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 and tried to buy OpenAI for nearly 100 billions dollars. With his ’DOGE taskforce’ he is firing thousands of federal workers and has gained access to sensitive information of all American citizens. 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? Dr. Fabian Ferrari (Utrecht University) discusses the AI arms race between the US and China and how AI systems shape our lives. Can European governments rein in these “broligarchs” and their companies with strict EU-laws and regulations, or is there a way for us - everyday users - to opt out of big tech?

This event is a collab with Bibliotheek Utrecht and will take place in the Theaterzaal (2nd floor) at the library Neude.