Adam Zivo analyzes the Chinese government’s response to the coronavirus epidemic.
Author: Adam Zivo
Adam Zivo is a social entrepreneur, photographer, and content producer. His past clients include brands such as America's Next Top Model, Flixel, and Bell Media. He is the founder and director of LoveisLoveisLove, an LGBTQ+ arts campaign that has engaged 400,000+ people to date. Adam completed his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy at the University of Toronto, and in 2018 will be commencing his Masters of Public Policy and Governance at The Munk School, University of Toronto. Adam maintains a broad knowledge base, but is particularly focussed on cyber and information warfare, the political use of social media, as well as larger intersections of technology and governance.
Biometrics Possibly a Key to Election Integrity
Developing nations often have trouble administering democratic elections, due to poor infrastructure and pervasive voter fraud. Biometrics offers a chance to fix this and may even benefit elections held in mature democracies.
How Biometrics Helps Refugees Regain Dignity
Refugees often, and understandably, lack the legal documents needed to grant them legal personhood. Biometrics offers a way to change that, and reconnect refugees to vital services while clamping down on aid fraud.
Digital Weapons: Governments, Stockpiles, and International Trading
Governments stockpile cyberweapons for future use against adversaries, but doing so has a tendency to make their own citizens less safe. How does this work, and how can cyberweapons be better regulated to reduce collateral damage?
The Rise and Fall of the Exploit Market
Exploits are code that gives hackers or malware undue powers within a computer system. The past decade saw a spectacular rise and fall in the market for these digital weapons, temporarily stoking fears about what supply chains might look like in cyberwar.
Biometrics Are the Future of Anti-Trafficking
Human traffickers operate by erasing the identities of their victims, making them easier to transport and harder to locate and save. Biometrics, by giving each person a fixed and immutable identity, presents an opportunity to put a serious dent in global trafficking networks.
North Korea’s Wonky Currency Politics
After a disastrous 2009 currency reform program, North Korean black market traders started storing their wealth in US dollars before shifting towards the Chinese yuan. What does this mean for North Korea and for the world more generally?
North Korea Leading the Rise of Cyberheists
“The digitization of banking has radically transformed what it means to rob a financial institution. North Korea, a country strapped for cash and with little to lose, is leading the world when it comes to the emerging art of cyberheists.”
Russia’s Strategic Homophobia Gets Exported to Kyrgyzstan
Russia needs a distinct worldview that it can use to rationalize alliances both near and far. With the rise of geopolitical homophobia, LGBT people are becoming the tools and victims of Russia’s new “traditional values” system.
Why Taiwan’s Same Sex Marriage Debate Matters
In response to a constitutional court decision that mandated marriage equality, Taiwan held a referendum which showed popular opposition to adjusting current marriage laws. Adam Zivo explains how this debate evolves might have some surprising implications on East Asian geopolitics.