Pluralistic: EU ready to cave to Trump on tech (04 Apr 2026)
# Today's links
* EU ready to cave to Trump on tech: Surrendermonkeys ahoy.
* Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
* Object permanence: "Among a Thousand Fireflies"; "fiscal" not "physical"; Ontario's pusher premiere can't distribute vaccines; You need your head examined (if you trust an AI therapist); Women tell Pence about their periods; Zombie economy and digital arm-breakers; The trouble with tariffs.
* Upcoming appearances: Toronto, Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco, London, Berlin, NYC, Hay-on-Wye, London.
* Recent appearances: Where I've been.
* Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
* Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
* Colophon: All the rest.
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# EU ready to cave to Trump on tech (permalink)
Crises precipitate change. That's no reason to induce a crisis, but you'd be a fool to let a crisis go to waste. Donald Trump is the greatest crisis of our young century, and the EU looks set to squander the opportunity, to its own terrible detriment.
For more than a decade, it's been clear that the American internet was not fit for purpose. The whistleblowers Mark Klein and Edward Snowden revealed that the US had weaponized its status as the world's transoceanic fiber-optic hub to spy on the entire planet:
https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2025-11-26-difficult-multipolarism-eurostack-5a527c32f149
US tech giants flouted privacy laws, gleefully plundering the world's cash and data with products that they remorselessly enshittified:
https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/30/zucksauce/#gandersauce
American companies repurposed their over-the-air software update capabilities to remotely brick expensive machinery in service to geopolitical priorities:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors/
Then Trump and his tech companies started attacking key public institutions around the world, shutting down access for senior judges who attempted to hold Trump's international authoritarian allies to account for their crimes:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/20/post-american-internet/#huawei-with-american-characteristics
If Trump wants to steal Greenland, he doesn't need tanks or missiles. He can just tell Microsoft and Oracle to brick the entire Danish state and all of its key firms, blocking their access to their email archives, files, databases, and other key administrative tools. If Denmark _still_ holds out, Trump can brick all their tractors, smart speakers, and phones. If Denmark _still_ won't give up Greenland, Trump could blackhole all Danish IP addresses for the world's majority of transoceanic fiber. At the click of a mouse, Trump could shut down the world's supply of Lego, Ozempic, and delicious, lethally strong black licorice.
Now, these latent offensive capabilities were obvious long before Trump, but the presidents who weaponized them in the pre-Trump era did so in subtle and deniable ways, or under a state of exception (e.g. in response to spectacular terrorist attacks or in the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine) that let bystanders assure themselves that this wouldn't become a routine policy.
After all, America profited _so much_ from the status quo in which America and its trading partners all pretended that US tech wouldn't be weaponized for geopolitical aims, so a US president would be a fool to shatter the illusion. And even if the president was so emotionally incontinent that he demanded the naked weaponization of America's defective, boobytrapped tech exports, the power blocs that the president relies on would stop him, because they are so marinated in the rich broth that America drained from the world using Big Tech.
This is "status quo bias" in action. No one wants to let go of the vine they're swinging from until they have a new vine firmly in their grasp – but you can't reach the next vine unless you release your death-grip on your current one. So it was that, year after year, the world allowed itself to become _more_ dependent on America's easily weaponizable tech, making the tech both _more_ dangerous _and_ harder to escape.
Enter Trump (a crisis) (and crises precipitate change). Under Trump, the illusion of a safe interdependence crumbled. Every day, in new and increasingly alarming ways, Trump makes it clear that America doesn't have allies or trading partners, only adversaries and rivals. Every day, Trump proves to the world that American tech isn't merely _untrustworthy_ – it's a live, dire, urgent danger to your state, your companies, and your people. The best time to get shut of the American internet was 15 years ago. The second best time is _right fucking now_.
_NOW!_
The result is the burgeoning movement to build a "post-American internet." In Canada, PM Mark Carney's announcement of a "rupture" has the country rethinking its deep connections to the American internet and asking what it could do to escape it:
https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/27/i-want-to-do-it/#now-make-me-do-it
Europe, meanwhile, has multiple, advanced, well-funded initiatives to leave the American internet behind and migrate to a post-American internet, like "Eurostack" and the European Digital Infrastructure Consortium:
https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/edic
But status quo bias exerts a powerful gravity. A reactionary counterrevolution is being waged in the European Commission – the permanent bureaucracy that executes Europe's laws and regulations. Within the EC, an ascendant faction has announced plans for a "dialogue" with representatives from the Trump regime to let them direct the enforcement of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA), Europe's landmark 2024 anti-Big Tech regulations:
https://www.politico.eu/article/fatal-decision-eu-slammed-for-caving-to-us-pressure-on-digital-rules/
The DMA and DSA require America's tech giants to open up their platforms in ways that would halt the plunder of Europeans' private data and cash. US tech giants have flatly refused to comply with these rules, relying on Trump to get them out of any obligations under EU law:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/26/empty-threats/#500-million-affluent-consumers
That's a sound bet. After all, the last thing Trump did before his inauguration was publicly announce his intention to destroy any country that attempted to enforce these laws:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/23/us/politics/trump-davos-europe-tariffs.html
He's making good on his threats. He's already sanctioned a group of officials who helped draft the DSA:
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/24/nx-s1-5655855/trump-administration-bars-5-europeans-from-entry-to-the-u-s-over-alleged-censorship
And he's ordered his tech companies to turn over the private emails and messages of other European officials, so he can identify the ones most dangerous to US tech plunder and sanction _them_ , too:
https://www.politico.eu/article/us-congress-judiciary-committee-big-tech-private-communication-eu-officials/
The quislings and appeasers in the Commission who've been spooked by Trump's belligerence (or tempted by offers of cushy jobs in Big Tech after they leave public service) are selling out the EU's future. Caving to Trump won't make him more favorably disposed to Europe or Europeans. Trump treats every capitulation as a sign of weakness that signals that he can safely ignore his end of the bargain and demand twice as much. For Trump, the "art of the deal" can be summed up in one word: _reneging_.
Within the EU, there's fury at the Commission's announcement of "dialogue." As _Politico_ 's Milena Wälde reports, lawmakers like Alexandra Geese (Greens) say that this is a move that eliminates the "sovereign path for Europe" by letting tech giants "grade their own homework." She calls it a "fatal decision for our companies and our democracy."
Moving to the post-American internet _is_ hard – but it will only get harder. Sure, Europe could wait for the next crisis to let go of the Big Tech vine and grab the Eurostack one, but that next crisis will be far, far worse. The EU can't afford to wait for Trump to brick one or more of its member states to (finally, at long last) take this threat seriously:
https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/01/39c3/#the-new-coalition
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# Hey look at this (permalink)
* The Far-Right Cash Machine https://prospect.org/2026/04/02/apr-2026-magazine-far-right-cash-machine-racist-crowdfunding/
* Homocore Anthology https://www.flukemags.com/product/homocore
* Lessons from History: The DOJ vs Microsoft https://open-web-advocacy.org/blog/our-submission-to-the-cma-on-apples-ios-interoperability-commitments/#3-lessons-from-history-the-doj-vs-microsoft
* Data Sharing and Syndication Remedies in US v Google https://insights.sumitsharma.consulting/p/google-search-remedies-implementation?hide_intro_popup=true
* Who Goes AI? https://www.todayintabs.com/p/who-goes-ai
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# Object permanence (permalink)
#10yrsago Among a Thousand Fireflies: children’s book shows the sweet, alien love stories unfolding in our own backyards https://memex.craphound.com/2016/04/01/among-a-thousand-fireflies-childrens-book-shows-the-sweet-alien-love-stories-unfolding-in-our-own-backyards/
#10yrsago After biggest bribery scandal in history, police raids and investigations https://www.smh.com.au/business/police-raids-and-more-revelations-the-fallout-of-the-unaoil-scandal-20160401-gnw9mx.html
#10yrsago Bernie Sanders’ South Bronx rally, featuring Rosario Dawson, Spike Lee, and Residente https://www.c-span.org/program/campaign-2016/senator-bernie-sanders-campaign-rally-in-south-bronx/437114
#10yrsago Freshman Missouri Rep almost made it 3 months before introducing bill urging members to say “fiscal,” not “physical” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/31/hero-lawmaker-urges-colleagues-to-stop-saying-physical-when-they-mean-fiscal/
#10yrsago Indiana women phone the governor’s office to tell him about their periods https://web.archive.org/web/20160401170206/https://fusion.net/story/286941/periods-for-pence-indiana-women-calling-governor/
#10yrsago United pilot orders Arab-American family off his flight for “safety” https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/national-international/united-airlines-arab-american-plane/58370/
#10yrsago 33 state Democratic parties launder $26M from millionaires for Hillary https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/01/how-hillary-clinton-bought-the-loyalty-of-33-state-democratic-parties/
#10yrsago White SC cops pull black passenger out of car, take turns publicly cavity-searching him https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2016/04/01/video-shows-white-cops-performing-roadside-cavity-search-of-black-man/
#5yrsago The zombie economy and digital arm-breakers https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/02/innovation-unlocks-markets/#digital-arm-breakers
#5yrsago Ontario's drug-dealer premier is shockingly bad at distributing vaccines https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/01/incompetent-drug-dealer/#what-a-dope
#5yrsago The zombie economy and digital arm-breakers https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/02/innovation-unlocks-markets/#digital-arm-breakers
#1yrago What's wrong with tariffs https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/02/me-or-your-lying-eyes/#spherical-cows-on-frictionless-surfaces
#1yrago What's wrong with tariffs https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/02/me-or-your-lying-eyes/#spherical-cows-on-frictionless-surfaces
#1yrago Anyone who trusts an AI therapist needs their head examined https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/01/doctor-robo-blabbermouth/#fool-me-once-etc-etc
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# Upcoming appearances (permalink)
* Toronto: Humber Polytechnic President's Lecture Series, Apr 8
https://liberalarts.humber.ca/current-students/resources/conferences-and-lectures/presidents-lecture-series.html
* Montreal: Bronfman Lecture (McGill), Apr 10
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/artificial-intelligence-the-ultimate-disrupter-tickets-1982706623885
* Montreal: Drawn and Quarterly, Apr 10
https://mtl.drawnandquarterly.com/events/4863920260410
* Toronto: DemocracyXchange, Apr 16
https://www.democracyxchange.org/news/cory-doctorow-to-open-dxc26-on-april-16
* San Francisco: 2026 Berkeley Spring Forum on M&A and the Boardroom, Apr 23
https://www.theberkeleyforum.com/#agenda
* London: Resisting Big Tech Empires (LSBU), Apr 25
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/globaljusticenow/2042691
* NYC: Enshittification at Commonweal Ventures, Apr 29
https://luma.com/ssgfvqz8
* NYC: Techidemic with Sarah Jeong, Tochi Onyibuchi and Alia Dastagir (PEN World Voices), Apr 30
https://worldvoices.pen.org/event/techidemic/
* Berlin: Re:publica, May 18-20
https://re-publica.com/de/news/rp26-sprecher-cory-doctorow
* Berlin: Enshittification at Otherland Books, May 19
https://www.otherland-berlin.de/de/event-details/cory-doctorow.html
* Hay-on-Wye: HowTheLightGetsIn, May 22-25
https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/hay/big-ideas-2
* SXSW London, Jun 2
https://www.sxswlondon.com/session/how-big-tech-broke-the-internet-b3c4a901
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# Recent appearances (permalink)
* Do you feel screwed over by big tech? (Ontario Today)
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-45-ontario-today/clip/16203024-do-feel-screwed-big-tech
* Launch for Cindy's Cohn's "Privacy's Defender" (City Lights)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuVCm2PUalU
* Chicken Mating Harnesses (This Week in Tech)
https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech/episodes/1074
* The Virtual Jewel Box (U Utah)
https://tanner.utah.edu/podcast/enshittification-cory-doctorow-matthew-potolsky/
* Tanner Humanities Lecture (U Utah)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Yf1nSyekI
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# Latest books (permalink)
* "Canny Valley": A limited edition collection of the collages I create for Pluralistic, self-published, September 2025 https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/04/illustrious/#chairman-bruce
* "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, October 7 2025
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/
* "Picks and Shovels": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2025 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels).
* "The Bezzle": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (thebezzle.org).
* "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org).
* "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).
* "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com.
* "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com
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# Upcoming books (permalink)
* "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2026 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621568/thereversecentaursguidetolifeafterai/)
* "Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It" (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026
* "The Post-American Internet," a geopolitical sequel of sorts to _Enshittification_ , Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2027
* "Unauthorized Bread": a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2027
* "The Memex Method," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2027
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# Colophon (permalink)
Today's top sources:
**Currently writing: "The Post-American Internet," a sequel to "Enshittification," about the better world the rest of us get to have now that Trump has torched America. First draft complete. Second draft underway.**
* "The Reverse Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux about being an effective AI critic. LEGAL REVIEW AND COPYEDIT COMPLETE.
* "The Post-American Internet," a short book about internet policy in the age of Trumpism. PLANNING.
* A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING
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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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