Conversation

Notices

1. Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Thursday, 23-Mar-2023 16:32:58 JST Aral Balkan

   Mozilla is what Greenpeace would be if Greenpeace was run by petroleum industry executives.

   #mozilla

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Friday, 24-Mar-2023 19:28:45 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • SylvainDe

     @SylvainDe Y’know, nothing would surprise me at this point :)

   • SylvainDe (sylvainde@mamot.fr)'s status on Friday, 24-Mar-2023 19:28:47 JST SylvainDe

     in reply to

     @aral
     Wasn't Greenpeace financed by selling russian Gas in germany at some point?

     https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Planet_Energy

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 25-Mar-2023 16:20:54 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Tim @toolbear#🪧@ Taylor
     • 🌻Pip🌾

     @toolbear @notspookypip They’re not there to serve the community. They’re there to make a profit. They’re “just another” half-billion dollar for-profit “Silicon Valley tech company” wrapped in a not-for-profit public relations shell.

     (Quotes from what their then head of public policy told me at a conference we were speaking at – “I don’t understand why you’re holding us to such a higher standard.”)

     “When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.” – Maya Angelou

   • Tim @toolbear#🪧@ Taylor (toolbear@union.place)'s status on Saturday, 25-Mar-2023 16:20:55 JST Tim @toolbear#🪧@ Taylor

     in reply to

     • 🌻Pip🌾

     @notspookypip @aral
     The specific issue is them launching their own AI initiative, positioning themselves as uniquely suited to do it ethically. When what they're doing is chasing a fad.

     They would better serve the community to invest the millions of dollars that they announced to fund this new mozilla[.]ai, instead into AI countermeasures to protect people from the unethical and dangerous state of the art.

     The current AI push is VC desperation & snake oil after NFT and crypto collapsed.

   • Tim @toolbear#🪧@ Taylor (toolbear@union.place)'s status on Saturday, 25-Mar-2023 16:20:56 JST Tim @toolbear#🪧@ Taylor

     in reply to

     • 🌻Pip🌾

     @notspookypip @aral
     This is my summary:

     There is no such thing as good Big Tech, yet Mozilla believes there is and wants to be a good Big Tech company. Mozilla isn't nearly as reformed as they imagine themselves to be. Mozilla imagines themselves ethical, but they are much closer to their tech bro origins than they admit to themselves or the world.

     They took years to oust their homophobic CEO (who now runs the Brave Browser corp. so, you know, don't use that browser or boost that company).

   • 🌻Pip🌾 (notspookypip@sunbeam.city)'s status on Saturday, 25-Mar-2023 16:20:57 JST 🌻Pip🌾

     in reply to

     @aral I'm not very well versed in tech news and the like, what has Mozilla been doing? /gen

   • Cold Hotman (coldhotman@nrsk.no)'s status on Saturday, 25-Mar-2023 17:50:47 JST Cold Hotman

     in reply to
     @aral
     “I don’t understand why you’re holding us to such a higher standard.”
     But... But that's their product. That's literally why I use Firefox.
   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 25-Mar-2023 17:52:56 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Tim @toolbear#🪧@ Taylor
     • Koen Hufkens, PhD
     • 🌻Pip🌾

     @koen_hufkens @toolbear @notspookypip Yep.

   • Koen Hufkens, PhD (koen_hufkens@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 25-Mar-2023 17:52:57 JST Koen Hufkens, PhD

     in reply to

     • Tim @toolbear#🪧@ Taylor
     • 🌻Pip🌾

     @aral @toolbear @notspookypip Thought this was about #OpenAI but all the same I guess.

   • Tim @toolbear#🪧@ Taylor (toolbear@union.place)'s status on Sunday, 26-Mar-2023 16:14:19 JST Tim @toolbear#🪧@ Taylor

     in reply to

     • 🌻Pip🌾

     @notspookypip @aral

     Yep. Compare these contradictory sentiments:

     > “I don’t understand why you’re holding us to such a higher standard.”

     With this PR release when CEO Eich was forced to resign by a pressure campaign in 2014:

     > Mozilla prides itself on being **held to a different standard** and, this past week, we didn’t live up to it. …We didn’t act **like you’d expect Mozilla to act**. — https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/brendan-eich-steps-down-as-mozilla-ceo/
     (archive) https://archive.ph/AHNaT

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Sunday, 26-Mar-2023 16:14:19 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Tim @toolbear#🪧@ Taylor
     • 🌻Pip🌾

     @toolbear Thanks, that’s going in my bookmarks :)

     @notspookypip

   • 🌻Pip🌾 (notspookypip@sunbeam.city)'s status on Sunday, 26-Mar-2023 16:14:21 JST 🌻Pip🌾

     in reply to

     • Tim @toolbear#🪧@ Taylor

     @aral @toolbear oh wow... that's absolutely ignorant of them. And the head of public policy??? If they can't even try to be diplomatic about a response that's really bad...