Balance is a platform and publication that explores how digital technology, power, and possibility intersect through stories, analysis, and creative expression from around the world.
We’ve had a busy two weeks, initiating conversations about Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in Sri Lanka. The island is rushing to implement a digital ID system, followed by a sovereign cloud. As is our style, we wished to slow down and consider digitisation from a rights-based perspective. We’ll
Technology moves fast, but power moves faster. Every fortnight, the Balance Brief gathers the most compelling stories, debates, and ideas at the intersection of technology, rights, and imagination — helping you stay grounded in a world being rewritten by code, platforms, and politics. The Balance Brief is for those of us
Britain’s AI “sovereignty” is a mirage — US tech giants are wiring the country’s future to their own machines, bending policies, narrowing choices, and leaving citizens with the costs of capture.
From Sri Lanka to Bangladesh, Indonesia to Nepal, youth are rising. In streets and online, they expose corruption and demand change — showing both the power and limits of tech.
Across the Global South, Digital Public Infrastructure is being sold as a leap forward for inclusion and modern governance. But as Pamodi Hewawaravita reveals, these systems often deepen exclusion, entrench surveillance, and blur the line between public good and private control.
Miraj Chowdhury examines how the Trump administration’s alliance with Big Tech is reshaping not just US regulation but global digital governance — with far-reaching consequences for rights, power and accountability.
From app removals in China to quiet compliance in Hong Kong, Benjamin Ismail traces the rise of platform-enabled censorship and the complicity of global tech giants in enabling digital authoritarianism.
Sam de Silva (SD), founding producer of Balance, and Sam Chua (SC), founding curator of Seapunk Studios, discuss how imagination, fiction and decentralised design can open up new ways of thinking about power, technology and resistance.
In India, the rise of Hindu nationalism is both political and digital. Connecting grassroots mobilisation to click farms and vigilantes, Aishik Saha reveals the merger between digital capitalism and political ideology, and why reimagining the internet infrastructure is now a democratic imperative.
From Friendster to Facebook, discreet blogs to divisive feeds, Katherine Francisco shares her emotional journey through the rise — and rupture — of digital communities.
Kirsten Han reflects on her experience as an activist in Singapore and civil society’s relationship with social media platforms in a difficult political environment.
Lizzie O’Shea examines Australia’s uneven approach to tech regulation, highlighting the gap between public support for stronger safeguards and a political system swayed by industry influence and the global power of Big Tech.