Hi all, we have a couple of @openrightsgroup board nominees who need a seconder (another member). They seem like good candidates, so worth being on the ballot paper. if you would be willing to consider seconding them, let me know.

Having spent three years insider a massive tech company rebuilding itself around AI, @anildash is exactly right here. It’s normal technology that the bosses see as an opportunity to expand and exploit, including their own workers. https://www.anildash.com/2025/10/17/the-majority-ai-view/

🇺🇸 ⚖️ **Federal judge in Mississippi admits staff used AI to draft inaccurate order** "_Wingate acknowledged that his law clerk used an AI program to compose an order that paused the enforcement of a state law that bans diversity, equity and inclusion programs in Mississippi public schools._" […]

Debated "A law abiding citizen has Nothing to Fear from surveillance" in Durham Union last night, alongside Professor Charles Raab and Rebecca Vincent; proposing was Professor Anthony Glees. #digtalid #privacy #durham #durhamunion

Great Intelligence2 episode with @pluralistic https://open.spotify.com/episode/2DoEu99vKnI6OuwCnbRbTZ?si=s00vfBqpRDmOmF8SkH_EqA I loved his call for #digitalsovereignty. It is great how #foss provides countries to provide a viable alternative. Interoperability & being able to reverse engineer […]

The German state of Schleswig-Holstein completes a massive 30,000 employee migration to Open Source email systems Microsoft Booted Out #tech #foss #opensource #email #germany #digitalsovereignty news.itsfoss.com/schleswig-ho...

Apple and Home Office agree to drop legal claim over encryption backdoor (continues to apply to UK citizens, qwho cannot use Apple ADP) https://www.computerweekly.com/news/366632561/Apple-and-Home-Office-agree-to-drop-legal-claim-over-encryption-backdoor #apple #adp #e2ee #ipact

Hack of age verification firm may have exposed 70,000 Discord users’ ID photos #onlinesafetyact #wtf #wetoldyouso https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/oct/09/hack-age-verification-firm-discord-users-id-photos

"By investing in #opensource, Europe can support small businesses, universities, and public institutions, giving them tools to compete with global tech giants. Despite this importance, the budget proposal does not include specific funding for open source… The omission is alarming as Europe […]

@jim Tech Gets Real is now live on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/7kVl0RrTJLFJSo1XVYDc2a and Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tech-gets-real/id1841869425

🚨 So I'm becoming a podcaster/YouTuber! The show's called Tech Gets Real and its all about staying in control in the AI era. This is for regular people - no jargon; short episodes - so please share with anyone who could benefit! Episode 1 is all about how honest we should be with AIs […]

So apparently part of the issue with #threads is that they moved domain from threads.net to threads.com with the result that fediverse domain handles are no longer obvious and transparent. Kind of screams neglect and don’t care won’t fix.

According to Politico, the @EUCommission is now close to publishing its final #DSA non-compliance decision against #x. But for real this time, they say. 🍿 Maybe a good moment to re-share what I just published about how #DSA and #dma are going […]

@[email protected] ping

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

Something that bothers me a lot is when people conflate "having compassion and understanding for people who hate you" with "letting people who hate you do whatever they want to you". It's possible to have firm boundaries and to take urgent, protective action while also believing that everyone […]

"respect the data, but also look carefully at what you see all around you. Above all, think for yourself." A moral for the ages. The UK’s problems aren’t caused by immigration - https://on.ft.com/3K7NCxI

"Ad van with picture of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein confiscated by cops in Windsor" #trump visit to the UK is delivering a free speech clampdown. #freespeech #onlinesafetyact https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ad-van-picture-donald-trump-35916462

Perhaps unsurprisingly, threads.com seems increasingly broken from an #activitypub perspective; subscriptions to external accounts frequently fail, and it is not picking up posts from certain user accounts. #threads

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

Government appears to have learnt nothing from the #onlinesafetyact debacle, and is planning more of the same. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/online-safety-laws-to-strengthen-to-protect-people-of-all-ages-from-devastating-self-harm-content Via Owen Boswarva

I'd like to publish conference proceedings as epub rather than pdf, as they're more accessible, can include videos etc. They're basically standardised bundles of HTML as far as I can tell, that can be downloaded onto ereaders etc. However, web browsers can't natively read them, and I somehow […]

Did a quick interview with @BBCNews on the Graham Linehan arrest. Whatever the specifics with GL, which are not good, there is a wider question as to why the police are dealing with speech offences through arrests. #freespeech #onlinesafetyact

In case we needed more warning against #bigtech + a push towards #digitalsovereignty... @pluralistic on scorching form. https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/115130382805060633 [email protected] - William Gibson famously said "Cyberpunk was a warning, not a suggestion." But for every tech leader […]

All three top stories on the BBC News app are about migration. The top story on #R4Today just now was also about migration. Is this (as the #R4Today presenter has just claimed) the media reflecting the public’s interest, or is it in fact the public parroting back […] [Original post on toot.wales]

There is an interesting new report by #amnestyinternational about how #x's business model and content #Moderation failings enabled the spread of technology-facilitated gender-based violence targeting #LGBTI people on the platform in #poland […]

„Wir schaffen das“ – zehn Jahre später: Die Geflüchteten aus 2015 haben Migrationsforscher Brücker zufolge besser performt als die Wissenschaft erwartet hatte. Doch der politische Diskurs überlagere die objektiven Gegebenheiten.

Big questions: what have the UK and US agreed re #apple #adp #encryption? I would guess ADP will NOT return in the UK https://www.ft.com/content/ab0aba27-81e0-4ee5-bcbb-6bce85386e40

Following a #FreedomOfInformation request, I can reveal that in 2005 — almost two decades ago — the #EuropeanCommission trialled the deployment of an Open Source stack (#Linux desktops with #OpenOffice) and that trial was mostly successful. Here is the […] [Original post on eupolicy.social]

"The challenge is not simply to build a “Dutch cloud” or “European #cloud” as nationalistic alternatives, but to develop alternative visions for the role of computing in society that prioritize people over profit maximization," writes @C__CS in this excellent critique of Europe's […]

Do you or have you ever expressed support for #palestineaction online? To paraphrase McCarthy. Is the content still up? We want to monitor takedowns: send us your URLs! #onlinesafetyact #osa

if you haven't taught someone who is helplessly addicted to LLMs, LLM brain is _so much worse than you can possibly imagine._ the problems i'm seeing from someone i am currently teaching are indistinguishable from illiteracy - this person literally cannot read single-line, fully descriptive […]

Oh look, MPs are claiming for VPNs on their expenses. #onlinesafetyact https://www.politico.eu/article/britain-mps-charge-vpns-expenses-minister-caution-tech-jonathan-reynolds-data/

@jim One step away from making NordVPN and SurfShark proscribed organisations, whereupon Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart will be dragged away like eighty year old grannies who care about genocide.

I am continually laughing at AI people writing these multiple paragraphs long prompts to try to get the AI to do what they want it to. Motherfucker, that's a PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE!

Oh dear. Don't blame us, blame them, for the #onelinesafetyact whinges Conservative ex Minister. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/31/my-online-safety-act-isnt-the-problem-labour-is/

This from #ofcom is nonsense. It is not websites that are causing VPN usage to skyrocket, it is government incompetence. Perhaps Ofcom should fine Peter Kyle and the government for promoting VPNs. #onlinesafetyact […]

This from #ofcom is nonsense. It is not websites that are causing VPN usage to skyrocket, it is government incompetence. Perhaps Ofcom should fine Peter Kyle and the government for promoting VPNs […]

Do something about it here: https://action.openrightsgroup.org/tell-your-mp-online-safety-act-isn%E2%80%99t-working #ageverification #onlinesafetyact (Via x, still good something once in a while.)

Zuckerberg: AI increased the time spent on Facebook and Instagram in Q2 https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/30/zuckerberg-ai-increased-the-time-spent-on-facebook-and-instagram-in-q2/

@jim The suggestion that #vpns should be banned is absolutely appalling. I hope @thegreenparty will join the #libdems in opposing this, & other aspects of the #osa which threaten #privacy, particularly of young #lgbti people seeking #information about #sex & #relationships, which is by no means […]

#libdems opposition to the #onlinesafetyact is beginning to snowball Quite rightly, they are asking for suspension and a rethink. Where is the opposition within Labour, Jeremy Corbyn's new grouping and the UK Green Parties? I hope they can also speak out against this car crash […]

On #skynews just now debating about the #onlinesafetyact; there seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding even among former minister that there is any serious kind of free expression protections in the Act.

Senator #ronwyden gets a refusal to deny that there are #encryption #backdoors at #google from the UK government under the #ipact https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/29/uk-encryption-backdoor-wyden-letter-gabbard/

“Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic and made way for parks, people-streets and bike-lanes.” Better for the climate, better for health, better for livability & quality of life. Common sense. Such a no-brainer, it’s remarkable that more cities HAVEN’T done the same.

This kind of exchange could easily be avoided IMO, just by simply stating that the OSA needs "wholesale revision" or even, "reform", rather than "scrapping" it. #nigelfarage walked into a trap here, and it was avoidable. #onlinesafetyact

So #reddit now require #ageverification and your birthdate for watching #aljazeera #onlinesafetyact https://www.reddit.com/r/AlJazeera/

'Apps offering virtual private networks — which route a smartphone or PC’s internet traffic to another country, bypassing local network providers — made up half of the top 10 most popular free apps on the UK’s App Store for iOS this weekend' #onlinesafetyact […]

The petition to repeal the #onlinesafetyact has now passed 310,000 signatures, making it the third largest petition so far this Parliament. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/722903 https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions?state=all