Newsroom revolt: unions slam USA Today’s cozy deal with surveillance giant Palantir
Journalists want nothing to do with Palantir.
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- Hundreds of unionized USA Today Co. journalists are protesting the company’s partnership with Palantir to monetize reader and customer data.
- Thirty-one unions representing about 800 workers say the deal threatens reader privacy, safety, and trust in local newsrooms.
- USA Today Co. says Palantir’s AI tools could help turn audience data into higher-value revenue as search traffic declines.
- Journalists object to Palantir’s links to surveillance, immigration enforcement, and cofounder Peter Thiel’s past hostility toward media.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
Hundreds of journalists working at newspapers owned by USA Today Co. are protesting the news that the company is partnering with Palantir, the controversial AI-powered data-mining company, to monetize its readers’ data.
Thirty-one unions – including those representing journalists at some of USA Today Co.’s largest papers, such as The Indianapolis Star, The Arizona Republic, and the Detroit Free Press – released a statement saying the partnership threatens readers’ online safety and trust in the company.
“We were shocked to learn that our company has partnered with Palantir,” wrote the unions representing roughly 800 journalists.
“Serious concerns and questions”
The deal between USA Today Co. and Palantir, the firm co-founded by venture capitalist and conservative political activist Peter Thiel, was announced last week during the company’s Q2 earnings call.
Mike Reed, the CEO, told investors that the firm would use Palantir’s AI-powered tools to analyze the data it receives from its customers and readers. That way, USA Today Co. could allegedly end up making more money.
We are applying Palantir’s AI-powered platform to one of the largest opportunities in front of us, converting the sheer scale of our audience into known, orchestrated, first-party relationships, because that is what turns our reach into sustainable, higher value revenue,Mike Reed
In the world of social media, this type of micro-targeting has, of course, been happening for years now. But journalists like to think that every click is a special connection between them and their readers – not just a signal that then becomes, in Reed’s words, “actionable intelligence.”
In a statement calling on USA Today Co. to immediately end its partnership with Palantir, the unionized journalists and media workers said the deal raises “serious questions about the data security of our readers.”
“We have serious concerns and questions about how readers’ personal information and data will be used under this partnership and how their data will be protected. Without answers, how can journalists encourage readers to subscribe to our news outlets?” ask the journalists.
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Together, they represent nearly 800 workers in 18 states. USA Today Co. had roughly 7,500 employees in the US last year, around 15% of whom were unionized.
Thiel is famously hostile to the media
The fact that it’s a deal with Palantir is the most painful, though, it seems. The company is extremely controversial for helping the US government with its immigration crackdown, for instance, creating a map of people who could potentially be deported.
Palantir’s AI-driven technology may also have been used when the US airstrike hit an Iranian school and killed 150 students in February. The Pentagon relies on the Maven Smart System, built by Palantir.
“Our commitment to upholding First Amendment principles to serve the democratic process is in direct contrast with a company like Palantir, whose cofounder, Peter Thiel, once said freedom and democracy were not compatible, and whose technologies have been tied to human rights abuses and surveillance activities,” reads the statement.
The journalists also argue that Thiel has expressed values contradicting those held by USA Today Co.
Indeed, Thiel was also partially responsible for the closure of Gawker when he secretly funded professional wrestler Hulk Hogan’s 2013 lawsuit against the outlet, leading to its bankruptcy.
However, the reality for most media outlets around the world is that search traffic continues to fall, and they need to look for other ways to survive. USA Today Co. reported 158 million unique visitors in Q2 2026, down from 180 million in Q1.
Palantir has already struck deals with other media outlets, partnering, for example, with publisher Axel Springer, which owns Politico, Business Insider, and BILD, a German newspaper.
This decline “does not reflect lower demand for the content,” said Kristin Roberts, president of USA Today Media.
“What it reflects is lower referrals from traditional search because of those consumer discovery changes that we’re seeing and witnessing.”
Besides, Palantir has already struck deals with other media outlets, partnering, for example, with publisher Axel Springer, which owns Politico, Business Insider, and BILD, a German newspaper.
