Notices by Jan Penfrat (ilumium@eupolicy.social)

Hey @loops, thanks to the EU #DigitalMarketsAct #DMA, #Tiktok has created an #API for third party apps / competitors that is supposed to enable real-time #DataPortability for users who wish to switch.

Have you considered putting an Tiktok account import function on the #Loops roadmap?

The German federal government currently pays €481 million in licensing fees to #Microsoft every year.

I'm sure @zendis could build some nice stuff with half the money and make it available for everybody else to re-use.

#DigitalSovereignty #DigitalCommons #FOSS

German #competition regulator fines #Amazon €59M for abuse of market power 🎉

https://www.bundeskartellamt.de/SharedDocs/Meldung/DE/Pressemitteilungen/2026/26_02_05_Amazon.html?nn=52004

#antitrust #marketpower #bigtech

The liberal group in the European Parliament #Renew has an #Instagram campaign for leaving #BigTech platforms. That's cool.

What do you think @bartgroothuis, is that an opportunity to bring some of your colleagues over to the Fediverse?

Feel free to invite them to join our Mastodon server http://eupolicy.social - it is made specifically for the EU bubble.

#DigitalSovereignty #OpenSocialWeb #LeaveX

@forteller I did, thanks!

So cool: @radboud University has announced to switch to #Fairphone for (all?) their employees. 🎉 They explicitly cite #sustainability, cost efficiency and management support as reasons.

https://www.ru.nl/en/staff/news/radboud-university-selects-fairphone-as-standard-smartphone-for-employees

"#Trump regime asks University of Pennsylvania to hand over list of #Jews"

and

"European #military mission with soldiers from Denmark, France, Germany and Norway to be deployed to #Greenland"

was not the kind of news I wanted to read tonight.

While the #US has become an authoritarian state that tramples on the rights and freedoms of people around the world, EU member states want to grant US authorities direct and far-reaching access to #biometric data stored in European #police databases. 😠

https://www.heise.de/en/news/Biometrics-Deal-EU-Council-Paves-Way-for-US-Data-Exchange-11120427.html

#HumanRights #DigitalRights #privacy

This is what civil society, in particular the #DigitalRights community, is up against now: #Trump has barred leaders of @hateaid, the Global #Disinformation Index, and the Centre for Countering Digital Hate from entering the US. Expect more restrictions, threats, and intimidation against public-interest NGOs globally.

https://apnews.com/article/state-department-trump-immigration-rubio-visas-87c8a4692f3184e4f83fdd8ed5093886

#DigitalServicesAct #DSA #EU #authoritarianism #USA

Today, the #EU will launch a new legal entity aimed at supporting the development of the #DigitalCommons.

The so-called European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (#EDIC) is a legal instrument that allows EU countries to pool resources and "coordinate with communities to develop, maintain and scale digital commons and facilitate their uptake."

Depending on who leads it, this #DCEDIC might become something great, or it could end in failure just as #GaiaX did. 🍿

https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-launch-digital-commons-edic-support-sovereign-european-digital-infrastructure-and

As of today: No social media for Australians under 16.

Also as of today: Every Australian under 16 installs a dodgy gratis #VPN that spies on them and sells their digital lives to #adtech sharks.

#SocialMediaBan #DigitalRights #AgeVerification #MinorsProtection

The news that #X has suspended the #EU's advertising account on the platform after it issued a 120m EUR fine against X for breaking the #DSA is beyond hilarious.

And it might even be kind of good in the sense that politicians in Europe maybe finally realise how shitty it is to depend on such a lunatic for its public communications.

https://www.politico.eu/article/x-axes-european-commissions-ad-account-after-e120m-eu-fine/

#DigitalServicesAct #DigitalRights #DigitalSovereignty #RuleOfLaw

"The Dutch government has quietly removed #Google #tracking tools from job listings for its intelligence services over concerns that the data would expose aspirant spies to U.S. #surveillance," according to POLITICO.

"The intervention would put an end to Google’s processing of the data of job seekers interested in applying to #spy service jobs, after members of parliament in The Hague raised security concerns." 💥

What the actual f...k? How does a multibillion dollar company like #Meta not mitigate against this kind of historic data leak???

"3.5 Billion Accounts: Complete #WhatsApp Directory Retrieved and Evaluated"
https://www.heise.de/en/news/3-5-Billion-Accounts-Complete-WhatsApp-Directory-Retrieved-and-Evaluated-11083244.html?seite=all

#DigitalRights #privacy #DataProtection #DigitalSecurity

Gotta love The Guardian for those quotes from Europeans on #Mamdani's win in NYC:

"Verbeek backed this with a comment he had overheard in an Oslo cafe, in which Mamdani was described as an American politician who “finally” sounded normal."

“Normal. That’s the word,” Verbeek wrote in his newsletter, The Planet. “Here, taking care of one another through public programs isn’t radical socialism. It’s Tuesday.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/06/europe-zohran-mamdani-policies-normal

#China has installed more #solar panels in the past 6 months than #Germany did in the past 25 years.

(via @VQuaschning)

https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/china-schafft-in-sechs-monaten-doppelt-so-viel-solarkraft-wie-deutschland-in-25-jahren-a-c654c3ac-9f19-4b6c-bc5b-2905096f685b

#renewables #energytransition #greentransition

When people say "#Mastodon is like early Twitter," they often refer to the absence of algorithmic amplification & ads or the functionality set. But what makes it like early #Twitter in my opinion, isn't that.

It's that the #Fediverse enables you to easily connect with real, awesome humans from anywhere: makers, celebrities, community leaders, top experts in their fields. Just tag them with an honest post and you'll have wonderful interactions such as this one. 🤩

https://mastodon.online/@koteisaev/115482419774207245

Tech firms are spending more than ever on #lobbying the #EU amid mounting opposition to the bloc’s digital rules, according to @corporateeurope.

The 733 digital #industry groups registered in #Brussels now spend €151 million a year pushing their interests, up from €113 million 2 years ago.

Meta is the overall largest lobby spender in the EU (€10 million).

There are now an estimated 890 lobbyists working to shape the tech agenda, up from 699 in 2023.

https://corporateeurope.org/en/2025/10/big-tech-lobby-budgets-hit-record-levels

"Asking enslaved people if they actually want to work the plantations for free would kill the cotton industry."

-- Nick Clegg

#AI #AIcon #exploitation #BigTech

I currently read Alex Vitale's The End Of Policing. I was skeptical at first. After about a third I thought "Yes OK that's true but mostly applies to the US, right?"

But then, where Vitale argues #police has always been a political, never a #crime-fighting tool, I suddenly realised:

Holy shit I myself & everyone in my bubble finds it totally normal that police are present at #protests but would *never* expect them to solve my burglary case or find my stolen bicycle. 😲

https://www.versobooks.com/products/178-the-end-of-policing