- cross-posted to:
- linux@programming.dev
- cross-posted to:
- linux@programming.dev
Previously used link: https://archive.ph/ICJZZ
Until now, the EU has allowed a majority of countries to rely on American big tech companies for communication and storage of sensitive data. For example, many universities across Europe rely on Google or Microsoft for email services, research data storage, and department communication. Similarly, many of them write their research using Microsoft Word, which could be used by these big companies to train their own AI models.
A majority of regular citizens rely on Meta for instant messaging apps (WhatsApp), Facebook, Instagram, but also on X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok. None of these apps are properly regulated even with EU’s efforts, leaving people unshielded to other states’ attempts at polarization. There is also the problem of mass profiling of users, which is used to supply targeted advertisements and sometimes influence public opinion on certain topics (cough Musk tweaking the Twitter algorithm to promote AfD cough).
The article that I supplied focuses mainly on the aspect of maintaining data privacy when our data is harvested by outside entities. However, this is, in my opinion, a horrible approach. We need to move everything ASAP to open source alternatives, and preferably EU based ones. Some attempts at this have been previously made in Germany, which should give hope to other countries in the EU.
The cost of moving away from Google/Microsoft tech stacks will be a drop in the bucket compared to the wealth that these companies extract from EU. Similarly, offering alternatives to social media like Friendica, Mastodon, Pixelfed, Lemmy, and perhaps PeerTube, would be a huge win against disinformation and propaganda from other countries. We should also push for instant messaging platforms like SimpleX that do not rely on Google’s proprietary Push Notification services, and perhaps deGoogled Android devices.
If the recent events are not a catalyst to push everyone away from US software in the EU, I do not know what else will. Do you think that this would be possible at all?
Well, what I’m thinking about is not too far from education. I am suggesting that we have independent fact-checkers, or at least tools that show all the angles of a certain issue (e.g., something like Ground News, but not owned by a for-profit organisation), paid by tax money. This should be incorporated in something like an API that Fediverse instances could tap into. Again, not governments deciding who is right or who is wrong, but citizen-backed initiatives that work for the people. There should be open source plugins that could be used by fedi instances to relay the fact-checking or other relevant information.
I am categorizing this as governmental regulation because the tax money is allocated by the government specifically for content “moderation”. However, this doesn’t mean that content should be removed from social media just because it talks about a topic (unless it is illegal), but people should at least have additional information available for free that they could research further. And no, I don’t think the community notes employed by Meta and Twitter are enough, as we’ve seen how that went for the Americans in the last election.
In my culture, there is a proverb that says, “The one who feeds the girl — dances with her.” Your variant is a straightforward censorship. No idea how it might work in the real world.
So, if tax payers pay for it, they all get to dan…[insert sexist proverb here], right? A few guardrails extra around minority rights and Robert is your uncle.