Ireland is a wholly owned lapdog of Big Tech -- taking advantage of a cynical system that enriches one tiny nation at the expense of everyone else, especially in the US and the EU. It's pure corruption. Why do the many, many losers in this arrangement let it go on?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/30/ireland-big-tech-lapdog-eu-presidency-digital-sovereignty
Ireland is big tech’s lapdog – and that compromises its EU presidency
The country is dependent on the global giants that call Dublin home. Irish ministers can’t be trusted to chair vital European digital sovereignty talks, says Irish civil liberties campaigner Johnny Ryan
Increasingly clear that Reddit -- a site that can be useful but is also riddled with BS -- is one of the major sources, by its own choice, for the "AI" sites. Moreover, as people have learned to game the system by deliberately adding BS to Reddit, everything is getting worse. Not good.
Larry Ellison, OG right-wing Silicon Valley billionaire jerk, and a few of his pals now control Tik Tok in the U.S. One guess how they're handling political videos. Yep.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/the-weekender/tiktok-doesnt-want-us-to-talk-about-the-news
TikTok Doesn’t Want Us To Talk About the News
Read this thread from Laura Dobson-Hughes: https://bsky.app/profile/ldobsonhughes.bsky.social/post/3mozvfc3tjk2n
"Musk says not a single person has died due to him axing USAID. Sadly, part of my job involves tracking aid spending. So here’s a thread with just some of the people who lost their lives because of USAID cuts."
Lauren Dobson-Hughes (@ldobsonhughes.bsky.social)
Musk says not a single person has died due to him axing USAID. Sadly, part of my job involves tracking aid spending. So here’s a thread with just some of the people who lost their lives because of USAID cuts
Om Malik, R.I.P. https://om.co/2026/06/24/1966-2026/
He was one of the finest people I encountered in the tech / journalism worlds -- a brilliant thinker, reporter, and commentator (and photographer and more), and a fine man.
Om Malik, 1966-2026
Om Malik passed away on June 24, 2026, at Stanford Hospital after a long health journey with his heart. He was surrounded by family and friends. We invite you to share your remembrances of Om in th…
Google's Gemini is such hot trash. Get into a "conversation" and after a bit the responses disappear the second you click on them to scroll down. Apparently a well-known bug -- that makes the thing completely unusable.
Trump and George W. Bush judges -- known for being right-wingers -- make a travesty of justice in Texas sentences. But the Guardian, normally an excellent news org, doesn't mention even their names, much less their ideologies. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/23/prairieland-ice-protesters-texas-sentenced
Where are the editors, anyway?
Texas anti-ICE protesters convicted of terrorism charges sentenced to at least 50 years in prison
Activists accused of being part of antifa get long prison terms in case seen as test of Trump’s crackdown on dissent
David Ho
Matt Mullenweg
Electronic Frontier Foundation