Is social media the new public square? Then what is the role for public funding in keeping it resilient, safe, (maybe even fun)? 1/3👇

Europe’s cloud dependency is a strategic risk. Our new brief, authored by Zuzanna Warso and @aditya.myatproto.social, outlines how to cut lock-in and use public procurement to back sovereign, interoperable cloud alternatives. Read more: openfuture.eu/publication/...

Right, so. Re: "BlueSky will implode." There will never be a social media platform that enables you to have the degree of security, freedom, and privacy that many of you seem to desire because the problems with these platforms aren't technical, they're social. Further, they're uniquely social.

We sought out the perspectives that move beyond industrial policy, towards foregrounding the communities that actually sustain our shared digital infrastructures. Also of note, emerging interest in viewing open social media protocols as critical infrastructure deserving sustained public funding.

Calls for “digital sovereignty” are everywhere. While recommendations to switch away from certain companies is good advice, such a limited framing has drawbacks. I wanted to address these and hope to inspire motivation beyond moving into "larger cages". www.structural-integrity.eu/a-larger-cag...

I need people to understand that "AI" used in moderation isn't necessarily the "AI" of ChatGPT + friends or synthetic text extruding machines, or LLMs. There's stuff lumped under "AI", as the term is a marketing term, that is actually useful and important for flagging stuff on social media.

"Technology doesn’t need liberation, people do."🔥

"the demands of community governance may impose their own architectural requirements, regardless of what the underlying protocol provides." YES

"...civic authorities are carrying out extensive clean-up and beautification drives across key parts of the capital, a process that will once again displace large numbers of homeless residents from public spaces." www.businessworld.in/article/in-i...

More people should listen to @tressiemcphd.bsky.social When people say AI is inevitable, let them know the future isn’t settled.

We just dropped the next 4 essays in Reframing Impact: AI Summit 2026, our new series with Aapti Institute and @themaybe.org – this time with Nikhil Dey, @timnitgebru.bsky.social, @audreyt.org, and @abeba.bsky.social 🧵

Just so its clear: data centres are not "critical infrastructure". They are Mystery Factories that can perform inscrutable computation for any digital output, from crypto scams to child abuse material to hospital databases. The broad label just becomes a wide door for harm to run through.

Once again, it turns out “fully autonomous” means “a guy in the Philippines.”

"This is a glaring issue that will be faced by every hyperscale data centre coming through the planning system..." aprs.scot/press-releas...

I write for @openfuture.bsky.social thinking about the current push for "European alternatives" to platforms like X. Is it enough to just host infrastructure in the EU? What are the alternatives worth wanting, and what do they need to succeed?

trying out leaflet :)

This week 54 MEPs signed a letter supporting 'european' social media alternatives. Eurosky/ATproto, Mastodon/ActivityPub are credible options. But the Grok scandal, which prompted the latter, also highlights the stakes - the safety of people, especially minorities (cont. 👇)

We're getting a lot of questions about what is and isn't allowed on stream.place, so we've published this document containing our basic guidelines for what content is currently acceptable on our Streamplace station.

Community privacy is one of our top priorities at @transrights.northsky.social which isn't possible out of the box with any ATproto implementation today that doesn't just hide an entire PDS. We're developing in the open and so I've published a proposal on it, feedback as always is we

Today is one of those days where I’m struck anew by how *bad* the internet has gotten. It’s almost unusable. Clouds, apps, advertising — nothing is where it should be and it’s nigh impossible sometimes to do basic tasks online.

Handle in to the Handlesphere using your Handle handle

🚨 AI companies are ignoring EU transparency rules on training data. OpenAI, Google, and Mistral all fall short on their commitments—and that behavior reveals an uncomfortable truth. The Commission must act. More on this piece from Zuzanna Warso and @paulk.bsky.social: openfuture.eu/blog/5-3-3-0...

I write about some interesting developments in the ATmosphere (and the broader universe of decentralised and federated social media). Very intrigued by #Eurosky, especially the idea of shared moderation infrastructure. I will be following (and hopefully writing about!) this with a lot of interest.

🚨 Deadline Extension🚨 To ensure everyone has ample opportunity to contribute, we are extending the submission deadline to January 31, 2025! Join us for a vibrant discussion on global AI supply chains.

🚨 Reminder 🚨 Our 'Mapping Data Work' workshop is calling for contributions! 📍 Bengaluru, India | March 2025 📝 Submit by Jan 24, 2025 We're exploring the hidden labor, colonial legacies, & epistemic issues underlying AI systems. Open to academic, policy, creative, & practice-based contributions!

One of the telling characteristics of the AI-gen’d student essays I’ve seen is their insipid both-sidesism, fully assimilating the noncommittal banalities that tech corps demand from employees, and hovering sufficiently in a colorless nowhere of opinion where one is neither right nor wrong.

🚨 Call for Contributions!🚨 We're thrilled to announce "Mapping Data Work", a 2-day workshop in📍Bengaluru, India (March 2025)! A collaboration between @ivir-uva.bsky.social , Aapti Institute & Tattle Civic Tech Explore the material, social & epistemic dimensions of data work in AI. 🧵1/3