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About Nik Williams

Nik Williams is the policy advisor for Scottish PEN, the Scottish centre of PEN International. We are leading the campaign opposing suspicionless surveillance and protecting the rights of writers both in Scotland and across the globe. Find out more on Twitter at @scottishpen and @nikwilliams2.

Articles by Nik Williams

This week's editor

Rosemary Bechler is openDemocracy’s Editor.

Digital Liberties

How to fight for digital human rights?

A whistleblowing platform against corruption for the City Council of Barcelona
Xnet
Representation is no longer enough - A Q&A; with Michel Bauwens
Michel Bauwens and Oliver Sylvester-Bradley
What would Twitter be if it adopted Wikipedia’s politics?
Jimmy Tidey
Algorithms: the villains and heroes of the ‘post-truth’ era
David Beer
Expanding state power in times of ‘surveillance realism’: how the UK got a ‘world-leading’ surveillance law
Arne Hintz and Lina Dencik
The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled against the UK government, but will they listen?
Nik Williams
Catalonian lessons: civil society has something to offer on the gaming tables of governance
Simona Levi
Out of prison, Barrett Brown recommits himself to agitating against existing order
Brian Sonenstein

European integration

Six countries. Six different paths to EU integration.

No to TTIP

The secretive EU-US trade deal explained

The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled against the UK government, but will they listen?

Nik Williams 22 December 2016

The court has ruled that the indiscriminate retention of electronic communications data by governments is incompatible with a modern democracy. But what will this mean following the Brexit vote?

What we talk about when we (can’t) talk about mass surveillance

Nik Williams 13 November 2015

As the UK's draft Investigatory Powers Bill makes its way towards being made law, we need to say something now. If we are not careful, when we do open our mouths, a jail cell may be waiting.

The cost of silence: mass surveillance & self-censorship

Nik Williams 8 April 2015

The true impact of mass surveillance on media freedom can be felt in the moments when writers hesitate to conduct internet searches. With every pause, there will be something missed, something underreported, an opportunity to question lost.