The story seems doomed to repeat itself: after more than twenty years of digital colonization, we still haven't learned to protect our information ecosystem and democracy against the advance of artificial intelligence and the power of big tech companies. We have failed to anticipate the new wave of data and content appropriation, and now we suffer the consequences: a cognitive oligopoly that erodes social coexistence and understanding. First it was Google, then Meta, and now the giants of generative AI, which extract and exploit all available content on the internet, marginalizing its creators and positioning themselves as guardians of knowledge that does not belong to them. To make matters worse, they often reproduce it incorrectly. Despite this, for a large part of the population, what AI says is enough. Most people don't even verify the information from the original links. A study by TollBit reveals that chatbots generate 96% less traffic to informative websites and blogs than traditional searches. Paradoxically, although we have never had so much access to information, we end up depending on a single source. Chatbots and AI results have become a new information prison, displacing traditional actors in the ecosystem just when they are most needed. Thus, we find ourselves trapped in bubbles of misinformation, hoaxes, and propaganda. Big tech companies and generative AI firms are absorbing more and more advertising revenue, weakening the pillars that support the media: the creation of informative value and its financing. Journalists, correspondents, and verification teams end up working, in practice, to feed the machines. The platforms profit while the media deteriorate, dragging down the public good they represent. Without a free press or an open flow of information, verification, checks and balances, and plurality disappear, leaving citizens uninformed. Democracy cannot delegate its system of truth to companies whose business is attention, not veracity, and that decide what we see without transparency or accountability. The crisis of journalism and the deterioration of public debate are a direct consequence of the concentration of digital power and the asymmetry between those who generate knowledge and those who exploit it without limits. It is urgent to reverse this situation. Europe has legal tools, from competition to the regulation of digital markets, AI, and intellectual property. The European Commission fined Google €2.95 billion in September for abusing its dominant position in digital advertising and is now investigating the unauthorized use of media content to train its AI Gemini and in its search results. Meta is also under investigation for possible anti-competitive behavior with AI in WhatsApp. In Spain, the company will have to compensate 87 publishers and agencies with €479 million for unfair competition. X, for its part, has been fined €120 million in the EU for lack of advertising transparency and the misleading design of its blue verification. These steps are necessary but insufficient. In the United States alone, it is estimated that Google and Meta should pay media companies about $12 billion annually, considering a fair distribution of 50% of news-related revenues. And this is before the integration of generative AI into search engines and other products. Investigations must be expanded to generative AI companies, not only for the massive use of protected content but also for their economic and structural impact on the information ecosystem. Although progress has been made in copyright, we cannot rely solely on endless litigation or courts that often lack technical knowledge about AI. The current legal framework also does not adequately cover its functioning. Decisive political and social action is required: demanding algorithmic transparency, ensuring compensation and exclusion from the use of content, coordinating the application of existing laws, strengthening the protection of authors, returning control of information to individuals, and safeguarding the role of the media as essential democratic institutions. Truth cannot be left in the hands of Google and its allies, even though it currently depends on them. Our collective ability to understand, debate, and advance as a society depends on it. Big tech companies cannot go unpunished when they affect the public interest. It is not just an economic sector at stake, but the very foundations of democracy. If we do not act now, tomorrow it may be too late.