Aral Balkan

💬Readers added context they thought people might want to know… “Europe is hurtling toward digital vassalage. Under Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, EU laws to tackle tech giants have been either not applied or delayed, for fear of offending Donald Trump. Now leaked documents reveal that the European Commission plans to gut a central part of Europe’s digital rulebook. This will hurt Europe’s innovators and hand the future of Europe’s tech sovereignty to US firms.”

the Guardian

The EU has let US tech giants run riot. Diluting our data law will only entrench their power | Johnny Ryan and Georg Riekeles

The GDPR is Europe’s defence against digital oligarchy and child harm. Deregulation plans are misguided, say Johnny Ryan and Georg Riekeles

#EU #privacy #GDPR #BigTech #hoHoHo

European Commission on Mastodon

European Commission (@EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu)

Attached: 1 image Santa can keep the toys… What we really want for Christmas: people before algorithms.

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Just added Web Reachability API (at least that’s what I’m calling it) support to

Your IP address

. It’s for testing the reachability of your Small Web servers (using a domain or, more importantly, an IPv4/IPv6 address). I’m using it to implement Web Numbers¹ support in Auto Encrypt² and Kitten³. Protocol: • At http://<endpoint> return an empty HTTP 200 response that includes the following custom header: 'web-reachability-id': ‘<uuid>' • Hit: https://ip.small-web.org/reach/<endpoint>/<uuid>/ • If you get a 200 response back, your endpoint is reachable. Anything else signals an error. Enjoy! 💕 ¹

Aral Balkan

Web Numbers

Domains? Where we’re going, we don’t need domains! Until the end of this year, the only way to have a secure web site is to have it accessible ...

²

Codeberg.org

auto-encrypt

Automatically-provisioned TLS certificates for Node.js servers using Let’s Encrypt.

³

Kitten: Home

#WebReachabilityAPI #WebNumbers #IpAddresses #reachability #Kitten #AutoEncrypt #SmallWeb #peerToPeerWeb #SmallTech

The EU should think very seriously about visa requirements requiring vaccination certificates from USians before permitting entry. Unlike five years of social media history, this will actually keep people safe. CC @npub19ly5...y4lk View quoted note →

I just saw that we now have over 100 verified accounts on Gaza Verified.

Gaza Verified

We’ve personally had video conversations on Signal with the people from Gaza whose Mastodon accounts on the fediverse are listed here and we veri...

That’s over 100 people that @npub1n33c...fu06, @npub1pryq...223m, @npub1uc0x...3krp and I have had live video conversations with to confirm that they are real people from Gaza. As previously announced, the last day for verification calls this year is this Friday (19th December, 2025) and we will be closing sign ups for new calls at end of day tomorrow. Sign-ups will resume again in the new year. You can find the fundraisers for our Gaza Verified families all in one place at:

Gaza Verified

We’ve personally had video conversations on Signal with the people from Gaza whose Mastodon accounts on the fediverse are listed here and we veri...

The list is sorted by those who have received the least in the last week. Given many are struggling through the harsh winter in makeshift tents being flooded and swept away by torrential downpours and gale-force winds, your help – even if it is a couple of dollars – can go a long way to helping them survive Israel’s ongoing genocide and its blockade of essential aid. Thank you! 💕 #GazaVerified #Gaza #Palestine #FreePalestine #mutualAid #fediAid

“People want software that is fast, modern, but also honest about what it does.”

Mozilla’s next chapter: Building the world’s most trusted software company | The Mozilla Blog

Today, I step into the role of CEO of Mozilla Corporation. It is a privilege to lead an organization with a long history of standing up for people ...

No, you muppet, people want tools that do what they need, not do crap they don’t want and be honest about it. If someone tells you they’re a gardener, they should tend your garden, not piss in your face while telling you “I’m pissing in your face. If you don’t want me to piss in your face, you can opt out. Tomorrow, I’ll come back and piss in your face again unless you opt out.” If that’s what they’re doing, they’re not a gardener, they’re someone who pisses in your face. #mozilla #firefox #AI #pissingInYourFace