Si queremos seguir defendiendo el proyecto europeo, que sea en el terreno donde pongamos nosotros las normas

Elon Musk’s X platform has blocked the European Commission from making advertisements, presumably in response to the €120 million fine for its misleading verification system and overall lack of transparency. We’re grateful to Elon Musk for proving once again why the world needs to log off corporate-owned, centrally-controlled social media platforms and log on to a better way of being online. The world needs an open social web through the fediverse and Mastodon. Calls for public institutions to invest in digital sovereignty are increasing across civil society. The term digital sovereignty means that an institution has autonomy and control over the critical digital infrastructure, data, and services that make up their online presence. Up until this point, social media has not been a part of this conversation. We think it is time to change that. In any free society, it is the right of every citizen to access and comment on the news, decisions, and reasonings of their government. We believe it is a government’s responsibility to ensure this right for its constituents. Public institutions should communicate with their citizens on open platforms, not ones that require creating an account and sending personal data to a self-serving tech company. Today, institutions often communicate through the censorious filter of corporations that do not have the best interests of people or society at heart. They let their message be governed by the whims of out-of-touch and overpaid people who believe they should have unchecked power. We cannot let this stand. Mastodon offers a path forward for any institution that wants to take control of their communications, and we can help you get started today. One of the tools these corporate social media platforms use to control an institution’s communications is the algorithm. Platforms strategically tune their algorithms to make it difficult, if not impossible, for institutions to reach their people without paying the platform ad money. Musk’s move to turn off the European Commission’s advertising capabilities feels like a perverse power play over a legitimate fine, one that effectively silences a crucial avenue for public discourse. We should be horrified that any single individual can wield such influence over the relationship between governments and the people they represent. We should be especially concerned when that individual doesn’t think our governments should exist in the first place. Mastodon’s chronological timeline means that no institution needs to game an algorithm to keep their people informed. By using hashtags, it’s easy for people who care about the topics you discuss to find you. What’s more, your constituents don’t need to be on Mastodon to follow your posts. They can subscribe via open protocols like RSS and soon via email. When it comes to the source of the fine in the first place—X’s infamous blue checks, a.k.a. verification—Mastodon also offers a better way. We empower people to verify themselves by linking their social profile to their official (or personal) website. This allows for greater transparency and trust than relying on the often less-than-reputable verification practices of a single corporate entity, especially one that is willing to sell reputation for a low monthly fee. (Meanwhile, another corporate social media platform made $16 billion, 10% of their 2024 revenue, from advertisements for scams and banned goods.) In an era where information is power, it’s disheartening to see our institutions yield so much to the whims of industry and individuals. In contrast, the European Commission is leading the way in taking ownership of social sovereignty on behalf of their people. They own a Mastodon instance, ec.social-network.europa.eu, to reach Europeans directly and keep them well informed. Mastodon is proud to help them manage the technical side of things. If you are someone on the fediverse who would like to see their government own their social sovereignty, we encourage you to get in touch with your local representative and tell them why you think they should start using open social media networks like the fediverse. We’re starting a thread on Mastodon of resources to help you get in touch with your local representative here. By making the news and truth contingent on advertising budgets we’ve created an environment where any narrative can win, as long as the storyteller is willing to pay. If we allow these conditions to continue, we will leave behind the voices that truly matter; the people and their public institutions. It is critical that those voices not be silenced forever. The promise of the fediverse is the promise of a better way forward: free from ads and manipulative algorithms, a place built by and for people like you, where our sovereignty is a right and not a privilege. It will take all of us working together to build a better way of being online. If you want to start an instance or have ideas about how we can encourage more institutions to take control of their social sovereignty, get in touch us at hello@joinmastodon.org.

A major report dealing with some of the most controversial aspects of the Troubles has found no evidence of collusion on the part of the British state in the 1974 Dublin-Monaghan bombings.

Si queremos seguir defendiendo el proyecto europeo, que sea en el terreno donde pongamos nosotros las normas

Welcome to Seattle's Official FIFA World Cup 2026 site! Discover our vision for a lasting legacy, learn about match information, stay up-to-date with news, and find out how to get involved.

El rock argentino es probablemente el más longevo y productivo de todos los que usan el español, en cualquiera de las dos orillas del Atlántico

**Carlos Hidalgo** Hay varias cosas que me dan rabia de lo ocurrido con Paco Salazar y cómo el PSOE actual ha gestionado la crisis derivada. Una de ellas es que el partido tal vez se haya dejado llevar por ese espejismo tan de las organizaciones de proteger a los “hombres imprescindibles”. Mucho se ha hablado del talento de Salazar para la estrategia electoral y para la demoscopia, pero se ha hablado menos de que las mujeres que le tenían que sufrir en la Moncloa eran mujeres extraordinariamente preparadas, con varias carreras en muchos casos y trabajando con absoluta dedicación todos los días y casi a todas horas. Y, sin embargo, parece que para proteger a un activo como Salazar hubo gente que no quiso ver que las mujeres a las que él sometía a baboseos y humillaciones también eran activos muy valiosos y se las estaba quemando y dañando para proteger a un gañán. Si tal y como cuentan Esther Palomera y José Enrique Monrosi en _El ElDiario.es_ , en lugar de investigar lo sucedido se trató de hacer una caza de brujas para identificar a las dos denunciantes anónimas y se hicieron reproches públicos acerca de “destrozar la vida a compañeros”, pues las cosas se entienden menos todavía. Lo ocurrido con Salazar no es exclusivo del PSOE, claro. En el PP estas cosas llevan ocurriendo desde el “Caso Nevenka”, hasta la salida entre aplausos del exconsejero de la Xunta de Galicia Alfonso Villares, tras presuntamente drogar y violar a una mujer. Tampoco es que sea exclusivo de la derecha, pues con Íñigo Errejón también se encubrieron comportamientos asquerosamente machistas con la excusa de proteger a un presunto activo insustituible. Pero me duele especialmente porque creo (tal vez ingenuamente) que desde el PSOE de Zapatero y el de Rubalcaba esta clase de comportamientos se gestionarían de manera más decidida, investigando con rapidez y actuando de manera fulminante contra quienes incurren en ellos. De hecho, pude comprobar con mis propios ojos como en uno de los casos sucedidos en aquella época se expedientaba y expulsaba a un acosador sin dilaciones y sin miramientos. Y eso que en aquella época no había protocolos de ninguna clase, tan solo los estatutos y reglamentos del PSOE de aquellos momentos. Pero insisto: si algo nos han demostrado los 48 años de democracia es que no hay nadie que sea imprescindible y que el talento de las organizaciones vale más que el de los individuos providenciales. Por eso me da una rabia especial que se haya ninguneado a mujeres jóvenes y se haya minimizado hasta el último momento la gravedad de sus denuncias para proteger a alguien que era considerado insustituible… hasta que se le sustituya y se vea que no pasa absolutamente nada. Un Paco Salazar no vale más que dos denunciantes. O, dicho de otra manera: una mujer no vale menos que un hombre, tenga este la posición que tenga y sea cual sea la reputación de la que presuma. Salazar presumía de ganar siempre “por lo civil o por lo criminal”. Que es el tipo de frase que uno no espera de un cargo progresista, que debería estar más ocupado en combatir las injusticias que en presumir de haber salido impune de cometerlas. Lo que ocurra de ahora en adelante con este caso no va ni a solucionar, ni a perpetuar las injusticias que sufren a diario las mujeres, pero sí que puede ayudar a dar pasos para que, por lo menos, dejen de verse como algo normal.