Layoffs hit #Facebook, Reality Labs and core units as #Meta doubles down on artificial intelligence race.

#AI #BigTech #MarketInsider

https://marketinsider.net/meta-cuts-hundreds-of-jobs-as-ai-spending-surges/

BT Free - NonProfit 501(c)3 Charity - Digital Privacy Rights, Advocacy and Consulting

I created this nonprofit to help advocate for open tech and the Fediverse. Our plan is to take tax deducitble donations (in the US) to help fund platforms to support openness. We are currently running the following:

CONTENT:

Fireside Fedi - A vodcast where we speak with folks from around the Fediverse.
Livestream - @[email protected] - https://firesidefedi.live
Peertube - @[email protected] - https://tubefree.org/@firesidefedi
Piefed/Lemmy Community - [email protected]

Works On My Machine - A vodcast where I sit down with developers, talk to them about their project, all while I attempt to install their software from their docs. We learn about their project and they learn that there’s always a better idiot. :D
Livestream - @[email protected] - https://womm.live
Peertube - @[email protected] - https://tubefree.org/@worksonmymachine
Piefed/Lemmy Community - [email protected]

PLATFORMS:

TubeFree - a general purpose Peertube Instance that is open for folks to join. We accept donations for higher storage limits. https://tubefree.org

OPEN SOURCE:

PTIndex - A hosted Peertube Index for others to follow. This index is built with our TOS in mind. We pull followers of other instances that share our values. This has created a chain of trust, but we need more suggestions. For example TubeFree.org follows MakerTube. We share the same values, so I trust MakerTube would follow folks that align with their values, thus aligning with mine. So I pull in their followers and add it to our public https://ptindex.btfree.org for anyone to share in the connectivity. You can find the bash code https://git.btfree.org/BTFree/PTIndex

Working with others in the #fediverse-marketing:matrix.org channel to help centralized and open source presentation documents for everyone to use.

https://winbuzzer.com/2026/03/25/google-messages-restores-ultra-hdr-thumbnail-fix-xcxwbn/

Google Messages Restores Ultra HDR with Thumbnail Fix

#Google #Android #Samsung #GoogleMessages #UltraHDR #RCS #Messaging #BigTech #ImageEditing #GooglePixel

Ach hätte man doch nur vor Risiken und Unabhängigkeit von BigTech gewarnt...
Na hoffentlich ist man für die Zukunft lernfähig.

#BigtEch #DigitaleUnabhängigkeit #DigitaleSouveränität

👇

Meinung: Google-Translate-Gate: Warum digitale Souveränität so wichtig ist

I was so busy 😍'ing over Jacob Bruggman and Megan Finn's talk that I forgot to mention here how equally amazing the following talk was:

“Undone Canadian CS Ethics: Real-world Moral Dilemmas and Responsibilities” by Mohamed Abdalla
Abstract: https://www.undonecs.org/2026/abstracts/UndoneCS26_abstract_9.pdf

Sad news from Mohammed's talk: his study showed overwhelming majority of CS students/graduates surveyed just don't care about the morality of what Big Tech is doing. 😬

#UnDoneCS #ethics #SoftwareFreedom #FOSS #BigTech

And by the way, I decided to give OpenSUSE Tumbleweed another try today. Since Debian has its little quirks with my keyboards and I don’t want to use a distribution with a U.S. background like Fedora, OpenSUSE would be the politically correct choice for me as a European solution.

#linux #unix #opensource #freesoftware #opensuse #tumbleweed #europe #bigtech #surveillance

Call me crazy... but I’ve got this complicated setup right now:

An old Pixel 8 Pro without a SIM card, with no apps installed—or rather, all apps disabled—and on it I’ve set up a second user profile where only the Aurora Store is running, and from there I’ve installed MullvadVPN and WhatsApp. No contacts saved, no Google account linked. On this second profile, my old WhatsApp number runs via the VPN and over Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, most of my friends are on WhatsApp, and very few want to install another messenger or switch, no matter how often or how hard I try to make them understand the dangers of WhatsApp or Meta in general. This dedicated WhatsApp smartphone just sits on my desk at home.

Just like my old iPhone 13 Mini for banking and ID Austria, the government app for Austria (official procedures, digital mailbox, etc.)

And last but not least, my Pixel 8a with GrapheneOS and my phone number for calls, texts, Signal, and calendar management on the go. I always have this smartphone with me; as I said, the other two just stay at home.

It might be a hassle—everyone else just uses one smartphone for this—but in return, I can use WhatsApp without Meta or Google gaining any access to my other usage behavior and data or being able to track my activities. I'm glad I kept these two extra devices when I did a major tech purge a few weeks ago.

#linux #opensource #freesoftware #surveillance #bigtech #meta #whatsapp #signal #grapheneos #google #smartphone