I don't necessarily blame people or organizations who took money from Google 10-15 years ago.
But those who received funding in recent years or plan to in the future really deserve to get called out on it, and should expect it to be mentioned when their work is being discussed.
Tech giants are now spending hundreds of millions to systematically shape policy across the world, including donations and funding to policymakers, civil society orgs, media orgs and academia.
A decade ago, this may not have been clear to everyone. Now it really should be.
Yep this might be a kind of a subtweet.
…I've been critical about the Google/Tech Transparency Project's lack of transparency, too. And their 2017 Google Academics project may be of limited usefulness.
But sorry this is not the main issue at stake here.
https://twitter.com/WolfieChristl/status/1368897752856461314
Big tech lobbying, revolving doors, institutional corruption etc are now happening at a scale that mirrors what big oil, tobacco, finance, defense and other industries have been doing for ages.
You cannot take funding from big tech and just claim "but I am independent" anymore.
A good reason we need to set up basic IT skills classes and teach how to use free software, decentralised services etc. And also educate why these are better.
They may lack the polish of their corporate rivals BUT they respect your freedom. privacy and rights, that is priceless.
