Palantir has no place in UK public services

[deaux]

Correct. Neither do Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Apple - realistically they're even more dangerous, see the ICC. Ironically the first three being the main hosts of.. you guessed it, Palantir.

Picking and choosing US big tech in this context is pointless, they're all as much of a risk as each other. And don't come with "you have to start somewhere", because you do, but then the place to start is slowly step-by-step getting off of the most critical ones, which are the first four I mentioned.

[linkjuice4all]

It seems like there's a big opportunity for someone to hire a bunch of disenfranchised US devs that want to flee the country to build an EU-native cloud platform - but clearly there's enough talent on the continent already, so why hasn't this happened yet?

[davidw]

Among other things, with everything going on in the US today, the CEOs of Apple and Amazon were apparently at the WH for a screening of the Melania film.

[SpicyLemonZest]

It's easy to start with Palantir because it simply doesn't provide any legitimate value. They don't do anything, at all, other than enable spying by weaving snippets of private data into a coherent whole. You don't have to explain the decision to well-meaning people who are inconvenienced, nor provide a transition plan for essential services, you can just yank the plug tomorrow and tell everyone who complains to buzz off.

[rvz]

Incoming big-tech sympathizers with defense contracts, boosters and hairsplitters in 3, 2, 1.

[graemep]

Read up on Peter Thiel.

[jacquesm]

Let's rewrite that: any big US tech company has no place in any EU or Asian or African public service. Public services should be as independent and as sovereign as technically feasible.

[penguin_booze]

In a few moments from now, you'll be flow out of your country to face Omerican justice. Good bye, fren.

[ggm]

I'd be surprised if they cannot provide services which translate to outcomes successive governments want. So in that sense, "has no place" is about alignment to goals, as much as desires. Palantir is able to do things which the government wants done. If this pits government against citizenry in terms of what people think, thats not unusual.

The big-4 would happily also do this. Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC Would take money to provide outlines and project management for an in-house, or an outsource to somebody other than Palantir. It wouldn't neccessarily be either cheaper, or faster, or for that matter any more socially acceptable.

I don't like the source, I could agree with the opinion (broken clock write 2x a day..) but to pretend government doesn't want what Palantir is selling is faux naieve and stupid.

What alternative is there, and why is "don't do it" viable?

This is "defund the police" wolf howling at the moon stuff.

[sscarduzio]

We’re at good point with European alternatives

https://www.intelligenceonline.com/europe-russia/2025/12/02/...

[cassianoleal]

Somewhat ironic that this is fronted by CloudFlare.

[tombert]

The more I read about Palantir, the creepier and weirder it becomes. The CEO brags about wanting to kill all journalists with fentanyl, or brags about how their software will be used to kill people, and how readily they're willing to work for the convicted fraudster that America felt fit to give the nuclear codes.

And despite this company being creepy and weird and bizarre and secretive, they are also trying to make themselves a lifestyle brand by selling merchandise. If I felt like spending $150 for a Palantir-based hoodie, I guess I can normally do that [1], but disturbingly it is apparently "sold out". Apparently a lot of people really want to buy an overpriced sweater, or maybe they're trying to preemptively buy social credit.

Who knows. Everything is terrible.

[1] https://store.palantir.com/

[nextos]

Ironically, the Danish Government is a heavy user of Palantir systems, including creepy predictive policing solutions.

I would be keen to know if citizen data is being handled correctly, following GDPR/LED.

Given previous Danish client-state-like cooperation with NSA to spy on other EU countries, I can imagine the answer.

[MagicMoonlight]

Aww, they’re sold out

[gabaix]

Karp is a philosopher by training that has fallen into ideological blindness. He claims that he is on the right side of history. Democracies need Palantir badly.

He preaches his views to his employees. No one in his flock seems to wonder what would happen if their tools were to be used against democracy.

[gyanchawdhary]

This reads like someone who replaced thinking with the word “creepy” and hit paste until it felt like an opinion. If your critique is just moral panic (and I guess merch anxiety) you’re not exposing anything … and speaking of merch, their Karp “Dominate” shirt is absolutely killer

[mc32]

The UK is building/has built a surveillance state using the boiling frog method. So even if you change vendors, surveillance will continue. You have accepted it as par for the course. Unless you reject it and subsequent politicians don't double-cross you, surveillance will continue. No question.

[ronsor]

UK society has always been surprisingly tolerant of mass surveillance. Whether Palantir is involved or not, I think it may be too late to get off the train.

[etc-hosts]

There is a great UK tv show about the surveillance state, from 2019

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Capture_(TV_series)

[secretsatan]

It’s something that always horrified me, but it was just done without the governments help, they just let private individuals do it and gave away public spaces to private interests

[pjc50]

Just like the US, saying "immigrants" and "crime" gets the public, or at least the media, to demand authoritarianism.

[Revolution1120]

It's unclear whether the perpetrators of sexual assault and pedophilia were Palantir or the CCP and Prince Holding Group. The latter has long established a very thorough surveillance system in China. While Western leaders and business figures frequently have close contact with China, the world's second-largest economy, Western society consistently overlooks both China's power and its potential for malicious activity. The correct approach is to consider both.

[IndySun]

The petition is now a 404.

[inference-god]

It's hard not to see a sort of oligarchy vs the people battle shaping up, that's for sure.

[dfxm12]

Yeah, it's important to elect councillors and MP's that represent the people and not monied interests.

[hexbin010]

Well, protesting is illegal now

[potamic]

As someone who is neither a Jew nor a Palestinian, I'm going to take this with a grain of salt, because there is so much mud being slung across from both sides.

[petesergeant]

Your article doesn’t support your claims

[Daishiman]

That entire website looks like Israeli sponsored propaganda.