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.
Big Tech lobby budgets hit record levels | Corporate Europe Observatory
New figures show that the digital industry as a whole is now spending €151 million a year on lobbying the EU, a major increase to what was already considerable firepower.
Corporate Europe Observatory (corporateeurope.org)
But then I see some people legit praising these “business geniuses” instead of looking at where their money and power comes from and where it’s going.
I don’t like where things are going and I don’t want their values in Europe.
Plus, the moment Trump is gone, something worse will replace him too.
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But then I see some people legit praising these “business geniuses” instead of looking at where their money and power comes from and where it’s going.
I don’t like where things are going and I don’t want their values in Europe.
Plus, the moment Trump is gone, something worse will replace him too.
Anyway, to end on the best thing I’ve read lately:
“Where does it all end? is the big question. […] The implication is that it may have already gone too far and probably has. The clear call to action is to stop exposing so much abuse, to avoid the moral dangers of looking at all of it. Where does it all end? is the sort of question that somebody asks when they don't want it to end, and they don't even want the process of ending it to begin.
So often the question is “have we gone too far?" So rarely is it the statement: "They have gone too far." So often the question posed is "where does it all end?" So rarely is the question “how will we make this end?”
[…]
It ends with justice and liberation from the abuses of supremacy and the tyranny of the supremacist billionaire mindset.
This destination is where our compass must point, and we should accept none other, even as we acknowledge the challenges and gird ourselves for the journey.”
Where It Ends
Answering the enabler's constant question, and contemplating the depraved depths of the billionaire mindset.
The Reframe (www.the-reframe.com)
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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.
Big Tech lobby budgets hit record levels | Corporate Europe Observatory
New figures show that the digital industry as a whole is now spending €151 million a year on lobbying the EU, a major increase to what was already considerable firepower.
Corporate Europe Observatory (corporateeurope.org)
Woah this is fucking depressing...
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Woah this is fucking depressing...
@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.
Big Tech lobby budgets hit record levels | Corporate Europe Observatory
New figures show that the digital industry as a whole is now spending €151 million a year on lobbying the EU, a major increase to what was already considerable firepower.
Corporate Europe Observatory (corporateeurope.org)
@diemkay pinging some people who care about digital sovereignty : @letoams @CEDO @mir @vaurora @bert_hubert @natacha @marleenstikker
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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.
Big Tech lobby budgets hit record levels | Corporate Europe Observatory
New figures show that the digital industry as a whole is now spending €151 million a year on lobbying the EU, a major increase to what was already considerable firepower.
Corporate Europe Observatory (corporateeurope.org)
There seems to be a trend...
What will the EU do to counter what looks like an offensive against its founding principles?
https://www.ft.com/content/f8696da1-5fe6-4218-be9c-5309bd9a6ae5 -
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.
Big Tech lobby budgets hit record levels | Corporate Europe Observatory
New figures show that the digital industry as a whole is now spending €151 million a year on lobbying the EU, a major increase to what was already considerable firepower.
Corporate Europe Observatory (corporateeurope.org)
@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.
Big Tech lobby budgets hit record levels | Corporate Europe Observatory
New figures show that the digital industry as a whole is now spending €151 million a year on lobbying the EU, a major increase to what was already considerable firepower.
Corporate Europe Observatory (corporateeurope.org)
-
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.
Big Tech lobby budgets hit record levels | Corporate Europe Observatory
New figures show that the digital industry as a whole is now spending €151 million a year on lobbying the EU, a major increase to what was already considerable firepower.
Corporate Europe Observatory (corporateeurope.org)
@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.
Big Tech lobby budgets hit record levels | Corporate Europe Observatory
New figures show that the digital industry as a whole is now spending €151 million a year on lobbying the EU, a major increase to what was already considerable firepower.
Corporate Europe Observatory (corporateeurope.org)
-
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.
Big Tech lobby budgets hit record levels | Corporate Europe Observatory
New figures show that the digital industry as a whole is now spending €151 million a year on lobbying the EU, a major increase to what was already considerable firepower.
Corporate Europe Observatory (corporateeurope.org)
@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.
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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.
Big Tech lobby budgets hit record levels | Corporate Europe Observatory
New figures show that the digital industry as a whole is now spending €151 million a year on lobbying the EU, a major increase to what was already considerable firepower.
Corporate Europe Observatory (corporateeurope.org)
@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.
Big Tech lobby budgets hit record levels | Corporate Europe Observatory
New figures show that the digital industry as a whole is now spending €151 million a year on lobbying the EU, a major increase to what was already considerable firepower.
Corporate Europe Observatory (corporateeurope.org)
@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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@feyter @zbrando I'm going to assume this is a question in good faith, so the answer is:
Lobbying - the act of trying to exert influence upon politicians to change their minds one way or another. Corporate Europe Observatory have explainers on this, you can find them and watch them. https://corporateeurope.org/en/2026/02/new-video-series
"Lobbing" was a typo.
Targeted advertising is how most scams in Europe operate, and how organized crime make huge profits, be it on Facebook, Google or TikTok. You can read up more here as a general overview: https://proton.me/blog/meta-scam-ads
The scale of scams is now so big that every European country reports thousands of these cases per week, so it's likely you know people who've fallen prey to a scam. Targeted ads is how they get scammed. Depending on how deep you want to go, here's another overview: https://www.investigate-europe.eu/posts/investment-scammers-slip-through-cracks-in-eu-big-tech-law
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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.
Big Tech lobby budgets hit record levels | Corporate Europe Observatory
New figures show that the digital industry as a whole is now spending €151 million a year on lobbying the EU, a major increase to what was already considerable firepower.
Corporate Europe Observatory (corporateeurope.org)
@diemkay Their lobbying in the USA is a lot bigger (donations to the king are BIG). Russia also has a lot of effect in lobbying, and probably China too. Don’t forget the NGOs who also lobby very strongly, with probably more impact on EU food and environment law than the big tech.
