Paris Marx
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Paris Marx
@parismarx.com
78K followers 340 following 5.5K posts
i criticize the tech industry

🎙️ @techwontsave.us
📬 https://disconnect.blog
📖 https://roadtonowherebook.com
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parismarx.com
Musk has a long history of getting away with things others would not. After a year of becoming openly fascist, contributing to the deaths of hundreds of thousands, and now enabling the proliferation of child pornography, that must end.

Ban X. Put Musk behind bars.

disconnect.blog/elon-musks-x...
Musk has a long history of getting a pass because of the profile he’s built up over the past couple decades, and the wealth that has come with it. Now that he maintains close links with a US government that has made opposing regulatory enforcement of social media companies a key part of its foreign policy, some governments are even more hesitant to act against him. But in a moment like this, the choice becomes quite stark: do governments exist to serve the public or cower at the feet of Elon Musk? The answer should be an easy one at any time. But especially after a year where Musk has made his fascist politics clear, taken actions that have conservatively killed hundreds of thousands of people, sought to interfere in the politics of countries the world over, and now created a chatbot that makes it easy to generate child pornography, there’s no reason for political leaders to stay on Musk’s good side. It’s time to ban X, and hopefully one day see Musk behind bars for his crimes.
January 8, 2026 at 5:39 PM
parismarx.com
Regulators and politicians are responding — but rarely are they strong enough or fast enough as Grok continues churning out more explicit photos of people without their consent.

The content is clearly illegal, especially in the case of the CSAM. It must be banned.

disconnect.blog/elon-musks-x...
Regulators and politicians in some countries have been responding to what’s happening on X. The European Union, United Kingdom, France, and Australia are all investigating the matter, with some even saying what X is enabling is illegal. Indian officials gave X a 72-hour deadline to act on the illegal material, while some Brazilian politicians are calling for the platform to be banned once again. But let’s be real: the responses of regulators to a child porn-producing chatbot on the social media platform owned by the richest man in the world are not nearly strong or quick enough. Creating a chatbot that victimizes thousands of women on command and generates child pornography should be a red line — and not one you can come back from. Elon Musk and anyone at X or xAI directly working on that functionality should be criminally held to account for the consequences of their actions. But many countries will not have jurisdiction for those crimes. Instead, they should take the obvious move of banning X before the harm it causes their citizens escalates even further.
January 8, 2026 at 5:37 PM
parismarx.com
Brazil has already showed us that action can be taken against these platforms — and X specifically. The country banned X when it wouldn’t comply with a Supreme Court order.

But this time Elon Musk shouldn’t get another chance.

disconnect.blog/elon-musks-x...
In August 2024, Brazil took a bold and courageous action. The Supreme Court had ordered X to suspend far-right accounts that had actively worked to try to overthrow Brazilian democracy in the attempted coup on January 8, 2023. But Elon Musk refused the order, and the company would not appoint a representative in Brazil. Since the order would not be followed, the Supreme Court knew what it had to do: it banned X in Brazil. For over a month, Musk’s social media platform wasn’t available in South America’s most populous nation. That is, until Musk relented. X paid the fines that were owed, appointed a representative in Brazil, and banned the accounts Musk had refused to take off the platform, leading to the platform’s reinstatement in October 2024. It’s a great example of how governments can use their leverage, but this time they should go much further.
January 8, 2026 at 5:35 PM
parismarx.com
The proliferation of deepfakes on X just feels like the obvious culmination of trend where Elon Musk seems to share the same desires as his most perverted, incel fans — rolling out AI girlfriends and image generators he uses to try to feel some affection.

disconnect.blog/elon-musks-x...
Last year, Musk made it clear he would be leaning into the worst impulses of some of his obsessive user base (and likely his own desires). An AI girlfriend named “Ani” was added to the chatbot, allowing users to have sexually explicit conversations and to get her to strip down in the process. In November, he even posted an AI-generated video of a woman saying, “I will always love you,” showing the extent of his pathetic desperation. But that effort reached its apotheosis at the turn of the new year when the platform started being flooded with images generated by Grok of scantily clad and naked women and children. A deranged user could simply reply to an image posted to the platform to request the chatbot produce an image undressing the person in it, and it would follow through. Despite posts by Musk and the X Safety account saying they took illegal content, particularly child sexual abuse material, seriously, Grok has not been disabled.
January 8, 2026 at 5:33 PM
parismarx.com
We all know this is outrageous. If a news organization was publishing non-consensual explicit images, it would be a scandal of the highest order — especially if they were of children.

They need to finally stop treating Elon Musk with kid gloves and crack down.

disconnect.blog/elon-musks-x...
Let’s be honest with ourselves: if a broadcaster or newspaper had started publishing thousands of non-consensual, sexually explicit images of women or — even worse — of children, politicians and regulators would be out for blood. It would be a front-page, ongoing scandal and the organization responsible would be quickly brought to heel because it would be so outrageous. But when Elon Musk and his chatbot Grok do it, there’s somehow little more than crickets. Politicians are alarmed and say something needs to be done, but can’t quite say what that something is. Regulators say they’re investigating, as thousands more women and children are victimized while the richest man in the world continues treating the whole situation like a big game — or simulation.
January 8, 2026 at 5:31 PM
parismarx.com
Google is forcing more generative AI on Gmail users. I couldn’t think of a better moment to finally drop Gmail (and other Google services)!

I have a guide to do just that here: disconnect.blog/getting-off-...
Google Is Adding an ‘AI Inbox’ to Gmail That Summarizes Emails New Gmail features, powered by the Gemini model, are part of Google’s continued push for users to incorporate AI into their daily life and conversations.
January 8, 2026 at 1:16 PM
parismarx.com
needs a little cleaning up, but should be good to mod!
a black ipod classic
January 7, 2026 at 11:24 PM
parismarx.com
I gave @betakit.com my thoughts on what will be one of the biggest stories of this year. No surprise, it’s the ongoing impacts of the data centre boom on regular people — and the backlash that’s already brewing.

betakit.com/thirty-bold-...
Energy consumption will become a (bigger) political issue “Data centres have been treated as a part of the AI story, but they’ve become a story in their own right. There are the energy and water demands, community impacts, and questions about whether it really makes sense to be building so many. It increasingly looks like their contribution to higher power bills is poised to become a major issue in the US midterm elections in November 2026.” —Paris Marx, tech critic, author, and host of the podcast Tech Won’t Save Us
January 5, 2026 at 9:59 PM
parismarx.com
The US “openly flaunting international law sends a signal to all of us that every president and every prime minister is potentially a target of US military action. There doesn’t seem to be any constraints on what the Trump administration would consider.” — former Canadian ambassador to Venezuela
January 4, 2026 at 1:34 AM
parismarx.com
Western countries, in particular, have a choice to make: will they help the US tear the system apart the international system they claim is so important, or will they ally with the wider world to protect it?

disconnect.blog/the-united-s...
Ultimately, Western countries that claim to uphold international law and human rights have a choice to make: will they help the United States shepherd the world into an arrangement where the ability to wield power is all the matters — power that can just as easily be used against them — or will they take the short-term hit to stand with many nations in the Global South to try to protect the multilateral order they claim to support at every opportunity, except when the United States violates it? Part of the reason the United States has been able to get away with everything it’s done this past year is because countries have not come together to wield their collective pressure to stop it. As 2026 begins, that needs to change: not just by developing new political forums to challenge the aggressive action of major powers, but also to build new economic and technological alliances to address problems many countries in the world face — not just Western nations used to focusing on their exclusive club.
January 4, 2026 at 12:18 AM
parismarx.com
Trump’s “attack on sovereignty” shows how efforts to reduce dependence on the US must be accelerated — to get out of its military, economic, and technological umbrella before it’s too late, even if that means short-term pain.

disconnect.blog/the-united-s...
Many Western countries are reticent to challenge the United States and the actions of the Trump administration too forcefully for a number of reasons. They’re militarily dependent on the United States, through NATO and other alliances, and Trump has already shown he can hurt them economically and continually threatens to tighten the screws. There’s also the technological dimension: they’re not only locked into digital systems controlled by US tech companies and dependent on US technology, but they also fear scaring away investment from some of the largest companies in the world and the deep-pocketed investors who’ve prospered from their rise. As the sanctioning of ICC, UN, and European officials shows: digital sovereignty is paramount. The United States can cut off anyone from the technological systems its companies control, and it’s willing to use that power against anyone who tries to stand in the way of its interests, those of its client states, and largest companies. The bulk of that work must happen at the government level, to create the conditions, deploy the funding, and create the structures to rapidly build and deploy a new technological infrastructure. But individuals can still make a difference by pulling back from US tech services as much as feasibly possible.
January 4, 2026 at 12:17 AM
parismarx.com
Even now, as the US commits the crime of aggression and tries to take over Venezuela, it does not face anything like the response that Russia face for doing the same to Ukraine. Instead, Western leaders are releasing vague statements that let the US off the hook.

disconnect.blog/the-united-s...
The Trump administration has committed the crime of aggression, “which the court at Nuremberg described as the supreme crime, it’s the worst crime of all,” says former president of the UN war crimes court in Sierra Leone Geoffrey Robertson. Instead of facing international condemnation and a package of sanctions, as Russia did upon committing the same breach of international law, most Western leaders are calling for peace, democracy, and respect for international law, without directly addressing the United States’ grave violation of it.
January 4, 2026 at 12:15 AM
parismarx.com
Even as pressure on former US allies escalated, they were often inept in formulating an effective response. Their dependence too deep and inability to work together too great, the US was able to wield its power to force them into concessions.

disconnect.blog/the-united-s...
Time and again, Western leaders were showing that even in the face of bullying, abuse, and economic attacks from the Trump administration, they were powerless to do anything substantive to challenge US power — despite the European Union alone being a bloc of more than 450 million people which collectively has the second-largest economy in the world. The United States pressured the European Union to rein in its digital regulations at the behest of US tech companies (with the help of business groups in Europe), and when it sanctioned several European officials and advocates who’d worked on tech policy, political leaders could do little more than release some strongly worded statements. Vance’s earlier threats about European values and its approach to tech was further making its way into US policy.
January 4, 2026 at 12:13 AM
parismarx.com
Throughout 2025, the United States waged a war on the International Criminal Court, sanctioning more and more of its officials. It showed how dependent we all are on US tech systems, and how willing the US is to use its power to cut off those who get in its way.

disconnect.blog/the-united-s...
The sanctions severely hampered the ICC’s work, and Khan was cut off from key services like banking and even his Microsoft email address — a detail that set off further alarm bells in Europe when it was revealed in May. By June, more ICC judges along with UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese were added to the list, with another batch of judges joining them in August. In November, French judge Nicolas Guillou spoke to Le Monde about the effects of being targeted by the United States. “The sanctions affect all aspects of my daily life,” he said. “All my accounts with American companies, such as Amazon, Airbnb, PayPal and others, have been closed.” He couldn’t book hotels, shop online, or do so many things that now get routed through US companies and platforms. Even non-US banks often avoided him for fear of falling afoul of US authorities. “Being under sanctions is like being sent back to the 1990s,” he said.
January 4, 2026 at 12:12 AM
parismarx.com
In his speeches and policy, Trump is heralding the return of Manifest Destiny and the Monroe Doctrine. It’s clear that he feels nothing restricts the United States as it seeks to exert its pressure on its neighbors and the wider world.

disconnect.blog/the-united-s...
In his inauguration speech in January 2024, Trump announced that Manifest Destiny was back — the assertion that the United States has a god-given right to capture territory and subject its will onto others. Mere weeks before the attack on Caracas, the new US National Security Strategy made that even more explicit: it declared that the Trump administration was resurrecting the Monroe Doctrine, meaning the US government saw the Western Hemisphere as its turf where it could act with impunity. Even before returning to the presidency, Trump was threatening to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, a territory controlled by NATO ally Denmark, and mused about absorbing Canada as the 51st state. It was clear that the administration showed little concern for the sovereignty of other countries, nor for international law — a problem for its allies, which had spent the past couple years slamming Russia over its invasion of Ukraine being an illegal act of aggression.
January 4, 2026 at 12:11 AM
parismarx.com
Donald Trump tried to get Maduro in 2019, but the coup attempt was an abject failure. Now, his attack on Venezuela is the culmination of a year of global instability and attacks on international law that should be a wake-up call on the direction we’re headed.

disconnect.blog/the-united-s...
As Trump addressed the people of the world, he couldn’t help himself from going off-script. After previously failing to overthrow Maduro in 2019, he’d finally got his man — and access to the world’s largest proven oil reserves. Introducing the general who led the operation, Trump declared the invasion of Venezuela was an “attack on sovereignty” itself. Countries of the world should shutter at the implications. The illegal kidnapping of a world leader and his wife was the culmination of a year of escalating evidence that the United States under a second Trump presidency was taking a very different approach to world affairs — one that requires a forceful response before it’s too late.
January 4, 2026 at 12:09 AM
parismarx.com
The Canadian government celebrates the US committing the crime of aggression against Venezuela, in violation of international law and the UN Charter, even as it calls for respect for international law.

I’m not surprised: Carney took a similar approach when the US illegally attacked Iran last year.
One of the first actions taken by Canada’s new government in March 2025 was to impose additional sanctions on Nicolás Maduro’s brutally oppressive and criminal regime — unequivocally condemning his grave breaches of international peace and security, gross and systematic human rights violations, and corruption. Canada has not recognised the illegitimate regime of Maduro since it stole the 2018 election. The Canadian government therefore welcomes the opportunity for freedom, democracy, peace, and prosperity for the Venezuelan people. Canada has long supported a peaceful, negotiated, and Venezuelan-led transition process that respects the democratic will of the Venezuelan people. In keeping with our long-standing commitment to upholding the rule of law, sovereignty, and human rights, Canada calls on all parties to respect international law. We stand by the Venezuelan people’s sovereign right to decide and build their own future in a peaceful and democratic society. Canada attaches great importance to resolution of crises through multilateral engagement and is in close contact with international partners about ongoing developments. We are first and foremost ready to assist Canadians through our consular officials and our embassy in Bogotá, Colombia, and will continue to support Venezuelan refugees.
January 3, 2026 at 11:15 PM
parismarx.com
UKRAINE'S FOREIGN MINISTER ANDRII SYBIHA "Ukraine has consistently defended the right of nations to live freely, free of dictatorship, oppression, and human rights violations. The Maduro regime has violated all such principles in every respect. We stand for further developments in accordance with the principles of international law, prioritising democracy, human rights, and the interests of Venezuelans."
January 3, 2026 at 10:53 PM
parismarx.com
Not giving any kudos to Marine Le Pen, but it’s fascinating to contrast the statement of the far-right French leader saying allowing the US to violate Venezuelan sovereignty “would be to accept our own enslavement tomorrow” with the childish, cheerleading of Canada’s extreme right-wing Poilievre.
Sovereignty of states is never negotiable: Le Pen Marine Le Pen, the longtime leader of the French far-right, has commented on the US operation in Venezuela in a long post on X. “There were a thousand reasons to condemn the regime of Nicolas Maduro: communist, oligarchic, and authoritarian,” she wrote. “But there is one fundamental reason to oppose the regime change that the United States has just brought about in Venezuela. The sovereignty of states is never negotiable, regardless of their size, their power, or their continent. It is inviolable and sacred. “To renounce this principle today for Venezuela, for any state, would be to accept our own enslavement tomorrow. It would thus be a mortal peril, at a time when the 21st century is already the stage for major geopolitical upheavals that cast over humanity the constant threat of war and chaos.”
January 3, 2026 at 8:02 PM
parismarx.com
Meanwhile the leader of the Conservative Party, a man who does not care one iota for international law, is taking a victory lap, declaring “Down with Socialism” and echoing US lies about “narco-terrorism.”

He’s previously said the Nazis were in fact socialists, not fascists.
Congratulations to President Trump on successfully arresting narco-terrorist and socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro, who should live out his days in prison. The legitimate winner of the most recent Venezuelan elections, Edmundo Gonzalez, should take office along with the courageous hero and voice of the Venezuelan people, María Corina Machado. Down with socialism. Long live freedom.
January 3, 2026 at 3:51 PM
parismarx.com
starting the year off right 😊
muted the word trump
January 1, 2026 at 12:02 AM
parismarx.com
The world Silicon Valley has created is exhausting and terrible. We absolutely need better technology, but in the meantime it’s absolutely right to reject what doesn’t serve us and reassess our relationship to digital technology more broadly.

disconnect.blog/we-need-to-r...
I’m exhausted by the world Silicon Valley has foisted upon us — one we’re just expected to accept and adopt en masse, with little say into the direction of technological travel or input on whether the technology that benefits companies and CEOs is actually benefiting the public that’s expected to use it. Typically, I would call for better technology, and that’s at the core of the argument my colleagues and I made for digital sovereignty last year — not just for non-US technology, but for technology with a wholly different set of economic incentives and social values at its foundation. But as we wait to see if that will ever arrive, there is a stronger argument forming with every passing month that rejecting the technologies being sold to us — and even going back to physical and analog alternatives — is the right move in the present. Maybe not everything has to be digital or digitized, maybe the internet shouldn’t be inserted into absolutely everything, maybe we shouldn’t be constantly connected in the way we’re now expected to be, and generative AI certainly does not need to be forced into every facet of society.
December 31, 2025 at 8:50 PM
parismarx.com
I’ve already been cutting out services I don’t need, and going back to physical products like books. I try to avoid “smart’ products that really don’t need internet connectivity too. But there’s a whole world of people going even further I want to learn more about.

disconnect.blog/we-need-to-r...
I’ve already done that with books — I used to only read ebooks and now almost exclusively read physical books — and could see myself trying to move in a similar direction with movies and possibly even music. I started getting back into magazines this year too. I’ve been intrigued by groups like the Luddite Club ditching their smartphones for a while, and was quite taken by a recent piece where Janus Rose described cancelling her streaming services and going back to cassette tapes. I’m not much of a Reddit user, but I regularly visit the r/dumphones subreddit to see the interesting collection of gadgets people are replacing their smartphones with.
December 31, 2025 at 8:49 PM
parismarx.com
For me, 2025 was about digital sovereignty and part of that meant weaning myself off US digital services. I was reasonably successful, as I explain in the article, but I need to do more. In the process though, I began questioning the tech I’m using more broadly.

disconnect.blog/we-need-to-r...
Throughout this year, the Trump presidency and the billionaires of Silicon Valley have made it abundantly clear that the world’s dependence on US tech companies, the products they’ve deployed, and the infrastructure they’ve built over the past few decades was a mistake that must be addressed. That dependence gives the US and its tech companies significant leverage over countries that now hesitate to take strong action against the United States in light of Trump’s trade war for fear of repercussions, but also of losing potential investment from some of the largest and most well-capitalized companies and investors in the world. That fear, particularly of short-term economic pain, helps to explain how despite so much talk of digital sovereignty in 2025, little real progress seems to have been made in the countries with the greatest capacity to pursue it. But paired with those discussions of state action is another element: what we ourselves can do to reduce our personal dependence on the products made by US tech companies, and especially the massive giants we’re all familiar with.
December 31, 2025 at 8:46 PM
parismarx.com
the funny thing is wired published the one essay from my book then rejected any other pitches or proposals i sent over until i gave up. haven’t tried in a while though 🤷
Twenty years ago, Wired was the unofficial house organ of Silicon Valley; now it is publishing essays from tech-hater Paris Marx. For almost two years, the liberal commentariat studiously ignored the work of Jonathan Haidt in his massively best-selling book, The Anxious Generation, regarding the dangers of unlimited tech for the young. His warnings were dismissed as “moral panic” or, more effectively, “Right-wing coded” — too close to the scolding traditionalism of the past to take seriously. Now mainstream commentators are suddenly aware that social media ruined the mental health of a generation, and that iPad kids are depressed, socially paralysed, and — to put it bluntly — insanely dumb.
December 30, 2025 at 8:17 PM