Greenwashing? LMGTFY
Plus: Catch our star-studded panel speaking about Big Tech and the democratic backslide
Dear Citizen,
A quick shout out to our partners at Accountable Tech, Design it For Us and more, who managed to pull out a proposed 10-year moratorium (ban) on all state and local AI regulation from Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”.
While the bill itself is a calamitous, democracy-destroying clusterf*ck that will kick 15 million people off of healthcare, it's hard to beat this headline: Defeat of a 10-Year Ban on State A.I. Laws Is a Blow to Tech Industry.
Here’s what else is up this week.
📺 ONE WATCH: Rubin x Eisenstat x Cadwalladr 📺
How is Big Tech contributing to the democratic backslide?
This week we got together Jennifer Rubin from The Contrarian, Carole Cadwalladr from How To Survive The Broligarchy, and Yael Eisenstat from NYU’s Cybersecurity for Democracy for a fantastic conversation with 3,000 or so of our friends. Miss the conversation? Watch here:
The Citizens
🌴 ONE READ: Google’s Big Greenwash 🌴
Each year Google publishes its “Environmental Report,” which the company has used since 2016 to mislead activists, lawmakers, and the public about its true environmental toll. Our friends at Kairos Fellowship have a new report out this week that tells the real story: how Google’s expansion of generative AI technologies is causing the corporation to increase its greenhouse gas emissions and total energy and water consumption.
Some of the findings? Google is misleading the public about its supposed reduction in emissions; Google is knowingly making false claims about its potential to improve; and Google is draining water stores. Not good!
Have a read of the full report, and take action with their terrific social toolkit.
🥳 ONE ACTION: Big Up Your Favorite NGO! 🥳
#WeTheCivic is a very cool project of civic and nonprofit storytellers, capacity builders, and funders. They’ve launched a campaign this month to share stories of “everyday democracy in action—nonprofit workers, organizers, activists and others” impacting their community. And they need us!
They’re asking folks anywhere in the world to tag and nominate an individual or NGO/nonprofit in a social post celebrating their “everyday impact on our pursuit of freedom, opportunity, joy, and justice for all.” It’s a great campaign - you know what to do.
📣 BONUS ANNOUNCEMENT: Privacy is Power 📣
Next Wednesday, July 9, we will be hosting Dr Carissa Véliz, an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford’s Institute for Ethics in AI, and Roger McNamee, a venture capitalist turned prominent Big Tech critic, for a live discussion here on the Citizens Reunited Substack.
They’ll be touching upon themes from Dr Véliz’s book Privacy is Power, speaking about the need to safeguard people’s data and reclaim power from Big Tech companies. The event will be moderated by our very own Carole Cadwalladr. More details on the event soon!
That’s it for this week.
Team Citizens
*PS - Join our Signal Chat if you haven’t already!
