Horatio Mortimer

34 Followers
156 Following
205 Posts
Master of None
Meta is earning a fortune on a deluge of fraudulent ads, reports Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/investigations/meta-is-earning-fortune-deluge-fraudulent-ads-documents-show-2025-11-06/

Don't want Google AI bs in search?

Just add "-fucking" 

Did you know #Microsoft is shutting down Chinese universities by blocking access to their services? When will this come to Europe and the rest of the world? How dependent on Microsoft or Google is the day to day work in your organization?

Here's an example, one of many: https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3305889/microsoft-abruptly-cuts-services-chinese-university-genomics-firm

Microsoft abruptly cuts services to Chinese university, genomics firm

Concerns about technological decoupling have risen after Microsoft ended commercial services for some clients in China.

South China Morning Post

For weeks I have been telling reporters that #Trump could have the power to switch off our tech in #Europe. It felt a bit alarmist until I just read that #Microsoft, on the behest of the #US gov, has suspended the email account of Karim Khan, the #ICC chief prosecutor.

One of the most important international courts and a legal bulwark against #genocide, crimes against humanity, and #warcrimes is threatened by #BigTech dependency.

https://apnews.com/article/icc-trump-sanctions-karim-khan-court-a4b4c02751ab84c09718b1b95cbd5db3

#DigitalSovereignty #FOSS #EthicalTech

Trump's sanctions on ICC prosecutor have halted tribunal's work

Nearly three months ago, U.S. President Donald Trump slapped sanctions on the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan. He has lost access to his email and his bank accounts have been frozen. American staffers at The Hague-based court also have been told that if they travel to the U.S. they risk arrest. In addition, some nongovernmental organizations have stopped working with the ICC. Rights groups say these problems will prevent victims of war crimes from getting justice.

AP News
Still baffled by the sheer irresponsibility of unleashing the Convincing Lie Generator on the general public. I don’t think there’s a historic precedent save for only maybe the release of teflon into the environment.
Zeitonline covers the critically important story of the campaign against Wikipedia as nothing less than an "attack on the knowledge of the world" by Musk, Martin, and Heritage.
Angriff auf das Wissen der Welt
https://www.zeit.de/digital/internet/2025-04/wikipedia-donald-trump-elon-musk-angriff-autoren
Wikipedia: Angriff auf das Wissen der Welt

Elon Musk, ein trumpnaher Staatsanwalt und ein Thinktank attackieren Wikipedia. Es ist ein Lehrstück über das Playbook der Rechten, Verteidigung scheint kaum möglich.

ZEIT ONLINE
Their fundamental strategic error from which so much else flows was their 2024 tax pledge. They've trapped themselves for no good reason.
The World on Acid

Knowledge and Power

This needs to be shared far and wide:

The digital countermove to Trump tariffs

America’s mid-air dismantling of the global system of trade represents a one-time chance to compete

Cory Doctorow @pluralistic https://on.ft.com/44iHLh3

The digital countermove to Trump tariffs

America’s mid-air dismantling of the global system of trade represents a one-time chance to compete

Financial Times
“The general public is completely fed up of the current system”
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/citizen-assemblies-hugh-pope/
Citizens' Assemblies

Around the world, democracies are struggling with angry populations who are fed up with politicians who don't seem to represent them effectively. Fortunately, there's an alternative. Hugh Pope—a veteran reporter on the Middle East who also spent 15 years working for International Crisis Group—introduces us to the growing movement for 'citizens' assemblies', where ordinary people get together to decide what's best for the community. He argues that these assemblies have already been used effectively on important issues that are difficult for politicians to tackle and reveals how the French president, Emmanuel Macron, came to find out about them.

Five Books