I'll try and find time to sprinkle some memes (and outtakes) from @robin.berjon.com's and my talk if you didn't make it to the FAR END of montjuic this morning:

“We conduct the largest pretraining poisoning experiments to date, pretraining models from 600M to 13B parameters on chinchilla-optimal datasets (6B to 260B tokens). We find that 250 poisoned documents similarly compromise models across all model and dataset sizes…” arxiv.org/abs/2510.07192

A List of Things Said to Have Been Ruined by Women 🧵

Three Moves to Stop Broligarchy (Break, Build, Enforce) by Cori Crider and Robin Berjon mzf.st/15 hands down one of the most refreshing talks at MozFest

"If we let the bad people get a trillion dollars a year that we're not getting, they're going to kick our ass every single time": @robin.berjon.com's case in a #MozFest talk with @coricrider.com for breaking Google's hold on the digital-advertising market--which EU regulators seem poised to do.

Great start to my first mozfest with @robin.berjon.com and @coricrider.com talking about how to break, build and enforce new digital infrastructure for democratic societies

Here we go

That is, indeed, a Big Short.

the password to the louvre surveillance server was "louvre" www.thesocialpost.it/2025/11/02/f...

I literally just yesterday listened to a lobbyist say “we are totally domiciling your data locally , just how you like it.” while the locals were like “ #digitalSovereignty means no one can accidentally or intentionally turn our [stuff] off.”

"There are more tech lobbyists than MEPs." Live from Brussels: (It's a good study. Check it out.)

Cool to see @financialtimes.com getting into explainers! Chatted with @johnreedwrites.ft.com on the AWS blackout and the risks of banking our futures on cloud monopoly. Also feat. the redoubtable @maxvonthun.bsky.social: www.ft.com/content/ad45...

Or perhaps the campaign will pull a move like @gianmarcosoresi.bsky.social did at the end of his (very funny, don't sleep on it!) special, and film him getting it covered up?

Canvas, the course management platform used by my university (and many others), has been down all day due to the AWS outage. It has prompted some good discussions about how much critical infrastructure is now outsourced to a few companies.

🧵 1/ Relevant debate today in the European Parliament on how free, independent and reliable media are key tools to foster sound debates and enrich our democracy.

📺 UK folks, I'll (apparently) be on BBC News around 10PM talking about the AWS outage and the risks to our security and resilience from banking our economy on a handful of cloud monopolies: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Early morning mist by the River Balgy.

Vestager at the @openmarkets.bsky.social / @article19.bsky.social free speech conference on Brussels makes the point that laws are 'promises made to the voters', and that enforcing the law says that 'keeping the promises you make to voters is your first priority'.

09:30. The tops of the Torridon Hills.

Macron remarks are notable- some quotes: "We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies."

Didn't ask, says local dad

Big investigation by Peter and @lighthousereports.com out in the New Statesman today. (We spoke re NHS data.) There's lots beyond the NHS here. I thought I 'knew' TBI; even I was struck by the scale of what Ellison made - it dwarfs major think tanks like IPPR. www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

Stop what’s you’re doing and read this from FoTI fellow and favourite web heretic @robin.berjon.com. And by all means disagree with it, but it is asking the right questions about money, power, and our future.

The internet's in a bad place. We're not winning. How can we turn things around? We need money. What parts of the internet 1) are still under democratic control and 2) are in a position to produce significant revenue? It's mostly down to Wikipedia. But there's more… 🧵

definitely something to this. not sure how you learn though www.unpopularfront.news/p/reflection...

My new piece in @the-independent.com on the UK's tech prosperity deal: The deal does not only leave the UK even more dependent on US tech companies, it also once again shows how out of step the country is with tech sovereignty debates in the rest of Europe. www.independent.co.uk/voices/starm...

Story below showing how a town got suckered into another data centre thinking it would boost growth. Emily here makes THE key point - so obvious to AI people I talk to that they are confused it needs explaining to ministers - data centres do not magic you up a tech sector. Paging UK Labour...

Nice, a Cold War Steve x Wired collab

Vor der EU-Kommission in Brüssel haben wir #Google heute symbolisch zerschlagen. Der Konzern kontrolliert große Teile des Online-Werbemarkts und missbraucht seine #Monopolmacht seit Jahren. Das schadet Medien, Demokratie und uns allen. Nur eine Zerschlagung kann das Problem effektiv lösen.

Do you know the "Three Moves to Stop Broligarchy"? No? In that case, come to MozFest to see the amazing @coricrider.com and yours truly talk about it! schedule.mozillafestival.org/session/15

Is Britain ready to cope with data centres❓ Our ED @ginasue.bsky.social was on BBC Radio 4 Today this morning talking about the environmental cost of data centres, US investment in the UK, and Nvidia's comments on natural gas and computing. Listen to the convo 🎧 ➡️ www.mctd.ac.uk/is-britain-r...

Whew! Fireworks aplenty at this debate at France Digitale Day between @gabrielzucman.bsky.social and Philippe Aghion. Appreciated Zucman for showing up to a tough crowd on tax policy and standing his ground. Packed audience, too - France is still v much a big ideas place.

Microsoft CEO claimed "investing in data centres was 'effectively' also investing in modernising the power grid but did not say that money would be shared directly with the UK's power supplier" In short: he will pile more demand onto the grid but won't pay for it. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

tapping the "please support worker-led, billionaire-free, independent news" a bit more aggressively than usual

06:30 this morning, looking over Upper Loch Torridon towards Liathach.

OK States-based friends, I think y'all might be in need of an Adrian Chiles timeline cleanse. La: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Many years ago, I got into a nasty fight with the late David Graeber over a post I wrote, "The World Economy Is Not a Tribute System." Trump has been doing everything he can to make the argument for Team Graeber stick.

Less sexy than 🥂or cognac, 🇪🇺accounting standards are one of Europe’s best exports. Adopted by countries from Korea to Israel, European IFRS standards are more attractive for companies than the US GAAP alternative. Common reporting standards matter for accountability and investments on.ft.com/3VeDyVY

Interesting development

UK government report based on internal civil service trial finds Copilot doesn’t increase productivity, and indeed makes Excel take longer and with more errors, and requires Powerpoint users to have ‘corrective action’ applied to their outputs. www.theregister.com/2025/09/04/m...

@apnews.com: “Europe made an important stand for the rule of law today by pressing ahead with this first-step fine in the face of Trump and Big Tech’s bullying.” But: “If Europe’s enforcers flinch on a break-up in the end, Google will rightly chalk a fine up as a win.” apnews.com/article/goog...

Convo with @alixdunn.com about Blacksky is up! We talked about building a safer space for Black users on atproto, curation as moderation, and how communities build trust. We also covered our relay and how feeds reach apps like @flashes.blue so people keep their spaces + relationships across networks

We are starting to roll. We are not all the way there, mais **roulons**

Google's monopoly power rips off consumers, pollutes our information environment, and destroys the news media. Today's €2.95 billion fine is a start, but won't touch Google's toxic ad-tech monopoly. The EU @ec.europa.eu must hold firm and now break up Google. www.politico.eu/article/eu-s...

"But a mere fine in this case is not enough to deliver real and tangible solutions for the market and to protect our consumers." goes on to threaten breakup. DGCOMP dropping bars in this statement (on a Friday night, yeah, sigh). Super strong.

This is the way.

‼️BIG: @teresaribera.ec.europa.eu and DGCOMP just did *part* of the right thing: - slap Google with 2.95bn fine (not enough but given bullying by Trump and Big Tech, not nothing) - critically, order Google to stop abusing its dominance. If not: - Breakups on table This is game on, not game over.

Mario Monti is right. Europe is being tested. If Europe puts law enforcement on the trade table once, it will be made to do it again. What will the US demand next? What will China? A dangerous road we don't have to go down. US and Canada are seeking a Google breakup. Rolling over makes no sense.

Morning! Given a week of modest antitrust setbacks I'm re-upping a favourite Kanter quote for y'all: “We are not part of the chickenshit club. We’re here to litigate, not settle.” Win, lose. That's the law. Don't play, can't win. Loads left to fight for. www.promarket.org/2022/04/28/k...

US v. Google: a judge bars Google from paying to be the exclusive search engine on devices and browsers but allows it to make payments for product distribution (Wall Street Journal) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink