The day is over and I didn’t get as much done as I’d have liked.
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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
@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.
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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
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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
@diemkay
these numbers are extraordinary! -
@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.
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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
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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
@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.
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@diemkay pinging some people who care about digital sovereignty : @letoams @CEDO @mir @vaurora @bert_hubert @natacha @marleenstikker
@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
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@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.
@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.
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@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.
-
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
@EUCommission @HennaVirkkunen Stop this #bigtech lobby firms in #brussel #EU
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@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.
@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.
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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
@diemkay €49 million is a lot of money but not in relation to what they get for it. Value for money.
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