Facebook’s Marketplace Growth Massive User Base: Since its launch in 2016, Facebook Marketplace has attracted 1.1 billion users across 70 countries, making it one of the largest platforms for secondhand sales, alongside eBay and Craigslist. Engagement Strategy: Despite declining usage among younger demographics, Marketplace remains a key engagement tool, with many users logging in … Read more
Whose Truth Gets Optimized? AI and the New Epistemic Order This is an edited version of my keynote talk delivered at the IV. International Communication, Digitalization and Society Symposium (ICDS), Istanbul Aydın University, April 28, 2026. The theme of this year’s ICDS symposium — Truth in an Optimized Society: From Democracy to Infocracy — is … Read more
Key Insights by Merlin AI Historical Significance of Outlook – Microsoft Outlook has been a cornerstone of professional communication since its launch, with over 450 million users in 2024. – It integrated email, calendar, contacts, and task management, becoming essential for various organizations, including hospitals and government entities. – By the 2010s, Outlook … Read more
I attended the Artificial Intelligence, Manipulation, and Media Literacy Summit in Cyprus yesterday. Session 3 was in a question-and-answer format, which I prefer to just speaking. I asked Claude.ai to format my answers. I have to highlight that this formatting misses the anecdotes and lively occasions. Well, those who attend get the benefits. Still, for … Read more
Key Insights by Merlin AI Google Maps Evolution – Google has been mapping the world for over 20 years, launching its Street View feature in 2007. – Initial camera systems were bulky, weighing up to 500 pounds, but have since evolved to lighter, more versatile models used on various vehicles including backpacks and even … Read more
Palantir occupies a more extreme place in Silicon Valley but represents a new, growing ethos Big Tech is developing. We have seen the company’s official X message today. A few early comments: This is the nationalist turn. Big Tech now explicitly acts as an agent of a nation-state, which in turn justifies its regulations worldwide. … Read more
The history of music videos is not just an artistic evolution but a history of media infrastructures shaping how music is seen, circulated, and monetized. Origins of the Music Video The concept of combining film and music predates modern music videos, with early experiments dating back to 1894, exemplified by George Thomas’s “The Little … Read more
I first saw the news at the Guardian and asked Perplexity to do a roundup. Here is the issue: What the investigation actually found An investigation by Investigate Europe, published with the Guardian and others, shows that Microsoft and the lobby group DigitalEurope (representing Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, etc.) proposed language to classify all individual … Read more
I wanted to collect propaganda content for all sides during the war for the record. Here is what ChatGPT’s deep research found out. It looks like this is not just propaganda in the traditional sense, but a platform-native propaganda system, where states, semi-state actors, and meme producers operate within the same attention economy. How I … Read more
OpenClaw, a viral open-source AI agent launched in 2026, promises to control your computer autonomously—but quickly exposed major security risks. Key Insights by Merlin AI Overview of OpenClaw – OpenClaw emerged in early 2026 as a highly anticipated AI tool, capturing the attention of creators and entrepreneurs. – It was designed as an open-source software … Read more
My TV Turkish Serials Subreddit receives more than 95 thousand visits weekly, and my colleague Alper Kırklar and I decided to curate an edited volume on Turkish Television Series. The series’ global attraction is definitely unintended, but all over the world, I come across people asking me about a particular Turkish series. So here we … Read more
Claude Code Source Code Leak: What Was Revealed Reactions have been a mix of fascination, alarm, and ridicule, while Anthropic has tried to frame it as an embarrassing but contained packaging error with no user-data impact. How Anthropic Responded Anthropic confirmed the incident, saying “some internal source code” for Claude Code was leaked in an … Read more
HP’s decline under Carly Fiorina stemmed from cultural disruption, a troubled mega‑merger, and alienated employees, while its later “rebirth” under Mark Hurd shows how the same merger could succeed with disciplined execution and quieter leadership. HP before Fiorina HP evolved from a respected engineering‑driven firm with 80+ semi‑autonomous units into a bloated bureaucracy losing ground … Read more
CPJ’s 2025 record and the new wartime totals The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported in late February 2026 that 2025 was the deadliest year ever recorded for the press, with 129 journalists and media workers killed worldwide since CPJ began collecting data in 1992. According to the same report, Israel was responsible for … Read more
Key Insights by Merlin AI RAM Price Surge and AI Demand – RAM prices have skyrocketed, with increases as high as 314%, primarily driven by the surging demand from AI applications. – The focus has shifted from traditional DRAM to HBM (High-Bandwidth Memory), which is crucial for AI processing as it provides faster data access … Read more