"In moments like this, it becomes clear that EU policy mirrors the interests of those in power, and those interests are not ours.

We need to stop pretending that rights can be balanced against profit, or that expansive deregulation can coexist with dignity. This is not a fight for the best version of the AI Act. It’s a fight against a political agenda where surveillance, control, and extraction are sold as innovation.

That means rejecting the idea that competitiveness justifies cutting protections. It means pushing back, strengthening bans on mass surveillance, challenging the vast digital border systems Europe deploys to prevent migration, and holding governments accountable when they fund private surveillance with public money.

And it means something deeper too: we need visions of how we spend public resources that respond to the needs of everyday people, not the corporations shaping our world. Tech policy should be rooted not in military logic or market efficiency, but in care, equity, and justice.

The AI Act will only become fully applicable in August 2026. The next 12 months are pivotal. Civil society, journalists, researchers, and activists must treat this not as a moment of celebration, but as a critical window to resist the erosion of hard-won protections.

We cannot afford to sleepwalk into a future where “AI governance” is just a euphemism for automated repression. Tech legislation needs to work for people, not for profit."

https://www.techpolicy.press/one-year-on-eu-ai-act-collides-with-new-political-reality/

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