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2025-01-20-FOSDEM-protest.md (5001B)

    

  1. ---
  2. title: "FOSDEM '25 protest"
  3. date: 2025-01-20
  4. ---
  6. *Update: Dorsey's talk was cancelled! [See the update here](/2025/01/23/2025-01-23-Transparency-and-governance-FOSDEM.html).*
  8. [Last week][previous], I wrote to object to Jack Dorsey and his company, Block,
  9. Inc., being accepted as main track speakers at FOSDEM, and proposed a protest
  10. action in response. [FOSDEM issued a statement about our plans][statement] on
  11. Thursday.
  13. Today, I have some updates for you regarding the planned action.
  15. [previous]: /2025/01/16/2025-01-16-No-Billionares-at-FOSDEM-please.html
  16. [statement]: https://fosdem.org/2025/news/2025-01-16-protests/
  18. I would like to emphasize that we are not protesting FOSDEM or its organizers.
  19. We are protesting Jack Dorsey and his company, first and foremost, from
  20. promoting their business at FOSDEM. We are members of the FOSDEM community. We
  21. have variously been speakers, devroom organizers, volunteers, and attendees for
  22. years --- in other words, we are not activism tourists. We have a deep
  23. appreciation for the organizers and all of the work that they have done over the
  24. years to make FOSDEM such a success.
  26. That we are taking action demonstrates that we value FOSDEM, that we believe it
  27. represents our community, and that we want to defend its --- our --- ethos.
  28. Insofar as we have a message to the FOSDEM organizers, it is one of gratitude,
  29. and an appeal to build a more open and participatory process, in the spirit of
  30. open source, and especially to improve the transparency of the talk selection
  31. process, sponsorship terms, and conflict of interest policies, so protests like
  32. ours are not necessary in the future. To be clear, we do not object to the need
  33. for sponsors generally at FOSDEM --- we understand that FOSDEM is a free,
  34. volunteer driven event, many of us having volunteered for years --- but we do
  35. object specifically to Jack Dorsey and Block, Inc. being selected as sponsors
  36. and especially as speakers.
  38. As for the planned action, I have some more information for anyone who wishes to
  39. participate. Our purpose is to peacefully disrupt Dorsey's talk, and *only*
  40. Dorsey's talk, which is scheduled to take place between 12:00 and 12:30 on
  41. Sunday, February 2nd in Janson. If you intend to participate, we will be meeting
  42. outside of the *upper* entrance to Janson at 11:45 AM. We will be occupying the
  43. stage for the duration of the scheduled time slot in order to prevent the talk
  44. from proceeding as planned.
  46. To maintain the peaceful nature of our protest and minimize the disruption to
  47. FOSDEM generally, we ask participants to strictly adhere to the following
  48. instructions:
  50. 1. Do not touch anyone else, or anyone else's property, for any reason.
  51. 1. Do not engage in intimidation.
  52. 1. Remain quiet and peaceful throughout the demonstration.
  53. 1. When the protest ends, disperse peacefully and in a timely manner.
  54. 1. Leave the room the way you found it.
  56. Dorsey's time slot is scheduled to end at 12:30, but we may end up staying as
  57. late as 14:00 to hand the room over to the next scheduled talk.
  59. I've been pleased by the response from volunteers (some of whom helped with this
  60. update --- thanks!), but we still need a few more! I have set up a mailing list
  61. for planning the action. If you plan to join, and especially if you're willing
  62. and able to help with additional tasks that need to be organized, please
  63. [contact me directly](mailto:sir@cmpwn.com) to receive an invitation to the
  64. mailing list.
  66. Finally, I have some corrections to issue regarding last week's blog post.
  68. In the days since I wrote my earlier blog post, Dorsey's talk has been removed
  69. from the list of keynotes and moved to the main track, where it will occupy the
  70. same time slot in the same room but not necessarily be categorized as a
  71. "keynote".
  73. It has also been pointed out that Dorsey does not bear sole responsibility for
  74. Twitter's sale. However, he is complicit and he profited handsomely from the
  75. sale and all of its harmful consequences. The sale left the platform at the
  76. disposal of the far right, causing a sharp rise in hate speech and harassment
  77. and the layoffs of 3,700 of the Twitter employees that made it worth so much in
  78. the first place.
  80. His complicity, along with his present-day activities at Block, Inc. and the
  81. priorities of the company that he represents as CEO --- its irresponsible
  82. climate policy, $120M in fines for enabling consumer fraud, and the layoffs of
  83. another 1,000 employees in 2024 despite posting record profits on $5B in revenue
  84. --- are enough of a threat to our community and its ethos to raise alarm at his
  85. participation in FOSDEM. We find this compelling enough to take action to
  86. prevent him and his colleagues from using FOSDEM's platform to present
  87. themselves as good actors in our community and sell us their new "AI agentic
  88. framework".
  90. The open source community and FOSDEM itself would not exist without collective
  91. action. Our protest to defend its principles is in that spirit. Together we can,
  92. and will, de-platform Jack Dorsey.
  94. I'll see you there!