Notices by Jan Penfrat (ilumium@eupolicy.social)

This is one of the dumbest fediverse server rules I have seen. Equating politics and religion and discouraging people to speak up about injustice because it might make others feel uncomfortable ("plaster it in other people's faces") is such a stupidly privileged thing to do. This rule says a lot about the people running the server.

#FediAdmin #politics #religion #FreeExpression

What an amazing campaign video about #Meta #SpyGlasses from @bitsoffreedom ❣️

Filmed in front of the Meta offices in #Amsterdam featuring real Meta employees. :)

Now it's official: On Thursday, the EU Commission will propose a new law they call the #KIDSAct. It will ban young people from a range of different online services and be enforced by the Commission themselves.

What a waste of political capital and legislative resources.

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-to-propose-new-legislation-on-minors-protection-on-thursday/

#MinorsProtection #ChildRights #OnlineSafety #DigitalRights

For those following #Meta's $17bn settlement in California to avoid conviction for harmful platform design, #CDD has an excellent commentary:

“The settlement reaches the features of Meta’s platforms but not the engine that drives them. Meta earns nearly all of its money from #advertising. Young people’s attention is the inventory it sells. Design that captures and holds that attention is not a flaw in the business model, it is the business model working as intended. -->

"Meta can remove “like” counts. What it will not remove is the reason it built them. The penalty does not change that calculation. Roughly $17 billion paid over ten years is about $1.7 billion a year, or roughly ten days of #Meta’s annual profit. Children were harmed for years while this business model ran unchecked. This settlement addresses some of what that produced. It does not touch what produced it."

https://democraticmedia.org/publishings/meta-settlement-reaches-the-features-not-the-engine

When your business is destruction and misery:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ng-interactive/2026/aug/04/revealed-major-oil-firms-make-93bn-profits-amid-war-and-climate-crisis

@dalias I don't own a car but whenever I rent or borrow one I use @CoMaps for routing (which should be pretty similar since its a fork of OrganicMaps) and it works pretty flawlessly.

I'm in Europe though, not sure this makes a difference.

But I'm also not sure I understand what "routing to an unknown address" means?

Who would have thought that #surveillance cameras in public spaces would be abused by men, eh sorry I meant creeps.

In other news, Belgian #police has since recently gained warrantless real-time access to 21,000 surveillance cameras in trains, subways, trams, busses, and stations. What could possibly go wrong. 😓

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/17/milan-tram-drivers-used-whatsapp-for-sexist-chat-about-female-passengers

#privacy #HumanRights #Belgium #stib #sncb #delijn #tec

This week I spoke to a room full of non-techy NGO people and for the first time there were more folks with #Fediverse than #Threads accounts in the room 🎉

You know something is off in your #democracy if somebody complying with a court order is considered newsworthy.

You know your product is bad if you need to send lobbyists to the freakin' #Pope.

#AI #Vatican #BigTech #lobbying

Youth organisations demand social media change, not bans

https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/2089712/youth-organisations-demand-social-media-change-not-bans

#DigitalRights #FreedomOfExpression #AccessRights #children #SocialMediaBan

Who needs astronauts or scientists on #ArtemisII ? NASA should have just sent a bunch of pro photographers with their EOS R5 up there.

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.