Margarida Silva
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margaridasilva.bsky.social
Margarida Silva
@margaridasilva.bsky.social
680 followers 330 following 48 posts
I research Big Tech's power and campaign to limit it at @somoamsterdam.bsky.social
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Reposted by Margarida Silva
Taking vocabulary directly from oil and gas messaging, Google calls point-source carbon capture at methane gas plants “clean, affordable, [and] reliable.”

But CCS at methane gas (or coal) power plants has never been any of those things.
Google will buy power from what may be the first large-scale gas power plant with CCS in the US blog.google/outreach-ini...
Google has previously backed enhanced geothermal, advanced nuclear and long duration storage.
🔌💡
Our first carbon capture and storage project
An overview of our support for a first-of-its-kind gas power plant with carbon capture and storage.
blog.google
" the question isn’t just how many we can build, but whether we can build them in ways that will not compromise the planet and the society they are meant to serve."
Is Europe investing strategically in the development of 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲𝘀? What are the key material and labour challenges involved?

I discuss them in this article ⏬
'Europe’s #AI strategy faces a #DataCentre dilemma'

@aida.follows.technology writes about the expansion of data infrastructure and its ecological impacts in the latest edition of our #GreenNewDeal newsletter

🔗 etui.org/ZVU

[Image credit: Data Center Map]
Reposted by Margarida Silva
To use digital technologies and AI without feeding billionaires with public data and money, and for workers to have a say over their job, EU Apply AI strategy must include

- EU public digital infrastructures
- Artificial Intelligence at Work Act

With @diegonaranjo.bsky.social
@epsu.bsky.social
Europe's Digital Future Demands Public Ownership And Worker Control
European AI strategy must prioritise democratic governance over market solutions to protect citizens' data and workers' rights.
www.socialeurope.eu
Reposted by Margarida Silva
Commission President Von der Leyen will have to explain this: barring an EVP from holding a press conference is unacceptable!
@teresaribera.ec.europa.eu has shown the courage to defend the free press instead of pandering to authoritarian leaders and monopolistic tech companies.
Reposted by Margarida Silva
The multibillion fine against Google proves that the EU can act. Google’s ad monopoly bleeds media dry. This ruling is only the first crack in Google’s monopoly in the ad tech market — but it sends a signal far beyond Europe.
Next step: structural remedies!

www.politico.eu/article/eu-s...
EU slaps Google with €2.95B fine despite Trump trade threat
Brussels hammers U.S. search giant after internal Commission feud.
www.politico.eu
Reposted by Margarida Silva
Google's monopoly power rips off consumers, pollutes our information environment, and destroys the news media.

Today's €2.95 billion fine is a start, but won't touch Google's toxic ad-tech monopoly. The EU @ec.europa.eu must hold firm and now break up Google. www.politico.eu/article/eu-s...
EU slaps Google with €2.95B fine despite Trump trade threat
Brussels hammers U.S. search giant after internal Commission feud.
www.politico.eu
Reposted by Margarida Silva
1/ 📢 Today, the Commission concluded that Google abused its dominant position in the display advertising technology industry.

Digital advertising funds much of the online free content and services we rely on today. Google controls many of the tools that make this industry work 💻 📱
Reposted by Margarida Silva
When regulation ignores workers, it risks reinforcing the very problems it aims to solve.
Kenya’s proposed Bill deserves scrutiny — and solidarity.
#Fairwork #Kenya #GigWork #PlatformLabour #WorkersFirst
Reposted by Margarida Silva
I get that AI has changed search competition and the Google antitrust case.

I also remember when the government didn't sue Google over antitrust in 2012/2013, it was partly based on the belief that mobile would jolt competition and blunt Google's power.

That belief was 100% wrong.
Reposted by Margarida Silva
It is amazing that most organizations (businesses, media, NGOs, political parties) that worried about the threat of the far right for decades have spent no time or energy to thinking how to operate in a far right world. They just continue to do the same and are surprised by a different outcome.
Reposted by Margarida Silva
Behind the grim reality of EU’s green transition → InvestEU ←

InvestEU uses public money and debt to guarantee profits for investors, claiming to unlock billions for the green transition.

But it is an illusion of climate action.

Read our full analysis ➡️ www.somo.nl/behind-investeus-trojan-logic/
Reposted by Margarida Silva
📣🚨NEW: ☁️ Big Cloud—Google, Microsoft & Amazon—control two thirds of the cloud compute market. They’re getting rich off the AI gold rush.

In new work with @nathanckim.bsky.social, we show how Big Cloud is expanding their empire by scrutinizing their *investments*… 🧵

📄PDF: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...
Reposted by Margarida Silva
Microsoft Azure hosting recordings of millions of mobile phone calls made each day by Palestinians. It is used by Israel for the preparation of deadly airstrikes and military operations. “…data may now be sitting in datacentres in the Netherlands and Ireland.”

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
‘A million calls an hour’: Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians
Revealed: The Israeli military undertook an ambitious project to store a giant trove of Palestinians’ phone calls on Microsoft’s servers in Europe
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Margarida Silva
Market investigation has recommended that the CMA use its digital markets powers to designate the 2 largest providers – Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS) – with SMS in relation to their respective digital activities in cloud services.
Cloud services market investigation
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigated the supply of public cloud infrastructure services in the UK.
www.gov.uk
Reposted by Margarida Silva
BREAKING: The European Parliament’s Employment Committee decided to maintain the Amazon lobby ban and reject a closed-door hearing with Amazon representatives. It also committed to holding another hearing and organise a visit to Amazon warehouses.
European Parliament maintains Amazon lobby ban
The European Parliament’s Employment Committee decided to maintain the Amazon lobby ban and reject a closed-door hearing with Amazon representatives.
www.uni-europa.org
Reposted by Margarida Silva
Est-ce qu'on veut mettre fin à l'évasion fiscale d’Apple ou Amazon dans les paradis fiscaux européens ?

La réponse des macronistes, de la droite et de l'extrême-droite est claire : pour eux, c'est non.

Je les interpelle en Commission des affaires économiques au Parlement 🇪🇺 ⤵️
Reposted by Margarida Silva
DMA review food for thoughts: gatekeepers or their advisers legally have the right to see submissions from third parties, while the opposite never happens.

Requiring gatekeepers fully present their compliance solution in constructive / contradictory workshops is a way of bridging that info gap
Reposted by Margarida Silva
Strategy is the art of creating power and those of us who want sovereign democratic tech are at a power disadvantage: so we must use the whole toolbox.

Break. Enforce. Build.
Reposted by Margarida Silva
- It doesn't matter that it's open source or open standards if you don't own and operate the relevant infrastructure.

- It doesn't matter that you're a data controller if there are other data controllers.

I could go on but I'm on vacation 😁
Reposted by Margarida Silva
Some examples:
- It doesn't matter that it's on your territory if someone else calls the shots (and makes you pay!).

- It doesn't matter that it's in your jurisdiction if you can't control or audit it, or it's exfiltrating value.
Past tech shifts have taught us that authorities must not wait until a market has fully consolidated to intervene.

Competition authorities need to act swiftly along the genAI value chain, from chips to platforms, to restrict US tech giants' ability to dominate genAI.

www.somo.nl/the-real-win...
The real winners of the AI Race - SOMO
Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Nvidia The so-called “AI Race” is dominating business and policy discussions on technology. With companies and states competing to conquer the developing genAI market, st...
www.somo.nl
More and more states want to enter the “AI race” to support national start-ups and promote the uptake of AI.

However, without breaking the dependency on Big Tech, public interventions in the “AI race” are likely to further entrench the power of US tech giants.
GenAI start-ups are still struggling to find a profitable business models.

But Nvidia, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are already seeing higher chips and cloud revenues.