Nathalie Van Raemdonck

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  • What we can learn from conspiracists on social media

    (Parts of this piece previously appeared in Dutch in Knack.) By relying solely on traditional media, we might not be able to create group immunity with a COVID-19 vaccine. A wave of conspiracies has washed over the information ecosystem and play into people’s deep seated fears. Science communicators can learn from conspiracy influencers how to…

  • Anti-vaccination and the Tragedy of the Commons

    For almost a year now I have been diving in, and have been kicked out of several anti-vaccination Facebook groups. There is an ever growing community of people who refuse to vaccinate against diseases like Measles, Chicken Pox, Tetanus, Polio, HPV,… It’s become so big that the World Health Organization even named vaccine hesitancy one…

  • Banning online communities; is it too late to stop radicalization?

    “Most women who claim they were raped were rapebaiting. If they just let ugly men have sex once in a while, the world would be better for everyone. It’s just sex, they need to get over it” This was a post from the now banned Subreddit /r/Incels. A community of men who claim to be…

  • ALL THE FEELS; Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s WWI commemoration set went deep

    Godspeed you!Black Emperor played one of the most powerful performances a music collective can bring on Saturday 10th of June, and I am very grateful to have been able to witness it. Let me set the scene; it’s the 100 year commemoration of the Battle of Messines, significant for being the heaviest non-nuclear detonation ever recorded…

  • How the Russians really hacked the 2016 election

    The Russians tried to hack the American elections. But not in the way that we’re used to. This piece treats some possible consequences for the West of the information war Russia has taken outside of its borders.

  • The IoT Zombie army is knocking on our door, what are we going to do about this?

    (this article previously appeared on Knack-Datanews) October 21, the world is confronted with an unprecedented DDoS attack, mostly caused by insecured Internet of Things devices. IoT manufacturers were put under scrutiny, and we were all given a sneak peek of the consequences when we don’t include including Security by Design. Where do we go from…

  • Is our “Digibesitas” giving us Technophobia?

    (This article previously appeared in Dutch on Knack – Datanews) The tendency to curse smartphones isn’t new. But I am becoming fed up with the articles, cartoons and art that are going for the low hanging fruit of bashing new media technology. From criticizing the display of personal life on social media and fishing for…