Meme Mania

Dear Citizens,

It’s not really about big tech, oligarchy, privacy or our core issues, but damn it’s just really nice to watch Donald Trump’s name get taken down from the Kennedy Center. Watch here with a nice cool drink.

Here’s what else to read, watch and know this week.

🗞️ ONE READ: An “Appeals Court for the Rich and Aggrieved” 🗞️

A chilling read from journalist Gary Baum, who after calling out some powerful people (that’s his job!) finds himself facing the wrath of everyone’s favorite evil underlord.

In this article, A Peter Thiel-Backed Tribunal Is Putting Journalists on Trial. I’m Its First Target, he writes:

It’s rare to encounter a novel variant. But on April 21, I received a remarkable email. “Someone has filed an objection against something you wrote,” explained Austin Livingston, pointing me to a web page where Purdue Pharma heir Michael Sackler, a film financier and self-styled ethical investor, had paid a new tech startup — fittingly called Objection — to assess the legitimacy of a skeptical article I’d published about him and his business in The Hollywood Reporter five years earlier.

Baum goes all the way back to the fall of Gawker, and digs deep into the shadowy world of right wing figures trying to take down journalists and stifle actual free speech.

👉 Read the full piece here - and yet another reason to put a stop to Palantir’s power grab.

🌏 ONE LISTEN: Google’s Self-Own 🌏

There’s a lot of bad AI out there (consulting giant KPMG, we see you!). You might expect Google to do better. But inside the search giant, the call is coming from inside the building: merciless mocking from Google’s own employees about how bad their AI is.

👉 Listen here for the story of how Google employees are meme-ing back against AI slop at the 404’s weekly podcast.

🎨 Bonus listen/watch: Check back here for our recent conversation with artist Patrick Scullion and digital historian Joe Litobarski about the anatomy of a meme.

🩹 ONE ACTION: End the Big Tech Rip Off 🩹

Brit-focused action this week: The UK is dependent on a small number of foreign-owned technology companies for critical public services and infrastructure.

Controversial corporations like Palantir, Google and Amazon lock public authorities into contracts, ripping off taxpayers and getting their hands on our data. Want to put a stop to it?

👉 Sign this petition here as a first step.

📬 Bonus read: How does a foreign tech giant capture UK defence without the public noticing? You bypass competition entirely and hire the very people writing the rules.

Our latest edition of the Citizens Understand looks at how Palantir embedded itself inside the Ministry of Defence through a shameless revolving door and a series of massive, unadvertised contracts.

👉 Read Palantir's Capture of Britain's Military here.

We’re launching a major campaign to challenge the corporate capture of critical digital infrastructure and fight for a simple principle: the systems democracy depends on should be accountable to the public, not unaccountable corporations.

Also a reminder: Our upcoming talk, Big Tech’s hostile takeover of democracy: Europe at a crossroads with Carole Cadwalladr, Roger McNamee, Sophie in 't Veld and Reinier van Lanschot is now June 30th. Register here!

That’s all for this week,
Team Citizens

*PS - Join our Signal Chat if you haven’t already! 350+ people share practical advice on protecting your data, organising against Big Tech and staying ahead of what you need to know.