"Let the techbros bark, Sancho, it's a sign that we're riding." Classic Spanish clap-back to Durov from Sanchez here.

I want to add something this morning. Watching the folks who are building open social - @seabass.bsky.social and @sherif.eurosky.social and the whole Eurosky team - is one of the genuinely inspiring stories in Europe right now. It's not easy to take territory from Big Tech. But we can, and we will.

Ok the funniest part of this is the class analysis about NYT reporters

6/ The Post has lost over 375,000 subscribers in just over a year. If 10% of those readers subscribed to The 51st instead, we could hire 10 reporters and five editors, dramatically scaling our coverage of the city at this critical time. 51st.news/signup

Friends, I did it. I'm posting this from #Eurosky. 🚀🇪🇺♥️ I have not joined a beta test since *1997* - but for the sake of you all, and for a future of open social media that is Big Tech-free and fully European, I had a go. It's working fine. Watch this space!!

(AP) — The Paris prosecutors’ office said a search was underway Tuesday at the French offices of Elon Musk’s social media platform X as part of a preliminary investigation into a range of alleged offences, including spreading child pornography and deepfakes. @apnews.com apnews.com/article/fran...

Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Google continues its multi-pronged assault on accurate & independent news: "AI-generated headlines in Discover sometimes state the opposite of what the news articles report and summaries routinely misrepresent information within those stories." www.niemanlab.org/2026/01/disc...

A spark of action from the European Commission on social media recommender algorithms at long last ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

We are watching great power implosion in real time.

The EU should not “renounce anything that may be necessary to defend its interests” if US President Donald Trump delivers on his threats, the bloc’s competition chief @teresaribera.ec.europa.eu told the FT. With @andybounds.bsky.social as.ft.com/r/6360241b-a...

It is an excellent speech.

*DANISH PENSION FUND AKADEMIKERPENSION TO EXIT US TREASURIES

SCOTUS watchers: are we expecting a ruling on the tariffs today?

I watched part of the debate. There’s general agreement (with the exception of some far-right MEPs, as one would guess) that Grok/X is incompatible with EU values and law.

📺 LIVE NOW: watch the European Parliament debate how to respond to the Grok/X deepfake abuse scandal here: www.europarl.europa.eu/plenary/en/h... Below: Zeit reports >50 MEPs urging Europe to invest in its own social media and build bridges out of toxic social www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra...

Does anyone have a bsky list of all EU MEPs who are already on Bluesky?

Who says Europe doesn’t innovate

Starmer’s US policy lies in tatters. Trump is now punishing the UK and NATO allies just for doing the right thing. Time for the PM to stand firm against the bully in the White House, and work with European and Commonwealth allies to make him back down from this reckless plan.

Uniting Europe 🇪🇺 www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

The best time to have done this was in early 2025. The second best time…

I occasionally still hear from people they can’t leave, that the audience for news and writing is still there. Is it?

Terrific piece from @coricrider.com "What Musk and Trump portray as a fight over who has the right to speak is really a fight over who has the power to force others to listen." www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/e...

Tech sovereignty should not be a subscription model ft.trib.al/v2MPMD0 | opinion

"The fight ahead is not about free speech, as the United States contends, but about whether governments can rein in platforms that profit from disorder." @coricrider.com

New in ProSyn: we’ve entered a Slop War. X/Grok is just the latest skirmish. The coming battle pits citizens, parents, and honest traders against the slop pornographers, scammers, and would-be dictators. We know what they want. It’s up to us to stop them. www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/e...

I am leaving X. The app is capable of creating pornographic images of children, there is absolutely no question: I cannot, in good conscience, remain on the platform. Follow me on Instagram: @ tonyvaughanmp Follow me on Bluesky: @ tonyvaughanmp.bsky.social Follow me on Facbook: Tonyvaughanlabour

The FT got is architecture critic Edwin Heathcote to write about data centres and it's wonderful. www.ft.com/content/7692...

Can confirm my neighbours would not spend precious jamón ibérico on this. Someone should do us a handy guide to local protest custom….

Elon Musk calling accountability for nonconsensual sexual images an "excuse of for censorship" perfectly exposes the lie at the heart of his "censorship industrial complex" crusade. When addressing abusive material of women and children is labeled "censorship," the term has lost all meaning.

Bridging people. Trade, cooperation and mutual respect.

Amazing scenes. I...don't think that's going to work, Global Head of Compliance Jane Walshe (h/t @alphaville.ft.com for the image)

Also, Musk caved when Brazil acted. So however much water Rep. Luna wants to carry for the Nazi porn slop site, there is no excuse for letting this go on, and enforcers in the UK and beyond should locate their spinal column and throw the book at this company 📚📚📚

The Times has the right headline, frankly. Now you just pay to abuse women 🎯

OK, so Musk has paywalled the deepfake porn app on his hellsite. This may reduce the CSAM (without ofc addressing X's liability for what was already made) but it strikes me as unlikely to address the abuse of everyone else. No public servant should be using X. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

My word. The Taoiseach, in China, says "platforms can be misused and abused or they can be used for positive reasons as well..." and says that should be considered carefully "before jumping to conclusions" on whether it's appropriate for the Government to be on X.

It has become increasingly clear that X - a platform now actively producing explicit and abusive material against women and children - is not an appropriate platform to be using for our comms. I will keep pushing for action from the govt & relevant authorities in this area.

Bloomberg's X account has more than 800k followers. Their most recent post was shared five times It would basically come at close to zero cost for outlets like Bloomberg to delete their X accounts, and "We don't want to use a non-consensual deepfake abuse app as a comms platform" is a fine excuse

5/This is part of what @segoddard.bsky.social and I have called a neo-royalist order. Elite cliques use economic and material interdependencies to bolster their power. Think elite interests (Trump and his inner circle) not national interests. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

😂

“The deepfake porn site formerly known as Twitter” 🔥🔥🔥

I am reminded here to tap the sign encouraging you all to support independent, worker run, billionaire free newsrooms how and where you are able

Sigo con preocupación la evolución en Venezuela. En cualquier circunstancia, en cualquier lugar del mundo, es imprescindible el respeto al derecho internacional y la carta de Naciones Unidas. Necesitamos un mundo con reglas.

This.

I’ll take it. HNY, y’all ♥️

Okay maybe it’s best that brands aren’t on Bluesky - but every so often I wish they were to be yelled at (eg when you pitch up at your destination and your hire car firm - Hertz - tell you to f*ck off and won’t honour your booking for love or money). They’re not here but don’t use Hertz, fam.😕

Now for the 2026 @projectsyndicate.bsky.social predictions! Mine: 2026 should be the year Europe starts to break its dependency on US cloud giants. Read from everyone else who braved a guess in a maelstrom here: prosyn.org/tvTWz35?h=2X...