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Reposted by Joe Westby

Johnny Ryan @johnnyryan.bsky.social · 1h

Big piece in POLITICO asking about the independence of Ireland's process of appointing people to its Data Protection Commission. There is deep unease in Brussels about Ireland appointing a former Meta lobbyist as Meta's watchdog. Now questions about who was involved.

www.politico.eu/article/big-...

Big Tech lawyer played key role in picking Ireland’s new privacy regulator

Former Meta lobbyist Niamh Sweeney will co-lead the Irish Data Protection Commission from mid-October.

www.politico.eu

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Meredith Whittaker @meredithmeredith.bsky.social · 3d

📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU.

Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.

Signal @signal.org · 5d

We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...

signal.org

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John Scott-Railton @jsrailton.bsky.social · 7d

NEW: UK asked Apple to backdoor iCloud encryption.

Backdoors create a massive target for hackers & criminal groups.

Dictators will inevitably demand that Apple do the same for them. 1/

www.ft.com/content/d101...

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Joe Westby @joewestby.bsky.social · 7d

Beyond all the AI hyperbole, Big Tech is just using it to squeeze even more data out of us for its grubby invasive surveillance advertising profits www.ft.com/content/22f7...

Meta to mine AI interactions to help target advertising

Changes signal how the social media giant will make money from its costly artificial intelligence efforts

www.ft.com

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Joe Westby @joewestby.bsky.social · 9d

This is good satire because you *almost* can’t tell it apart from the real proponents of AGI. That’s where we are.

Louis Barclay @louisbarclay.bsky.social · 9d

To stop bad actors developing AGI that could kill us all, we need good actors to develop AGI that could also kill us all

Read more:
alignmentalignment.ai/caaac/blog/a...

To make AI safe, we must develop it as fast as possible without safeguards

Ia Magenius explains why we need to make AI as powerful as possible to ensure it can't have power over us

alignmentalignment.ai

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Zoe Gardner @zoejardiniere.bsky.social · 13d

3. ⁠this is not the moment for an incredibly expensive increase in state surveillance infrastructure to be run for profit by private tech firms just before Labour ushers in an (even more) authoritarian right wing government.

FIX THE GODDAMN COST OF LIVING INSTEAD YOU FREAKS.

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Diego Naranjo @diegonaranjo.bsky.social · 15d

Discourses around digital sovereignty and public infrastructure often ignore workers' needs and the positive role of publicly and worker-owned infrastructure. If more unions join this call, there are chances to make a difference and create a more democratic digital public infrastructure.

EPSU @epsu.bsky.social · 16d

🌨️Europe can’t rely on private tech giants for public services.

EPSU is calling for worker-owned & public clouds, full implementation of the AI Act, and workers’ say in digitalisation.

Read more in Euractiv’s coverage of our letter to the Commission: dlvr.it/TNDnhl

Public servants want 'worker-owned' European clouds for AI | Euractiv

Call for sovereign AI by the EPSU public servants' union also presses the Commission to give workers a say in how workplaces are digitised, per letter seen by Euractiv

dlvr.it

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Joe Westby @joewestby.bsky.social · 15d

“Shoving AI into everything doesn’t necessarily lead to growth” @melissahei.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/e93e...

America’s top companies keep talking about AI — but can’t explain the upsides

FT analysis of hundreds of filings suggests the S&P 500 businesses are clearer about the risks than benefits

www.ft.com

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Sophie in't Veld @sophieintveld.bsky.social · 17d

The main issues in the revision of the e-Privacy Directive is not cookies but governments aiming to further widen the scope for (mass) surveillance. And of course the @ec.europa.eu is happy to oblige.

POLITICO Europe @politico.eu · 17d

In a bid to slash red tape, the European Commission wants to eliminate one of its peskiest laws: a 2009 tech rule that plastered the online world with pop-ups requesting consent to cookies.

Europe’s cookie law messed up the internet. Brussels wants to fix it.

The European Commission wants to take a bite out of privacy rules that force websites to run cookie banners.

ow.ly

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Senator Ron Wyden @wyden.senate.gov · 20d

Trump is launching a full blown attack on free speech while his harem of billionaires buys up every media platform. This is no coincidence. It’s a coordinated attack on your fundamental right to speak freely without worrying if you’ll lose your job or worse.

ABC Pulls Jimmy Kimmel Off Air for Charlie Kirk Comments After F.C.C. Pressure

www.nytimes.com

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Joe Westby @joewestby.bsky.social · 20d

For those not watching, Keir Starmer - standing alongside Trump - just said with a straight face that AI is going to "make us richer and freer" and "strengthen the cause of democracy not tyranny". 🤮

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Joe Westby @joewestby.bsky.social · 21d

Most of the media coverage is no better. BBC's Faisal Islam led News at 10 last night saying "the future of economies depends on who gets hold of Nvidia chips". Is this the news or a Nvidia press release??

Have they not thought to ask what Big Tech is getting in return?

Joe Westby @joewestby.bsky.social · 21d

The "Tech Prosperity deal" shows UK Gov has fallen hook line and sinker for Big Tech PR around AI. Uncritically stating as accepted facts that 1) AI will be a huge boost for growth and the economy 2) AI will create lots of jobs 3) AI will solve energy/health/etc.

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Joe Westby @joewestby.bsky.social · 21d

The plutocracy in action.

Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 21d

Look who came with

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 21d

All political tribes can be hypocritical but the right's current level of hypocrisy on free speech is deliberate. It's an assertion of power not a blindspot.

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Joe Westby @joewestby.bsky.social · 21d

Last week Farage said that comparing Reform to Nazis was hate speech, so presumably this extends to the Spectator? Or do they not realise the implications of their Weimar analogy?

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 21d

If this happened anywhere else, it would be a scandal for the organisation hosting + enabling it. We can't have a different set of rules exempting one billionaire promoter + protector of hatred from what applies to every other org if we want to protect our values, social norms and the rule of law.

Pudsey @the-puddington.bsky.social · 21d

I really do not understand why mainstream media IS NOT making this a bigger story.
It's no wonder there's such little trust in legacy media.
The level of hate out there is shocking.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 21d

"Mr Anglo" tweet @ Shabana Mahmood to say "a p___ like you should never be Home Sec" to follow his "go back to P___land P____"

X is fine with that

Mr Anglo wants to hang the interim Chair of Ofsted

X is fine with that

MAKE TWITTER LAWFUL AGAIN

Green light to racism: 26 (96%)
Sanctioned: 1 (4%)

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Kate Bevan @katebevan.com · 22d

this is really good from @stephenkb.bsky.social. It's about leadership on the norms we've embraced: racism is unacceptable; the UK is a multicultural country and so much the richer for it. We need to live those values; leaders need to lead on them www.ft.com/content/fbbd...

Starmer and Badenoch are handling the far-right march all wrong

A look back to the days of Enoch Powell suggests a better model

www.ft.com

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Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan @london.gov.uk · 22d

President Trump has fanned the flames of the far-right.

And now a toxic form of politics is spilling out onto our streets.

These are dark times, but those who seek to divide us will not win. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

After the far right’s march on our streets, Londoners must show Trump we reject his politics of fear | Sadiq Khan

These are dark times, but those who seek to divide us will not win. The capital’s soul and spirit are as inclusive and optimistic as ever, says London mayor Sadiq Khan

www.theguardian.com

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Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 23d

Just the Telegraph sanitising the Tommy Robinson march.

Sure, it was all just smiley happy ordinary people.....

Sigh

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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 24d

Elon Musk has made a major error - from being in a radicalised bubble - by speaking so overtly prominently for political violence + social violence in response to "replacement"

Ministers had to respond to the call for civil war. This is an opportunity to Make Twitter Lawful Again on unlawful hatred

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · Sep 3

The X complaints system has now proactively (unlawfully) defended each of the Twitter users who used the p-word to racially abuse Labour Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, Tory Shadow Foreign Sec Priti Patel, former Scots First Minister Humza Yousaf, indep MP Adnan Hussain & Zia Yusuf of Reform

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POLITICO Europe @politico.eu · 29d

Europe won't compromise on its right to regulate American Big Tech companies despite threats by President Donald Trump, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said today.

Von der Leyen stands by EU tech rules amid Trump threats

“I want to be crystal clear on one point: whether on environmental or digital regulation, we set our own standards, we set our own regulations,” says EU Commission chief.

ow.ly

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Dan McCrum @mccrum.bsky.social · Sep 8

The real Google anti-trust case to watch

Jason Kint @kint.bsky.social · Sep 8

Correct Judge Mehta didn't order Google breakup last week but late Friday night we saw DOJ is full speed ahead in its other remedies trial in 16 days and posted its PFJ (Proposed Final Remedies) now 60+ pages of brilliant detail. Let me walk you through key terms. /1

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Paris Marx @parismarx.com · Sep 8

“Rightwing populists all over Europe want to destroy the ability of the UK and the EU to regulate large tech platforms — a move that might threaten their disinformation campaigns with genuine political debate.”

They use disingenuous claims of censorship to protect the tech companies.

Protecting Big Tech, not free speech

Trump and Farage are using censorship as a cloak for disinformation

www.ft.com

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Alexandra Geese @alexandrageese.bsky.social · Sep 8

Commission President Von der Leyen will have to explain this: barring an EVP from holding a press conference is unacceptable!
@teresaribera.ec.europa.eu has shown the courage to defend the free press instead of pandering to authoritarian leaders and monopolistic tech companies.

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