AndreeaFeb 3

The day is over and I didn’t get as much done as I’d have liked.

A bit hard to concentrate given the breadth and extent of the Epstein files revelations. These aren’t people I will ever meet or interact with, but the depravity and brazenness of it all just got to me. Toddler life was rough too. So I gave myself a break and some grace.

The horrors of it all. Truly ew, ew, ew and more ew. And it’s barely scratching the surface of the yuck. Inescapable, on every news website, touching so many things.

Show threadAndreeaFeb 3

Some days I wish j could just turn it off and not care. But the rot extends—predictably—deep into tech leaders.

And if only it was just their software leaking and spilling into Europe. That would be “easy” to remove. But it’s their mindset too, and their unhinged desire to see it all burn and return to tribalism while they laugh all the way to the bank.

Their hate of EU is now interfering with the laws of the continent we live on and threatening to break it up.

The same Thiel winking at the idea of Brexit, who also explains why democracy and freedom are incompatible in mainstream financial papers and journals.

RobFeb 6
Show threadAndreea

In 2025, Big Tech—just ten major companies—spent €49 million lobbying Brussels. That’s more than pharma, finance, and automotive combined.

Google funds all sixteen major European think tanks shaping EU policy. Not *some* of them. All of them. Amazon and Meta fund most of the rest.

This is no longer “poor old me, I need a bit of help,” this is full regulatory capture. With a view to becoming even more embedded into businesses and governments, and getting whatever favorable legislation passed or diluted to suit them.

https://corporateeurope.org/en/2025/10/big-tech-lobby-budgets-hit-record-levels

Feb 3 at 7:24pmWeb
Show threadAndreeaFeb 3

But then I see some people legit praising these “business geniuses” instead of looking at where their money and power comes from and where it’s going.

I don’t like where things are going and I don’t want their values in Europe.

Plus, the moment Trump is gone, something worse will replace him too.

Show threadAndreeaFeb 3

Anyway, to end on the best thing I’ve read lately:

“Where does it all end? is the big question. […] The implication is that it may have already gone too far and probably has. The clear call to action is to stop exposing so much abuse, to avoid the moral dangers of looking at all of it. Where does it all end? is the sort of question that somebody asks when they don't want it to end, and they don't even want the process of ending it to begin.

So often the question is “have we gone too far?" So rarely is it the statement: "They have gone too far." So often the question posed is "where does it all end?" So rarely is the question “how will we make this end?”

[…]

It ends with justice and liberation from the abuses of supremacy and the tyranny of the supremacist billionaire mindset.

This destination is where our compass must point, and we should accept none other, even as we acknowledge the challenges and gird ourselves for the journey.”

https://www.the-reframe.com/where-it-ends/

Where It Ends

Answering the enabler's constant question, and contemplating the depraved depths of the billionaire mindset.

The Reframe
Show threadoscarfalconFeb 6

@diemkay

Woah this is fucking depressing...

Show threadAndreeaFeb 6
@oscarfalcon tell me about it. In some ways it barely scratches the surface given the rest of the news. But at least for software, the good news is that there are plenty of alternatives. We are not powerless and things aren’t as hopeless, but it does start with awareness that hurts.
Show threadoscarfalconFeb 6

@diemkay

Agree.

BTW, love this I saw on your website...

Show threadDisreputable_CraftsmanFeb 6
@diemkay @oscarfalcon plenty of alternatives BUT eventually still a big problem: even if we don't use gmail, as most of the people do, our mails are still analysed by Gggle... it is pratically impossible to ditch whtspp, eveybody use it, even for work related purposes. In the people surrounding me I really can't say awareness is growing, they still don't give a fuck.
Show threadoscarfalconFeb 6

@Disreputable_Craftsman @diemkay

Have a similar situation where I tried to get my aviation crew into signal and they all refused (or looked at me in that strange way people do when they don't want to try something new). I am on signal but using meta's app is becoming harder and harder every day.

Show threadKristian ThyMar 23

@oscarfalcon @Disreputable_Craftsman @diemkay I got friends and family off Meta and onto Signal. It helped that my wife was an early convert. Haven't had WhatsApp in a year or so.

My main problem now is the amount of stuff in my (and especially my son's) life that gets organized in Facebook groups.

Show threadDisreputable_CraftsmanMar 26
@kthy @oscarfalcon @diemkay wow good job!
Show threadVesna ManojlovićFeb 6
@diemkay pinging some people who care about digital sovereignty : @letoams @CEDO @mir @vaurora @bert_hubert @natacha @marleenstikker
Show threadnatacha 🍉Feb 6

@becha
Thanks so much this is super useful, not real surprise but when you have precise references than it makes your words stronger.

@diemkay @letoams @CEDO @mir @vaurora @bert_hubert @marleenstikker

Show threadblathoudFeb 6

@diemkay

There seems to be a trend...
What will the EU do to counter what looks like an offensive against its founding principles?
https://www.ft.com/content/f8696da1-5fe6-4218-be9c-5309bd9a6ae5

US government to fund Maga-aligned think-tanks and charities in Europe

State department grants to spread ‘American values’ are part of Washington’s 250th anniversary celebrations

Financial Times
Show threadzbrandoFeb 6
@diemkay As I always say, want to hit big tech and US interests? Just outlaw lobbing and target advertising and see what happens in one year.
Show threadFeyterFeb 6
@zbrando @diemkay OK, but what exactly is "lobbing" and what exactly is "target advertising"?
Show threadAndreeaFeb 7

@feyter @zbrando I'm going to assume this is a question in good faith, so the answer is:

Lobbying - the act of trying to exert influence upon politicians to change their minds one way or another. Corporate Europe Observatory have explainers on this, you can find them and watch them. https://corporateeurope.org/en/2026/02/new-video-series

"Lobbing" was a typo.

Targeted advertising is how most scams in Europe operate, and how organized crime make huge profits, be it on Facebook, Google or TikTok. You can read up more here as a general overview: https://proton.me/blog/meta-scam-ads

The scale of scams is now so big that every European country reports thousands of these cases per week, so it's likely you know people who've fallen prey to a scam. Targeted ads is how they get scammed. Depending on how deep you want to go, here's another overview: https://www.investigate-europe.eu/posts/investment-scammers-slip-through-cracks-in-eu-big-tech-law

New video series | Corporate Europe Observatory

Sometimes, what we do can sound complicated. So, we decided to create a series of simple videos to explain some of the topics. Watch this space and check out our new videos, released every Tuesday!

Corporate Europe Observatory
Show threadzbrandoFeb 7
@diemkay @feyter Thank you for the explanations and corrections, English is not my mother language. 😬
Show threadAndreeaFeb 7
@zbrando that’s alright, you are absolutely correct though. Dozens of investigations link the targeted ads to organized crime and Meta profits off them handsomely, so getting rid of them would be a great start
Show threadFeyterFeb 8
@diemkay @zbrando It is in good faith, but my intention was to step back for a second and think about what was actually said here. Because we need a common ground first.
Show threadFeyterFeb 8

@diemkay @zbrando If human right organizations are trying to influence political agenda, its lobbying to. Every advertisement is done to address a target audience.

"Just banning this" is quite impossible, if it is so fuzzy that actually everting can be seen as such. So " just do simple thing X" to "solve complex Problem Y", doesn't seam to be a good approach for me.

We should keep that in mind, even if we all want to archive something good here. Demanding more transparency could be a start.

Show threadzbrandoFeb 8
@feyter
In my opinion there is a big difference between a human right association asking for talks about a subject/law and a corporation paying to have an economic advantage.
About target advertising: it is used to uncover people identities and target them with malware or offer them worst deals. And the corps don't give a shit about security because they don't have consequences. It can be easily banned by substituting it with context advertising.
@diemkay
Show threadFeyterFeb 8

@zbrando @diemkay the reality isn't so simple. Sometimes giving certain business an advantage is actually the right thing to do, because "free markets" is an illusion. We wouldn't have the renewable energy technology that we have now, if it wound be heavily supported on a political level in the past.

So maybe you mean it should be unlawful to do unethically things... but that's impossible to define. It's a complex problem. People should not expact easy fixes or they will be disappointed.

Show threadzbrandoFeb 8
@feyter
To me you are making a simple situation complex: if the advertising technology is used intentionally by most actors to identify people, follow them and feed them with scams then said technology should be banned.
And you are complicating again in the field of lobbying: if a state actor wants to push a business because it's convenient it has all the instruments to do it. Lobbying is for businesses to push their agenda for their advantage.
Show threadFeyterFeb 8

@zbrando and how should a state actor know about what business need support and are worth supporting? Only because interest groups are coming to them and describing the situations and pointing on problems that exist. This is actually how politics is made.

For targeting, I think outlawing what information can be collected and can be shared with other + instruments to check this + punishment that actually hurt sounds more realistic for me. EU GDPR was a good step into the right direction.

Show threadzbrandoFeb 8

@feyter What you described is how things SHOULD work (businesses and the state talking); instead single corps or groups push THEIR agenda by bribing public officials. So the money (and the corps) drives the public agenda and not the state.

Advertising corps need all kinds of information to find the precise target customer, it's like targeted advertising works (while context advertising uses only the content you are seeing to serve you ads). So the only solution IMO is to outlaw targeted advertising. You can obtain something similar in countries with the GDPR by allowing only technically necessary cookies (no legitimate interest allowed) but even with this solution corps can fingerprint you with other techniques with enough data.

Show threadMetin Seven 🎨Feb 6
@diemkay @vosje62 "Friends of Europe"… Wow, that sounds corny. 😏
Show threadUlrike HahnFeb 6
@diemkay 👆these numbers are extraordinary!
Show threadFUCK OFF GOOGLE, AMAZON &Co !!Feb 6

@diemkay #Google and #Amazon should be kicked out of our democracies!

#FuckOffGoogle #FuckOffAmazon

Show threadJordan Maris 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 #NAFOFeb 6
@diemkay I would carefully caution against this understanding. While there are undoubtedly some think-tanks that are sock puppets, some of the think tanks listed are highly respected and regularly publish opinions which go against the ideas of big tech. It's not as plain cut as you might think.
Show threadRenéFeb 6
@EUCommission @HennaVirkkunen Stop this #bigtech lobby firms in #brussel #EU
Show threadReindeR RustemaFeb 6
@diemkay €49 million is a lot of money but not in relation to what they get for it. Value for money.
Show threadInc Hulk 🧪Feb 7
@diemkay Their lobbying in the USA is a lot bigger (donations to the king are BIG). Russia also has a lot of effect in lobbying, and probably China too. Don’t forget the NGOs who also lobby very strongly, with probably more impact on EU food and environment law than the big tech.
Show threadKarel Brits 🔻Mar 3
@diemkay any comments, @EUCommission ?
Show threadTonemathMar 3
@diemkay Is there an organized initiative somewhere that we can support to stop it?
Show threadSeachaintMar 5
@diemkay Missing Alt Text: A chart plotting Tech "Think Tanks" against major tech companies, indicating which think tanks are funded by whom. Google funds all of them. Five "Think Tanks" receive funding from all of the charted big tech companies: Bruegel, Centre for European Reform, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), and Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE
Show threadAndreeaMar 6
@seachaint thanks for the heads up. I actually had it and painstakingly wrote all of it but somewhere along the way it got stripped, probably in my fumbling with threads while the baby slept.
Show threadSeachaintMar 6
@diemkay Thanks for the update - I wanted to retoot and I have a policy of not doing so for toots without alts, so I wasn't just being passive aggressive I promise :)