Someone kindly reached out to ask if I would consider speaking about Gaza Verified (https://gaza-verified.org/) at the Social Web Devroom being organised by the Social Web Foundation at FOSDEM.

My answer is no.

And I feel it’s important for those of us who care about such things to understand why:

• Social Web Foundation (https://socialwebfoundation.org) partners with, and thereby whitewashes and legitimises Meta

• FOSDEM (https://fosdem.org/2026) allows itself to be sponsored by, and thereby whitewashes and legitimises, Google and IBM (Red Hat)

Meta and Google are both surveillance capitalists with strong ties to the Trump regime that is arming and financing Israel’s genocide in Gaza. IBM, apart from having helped Nazi Germany carry out the Holocaust, is also singled out by name, alongside Google (Alphabet, Inc.), as complicit in Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people (‪https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/1/un-report-lists-companies-complicit-in-israels-genocide-who-are-they).

It shouldn’t be hard for organisations that purport to be alternatives to toxic Big Tech to not be sponsored and affiliated with them. But apparently it is.

Personally, I have no trouble saying no to having my name and legitimacy being used to whitewash these corporations and I have been doing so since the beginning.

• ‪ https://ar.al/2019/01/11/i-was-wrong-about-google-and-facebook-theres-nothing-wrong-with-them-so-say-we-all/

• ‪ https://ar.al/notes/rightscon-or-a-right-con/

I will not stand – literally or metaphorically – in front of their banners and talk about an initiative that tries to help the very people victimised by these corporations in their sociopathic quest for profit at any cost.

I hope more people start doing the same if we are to have any chance of making these corporations with their toxic business models and their complicity in genocide socially unacceptable. If we cannot even meet that already-very-low bar – as long as those of us with legitimacy allow ourselves to be used to normalise them – nothing will change.

#FOSDEM #SocialWebFoundation #BigTech #sponsorship #whitewashing #legitimisation #institutionalCorruption #israel #genocide #Gaza #Palestine #GazaVerified

Someone kindly reached out to ask if I would consider speaking about Gaza Verified (https://gaza-verified.org/) at the Social Web Devroom being organised by the Social Web Foundation at FOSDEM.

My answer is no.

And I feel it’s important for those of us who care about such things to understand why:

• Social Web Foundation (https://socialwebfoundation.org) partners with, and thereby whitewashes and legitimises Meta

• FOSDEM (https://fosdem.org/2026) allows itself to be sponsored by, and thereby whitewashes and legitimises, Google and IBM (Red Hat)

Meta and Google are both surveillance capitalists with strong ties to the Trump regime that is arming and financing Israel’s genocide in Gaza. IBM, apart from having helped Nazi Germany carry out the Holocaust, is also singled out by name, alongside Google (Alphabet, Inc.), as complicit in Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people (‪https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/1/un-report-lists-companies-complicit-in-israels-genocide-who-are-they).

It shouldn’t be hard for organisations that purport to be alternatives to toxic Big Tech to not be sponsored and affiliated with them. But apparently it is.

Personally, I have no trouble saying no to having my name and legitimacy being used to whitewash these corporations and I have been doing so since the beginning.

• ‪ https://ar.al/2019/01/11/i-was-wrong-about-google-and-facebook-theres-nothing-wrong-with-them-so-say-we-all/

• ‪ https://ar.al/notes/rightscon-or-a-right-con/

I will not stand – literally or metaphorically – in front of their banners and talk about an initiative that tries to help the very people victimised by these corporations in their sociopathic quest for profit at any cost.

I hope more people start doing the same if we are to have any chance of making these corporations with their toxic business models and their complicity in genocide socially unacceptable. If we cannot even meet that already-very-low bar – as long as those of us with legitimacy allow ourselves to be used to normalise them – nothing will change.

#FOSDEM #SocialWebFoundation #BigTech #sponsorship #whitewashing #legitimisation #institutionalCorruption #israel #genocide #Gaza #Palestine #GazaVerified

The only flavour of decentralisation there’s no room for at FOSDEM is the kind that won’t speak at a conference that allows itself to be sponsored by, and thereby whitewashes, a surveillance capitalist like Google that is complicit in Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.

https://progressive.international/wire/2025-08-26-un-calls-out-google-and-amazon-for-abetting-gaza-genocide/en

#FOSDEM #Google #israel #genocide #Gaza #Palestine #UN #BigTech #complicity #whitewashing #institutionalCorruption #PR #freeAsInGenocide https://mastodon.matrix.org/@matrix/115603969911396223

(This is nothing new and not limited to FOSDEM.)

https://ar.al/2019/01/11/i-was-wrong-about-google-and-facebook-theres-nothing-wrong-with-them-so-say-we-all/

#institutionalCorruption #BigTech #surveillance #humanRights #democracy #whitewashing #PR #usefulIdiots

The only flavour of decentralisation there’s no room for at FOSDEM is the kind that won’t speak at a conference that allows itself to be sponsored by, and thereby whitewashes, a surveillance capitalist like Google that is complicit in Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.

https://progressive.international/wire/2025-08-26-un-calls-out-google-and-amazon-for-abetting-gaza-genocide/en

#FOSDEM #Google #israel #genocide #Gaza #Palestine #UN #BigTech #complicity #whitewashing #institutionalCorruption #PR #freeAsInGenocide https://mastodon.matrix.org/@matrix/115603969911396223

• Fossil fuels were not mentioned in the key final decision – petrostates including Saudi Arabia and allies fought fiercely to keep that out.

• A commitment to a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels was not part of the formal deal

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/live/2025/nov/22/cop30-climate-talks-deal-overtime-live-news

Lemmings.

#climateChange #aLittleExtinctionNeverHurtAnybody #CopOut #institutionalCorruption #hairlessApesNotSoCleverAfterAll

Your daily reminder that @EUCommission are only cunts on days with names ending with day.

“The European Commission will launch its long-awaited bid to simplify digital rules in an effort to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses and to promote European start ups in the global artificial intelligence race.”

https://www.rte.ie/news/2025/1119/1544678-simplification-digital-rules/

#EU #BigTech #AI #bullshit #institutionalCorruption #lobbying #revolvingDoors #EUCommission #spinelessToadiesInSuits

Regulating Big Tech is like regulating a malignant tumour. You don’t regulate a malignant tumour. You cut it out, with enough of a surgical margin to ensure you get every last putrid bit to avoid regrowth.

(This is moot, of course, as we’re not even regulating Big Tech, we’re feeding it with subsidies, government contracts, and access to national healthcare and other sensitive data while the folks who should be regulating them eye their next lucrative gig beyond the revolving doors of their lobbies.)

#BigTech #capitalism #cancer #regulation #institutionalCorruption #lobbying #revolvingDoors #extinctionStageCapitalism

Regulating Big Tech is like regulating a malignant tumour. You don’t regulate a malignant tumour. You cut it out, with enough of a surgical margin to ensure you get every last putrid bit to avoid regrowth.

(This is moot, of course, as we’re not even regulating Big Tech, we’re feeding it with subsidies, government contracts, and access to national healthcare and other sensitive data while the folks who should be regulating them eye their next lucrative gig beyond the revolving doors of their lobbies.)

#BigTech #capitalism #cancer #regulation #institutionalCorruption #lobbying #revolvingDoors #extinctionStageCapitalism

How could this happen in a country that *checks notes* has made itself entirely beholden to US Big Tech and Big Pharma?

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41729865.html

#Ireland #institutionalCorruption #IrishDPC #dataProtection #GDPR #humanRights #BigTech

Having Microsoft organise a European Sovereign Tech Fund is like having Anheuser-Busch be your AA sponsor.

#EuropeanSovereignTechFund #microsoft#corporateCapture#openSource#freeSoftware#FOSS#institutionalCorruption#BigTech#EU

Having Microsoft organise a European Sovereign Tech Fund is like having Anheuser-Busch be your AA sponsor.

#EuropeanSovereignTechFund #microsoft#corporateCapture#openSource#freeSoftware#FOSS#institutionalCorruption#BigTech#EU

Meta an evil company? How can it be?! They’re partners, alongside Mastodon gGmbH, at the @swf (https://socialwebfoundation.org)

#institutionalCorruption #mastodon #fediverse#SocialWebFoundation #whitewashing #meta #facebook #threads#BigTechhttps://mastodon.au/@Linux/114821179079336678