I had the opportunity to tell the founders of the Sovereign Tech Agency (@sovtechfund) that I'm a big fan of their organization. I firmly believe that other countries should have similar initiatives. In fact, the EU should have one too.

Their recent €600k+ grant to Mastodon is a great example of what public investment in open digital infrastructure can look like. It strengthens the Fediverse, a real alternative to X. As I’ve argued in the #LeaveX campaign: we already have a viable social media alternative to X (1) and what we lack is sustained funding and political commitment. (2)

Thus, if more EU countries invested in improving Mastodon, how quickly could it become Europe’s de facto public square?

While most European politicians still prefer X for their official communication, reducing technical barriers could attract a more diverse audience, including the people our representatives want to reach, like journalists and the general public.

By the way, it's interesting, though not surprising, that the Sovereign Tech Agency has almost four times as many followers on Mastodon as on Bluesky. It would be great to see them highlighting posts and profiles of some awesome open-source projects active on the Fediverse. 😉

#Mastodon #Fediverse #Bluesky #SocialMedia #EU #OpenSource

RE: https://eupolicy.social/@hpod16/116391672583732361

When we scraped the MEP data, the total was different by one. So we have chosen the closest figure.

Spoiler: here's the (approximate?) answer https://leavex.eu/politicians

#EU #MEP #LeaveX

RE: https://chaos.social/@dreirik/115876170130580367

Oh no! Can someone attending the event inform about the #LeaveX campaign?

Unfortunately, we didn't know about it until today.

#BigTech #CableResist

RE: https://mastodon.social/@_elena/116368379234020589

Cher Président Macron, pourquoi êtes-vous encore sur X et toujours pas présent sur le Fediverse ? Quittez X et laissez le aux trolls et aux extrémistes. Rejoignez nous sur le Fedivers, le réseau social européen, souverain et démocratique.

#LeaveX #Macron

X is a Preferred Tool for American Propaganda.
https://techpolicy.press/x-is-a-preferred-tool-for-american-propaganda-what-does-it-mean

"the State Department issuing a formal cable endorsing a specific social media platform for use in its messaging—and doing so in the same document that it encourages collaboration with military psychological operations—would have been nearly unthinkable until recent months. But it’s just the latest in a series of developments that suggest Musk’s X is regarded as the preferred tool of the state."

#LeaveX #Disinformation