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)
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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
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.
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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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@zbrando that’s alright, you are absolutely correct though. Dozens of investigations link the targeted ads to organized crime and Meta profits off them handsomely, so getting rid of them would be a great start
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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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@diemkay @zbrando If human right organizations are trying to influence political agenda, its lobbying to. Every advertisement is done to address a target audience.
"Just banning this" is quite impossible, if it is so fuzzy that actually everting can be seen as such. So " just do simple thing X" to "solve complex Problem Y", doesn't seam to be a good approach for me.
We should keep that in mind, even if we all want to archive something good here. Demanding more transparency could be a start.
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@diemkay @zbrando If human right organizations are trying to influence political agenda, its lobbying to. Every advertisement is done to address a target audience.
"Just banning this" is quite impossible, if it is so fuzzy that actually everting can be seen as such. So " just do simple thing X" to "solve complex Problem Y", doesn't seam to be a good approach for me.
We should keep that in mind, even if we all want to archive something good here. Demanding more transparency could be a start.
@feyter
In my opinion there is a big difference between a human right association asking for talks about a subject/law and a corporation paying to have an economic advantage.
About target advertising: it is used to uncover people identities and target them with malware or offer them worst deals. And the corps don't give a shit about security because they don't have consequences. It can be easily banned by substituting it with context advertising.
@diemkay -
@feyter
In my opinion there is a big difference between a human right association asking for talks about a subject/law and a corporation paying to have an economic advantage.
About target advertising: it is used to uncover people identities and target them with malware or offer them worst deals. And the corps don't give a shit about security because they don't have consequences. It can be easily banned by substituting it with context advertising.
@diemkay@zbrando @diemkay the reality isn't so simple. Sometimes giving certain business an advantage is actually the right thing to do, because "free markets" is an illusion. We wouldn't have the renewable energy technology that we have now, if it wound be heavily supported on a political level in the past.
So maybe you mean it should be unlawful to do unethically things... but that's impossible to define. It's a complex problem. People should not expact easy fixes or they will be disappointed.
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@zbrando @diemkay the reality isn't so simple. Sometimes giving certain business an advantage is actually the right thing to do, because "free markets" is an illusion. We wouldn't have the renewable energy technology that we have now, if it wound be heavily supported on a political level in the past.
So maybe you mean it should be unlawful to do unethically things... but that's impossible to define. It's a complex problem. People should not expact easy fixes or they will be disappointed.
@feyter
To me you are making a simple situation complex: if the advertising technology is used intentionally by most actors to identify people, follow them and feed them with scams then said technology should be banned.
And you are complicating again in the field of lobbying: if a state actor wants to push a business because it's convenient it has all the instruments to do it. Lobbying is for businesses to push their agenda for their advantage.
