Given the rise of the boycott USA movement, the 800 billion € for military that may not be spent but not on US arms and the dominating presence of US tech in the EU, how can citizens voice their concern? @[email protected] and @[email protected] are on the fediverse, but the just seem like mouth piece without ears.
What can citizens do? Has the ship sailed already?
The added benefit is no reliance on foreign tech companies who will kow-tow to autocratic governments. Also since we can afford to develop open source software, it will also benefit poorer and developing countries. Which is a goal on it’s own, but will also put the the EU in a good light elsewhere.
They need to get off Twitter. Go back to using the Press for official statements of high importance. And use Mastodon (Bluesky can interact with Mastodon instances in the future iirc) for rest. As a longer term project, move govt systems to Linux.
Anything server or database related is already on Linux. Managed by professionals. The problem are the desktops. Those still run windows, it’s a walled garden. Government windows licenses are dirt-cheap. support is ubiquitous and almost everyone knows how to work with windows. The cost of switching is just too high.
In my university, computers in the public rooms all ran Mint, and we had a working self-hosted mail platform. Here comes Microsoft and in a few months all computers are replaced by Windows machines and the email platform runs on Outlook. My previous university also had the same approach: all Microsoft products. I’d really love to know all the details of those deals. I know they offer scholarships and fund development programs (in exchange they make students dependent / educated only on MS products), but I still feel its a loss of freedom for all our institutions.
Cory Doctorow is Canadian-British, and consequently he has been writing quite a bit lately about how IP law is largely a regulatory regime imposed on countries by the United States through free trade agreements since it predominantly benefits American corporations.
Basically, if America want to tear up trade agreements, that makes IP law an ideal target for asymmetric trade warfare through more progressive IP systems.
Sorry but - IP stands for… Internet protocol?
In this context my guess is intellectual property.
Sorry, I meant Intellectual Property, primarily around patents, copyright, interpretations of fair use, right to repair, etc.
Drug law is the same, unfortunately. Most drugs were outlawed because the US said it should be. It’s about time we stopped listening to some of their dumb opinions.
that would be a good idea honestly.
You can write your MEP to not cut funding to their NGI (Next Generation Internet) Initiative which already has funded many Open-Source Projects from Wireguard to Pixelfed, or also currently an European Search Index
You can write your MEP
How do I know who my MEP is? The dude/dudette who got the most votes in the municipality I’m registered in?
European Search Index
Last I checked (homepage) there’s no mention of NGI at all.
How do I know who my MEP is?
This may help: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/home
I guess it suffices to write your national party or even their European fraction, as voting happens over lists anyway.
And don’t forget your national government, they can exert pressure over the European Commission too
Thanks. I’m curious why @[email protected] and @[email protected] aren’t contributing to this and starting their own venture instead.
@[email protected] is your search index the basis for a european search engine? And if so, how does one do so and why aren’t Qwant and/or Ecosia not doing so?
I guess because they want to make money of it, and don’t publish their source code or algorithm?
They can, but in my opinion, the omnipresence of AI in the minds of the responsible officials must be put aside first.
I suggest joining or forming alliances and support the campaigns of experienced NGOs.
Edit: An example is Public Money, Public Code by the Free Software Foundation Europe.
