Can we stop the techbro’s takeover?

With Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Peter Thiel (Paypal), Sundar Pichai (Google), Shou Chew (TikTok) and of course Elon Musk (X) at the front row during Donald Trump’s inauguration, it became crystal clear how powerful these billionaires are. And the way political power and big tech are seamlessly intertwined.

Within days of the new presidency, big tech adjusted their platforms – tweaking terms, algorithms, and community guidelines – to align with Trumps anti woke-ideology. Meta ended its diversity, equity and inclusion program and relaxed content-moderation guidelines, Google erased the ‘Don’t be evil’ line from their code of conduct. Musk, under the guise of promoting free speech, has made X into a den of disinformation. He even got access to very sensitive financial information of all American citizens with the ’DOGE taskforce’.

What are the techbro’s after and how do they use their political and financial power to achieve their goals? Social media researcher dr. Taylor Annabell (Utrecht University) explains that we are at a critical moment of thinking about big tech platforms and the way they collect, use and monetize data. What do we truly consent to when using their services? Can European governments rein in these “broligarchs” with strict EU-laws and regulations, or is there a way for us – everyday users – to opt out of big tech?