I do not have any positive take on the Franco-German sovereignty summit. Yes, they do not throw the DMA under the omnibus, but apart from that it is an agenda that puts frontier AI before infrastructure, profits before people, EU before global antifascist resistance. And: They still do not even address the core of Big Tech dependence. EU startups are subject to their control through investments and research agendas. Pouring more money into them cements dependence.
Tech Policy Press
At the Sovereignty Summit, Europe Put Start-Ups on Stage and Kept Big Tech in Control | TechPolicy.Press
At the Berlin summit on digital sovereignty, Europe backs start-ups, avoids Big Tech confrontation, and bets on deregulation, writes Aline Blankertz.
RE:
kolektiva.social
Champagne Anarchism (@champagneanarchism@kolektiva.social)
The Rise of the Great Capitalist Empires | Debt: The First 5,000 Years (Chapter 11) Can capitalism ever truly wrestle with the idea of eternity? ...
 "The single defining feature of modern capitalism is that it acts like the party is almost over. So why stop now?" I still remember when that dawned on me when reading Graeber's Debt 🤯 People have been saying they are in late-stage capitalism for decades, if not centuries. It is 100% intuitive that growth and expansion cannot go on forever. But debt as an engine of growth has locked people/organisations/states into extractive behaviour. Strongly recommend the book and the podcast series! View quoted note →
"Both Google and Apple recently removed Red Dot, an app people can use to report sightings of ICE officials, from their respective app stores [...] Google told 404 Media it removed apps because they shared the location of what it describes as a vulnerable group that recently faced a violent act connected to these sorts of ICE-spotting apps—a veiled reference to ICE officials." Who is vulnerable and who is at risk? Google joins Apple in executing fascism.
404 Media
Google Calls ICE Agents a Vulnerable Group, Removes ICE-Spotting App ‘Red Dot’
The move comes as Apple removed ICEBlock after direct pressure from U.S. Department of Justice officials and signals a broader crackdown on ICE-spo...
Apparently this requires restating: We should not want a European Palantir. We should not want an open-source Palantir. We should not want a non-commercial Palantir. If it is supposed to do what Palantir does, we should not want it. And I don't care to what extent Palantir's products are shaped by political or profit motives. We know enough to reject its logic altogether.
After reading his book, I am very much moved by the release of Mikola Dziadok from Belarusian prison.
kolektiva.social
Anarchist Black Cross Belarus (@abcbelarus@kolektiva.social)
Attached: 1 image Today, anarchist Mikalai Dziadok was released and deported from Belarus to Lithuania. He was just met by comrades in Vilnius. Up...
 He has already spent over ten years in prison (while being slightly younger than me). And his book is testament to an incredibly fearless, courageous and compassionate mind:
Mikola Dziadok: The Colours of the Parallel World
…
 His case is not an isolated one, so I am even more glad that through his writing I got access to and started to care about political prisoners more generally. (1/3)
Digital sovereignty without techno-nationalism and an ambitious understanding of more democratic technology? It is always such a pleasure to listen to Cecilia Rikap! 🫶 She conveys that we should not just demand governments to “get off Big Tech” and “build local data centres”, but also to go beyond the capitalist paradigm. Uruguay seems an interesting example among various others. Finally managed to listen to her episode with Paris on @npub157rh...8pny 👇
Tech Won't Save Us
Why Countries Must Fight For Digital Sovereignty w/ Cecilia Rikap - Tech Won’t Save Us
“From economy of occupation to economy of genocide” Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur, details in remarkably clear words how companies across the world derive benefits from the suffering of people in Gaza. It’s vast - arms, finance, construction, tech, but also universities. “[E]nding it will not happen without holding the private sector accountable, including its executives.”
the Guardian
As Gaza suffers, US companies are reaping horrific payoffs | Katrina vanden Heuvel
A report this month details US corporate involvement in IDF actions. Grassroots organizing offers opportunity for change
 Read the report (incl calls to action for govts+companies): 📄.pdf
@npub16wcy...ehf0 is on #TWSU with @npub157rh...8pny and has a clear view on AI use cases: "But the other thing is that it is quite good at being destructive. It is not very good at actually optimising, actually reliably predicting or generating something that can be trusted enough to be a functional part for society. It is quite good at intervening in ways which in which collateral damage does not matter, and you can think of that as anywhere from DOGE to Gaza." Great episode!👇
Tech Won't Save Us
Decomputing For a Better Future w/ Dan McQuillan - Tech Won’t Save Us
Is it possible to work on AI as a computer scientist and not reinforce the hype? Question for @Alex Hanna at a great event at the [@Weizenbaum_Institut](
social.bund.de
Weizenbaum-Institut (@Weizenbaum_Institut@social.bund.de)
1.23K Posts, 348 Following, 2.57K Followers · Forschung für die vernetzte Gesellschaft. Unsere Netiquette: www.weizenbaum-institut.de/netiquette/
 ). She has “no good news”. Among other concerns, the hype is creating a monoculture in research that draws away resources for actually useful topics. Very much looking forward to reading “The AI Con” by her and fabulous @Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her)! Will use “synthetic content extrusion machine” from now on. image
I had the great pleasure of opening the @npub1n7wp...w6z5 with a keynote on digital sovereignty, linking it to nationalism and the role of open. This might be relevant if you are curious about: - competing approaches to digital sovereignty - what kind of approach the EU is pursuing - how current politics influences tech development - how AI is adding fascist ideology to nationalist agendas - what to do 👇 Some key points, follow-on thoughts and references in a 🧵 1/ #bbuzz