Handing out the 2025 Hardware
Plus: AI Eats the World
Dear Citizens,
Some movement this week in the US, where a judge ordered ChatGPT to hand over data from over 20 million (anonymised) users to see if the platform breached copyright and stole good work from journalists. These cases could peter out … or they could be canaries in the coal mine, lawsuits that drive real and meaningful change around what AI owns and how they use data online.
AI is still pulling a big win though: the “Architects of AI” are TIME’s person of the year. Congrats?
Here’s what to read, watch and know this week.
🏙️ ONE READ: The Biggest Online Political Moments of 2025 🏙️
What took off online this year? Our friend of the citizens Kyle Tharp has a terrific look back at the year that was online at his Substack, Chaotic Era. What broke through? What broke the internet?
2025 has been one of the most chaotic years in recent American political memory, as a stream of scandals, standoffs, and viral moments made the news cycle feel like a never‑ending scroll. From ICE raids, protests, and the Epstein files to the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, every week seemed to bring a new crisis or conspiracy that consumed online attention before being replaced by the next.
TW: 2025! Kyle goes through all the years' big online moments, from Mamdani and protest movements to the Charlie Kirk freakout, mapping the online political conversation by social media engagement.
Subscribe to The Citizens Dispatch for clear, uncompromising reporting on how Big Tech is reshaping our democracy — and what we can do about it.
👁️ ONE WATCH: AI Eats the World 👁️
How are platforms evolving? Technologist Ben Evans sums it up in a sentence: AI Eats the World. He’s just shared a very useful deck that looks at the state of play for big tech here; its based partly on our one watch for the week - Ben’s talk at SuperAI Singapore 2025:
One takeaway? Don’t despair. The fight for what models and approaches will be ascendant, and if we can really build alternatives to big tech AI are far from settled.
👁️ ANOTHER WATCH: This Is What a Digital Coup Looks Like 👁️
Our founder Carole Cadwalladr’s TED Talk was their most-watched talk of the year!
Carole lays out how democratic systems are being hollowed out as the tech “broligarchy” amasses unprecedented power. This is what a digital coup looks like - and we’re already living inside the architecture of it.
🦶 ONE ACTION: The Big Tech Walkout 🦶
Let’s be real: we know these platforms are terrible, but can’t quite quit them. We got you! Steaming into the end of 2025, the folks at the Big Tech Walkout have a month by month plan, and steps big and small we can take - even just small steps to reclaim privacy and agency:
But why should you take part? Privacy is a team sport. With the big tech companies and the data brokers out there hoovering up our personal info on a daily basis on a global scale, it takes a collective effort to evade it. And evade it you can! If it’s just you that’s a good start, but the effect is multiplied if you involve friends and family. Keep score and see who’s winning.
The Rebel Tech Alliance, the folks behind the walkout, have a super clear plan to help you get off the big tech treadmill. From cookies (mmm) and habit change to extracting yourself from advertising, this is a detox you can really do. Get into it here.
Team Citizens
*PS - Join our Signal Chat if you haven’t already! There’s 330 people in their now.
