Stefan Mey is an IT journalist. He wrote the tone-setting Darknet book in the German-speaking world, which is now also available in Hungarian and South Korean. As a digital expert, he has given more than 50 interviews, for television, radio, print, online and in podcasts.
Since the beginning of his journalism career, he has critically examined the power relations in the digital world: who calls the shots economically, why, and what are the consequences? He not only describes the problems of the digital world, but also has answers at the ready. In lectures and workshops on “digital self-defence”, he explains how one can use simple tricks and programmes to undermine surveillance, data collection and internet censorship abroad and make cyberattacks more difficult. Mey has been observing the big IT corporations for years. But he is also an intimate connoisseur of the non-commercial “digital counter-world” of projects like Wikipedia, Firefox or WikiLeaks, which oppose the Silicon Valley logic of Google, Facebook & Co. with a free and non-commercial internet.
With razor-sharp analyses, clear language and catchy images, Stefan Mey also picks up people without previous IT knowledge. He makes them fit to understand the digital world. When talking about the digital world, he keeps it very much in line with the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer:
“Use common words and say uncommon things.”
Stefan Mey Lecture topics
- 15 years of Bitcoin: the wondrous world of cryptocurrencies
Everyone knows Bitcoin, with a total value of more than one trillion euros. The first units of this independent hacker currency were created 15 years ago – at the beginning of 2009 – with the aim of creating a freer and fairer monetary system. The many other cryptocurrencies that now exist are barely known beyond technical niches and yet are also gigantic in size. What do all these ‘coins’ called Ether, XRP, DogeCoin or Tether USDt do? Are they primarily objects of speculation and safe havens for illegal transactions or are they used in a meaningful way? What are stablecoins, NFTs and smart contracts, and how does a blockchain work that could potentially turn the entire economy on its head? The overview lecture explains the most important ideas and terms of this special world and also answers the question of who is behind these projects.
- Bad Telegram – good Telegram? A look behind the scenes of the enigmatic messenger
How problematic or politically important is Telegram? The messenger – a mixture of Facebook, Whatsapp and the darknet – presumably has more than a billion users and many fans. However, it also has many opponents. Politicians complain that Telegram is reluctant to cooperate with the authorities. The messenger is one of the few major online services not based in the USA and is a notorious shopping centre for drugs, a fake news outlet and hate machine. It is used by militant Nazis, right-wing influencers and terrorist groups alike. The arrest of Telegram founder Pawel Durow in late summer was therefore prematurely celebrated by many as an almost epic victory of good over evil. But that falls short. Human rights and climate groups also use the service in this country. Abroad in particular, Telegram is an indispensable tool for the opposition and is therefore often censored by autocratic governments. What do we know about the background, what are the majority and power structures like and how is the messenger financed? Is it ‘good’ or ‘bad’ or very much in between? How anonymous and independent is it really? And how can Telegram be used sensibly despite all the problems?
- The knowledge engine: everything you always wanted to know about Wikipedia
There’s no doubt about it: the online encyclopaedia is damn influential. Wikipedia shapes the public image of companies, celebrities and political events. A reason to scrutinise the great knowledge machine that aims to provide correct and impartial knowledge from everyone for everyone. The German-language Wikipedia alone contains almost three million articles. There are also more than 300 language versions, including dialect editions. If you want, you can also read Wikipedia in Bavarian or Low German. Who actually writes all the content? How much nonsense and PR is in Wikipedia? Can I really just write along? How was Wikipedia created? How open or closed is Wikipedia? How does Wikipedia deal with artificial intelligence? And how can we make sense of the content? The critical, well-founded and sometimes surprising lecture answers ten questions about Wikipedia from different areas
- The non-commercial digital world: How companies and hackers are working together for a more free internet
Beyond the Silicon Valley world of Google, Meta and Amazon, there is a cosmos of non-commercial digital projects. These include, for example, the messenger Signal, the Twitter alternative Mastodon, the Firefox browser, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Linux operating system family. What at first glance looks like a pure hacker world is in fact a harmonious coexistence of hackers and companies. Small and medium-sized enterprises and even large corporations collaborate via special open source business models and ensure that there are always tailor-made solutions for corporate purposes. How does this “digital counterworld” work? Who are the ten most important representatives? What role do companies play, and how can the various projects help break up the encrusted structures of the digital markets?
- Who owns the net? On the economic and data power of Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft
Half the infrastructure of the western internet belongs to just five IT corporations: Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft. They dominate the market for operating systems, search engines, browsers, social networks, cloud service providers and app marketplaces, among other things. Not only is digital value creation concentrated there, but also the data of half of humanity. In business and private life, the internet can hardly be used without sales and data also ending up with the big five. What is their economic and data power based on? What all belongs to them, who owns the IT giants in turn, and how can we react politically or by changing our own ways?
- Doing business in the dark: How and why “dark commerce” works
Online commerce has a brother in the darknet who likes to keep quiet. It is not shoes or books that are traded there, but party, relaxation and stimulant drugs. Dark commerce is similar to the legal e-commerce of Amazon, Zalando & Co. There are product policies, Black Friday discounts and advertising models on large marketplaces. All parties act anonymously. The trust necessary for business is ensured by a sophisticated system of user ratings. What do we know about these dark marketplaces? Is dark commerce leading to a digital disruption of the drug trade? How are the police investigating? And what does dark commerce tell us about the logic of online commerce?
- Darknet: Drugs, weapons and politics in the digital underworld
The Darknet is a place full of contradictions. The technology was invented by the US military and is still mostly funded by the US government, but the infrastructure is provided by digital civil society, especially the German IT scene. The digital underworld is a retreat for illegal business and the most serious crimes, but also a shelter for opposition figures and whistleblowers who want to escape surveillance and undermine internet censorship. An adventure journey into the Darknet.
- Digital self-defence: The ten most important tricks and programmes to protect your own data
No, you don’t have to be Edward Snowden to protect your own data at a high level. Digital self-defence” makes it possible to use simple tricks and programmes to thwart surveillance, data collection and industrial espionage, to make cyberattacks more difficult and to circumvent internet censorship abroad. A look into the toolbox of this easy-to-learn discipline: How can easy-to-remember passwords be created and managed? How do I set my internet browser to save data? How can dangerous e-mail spam be recognised? What are the benefits of anonymisation and encryption and how can these technologies be used? A clear handout summarises all the tips. (also possible as a one-day workshop)