Thank you so much. These are worrying times. I used to watch many news channels including BBC, Sky, CNN. I don’t watch any now; neither do I read Guardian or Observer unless I trust the journalist. I have voted Labour all my life and had hope that things would be better but sadly disappointed. I don’t trust any politician, they would mostly sell the country short!! I wondered why Starmer and Mandelson were cosying up so much to Trump and Palantir, it’s pretty clear now and I didn’t vote for this. Trump is one evil man as are his mates, only fools would trust the word of a convicted felon, rapist, racist and I could go on………
Agree. I don’t know what Starmer s thinking is, but he sounds desperate to me. I understand the UK economy is in bad shape and that china has been pulling the strings for a decade. What ever happened to Cool Britannia?
It's great you've got so many subscribers - but isn't Substack just another corner of Broligarchy? It's funded by vulture capitalists (specifically those who have the hubris to think their job is the only one not at risk from AI - ha!) and so enshittification is pretty much a done deal, no?
IMHO you (and everyone else on here) would be much better off using Ghost https://ghost.org - it's open source and run by a non-profit. Much more values aligned and much less risk of enshittification.
I guess the challenge (as ever) is getting people to overcome inertia, network effects, and perceived ease of use.
Hey Josef, yes, we actually talk about this in the conversation with Yancey and Kyle. The Citizens joined Ghost for that exact reason and ideally, when I get a bit more organised, I'd mirror my content there. But, I'm on Twitter for the reason that people are there and I'm here for the same reason.
I think the people who left Twitter in the very early days of Elon Musk's reign had the right idea, and I read lots of very convincing arguments back then about why it was the right thing to do, but then ended up staying on for the same reason.
For me the Nazi salutes were the red line that led me to immediately delete my numerous accounts (personal, and for lots of different projects) on there. I don't miss it at all.
PS - I'd happily host an instance of Ghost for you if need be (I've got a dedicated server with space capacity). Or help you to get set-up on a server of your own. Also, it looks like you can export your Substack subscribers https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/6314498343700-How-do-I-export-my-email-list-on-Substack so you could conceivably take those with you (say, perhaps, once your numbers stop growing so quickly) and then just close this down (or not, as the case may be).
Great piece. Some emerging evil to look out for there, for sure.
I like Substack… it’s my new doomscrolling go-to, but with (for now at least) a high proportion of excellent content and writers. The percentage is dropping though… I sense an increasing number of listicles and similar internet slop slithering in from other platforms. Some kind of ‘reels’ can’t be far away…
This left me feeling rather overwhelmed by the seemingly bleak inevitability of these type of menage a trois between big tech, amoral power lobbyists, and currently sitting politicians. I appreciate the inside glimpses but as a very ordinary bystander I don’t think fighting to legislate against boogeyman like Citizens United is going to make a dent.
Could the tariffs actually be a leverage point for Trump to force other nations to allow unrestricted unregulated access to their populations by Silicon Valley?
This would give Meta, Google, Nividia, etc the same power in all western democracies that they enjoy in the United States to form enough manipulation, brain washing , and control via social media, via right wing g populism.
The only time Donald Trump really made money was through licensee deals, correct ? And from the last US election, we know that Trump has licensed himself and his presidency out to Silicon Valley so is it plausible that Trump is doing everything he can domestic and foreign policy to bring about the “ acceleration” ( what Mark Andreesen and the radicals call it).
So in this frame, the tariffs can be seen as putting a gun to the head of other countries. Forcing them to de-regulate and open their mass communications without oversight or regulation nor privacy to the brokigarchs.
Great post Carole. A prelude to what's to come: Trump sacked the head of the US Copyright Office at the weekend, hours after she authored a report on AI and copyright that leaned towards creators. That followed the sacking of her boss, the head of the Library of Congress (the Copyright Office is a part of the LoC), a couple of days earlier. It comes amid intense lobbying by the hi-techs to scrap copyright protections for creative industries so AI developers can let rip on their content without consent or compensation, and face zero consequences. If Trump sacked her because it wasn't the conclusion he wanted then it almost certainly means the AI Action Plan will declare generative model training to be a fair use of copyrighted works, and, ultimately, we'll enter a post-copyright era in which everything is - to use a phrase coined by a Microsoft chief - "freeware on the open web". More: https://grahamlovelace.substack.com/p/trump-fires-copyright-office-chief
Oh lordy! Mandelson knows we'll just love chlorinated chicken, he who can tell his guacamole from his mushy peas. (PS Thanks so much Carole for this remarkably illuminating post.)
Looks like Starmer/Mandelson have said 'Yes please Mr President, make the UK one of your vassal states'. Although Trump probably doesn't even know what 'vassal' means Starmer/Mandelson should at least have some inkling of what 'Partnership' means in Trump-speak. It has nothing to do with Make the UK Great Again"
The proof will be in the UK signing up for Altman's "OpenAI For Countries" and "World" identity management, and building all this on Ellison's Oracle and Palantir's outrageously expensive technology as tribute to the US Broligarchy. Rather than leveraging open-source and supporting UK innovation.
I'm appalled at the apparent naivety of this government. It's not about chlorinated chicken, but we seem to be about to give all our data to the regime of a fascist dictator and his oligarch buddies. I thought that bending your knee to Trump was worth it if you could gain a multi billion dollar contract from the government by doing so, but Keir seems to be bending his knee and opening the UK up for grabs. It's enough to make me want to move to Tasmania.
I believe we should wait and see how Mandelson works his magic in Washington. He was an effective Cabinet minister in both Blair’s and Brown’s governments in the 1997-2010 Labour government. I doubt if he would sell out Starmer’s government but there is always the possibility that he may be fooled into sharing data that should either be secret or paid for. There is a problem with Britain politics at the moment by the name of Farage. Unless this problem is solved soon we may end up with a Trump tribute act in power in Downing Street.
Late to comment on this as I'm a new subscriber but this deal is very scary indeed. A right wing, surveillance and psychological manipulation company (who's owner has funded think tanks promoting homophobia, religious fundamentalism, racism and reduced reproductive rights for women) masquerading as health care is a terrible idea. Add to this the public were scheduled to pay £300m+ to Palantir for the privilege. The original deal contract under the Tory government was 70% redacted to hide what is being offered from public view.
I wrote to my MP back then and was told "Palantir was awarded the FDP contract on 21 November 2023 for a contractual period of seven years. When asked about patient data then, the Department of Health and Social Care said the NHS 'will retain all ownership and rights to all data contained within the platform and at no time do the rights to use this data transfer to the supplier'." I simply don't believe this given the secrecy around the contract.
I was also told by my MP that in their opinion:
"The benefits of collaborative planning and research were demonstrated throughout the pandemic, as the NHS, in collaboration with stakeholders, sought to tackle the challenges posed by COVID-19. It is in this spirit that I support the principle of improved data sharing, which is an important step towards planning and research improvements that will ultimately save lives through improved healthcare."
...so they're going with a response based on this partnership being about improved healthcare rather than data theft.
I expect the deal is likely worse now that Starmer has been involved and been rocked by the incredible plunge in support for him now the British public has seen him and his mob is just a continuation of the previous Tory administrations only perhaps more corrupt corporate sell-outs
The crisis in journalism was entirely created by journalists.
The shocking hubris of someone to say "Our profession is doing some of the best work it’s ever done and in the eyes of the people we serve, we’re failing them" without any hint of irony is simply amazing.
No other business I know of speaks so arrogantly of their customers.
No one won a Pulitzer Prize for explaining how much progress we've made, how fast solar energy is growing, how many people have access to water, electricity and education. They won for looking at the whole wonderful course of human history and saying "look, I found a hair in the soup".
And if you keep talking about hairs in soup, one day all you see is hairs.
(The Guardian won a Pulitzer for its work on the Snowden revelations. He (figuratively) walked through the front door and dropped the files on their desk.)
Did the Paradise Papers change anything? The Panama Papers? The Paradigm Papers? The Parachute Papers?
Now journalism orgs have burned the chairs they were sitting on, they flee to tech bro financed private platforms – like this one.
More like two Johnsons and a Brown
Thank you so much. These are worrying times. I used to watch many news channels including BBC, Sky, CNN. I don’t watch any now; neither do I read Guardian or Observer unless I trust the journalist. I have voted Labour all my life and had hope that things would be better but sadly disappointed. I don’t trust any politician, they would mostly sell the country short!! I wondered why Starmer and Mandelson were cosying up so much to Trump and Palantir, it’s pretty clear now and I didn’t vote for this. Trump is one evil man as are his mates, only fools would trust the word of a convicted felon, rapist, racist and I could go on………
Agree. I don’t know what Starmer s thinking is, but he sounds desperate to me. I understand the UK economy is in bad shape and that china has been pulling the strings for a decade. What ever happened to Cool Britannia?
It's great you've got so many subscribers - but isn't Substack just another corner of Broligarchy? It's funded by vulture capitalists (specifically those who have the hubris to think their job is the only one not at risk from AI - ha!) and so enshittification is pretty much a done deal, no?
I'd be interested to know your takes on the various criticisms levelled against Substack too? See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substack#Criticism
IMHO you (and everyone else on here) would be much better off using Ghost https://ghost.org - it's open source and run by a non-profit. Much more values aligned and much less risk of enshittification.
I guess the challenge (as ever) is getting people to overcome inertia, network effects, and perceived ease of use.
Hey Josef, yes, we actually talk about this in the conversation with Yancey and Kyle. The Citizens joined Ghost for that exact reason and ideally, when I get a bit more organised, I'd mirror my content there. But, I'm on Twitter for the reason that people are there and I'm here for the same reason.
Thanks Carole. Fair enough.
I think the people who left Twitter in the very early days of Elon Musk's reign had the right idea, and I read lots of very convincing arguments back then about why it was the right thing to do, but then ended up staying on for the same reason.
For me the Nazi salutes were the red line that led me to immediately delete my numerous accounts (personal, and for lots of different projects) on there. I don't miss it at all.
But I'm not a journalist, and each to their own.
PS - I'd happily host an instance of Ghost for you if need be (I've got a dedicated server with space capacity). Or help you to get set-up on a server of your own. Also, it looks like you can export your Substack subscribers https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/6314498343700-How-do-I-export-my-email-list-on-Substack so you could conceivably take those with you (say, perhaps, once your numbers stop growing so quickly) and then just close this down (or not, as the case may be).
Great piece. Some emerging evil to look out for there, for sure.
I like Substack… it’s my new doomscrolling go-to, but with (for now at least) a high proportion of excellent content and writers. The percentage is dropping though… I sense an increasing number of listicles and similar internet slop slithering in from other platforms. Some kind of ‘reels’ can’t be far away…
This left me feeling rather overwhelmed by the seemingly bleak inevitability of these type of menage a trois between big tech, amoral power lobbyists, and currently sitting politicians. I appreciate the inside glimpses but as a very ordinary bystander I don’t think fighting to legislate against boogeyman like Citizens United is going to make a dent.
Carole,
Could the tariffs actually be a leverage point for Trump to force other nations to allow unrestricted unregulated access to their populations by Silicon Valley?
This would give Meta, Google, Nividia, etc the same power in all western democracies that they enjoy in the United States to form enough manipulation, brain washing , and control via social media, via right wing g populism.
The only time Donald Trump really made money was through licensee deals, correct ? And from the last US election, we know that Trump has licensed himself and his presidency out to Silicon Valley so is it plausible that Trump is doing everything he can domestic and foreign policy to bring about the “ acceleration” ( what Mark Andreesen and the radicals call it).
So in this frame, the tariffs can be seen as putting a gun to the head of other countries. Forcing them to de-regulate and open their mass communications without oversight or regulation nor privacy to the brokigarchs.
I have no doubt about this.
Great post Carole. A prelude to what's to come: Trump sacked the head of the US Copyright Office at the weekend, hours after she authored a report on AI and copyright that leaned towards creators. That followed the sacking of her boss, the head of the Library of Congress (the Copyright Office is a part of the LoC), a couple of days earlier. It comes amid intense lobbying by the hi-techs to scrap copyright protections for creative industries so AI developers can let rip on their content without consent or compensation, and face zero consequences. If Trump sacked her because it wasn't the conclusion he wanted then it almost certainly means the AI Action Plan will declare generative model training to be a fair use of copyrighted works, and, ultimately, we'll enter a post-copyright era in which everything is - to use a phrase coined by a Microsoft chief - "freeware on the open web". More: https://grahamlovelace.substack.com/p/trump-fires-copyright-office-chief
Oh lordy! Mandelson knows we'll just love chlorinated chicken, he who can tell his guacamole from his mushy peas. (PS Thanks so much Carole for this remarkably illuminating post.)
Canada said no being the 51st state.
Looks like Starmer/Mandelson have said 'Yes please Mr President, make the UK one of your vassal states'. Although Trump probably doesn't even know what 'vassal' means Starmer/Mandelson should at least have some inkling of what 'Partnership' means in Trump-speak. It has nothing to do with Make the UK Great Again"
The proof will be in the UK signing up for Altman's "OpenAI For Countries" and "World" identity management, and building all this on Ellison's Oracle and Palantir's outrageously expensive technology as tribute to the US Broligarchy. Rather than leveraging open-source and supporting UK innovation.
I'm appalled at the apparent naivety of this government. It's not about chlorinated chicken, but we seem to be about to give all our data to the regime of a fascist dictator and his oligarch buddies. I thought that bending your knee to Trump was worth it if you could gain a multi billion dollar contract from the government by doing so, but Keir seems to be bending his knee and opening the UK up for grabs. It's enough to make me want to move to Tasmania.
"Peace in our time"
I believe we should wait and see how Mandelson works his magic in Washington. He was an effective Cabinet minister in both Blair’s and Brown’s governments in the 1997-2010 Labour government. I doubt if he would sell out Starmer’s government but there is always the possibility that he may be fooled into sharing data that should either be secret or paid for. There is a problem with Britain politics at the moment by the name of Farage. Unless this problem is solved soon we may end up with a Trump tribute act in power in Downing Street.
I was discussing this exact thing yesterday. If one more person says chlorinated chicken to me lol. Misdirection is an art.
The trade is in Palestinian corpses.
Late to comment on this as I'm a new subscriber but this deal is very scary indeed. A right wing, surveillance and psychological manipulation company (who's owner has funded think tanks promoting homophobia, religious fundamentalism, racism and reduced reproductive rights for women) masquerading as health care is a terrible idea. Add to this the public were scheduled to pay £300m+ to Palantir for the privilege. The original deal contract under the Tory government was 70% redacted to hide what is being offered from public view.
I wrote to my MP back then and was told "Palantir was awarded the FDP contract on 21 November 2023 for a contractual period of seven years. When asked about patient data then, the Department of Health and Social Care said the NHS 'will retain all ownership and rights to all data contained within the platform and at no time do the rights to use this data transfer to the supplier'." I simply don't believe this given the secrecy around the contract.
I was also told by my MP that in their opinion:
"The benefits of collaborative planning and research were demonstrated throughout the pandemic, as the NHS, in collaboration with stakeholders, sought to tackle the challenges posed by COVID-19. It is in this spirit that I support the principle of improved data sharing, which is an important step towards planning and research improvements that will ultimately save lives through improved healthcare."
...so they're going with a response based on this partnership being about improved healthcare rather than data theft.
I expect the deal is likely worse now that Starmer has been involved and been rocked by the incredible plunge in support for him now the British public has seen him and his mob is just a continuation of the previous Tory administrations only perhaps more corrupt corporate sell-outs
The crisis in journalism was entirely created by journalists.
The shocking hubris of someone to say "Our profession is doing some of the best work it’s ever done and in the eyes of the people we serve, we’re failing them" without any hint of irony is simply amazing.
No other business I know of speaks so arrogantly of their customers.
No one won a Pulitzer Prize for explaining how much progress we've made, how fast solar energy is growing, how many people have access to water, electricity and education. They won for looking at the whole wonderful course of human history and saying "look, I found a hair in the soup".
And if you keep talking about hairs in soup, one day all you see is hairs.
(The Guardian won a Pulitzer for its work on the Snowden revelations. He (figuratively) walked through the front door and dropped the files on their desk.)
Did the Paradise Papers change anything? The Panama Papers? The Paradigm Papers? The Parachute Papers?
Now journalism orgs have burned the chairs they were sitting on, they flee to tech bro financed private platforms – like this one.
But it's the readers' fault, right ...
This is beyond scary. What are we giving up by doing this deal?