We Don’t Need No (Department of) Education
Plus: Act Now to Save the FTC
Dear Citizen,
We’ve earned a weekend after this one. Elon is headed to the Pentagon; education got cancelled and the detention and deportation of researchers rolled on. Not good! But some green shoots are breaking through - from court challenges to DOGE-loving Congressmen getting flayed back home. Here’s what to know, read and act on this week.
# ONE ACTION # STOP THE FTC PURGE
It’s a 🚨🚨🚨 moment for the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), an under-the-radar but critically important body that plays a big role in oversight of Big Tech. This week, President Trump moved without cause to dismiss the two Democratic commissioners left on the commission, marking:
“A significant escalation in Trump’s crusade against independent and dissenting voices, particularly those who oversee the tech industry."
In dismantling the power of the FTC, Trump and team are giving the Broligarchs what they paid for. The FTC is currently working with 17 states to sue Amazon for anti-competitive practices. Meta has been under an FTC consent order due to the company’s rampant violations of user privacy since 2012. And on and on. These and myriad other actions are imperilled now by this power grab.
What do we need from you? If you’re in the US, call Congress. Here’s a script and the number to call from our Board member and Free Press co-CEO Jessica Gonzalez.
Not in the US? Please share this post and spread the word.
# ONE CLICK # WHY ‘CARELESS PEOPLE’ MATTERS
Last week we mentioned “Careless People,” an account of Sarah Wynn-Williams' time at Facebook from 2011 to 2017. Meta’s big-footed effort to silence Wynn-Williams and suppress the book have backfired spectacularly - it’s now on the New York Times bestseller list. But Wynn-Williams is still silenced.
The book is shocking, to the extent anything Meta does can still shock. In our “One Click” for this week, Board Member Yaël Eisenstat writes that:
The book “centers on the terrible behavior of the company’s top leaders, including Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and Joel Kaplan. The book provides more than 40 chapters detailing sexual harassment, abusive behavior toward subordinates, and what [Wynn-Williams] calls ‘lethal recklessness.’”
But Yaël zooms a level up, putting the book in context and asking a critical question: Wynn-Williams is yet another Meta whistleblower. When will it be enough?
Her piece in The Contrarian moves beyond the salacious details to look at three big take-aways where accounts like “Careless People” matter: The right to know; potentially illegal and clearly anti-American behavior by Meta; and political speech and influence from Tech Giants. She says:
Some argue that this book is too late, but these details matter, even years later. With the power and influence social media companies have accumulated, it is critical for us to understand their motivations, how they operate, and what the true risks are to our political futures.
As Meta, X and the Tech Bros continue to act with impunity, the continued courage of whistleblowers forces these conversations - and pushes us to “reckon with accountability for how these companies operate and affect public safety and democracy.”
Read Yaël's whole piece here:
The Contrarian
(One bonus click: Neiman Lab’s look at the fight to protect public data)
# ONE LISTEN # IT STARTED WITH A SELFIE
At 25, Hannah’s life begins falling apart. An anonymous intruder has made her phone her enemy. Aided by the technology we all rely on, this intruder is watching Hannah, threatening her, even pretending to be her.
Co-produced by Hannah’s “ex step mum” and the Citizens co-Founder Carole Cadwalladr, 'Stalked' from BBC Sounds is a must-listen podcast about Hannah’s fight to find her stalker - and reclaim her digital identity.
Listen here:
That’s it for this week.
The Citizens Team
*PS - Join our Community Signal Chat if you haven’t already!
