Tactical Tech

In The Loop July 2026

10 minutes read | First published: August 3, 2026
Ana Maria speaking into a microphone on a panel

💡🔍 Is Big Tech using Big Tobacco's playbook to evade accountability and prevent regulation?

In his latest article, Tactical Tech Executive Director Marek Tuszynski examines how Big Tech has adopted the same strategies Big Tobacco once used to delay accountability and avoid regulation. The parallels are striking, and understanding them is essential for anyone working on tech policy, civil society advocacy, or journalism.
Whether it is funding doubt, hiding behind voluntary reforms, or shifting the blame onto individual users, the article shows how these strategies have become embedded in the way Big Tech operates. The result is a system that is very good at protecting itself, and very resistant to change.
machines
The five strategies used by Big Tech:
  • 🔍 Dispute and Doubt: fund sceptical research, invoke the need for "more evidence," and blame users for "poor digital habits" rather than addressing harmful product design.
  • 🔀 Distort and Deceive: reframe systemic harms as individual failures and lobby aggressively against antitrust, privacy, and content moderation rules while publicly claiming to support them.
  • 🎭 Distract and Deflect: use digital literacy programmes and AI ethics boards as reputational cover while continuing harmful practices; promise self-regulation that delivers very little.
  • 🕵️ Disguise: operate through "independent" coalitions and non-profit fronts funded by the industry; use revolving doors between government and the tech sector to shape policy from the inside.
  • 🏃 Dodge: shift profits to tax havens, exploit legal loopholes, and ensure that while profits flow to wealthy nations, the harms fall on low-income communities and countries.
🔗 Read the full article here.

🎉 SIX MONTHS IN: A LOOK BACK AT THE FIRST HALF OF 2026

It has been a full and eventful first half of the year. Here is a look at some of what we have been working on.

📐 The Toxic Triangle: an experience exploring effective solutions to social media harms affecting young people

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From social media bans to age verification, debates rage over regulations that are intended to protect young people from online harms. But are these solutions truly effective, or just stopgaps? The Toxic Triangle is an interactive experience that gives decision-makers, foundations, journalists, and NGOs an over-the-shoulder look at what young people encounter on social media and AI tools every day, and an honest view of the systems driving it. This year we have continued bringing it to audiences across Europe.
🔗 Find out more and book your Toxic Triangle Experience here.

📖 The RePlaybook: everything you need to know to respond to the climate information crisis

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The RePlaybook is the first field guide to the climate and information crisis, bringing together insights and tactics from 30 journalists, researchers, technologists, and NGOs. Edited by Tactical Tech co-founder Stephanie Hankey, it offers practical tools to decode information disorder, challenge tech narratives, and create meaningful spaces for dialogue that support climate action. The print edition is now available, and we cannot recommend it enough.
🛒 Read the RePlaybook or order your hard copy here.

🌐 The Collaborative and Investigative Journalism Initiative (CIJI): bringing new opportunities for journalists

The third edition of the Collaborative and Investigative Journalism Initiative (CIJI) is focused on critically leveraging AI and emerging technologies, exploring sustainable business models, and creating new collaborative spaces that shape a trustworthy information ecosystem. The programme offers grants, fellowships, training, and a network built on ethical standards and collaborative journalism. Tactical Tech is proud to be a core partner alongside Delfi AB, Free Press Unlimited, Fundacja Reporterów, OBC Transeuropa, and Reporters Without Borders.
🔗 Find out more about the programme here.

🤖 Supercharged Human?: ready-to-use resources to empower young people to critically confront AI

teens looking at an ipad
How do you help teenagers engage critically with AI rather than simply be shaped by it? That is the question behind "Supercharged Human?", a project developed by Save The Children, Savoir Devenir and Tactical Tech, with support from the European Union. The project is creating a multilingual playlist of educational resources, a critical AI literacy field guide for educators, and an intergenerational toolkit for use at home or in the classroom. Resources are coming soon, so register to be the first to hear about them.
🔗 Find out more here.

🚏 TACTICAL TECH ON THE ROAD

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  • 🏢 Publix Berlin has published its first impact report. In 2024, Tactical Tech moved into Publix Berlin, a hub bringing together over 30 organisations strengthening journalism and civil society in Germany. The report features an interview with our co-founder Stephanie Hankey on how the move has supported our mission. Read it here.
  • 🎬 Snowstorm Productions and Publix Berlin, in collaboration with Tactical Tech, hosted the first German screening of Molly vs. The Machines, Marc Silver's documentary about a young woman who took her own life after exposure to harmful online content. Tactical Tech co-founder Stephanie Hankey followed the screening with a presentation of The Toxic Triangle Experience. [NOTE: reference link needed]
  • 🎙️ In May, Senior Manager Ana Maria Salinas joined filmmakers, journalists, and media professionals at the Doxumentale Film Festival for a panel on the ethics of AI in documentary storytelling. Read more here.
  • 🔍 Tactical Tech brought together 40 journalists and investigators at Publix Berlin for a full day of workshops on using satellite imagery in investigations and uncovering climate disinformation, with sessions led by Vertical52 and DeSmog's Joey Grostern. Read more and check out new open calls and residencies here.
  • ➡️ On 24 April, co-founder Marek Tuszynski facilitated the "To AI or Not to AI?" workshop at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin, helping participants better understand emerging technologies and decide if and how they want to engage with them.
  • ➡️ On 8 May, Tactical Tech hosted the Toxic Triangle session at a round table event in Edinburgh, convened by Children First and supported by Inspiring Scotland and Changing Ideas, on the topic of protecting children from online harms. Leaders from children's health and civil services attended, followed by a session for children and family services practitioners.
  • ➡️ From 4 to 10 May, Tactical Tech presented the Glass Room: Misinformation Exhibition at Cyber Week in Geneva, a global platform for cyber cooperation organised by UNIDIR and the Swiss FDFA. The exhibition explores misinformation, what it is, why it spreads, and how it impacts society.
  • ➡️ On 8 May, co-founder Marek Tuszynski spoke at "Culture as Critical Infrastructure in Action" (Europe Day 2026), which brought together creatives, policymakers, and journalists to discuss safeguarding democracy, combating misinformation, and the responsible use of AI.

🤝 THE SECOND HALF IS STARTING — LET'S PLAN TOGETHER

As we move into the second half of 2026, we are looking for partners to host our exhibitions and capacity-building experiences and programmes. Whether you are organising a festival, conference, or community event, or looking for programmes to build the capacity of your team or your audience, our portfolio is designed to engage, empower, and surprise. Here is what we can bring to you:

🖼️ Hello AI!: a pop-up exhibition exploring everything you need to know about AI

person standing in front of posters
An exhibition that invites people to critically question AI, its possibilities, limitations, and impacts. Includes 13 posters, two interactive books, a Data Detox Spa Hello AI! Edition, and workshop outlines.
🔗 Website

🍹 The Data Detox Bar / Café / Spa: an experience that empowers people to reshape their digital lives

person at an exhibition
A bar-style mural experience offering practical tips to help participants rethink their digital habits. Covers data privacy, well-being, misinformation, and online safety, and is available in formats suited to different space sizes.
🔗 Website

📱 Everywhere, All the Time: an experience for young people exploring digital technologies and AI

A youth-focused exhibition with playful posters and interactive activities exploring how digital technologies work as well as their impacts on our lives. [NOTE: the source description appears to be incomplete — please check and complete before publishing]
🔗 Website

📰 The Glass Room: Misinformation Edition

An exhibition examining how digital technologies and social media have changed the way we read and respond to information, and how misinformation works and spreads. Includes 10 posters, 4 apps, animations, and the complete Data Detox Kit.
🔗 Website

⚡ Supercharged by AI: a pop-up exhibition questioning the impacts of AI

A portable, pop-up installation exploring how AI is amplifying online harms including scams, harassment, polarisation, and bias. Includes interactive posters and books.
🔗 Website

🤝 Capacity building and skills training

Tactical Tech has a roster of workshops to equip staff and communities with essential skills for the digital age. Topics range from understanding AI and its impacts, to data safety online, misinformation and emotional manipulation, investigative essentials, and digital influence on elections. Does your organisation have specific needs? We also offer custom workshops designed to meet you where you are.
🔗 Website
Interested in collaborating? Get in touch: partnership@tacticaltech.org

🍽️ UPCOMING EVENTS

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  • 🌊 BREAKWATER Journalism Festival — save the date! 24 to 27 September 2026, Gdańsk, Poland. CIJI partner Fundacja Reporterow is hosting this new journalism festival at the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk, the birthplace of Solidarność, the civic movement that peacefully won democracy across Eastern Europe in the 1980s. At a moment when those democratic values are under renewed pressure, Gdańsk is the right place to bring the best reporters together. More information here.

📚 WHAT ARE WE READING?

  • [🔍REPORT] A new SMEX report on the militarisation of technology in the Southwest Asia and North Africa region, examining how military tech is produced, tested on human populations, and consumed across Sudan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Israel, and Egypt. Go to SMEX
  • [🎤LECTURE] Friction, by Hito Steyerl at re:publica 2026: a talk on how AI tools used for art are inextricably linked to war economies, surveillance, and military logistics, and why friction, not optimisation, is where resistance lives. Go to YouTube
  • [🔍RESEARCH] What Do People Think About? A large-scale study measuring human conscious thoughts through randomised daily surveys, exploring what occupies our minds, which relationships feature most, and what we love, hate, and worry about. Go to SSRN
  • [📰ARTICLE] The Rise of Anti-Flock Influencers Who Make Things Up for Clout: how Instagram influencers are fabricating cease-and-desist letters to go viral, muddying the waters around a real and growing mass surveillance debate. Go to 404 Media
  • [🎤PODCAST] Quinn Slobodian on Muskism and the AfD: historian Quinn Slobodian joins HEIST's founding editor to discuss his latest book, Muskism, tracing the political and economic logic behind Elon Musk's rise and its connections to the far right. Go to HEIST
  • [🔧RESOURCE] Are We Decentralized Yet? A live tracker measuring how concentrated user data and accounts are across the Fediverse, Bluesky, web hosting, email, and other internet infrastructure. Go to arewedecentralizedyet.online
  • [🔧GUIDE] What journalists need to know about Signal account safety: practical steps from the Freedom of the Press Foundation on keeping your Signal account secure, from registration locks to username risks. Go to Freedom of the Press Foundation