools of dictators around the world

Illustration of an internet forum open on a computer desktop. Part of the forum is pulled down in the style of a window blind. Behind it is a red room filled with silhouettes of men talking to one another.

September/October 2020 / Technology

The Making of an Incel

September 2, 2020September 2, 2020 - by Katherine Laidlaw

How misogyny in online forums turns into real-life violence

Illustration of an interconnected network of people, separated by a blazing yellow network that resembles a cable and separates the people into different boxes. The colour scheme is green, orange, and purple––a conceptual illustration of the internet network.

Technology

This Is the Internet We Were Promised

April 29, 2020May 1, 2020 - by Angela Misri

The World Wide Web hasn’t felt this supportive since it was invented. Why did it take a pandemic?

Illustration of a ghostly figure walking off a white grid and into darkness. Behind the person is a ghostly collage of all the data they've left behind––photos, passwords, location pins, emails, and text messages. The background is midnight blue.

May 2020 / Technology

The Digital Afterlife

April 8, 2020April 11, 2020 - by Brian J. Barth

The ongoing legal battle to decide who owns our data after we die

The head of Jeff Bezos, a bald white man, smiles toward the screen while surrounded by shiny piles of gold.

Business / Technology

The Billionaire Who Took Over the Internet

February 20, 2020June 12, 2020 - by Rob Larson

Tax exemptions, labour practices, and explosive growth: how Jeff Bezos made Amazon one of the world’s biggest companies

January/February 2020 / Technology

How YouTube Gives Us Love without the Messiness

January 2, 2020August 4, 2020 - by Michael Harris

Meet the online community providing millions with illusions of intimacy

Technology

The Decade in Science and Technology

December 26, 2019February 21, 2020 - by The Walrus Staff

From surveillance capitalism to Russian hacking, these are the science and tech conversations that helped define Canada

UK information commissioner Elizabeth Denham

May 2019 / Technology

Is Elizabeth Denham the Only Person Powerful Enough to Take on Facebook?

April 18, 2019March 27, 2020 - by Leah McLaren

How a privacy regulator from British Columbia forced Silicon Valley to change the way it uses your personal data

Man peering inside bedroom as electronics resonate

May 2019 / Society / Technology

Are You Afraid of Google? BlackBerry Cofounder Jim Balsillie Says You Should Be

April 10, 2019March 27, 2020 - by Brian J. Barth

The entrepreneur who made billions putting BlackBerrys into pockets is now sounding the alarm about Big Tech’s creep toward surveillance capitalism