How Big Tech wrote secrecy into EU law to hide data centres' environmental toll
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How Big Tech wrote secrecy into EU law to hide data centres' environmental toll
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Re: How Big Tech wrote secrecy into EU law to hide data centres' environmental toll
#2A french article on the same subject, but paywalled.
https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2026/04/17/comm...
Re: How Big Tech wrote secrecy into EU law to hide data centres' environmental toll
#3I find this facet of Capitalism the most concerning; fiduciary responsibility to the shareholder. It breaks the link between people and matters that concern society (like the environment, in the case of this article). In the drive to increase profit, individual legislators can be convinced to tweak a law or two for 'greater economic growth' somewhere. Over the decades, the effect is a shift in political power away from the people and into industry and ultimately into the hands of a few. I've come to think that this is what we're witnessing in the US. While we're not looking, the landscape is changing behind the scenes. Bram Vranken's quote from the article is poignant: 'Who does the Commission really represent: Big Tech or the public interest?' I often wonder what can be done by us (i.e. all people) to push back and it mostly requires a lot of effort from everyone; participation in Democracy.
Re: How Big Tech wrote secrecy into EU law to hide data centres' environmental toll
#4I find this facet of Capitalism the most concerning; fiduciary responsibility to the shareholder. It breaks the link between people and matters that concern society (like the environment, in the case of this article). In the drive to increase profit, individual legislators can be convinced to tweak a law or two for 'greater economic growth' somewhere. Over the decades, the effect is a shift in political power away fr…
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Re: How Big Tech wrote secrecy into EU law to hide data centres' environmental toll
#5I find this facet of Capitalism the most concerning; fiduciary responsibility to the shareholder. It breaks the link between people and matters that concern society (like the environment, in the case of this article). In the drive to increase profit, individual legislators can be convinced to tweak a law or two for 'greater economic growth' somewhere. Over the decades, the effect is a shift in political power away fr…
This isn't solely due to shareholder fiduciary duty. Even without such a duty, the shareholders would fire anyone who doesn't put them first. Even without shares, a sole owner of a company would also do that. No matter your position, you don't get to do things that are bad for your boss, so the ultimate bosses (whoever they are in a given system) hold all the power.
And power has a tendency to accumulate. Powerful people always use their power to increase their power. There are no exceptions.
Re: How Big Tech wrote secrecy into EU law to hide data centres' environmental toll
#6I have complete confidence the EU will realise this may violate transparency laws, it will go to court in 7-8 years, publish a response in the next 5 finally getting this law fixed in about 2040. They always get these things right, in the end
Re: How Big Tech wrote secrecy into EU law to hide data centres' environmental toll
#7I find this facet of Capitalism the most concerning; fiduciary responsibility to the shareholder. It breaks the link between people and matters that concern society (like the environment, in the case of this article). In the drive to increase profit, individual legislators can be convinced to tweak a law or two for 'greater economic growth' somewhere. Over the decades, the effect is a shift in political power away fr…
> I find this facet of Capitalism the most concerning; fiduciary responsibility to the shareholder.
That’s not the least of my concerns. My problem with capitalism is its desire to influence politics in its favor, and the utter lack of regulation amongst politicians (ie self regulation) to forbid this practice.
The whole industry of lobbying should not be allowed to exist.
Re: How Big Tech wrote secrecy into EU law to hide data centres' environmental toll
#8A french article on the same subject, but paywalled. https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2026/04/17/comm...
That’s the opposite of what we’re looking for here.
Re: How Big Tech wrote secrecy into EU law to hide data centres' environmental toll
#9I wonder if this is less about the environmental impact (which can be greenwashed as necessary), and more about the power consumption of individual data centres.
Re: How Big Tech wrote secrecy into EU law to hide data centres' environmental toll
#10I find this facet of Capitalism the most concerning; fiduciary responsibility to the shareholder. It breaks the link between people and matters that concern society (like the environment, in the case of this article). In the drive to increase profit, individual legislators can be convinced to tweak a law or two for 'greater economic growth' somewhere. Over the decades, the effect is a shift in political power away fr…
This isn't solely due to shareholder fiduciary duty. Even without such a duty, the shareholders would fire anyone who doesn't put them first. Even without shares, a sole owner of a company would also do that. No matter your position, you don't get to do things that are bad for your boss, so the ultimate bosses (whoever they are in a given system) hold all the power. And power has a tendency to accumulate. Powerful pe…
That's an Ayn Rand type black and white view of society. Not so long ago, companies were supposed to (and many did) care for continuity, in a broad sense: survival, labor, customer, and product. Nowadays, you would add environment too. Shares were a way of getting more interest than a savings account. Heck, there were even cooperations in which the laborers were shareholders as well.
The word you are looking for is greed.