I see Jack Dorsey was scheduled to give a keynote on FOSDEM 2025 this weekend. It's a very big European conference for the free and open source community.
The plan caused outcries in the community. "In my view", wrote one, "billionaires are not welcome at FOSDEM", warning that Dorsey would promote his "AI/blockchain/bitcoin/climate-disaster-as-a-service grifty business ventures". (
No billionaires at FOSDEM
)
A protest was planned. FOSDEM responded by asking them to reach out about planned crowd sizes, so that they could scale crowd control and fire safety measures accordingly. (
FOSDEM 2025 - Statement on planned protests during the upcoming FOSDEM 2025
)
"We will be occupying the stage for the duration of the scheduled time slot in order to prevent the talk from proceeding as planned.", wrote the protest organizer in a later update. (
)
Finally, last week, FOSDEM appears to have quietly relented, withdrawing Dorsey's keynote from the schedule. "We extend our heartfelt thanks to the staff for reconsidering the decision to platform Dorsey and Block, Inc. at FOSDEM.", wrote the protest organizer. (
Join us to discuss transparency and governance at FOSDEM '25
)
Block remains one of the main sponsors of FOSDEM 2025.
(After doing this research I noticed it's been reported widely already, but this is my post and I'm sticking to it)
