Why is #JoeBiden suddenly warning about #oligarchs and #bigtech? Because they’re the ones who kicked him out of the race last year.

#Politics #Republicans #Democrats #DNC #RNC #Liberals #Liberal #Conservatives #Conservative #Vote #Election #DemocraticParty #RepublicanParty #Palestine #Israel #MiddleEast #Genocide #DonaldTrump #Trump #JDVance #KamalaHarris #TimWalz #Oligarchy

Mark Zuckerberg saying that AI wil replace mid-level engineers this year

#meta #ai #jobs #tech #techjobs #zuckerberg #bigtech #capitalism #latestagecapitalism

"As we post reviews, rate products, upload videos, rants and photos, we help reproduce cloud capital without getting a penny for our labour. In essence, it has turned us into its cloud serfs while, in the factories and the warehouses, the same algorithms that modify our behaviour and sell products to us are deployed – usually by digital devices tied to the workers’ wrists – to make them work faster, to direct and to monitor them in real time.

Unsurprisingly, the owners of this cloud capital, the cloudalist broligarchy, enjoy a hitherto undreamt power to extract: untold quantities of free labour from almost everyone in addition to mind-numbing cloud rents from vassal capitalists and, of course, surplus value from proletarians. Especially now that they have purchased a seat at Trump’s presidential table, their power is one that a John D. Rockefeller, a Henry Ford, even the still active Rupert Murdoch, would have given an arm and a leg to have.

Returning to Bevan’s brilliant question, today it is easier to see how wealth persuades poverty to give up its freedom and, instead, to serve the broligarchs-in-charge: via their cloud capital that has a capacity, unlike any hitherto form of capital or government department, to shape our behaviour automatically and directly. Nothing short of a revolution can restore"

https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2025/01/06/musk-trump-and-the-broligarchs-novel-hyper-weapon-le-monde-4-1-2025-full-original-english-version/

#USA #Trump #Musk #BigTech #TechnoFeudalism

#Tribes, #environmentalists gather forces against Amazon’s #Northwest #nuclear plan

Amazon’s push for small modular nuclear reactors [#SMR] is just the latest development in decades long fight over #NuclearEnergy

By Antonio Sierra (OPB)
Jan. 7, 2025

"Chuck Johnson was 25 years old when he helped bring Oregon’s nuclear energy industry to a sudden halt.

"Fresh out of college, Johnson helped lead signature gathering and field organizing to pass Ballot Measure 7, which banned all new nuclear power plants in the state until the U.S. had a federally licensed permanent disposal facility. When Oregon’s only nuclear energy facility was closed in 1992, the measure effectively ensured that nothing would take its place unless major changes happened.

"For decades those changes seemed unlikely, but a new push by the power-hungry tech industry has reignited interest in nuclear energy in the region.

"Amazon announced in October that it is partnering with Energy Northwest to develop and build nuclear reactors in southeast #WashingtonState that would power its #DataCenters in #Umatilla and #Morrow counties. Amazon would work with its partners to develop and roll out a novel technology – small modular nuclear reactors – without brushing up against the limits of Measure 7 because the reactors would be north of the #ColumbiaRiver.

"For Amazon, SMRs would allow the tech and e-commerce giant to harness the immense, low-carbon [sic] power potential of nuclear energy while staying true to its climate goals, and avoiding the safety and environmental concerns that have plagued traditional reactors. More than 40 years after passing Measure 7, Johnson isn’t convinced.

"'If you can’t get rid of the waste produced by these plants, it’s irresponsible for us to – for the sake of some electricity right now – leave this legacy to future generations,' he said.

"Johnson is a part of a group of environmentalists, academics and American Indian tribes who are gathering force against a nuclear energy revival in the Northwest.

"Nuclear energy opponents argue that SMRs are simply a new coat of paint on the industry’s old problems. Like traditional reactors, they say that SMRs aren’t economically feasible and risk exposing people to #NuclearRadiation in a region still recovering from its World War II legacy."

Read more:
https://www.opb.org/article/2025/01/07/tribes-environmentalist-amazon-northwest-smr-nuclear-reactor-energy/
#NoNukesForAI #NoNukesForBezos #AmazonCorporation #NoNukesForTechBros #NoNukes #NativeAmericanActivism #AntinuclearActivism #NoNukesForBigTech #BigTech #AWS #Downwinders #CorporateColonialism

In Europe, journalists keep repeating that the end of fact-checking announced by Meta / Facebook is *only for the US*. But what does that even mean? Are users in the rest of the world not exposed to content produced by US-based users? Why does the rest of the world presumes there's no change for them?
#Meta #FactCheck #journalism #BigTech

Big Tech is digital colonialism, siphoning creativity and exploiting consumers for profit while deepening inequality. These corporations treat individuals as mere resources in their relentless pursuit of profit.

When will you rise up against their exploitation? Just look at the damage they cause!

#BigTech #Facebook #Meta #Alphabet #Google #Microsoft #Amazon #Apple #Trash #Anarchism #Anarchist #AnarchoSyndicalism #AnarchoSyndicalist

NEW!!! I was honored to be @NadineSmith guest on Wide Awake America talking about Big Tech's silent relentless coup and resisting #propaganda that threatens to conquer our democracies. Listen and read here 👇✊ https://open.substack.com/pub/1nadinesmith/p/big-techs-silent-relentless-coup?r=97fyx&utm_medium=ios #disinformation #bigtech #socialmedia #education #media #highered #influenceoperations

Hey guys, here’s a message from Mastodon gGmbH partner Meta from the Social Web Foundation.

Enjoy!

https://www.threads.net/@tomwarrenuk/post/DEhmjjDN8HY

#meta #mastodon #socialWebFoundation #BigTech #SiliconValley #moderation #freezePeach

"In exchange for mere crumbs of their fortune, this Big Tech fraternity receives three extraordinary gifts: massive public contracts; the removal of regulatory safeguards against the dangers of their methods and products – autonomous vehicles, AI-controlled "bots" and drones, massive increases in electricity consumption; and finally, huge bargaining power, legitimized by the state, in their dealings with workers, suppliers, competitors, and the rest of us."
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2025/01/04/yanis-varoufakis-former-greek-finance-minister-big-tech-giants-have-moved-into-trump-s-oval-office_6736701_23.html

#USA #Trump #BigTech #Oligopolies

So DuckDuckGo’s “news” items all look like they’re from different publications but go through MSN.

Because, of course, DuckDuckGo is just another venture capital funded Silicon Valley tech company.

The reason you can’t have nice things is capitalism.

#DuckDuckGo #VentureCapital #capitalism #BigTech

"(Employees) ...formerly of #Meta, #Microsoft and #Apple... recount their in-house struggles over the (#Palestinians) #genocide, which... led to... their dismissals.

#Instagram, #Facebook, #X as well as other tech platforms and companies like #Google, Microsoft and Apple have actively worked to stifle information regarding the genocide in #Gaza... Dissent is often met with swift reprimand in the form of job loss."

#ChrisHedges Report: #BigTech’s Complicity in Genocide

https://consortiumnews.com/2025/01/02/chris-hedges-report-big-techs-complicity-in-genocide/

"It feels like tech workers have caught very few breaks over the past several years, between ongoing mass layoffs, stagnating wages amid inflation, AI supposedly coming for jobs, and unpopular orders to return to office that, for many, threaten to disrupt work-life balance.

But in 2024, a potentially critical mass of tech workers seemed to reach a breaking point. As labor rights groups advocating for tech workers told Ars, these workers are banding together in sustained strong numbers and are either winning or appear tantalizingly close to winning better worker conditions at major tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

In February, the industry-wide Tech Workers Coalition (TWC) noted that "the tech workers movement is far more expansive and impactful" than even labor rights advocates realized, noting that unionized tech workers have gone beyond early stories about Googlers marching in the streets and now "make the headlines on a daily basis.""

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/12/from-ai-to-rto-unpopular-policies-may-fuel-tech-worker-movements-in-2025/

#AI #RTO #ReturnToOffice #TechWorkers #LaborMovement #BigTech #Capitalism

Vogt am Freitag: Von #Google finanziert, von Google dominiert? - Das Netz ist politisch https://dnip.ch/2024/12/20/vogt-am-freitag-von-google-finanziert-von-google-dominiert/

#GoogleNewsShowcase #SchweizMedien #Journalismus #journalism #Medienwandel #Leistungsschutzrecht #Medienfinanzierung #Pressefreiheit #FreePress #GoogleEinfluss #MedienVielfalt #MedienZukunft #BigTech #DatenMacht @revogt #VogtAmFreitag

"Mesmo antes de ser aprovada pelo Parlamento australiano no final de novembro, após meses de debates e uma votação criticada por ter ocorrido a toque de caixa, a lei que veta redes sociais para menores de 16 anos deixava mais dúvidas do que certezas ao público e ao setor de tecnologia. As empresas alegam que não há meios viáveis para aplicar a proibição, e apontam que a pressa do governo do premier Anthony Albanese pode ter mais atrapalhado do que ajudado a sociedade."

https://oglobo.globo.com/mundo/noticia/2024/12/25/para-big-techs-lei-de-redes-sociais-na-australia-isola-jovens-mas-debate-pode-trazer-melhorias-as-plataformas.ghtml

#Australia #BigTech

Remember how #Skynet and #Terminators were just fine with a #nuclear devastated world? Hmmm... #BigTech is going all in on #NuclearPower as sustainability concerns around #AI grow

Yahoo Finance
Daniel Howley
October 23, 2024

"#ArtificialIntelligence has driven shares of tech companies like #Microsoft (#MSFT), #Amazon (#AMZN), #Nvidia (N#VDA), and #Google (GOOG, GOOGL) to new highs this year. But the technology, which companies promise will revolutionize our lives, is driving something else just as high as stock prices: #EnergyConsumption [and #WaterConsumption].

"#AI #DataCenters use huge amounts of power and could increase energy demand by as much as 20% over the next decade, according to a Department of Energy spokesperson. Pair that with the continued growth of the broader cloud computing market, and you’ve got an energy squeeze.

"But Big Tech has also set ambitious sustainability goals focused on the use of low-carbon and zero-carbon sources to reduce its impact on climate change. While renewable energy like solar and wind are certainly part of that equation, tech companies need uninterruptible power sources. And for that, they’re leaning into #NuclearPower.

"Tech giants aren’t just planning to hook into existing plants, either. They’re working with energy companies to bring mothballed facilities like Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island back online and looking to build small modular reactors (#SMRs) that take up less space than traditional plants and, the hope is, are cheaper to construct.

"But there are still plenty of questions as to whether these investments in nuclear energy will ever pan out, not to mention how long it will take to build any new reactors."

Read more:
https://www.aol.com/finance/big-tech-going-nuclear-power-201418756.html

#AI #NoNukesForAI #Cryptocurrency #WaterIsLife #NoNukes #RethinkNotRestart #ThreeMileIsland #TheTerminator #JudgmentDay #NuclearPowerNoThanks

“Amazon chose not to act” to address safety risks, allegedly “accepting injuries to its workers as the cost of doing business.”

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/12/bernie-sanders-probe-finds-amazon-hid-worker-injuries-to-prioritize-profits/

Daddy, why do CEOs get shot?

#amazon #BigTech

How many of your members violate these policies and what action will you take against them?

Google?
Meta?
Adobe?
Microsoft?
US Department of Homeland Security?
TikTok?
IAB?
IBM?
Oracle?
Samsung?
Snap?
Yahoo!?

Or, how about UnitedHealth Group?

Hmm? 🤔

#w3c #EthicalWebPrinciples #surveillanceCapitalism #BigTech #ethicsWashing https://w3c.social/@w3c/113640062325227269

I think the abstract of the white paper is better presented than this summary in the sense that it clarifies that Public != Government and Public != State. As a citizen of a country who, for almost 50 years, had a political police for surveilling common people, I'm very unease with the concept of sovereignty. And while I'm not a full-fledged anarchist, I see myself very much as a libertarian communist. As such, I give much importance to the concept of democratic deliberation throughout all social sectors. At the same time, there's no solution to capitalism that doesn't include a stronger internationalism.

"In a new white paper I co-authored with Cecilia Rikap, Cédric Durand, Edemilson Paraná, and Paolo Gerbaudo, we make the case that countries have another option. Instead of being forced to choose between the US and China, governments should work together to make the necessary investments to build physical infrastructure and develop digital platforms and services that serve their people and the planet, instead of the dominant geopolitical forces.

We lay out a series of policy proposals that envision a wholly different vision for digital technology — one that returns power to governments and their citizens outside the United States and China, and that ensures technological development is reoriented toward public flourishing instead of maximizing the profits of tech companies and the power of the countries they’re headquartered in. Tech discourse often positions the government as an inherent threat to people’s rights, while far too often letting corporations off the hook. But if we’re ever to seriously challenge the power of major tech companies, the power of government will need to play an essential role.

Our proposal is an ambitious one — and a radical one as well. But given the circumstances, it’s time to be bold..."

https://disconnect.blog/why-we-must-reclaim-digital-sovereignty/

#DigitalSovereignty #BigTech #SiliconValley #Imperialism

‘We zijn als Europa dicht bij een serieuze oorlog’ (Villamedia)

Ik ben bezorgd over in hoeverre onze democratie overeind blijft. Want die wordt nu van verschillende kanten, ook van binnenuit, getest. Bovendien zijn we als Europa dicht bij een serieuze oorlog.

https://www.villamedia.nl/artikel/interview-met-huib-modderkolk-we-zijn-als-europa-dicht-bij-een-serieuze-oorlog

#spionage #ondermijning #technologie #BigTech #oorlog #oekraine #nsa #surveillance #massasurveillance #democratie #algoritme #modderkolk #SocialMedia #media #journalist #journalistiek #gezichtsherkenning

#ProjectNimbus collaboration between #Google, #Amazon Web Service and the Israeli Occupying Forces (#IOF).

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/11/do-not-support-the-first-genocide-carried-out-by-big-tech/

Make Amazon Pay - 2024
https://makeamazonpay.com/

#MakeAmazonPay #Palestine #Solidarity
#BigTech #Genocide

When Silicon Valley says “jump!” Ireland asks “How high, daddy?”

#Ireland #SiliconValley #digitalImperialism #institutionalCorruption #climateCrisis #climateChange #BigTech #DataCentres https://mastodon.green/@gerrymcgovern/113559988974673492

#gaza #genocide #palestine #israel #netanyahu #icj #usa #ai #bigtech #google #amazon #boycott #icj #mondoweiss #article

@palestine

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/11/do-not-support-the-first-genocide-carried-out-by-big-tech/

OpenAI Shuts Down Sora Access After Artists Released Video-Generation Tool in Protest: ‘We Are Not Your PR Puppets’

https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/openai-shuts-down-sora-artists-protest-leak-1236224878/

Famous Big Tech bottom feeders: “We don’t understand… what’s wrong with being PR puppets?”

Via @knowprose

#AI #OpenAI #protest #backbone #artists #PR #BigTech

"With Trump’s promise to ramp up mass deportation beyond what he attempted in his last term, and this cohort of loyalists at the fore, expect to see a renewed gold rush in dubious AI-enabled surveillance tech and database systems for tracking migrant workers and dissenters. Palantir was given contracts to handle such work during the last Trump term, Oracle has been helping the Trump team assemble databases of government workers loyal to Trump (presumably to spare in a coming purge), and Musk has already called for Luckey to meet with the White House. In sum, with a rise in Sinophobia, the US invested in wars in two theaters, and promises to execute historic mass deportation, expect the boom that has already begun in defense tech to continue, and an invigorated interest in surveillance and administrative AI—and for the men who most loudly backed Trump’s campaign to benefit.

All of the above will accelerate a trend that had already been underway; big tech companies more aggressively and openly pursuing defense department contracts, and work with agencies their employees may once have deemed unethical, like ICE. As I noted after the election, for many Silicon Valley elites, the days of taking employees’ ethical concerns and protests into account are fading happily into the past. Big tech has been quick to fire dissenting workers already, and now there’s a more explicit authoritarian creep into the sector."

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/tech-under-trump-part-1

#USA #Trump #Oligopolies #Palantir #BigTech #SiliconValley #Musk #WarMachine

Billionaires don't want to pay taxes? Revoke their citizenship and passport!!

"Whatever its source, the broligarchs’ sense of their innate superiority has led many of them to positions on taxation quite similar to Trump’s. In 2016, the Republican presidential nominee bragged about avoiding tax payments for years—“That makes me smart,” he crowed from the debate stage. The broligarchs have quietly liberated themselves from one of the only certainties in life. As ProPublica reported in 2021, Musk paid zero federal income taxes in 2018 and a de facto tax rate of 3.3 percent from 2014 to 2018, during which his wealth grew $13.9 billion. Thiel used a government program intended to expand retirement savings by middle-class Americans to amass $5 billion in capital-gains income, completely tax-free. The Trump-friendly broligarchs’ political ascendancy turns the rallying cry of the Boston Tea Party on its head, achieving representation with minimal taxation.

In their hostility to taxation and regulation, the men who rule Wall Street and Silicon Valley resemble earlier generations of wealthy capitalists who enjoyed outsize influence on American politics. Even some tech barons who supported Kamala Harris clamored for the firing of Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, who favors vigorous antitrust enforcement. But the broligarchs are distinct from old-school American oligarchs in one key respect: Their political vision seeks to undermine the nation-state system globally. Musk, among others, has set his sights on the privatization and colonization of space with little or no government involvement. Thiel and Andreessen have invested heavily in creating alternatives to the nation-state here on Earth, including libertarian colonies with minimal taxation."

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/broligarchy-elon-musk-trump/680788/

#USA #Trump #Musk #Billionaires #BigTech #SiliconValley

I used to trust #Microsoft more than other #bigtech platforms, mostly because I used #Excel a lot in my work.

I switched from #Chrome to #EdgeBrowser a long time ago for work (and use #Vivaldi for private stuff).

However I just had to set up my work profile in Edge again today, and Microsoft's #consent for #tracking has really gone to shit.

Look what they consider to now be 'Always Active' (i.e. not requiring consent):

[picture]Thread 1/3

#surveillancecapitalism #surveillanceadvertising

your regular reminder to smash the looms.
#luddites #bigTech #freePalestine #fuckAI

Technology is an amplifier and what Big Tech amplifies is fascism.

You want to amplify the opposite? Then build, raise awareness about, and help fund the opposite:

Small Tech.

https://small-tech.org/about/#small-technology

#BigTech #SmallTech #fascism #democracy #humanRights #technology

Revolving doors go round and round, round and round, round and round…

#institutionalCorruption #lobbying #revolvingDoors #EU #BigTech #Meta https://mastodon.scot/@kim_harding/113493491174499463

Somehow I doubt the people you're complaining about have sunk to the level of applying labels like "extremist" to you.

The appeal to be "constructive" in this context means what? It means "give me assistance and lively chitchat for mega-billionaire services that have left me cold." I say go ask the billionaire for help.

"BROWSER WARS ARE STUPID."

Shouting and insisting on "positivity" is toxic. Its what tyrants demand after they've seized control. Remember that the next time you read about Google "sharing" (ratting-out) tracking data about women's, LGBT and immigrant web use with the police.

#toxicpositivity #gowiththeflow #bigtech #counterculture #foss #surveillance #oligarchs

"The power Musk wields was not inevitable. There were many opportunities along the way to expose who he was and to hold his companies accountable for breaking rules and making fraudulent promises. Indeed, some people tried. But time and again, far too many journalists at mainstream publications decided those aspects of his career didn’t belong in the accepted narrative about his brilliance and lawmakers chose to look the other way in the hope he would boost economic prospects and provide them electoral gains. Now the United States — and the world — have to live with the consequences of those decisions, and the people responsible for them should be held to account.

If you thought we were already living in a tech dystopia these past few years, it’s time to buckle up. You haven’t seen anything yet."

https://disconnect.blog/shame-on-the-elon-enablers/

#USA #Trump #Musk #BigTech #SiliconValley

I wrote this with a heavy heart and a newfound fire in me to oppose the tech barons: "The rebellion will be federated" https://elenarossini.com/2024/11/the-rebellion-will-be-federated/

If you want to follow my Wordpress blog and get new posts straight in your feed, click here: @ele

#blog #FLOSS #bigtech #education #resist #rebel #activism #Fediverse

"Leaders at top big tech firms rushed to congratulate Donald Trump on his landslide election victory as they sought to rebuild bridges with the president-elect — and his most influential Silicon Valley booster, Elon Musk — ahead of a transformative period for the sector.

The chief executives of Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft posted supportive messages on social media on Wednesday, which stood in contrast to their more circumspect reaction to the results of the 2016 and 2020 elections. All of their companies have since faced significant regulatory probes and antitrust threats as part of a crackdown by Joe Biden’s Democratic administration.

They now stand to gain much from a more tech- and business-friendly attitude from Trump, if they can win over a mercurial politician who in the past has repeatedly clashed with what he considers a left-leaning constituency that has funded his opponents and censored him."

https://www.ft.com/content/79f87a7f-66b2-454e-8f58-8d5f535cce66

#USA #Trump #BigTech #Monopolies #Oligopolies #Competition #Antitrust