politics | Steve Woods

Nearly 90 French organisations are leaving X

15/01/2025 Steve WoodsMedia, Politics, Social Media, Tech

In an opinion piece which appeared on Tuesday in Le Monde (paywalled), 86 French associations and federations announced they are collectively leaving X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, on 20th January, the date of convicted felon and sexual predator Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th United States president. By supporting the “Hello leave X” initiative, they are also appealing to the public to leave the platform en masse.

The LDH (Ligue des droits de l’Homme – Human Rights League) jointly set up the HelloQuitteX collective in partnership with the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique – National Scientific Research Centre) and was also asked to sign the opinion piece initiated by the poverty and homeless charity Emmaüs France. Moreover, it decided not to post any more content on X due to both the configuration of its algorithms, which encourage the proliferation of hateful content and spread conspiracy theories and climate scepticism, and the lack of moderation.

The LDH believes that X is no longer the digital street (however imperfect) that it could have been, due to the manipulation of the conditions for making public debate possible by Elon Musk and, as a result, the lack of visibility of the principles that it upholds in defending human rights and equality.

It is also a basic call to arms for democracy, implying the solidarity of all stakeholders in civil society and politics who share the same values. This entails promoting and advocating digital spaces that respect and ensure the protection of pluralism, respectful debate and reason.

The LDH is therefore inviting all those who share these values to leave en bloc if possible on 20th and follow them on Mastodon or Bluesky instead.

In other news, the German army has announced it is also abandoning X. Auf Wiedersehen, Elon!
More than 60 academic institutions quit X

13/01/2025 Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics, Social Media, Tech, Uncategorized
More than 60 German and Austrian universities and research institutions wanted to set an example and collectively announced that they were ceasing their activities on the X social media platform formerly known as Twitter. This withdrawal is a result of the lack of compatibility between the platform’s current orientation and the core values of the institutions involved: cosmopolitanism, scientific integrity, transparency and democratic discourse.

The changes to X – from the amplification of right-wing populist content to the restriction of organic reach – make further use untenable for the organisations involved. The institutions’ withdrawal underscores their commitment to fact-based communication and against anti-democratic forces. The values that promote diversity, freedom and science are no longer present on the platform.

Some institutions which have already ceased their activities on the platform also support the joint appeal, thereby reaffirming the importance of an open and constructive culture of discussion. This decision only affects the X-accounts of the institutions involved and not their communication via other social media channels. In the light of recent events, they will continue to closely monitor the development of the platforms and their algorithms.

The institutions concerned are as follows:
- Alanus Hochschule für Kunst und Gesellschaft;
- Bauhaus-Universität Weimar;
- Berliner Hochschule für Technik;
- Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus – Senftenberg;
- Christian-Albrechts-Universität in Kiel;
- Deutsche Ornithologische Gesellschaft;
- Deutsche Sporthochschule, Cologne;
- Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder);
- Fachhochschule Dortmund;
- FernUniversität in Hagen;
- Freie Universität Berlin;
- Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg;
- Goethe-Universität Frankfurt;
- HAWK Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaft und Kunst Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen;
- Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf;
- Hochschule Anhalt;
- Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg;
- Hochschule Darmstadt;
- Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Saar;
- Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Hamburg;
- Hochschule für Philosophie, Munich;
- Hochschule Furtwangen;
- Hochschule München;
- Hochschule Neubrandenburg;
- Hochschule Osnabrück;
- Hochschule RheinMain;
- Hochschule Ruhr West;
- Hochschule für nachhaltige Entwicklung, Eberswalde;
- Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Umwelt, Nürtingen-Geislingen;
- Humboldt-Universität in Berlin;
- Institut für Vogelforschung;
- Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz;
- Justus-Liebig-Gesellschaft;
- Justus-Liebig-Universität, Gießen;
- Katholische Hochschule Nordrhein-Westfalen;
- Kirchliche Hochschule, Wuppertal;
- Leibniz-Zentrum für Marine Tropenforschung;
- Leibniz-Institut für Ostseeforschung Warnemünde;
- Medizinische Universität Innsbruck;
- Philipps-Universität Marburg;
- RWTH Aachen;
- Technische Hochschule Georg Agricola;
- Technische Hochschule, Cologne;
- Technische Universität Braunschweig (Brunswick);
- Technische Universität Darmstadt;
- Technische Universität Dresden;
- Universität Bamberg;
- Universität Bayreuth;
- Universität des Saarlandes;
- Universität der Künste, Berlin;
- Universität Duisburg-Essen;
- Universität Erfurt;
- Universität Greifswald;
- Universität Heidelberg;
- Universität Innsbruck;
- Universität Münster;
- Universität Potsdam;
- Universität Siegen;
- Universität Trier;
- Universität Ulm;
- Universität Würzburg;
- Universität zu Lübeck; and
- Westsächsische Hochschule, Zwickau.
Stolen!

05/01/2025 Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics

Sydney Central railway station has many memorials, of which the most prominent is that to railway staff who lost their lives in war. It’s right in the middle of the central concourse up against the back wall.

However, there is another far less prominent one near the left luggage concession and Platform 1 that commemorates a war of a different kind, a war waged not against an aggressive or hostile foreign power, but on indigenous culture and heritage.

It’s very simple and consists of a grey metal frame containing a large panel of indigenous artwork and an inscription, as shown in the photograph below.

It commemorates the Stolen Generations, which Wikipedia describes as “The Stolen Generations (also known as Stolen Children) were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church missions, under acts of their respective parliaments.

The wording on the memorial reads:

Transport for NSW acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were forcibly removed from their families and communities due to past government policies and practices. These children are known as the Stolen Generations. Platform 1 is where these children arrived, were separated from their siblings and sent to institutions throughout the state.

Some of these children never made it home, living their lives disconnected from their families and communities and not knowing their true heritage.

This memorial is dedicated to the Stolen Generations and their descendants.

As stated in the station memorial, this removal was neither voluntary nor peaceful, as illustrated in the artwork entitled The Taking of the Children on the 1999 Great Australian Clock on the Queen Victoria Building (QVB), Sydney, by artist Chris Cooke.

The stated aim of the so-called “resocialisation” programmes was to improve the integration of Aboriginal people into modern [European-Australian, i.e. white] society. Nevertheless, a recent study conducted in Melbourne reported that there was no tangible improvement in the social position of “removed” Aboriginal people as compared to “non-removed”. In the fields of employment and post-secondary education, the removed children had about the same results as those who were not removed, but caused those involved great mental harm and trauma. A 2019 study by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) found that children living in households with members of the Stolen Generations are more likely “to experience a range of adverse outcomes“, including poor health, especially mental health, missing school and living in poverty. Among the Stolen Generations there are high incidences of anxiety, depression, PTSD and suicide, along with alcohol abuse, with the associated unstable parenting and family situations.

The federal states of Australia now all have redress and compensation schemes for the victims, but money is no substitute for not having suffered in the first place.

However, Australia is not the only country invaded by the British where indigenous peoples were maltreated. Similar indignities were suffered by First Nations children in Canada. In what looks like a very similar scheme, residential schools were created to isolate Indigenous children from the influence of their own culture and religion in order to assimilate them into the dominant white Euro-Canadian culture.

The same pattern can also be seen in Aotearoa (which some still call New Zealand. Ed.) in what Al Jazeera describes as a quiet genocide. More than 100,000 children – mostly indigenous Maori were taken from their parents and placed in state welfare institutions from the 1940s through to the late 1980s.

If these systems all developed independently, there does seem to be a lot of crossover – one might even say collusion – with trauma and loss of culture and heritage (and sometimes lives. Ed.) as the result.
English imperialism alive and well in Australia

31/12/2024 Steve WoodsLanguage, Politics, Social Media

I’m currently in Australia for my niece’s wedding (which was wonderful, by the way. Ed.).

This is the first time your ‘umble scribe has been to abroad an Anglophone country. Australia has sensibly adopted the metric system of weights and measures, something the Untied Kingdom has yet to do. In the lengthy deliberations about metrication, it was mooted that conversion of the currency to a decimal system was an essential first step. The UK did adopt decimal currency in 1971, a long time after it had first been proposed in 1824 (separately from the introduction of metrication. Ed.).

Australia shares an alleged head of state, an unelected monarch, with the UK and this is reflected in currency, with coins showing the head of the Mountbatten-Windsor family, as can be seen from an Australian 50 cents piece.

Elizabeth the what?

Readers will note that Elizabeth is described as the second of that name by the Roman numerals.

Your correspondent can’t help asking when were the dates for the reign of Elizabeth the first of Australia (hint: there are none. Ed.).

On social media, your ‘umble scribe has also had it pointed out to him that within the UK, coins also bore the inscription Elizabeth II, even though someone called Elizabeth has never been crowned as ruler of Scotland, which can be regarded as equally insensitive to Scots and their history.

But whether in Australia or the small group of islands off the western coast of Europe, it is apparent to all with open eyes – and an open mind – that English imperialism – i.e. a system in which a country rules other countries – is alive and well and likely to continue despite the efforts of the likes of Senator Lidia Thorpe.
Annoy Musk. Donate to Wikipedia

29/12/2024 Steve WoodsMedia, Open Source, Politics, Social Media, Tech

One of the greatest benefits to mankind of modern information technology and the internet is the ease of access to knowledge of all kinds. The charitable Wikimedia Foundation, which is the umbrella organisation for Wikipedia and its sister projects, has made a major contribution to this ease of access to information of all kinds for free and for any purpose.

However, this has not met with everyone’s approval, particularly one excessively rich person of limited intelligence with a very big mouth.

Step forward with no style at all man-baby Elon Musk. According to The London Economic, the wrecker of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has taken offence at Wikipedia’s editing policy and decided the best way to bend it to his will is to throw money at the problem in the form of bribery.

Musk once offered Wikipedia $1 billion to change its name to ‘Dickipedia’; this is an offer he said still stands although he’s now offering $1 bn. to rename it Wokepedia, erroneously claiming this would be “in the interests of accuracy”.

This is despite the fact that Wikipedia has a dedicated page entitled Wikipedia is Not For Sale, which categorically states the following:

Wikipedia is not for sale. Wikipedia is a non-commercial website run by the Wikimedia Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in San Francisco. We are not looking to be acquired by the highest bidder. Our mission is to create a free online encyclopedia that anyone can access and contribute to.

Wikipedia is currently running one of its regular fundraisers, so do the right thing: donate to Wikipedia; and annoy Elon Musk in the process.

I have! 😀
EU common charger rules implemented

28/12/2024 Steve WoodsOpen Standards, Politics, Tech
As of yesterday, 28th December 2024, EU-wide rules came into effect standardising the charging ports for mobile phones and other portable electronic devices, meaning that henceforth all new devices sold in the EU must support USB-C charging.

This will hopefully reduce the number of chargers consumers need to buy, help minimise electronic waste and simplify everyday life.

Some benefits of the common charger are as follows:
- Increasing consumer convenience: Users can charge their mobile phones and other similar electronic devices with one USB-C charger, regardless of the device brand.
- Reducing e-waste: Discarded and unused chargers account for about 11,000 tonnes of e-waste annually within the European Union. The new rules encourage reusing chargers, thus helping to reduce the environmental footprint.
- Saving money: Consumers will now be able to buy new electronic devices without a charger, helping them save approximately €250 million a year on unnecessary charger purchases.
- Harmonising fast charging technology: New rules help to ensure that charging speed is the same when using any compatible charger for a device.
The EU’s Common Charger Directive was approved by the Council of the EU in October 2022. Manufacturers were given a transition period to adjust their designs and ensure compliance. From 28 December 2024, the rules apply to mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones, headsets, video game consoles, portable speakers, e-readers, keyboards, mice, portable navigation systems and earbuds sold in the European Union. The new rules will also apply to laptops with effect from 28th April 2026.
Idiocy in public office

27/12/2024 Steve WoodsLanguage, Oddities, Politics, Social Media

There are still over 3 weeks until the disgraced president-elect of the United States, the disgraced former 45th president, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat, one Donald John Trump, (also known as the Felon of the Year. Ed.) is inaugurated for his second term as president of the United States.

However, that has not stopped the so-called Tangerine Tyrant from upsetting other countries around the world, firstly in respect of trade tariffs and more recently in the field of territorial claims and a revived offer to purchase territory.

As regards the latter, two instances are prominent: Panama and Greenland.

As regards the former, Trump is of the opinion that Panama is charging US shipping ridiculous fees to use the Panama Canal, and in his usual bullying and bombastic manner, has threatened to seize control the canal if Panama does not reduce tariffs. Furthermore, he has intimated that China could exert increasing control over the canal. In response, Panama’s president José Raúl Mulino has called the claim of increased Chinese influence ‘nonsense‘.

Even though the US largely built the canal in 1914 and administered territory – the Panama Canal Zone – either side of the passage for decades, Washington finally handed over full control of the canal to Panama in 1999 under treaties signed two decades earlier by then-US president Jimmy Carter and Panamanian nationalist leader Omar Torrijos.

When it comes to Greenland, this is a long-term obsession of Trump’s. He first suggested the USA purchase this Danish autonomous territory during his first term pf office and has recently resurrected the idea. The Greenland prime minister has replied by stating categorically that it is not for sale.

In both his election campaigns, Trump’s leading slogan has been to Make America Grate Again (or something akin thereto. Ed.) and as has been seen above, this has not gone down well outside the 50 states of the Union.

Moreover, Trump’s bullying tactics have also not gone down well with the more progressive elements of American society, as can be seen by what some individual has done outside the orange one’s eponymous tower in New York.
Musk’s Rothermere moment

21/12/2024 Steve WoodsMedia, Politics, Social Media, Tech

Controversial is perhaps too polite a term to describe the political pronouncements of rich man-baby Elon Musk, particularly as he seems to favour marching on his right foot.

Not content with being best buddies with his latest pal, the disgraced president-elect of the United States, disgraced former 45th president, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat, one Donald John Trump and having a major influence on US politics before the Felon of the Year has even been asked to swear his oath of office, Musk is also now turning his attention to foreign policy.

This was recently illustrated by his recent cosying up to the far right of British politics in the shape of talks about a significant donation to Reform UK, the private fiefdom (and fan club. Ed.) of the mountebank known the world as Nigel Paul Farage that masquerades as a regular British political party.

Musk has now shifted his attention to the eastern shores of the North Sea and more specifically to Germany, where Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently lost a vote of confidence, with a general election due to be held in February.

Yesterday, Musk posted the following on his increasingly right-wing pretend social media platform.

The AfD (Alternative für Deutschland is described in Wikipedia‘s understated manner as a far-right and right-wing populist political party in Germany, although terming it Neo-Nazi would be more accurate given its rampant nationalism and racism.

If one accepts that social media today has as much influence now as newspapers had in the decades after the first war, then a clear parallel can be seen between Musk and one Harold Sydney Harmsworth, also known as ‘Lord’ Rothermere, the proprietor of the Daily Mail in the 1930s, a decade when a disgruntled WW1 veteran was making political waves in Germany.

Following the 1930 German federal election, in which Hitler’s Nazis won 107 out of 577 seats, Rothermere wrote in the Mail that Hitler’s party “represents the birth of Germany as a nation”. This was after the erstwhile Corporal Hitler had made clear his hatred of Jews and belief in racial supremacy in his book Mein Kampf.

In 1934 fascism had spread to establish roots in Britain in the shape of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, which was founded in 1932 and otherwise known as the Blackshirts on account of their uniform.

In 1934 Rothermere attached his name to what is doubtless the most notorious headline ever to appear in the Mail, which then as now was telling its gullible readers what to think in the form of a outpouring of praise for Britain’s then nascent fascist party.

Rothermere’s support for the Nazis and their policies were evident right up to the outbreak of war in 1939. When persecuted Jews started fleeing Germany after Kristallnacht in 1938, Rothermere’s Mail responded in typical racist fashion.

Fortunately, Musk will not be able to distort German politics as he is attempting to do in the Untied Kingdom by waving large amounts of cash beneath politicians’ noses. Foreign political donations are expressly forbidden under German law. What is more, Section 25 (2) no. 6 of the Political Parties Act requires political parties to identify donors paying sums exceeding €500. Party statements of accounts must list donations and contributions paid by elected representatives/officials to an amount exceeding €10,000 euros per calendar year, stating the donor’s name and address and the total amount of the donation received. Furthermore, Single donations in excess of €50,000 euros must be reported immediately to the President of the German Bundestag, who will then give notice of the donation and the donor’s name, online and in a Bundestag printed paper as soon as possible.

The time has long since past when the UK should have tightened up on political finance to be as rigorous as Germany.

In the meantime, what effect will Musk’s endorsement of fascists have on the German election in February? One German commentator on social media has already remarked that, apart from financial power being equated with political power, one thing that is not happening in Germany is any discussion that these circumstances are inherently undemocratic and that this influence does not just start with party donations, does not end with the ownership and direct influencing of journalism and the media and thus represents a problem.

Any thoughts? Leave a comment below.
Rotten Apple claims DMA’s interoperability violates fundamental rights

14/12/2024 Steve WoodsOpen Source, Open Standards, Politics, Tech

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) writes that interoperability – a key enabler of software freedom – is under serious threat in the EU from vested US technology interests.

Apple has initiated a legal battle against the European Commission to prevent third-party software developers from accessing essential software and hardware functions of Apple devices. The FSFE believes that control of interoperability should not at the discretion of companies like Apple.

Consequently the FSFE is taking action, intervening in the EU’s action against Apple to defend interoperability and software freedom. The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) imposes anti-monopoly obligations on very large companies like Apple (they are termed “gatekeepers” in the law. Ed.), forcing the likes of Apple to allow interoperability and granting access seekers (app stores, browsers, payment systems, etc.) free-of-charge access to its APIs. The law mandates the same level of interconnection enjoyed by Apple to third-party software developers – something which Apple is trying to avoid. Apple claims preposterously that interoperability in the DMA violates fundamental rights.

In contrast, the FSFE argues that interoperability is a cornerstone of public interest in digital markets: interoperability ensures that users and developers have the freedom to choose and create solutions that best meet their needs, rather than being locked into a single environment controlled by a dominant market player like Apple. Free software solutions cannot compete with Apple ‘services’ without effective interoperability, as they are denied access to essential functions on Apple devices, resulting in poorer performance and functionality.
Amateur human being vs. a real person of the year

13/12/2024 Steve WoodsMedia, Politics

This is a time of year when those in the media like to look back over the previous 12 months and come to conclusions about what and who is worthy of remembrance.

One of these media organisations that does so is Time magazine. Time has been running its Person of the Year featuring a person, group, idea, or object that “for better or for worse … has done the most to influence the events of the year”.

This year Time’s Person of the Year for the second time (the first being in 2016. Ed.) is none other than the waste of food and oxygen variously described as the disgraced president-elect of the United States, the disgraced former 45th president, insurrectionist, convicted felon, adjudicated sexual predator, business fraudster, congenital liar and golf cheat, one Donald John Trump.

A man who should be disqualified from the human race for cheating.

The selection of Trump is not without precedent as far as authoritarians are involved: past persons of the year have included both Adolf Hitler (1938), Jospeh Stalin (1939 and 1942, Chiang Kai-shek (1937 – shared with his wife, Soong Mei-ling) and Vladimir ‘the Invader’ Putin (2007).

Move across the Atlantic and there’s a clear contrast. The British periodical The New European, which launched in 2016, also selects a person of the year. However, the difference between The New European’s choice and that of Time could not be more pronounced as the former has chosen rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot, a survivor of repeated rapes and sexual abuse (as opposed to the sexual predator chosen by Time. Ed.).

Gisèle Pelicot has spent over three and a half months attending hearings of her former husband’s trial and that of 50 other men accused of abusing her.

Revelations about the mass rape of Mme Pelicot came to light as follows: in September 2024, Dominique Pélicot, a 71-year-old from Mazan in south-eastern France, testified in court that he repeatedly drugged his wife, raped her and invited strangers to rape her while she was unconscious. Over a period of nine years, from July 2011 to October 2020, Gisèle Pélicot, who was unaware of the abuse being perpetrated against her, was raped 92 times by 72 men while her husband filmed them. The crimes only came to light in September 2020 when Dominique Pélicot was arrested for taking upskirt photographs of women in a supermarket and the ensuing police investigation discovered thousands of images and videos of men raping Gisèle Pélicot on his computing equipment. For three and a half months Gisèle Pélicot, who waived her right to anonymity, has attended court to confront her former husband and her abusers, stating that the story of all these men and their alleged sex crimes must be told in order to end what she called “rape culture”, where sexual violence is so commonplace in society it is almost shrugged off, as well as because Pelicot and the men got away with it for so long.

Mme Pelicot’s actions have raised her to a feminist hero in seeking justice for the harm done to her, whilst over the pond The Felon continues to evade justice, hiding behind the fig-leaf of his election win.

Do you have a person of the year or a preference out out of the above two. If so, leave a comment. 😀

Update 21/12/2024: Prospect magazine has revealed the Felon of the Year has also been named as the Financial Times‘ person the year.

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