We need such statements now more than ever. Thank you Codeberg <3

Green flags:

• copyleft license (GPL or better AGPL) + they accept contributions without contributor license agreement
• code written by many people who personally own the copyright
• active community

Yellow flags:

• permissive license
• business model which can’t be really be sustainable with a shit-free product

Red flags:

• VC funding (implies enshittification in future because of profit maximization)
• proprietary license
• project does not take contribution from the outside or asks to transfer copyright or sign some document (CLA)

Google has always been fuckers, they are still fuckers and going with the fascist flow they’ve proven that they will remain fuckers. Even if they switch side once the Trumpian monster stumbles, the can never be trusted.

This days it’s plain obvious. Before was slightly better hidden.

They could decide not to give 1M to Trump, but they did: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/09/google-microsoft-donate-trump-inaugural-fund They could use their reach and make a clear public statement: “we don’t support this”. But I’ve never seen any. They could give higher rating to actual useful information and try to show less fascist propaganda to people. I have to assume that’s going wrong as well.

Because of their giant impact, they send a message to all others. “We go with the fascists, we are not on the side of humanity but on the side of profit”. That creates dangerous dynamics.

It was limiting them. To truly maximize profits they need to strip off all limits. I’m not joking. Really not. This is why capitalism and fascism go so well together.

Google managed to create a very clean image of themselves in most heads, but looking closer it is an ugly profit maximization machine. It cares about shareholders. If it cares about you, then probably for spying on you and learn how to manipulate you and others better. I hope people start realizing finally.

And let’s state it clear: Google could have a voice. They could object to the Musk-Thiel-Trumpian destruction machine. They could be there for the world. But they’re not. Not at all. They serve the money. And if it pays off, then they are willing to ruin peoples lives.

Google is on the wrong side of history.

Like it was not a risk before. People just didn’t want to see the obvious.

Looks well ventilated there at least.

Maybe now would be the right time to lobby this organization. The impact of Twitter may have brought us Trump and all the destruction which will follow. We can’t affort this once more.

A pity they go again for the same type of platform. It’s just a matter of time until the profit maximization monster strikes there too :/

I really hope they stand strong. We need some influential entities standing up to the shit going on. Sadly, given the current situation in the US I have to assume that the Trump gang will sooner or later try to crack down on Signal. Who knows, forcing them to give out meta data to identify dissidents etc.

At least the open-source app makes me hope that there’s a little less nasty things they can do than Facebook/Whatsapp.

My personal opinion is that Threema is still a viable alternative to WhatsApp. The app is open-source, there’s even a ‘libre’ variant on F-Droid. The service is proprietary though. The jurisdiction (Switzerland) seems more trustworthy currently. I don’t really understand the business model of Threema: It seems like they have some revenue from a commercial service “Threema Work”. The initial cost for purchasing an app license does not really contribute to sustainability I guess. I suspect it is more for making scams more expensive. I hope they can be sustainable from that and don’t need to start doing shit.

We should stop being naive. Immersing ourselves as a society into facebook and twitter significantly contributed to the shit situation we are in now. Going to Signal seems like a short term solution. We should have some idea where to go on the long term.

I support the cause in general but: Signal is not federated at all. It may seem like a decent alternative to WhatsApp but is it really? It still falls under the same US jurisdiction. Let’s say the US gov starts agressively prosecuting dissidents and certain minorities (they already do): can and should we still use signal in this case? I don’t think so. Sadly i can’t name a much better alternative. Maybe matrix. But it has other issues.