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Cory Doctorow argues that the global internet has become dangerously US-centric and untrustworthy, a state worsened by political forces like Donald Trump and collusion with Big Tech. He traces the problem to long-standing US surveillance practices—citing Mark Klein’s AT&T/NSA revelations—and to how concentrated American infrastructure and policy shape global data flows and governance. Doctorow warns that this concentration creates geopolitical and security risks, undermines digital sovereignty,
Concentration of infrastructure and policy in one country shapes global data flows, liability and trust models for engineers and product teams. Tech professionals must reckon with regulatory shifts, supply-chain risks and user expectations around privacy and sovereignty.
Dossier last updated: 2026-05-29 00:59:04
Cory Doctorow argues that U.S. control over key internet infrastructure and alliances between American tech companies and political power have made the global internet untrustworthy. He recounts historical episodes—like AT&T’s cooperation with the NSA exposed by Mark Klein—to illustrate how U.S. networks function as global data hubs that enable mass surveillance. Doctorow warns that recent political developments, notably under Donald Trump, accelerate centralization and politicization of internet governance, turning slow-moving risks into crises that force reactive policy shifts. The piece matters because it ties infrastructure design, corporate behavior, and political actors to risks for privacy, cross-border data flows, and the integrity of global internet governance.
Cory Doctorow argues that the U.S. has become an untrustworthy steward of the global internet, warning that American political power and Big Tech influence have concentrated control over critical infrastructure and policy. He recounts historic examples—like the AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein revealing NSA access to fibre backbones—and links current U.S. political dynamics, especially under Donald Trump, to accelerating risks: centralization, surveillance, and policy capture that force other countries to react only after crises. Doctorow says these slow-burning failures become urgent under disruptive events, and urges international action to diversify governance and infrastructure to preserve internet neutrality, privacy, and resilience. The piece matters for tech policy, cybersecurity, and global internet governance.
Cory Doctorow argues that the global internet has become dangerously US-centric and untrustworthy, a state worsened by political forces like Donald Trump and collusion with Big Tech. He traces the problem to long-standing US surveillance practices—citing Mark Klein’s AT&T/NSA revelations—and to how concentrated American infrastructure and policy shape global data flows and governance. Doctorow warns that this concentration creates geopolitical and security risks, undermines digital sovereignty, and pressures other nations to accept American control or build independent networks. The piece matters because it reframes internet governance as an urgent tech-policy and national-security issue with implications for privacy, infrastructure resilience, and international digital competition.
Adi Robertson / The Verge : The FTC settles with Cox, MindSift, and 1010 Digital Works for $930K over claims they falsely said they could use phone mics to spy on users for ad targeting — More specifically, it was fined for allegedly lying by claiming that it could. … An exceptionally weird controversy has come …
Pluralistic argues that ad-tech companies not only invade privacy but also routinely lie to users, partners and advertisers to monetize surveillance. Drawing on Tim Hwang’s Subprime Attention Crisis, the piece says targeted ads are often ineffective and that ad-tech’s rhetoric about behavioral manipulation is a sales pitch that helps these firms extract huge fees. Critics who amplify sensational claims risk becoming part of the sales ecosystem — a phenomenon dubbed “criti-hype” — by framing exaggerated risks that feed public anxiety and advertiser demand. The essay warns that dishonest tactics corrode trust across customers, suppliers, regulators and employees, and that fixing the system requires confronting both surveillance business models and the myths that sustain them.
France is accelerating a government-led shift away from US tech — spurred by tensions with the Trump administration — by replacing Zoom, Microsoft Teams and other American services with homegrown and European open-source alternatives. DINUM, France’s digital transformation ministry, has deployed LaSuite apps (Visio, Tchap, Messagerie, Fichiers, Docs, Grist) to tens of thousands of civil servants and requires data hosting in France with ANSSI-approved providers. The move emphasizes open source, local hosting, and collaboration with European firms (Outscale, Pyannote) and comes as other EU states (like the Netherlands) follow with GitHub migrations and sovereign cloud plans. The effort matters for digital sovereignty, security, and European tech ecosystems.