I Can Change Him, I Swear!
Plus: The Big Tech Walkout
Dear Citizens,
Zuck is in court! Big week for Meta, which is being (finally) hauled in along with other tech giants to (maybe) answer for social media addiction and harms, in a series of trials starting in LA. Here’s a primer on what’s at stake.
Here’s what else to read, watch and do this week.
🤨 ONE READ: I Can Change Him, I Swear 🤨
Billy Perrigo in TIME this week has a long feature on Dex Hunter Torricke, Meta’s former PR hatchet man turned whistleblower… turned… anti-big tech leader? Great piece, but color us unconvinced. From TIME -
It’s easy to be skeptical of a tech insider’s self-styled reinvention as a truthteller. Hunter-Torricke spent more than a decade helping Big Tech craft narratives that he now says were misleading, and is himself one of the wealthy elites he criticizes. Perhaps, as he argues, he is switching sides because the situation has become impossible to fix from the inside. But it’s also true that the transformation from mouthpiece to critic is a familiar turn for those wanting to jump-start a new phase in their careers.
We always applaud whistleblowers, though this one is a hard pill to swallow - Torricke helped lead the launch of Facebook’s Oversight Board, one of the most transparently toothless PR scams of the century so far, which we fought to discredit. And why does everyone need to lead their own new organization, instead of supporting others who are doing the work?
It’s never too late to turn over a new leaf. But in this case, we’ll be watching.
We’re a reader-supported newsletter breaking down how power operates and organising to challenge it.
🤖 ONE (TOUGH) WATCH: Molly vs. the Machines is Coming 🤖
You’ll be hearing more from us about the upcoming documentary, Molly vs. the Machines, “the story of a heartbroken father’s quest to uncover the truth behind his daughter’s death and his fightback against how the most powerful corporations of the modern age operate”.
To us, this is one of the most important films of the decade - co-written by Shoshana Zuboff, a close friend to the Citizens, and grounded in the belief that we can, no matter what, still fight back. More to come, but watch the trailer here:
🔌 TWO ACTIONS: Walk Out, Pull the Plug, You Got This 🔌
Two more ways to take back control of your tech this week.
The first, from the Rebel Tech Alliance, will help you break up with big tech, sensibly and intentionally? “The Big Tech Walkout 2026” is a four-part, one-year approach to “complete your move away from big tech’s creepy spyware products and use ethical alternatives.”
We surface practical ways to turn public concern into political action every week.
We’re also watching a local effort in the UK to “March against the Machines,” a week from Saturday, February 28, 2026, 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm. PullthePlug.uk is taking their fight right to OpenAi and the Big Tech giants; come along if you can!
That’s all for this week.
Team Citizens
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