@reverend
> Why stop it? Everyone seeks out their own hell.

Because this is backed by politicians who want to be billionaires. If this project was for the people of the EU, EC could put an open call to the FLOSS projects.

So far catering orders for their launch party costed EU taxpayer more than most of FLOSS projects gather from small donations per year.

@aral

@BerserkEd_PT Sure but when you see an arsenic beer salesman you don’t have to try it to know that they’re peddling poison.

(i.e., VC funded startup = arsenic beer salesman)

@cipper Why does it have to be a VC-funded startup?

Signal groups would work perfectly well for that use case. If you want more custom functionality, why not a not-for-profit initiative specially designed for that purpose? There is no scenario where a VC-funded startup is an ethical alternative to other VC-funded startups and their post-exit states (publicly-traded companies).

@GlasWolf Apparently he was not arrested. He was escorted out and fined €110. Still ironic but also important to have the facts straight.

yle.fi/a/74-20193800

@xChaos the European Commission is openly embracing W Social and von der Leyen took time out of her G7 meetings to promote W!

This is not a drill.

I think the EC sees this as a trial run for a possible mandatory social media age verification across the European Union. We must pay attention and resist.

This is an existential threat to the Fediverse as a whole (which doesn't have systems in place to comply with age verification).

RESIST & SPEAK UP

@PaulaToThePeople
I find only item zero likely true. Unless some PR gig worker posted this in her behalf.

@aral @_elena

the last concept is also only true for as long they don't think they can make money out of allowing bots.

@PaulaToThePeople @_elena

Not sure if I misunderstood, but I consider "digital sovereignty" an important factor, that's one of the reasons many people are in the fediverse.

Also the bottle cap thing.... I think it's a good idea and this picture of some Danish dude intentionally being stupid does not do it justice.
(+ plastic single use straws are objectively bad for the environment and their ban is justified, but we do need to get rid of more plastic shit than just straws and loose bottle caps)

@lumiukko

Digital sovereignty is indeed a very serious matter but you can’t do it with half baked apps and services that get hacked in couple of minutes. You want digital sovereignty, selfhost, period. Or educate people to do so. There is no other way.

As for the plastic cap, yeah the image is exaggerated but that doesn’t change that this decision is of no substantial importance. It’s more a part of "Hey world, LOOK how much we care for the environment”. It’s a theater.

@violet0461
> Trust Anchor Group AB
Somehow whether I see 'Trust', 'Law', 'Justice' i think about Thiel / Palantir huzpah in naming their entities.

@aral @_elena

@alterelefant There are seriously swaths of people who joined Bluesky to flee X (although Mastodon was right there) and are now genuinely surprised that Bluesky goes down the same path as X.

Some people never learn.