Tootfinder

Hear hear!
Universiteit Groningen probeert zich los te rukken van big tech: ‘Geen alternatief voor Microsoft’ | BNR Nieuwsradio
https://www.bnr.nl/nieuws/tech-innovatie/10593189/universite…

OpenAI fired an employee for insider trading on prediction markets like Polymarket; Unusual Whales has flagged 77 suspected insider trades around OpenAI events (Kate Knibbs/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/openai-fires-employee-insider-trading-polymarke…

OpenAI Fires an Employee for Prediction Market Insider Trading
Prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi are big business, and some Big Tech employees are testing boundaries by making trades based on insider knowledge.

“Big Tech’s AI hype is distracting users from the rapid and dangerous expansion of giant, energy and water-intensive data centres […].
There is simply no evidence that AI will help the climate more than it will harm it.
Rather than relying on credible and substantiated data, Big Tech companies are writing themselves a blank cheque to pollute on the empty promise of future salvation. We cannot bet the climate on these baseless claims.”

Leave big tech behind! How to replace Amazon, Google, X, Meta, Apple – and more;
A handful of companies monopolize the web, with unprecedented access to our data. But there are many more ethical – and often distinctively European – alternatives
https://www.theg…

Leave big tech behind! How to replace Amazon, Google, X, Meta, Apple – and more
A handful of companies monopolise the web, with unprecedented access to our data. But there are many more ethical – and often distinctively European – alternatives

@alineblankertz@indieweb.social "We want ... hack and shut down ... Big Tech". Als Elon Musk 90% der Software Engineers bei Twitter entlassen hatte, dachte ich es seine Frage von Wochen, bis script kiddies Twitter irreparabel zerlegt hätten. Aber offenbar sind die leute, die das könnten, selbst zu abhängig von funktionierender Big Tech, dass sie es eben nicht machen.

Source: Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, xAI, Oracle, and OpenAI will sign White House's initiative to build their own electricity supply for AI data centers (Emma Colton/Fox News)
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/scoop-trump-brings-…

Scoop: Trump brings Big Tech to White House to curb power costs amid AI boom
President Donald Trump announces major tech companies must provide their own power for new AI data centers during White House meeting in March with Secretary Chris Wright.

This is a good listen, investigating what many others have called out as fraudulent dealings by tech companies like #Coreweave, #nscale and #Microsoft and a

UK’s big, risky AI bet – podcast
Reporter Aisha Down explores the UK’s ‘phantom investments’ in AI, and the risk the government has taken in betting so heavily on the technology if it all goes bust

heise | Tschüss, Big Tech: Acht sichere E-Mail-Alternativen aus Europa im Vergleich
Gmail, iCloud, Outlook – die größten E-Mail-Anbieter sitzen in den USA. Mit diesen europäischen Alternativen erklären Sie Ihre digitale Unabhängigkeit.

Wow. Finally a truly good article about moving away from big tech in the national news here in Denmark. And yes, Mastodon is in it. It’s not a perfect list, but it’s the first good one I’ve seen outside of personal blogs. https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/viden/teknolo…

Ui, digitale Unabhängigkeit nimmt auch woanders Fahrt auf!
Leave big tech behind! How to replace Amazon, Google, X, Meta, Apple – and more
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/26/how-to-replac…

ICE Asks Companies About 'Ad Tech and Big Data' Tools It Could Use in Investigations (Caroline Haskins/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/ice-asks-companies-about-ad-tech-and-big-data-tools/
http://www.memeorandum.com/260125/p35#a260125p35

It's kind of funny: at work I was called a "cloud native champion" for our work in cloud adoption. - And at home im getting rid of all big tech.

"Van het ministerie mag big tech de gesprekken over digitale autonomie zelf leiden"
https://www.

Van het ministerie mag big tech de gesprekken over digitale autonomie zelf leiden
Nederland wil minder afhankelijk worden van big tech, maar Binnenlandse Zaken laat de gesprekken daarover leiden door een branchevereniging die de belangen van big tech uitdraagt. De Nederlandse cloudaanbieders zijn bij de start buitenspel gezet. ‘Dit is als de tabakslobby laten meeschrijven aan anti-rookwetgeving.’

Have you written any Anti-ICE Posts on Threads, Facebook or YouTube?
Meta & Google gave your name up to Trump, Kristi Noem & DHS. And Amazon is now turning over Ring camera footage.
☑️ Big Tech Confirms DHS Subpoenas: Meta and Google Users Targeted Over Anti-ICE Posts

Big Tech Confirms DHS Subpoenas: Meta and Google Users Targeted Over Anti-ICE Posts
Major tech firms acknowledged they have complied with DHS subpoenas aiming to ID anti-ICE protestors

7️⃣ Nachdem Elon Musk Twitter übernommen, das Team entliess, dass Hassrede etc. moderieren sollte und sogar gebannte Personen wieder auf die Plattform einlud, begannen Werber sich zurückzuziehen, aus Angst um ihren Ruf. Eine Richterin hat nun entschieden, dass dieser gemeinsame Schritt nicht gegen das Kartellrecht verstosse. Im Übrigen sähe es so aus, dass Musk mittels der Discovery-Phase vor den Verhandlungen vor allem an Geschäftsinterna der Firmen gelangen wollte.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/03/elon-musk-loses-big-in-court-x-boycott-perfectly-legal/?utm_social-type=owned

Tech stocks suffer their worst week in almost a year, driven by the Iran war and Meta's legal defeats; Meta fell 11%, Alphabet fell ~9%, and Microsoft fell ~7% (Ari Levy/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/27/tech-stocks-iran-war-meta-verdict.html

Tech stocks suffer worst week in nearly a year, driven down by war worries, Meta legal woes
Meta's twin legal defeats this week and a big selloff in Micron spurred a drop in technology stocks, which were broadly hit by rising oil prices.

It's so scary and painful to watch the speed and enthusiasm with which the bastion of software freedom that we built the past 40 years is being ripped apart by rust-infatuated drones doing Big Tech's biddings. Remove Copyleft protection at all cost so that we can steal all your work for our proprietary evils.
"So this is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause" -- Padmé Amidala
#FreeSoftware

Let's stop calling them "big tech" and start calling them "tech oligarchs".
"Big tech" is too ambiguous. E.g. Linux could be called "big tech" too.
Also the problematic aspect is immediately revealed: the individuals at the top, their corruption and misuse of the power.

Det var på tide med en god artikel om alternativerne hos DR! https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/viden/teknologi/kan-man-klare-sig-uden-amerikansk-big-tech-her-er-nogle-af-alternativerne

Vom AI-Hype zur AI-Angst: Warum Tech-Aktien 2026 so stark verlieren
Backlash: Big-Tech-Aktien notieren seit Jahresbeginn im Minus. Die Wall Street ist über das Disruptionspotenzial besorgt.
https://www.…

Big Tech – ZDFinfo zeichnet das beunruhigende Porträt von Google, Meta, Amazon & Co: Aus einst idealistischen Start-ups wurden Datenkraken, deren Algorithmen entscheiden, was wir sehen, denken und wählen. Eine Warnung vor Datenmacht, Manipulation und demokratischer Fragilität. Pflichtsendung! #BigTech #Datenschutz

Exclusive: Big Tech companies band together to fight global scams
https://www.axios.com/2026/03/16/tech-companies-scam-accord-google-meta-amazon

Exclusive: Tech, retail companies band together to fight global scams
Scammers have only become more organized and impactful in recent years, forcing tech companies to rethink their strategies for protecting their users.

Many are surprised as the owners/managers of big high-tech companies have embraced and paid de facto bribes to trump.
I was part of the silicon valley (and Boston) era when those now-huge companies got started.
Having observed many of the people who controlled those then-new companies, I am not surprised that those companies are now institutions of political reaction and economic concentration.
Back then the Silicon valley was filled with cocaine and money-worshiping people…

Court docs: Zuckerberg texted Musk approvingly about his work with DOGE in February 2025, offering to "take down content doxxing or threatening" DOGE staffers (Karissa Bell/Engadget)
https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/mark-zuc

Mark Zuckerberg offered to 'help' Elon Musk with DOGE in 2025
According to court documents, Mark Zuckerberg texted Musk approvingly about his work with the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Zwei #Podcast Tipps zum Abend:
Im Hörsaal klärt Martin Andree noch einmal sehr kurzweilig darüber auf, dass das Versprechen der Techkonzerne von freien Internet eine Lüge ist und sie an der digitalen Oligarchie arbeiten.
Hörsaal - Deutschlandfunk Nova: Populismus als Waffe - Wie Big Tech Demokratie und Öffentlichkeit kaputtmacht
Webseite der Episode:

The Guardian view on changes to copyright laws: authors should be protected over big tech
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/13/the-guardian-view-on…

Cowboys Interested in Explosive 6-foot-3 WR Ahead of 2026 NFL Draft https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/onsi/draft/dallas-cowboys-interested-explosive-6-foot-3-wr-2026-nfl-draft

Der "Big Tech Tobacco Moment", analysiert von @… :
"Es geht um viel mehr. Das Urteil könnte die Big-Tech-Konzerne in ihrem Innersten treffen, weil es nicht auf die Inhalte, sondern die Plattformlogik zielt: Infinite Scroll, Autoplay, Benachrichtigungen, Filter Bubble und Echokammer."
und:
"Wenn die Plattform bei den Teenag…

Comments by heads of Amazon, Microsoft, Anthropic, OpenAI and others, many delivered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, reveal a shift of narrative from optimistic inevitability towards recognition of geopolitical tensions, energy scarcity, economic bubbles and the race to make AI truly useful.
https://www.

Big tech leaders opine on the future of AI
Big tech leaders have been opining this week, on the future of AI, taking on the bubble talk, resource constraints and opportunities.

Da wir ja jetzt alle Big Tech verlassen wollen, so #DIDay und so, und vielleicht gilt das ja auch für Medium Tech: Kennt jemand eine gute, freie Alternative zu #Komoot? Es gibt ja tolle freie Kartenanwendungen wie @…

Everything Big Tech gets shittier and shittier. Yes I'm using an Android phone, bad. This is all self-inflicted.
Wondering about the weather tomorrow, I click "26 Feb Tomorrow" (yes it lists "Wed 25 Feb (2026)" for today, and "Fri" for the day after tomorrow, but the day of tomorrow shall not be named, apparently.).
It takes me to a website with ads (terrible!). But it lists "Tue 30". There isn't a Tue 30 in January, February, n…

Bonusaflevering: Big Tech in de cockpit | NPO Start
#Argos #CCA

By 2027, 2.5 million French civil servants will stop using video conference tools from U.S. providers — including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex and GoTo Meeting — and switch to Visio, a homegrown service.
https://apnews.com/article/europe-digital…

France dumps Zoom and Teams as Europe seeks digital autonomy from the US
European governments are moving away from U.S. tech giants, opting for domestic or open-source alternatives. France plans to replace Zoom and Teams with a homegrown video conference system by 2027. Austria's military has adopted open-source office software, and a German state has switched to free software for administrative tasks. This shift aims for “digital sovereignty” amid concerns over data privacy and reliance on U.S. companies. The movement has gained momentum due to geopolitical ten…

Frankreich nimmt die digitale Souveränität selbst in die Hand. Mit der flächendeckenden Einführung der Videokonferenzplattform Visio verabschiedet sich der Staat von US-Diensten wie Microsoft Teams und Zoom.
Zum Artikel: https://heise.de/-11155120?wt_mc=sm.re<…

Mistral and Accenture sign a multi-year deal to let Accenture deploy Mistral's models for its clients; Mistral has deals with IBM, Cisco, SAP, ASML, and others (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/mistral-ai-lan

Is this the disturbed view of AI / BigTech optimists, or does he have a point?
"Something Big Is Happening"
#ai

Something Big Is Happening
A personal note for non-tech friends and family on what AI is starting to change.

Gruselig! 😬
Hörsaal - Deutschlandfunk Nova: Digital-Oligarchie - Der Rechtsruck der Big-Tech-Bosse
Webseite der Episode: https://www.deutschlandfunknova.de/beitrag/digital-oligarchie-der-rechtsruck-der-big-tech-bosse
Medi…

Der Rechtsruck der Big-Tech-Bosse
In der Ideologie der US-Tech-Bosse und in der aktuellen US-Politik macht der Politikwissenschaftler Christopher Coenen faschistische Tendenzen aus.

Digital Networks Act: EU verzichtet angeblich auf Milliardenstrafen für Big Tech
Der Digital Networks Act sollte Big Tech zur Kasse bitten. Doch statt harter Regulierung erwarten Netflix, Google und Meta nun Dialog und Handreichungen.

SOTU: Trump says he told tech companies they must build their own power plants for their data centers; sources: the WH expects to formalize the effort in March (Richard Valdmanis/Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/tr

US Big Tech companies have been on an energy-related hiring spree; Workforce.AI says Microsoft has hired 570 people with energy-related expertise since 2022 (Tasmin Lockwood/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/14/big-tech-google-microsoft-energy-hiring-ai.html…

Big Tech is poaching energy talent to fuel its AI ambitions
Hires of energy-related talent by Big Tech was 30% higher in 2025 than pre-AI levels.

heise | Tschüss, Big Tech: Gmail-Postfach exportieren und E-Mails löschen
Sie haben Ihren E-Mail-Anbieter gewechselt? Dann müssen Sie jetzt noch Ihren Datenschatz aus dem alten Postfach heben. Wir erklären, wie das geht.

Zo typerend dit,
"DNB laat na vragen in eerste instantie weten dat e-mail niet toegankelijk is voor Microsoft omdat de berichten ‘end-to-end beveiligd blijven’. Geconfronteerd met het oordeel van security-experts, erkent de bank vervolgens dat dit antwoord onjuist is en dat ‘technische toegang’ tot de data in ‘uitzonderlijke scenario’s’ mogelijk is."

De Nederlandsche Bank waarschuwt voor big tech, maar draait zelf op Microsoft
De Nederlandsche Bank maakt volop gebruik van systemen van Microsoft, waarin de Amerikanen kunnen meekijken. Bovendien schroefde DNB de beveiliging van e-mail verder terug. Terwijl de bank eerder waarschuwde voor afhankelijkheid van big tech en het ‘gure geopolitieke klimaat’.

Q&A with Skild AI CEO Deepak Pathak on building a general-purpose brain for robots, standing out among big tech's robotics efforts, the path to AGI, and more (Alex Heath/Sources)
https://sources.news/p/skild-ai-ceo-robotics-brain-davos

Skild AI's CEO on building one brain for every robot
My full Sources Live interview with Skild AI CEO Deepak Pathak from Davos.

Apple, whose capital expenditure is just a fraction of its peers, is the only Big Tech company that saw capex decline YoY in Q4, decreasing 19% to $2.37B (Rani Molla/Sherwood News)
https://sherwood.news/tech/apple-is-the-only-big-tech-company-…

Apple is the only Big Tech company whose capex declined last quarter
One of these companies is not like the others.

Der "Big Tech Tobacco Moment", analysiert von @… :
"Es geht um viel mehr. Das Urteil könnte die Big-Tech-Konzerne in ihrem Innersten treffen, weil es nicht auf die Inhalte, sondern die Plattformlogik zielt: Infinite Scroll, Autoplay, Benachrichtigungen, Filter Bubble und Echokammer."
und:
"Wenn die Plattform bei den Teenag…

Q&A with New Mexico AG Raúl Torrez about the New Mexico and LA social media trials, Big Tech's "Big Tobacco" moment, what it means for Congress, and more (Tyler Katzenberger/Politico)
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/digit

A look at the fundamental questions facing OpenAI: its models have a very large user base but very narrow engagement, incumbents are matching its tech, and more (Benedict Evans)
https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2026/2/19/how-will-openai-compete-nkg2x

How will OpenAI compete? — Benedict Evans
OpenAI has some big questions. It doesn’t have unique tech. It has a big user base, but with limited engagement and stickiness and no network effect. The incumbents have matched the tech and are leveraging their product and distribution. And a lot of the value and leverage will come from new experie

Ruling in the LA bellwether case could impact Meta and other platforms, opening up a flood of litigation challenging product design and bypassing Section 230 (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/do-back-to-back-courtroom-losses-her…

Arizona sues Kalshi for allegedly operating an illegal gambling business and unlawfully facilitating betting on elections; Kalshi faces a similar suit in Nevada (Anna Washenko/Engadget)
https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/arizona-

Arizona attorney general sues Kalshi on illegal gambling charges
Kalshi has been sued by Arizona's attorney general, the latest state-level accusation that the prediction market is an unlicensed gambling business.

Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Meta, Amazon, OpenAI, Adobe, and Match sign a voluntary pledge to share threat intelligence on scammers abusing their services (Sam Sabin/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2026/03/16/tech-companies-scam-accord-google-meta-amazon…

Exclusive: Big Tech companies band together to fight global scams
Scammers have only become more organized and impactful in recent years, forcing tech companies to rethink their strategies for protecting their users.

The EU gives Google a six-month deadline to lift technical barriers to rival AI search assistants on Android and give key data to other search engine providers (Samuel Stolton/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-…

Google Android Told by EU to Open Up to Rival AI Systems
Google was handed a six-month European Union deadline to lift technical barriers to rival AI search assistants on Android and give key data to other search engine providers in the latest round of its Big Tech crackdown.

Amazon, Google, and Microsoft reported a collective $1.1T backlog of cloud computing revenue in their latest quarterly earnings, including Microsoft's $625B (Jon Keegan/Sherwood News)
https://sherwood.news/tech/big-techs-usd1-1-trillion-cloud-computing-backl…

Big Tech’s $1.1 trillion cloud computing backlog
White-hot demand for cloud computing has created a backlog of revenue that Big Cloud can’t fulfill due to infrastructure constraints.

Analysis: the top US tech companies spent $109M on DC lobbying in 2025, topping $100M for the first time; Meta spent $26.29M, Amazon $17.78M, and Google $13.1M (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-…

A look at the US tech industry's effort to influence Californian politics: fighting the 5% billionaire tax, super PACs, and seeking a new tech-friendly governor (Dara Kerr/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/15/californ…

DeepSeek researchers detail a new mHC architecture they used to train 3B, 9B, and 27B models, finding it scaled without adding significant computational burden (Vincent Chow/South China Morning Post)
https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article

DeepSeek opens 2026 with paper signalling race to train bigger models for less
DeepSeek has published a technical paper co-authored by founder Liang Wenfeng proposing a rethink of its core deep learning architecture.

The World Economic Forum in Davos is now dominated by tech giants, whose interests shunt aside topics like climate change, as Trump and AI take center stage (Peter S. Goodman/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/business/davos-trump.html

A.I., Big Tech and Trump Shine Most Brightly at the Davos Spectacle
The World Economic Forum is now dominated by global technology companies whose interests shunt aside most others.

GPT-5.3-Codex and Claude Opus 4.6 can handle the full app development lifecycle on their own, a sign of what's coming for most knowledge work within five years (Matt Shumer)
https://shumer.dev/something-big-is-happening

Something Big Is Happening
A personal note for non-tech friends and family on what AI is starting to change.

Poland's President Karol Nawrocki vetoes legislation meant to enforce the EU's DSA in Poland, arguing it would grant excessive powers to government officials (Wojciech Kość/Politico)
https://www.politico.eu/article/polish-pre

Polish president aligns with Trump to block Brussels’ Big Tech law
Nawrocki called EU social media law “Orwellian,” echoing Washington’s main line of attack.

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson says the agency is examining Big Tech's acqui-hires to make sure "they are not an attempt to get around" its merger review process (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Google unveils Home updates to fix a long list of annoyances and idiosyncrasies, and debuts Live Search to let Gemini analyze and describe live camera feeds (Thomas Ricker/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/tech/888008/big-google-home-updat…

Big Google Home update lets Gemini describe live camera feeds
Google Home updates fix a long list of annoyances and introduces Live Search to give Gemini the power to describe what your cameras see.

The US Senate passed COPPA 2.0 again, which would create new protections for young users; the bill now heads to the House, where it has struggled to pass (Anna Washenko/Engadget)
https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/coppa-20-passes-the-sen…

COPPA 2.0 passes the Senate again, unanimously this time
Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, aims to create new online protections for younger users and their personal data.

Anthropic partners with CodePath to help redesign computer coding curricula at hundreds of US community and state colleges, integrating Claude AI tools (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-take…

A look at "tokenmaxxing", a status game where employees at a number of companies compete on leaderboards to show how much AI they're using (Kevin Roose/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/technol

More! More! More! Tech Workers Max Out Their A.I. Use.
At a number of companies, employees compete on leaderboards to show how much A.I. they’re using. They’re racking up big bills along the way.

Sources: Meta has revived a previously shelved smartwatch project, now code-named Malibu 2, and plans to release it in 2026 with health features and Meta AI (Jyoti Mann/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/meta-revives-plan-smart-…

Meta Revives Plan for Smart Watch, Targets 2026 Launch
Meta Platforms plans to release its first smartwatch in 2026, according to two people familiar with the matter. Meta’s plans come as other big tech companies, including Apple, OpenAI and Google, are stepping up their plans for new consumer devices. The company has revived a previously shelved ...