Kenya's last two general elections have been tarnished by allegations of fraud and outbreaks of violence, which have divided the nation since. The country is hailed as Africa's Silicon Savannah and when citizens head to the polls again on 8th August, they will be using technology to make sure these elections are free and credible.

SOS Alerts have been developed with the aim of delivering important updates to users during major disasters. [...] The company says “major natural, manmade, or humanitarian disasters” will activate the alerts, but it “can’t guarantee that you’ll see an SOS Alert for every major crisis”.

YouTube says it will redirect people searching for "violent extremist propaganda" and offer them videos that denounce terrorism. People searching for certain terms relating to the so-called Islamic State group will be offered playlists of videos "debunking its mythology".

Crowdsourcing support can become a process where new ideas are mined and become part of a policy package for difficult relationships. [...] It has been said again and again that this is the age of digital diplomacy. For diplomacy to be digital requires, as one ambassador has said, that  “we do things differently and develop new skills – the secrecy and exclusivity of the diplomatic bag no longer applies.

Careem, a Middle Eastern rival to Uber, has become the first ride-hailing firm to operate in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Dubai-based Careem, whose name is a play on the Arabic word for generous or noble, launched in Ramallah in June, aiming to bring digital simplicity to the Palestinian territory.

The first initiative for a summer democracy festival on a remote Baltic island dates back to legendary Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme. Fifty years and a social media revolution later, assembly democracy is great again – at least for a few days in summer across Scandinavia.

Estonia has carved out a niche as a startup hub and a friendly environment for foreign businesses. Its biggest innovation, however, lies in e-government. Citizens of this tiny Baltic nation can conduct almost every encounter with the state online. [...] These achievements have made e-government a potent source of soft power for Estonia.

Technology will transform how we meet our needs for peace, dignity and community. This will shatter the global political equilibrium, and shift power away from governments towards individuals. States, ideas and industries will go out of business. Inequality could grow. [...] For the first time, technology gives the prospect of the world’s population having an instant, global and unfiltered means of communicating, of consuming information, of forming opinions, preferences and communities.