"“a concerted regulatory front combining multiple toolkits at once” go for it🤛!

The European Commission’s WhatsApp probe into Meta’s AI policy tests whether interim measures can finally make EU antitrust enforcement move at the speed of digital markets, writes Megan Kirkwood.

"The US company Palantir Technologies is hosting a lavish party for the Ministry of Defence to celebrate winning a government contract" - Absolutely outrageous given the current allegations against Peter Mandelson and his ties to Global Counsel, and current outrage around lack of transparency etc

@openrightsgroup What's really clear is that the mess the UK has really is down to deliberate choices to neglect industry, privatise and contract out, and sell off UK assets thus eroding our tax base.

globalcompetitionreview.com/article/card... 👀👀👀👀

What does success look like for digital antitrust? CADE Commissioner Victor Fernandes tells Tech Policy Press fellows Laís Martins & Megan Kirkwood it's not just economic metrics—fairness & competitive process matter too in the digital age.

"One version of the Lab would offer regulatory relief to individual participants, with large technology companies likely to benefit the most [...]. In an alternative version of the Lab, the sandbox will build shared infrastructure and generate knowledge for the entire regulatory ecosystem."

New from me: FR#150 – On ICE, Verification, and Presence As Harm Bluesky's decision to verify ICE's account shows that it not set up well to deal with threats where the presence itself is the harm connectedplaces.online/reports/fr15...

maaaajor photo of our mayor from @alexkrales.bsky.social in which we learn Mamdani is an iced-coffee-in-winter guy HUGE win for that community, congrats!!! (thought it was dunkin, which stopped me in my tracks, but no I don’t think the straw is the right shade of orange)

Apple Accuses European Commission of 'Political Delay Tactics' Over App Store Changes 😂 www.macrumors.com/2026/01/22/a... TBD soon

“We’re living in a time where it seems like it’s a less secure international order.” “At which point you kind of have to think, well, can we trust that these systems are always going to be there and always be something we can rely on?” 🗣️ ORG’s James Baker on the need for UK #DigitalSovereignty.

"To pop the bubble, we have to hammer on the forces that created the bubble" ...

ActivityPub is getting its first formal update path since 2018. I wrote about why this matters, how this leads to some strange and funny power dynamics, and about who actually participate connectedplaces.online/reports/fedi...

Continued defanging of the FTC... www.nytimes.com/2026/01/13/u...

This can't go on 🚨 Musk and his AI indecency engine shows we must shift power away from Big Tech. Unless we regulate AI, break monopolies with competition and push for #DigitalSovereignty, the UK could be forever locked in a techno-permacrisis. Read more ⬇️ www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/techno-...

Hi Bluesky! We're Modal Foundation, a new nonprofit dedicated to making open social tech viable at scale. We grew out of the @freeourfeeds.com campaign and support @eurosky.social. Our work will connect experts, strategists, builders and communities to create a human-centered internet.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has attacked X's decision to make its controversial AI image generation feature only available to users with paid subscriptions.

"Continuing use of the platform lends X a credibility it no longer merits. [...] I strongly urge the Government to reconsider its use of it." - Sarah Owen MP Chair, Women and Equalities Committee

"...others have warned that the MoD’s reliance on Palantir risks becoming a strategic vulnerability for the U.K. — and flies in the face of the government’s promise to boost the U.K.’s “sovereign capabilities” in AI and other key technologies."

The EU enters 2026 with a considerable batch of investigations using both traditional competition law and the newer Digital Markets Act, writes Tech Policy Press fellow Megan Kirkwood. But will all of this activity result in material changes?

Tech Policy Press fellow Megan Kirkwood considers the antitrust scrutiny Nvidia has recently attracted, and how those efforts, which have largely stalled, are now potentially jeopardized by the ambitions of various countries to build out AI infrastructure and get ahead in the so-called “AI race.”

An analysis of X posts from the UK's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology suggests it is overwhelmingly pro-AI. I analysed the sentiment of every X post from DSIT that mentioned "AI" this year. Of 122 posts, 110 were positive about AI, and only 7 mentioned its downsides. 🧵 1/2

"The Irish case has seen a consistent pattern: tech-sector growth is treated as inevitable, while climate obligations are accommodated around it. Managing the strained infrastructure comes at the cost of rising emissions and deferred decarbonization" algorithmwatch.org/en/ireland-d...

Layla Moran, health select committee chair: “The only thing more surprising than Trump’s tween-level temper tantrums is the UK government’s naive belief that his administration is a good faith actor." www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

In the second in her series on Nvidia, Tech Policy Press fellow Megan Kirkwood considers how the company is both vertically integrating while expanding its relationships across a wide range of industries and pursuing partnerships with governments around the world in a bid to maintain its dominance.

The second of my three-part deep dive into Nvidia has dropped! This installment looks at how the company is both vertically integrating while expanding its relationships across a wide range of industries and pursuing partnerships with governments around the world in a bid to maintain its dominance.

Tech sovereignty isn’t about swapping US hyperscalers for local monopolies, writes David Eaves. That just recreates dependency. Real agency comes from interoperability, de facto standards, and procurement that makes switching cloud providers simple, says Eaves.

"British officials on Monday confirmed the US suspended the deal last week, with one saying the Trump administration was pushing for UK concessions in areas of trade outside the tech partnership."

Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen ‘slop’ as the 2025 Word of the Year.

🚨 THE BATTLE BEGINS 🚨 Your favorite year-end contest is back. It’s time to choose who will be this year’s Worst Person In Tech for 2025! Each day of this week new matchups will drop until we choose the winner on Friday. 🗳️ Cast your ballot: twsu.forms.app/worst-person...

This has popped up on my feed again so your occasional reminder that, if your business cannot turn a profit when acting within the law, you don’t have a legitimate business

"...the false positive rate ... was far lower for white people, at 0.04 per cent. This rose to 4 per cent for Asian people and 5.5 per cent for Black people. ... False positives were highest for Black women, at 9.9 per cent, but close to zero for white men."

blog.rebeltechalliance.org/the-big-tech... Love this!

It's not only in the US that the far right and tech monopolies have a strongly aligned agenda. We're watching a direct replay of the cartel playbook leading up to WWII.

Really insightful breakdown on the Netflix-Warner Bros Discovery merger

Netflix’s bid to swallow Warner Bros. Discovery’s studios and streaming business is a raw deal for viewers, writers, creators, theaters. Our full statement is here: www.openmarketsinstitute.org/publications...

Meta-what? Never get it, never will, and I was right about not getting it. Meta’s Zuckerberg Plans Deep Cuts for Metaverse Efforts www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

If it was a waste of time and compute (and environmental and power resources) to make useless videos anyway, it’s good that people get tired of it. Enthusiasm for OpenAI’s Sora Fades After Initial Creative Burst www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

Note that none of these fines are related to X’s content policies. Even before the decision was announced, politicians in the US were screeching about “censorship.” That’s either pure ignorance or outright lies. 2/

In the first in a series of three planned posts on Nvidia’s position in the AI market, Tech Policy Press fellow Megan Kirkwood considers the company’s rise to dominance and the ways it has expanded to become an “AI factory.”

Back on the old campus @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social

Our research on data centres in Scotland picked up by @heraldscotland.bsky.social here: "data centres use huge amounts of electricity. And if you're using huge amounts of electricity and drawing it from the grid, then it comes with climate emissions.” www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/2566...

"At present Data centres are saying they are ‘Green’ because they use Scotland’s grid electricity. Under that definition every household and business in Scotland is green." If you don't laugh, you cry.

Two more candidates for DMA designation to assess during the coming weeks:

As EU authorities launch investigations targeting cloud services under the Digital Market Acts, Megan Kirkwood looks at why the Commission is reassessing its approach, how market concentration and switching barriers factor into the probes, and what the inquiries could mean for digital sovereignty.

We're in Berlin this week with @eurosky.social and many others for #EuroskyLive, a conference on digital sovereignty, media independence, startup opportunities, and the future of social technology being built and governed in Europe. free-our-feeds.ghost.io/free-our-fee...

The EU has opened a new probe into Google’s search spam policy under the Digital Markets Act, zeroing in on its “site reputation abuse” policy. Tech Policy Press fellow Megan Kirkwood breaks down what’s behind the case.

The EU has opened a new probe into Google’s search spam policy under the Digital Markets Act, zeroing in on its “site reputation abuse” policy. Tech Policy Press fellow Megan Kirkwood breaks down what’s behind the case.