Re: <nettime> Sign the BAN X in EUROPE petition and join the campaign

[czegledy--- via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>]

Dear Geert, This is a HUGE Personal thank you.
More on it later
all the very best
nina cz


Quoting Geert Lovink via nettime-l <nettime-l@lists.nettime.org>:

> Dear all,
>
> all your responses so far to the campaign to ban X in the EU, which  
> only launched last Friday, have been exetremely interesting and  
> encouraging. Finally there is a debate about what?s to be done with X.
>
> I am not behind this initiative, the person who initiated it wants  
> to remain anonymous (for the time being). This person has not got to  
> do anything with ?Brussels? (neither are sponsered by the EU or any  
> institution, for that matter). I see this campaign design first and  
> foremost as a conceptual artwork in the poltical category. This very  
> much comes from the nettime scene, let that be clear. And many of  
> you will know why. It is a tactical media aka  
> post-situationist/communication guerrilla action (with a very  
> serious intention).
>
> Unfortunately, a call to ban X in the EU will not come from the  
> so-caled progressive-liberal ?civil society? organizations such as  
> Bits of Freedom, Netzpolitik and all others of the European Digital  
> Rights network (https://edri.org/about-us/our-network/) and campaign  
> should be, first and foremost, read as a radical call to exactly  
> these organizations to take a stand and follow the Brazilian example.
>
> There is something bold and desperate in this call, and I believe  
> there is a need to acknowledge that before we move on. The  
> stagnation needs to end. Over a decade ago the social media  
> monopolies were already causing havoc, both on the political and the  
> mental health levels. At our Institute of Network Cultures we  
> brought these initiatives together in 2011-2013 under the network  
> name of 'Unlike Us' (https://networkcultures.org/unlikeus/), which,  
> at the time, already felt a bit late (this was just after the failed  
> Arab spring). This was launched together with Korinna Patelis, who  
> was teaching in Cyprus at the time. A Facebook Farewell Party and  
> similar initiatives followed but nothing happened. It all ended up  
> in platform capitalism and then, even worse, techno-feudalism. Calls  
> to fix the broken internet were made, some alternatives were  
> developed, but none of this found much resonance amongst the  
> userbase at large.
>
> Europe has so failed to develop an alternative to the US ?free  
> speech? contruct and thus all discussions, also inside the EU, are  
> ultimately measured around that constitutional-legal term (or  
> ideology, for that matter). All regulation effforts will remain to  
> be framed  as censorship and thus all alternatives remain futile. At  
> best Brussels can send fines to Silicon Valley? 5-10 years after the  
> fact. No public money is invested in alternatives.
>
> To say that calling for a ban is lame and will not work and that we  
> have to emphasize alternatives instead has nothing achieved anything  
> over the past decade. It is important to admit this. To merely say  
> this again simply ignores the failure of the ?alternatives?  
> approach. Fediverse-Mastedon etc. might work ok but still fails to  
> attract many. In particular journalists and PR crowds continue to be  
> hooked onto X, as are most of the political class. The dialectics  
> between news media and the political class remains toxic (to use a  
> very polite word). Cade Diehm has already said it so much better  
> than I do here. Neither regulation nor alternatives have achieved  
> much. It is urgent to come together and have an open dialogue what  
> strategic next steps might make a real difference.
>
> Yours, Geert
>
>
>
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# <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
# collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
# more info: https://www.nettime.org
# contact: nettime-l-owner@lists.nettime.org