https://phys.org/news/2026-03-musk-twitter-takeover-highlights-danger.html

#x #twitter #musk #democracy #SavingDemocracy #leaveX #SocialMedia #meta #zuckerberg

Musk's Twitter takeover highlights danger of owner-dominated social media platforms
by #JoeStafford #UniversityManchester

"They were never fully democratic, but they rarely supported one political side, and almost never authoritarian groups," said Dr. Magalhães.

It should be considered common sense that there are no good reasons remaining to have an account on X. But people still believe that their posts on X generate engagement or awareness, as they ignore the trash posted along with their content. They worry about giving up on their followers, but bots have no feelings.
In this article by @parismarx, several excellent points are made that it's time to stop now.

#LeaveX #DigitalSovereignty #MastodonCanada
https://disconnect.blog/its-time-to-stop-posting-on-x/

#NoKings

As early as 2 years ago, many people in #Germany and #Europe felt that #BigTech ’s internet platforms did not live up to the claim of being #socialmedia. Many were appalled by the #hatespeech, #incitement, #cyberbullying, and #disinformation being spread there.
Our action alliance first reached out to #universities to propose withdrawing from #X and adopting #Mastodon. We believe the #Fediverse platforms are much better suited for #SciComm or, more broadly, for substantive discourse aimed at protecting and preserving our #democracy. Other initiatives have since emerged, such as #ByeByeElon, #HelloQuitX, #LeaveX, and #SaveSocial.

We’ve already seen some initial success: around 150 #academic institutions in Germany are active on Mastodon and have +157k followers there
👉 https://mastodon-listen.playground.54gradsoftware.de/institute-DE
We believe this is an approach we can also recommend to the #research and #academic communities in the #US to fend off attacks from #autocrats .

We've heard this argument too often: not deleting a Twitter account because someone could impersonate you.

Interestingly, after checking the links of several politicians who deleted their accounts, we found that no one has impersonated them.

Have you seen a case like that, or is it just a feeling of self-importance that makes people worry too much?

#LeaveX #Twitter #X

Next step: how to go from theory to practice?

Criminalisation of hate speech and hate crime in selected EU countries

European Parliament, 2024

"All Member States have criminalised hate speech, specifically mentioning the grounds of race, colour, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin as provided by the Framework Decision.

1/2

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2024/766226/EPRS_BRI(2024)766226_EN.pdf

Cc @EUCommission @HennaVirkkunen

#EU #HateSpeech #LeaveX #BigTech #SocialMedia #DigitalSovereignty

Informative Wikipedia article on Trump and Fascim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_and_fascism

Of the references used, I recommend Anatomy of Fascism by Robert Paxton. It was the first book I read on the topic, motivated by the misleading use of the term "fascism" in political discussions and the election of a far-right president in Brazil. It was a very shocking election for me at that time.

Another good book is On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, by Timothy Snyder. By living for more than nine years in the country where fascism caused the greatest harm in history, I found this to be a really good book. I discovered this one after reading some of the author's thoughts.

More recently, I read How Democracies Die, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. I found this book while researching a prize for my Leave X campaign. The book focuses on the decline of American democracy but gives several examples from around the world. It is informative in helping to understand the global far-right movement.

#Democracy #Fascim #FarRight #Autocracy #LeaveX

Twitter -> X: Von einem üblichen Social Network (das von Geldgier bestimmt ist) zu einem illiberalen Megaphon für eine einzelne Person, Musk (sein politischer Erfolg unterstützt die Idee, daß Kapitalismus nur richtig funktioniert, wenn Gesetze und Demokratie beiseitegeschoben werden).

Schluß: Unsere gemeinsamen Handlungen bestimmen, ob der Plattform-Illiberalismus gewinnt. Also los!

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14614448261424889#core-fn1-14614448261424889-1

#LeaveX #merzübernehmensie #taxmenow

RE: https://mstdn.social/@VoltEuropa/116251270684633227

We hope more political parties join the #Fediverse!

#LeaveX #Democracy #Europe #EU