Project Liberty

2 July

In our newsletter, @baratunde.com argues that agency is not productivity. AI enables us to do more. But that’s not agency. That’s capability. The AI companies want us to see one axis: capabilities. Move to the right and do more. But there’s another axis, power, and we are making no progress on it.

On the @projectliberty.io Substack, @audreyt.org makes the case that we need to think of data not like oil, which gets extracted, but rather like soil, which gets tilled.

"Treating data as oil leads to one logic: extraction and concentration. I prefer a brighter picture: Data is not oil, it is soil. AI models are crops, with the key questions: Who tends the data ecology and who mends the system in the event of an error."

"For AI to truly take root in every industry and profession, what matters most is not just real-time interaction, but whether its introduction earns genuine trust. This is our opportunity: we can become pioneers of Civic AI."

On the @projectliberty.io Substack, @audreyt.org makes the case that we need to think of data not like oil, which gets extracted, but rather like soil, which gets tilled.

She writes: "Many worry that AI is assuming the shape of a 'digital coloniser.' A handful of tech giants control compute, models, and platform rules, while the rest of us simply rent intelligence.

"Once a platform pushes an update or adjusts its pricing, even a business may find that its own workflow has been quietly 'extracted.' Underneath this entirely reasonable anxiety lies a deeper question about how we understand the nature of 'data.'

Project Liberty Founder Frank McCourt spoke at @semafor.com World Economy Summit. His core message: a pro-human internet must be built on pro-human infrastructure that empowers people to control their data and online lives. For more, check out the Project Liberty Substack.

protectwhatshuman.orgProtect What’s HumanAI designed to replace people threatens our jobs, our families, and our way of life.

Have you seen the Protect What's Human ads? They're worth a watch: protectwhatshuman.org They're building a pro-human movement for commonsense regulation to keep AI safe and under our control.

protectwhatshuman.orgShare Your Story

Share your story here: protectwhatshuman.org/act/share-yo...

youtube.comCommittee on Commerce and Consumer Protection - 04/28/26YouTube video by Minnesota Senate Media Services

📺 Tune in 1:30PM ET today as our own @tomicah.bsky.social testifies to the MN Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection in support of the Digital Choice Act. Catch the livestream here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAdq...

buff.lyHow AI Reverses the Political Logic of the InternetAI governance is ultimately a question of democracy itself, writes Konstantinos Komaitis.

22 Apr

This.

Tech Policy Press@techpolicypress.bsky.social

The fundamental protocols of the internet were democratic—TCP/IP didn't care who you were. But artificial intelligence is designed to care, writes Konstantinos Komaitis. He says AI is a technology built to make democratic agency obsolete.

arstechnica.comHow our digital devices are putting our right to privacy at riskLaw professor Andrew Guthrie Ferguson chats with Ars about his new book, Your Data Will Be Used Against You.

13 Apr

Excellent interview. Featuring it in our newsletter this week!

Jennifer Ouellette@jenlucpiquant.bsky.social

How our digital devices are putting our right to privacy at risk. Law professor Andrew Guthrie Ferguson chats with Ars about his new book, "Your Data Will Be Used Against You." arstechnica.com/culture/2026...

10 Apr

Most Americans don't feel in control of what social media companies collect about them. Now there's a tool to do something about it: The Applied Social Media Lab at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society is launching a new tool to help people reclaim control.

“This project is designed to make it easier [for users] to understand what sites are doing with their data, and how out of sync their practices might be with other sites.” - @zittrain.bsky.social

hls.harvard.edu/today/transp...

10 Apr

hls.harvard.eduTransparency Hub reveals what you really agreed to online - Harvard Law SchoolA new tool from the Berkman Klein Center helps researchers and individuals understand how social media policies are evolving.

It's a tool designed to help people search, compare, and better understand the data practices of tech platforms (with support from Frank McCourt and Project Liberty).

8 Apr

AI is betting big on the 2026 midterms Ads funded by the AI industry are starting to flood the 2026 midterm elections. Super PACs from two factions of the AI industry are pumping millions of dollars into 2026 primaries, backing and attacking candidates based on where they stand on AI regulation.

What does the public think? A sizable share of the American public is anxious about AI’s impact on both individuals and communities. Our friends at Fathom published research recently on what Americans really want with AI governance. framerusercontent.com/assets/Ej8W1...

8 Apr

What are the implications of AI money in politics? 1️⃣ The AI industry is building political infrastructure for the long term. 2️⃣ A PAC on one side requires a PAC on the other. 3️⃣ The AI industry is shaping its own rules. It is both the subject and the author of its own regulation.

Public First Action calls for “reasonable guardrails” on AI to protect the public against the technology’s biggest risks. They propose a balance between federal and state regulations.

8 Apr

Leading the Future opposes state-based regulation of the AI industry. It prefers a national regulatory framework focused on accelerating positive progress in AI and to “not allow for a patchwork of state regulations to slow us down."

tinyurl.comChina’s open approach is reshaping the AI race

Happy Friday from Project Liberty! Our newsletter this week explores what Meta and YouTube’s loss in a landmark California trial on social media means for our digital future. Scroll down for more! And here’s Issue 41 of our Week in Review series. Let’s dive in 👇

18/ China’s open-source approach to frontier models is reshaping the global AI race, allowing Chinese tech giants to scale up worldwide while the US sticks to a proprietary, closed-source approach. 📖 tinyurl.com/4se6pfa9

tinyurl.comIs this a tipping point?The verdict that could change social media

19/ Thanks for reading! 🗽 This week’s newsletter on the potential impacts of Big Tech’s unprecedented courtroom defeat: tinyurl.com/y2zzmp2v Join the fight to build a better internet: projectliberty.io

16/ OpenAI suddenly shut down its flagship AI social media network Sora earlier this week as part of a broader internal refocus toward profitability and away from “side quests” as it gears up for its IPO. ▶️ tinyurl.com/3z3neuw8

tinyurl.comSora’s shutdown could be a reality check moment for AI video | TechCrunchIs this just normal corporate strategy, or are we about to see a broader pullback on AI-generated video?

tinyurl.comBluesky leans into AI with Attie, an app for building custom feeds | TechCrunchBluesky’s new app Attie uses AI to help people build custom feeds the open social networking protocol atproto.

17/ The Bluesky team launched Hattie, a standalone agentic AI assistant that lets users design their own social media algorithms – creating custom online feeds entirely via natural language prompts. 🦋 tinyurl.com/38wsznbw

14/ A new report from privacy software builder Proton found a 770% spike in the federal government’s requests for personal user data from social media companies over the past decade. 👁️ tinyurl.com/39ub8eu5

tinyurl.comGovernment requests for social media user data up 770 percent in past decade: ResearchThe federal government’s requests for social media user data has dramatically spiked over the past decade, a new report found, revealing major technology platforms reported a 770 percent incr…

tinyurl.comExclusive: Gottheimer presses Anthropic on source code leaksGottheimer's letter highlights the growing pressure on AI companies from Washington as their tools become embedded in defense and intelligence operations.

15/ Rep. Josh Gottheimer demanded that Anthropic explain a massive leak of Claude Code’s source code, citing the company’s clash with the Pentagon as a major cause for concern around its models. 💾 tinyurl.com/jynj7hbx

12/ A lawsuit alleges that Perplexity AI's "incognito mode" doesn't actually protect user privacy and that the company has been quietly retaining search data it promised not to keep. 🥷 tinyurl.com/282hvjd8

tinyurl.comPerplexity's "Incognito Mode" is a "sham," lawsuit saysGoogle, Meta, and Perplexity accused of sharing millions of chats to increase ad revenue.

tinyurl.comPupils in England are losing their thinking skills because of AI, survey suggestsTwo-thirds of secondary school teachers report a decline in core abilities such as writing and problem-solving

13/ A survey of teachers in England finds growing concern that students are leaning on AI tools so heavily that their thinking, writing, and problem-solving skills are clearly getting worse. 🧠 tinyurl.com/245ev82p

10/ A new poll finds that while AI adoption among Americans is growing, trust in model outputs is declining, a gap that suggests the technology is outpacing public confidence in its reliability and safety. 👎 tinyurl.com/3czude8w

tinyurl.comAs more Americans adopt AI tools, fewer say they can trust the results | TechCrunchAI adoption is rising in the U.S., but trust remains low, with most Americans concerned about transparency, regulation, and the technology’s broader societal impact, according to a new Quinnipiac poll...

tinyurl.comHow Europe's Digital Omnibus Could Gut Privacy ProtectionsA “move fast and break things” mindset is entering EU digital regulation, write Itxaso Domínguez de Olazábal and Chiara Casati.

11/ An essay arguing that the economic gains from AI are being captured almost entirely by its Big Tech owners, and that workers urgently need new frameworks to claim a share of the AI boom’s windfall. 🥧 tinyurl.com/mrst4c43

tinyurl.comtinyurl.com

8/ The EU's proposed Digital Omnibus regulation — a fast-tracked package of legislative changes — contains provisions that privacy advocates warn could quietly dismantle hard-won personal data protections. 🔒 tinyurl.com/3hznz8ex

tinyurl.comKey nonprofit pitches tech giants to pay $100M each for AI safety effortCalifornia-based nonprofit Common Sense Media is asking top AI firms to help fund new safety assessments — and it’s offering companies input into the process, according to documents and people close t...

9/ A major child safety nonprofit is asking top AI companies and philanthropies to contribute $100 million to launch a new AI institute that would help steer frontier models under a technical advisory board. 🛟 tinyurl.com/44eksezc

6/ A new pro-Trump AI super PAC is gearing up to spend $100m+ in the 2026 midterms, backing candidates aligned with Big Tech’s preferred agenda and testing whether AI will be a defining electoral issue. 💰 tinyurl.com/3k8df42m

tinyurl.comScoop: New pro-AI PAC preps $100M midterm blitz to boost Trump's agendaThe group has the blessing of tech mogul David Sacks.

tinyurl.comSen. Warren slams Trump administration for pressuring EU to relax tech regulationsSen. Warren said the Trump administration trade negotiations are focused on giving advantages to Trump's "tech billionaire friends."

7/ Sen. Elizabeth Warren is criticizing the Trump administration reported efforts to push European regulators to ease enforcement of tech regulation, calling it a giveaway to Silicon Valley at consumers’ expense. 📢 tinyurl.com/mtp32hzt

4/ Opposition to Palantir’s growing array of lucrative contracts with the UK government is growing, with Parliament asking whether the firm’s control over public data systems is being adequately scrutinized. 💂 tinyurl.com/4rsp2za3

tinyurl.comMP rejects Palantir’s claims that criticism of NHS England deal is ‘ideologically motivated’Committee says it was appropriate for government to seek guidance on way out of £330m deal with US data company

tinyurl.comAmazon, Microsoft dodge UK cloud market dominance designationsBoth companies have made a range of commitments to the competition authority that address the fees customers pay to change between different providers.

5/ Meanwhile, the UK's top antitrust regulator decided not to designate Amazon and Microsoft as dominant cloud services providers — letting the hyperscalers off easy just as AI intensifies their power. ⚡ tinyurl.com/fz8xv46c

2/ Meta's Oversight Board ruled that Community Notes are not a proper substitute for its fact-checking program, warning that expanding them globally could "pose significant human rights risks.” 📝 tinyurl.com/cz38rawr

tinyurl.comMeta’s Oversight Board warns that “Community Notes” aren’t a proper substitute for fact-checking globally.Duh. The quasi-independent board says that expanding Community Notes outside the US — where it launched in lieu of fact checkers in early 2025 — could “pose significant human rights risks and contribu...

tinyurl.comCalifornia to impose new AI regulations in defiance of Trump callGavin Newsom signs order to prioritize public safety and rights as president seeks to prevent ‘cumbersome’ rules

3/ California is pressing ahead with its own AI regulatory agenda with a new proposal for public safety guardrails – putting it on a collision course with the Trump administration’s efforts to kill state AI laws. 🐻 tinyurl.com/mpakb5km

1/ Back-to-back legal defeats for Meta in major child safety cases seem to finally be giving Congress the political urgency to act on kids' online safety legislation. 🦺 tinyurl.com/mdrx29b7

tinyurl.comMeta's bad week sparks Hill actionMeta's court losses are adding urgency to lawmakers' push for legislation that could reshape how social media is designed.

3 Apr

A new report from the Project Liberty Institute, Social Web Foundation, Public AI, & @modalfoundation.eurosky.social stresses the importance of continued dialogue to create shared problem definitions, priorities, and identify next steps across research, standards development, and gov communities.

projectliberty.ioAI, Agency, and Protocols: Power and Governance in Open Social Networks - Project LibertyView or download the report as a pdf here. Last month in New Delhi, on the sidelines of the AI Impact Summit, Project Liberty Institute together with the Social Web Foundation, Public AI and the Modal...

3 Apr

See the report: www.projectliberty.io/news/ai-agen...

@ivansigal.eurosky.social

3 Apr

At its core, the report calls for deeper, ongoing dialogue across regions and disciplines: ▪️ Does openness guarantee agency? ▪️ What does personal data reveal about others? ▪️ What would it mean to govern it accordingly? ▪️ Can openness survive its own business models?

Project Liberty reposted

Ivan Sigal

2 Apr

New work! Asking who controls the infrastructure of our social lives online—and what happens as AI agents mediate Co-authored with @mallory.techpolicy.social.ap.brid.gy @thelastjosh.bsky.social sh.bsky.social Sarah Nicole and Jessica Theodule @projectliberty.io www.projectliberty.io/news/ai-agen...

1 Apr

How do we know when we’re at a tipping point? Last week, a California jury might have answered it. It found Meta and YouTube legally liable for harming a young woman through addictive product design—the first verdict of its kind. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/t...