A weekly newsletter that tells the story of how tech companies became unelected governments and what to do about it, by former Google executive and 30-year Internet veteran Jonathan Bellack.

Posts

Oct 2, 2026

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5 min read

Licence to code? Google’s Demis Hassabis is half-right about FINRA

Last week I said that the financial industry is a lousy model for AI regulation. But like finance jobs, software professionals should require licensing, ethical standards, and continued education.

Sep 25, 2026

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5 min read

Explaining AI doomerism to my dad

I don’t talk about AI much in Platformocracy. A recent email to my father does a good job of laying out my priors and biases. [tl;dr: self-regulation is weak sauce]

Sep 18, 2026

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4 min read

News roundup: the EU's age restriction proposal, a new book calls bullshit on Haidt, and another identity hack from hell

A Boston College professor calls out the moral panic over social media and the EU’s big age-restriction proposal rolls out. Plus excerpts from my other op-ed with Mariana Rosenblat.

Sep 11, 2026

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5 min read

“Blood and soil” politics are undermining our online future

A unique book about ancient Athens got me thinking about why billionaires are trying to destroy the global Internet culture that made them rich.

Sep 4, 2026

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6 min read

Summer field trip 2.3: Is Google too big to succeed?

Wrapping up my second summer field trip, is size destiny when it comes to corporate culture? A tour through my own career, from startups to a 200,000-person leviathan. Is Gemini a Google rebirth, or its last gasp of creativity?