Sander van der Waal

The richest man on earth owns X.

The second richest man on earth is about to be a major owner of TikTok.

The third richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

The fourth richest man owns The Washington Post.

See the problem here?

The fact that the thing we're calling artificial intelligence *can't do math* and yet we're jamming it into programs that successfully *have done math* for decades, then warning people against using the AI to do math, seems like an excellent summary of where we are.

I spent seven years writing a book on this and she just… said it in three succinct paragraphs to politico.

Climate Change Will Bankrupt the Country Climate-fueled disasters cost America almost a trillion dollars over the last year, far more than economists predicted.

turns out climate change will cost dramatically more than economists predicted, and the cost of addressing it is actually negative. oops! prospect.org/environment/...

Mooie quote van wethouder Scholtes in het tweegesprek met Elisabeth IJmker "Ik heb ook naar @bert_hubert@mastodon.nl geluisterd" als ondersteuning van punt dat stappen gezet worden in de gemeente om digitaal onafhankelijker te worden #PubConf2025

Ooh look at that, Bluesky creates a link to Elena's account that is on Mastodon! Love this cross platform feature ❤️

Its clear @_elena is the first genuine superstar of the Fediverse?
#pubconf2025

Europe’s dream to wean off US tech gets reality check As the Trump administration plays hardball, a new EU strategy puts collaboration front and center.

This @politico.eu piece threatens a reality checks against a position that, uh, no one has been advocating for.

They erect a strawman position backed by no quote or reference according to which European tech sovereignty involves "decoupling" from the world.

Huh?
www.politico.eu/article/euro...

The US government has most to gain from ‘OpenAI for countries’ Imagine how much leverage it will have if it can turn off artificial intelligence capabilities around the world

Don’t be deceived by democracy- and sovereignty-washing: The US government has most to gain from ‘OpenAI for countries’ ↘️ on.ft.com/4kJLh93

We Need To Talk About Elon I’m a portrait artist, fascinated by what Elon Musk is doing to our online and offline worlds. Join me as I spend a week, alongside special guests, exploring...

So, Internet, we really do need to talk about Elon. How did we get to a place where a single billionaire with daddy issues could take over and control our global public square?

I picked up my paintbrush as a means to answer that question.

Why I’m getting off US tech At least as much as feasibly possible

Silicon Valley’s alliance with Donald Trump has brought me to my breaking point with US tech.

I’m going to keep pushing for governments to get serious about digital sovereignty, but in the meantime I’m looking for non-US alternatives — and will have more on what I’ll be using instead soon.

The rise of end times fascism | Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them

You have to read this article.
"The forces we are up against have made peace with mass death. They are treasonous to this world and its human and non-human inhabitants."
By @naomiaklein.bsky.social and @astra.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

Headline: ICE came for their neighbor so these Tennesseans formed a human chain to protect him

I can't emphasize enough that the most important thing journalists can do right now is publish exactly this kind of article

50501 — 50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement Join the movement to uphold the Constitution and end executive overreach. 50 protests, 50 states, 1 day: #50501.

The movement's official website...

Microsoft employee disrupts 50th anniversary and calls AI boss ‘war profiteer’ “Shame on you.”

"My name is Ibtihal, and for the past 3.5 years, I’ve been a software engineer on Microsoft’s AI Platform org. I spoke up today because after learning that my org was powering the genocide of my people in Palestine, I saw no other moral choice."

The dominoes keep falling. Doing the government's bidding, changing speech rules, and harming vulnerable minorities is still appeasement. Even if you do it YouTube style, quietly and with little fanfare.

Afraid so, and the tech industry in particular

.. and that's the whole point..

Trump and Musk have ushered in a terrible era of cataclysm capitalism. But I have a plan to counter it | Julia Steinberger The speed with which US democracy is being dismantled is dizzying, but if we organise resistance now we can stop this, says Julia Steinberger of the University of Lausanne

Trump and Musk have ushered in the era of cataclysm capitalism. But I have a plan to counter it www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... The speed with which US democracy is being dismantled is dizzying, but if we organise resistance now we can stop this @jksteinberger.bsky.social

One major challenge of any opposition to authoritarianism is to make critical thinking, self-responsibility, acknowledgement of and desire to repair crimes, more appealing to the public than insane nationalistic narcissism.

FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado Indiana University quietly removes profile of tenured professor and refuses to say why.

A prominent computer scientist who has spent 20 years publishing academic papers on cryptography, privacy, and cybersecurity has gone incommunicado, had his professor profile removed by employer Indiana University, & had his homes raided by the FBI. No one knows why.

arstechnica.com/security/202...

Right now there are a lot of new eyes on Signal, and not all of them are familiar with secure messaging and its nuances. Which means there’s misinfo flying around that might drive people away from Signal and private communications. 1/

We expected 2,000 people out in GOP-held Greeley, Colorado.

11,000 people showed up.

Something special is happening, folks. Now is the time to organize in every dimension possible and get to work.

One mother’s win over Meta will change social media for everyone Britons will be able to opt out of targeted advertising after Tanya O’Carroll’s David-and-Goliath battle with Meta

Case closed! 🤩💥🚀. In settling my case, Meta has agreed to stop processing my personal data for direct marketing purposes. In non-legalese, that means I will no longer be shown surveillance-ads on Facebook. www.thetimes.com/article/ae70...

In December, I wrote a piece about people's declining ability to process information, to distinguish fact from opinion, etc, and how this might soften us up to become overly-dependent on AI. You could read it, but this guy just summarised it in two tweets!

Divesting vs greenwashing: are BlackRock and Gates actually exiting fossil fuels? Under Trump's presidency, accountability has never been more important.

Investigative journalism on the Gates Foundation is always difficult--b/c it means challenging the one-sided narratives most newsrooms push out. Now climate activists are adding to the misinformation, amplifying Gates's bogus claims on climate change. Read on! timschwab.substack.com/p/divesting-...

Dutch parliament calls for end to reliance on US software The Netherlands' parliament on Tuesday approved a series of motions calling on the government to reduce dependence on U.S. software companies, including by creating a cloud services platform that is under Dutch control.

Lordy. The Dutch. Hardly the frontline of anti-Americanism

www.reuters.com/world/europe...

I am moderating this round table on social media moderation policies. Register below! We have a great lineup of speakers @muendges.bsky.social @ovinhas.bsky.social @sandervdwaal.bsky.social @waag.bsky.social
Sarah Eskens, MacKenzie fomer @reutersinstitute.bsky.social Meta Oversight Board.

zuck wearing a shirt that says "aut zuck aut nihil"

jay graber, bluesky ceo, wearing a shirt that says "mundus sine caesaribus"

you’re fired. wait you’re rehired. email us a list of things you’ve done today wait forget it you’re fired again. come back your job was important. you’re fired. or hired. come in to the office. wait the office has no computers go home. we are the department of government efficiency.