That’s $25b, with a b

Dear Citizens,

Many of you know our foray into Big Tech activism began with the company formerly known as Facebook, and its many nefarious executives. So we bid  a fond farewell to Joel Kaplan, who has announced he will leave Meta in 2027 after 15 years of obfuscation and disinformation.

We were equally unsurprised to see our old friend Andy Stone explain away another Meta “mistake” after the company cut off the No Kings coalition’s Instagram account during nearly 3,000 rallies. According to Stone, an automated system confused the organizers’ activity with bot traffic. Of course it did.

In better news, a New Mexico judge has ordered Meta to pay $25 billion for intentionally deceiving Facebook users about privacy during the Cambridge Analytica era. Meta will appeal—but still: $25 billion. Not bad. The more things change, the more they stay the same. We’ll get them someday. 

Here’s what else to read, listen to and do this week…

💔 ONE READ: Again. 💔

We have long followed the terrible impact social media can have on teenagers, including our work amplifying Molly vs the Machines and families who have lost someone close to them. The Guardian this week reports on the death of 14-year-old Adriana Retyte, after a coroner found that suicide-related content served to her on TikTok may have played a significant part. The Molly Rose Foundation is now urging Ofcom to investigate TikTok’s algorithm without delay. Read the story here.

👉 Bonus read: Okay, okay—we’ll go there. WIRED looks back at its own early embrace of Elizabeth Holmes and asks how Theranos fooled the magazine and almost everyone else. A useful exercise in institutional self-scrutiny—and a reminder that tech mythology is often a group project. Read it here.

🌍 ONE LISTEN: The Humanitarian Case for AI 🌍

We know AI can be bad. But when can it be a force multiplier for good? On the Technically Human podcast, IRC innovator Jeannie Annan makes the moral case for responsible humanitarian AI—and asks how organizations should weigh the risks of imperfect technology against the risks of failing to use tools that could help more people.

👉 Listen here.

🏥 ONE ACTION: Choose Safety over Surveillance 🏥

First, lend your voice from afar to what’s happening in Brazil: share the Citizens’ updates here (cute dog!) and here, and keep an eye on the evidence that Meta approved fake, AI-generated political ads paid for from the United States and aimed at Brazilian voters. Read more here.

Then take this week’s action: register for Indivisible Palo Alto Plus’s Safety Over Surveillance Messaging Training. Learn how to make the case against Flock and automated license-plate readers, and for communities that are genuinely safe without being constantly tracked.

That’s all for this week,
Team Citizens

*PS - Join our Signal Chat if you haven’t already! 400+ people share practical advice on protecting your data, organising against Big Tech and staying ahead of what you need to know.