Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one

I would love to see an analysis of the power dynamics of how all the browser companies are working together on the #Chromium code base. Of course, #Google has an oversized influence, both because #Chrome is dominant but also because Chromium is a Google project. I can't imagine #Microsoft is a pushover there. #Brave, #Opera and #Vivaldi probably have much less sway, but could join together. Are there useful avenues for #Firefox resources to have more impact in the Chromium ecosystem?

When the ÖAMTC ambulance helicopter flies overhead in #Austria, it is an experience. Its fast, loud and strikingly low to the ground. Its the only helicopter I see. For me, this event represents the social system. It flies in reserved airspace, private aircraft aren't allowed. Trips are covered by health insurance. I compare this to living in #NYC, where most helicopter flights are some rich asshole flying around for no good reason. This helicopter reminds me another world is possible

@jcaleitao thanks for running a public #IPFS gateway. Yours is currently returning 502 errors.

Could someone please train an AI image generator on a data set without any porn at all? Or is this just a bias in the free ones? I feel like half the time I try to generate an image mentioning the word "woman", it rapidly goes towards porn. Try generating with a term like "breast feeding" and its impossible. This is a bias on the internet we really do not need to reproduce or spread further. Paid services might be better but most of the world will use the gratis ones. #enshittification coming up

Given my work on #privacy, #censorship circumvention, #ech, etc. this #Brazil #Musk case is giving me pause. I have lots of questions, but no clear answers yet. Are there parallels to the DoH case here? Is making the internet more private contributing to centralization of power? e.g. billionaires like Musk can broadcast over the whole internet whatever they want, and governments have no power to stop it. The 99% do have to follow our govs.

#EncryptedClientHello #internet

In the end, it was a series of six meetings, each lasting two hours, with 75 pages of quite technical background material. We really need more public interest involvement in these kinds of things, but it is no surprise that few people want to do this kind of thing in their spare time. I always thought I'd contribute code, I'm still surprised to be invited to these things. It is clear that #FreeSoftware voices carry a lot more weight in this setting. How can we get more people involved?

Looks like the existence of this study is public info, here's the EC tender https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/dma-commission-launches-call-tenders-study-mobile-ecosystems-2023-09-19_en

There were some other key people there too on their own time, I'd like to thank them for their work too! And some people there for their job were also giving valuable input. (I can't mention who anyone is because of the NDA).

On my own time, I have to read a ~50 page document produced for the #EuropeanCommission in order to effectively participate in a two hour meeting where #FDroid is pitted against #BigTech on the #DigitalMarketsAct and its requirements around installing and allowing other #AppStore options.
Its all NDA'ed so I can't ask for help.
This game is really rigged for the megacorps. Wish me luck! Here's to fighting the good fight!

More fun with #DigitalMarketsAct meetings! This time I'm in some meetings organized by the European Commission, run by a super expensive, multi-national consultancy. We are in with well paid representatives of #BigTech, some academics, and a couple public interest techies like me. Volunteers like me are again driving the key points that will make or break the #DMA. I applied to #FordFoundation to fund our work, but was rejected. How can we in the #EU get more people paid to represent users?

Nothing like a massive flowing river in the middle of a city to show us who is boss:

Enforcing #FreeSoftware via contracts rather than licenses is an interesting idea:
https://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/Features/A-Post-Open-World

European Competition Network's #DMA conference summarized how our digital infrastructure is working, e.g.

"The narrative of #security excuse, which is so often used by big tech players, is a self-serving story created by the incumbents who have the ability to solve incredibly complicated technical problems. Security solutions are not intractable and do not prevent compliance. Once security is taken care of, consumers obviously like choice"

https://www.acm.nl/en/publications/ecn-digital-markets-act-conference-2024

#gatekeepers #BigTech

The CIA has a long track record, documented from their own archives and elsewhere, of breaking just laws about torture, kidnapping, murder, due process, etc. On top of that, they have built a system to ensure they rarely have to face the consequences. 4/4