### Episode Overview In the 413th episode of "Haken dran", Philipp Klöckner (tech analyst and podcaster) and Kevin (moderator) discuss current developments at the interface of technology, politics, and society. Central topics include the looming breakup of Meta by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the political changes under the Trump administration. They analyze how Meta systematically tries to avoid the breakup by presenting Instagram, Facebook, and Threads as an inseparable unit and bringing Trump-friendly people onto the board. Another topic of discussion is the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under Elon Musk, which, according to a New York Times investigation, will only achieve about 15% of the promised savings. Musk appears to be losing his influence in the White House, according to the hosts: "Elon Musk, on the other hand, seems to have a more difficult stance in the White House [...] Trump has held several cabinet meetings without Musk being present." The two also discuss the cooperation between Peter Thiel's Palantir and DOGE in the data harmonization of the US tax authority and the problematic aspects of this data compilation. They also discuss Mark Zuckerberg's announcement to correct the "left bias" of his AI models. For Europe, they discuss the need for their own AI infrastructure and discuss a ZDF report, which attributes to the broadcaster the potential to function as an "enabler of a counterbalance to market-dominant platforms". ## Evaluation The podcast offers a pointed analysis of current tech-political developments with a special focus on the concentration of power among tech corporations and their entanglement with US politics. The hosts take a critically democratic stance and problematize, in particular, the alignment of regulatory authorities under Trump and the concentration of data power. Notable is their criticism of the idea that individuals like Zuckerberg could correct supposed "bias" in AI systems: "that swarm intelligence must have a certain respect for [...] that one believes, as an individual, one can judge it better than the masses of the writing profession". The economic analysis mostly remains within a market economy framework, but questions monopolization tendencies and demands stronger European sovereignty.