Notices by Jan Penfrat (ilumium@eupolicy.social)

"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

Dear journalists: did you know there is a verb for "using false claims"? Many children learn it in kindergarten. It's called "lying".

You should try it some time (the verb, not the lying).

#ClearLanguage #USpol #journalism #freepress

Fighting for your rights works! 💪

⚖️ #Spain's constitutional court ruled that public decision-making algorithms require transparency and oversight. The court rejected claims that #NationalSecurity or #IntellectualProperty can absolutely limit what it calls a constitutional right to public information.

https://civio.es/novedades/2025/09/18/civio-pulls-back-the-curtain-on-public-algorithms-spains-supreme-court-orders-the-government-to-release-boscos-source-code/

#algorithms #AI #justice

I have just donated to @aral's #Gaza Emergency Fund which will be used to bring 8 (!) entire families to (relative) safety from #Israel's #genocide.

If you're a privileged White European like me, you don't often get the chance to help save someone else's life.

Well here you do: https://gaza-verified.org/emergency/

#Google: We need to limit #sideloading, #GooglePlay is so much safer!

Meanwhile in the real world:

https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/26/apps_android_malware/

I only now read Georg Riekeles' excellent 2022 account of #BigTech's outrageous global #lobbying influence. While I don't agree with everything (e.g. his take on #liability and the #copyright debate), after 15 years in #EU #Brussels I'd say his long-read is frighteningly accurate.

Includes special mentions of @corporateeurope and other crucial civil society groups fighting back.

A must-read: https://medium.com/@georg.riekeles/teknopolis-7cbe48a5fcf2

#TrackingFreeAds #DigitalServicesAct #DigitalMarketsAct #AIAct

It felt like kindergarten to do it but this week we @edri +others filed a complaint against #Google with the @EUCommission for breach of the #DigitalMarketsAct.

Despite the #DMA's clear obligation for #gatekeepers to allow you to uninstall pre-installed apps, #Alphabet claims this can also mean disabling. Yes seriously.

So we wrote a 7-page explanation why disable ≠ uninstall.

The complaint was filed together with @article19, @fsfe, @Freiheitsrechte, @HomoDigitalisGR and @vrijschrift 🙏

So now that both #Apple and #Meta have formally appealed the #DMA fines that are just pocket money for them, can we please start calling those lawsuits for what they are: intimidation similar to #SLAPPs.

They are designed to bind public resources for years, which regulators will lack for enforcing the #DigitalMarketsAct, to intimidate civil servants in the @EUCommission, and to show us that #BigTech is above the law and that we are helpless.

Let's not be intimidated. #ResistBigTech

Fun times ahead in Europe 🙄

"The @EUCommission has set out its plans to give #police access to digital information, including by cracking down on “non-cooperative” messaging services [like @signalapp and #Telegram] and helping build technologies to break #encryption."

#DigitalRights #privacy #HumanRights #confidentiality #cybersecurity

For weeks I have been telling reporters that #Trump could have the power to switch off our tech in #Europe. It felt a bit alarmist until I just read that #Microsoft, on the behest of the #US gov, has suspended the email account of Karim Khan, the #ICC chief prosecutor.

One of the most important international courts and a legal bulwark against #genocide, crimes against humanity, and #warcrimes is threatened by #BigTech dependency.

https://apnews.com/article/icc-trump-sanctions-karim-khan-court-a4b4c02751ab84c09718b1b95cbd5db3

#DigitalSovereignty #FOSS #EthicalTech

@protonprivacy and @threemaapp: We offer super safe #privacy made in #Switzerland! 🇨🇭🏔️

Switzerland: Let's ban #anonymity online and introduce #dataretention by decree without parliament.

https://www.heise.de/en/news/Switzerland-plans-to-ban-anonymity-and-data-retention-by-decree-10377287.html

#digitalrights #surveillance #masssurveillance

Reminder that #MusicStreaming does not help musicians. It helps #streaming platforms and locks you into lifelong subscription:

Only 9 album purchases generate @ionafyfe the same income as 140,000 streams: https://mastodon.scot/@ionafyfe/114438267806310626

If you like music, go buy a (digital) album and you'll own it forever. Places like #Qobuz sell them in all kinds of #DRMfree formats.

Very excited to have filed a formal complaint against #Facebook & #Instagram today under the #DigitalServicesAct.

Together with @bitsoffreedom, @Freiheitsrechte & Convocation Design+Research, @edri represents an Irish user and found that #Meta uses #DeceptiveDesign patterns to discourage people from choosing the #newsfeed that's not based on #profiling.

That newsfeeds option is a key requirement under the DSA and deceptive design is prohibited. So there you go.

https://edri.org/our-work/civil-society-files-dsa-complaint-against-meta-for-toxic-profiling-fueled-feeds/

#DigitalSovereignty my ass

"Germany plans to use #surveillance software from #Palantir countrywide."

https://www.derstandard.at/consent/tcf/story/3000000262763/deutschland-will-spitzel-software-von-palantir-flaechendeckend-einsetzen

@Tutanota As long as we talk about tech independence or digital #sovereignty primarily in terms of geography and jurisdiction, we will lose as users and as people with rights:

1. Because this narrative can easily be co-opted by antidemocratic, nationalistic forces.

2. It takes away attention from what actually provides us with independence: software #freedom, #interoperability, a power shift away from #bigtech to small, decentralised, ethical tech.

3. It gives praise to entities...

Yes, "Buy #European" is trending but it also sucks. A lot.

Hear me out: I understand and also feel the urge for tech #independence, particularly from the US, right now.

But just because something is European doesn't make it good or ethical.

@Tutanota People shouldn't trust you because you're "from Europe" or German or whatever. But because you have an #ethical business model, employ good people, care about your users, respect #humanrights and build free and #opensource software.

This is wild: We kindly asked #X to fix their damn #TrustedFlagger online forms and for 4+ weeks nothing happens, they basically ignore our deadline.

Then we spend days preparing and filing a legal complaint under the #DigitalServicesAct for infringing Art 22(1) DSA and, within hours, X makes the changes to comply, the exact changes we asked them for.

https://eupolicy.social/@edri/114195689980850692

**This makes me:**

1. angry b/c we could have done this the easy way.
2. happy b/c it proves the DSA is a sharp sword.

#JohnOliver just did a piece about #Meta's content moderation fuckery and explicitly mentions as alternatives @Mastodon, @pixelfed and @signalapp 🎉

@boud @element @edri @nemobis At EDRi we indeed advocate for *much* more EU funding for free and open source software that is part of the digital commons.

Just this week: https://edri.org/our-work/meta-and-x-are-going-rogue-here-is-what-europe-should-do-now/

We would love projects like the #Matrix Foundation to be on the receiving end of this. There is unfortunately heavy political resistance despite all the talk about #DigitalSovereignty.