Tactical Tech

📢 Applications are open for CIJI grants supporting Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI) certification audits.

The Collaborative and Investigative Journalism Initiative (CIJI) will award 6 grants of between €1,500 and €5,000 to help media organisations cover the costs of a JTI certification audit.

Eligible applicants are legally registered media organisations operating in EU Member States that have completed and published their JTI self-assessment and transparency report and are committed to achieving full JTI certification.

🗓 Deadline: 11 August 2026

Apply here: https://forms.gle/tcspx7DqchCpzAvC7

This call is part of the EU-funded Collaborative and Investigative Journalism Initiative (CIJI), carried out by Free Press Unlimited, Tactical Tech, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa, Fundacja Reporterów, and Delfi.lt.

Big Tech's tactics for dodging regulation aren't new, they're borrowed.
In our latest Insights piece, Executive Director Marek Tuszynski lays out the evidence. A former Meta lobbyist now sits as one of Ireland's data protection commissioners, the regulator meant to enforce GDPR across the EU. Fake grassroots campaigns pushing "public support" for tech-friendly rulings date back to Microsoft's 2001 antitrust trial. Four Big Tech companies avoided an estimated $51 billion in taxes in the wake of recent US tax legislation.

None of this is unique to tech. Big Food and Big To***co wrote this playbook decades ago. What's different is the scale, and the fact that Big Tech also controls the platforms where these narratives get amplified.

A new academic study referenced in the piece identifies 27 distinct ways AI companies influence regulation, often hiding behind claims that regulation stifles innovation.

Catch up on part one of this series and read Marek's full breakdown of the tactics.
https://tacticaltech.org/news/insights/regulate-me-please/

[🎉🚀 Today we are launching our new CIJI Investigation toolbox series]

🔎 Every investigator has a few tools they keep coming back to.

That's why we're starting our Investigation Toolbox series with The Wayback Machine by The Internet Archive.

For many journalists and researchers, it's one of those classic tools that becomes part of the reporting process. When information changes, disappears, or is rewritten, archived versions of webpages can provide important context, support verification, and help document how a story has evolved.

Discover more about Wayback Machine as a tool to retrieve information: https://web.archive.org/

Over the coming months, we'll be sharing more tools, resources, and methods that support investigative journalism from long-standing classics to newer discoveries that deserve a place in your workflow. Some you may use every day, while others might become your next favourite resource.

💬 What tool do you find yourself returning to again and again, no matter how many new ones appear? Or is there a tool you'd like us to feature in a future edition of Investigation Toolbox?

📬 Looking for more investigative resources, opportunities, and updates from across the CIJI consortium? Subscribe to The Link newsletter:

https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7222496938892427265/

https://tacticaltech.org/newsletter-subscription/the-link/

Big To***co spent decades building a playbook to survive scrutiny: dispute the science, distort the narrative, distract with good PR, disguise lobbying as grassroots support, and dodge taxes and regulation altogether. Big Food picked up the same strategy soon after.

In his latest piece, our Executive Director Marek Tuszynski asks a simple question: is Big Tech running the same playbook?

The parallels are hard to dismiss. Companies fund "sceptical" research on social media harms. They blame users for "bad digital habits" instead of addressing addictive design choices. And in 2020, Meta's own former Director of Monetisation admitted as much directly to US Congress, saying they "took a page from Big To***co's playbook."

Read the full piece, "Regulate me, please..." on our website. 👇
🔗 https://tacticaltech.org/news/insights/regulate-me-please/

Asociația Techsoup has been building a more human-centred digital future in Romania for 15 years. Last year, we had the privilege of being part of their anniversary celebration. 🥹

They brought Tactical Tech's Hello AI! exhibition to their community as part of an event themed "15 Years of Relationships. Intersections. Bridges." This provided a rare physical space where people could slow down, ask hard questions, and think critically about the technologies shaping their lives.

Visitors, including people working in technology and education, reflected on how little time they usually have to stop and question the tools they use every day. Many were surprised by the extent of their own technology use. Others began asking deeper questions about who benefits from the AI systems they interact with, and who doesn't 🤔

For Asociația Techsoup, this is not abstract. Their work reaches teachers and students in small towns and rural communities across Romania 🇷🇴, places where access to critical digital education is often limited but urgently needed. Thanks to the partnership with Asociația Techsoup, Hello AI! is now also available in Romanian.

In 2026, they are taking Hello AI! on tour to youth festivals, human rights events, and schools across the country.

Read the full story 👇

🔗 https://tacticaltech.org/news/stories/asociația-techsoup-reclaiming-agency-in-the-age-of-ai/

📢 Grants for Cross-Border Investigative Stories on the Impact of AI 📢

Our friends from Free Press Unlimited is inviting applications for cross-border collaborative investigations exploring the impact of AI on society.

They are looking to support investigative stories on topics including:

☑️ Political power and agendas behind AI
☑️ Accountability of AI companies
☑️ Environmental impact of AI
☑️ AI and human rights
☑️ AI and human psychology
☑️ AI systems and emerging technologies

Up to 4 grants of €5,000 will be awarded to collaborative teams of journalists and media organisations working across borders.
🗓 Deadline: 22 July 2026

Applications from teams involving technologists, researchers, or other non-journalism collaborators are especially encouraged.

This call is part of the EU-funded Collaborative and Investigative Journalism Initiative (CIJI), carried out by Free Press Unlimited , Tactical Tech , Reporters sans frontières / Reporters Without Borders / RSF , OBC Transeuropa , Fundacja Reporterów, and DELFI.lt .

Read the full call and apply: https://www.ciji.info/announcements/ -impact-of-ai

Over the past few months, we've shared grants, residencies, workshops, resources, and opportunities through our channels.

But then we realised something.

We talk a lot about what CIJI offers, but what is CIJI actually?

The Collaborative and Investigative Journalism Initiative (CIJI) is a European collaboration supporting independent journalism through funding, training, cross-border partnerships, investigative resources, and a growing community of journalists, researchers, and media professionals.

Whether you're looking for your next collaboration, a grant opportunity, practical investigative tools, or simply want to stay connected with what's happening across Europe's investigative journalism ecosystem, we're here to help.

And if you'd like all of that delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Link, our newsletter featuring opportunities, events, resources, and stories from across the CIJI community.

📩 Subscribe here: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/the-link-7222496938892427265/

The Collaborative and Investigative Journalism Initiative (CIJI) is funded by the European Union and carried out by Free Press Unlimited , Tactical Tech , Reporters sans frontières / Reporters Without Borders / RSF , OBC Transeuropa , Fundacja Reporterów , and DELFI.lt .

🚨Today is the last day to apply to join the Tactical Tech Board!

Our Board members guide strategic decisions that influence how we empower millions of people to understand and engage with technology in their daily lives.

Tactical Tech is entering a new strategic period, and we want three new voices on our Board to help shape what comes next.

We're looking for:
💰 Treasurer
🌍 Board Member: Partnerships & Organisational Sustainability, a builder of networks and funding models
🧭 Board Member: Technology, Politics & Society, a sharp thinker on tech, power, and the public interest
✉️ Send a CV and a short expression of interest (max. 350 words) to [email protected] by 2 July 2026.
Full details here: https://tacticaltech.org/news/jobs/new-members-of-the-board/

Good governance in civil society organisations has a way of reaching far beyond the boardroom, shaping how communities, journalists, and decision-makers are equipped to navigate a rapidly changing technological landscape.

Tactical Tech is recruiting three new Board Members to help carry that responsibility:

📊 Treasurer
🤝 Board Member: Partnerships & Organisational Sustainability
🛰️ Board Member: Technology, Politics & Society

These positions are unpaid and voluntary, but the work behind them is genuinely meaningful.

If you bring senior leadership experience and care about where technology and society are headed, we'd love to hear from you.

✉️ Send a CV and a short expression of interest (max. 350 words) to [email protected] by 2 July 2026.
Full details here: https://tacticaltech.org/news/jobs/new-members-of-the-board/

Interested in joining Tactical Tech’s Board?
Our Board members shape decisions that influence how millions of people understand and engage with technology in their daily lives.
Tactical Tech is entering a new strategic period, and we want three new voices on our Board to help shape what comes next.

We're looking for:
💰 Treasurer, someone fluent in non-profit financial governance
🌍 Board Member: Partnerships & Organisational Sustainability, a builder of networks and funding models
🧭 Board Member: Technology, Politics & Society, a sharp thinker on tech, power, and the public interest

All three roles are voluntary, three-year appointments.
✉️ Send a CV and a short expression of interest (max. 350 words) to [email protected] by 2 July 2026.
Full details here: https://tacticaltech.org/news/jobs/new-members-of-the-board/
Illustration by