The Citizens Dispatch

Dear Citizens, We’ve switched up the schedule here, moving Re/United from Fridays to mid-week. Will you still love us? Please tell us we’re more than your weekend fling! We’ve got a lot of work to do, eight days a week if we’re going to stop Big Tech. Here’s what else to read, watch and know this week. We keep it light where we can! But sometimes this is just some nasty business.

Dear Citizens, Are we seeing you on June 4th? Sign up today for our upcoming talk, Big Tech’s hostile takeover of democracy: Europe at a crossroads, with Citizens founder Carole Cadwalladr, investor-turned-big-tech critic Roger McNamee, Reinier van Lanschot MEP and former MEP Sophie in 't Veld. 👉 Register here.

By quitting the cabinet and calling for the Prime Minister’s head, Wes Streeting has traded his role as Health Secretary for a high-stakes gamble for Number 10. His leadership ambitions have long been discussed in Westminster, yet, for all his talk of vision and direction, Streeting’s tenure tells a different story.

Dear Citizens, Have we, the Citizens, and the many brave activists and tech skeptics done a good enough job that Meta is actually collapsing into the ground before our very eyes? Maybe! writes Julia Angwin, who says the company may be entering its “Zombie era.” Here’s hoping. And here’s what else to know, watch and do this week. So what is the deal really with Claude’s Mythos? Are we cooked?

Democracy is being rewired. The systems shaping what we see, how public services function and who holds power are increasingly controlled by a handful of US tech companies. Cloud, AI, data infrastructure: this is where power now lives. And right now, much of that power sits outside democratic control. Across Europe, there’s growing recognition this isn’t just about innovation or regulation.

Dear Citizens, However bad it’s going for you at work, it could always be worse: Your employer could be tracking every mouse movement and keystroke you make so that they can eventually replace you with AI. Just another day at Meta. There’s no replacing you here though: The Citizens community is growing every day. Here’s what else to know, watch and do this week. What does it mean to pursue fearless journalism no matter what?

Dear Citizens, No really, it’s May Day! We’re keeping an eye on protests around the world, and on growing momentum to pressure Big Tech to act right. Here’s what else to know, watch and do this week. We focus a lot here on the risks of AI. But in an era of increasing scarcity for humanitarian aid, could AI be… good?

Dear Citizens, Who wants the greatest job in the world? The Citizens are hiring. Stop Big Tech! Save Democracy! Contribute to this newsletter! Get the details here. Here’s what else to know, watch and do this week. Terrific long read this month in Mother Jones, on the “literal and metaphorical power grab by tech billionaires” fuelled by the AI boom, and the mass scale of tech-driven building.

Dear Citizens, As Donald Trump might say, it’s so tiring all this WINNING. First Meta and Google went down in court. Then Orban … more like Or-BYE amirite heyyyyyy (great Anne Applebaum piece here). Let’s keep it rolling. Here’s what to know, watch and do this week. You get to know a lot of good people in (nudge nudge) but we really love Patrick Leavy, co-founder of the nonprofit group Rebel Tech Alliance.

💡 This article is a collaboration between the Citizens and Everyones Invited. For years, campaigners, researchers and organisations have been pointing to the same pattern. New technologies are rolled out at speed, harm follows, and accountability arrives too late, if it comes at all. Social media came before it. Now AI is doing the same, from the rise of deepfake material to the proliferation of ‘nudification’ apps aiding child abuse. A new reportbrings this into sharp focus.