RE: https://social.vivaldi.net/@brucelawson/116895946209731071
This is good news. I do think it is time for a change.
Edited 62d ago
eu
A lot of people are moving away from Big Tech. Many more would like to do so, but they do not know that it is really easy to do so and that there are good options.
You do, given that you are here. Maybe time to help your friends?
Some good options, that I use myself :
OS : Linux.
Browser : Vivaldi.
Mail client : Vivaldi.
Calendar client : Vivaldi.
Mail Service : Proton, FastMail.
Social : Mastodon & Fediverse in general.
Office package : Libre Office.
Video conference : Whereby.
Feel free to suggest more options and share with your friends!
#Linux #BigTech #Microsoft #Apple #Google #Alternative #EU #Europa #Vivaldi #Browser #Mail #Calendar
Chat Control 1.0 approvato: cosa cambia per privacy e crittografia in Europa
#ChatControl #Eu #privacy
Il Parlamento europeo ha approvato la proroga di Chat Control 1.0 fino al 2028. La crittografia end-to-end non viene compromessa, ma resta aperto il dibattito sulla scansione delle comunicazioni private e sul futuro di Chat Control 2.0. Ecco tutto quello che c’è da sapere.
European Researchers Say Big Tech Is Blocking Access to Their Data
despite being legally entitled to obtain platform data under EU law, researchers face obstacles, obfuscation, and, in some cases, court battles to obtain it.
#EU #DSA #data #research #socialmedia #tiktok #twitter #meta #technolgy #tech
Global challenges require global cooperation.
At the G7 Summit in Evian, President von der Leyen joined fellow leaders to discuss some of the world's most pressing challenges.
Leaders adopted joint statements on support for Ukraine, security and stability in the Middle East, a free and open Indo-Pacific, tackling migrant smuggling and drug trafficking, strengthening international partnerships, and advancing global health cooperation.
Want an update on the Weekend at Bernie’s clown show that is W Social? No? Me neither, but here we are…
So before we start, let’s recount the whole dystopian raison d’être of these Davosian clowns: to be a EU®opean “alternative to X” that – cue the 1984 theme tune – verifies your identity to ensure that only “real people” are on it (real is what your government says it is).
Now, let’s fast forward to last week, when TikTok set up an account on W Social.
That’s nice, isn’t it? One surveillance capitalist lending their support to another? Kumbaya and all that. The only problem? (spoiler alert), it wasn’t TikTok. (Shocking, I know.)
The account, Identity Verified™ by EU X – sorry, W Social, was a spam account and immediately labelled as such by BlueSky moderators. (Don’t you love a “decentralised” system where a post on an EU server, accessed from another EU server, is moderated by our benevolent Big Brother in Trumpland, by the way? I know it just warms the cockles of my heart. So much sovereignty! But I digress…)
So @_elena calls them out (someone has to while @EUCommission is busy preparing for their honeymoon after expressing their undying devotion to W Social recently on every social platform¹):
https://mu.social/profile/elenarossini.com/post/3mqob7shxks2t
Anna Zeiter – W CEO, Stanford’s own, and ex-eBay executive (such sovereignty) – replies with this absolute zinger:
> “We are just verifying if some [sic] is a human and at least 18 years old. Users are then free to choose their own user name. This (human) user apparently chose the name TikTok.“ (https://mu.social/profile/anna.wsocial.eu/post/3mqoepm7m2k2z)
Read that as many times as you like until it really sinks in.
These incompetent clowns (dangerous competent clowns but incompetent clowns nevertheless) make people go through a ridiculous 13-step identity verification stage² and then… umm… you get to choose whatever identity you want.
🤡🤡🤡
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they’re incompetent. It would be worse if they were competent, given they’re a closed-source venture-capital-funded startup determined to prove your identity.
> “Yes we have a business model, it’s not a philanthropy, we are not a B corp, we actually want to make money.” – Anna Zeiter³
But, what I want to know is this: Why has @EUCommission embraced a proprietary, closed-source, corporate ghost town with 14,300 accounts, 90% of which have not posted even once (in other words, with only 1,259 accounts that have ever posted)⁴ when there is a thriving non-corporate fediverse with millions of active people on it.
Could it have anything to do with identity verification, surveillance, and control?
And if so, why can’t they even get that right?
Looking forward to seeing how long @EUCommission can drag the corpse of W Social around before people realise it’s dead.
Oh, and how does this make the whole “European alternatives” thing look? Not good. Not because there aren’t excellent European alternatives but because the folks at the commission are either too clueless or too corrupt to recognise and support them.
So, yeah, how’s your Monday going?
¹ e.g., https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/116770333053823108, etc.
² https://aseachange.com/@elena/statuses/01KVD55YBYVM3B46ACQTECDMT2
³ https://blog.elenarossini.com/the-untold-story-about-w-social-unconventional-beginnings-strategic-pitches-conflicting-signals/ (from the YouTube video that they since deleted. Nice transparency there, clowns.)
⁴ Run this script in Node 18+ to reproduce the numbers from their PDS yourself: https://codeberg.org/aral/gists/src/branch/main/wsocial-pds-stats.js Also see https://blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-a-broken-ghost-town/ and https://blog.elenarossini.com/w-social-fictional-metrics-and-the-beauty-of-open-data/
#WSocial #EU #sovereignty #socialMedia #socialNetworking #mastodon #fediverse #activityPub #ATProto #startups #EUCommission
Edited 52d ago
However you look at it, #ageverification is a major change to the internet and our freedoms.
We've seen all kinds of legislation pushed through in the past, often even against major resistance.
What makes me suspicious this time is the speed at which some of the slowest bureaucracies in the world are adopting it and how it's happening in 20+ countries in parallel.
It's like they're all in a group chat, fast-tracking this before resistance can even form.
Chatkontrolle: EU-Länder sind bei Verlängerung einig
Der Verlängerung der Ausnahme für die Chatkontrolle steht nach einer Übereinkunft der EU-Länder nichts mehr im Weg – samt Änderungswünschen des Parlaments.
#Chatkontrolle #Datenschutz #EU #Grundrechte #Internet #Netzpolitik #Überwachung #news
Habt Ihr es schon mitbekommen?
Ab übermorgen (12. August) wird kleinen Unternehmen, die Pakete und Päckchen innerhalb der #EU verschicken, dieses Unterfangen dank der neuen #Verpackungsordnung nicht nur schwerer gemacht, sondern es wird mit einem enormen bürokratischen Aufwand und hohen Kosten verbunden sein.
Wie handhabt Ihr das denn, @buersten und @UnterDruck und wer sonst noch betroffen ist oder sein könnte?
Unterzeichnet bitte jetzt diese #Petition auf change.org:
https://c.org/LWfv9gxBZb
Edited 31d ago
Spain's Prime Minister says Spain doesn't, didn't, have wildfires "like Canada and Australia," and climate change is devastating.
"About 2,500 firefighters (including a Swiss team), 1,500 military personnel and about 1,200 police had been deployed to Gironde, Nuñez said, as he praised the contribution of 450 volunteers from civil security organisations.
He said another five municipalities had been evacuated overnight."
Edited 45d ago
Spain creates expert panel on Climate Change, to advise on many topics,
“such as climate science, ecology, geography, water resources, sustainable agriculture, health, the marine environment, engineering for the ecological transition, environmental law, environmental sociology and behavioural sciences.”
#Spain #España #Climate #ClimateAdaptation #ClimateCrisis #EU #UE #ClimateScience
my fellow european sibs, here is my unbiased review of w.eu, i mean w.social, i mean wsocial.eu 👍
#eu #wsocial #w #unix_surrealism #mobilek #phone_bad_book_good
Pedro Sanchez attributing a spontaneous mass movement of desperate, unemployed youth to "criminal coordination" of a mafia is a political deflection.
Morocco’s youth unemployment rate is ~29% and so of these youths lack the funds to pay smugglers.
If they could swim or walk freely due to unguarded borders, the "service" provided by a mafia was unnecessary.
@law My partner, @mal_practice, and I are planning a relocation to Copenhagen.
We're exploring options for her to utilize her U.S. JD skillset in lieu of practicing law directly in the Danish legal system, without significant retraining.
Has anyone here done something similar, or knows someone who can speak to the possibilities?
Boosts appreciated! 🔁
#law #eu #dkfedi #denmark #copenhagen #fedihire #europe #fedijobs #fedihired #relocation
From hype to reality.
Trustworthy, ethical, and responsible Artificial Intelligence can help Europe grow, improve public services, and solve societal problems.
This summer, we asked for your input on several issues, from transparency to copyright-related rules.
We will use the nearly 430 submissions received from industry, academia and civil society to finalise our Code of Practice for general-purpose AI and support the work of the AI Office.
Edited 1y ago
Edited 20d ago
Petition against smart glasses in the EU.
#EU #Petition #SmartGlasses #Meta
https://action.wemove.eu/sign/2026-08-smart-glasses-trial-petition-EN?akid=s9104428..fdIAKM
#Europe, it is time.
Love your Continent, defend Europe.
The Case for a Unified European Army: Strategic Autonomy, Security, and the Future of EU Power - Geopolitical Brief https://geopoliticalbrief.org/2026/04/the-case-for-a-unified-european-army-strategic-autonomy-security-and-the-future-of-eu-power.html
Edited 15d ago
🚗🏍️🚴♂️🏃♀️🚶♂️ Safer roads by 2030: where are we?
In 2023, the EU saw a 1% decrease in road fatalities, with 20,400 lives lost – a 10% drop since 2019, but still an unacceptable number.
This is not enough to reach our target. We need to bring this number down to 11,400 by 2030 and to zero by 2050.
While we see some positive developments in some EU countries, we need more efforts on all levels to make our roads safer for everyone.
What if I were to tell you that Trump could knock any (or all) of over 20 million¹ European web sites off the Web tomorrow by picking up the phone to one US organisation: Let’s Encrypt.
We desperately need an independent, not-for-profit ACME provider in the EU paid for by our taxes.
¹ This is just based on one firm’s analytics (https://trends.builtwith.com/websitelist/LetsEncrypt/EUROPE). Others put LE use at 50-60% of all web sites.
Edited 8d ago
@EUCommission never replies to my toots. Never favs, never boosts.
Boost if you agree. Let them know we know they don't really care about us!
#eu #europe #evropa #sad #fediverse #fediart #mastoart #comic
Boost if you agree. Let them know we know they don't really care about us!
#eu #europe #evropa #sad #fediverse #fediart #mastoart #comic
Edited 7d ago
🇪🇺 European Citizen's Initiative against ID age verification online
Just yesterday, Stop Killing the Internet, from the people at @StopKillingGames, launched an ECI against ID age verification! This is great but it needs 1 million signatures !
So, if you are a citizen of #eu , please sign it! If you don't, or even if you do, still share it around so more people know about it and can sign it!
https://eci.ec.europa.eu/066/public/#/screen/home
Reaching the signature threshold will not mean that ID age verification will immediately become illegal, but the subject will be brought to the @EUCommission and they'll have to do SOMETHING about it. This is already a huge step in the right direction!
Please boost and share this post to spread the word! Thank you!
Edited 6d ago
Dear Mastodonians
I am very pleased to announce the release of my latest film "Final countdown".
Over the past months I have been thoroughly researching the Ukraine war, to bring you a well founded analysis and answer the key question: Is Putin losing the war?
I have good news… so watch it for free on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo9BhupEXsI
or watch it ad-free and support me on Patreon ($):
https://www.patreon.com/Randahl/posts/new-episode-168327295
Edited 9d ago