Tech Gets Real

New British Prime Minister Andy Burnham used a major UN speech to announce a pushback against Russian online disinformation campaigns that fuel far-right unrest in the UK. We need to see the details, because there’s a risk of fueling far-right persecution claims if this is not handled with care.

Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control at a time of rapid technological change. I'm Berlin-based tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful.

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REFERENCES:

Video of Andy Burnham’s UN speech https://media.un.org/avlibrary/en/asset/d363/d3630670

Text of the speech https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-at-unga-22-september-2026

Byline Times on Russian disinformation https://bylinetimes.com/2022/03/17/putins-willing-disinformation-agents/

2025 study on far right sharing disinformation https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/19401612241311886

Guardian on far-right violence in Portsmouth https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2026/sep/08/how-a-black-clad-christian-vigilante-group-swarmed-portsmouth

Guardian on far-right activist Daniel Thomas attacking dinghy https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/sep/24/police-arrest-far-right-activist-daniel-thomas-after-dinghy-slashed-channel

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday proposed a wide-ranging “alliance for the future” between his country and the European Union. It was all about self-preservation in the face of Trump’s America – and a lot of it was about tech sovereignty, particularly regarding AI and its infrastructure.

(Sorry for mangling “Bruegel”…)

Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control at a time of rapid technological change. I'm Berlin-based tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful.

To contact me, please email [email protected] or connect on:

Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.eurosky.social

Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmeyer2/

REFERENCES:

Full video of Carney’s speech https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/video/formal-sitting-with-mark-carney-canadian-prime-minister-address-by-mark-carney-canadian-prime-minister_I294232

Official transcript (slightly different) of the speech https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/speeches/2026/09/17/prime-minister-carney-delivers-address-european-parliament

My ISMG article on Carney’s address https://www.govinfosecurity.com/canadian-pm-floats-tech-sovereignty-alliance-europe-a-32856

Europe 2031 estimates of EU compute capacity https://europe2031.ai/compute-forecast/

Bruegel analysis of Europe’s comparative disadvantage in compute capacity https://www.bruegel.org/policy-brief/how-can-europe-address-its-pressing-ai-compute-infrastructure-shortfall

Report on Canadian data center capacity https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/politics/2026/07/08/canada-data-centre-capacity-could-soar-to-20-gw-in-planned-projects-government-document/

Anthropic has not given UK and European AI officials access to Mythos 5.1, its latest powerful model, seemingly because the Trump administration won’t allow it. There’s no easy explanation for this – especially as OpenAI is being allowed to grant similar access to its latest model,

Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control at a time of rapid technological change. I'm Berlin-based tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful.

To contact me, please email [email protected] or connect on:

Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.eurosky.social

Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmeyer2/

REFERENCES:

Financial Times on UK AI Security Institute being shut out https://www.ft.com/content/560e1c8b-f163-4fd6-b604-e905550ac870

My ISMG article on Anthropic’s Mythos access promise https://www.databreachtoday.com/europe-edges-closer-to-claude-mythos-access-a-31827

FedScoop on CAISI being underfunded https://fedscoop.com/caisi-would-benefit-from-more-resources-ostp-director-tells-lawmakers/

Protect Democracy on Trump voluntary AI framework lawsuit https://protectdemocracy.org/work/uncovering-the-trump-administrations-secret-rules-for-ai-model-release/

Anthropic announcement of Mythos 5.1 and Fable 5.1 https://www.anthropic.com/claude-fable-and-mythos-5-1

Jacob Coxon’s X posts on AI risks https://x.com/hilbertspaess/status/2097476196791709843

Anthropic post on Mythos security https://www.anthropic.com/research/alignment-assessment-cybersecurity-incidents

Europe’s attitude towards data retention – seeing it as mass surveillance anytime people’s information is indiscriminately collected and stored – may be changing, judging from a new opinion from the chief adviser to the EU’s highest court, the Court of Justice.

Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control at a time of rapid technological change. I'm Berlin-based tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful.

To contact me, please email [email protected] or connect on:

Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.eurosky.social

Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmeyer2/

REFERENCES:

Digital Rights Ireland ruling https://infocuria.curia.europa.eu/tabs/affair?sort=AFF_NUM-DESC&searchTerm=%2522C%252D293%252F12%2522&publishedId=C-293%2F12

Tele2 Sverige / Watson ruling https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:62015CJ0203

La Quadrature du Net I ruling https://infocuria.curia.europa.eu/tabs/affair?lang=en&sort=AFF_NUM-DESC&searchTerm=%2522c%252D511%252F18%2522&publishedId=c-511%2F18

Irish Garda-Dwyer ruling https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:62020CJ0140

German SpaceNet ruling https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:62019CJ0793

La Quad II ruling https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:62021CJ0470

Szpunar’s opinion in the present case (Académie Fiscale) https://infocuria.curia.europa.eu/tabs/jurisprudence?sort=DOC_DATE-DESC&searchTerm=%2522C%252D661%252F24%2522&publishedId=C-661%2F24

We’re used to manufacturers leaving smart devices buggy or completely abandoning them for various reasons. But AI is now proving useful for reverse-engineering firmware – which clearly presents big cybersecurity risks as well as opportunities for taking real ownership of one’s own possessions – and new European laws also promise to force manufacturers to take longevity more seriously.

Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control at a time of rapid technological change. I'm Berlin-based tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful.

To contact me, please email [email protected] or connect on:

Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.eurosky.social

Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmeyer2/

REFERENCES:

The Guardian on European heatwave deaths https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/25/at-least-35000-excess-deaths-europe-back-to-back-heatwaves

Chaz Schlarp’s blogpost on reverse-engineering peripherals https://schlarp.com/posts/everything-i-own-owned/

Tech Radar on Spotify Car Thing’s revival https://www.techradar.com/audio/four-years-after-its-untimely-demise-spotify-car-thing-is-back-for-free-and-with-absolutely-no-help-from-the-streaming-giant-itself

Mira on GitHub https://github.com/mira-thing/mira-releases/releases#release-v1.1.0

European Commission on Right to Repair Directive https://commission.europa.eu/news-and-media/news/right-repair-new-consumer-rights-easy-and-attractive-repairs-2026-07-31_en

Cyber Resilience Act https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/cyber-resilience-act

My ISMG article on Cyber Resilience Act guidance https://www.bankinfosecurity.net/iot-sector-given-final-eu-cyber-resilience-act-guidance-a-32349

In the wake of OpenAI’s accidental hack of Hugging Face, over 1,000 luminaries from the AI industry have called for an international agreement on slowing down the pace of AI development – signatories include Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. That kind of deal is unlikely. But without it, unconstrained capitalism won’t allow any company to slow down unilaterally.

Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control at a time of rapid technological change. I'm Berlin-based tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful.

To contact me, please email [email protected] or connect on:

Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.eurosky.social

Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmeyer2/

REFERENCES:

Hugging Face post-mortem on OpenAI incident https://huggingface.co/blog/agent-intrusion-technical-timeline

Announcement of AI Kill Switch Act bill https://lieu.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-lieu-and-moran-introduce-bill-require-kill-switch-ai-systems-can

Pacing the Frontier petition https://www.pacingthefrontier.com/

Wikipedia article on previous call for an AI development pause https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pause_Giant_AI_Experiments:_An_Open_Letter

Reuters on suspicious activity of OpenAI agents https://www.reuters.com/business/its-ai-agent-spent-days-hacking-company-sources-say-openai-did-not-notice-week-2026-07-24/

China’s AI companies have become a huge threat to their US rivals with their more open models, with the likes of Kimi K3, GLM-5.2 and Qwen 3.8 now almost rivalling Anthropic and OpenAI’s best efforts. The Trump administration will soon need to make a decision about how or whether to try to control those Chinese models and the open-source AI movement in general – and China will need to consider whether the many benefits of open AI are worth the risks.

Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change, presented from a European perspective. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful.

REFERENCES:

Reuters on US-China AI talks https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-china-hold-ai-talks-september-sources-say-2026-07-21/

Hugging Face on its hacking incident https://huggingface.co/blog/security-incident-july-2026

The Diplomat on the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization https://thediplomat.com/2026/07/chinas-new-ai-club-the-world-artificial-intelligence-cooperation-organization/

Xi Jinping’s open AI speech http://english.scio.gov.cn/topnews/2026-07/18/content_118605932.html

Financial Times on China considering open AI controls https://www.ft.com/content/6049a031-9e9b-464c-97bb-414da04d5a6a?syn-25a6b1a6=1

Thinking Machines Lab on its Tinker release https://thinkingmachines.ai/news/introducing-inkling/

Ben Thompson’s Stratechery post on the US’s choices

https://stratechery.com/2026/whos-afraid-of-chinese-models/

David Sacks vs Dean Ball https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/2078826291638522127

It looks like there will be EU-wide age restrictions for social media and other online services that might have content or designs that are unsuitable for kids. Some claim the European Commission is about to roll out an “internet passport” to enforce this, but that’s a misreading of the situation. Thanks to a major report that just landed, we are getting more details of what we really should expect from Europe’s online child safety crackdown.

Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change, presented from a European perspective. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades.

To contact me, please email [email protected] or connect on:

Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/superglaze.eurosky.social

Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@superglaze

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidmeyerwrites

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmeyer2/

REFERENCES:

Ursula von der Leyen speech on age verification legislation https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/statement_26_1590

Child safety online report https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/d833504d-5ec3-4fac-945f-38e7d0bd5326_en?filename=Special-panel-report.pdf

“Summary” of the report https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/4c5d55f1-9072-4bb9-a263-094461525ca6_en?filename=Child-Safety-Online-summary.pdf

Interface page on national age verification plans https://www.interface-eu.org/publications/social-media-age-gating-eu

Le Monde on European Commission chastising France https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2026/07/06/eu-tells-france-to-amend-social-media-ban-law_6755209_7.html

Euronews on viral “internet passport” claims https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/07/13/no-the-eu-is-not-about-to-censor-access-to-the-internet

Guardian on Australia exploring VPN restrictions https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/11/most-popular-porn-sites-now-have-age-checks-for-australians-but-online-watchdog-to-assess-vpn-loopholes

European lawmakers are worried that Ireland will favour US Big Tech as it takes a major role in legal negotiations over the second half of 2026. The country, which largely relies on Big Tech for its tax revenues, has assumed the Presidency of the EU Council and will steer the Council’s work on bills like the Tech Sovereignty Package, the revisions to the Cybersecurity Act, and the Digital Omnibus, which could see the watering-down of the General Data Protection Regulation.

Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change, presented from a European perspective. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful.

REFERENCES:

Schwab and Echeverria’s letter to Commissioner McGrath https://enforce.ie/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Letter-to-Commissioner-McGrath-signed-by-MEP-Arias-Echeverria.pdf

Wikipedia article on Apple-EU tax dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple%E2%80%93EU_tax_dispute

Irish Times on DPC not collecting fines https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2026/01/12/data-protection-commission-owed-more-than-4-billion-in-fines/

Irish Times on Apple, Microsoft and Eli Lilly’s outsized tax role https://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/2026/02/19/three-multinational-companies-paid-close-to-50-of-states-corporate-tax-in-2024/

EU Observer on Niamh Sweeney’s selection as Irish DPC https://euobserver.com/4580/outrage-as-ireland-picks-ex-meta-lobbyist-as-new-data-protection-chief/

Politico on delayed DSA enforcement for X https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-exhales-brussels-fines-elon-musk-x/

Irish Council for Civil Liberties demanding Irish recusal https://www.iccl.ie/press-release/ireland-recuse-eu-presidency-digital-files-enforce/

The US Supreme Court’s Slaughter ruling on Monday, which overturned longstanding precedent called Humphrey’s Executor, is seriously bad news for American companies who handle Europeans’ personal data. That’s because the ruling destroyed the independence of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is an essential part of a deal that enables transatlantic data flows. And now Max Schrems, who blew up that deal’s predecessors, is going in for the kill.

Tech Gets Real is a show about staying in control in a time of rapid technological change, presented from a European perspective. I'm veteran tech journalist David Meyer, and I've been covering tech policy for two decades. If you like this, please hit like and subscribe, and share it with others who might find it useful.

REFERENCES:

US Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. Slaughter https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25-332_qn12.pdf

My 2023 Fortune article on the EU-US Data Protection Framework https://fortune.com/europe/2023/07/10/us-eu-trans-atlantic-data-privacy-framework-meta-schrems-cjeu/

Noyb’s statement on the Slaughter ruling’s implications https://noyb.eu/en/us-supreme-court-just-blew-eu-us-data-transfers

Noyb’s letter to the European Commission https://noyb.eu/sites/default/files/2026-06/Letter_noyb_EU-US_data_transfers.pdf

My most recent ISMG article on EU tech sovereignty https://www.databreachtoday.com/france-germany-boost-digital-sovereignty-push-a-32031