Notices by Erik Moeller (eloquence@social.coop)

Elon Musk says the journalists at CBS 60 Minutes "deserve a long prison sentence".

The reporting that has him so upset includes this line: "The world's richest man had cut off assistance to the world's poorest families."

You can view it in full here (first ~15 minutes):

https://www.cbs.com/shows/video/w_Zoxuc1ZnjigRqeKhYpum3ZFHIf2Rbs/

Nowhere is the new reality of X as a state media platform more obvious than on https://doge.gov/ -- the main page is a feed of posts from their X account.

Expect more of this as Musk worms himself into the government, including "DM us on X" and similar nonsense (of course it won't be a human that responds, but a state AI bot based on Grok).

This is why viewing X as a tool for persuading anyone of anything makes no sense. It's not a tool for you. It's a tool for them.

> As before, all cases are in unvaccinated people or people with unknown vaccination status.

The RFK Jr. appointment will put the pedal to the metal for future outbreaks.

We are all witnesses to the decline of a nation. Whether we will be witnesses to its fall remains up to us.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/02/texas-measles-outbreak-climbs-to-48-cases-almost-all-kids-13-hospitalized/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

It'll take a while for organizations that remain active on X to fully internalize that being on the platform is no different from being in Russia Today's comments section.

So we have to keep saying it.

X is state media.

I cannot say this enough: Follow @ProPublica for real journalism about the authoritarian takeover.

Do you want to introduce the fediverse and/or Bluesky to your org -- in addition to X & Meta, or to #SwitchForGood?

Through Feb, Mar and Apr, I'll be offering free one-hour sessions on Fridays to talk to your org. For-profit, non-profit, gov, edu, etc. This is not a consultancy; this is volunteer advocacy and support for building our collective independence from X & Meta.

If you are interested, book a slot through this link (starting Feb 7). Time is not movable. :)

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/appointments/schedules/AcZssZ1moWG0f_wJqMz-rO0OkD27MBJpj1LR4W9SJQnIYIEe8lvb1UbbTXTYQw7cBbc4SuybqByqTjqh

Amidst descending darkness across Europe and the United States, solidarity -- protest, collective action, mutual aid, and more -- is the source of light & hope.

Whatever form that takes for you, if you find yourself in despair with all that's happening, seek that light.

Others will try to diminish it, or tell you that you're focusing on the wrong thing. That way leads paralyzing self-doubt, infighting, and more despair.

Always seek out the light.

Wikimedia France (@Wikimedia_Fr) has confirmed to me they're no longer active on X. 🎉

As far as I know, the following #Wikimedia-related organizations have left X:

- @wikimediafoundation ("for now")
- @WikimediaAT (Austria)
- @Wikimedia_Nederland
- @wikimediaDE (Germany)
- @WikimediaCH (Switzerland)

Let me know about any I'm missing!

Some major chapters still active on X include UK, Australia, Italy, Spain, and South Africa.

Would be great to see more of them follow course :)

I don't believe the NVDA market wipe will last, tbh. Microsoft's Nadella is right to cite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox - there'll be plenty of use for all that compute capacity the industry is building out (whether those uses are socially beneficial is, of course, an altogether different question).

Very reasonable business model: premium features are _part of the open source version_ -- developers comfortable running the code locally can use them for free.

https://cyd.social/cyd-is-now-open-source/

Seeing #pixelfed photos in my Mastodon feed will never not be cool. Thank you, @dansup, for showing what the fediverse can be.

There was a knife attack in Germany. A pretty brutal one, with a small Moroccan kid and one German man killed by a mentally ill man set for deportation.

As usual, it's fodder for the right and a giant media story.

But I didn't read about it here in my feed until well after it happened. And that's how it should be, frankly.

Violence is awful, and reading about it hits us in the least intelligent, most reactive parts of our brain. Proportionality matters.

With Libération, The Guardian, and Le Monde all gone from X (and smaller publications following their leads), its relevancy for journalism in Europe is truly collapsing.

Germany is for once lagging behind -- while many nonprofits, universities and public institutions in Germany have quit X, publications like Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, Sueddeutsche, etc. are all still happily posting to Musk's paltform.

Shout-out to German news orgs who _have_ made the departure from X:

- @tazgetroete (684.5K followers on X)
- @heiseonline (238K)
- @correctiv_org (118.6K)

(Also very cool to see two of these running their own instances.)

Many more to go!

I should also give a shout-out to two German public broadcasters:

@3sat and @ZDF

Both quit X in March 2024 without fanfare; they've built their audience here on the fediverse on a dedicated instance. (Another German broadcaster, ARD, also has a dedicated instance but is still on X.)

If you're looking for an open source project to help with in your spare time that can have a large social impact, checkout Metadata Cleaner - they're looking for a new maintainer:

https://lists.torproject.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/tor-dev@lists.torproject.org/thread/JWMRZ2D676ZHUQ4PJOEBL7ASNVDQPUGL/

It's a really important tool for anyone working with sensitive files, e.g., in a journalism or human rights context.

We're hiring a Senior Software Engineer on the @securedrop team at @freedomofpress.

SecureDrop is open source whistleblowing software. The project is at a critical inflection point as we get ready to build the next-gen version based on a modern cryptographic protocol.

100% remote, full-time, $110-$120K base salary with comprehensive benefits for US-based employees. (If you're not in the US, we can discuss consultancy models.)

Hmu for questions.

https://grnh.se/813b998c5us

#GetFediHired

- unblocks nazis on his platform while suspending antifa
- calls claim that jews push hatred against whites "the actual truth"
- weaponizes platform to get white supremacist elected president
- wears "dark gothic" maga hat at rally
- promotes neo-nazi affiliated far-right in Germany and UK
- does Heil Hitler salute twice at inauguration

actual NYT headline: "Elon Musk Ignites Online Speculation Over the Meaning of a Hand Gesture"

I'm still maintaining the #eXit spreadsheet as best I can, (https://bit.ly/eXit → GDoc), but -- a good problem to have! -- the rate of notable account deactivations, especially in Europe, is difficult to keep up with.

If folks still find it useful (I'm at this point mainly tracking the specific Mastodon/Bluesky accounts folks set up), I'd appreciate any volunteers willing to co-maintain it :)

It's worth noting that there are now _many_ international campaigns to organize civil society & individual migration away from X (and sometimes also Meta). I've heard of:

https://helloquittex.com/ (French + more)

https://vamonosjuntas.org/ (Spanish + more)

https://leavex.eu/ (Europe; multilingual petition)

https://campagnes.degoedezaak.org/campaigns/detox (Netherlands)

@neuSoM (helped organize academia migration off X in Germany)

Plus lots of individuals helping people, setting up servers, etc.