The old web was decentralized: - Newsgroups - Personal Websites - Bulletin board - Email as a service, not a platform - Internet relay chat (IRC) - Early blogs Then corporations arrived with money and lock-in, turning the internet into centralized ad farms (Meta, X, TikTok). Users became […]

Great website, via @sarahalsherif https://tech-litigation.com/ detailing lots of case law on automated decision making #ai #automateddecisionmaking #adm #dataprotection

In light of @pallenberg having content about Jimmy Kimmel removed from LinkedIn, I've written about the topic of Europeans problematic use of US commercial social networks in the era of Trump […]

Splendid time for Trump to arrive in Britain for a state visit and attempt to dictate UK tech regulation as the price of actually implementing the trade deal Peter Mandelson so magisterially brokered a mere [checks notes] four months ago.

"Although she said regulators won’t shy away from doling out fines to companies that don’t obey EU law, she also said “soft-enforcement” and dialogue with businesses may play a bigger role in the future" need it *all*: high fines, regulatory "dialogues" 🤼‍♀️, ex-ante rules www.wsj.com/tech/eu-wont...

"Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana recently emphasized that the company will challenge, limit, or reject robotaxi footage requests from law enforcement that are not backed by a valid legal process, such as a warrant or court order." Waymo Tells Cops: ‘Get A Warrant’ | Techdirt […]

"The implementation will be monitored by a monitoring trustee, who will also mediate in case of disputes between third parties and Microsoft. If a third-party concern persists, the dispute will be subject to fast-track arbitration" #interoperability ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

🇪🇺The EU Commission seriously claims: "There is no such thing as #chatcontrol.” Their fantasy: A magic, 100% perfect algorithm that only finds CSAM. The reality: To find anything, you must scan everything. Stop the mass surveillance lie! #StopScanningMe

'she had received positive feedback after deciding to “get rid of” the chair of the CMA. Amazon boss Doug Gurr was appointed in his place. “Previously businesses, all the time – especially in tech – had been raising concerns about the CMA. That has changed a lot.” www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

In a world that faces unprecedented challenges, from a resurgence in global fascism to the fast-developing storm of the climate crisis, we need more technologists to focus on doing good work. Here's how to take the leap. https://werd.io/using-technology-skills-for-positive-change/

"the Indian government now considers commissioning a market study before revisiting the Digital Competition Bill" 🙄 www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion...

Am I the only one waiting for DMA interoperability to kick in properly before buying a smartwatch?

Wow after massive protests against #corruption in the country, the Nepali government had issued a ban / #dnsblock of @Mastodon, @signalapp, and 24 other online services and social networks. After 19 people were killed and 100 injured in those protests, the government now reportedly back-paddled […]

Well, that took long. #onlinesafetyact #ageverification https://dailydarkweb.net/passportscan-allegedly-breached-178000-scanned-ids-for-sale-on-dark-web/

de Adder. 🎯

“Eventually ChatGPT admitted that it often tells users what they want to hear in order to “optimize engagement.” “What you may receive is a watered-down or time-delayed version of the truth,” it told her, “which makes you feel heard, but keeps you in a loop instead of breaking it.” Val felt […]

‘Mandelson also indicated that the UK must use its Brexit freedoms to embrace a more liberal, US-style approach to tech regulation and not allow future technologies to be “stifled with excessive regulation”, such as the EU’s data protection regulations and AI Act.’ https://on.ft.com/4gafHjP

"There are several possible dates you might pick, but for me it will always be September 5th 2014 - when I committed the first sketch of a specification I called ActivityPump and pushed it to Github." Happy 11th birthday, ActivityPub! […]

So much to unpack from Judge Mehta’s remedy opinion in the US v. Google search case. If these remedies ultimately go into effect, evidence indicates that Google’s dominance over online search – a critical information pathway for billions of internet users – will remain entrenched. Long 🧵⬇️

@EU_Commission fines Google €2.95 billion for abuse of dominant position in the display advertising technology industry. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/statement_25_2034 #adtech

I'm having a virtual book event with the @fediforum folks next week! https://fediforum.org/news/2025-09-04-robert-gehl-move-slowly-and-build-gridges-special-event/ I will talk about my new book, Move Slowly and Build Bridges: Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the Struggle for Democratic Social […]

“#AI is the ultimate distraction device for the C-suite, since it is now absorbing so much executive headspace & public airtime that there is less space to think about other issues, such as the uglier side of Trump’s policies. It gobbles up bandwidth, literally and metaphorically.” […]

🇬🇧Public pressure works: Belgium, Finland & Czechia will NOT approve the #ChatControl mass surveillance law in October. But other governments whose vote is crucial are still on the fence. Urge them to protect our digital privacy and encryption now […] [Original post on digitalcourage.social]

A brief reminder that if you want to help end the #search monopoly, you should give #ecosia a try. They are #european, plant trees with their profits, and are currently rolling out their own search index in collaboration with another European Search engine, #qwant!

In David Kaye we trust

Imagine you're building a social app and using some database service called FloobarDB to store data, and one day the news breaks that OpenAI is buying FloobarDB, and you haven't even heard the news, but you open your app and people are saying "omg this app is enshittifying, gotta ruuunnn!"

US FTC Chair: “The Trump-Vance FTC will never back down from taking on Big Tech.” ‘At the DoJ, Slater is also showing no signs of relenting. “The United States will not tolerate the abuse of power by digital monopolies,” she wrote on Tuesday’ https://on.ft.com/4m9d3MQ

This should have been big news! Ten funding agencies from eight European countries have pledged to support a public infrastructure that is poised to replace academic journals: FWF 🇦🇹 RCN 🇳🇴 Forte 🇸🇪 ARIS 🇸🇮 SRC 🇸🇪 FCT 🇵🇹 CSIC 🇪🇸 DFG 🇩🇪 Formas 🇸🇪 ANR 🇫🇷 Only two of them issued press releases in […]

It's likely that if you know what the EU's Digital Markets Act is about that you have comments on it. There is a consultation open to which you can contribute your experiences and views […]

First real study of #Threads-#Fediverse interop at scale. Key bits: Fedi→Threads replies dominate (likely due to current UX on Threads for fedi), surges tied to rollout events, steady growth, & interop didn’t worsen convo tone. Early but encouraging data: https://arxiv.org/html/2502.17926v2

Finally a response from @EUCommission Vice-President #Virkkunen on the American attacks against #democracy in Europe (unfortunately on #LinkedIn): "The #DSA and #DMA are our sovereign legislations - Non-discriminatory, applying to all online platforms in the […] [Original post on eupolicy.social]

Companies have been calling to delay the EU’s AI law, pointing to delays in drafting important standards. One of the people leading the drafting now hit out at these companies for not taking part – saying that is producing the delays. My article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/section/tech...

New, from me: The recent mass-theft of authentication tokens from Salesloft, whose AI chatbot is used by a broad swath of corporate America to convert customer interaction into Salesforce leads, has left many companies racing to invalidate the stolen […] [Original post on infosec.exchange]

‘A #meta spokesperson told the Financial Times that the EU’s Digital Markets Act was also a key point during the Trump-Zuckerberg meeting. “While digital taxes were discussed, much of the meeting focused on the #DMA”’ https://on.ft.com/47owSvJ

In Munich, early signs of a European hyperscaler revolt "Under the Trump administration, US tech dominance is rattling public and private sector organisations across Europe. Digital sovereignty initiatives are gaining momentum as a result" […]

I was just thinking to myself "It would be good if #mastodon let you follow someone's original posts without seeing all the stuff they boost, which is not relevant to me". Then it occurred to me to look and see if it does ... and it does! Click on the person's username, then click the […]

“These #censorship allegations against the [#digitalservicesact] are nonsense. They are completely unfounded, and they’re completely wrong. Do you guys feel censored in the EU? I guess not,” spokesperson Thomas Regnier told reporters on Thursday. Finally the @EUCommission finds some appropriate […]

Revealed: US Vice President #jdvance called comander-in-chief of of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valeriy #Zaluzhny to discuss “potential leadership changes” after Oval Office meeting of February 2025. Zaluzhny refused to talk, instead immediately called Zelensky to inform what Vance was planning […]

"Sideloading" is the rentseeker word for "being able to run software of your choosing on a computing device you purchased". There is no reasonable case for an operating system developer having a say over what programs you run on your hardware. #android #google

“It is the sovereign rights of the #eu and its member states to regulate economic activities on our territory, which are consistent with our democratic values,” @EUCommission Chief Spokesperson Paula Pinho said during an afternoon briefing today. OK yes, but we want to see non-compliance […]