3/4s of Europeans want to ban Grok

We are totally not going through an insane financial bubble masquerading as “tech”.

"The boost in downloads comes as Danish consumers have been organising a grassroots boycott of American-made products, which also included cancelling their U.S. vacations and ditching their subscriptions to U.S.-based streaming services, like Netflix." #BoycottUS techcrunch.com/2026/01/21/a...

this is what I come back to as well we wouldn't need all this EFFORT and HYPE and fucking DRAMA if this technology was even 25% as disruptive and innovative as claimed by its pitchman

Ferragni cleared of criminal charges arising from #pandorogate does not change much about the underlying story of misleading influencer marketing. Meanwhile, Guardian correspondent berates Pandoro as "an alternative to the more famous Panettone", implicitly weighing in a long-standing culture war.

Dutch district court upholds Dutch consumer authority's fine against Epic Games for direct exhortation to purchase vs children and manipulative design of in-game "Item Shop" - discussing in passing #children definition, #professionaldiligence, #burdenofproof and more. Short comment linked!

Why Greenland? "Peter Thiel, who wants to set up crypto-empowered 'network states' on undeveloped territory, has invested in Praxis, a start-up that aims to do just that and which has scouted Greenland. Trump’s ambassador to Denmark, Ken Howery, was a co-founder with Thiel and Elon Musk of PayPal."

World’s richest 1% have already used fair share of emissions for 2026, says Oxfam #Climate

Don't forget: The US is by far the world's leading carbon polluter. That pollution, specifically CO2, will remain in the atmosphere for a long time: About half will be gone in a few centuries; the rest will remain for thousands of years, affecting climate and sea levels long after emissions stop.

Thousands of people on X are using Grok to create sexualized images of adults + minors wearing minimal clothing. This not only violates X's own content policy, it may violate the guidelines of Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store: www.wired.com/story/x-grok...

The article also discusses our report, written by former Amazon delivery driver Adrienne Williams, @alexhanna.bsky.social and Sandra L. Barcenas Fuerte, detailing the extent of Amazon's worker surveillance & wage theft through that surveillance. www.dair-institute.org/projects/dri....

In case someone (v much thinking of certain Competition Law colleagues and a certain Linkedin spat) wants to again explain how EU enforcement against X was totally biased and a form of protectionism.

Just excellent and all they deserve. www.ft.com/content/ad94...

call me crazy but it really feels like “World’s Richest Man Creates AI Chatbot That Generates Child Porn” would’ve been a huge international outrage requiring a governmental crackdown not even 24 months ago

In other #Berlin news: ich war gestern 1,5 Stunden mit dem Rad in der Stadt unterwegs, und habe kaum einen gestreuten/geräumten Radweg gefunden, musste in fast allen Fällen auf der Straße radeln. Nicht mal Fahrradstraßen waren geräumt. In Berlin gilt: Verkehr ist Auto, Straßen sind für Autos da.

i feel like i see a lot of "mysterious new account makes big bet on insider information" news stories and not enough people-being-arrested-for-that news stories

I wish it was more widely known that Google fought like absolute mongrels against media outlets to avoid disclosing water consumption data - the only reason they disclose that data now is because they were pressured by activists and journalists cloud.sustainability.watch/explore-issu...

Everything Trump is saying suggests he spoke with oil companies and reached an agreement before they did this. I’m not sure how else he could say this so confidently.

A great day overall for fossil capital. Trump is less worried about who exactly will lead the Venezuelan government, even saying Machado won’t have the respect to govern Venezuela. What matters is that US oil companies get to drill and sell oil to other countries too.

On the "boots on the ground" question and Trump saying that it will mainly be about protecting oil operations. Given this framing, we should expect a massive payday for politically connected mercenary companies, who will use this to expand their private armies.

Donald Trump and Marco Rubio making it absolutely clear Cuba is next in their crosshairs. It’s incredible to hear Rubio say Venezuela was “colonized” by Cubans — as the United States decapitates its government and claims it’s becoming an occupying power to steal the country’s oil wealth.

It isn't about combating "narcoterrorism", but about the US securing access to Venezuelan oil, lithium, and other natural resources. It isn't about promoting democracy, but about the US imposing its hegemony in the Western Hemisphere. Brute force and extractivism—nothing else. #Venezuela

Art 21(2) TEU: "The Union shall define and pursue common policies and actions … in order to … preserve peace, prevent conflicts and strengthen international security, in accordance with the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter …"

‘A gift that cannot be sold’: the Palestinian family fighting to save their West Bank farm

“The elites are ecstatic about imagining a vast, uneducated, and unproductive population forced to pay companies like OpenAI to access the written word and to approximate thought.” Must read piece by Noah McCormack with too many quotaboe lines to select one! thebaffler.com/salvos/we-us...

Marine heat waves, intensified by climate change and pollution, are driving the spread of Vibrio bacteria worldwide — pathogens that can cause severe illness, including cholera and “flesh-eating” infections.

I've posted about a billion examples of this here this year but Meta, Amazon etc *set up an entire lobby group* to help falsely erase the emissions impacts of their fossil fuel investments!!!!! LITERALLY THE OPPOSITE OF REALISM HERE FOLKS bsky.app/profile/keta...

My latest article addresses this point comprehensively.

So now it seems that objection to Israeli colonisation of Palestinian territory to create an apartheid state can be called anti-semitism.....

Das Bundesinnenministerium will künftig nicht mehr allein den „gewaltbereiten Islamismus“, sondern auch den sogenannten „legalistischen Islamismus“ bekämpfen. NAHED SAMOUR hält den Begriff für rechtsstaatlich gefährlich. verfassungsblog.de/legalistisch...

This is truly brazen and also a reminder for the current commission that appeasement won’t cut it against these thugs.

Israël bouwt negentien nieuwe illegale nederzettingen op Westelijke Jordaanoever

One of the answers to those questions would be “generic environmental claim” (at least at two different levels) for EU consumer protection rules = soon outright banned unless the commission gets lobbied to draw this back as well.

Travelled north-south Switzerland this morning and there is almost no snow, even high up. Seriously, how is it immigration that is making European history culture etc disappear where the whole image of our lived environment is literally melting away before our eyes?

‘Borrowed time’: crop pests and food losses supercharged by climate crisis #Climate

We’re so focused on the negative impacts of capitalist tech platforms on young people, but not nearly concerned enough about the screen dependence of older people.

I honestly expected more from a FIFA Peace Prize recipient

Omdat je om groene waterstof te maken eerst heeeel veel energie (wind en zon) moet opwekken, kijken Europese landen naar Zuidelijk Afrika. Maar 3,5 miljoen mensen in Z-Afrika hebben überhaupt geen stroom. Toch wil NL dáár stroom voor exportwaterstof opwekken. Koloniale toestanden for sure.

"The global wealth gap has become so staggering, and its impact on economies and democratic institutions so corrosive, that policymakers should treat it as an emergency."

And then there’s the story about Alex Karp’s not-at-all-weird interview (for lack of a better word) with Oswald Mosley’s grandson for a senior position at Palantir.

So, El Fasher looks like one of the worst single event atrocities to happen this century so far, but the evidence has come in such a trickle it seems to only now be getting verified

The world's richest 0.001% now control 3x as much wealth as the entire bottom half of humanity combined. 56,000 wealthy individuals have more than roughly 4 billion people. Read that back.

"The takedowns and restrictions began in October and targeted the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp accounts of more than 50 organisations worldwide ... in what appears to be a growing push by Meta to limit reproductive health and queer content across its platforms."

Is it me not following the right news or is there long not enough criticism going on of the cushy #dealbook interviews of this round? I understand Andrew Ross Sorkin has a specific kind of shtick but interviewing #Netanyahu without even mentioning "war crimes" is just beyond any pale?

Lobbyonderzoeker Olivier Hoedeman (Corporate Europe Observatory): ‘Ik hoor van bedrijfslobbyisten in Brussel dat hun politieke mogelijkheden groter zijn dan ooit’ www.mo.be/interview/be...

ICYMI: this is very obviously a crisis every bit as emergent - and indivisible from - climate breakdown.

‘Masculine leadership’ And they say gender studies is all bunk

"The loggers and ranchers are closing in but still Brazil’s Kawahiva people wait for protection" www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

The Dutch betting website Unibet gets a fine of 4 million euros from the betting and gambling authority for failing (between 2022 and 2024) to take any meaningful action to prevent over-spending and over-engagement, eg by checking income. Rules have become stricter since.