aasatru

The Europeans Podcast is a fully independent podcast on Europe and the EU, which I've found to be a great source to keep up to date on whatever is going on in the continent (in addition to this wonderful community, obviously).

This week they announced a fundraiser for a new mini-series — Who Does it Best — studying various policy fields across European countries, comparing best (and worst) practices in national solutions to common problems across the continent. They plan to start out with podcasts on housing, childcare, and drugs.

Basically, the question is how these policies are solved nationally across the continent. What are the solutions that work well, what are the solutions that work less well, and how can we learn from each other. So I guess it's something for the policy nerds.

They talk about the mini-series in their latest episode, or in this thread on Mastodon for those who prefer that.

Check it out! :)

I take the time to promote their effort a lot because I like what they're doing with their podcast a lot. It's completely independent, being funded almost entirely by their listeners. They've been going like this for seven years now, so they are clearly committed to the gig.

They also seem to have their principles in the right place. This is evident when they speak about tricky subjects — I find they tend to have well-researched an nuanced coverage — but also in their actions: I discovered them through their decision to have an active presence on the fediverse (@europeanspodcast), and they have been speaking favourably about Mastodon several times on their podcast since I started listening. So they're seem to be walking the walk, not only talking the talk, and taking their independence seriously.

Anyone interested in helping can find the fundraiser here. They're currently at just under €5k.

If you're not interested, I nevertheless recommend checking out the podcast! It's usually a great listen.

I hope this doesn't go under rule 2 of the community - it's a small independent undertaking that I think is of some interest to anyone interested in building a pan-European information landscape, so I feel like it doesn't fall under commercial advertising. But if the moderators disagree that's of course their decision - if so, sorry about that!

BEUC [the European Consumer Organisation] and 22 of its member organisations from 17 countries have filed a complaint on 12 September 2024 to the European Commission and the network of consumer protection Authorities (CPC-Network) to denounce several deceptive practices by leading video game companies (Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Mojang Studios, Roblox Corporation, Supercell and Ubisoft) marketing popular games (such as Fortnite, EA Sports FC 24, Minecraft, Clash of Clans and others) and affecting millions of European consumers.

The Norwegian Consumer Council's @finnmyrstad posted a thread about it on Mastodon:

2/ 🕹 According to our analysis, these companies are using misleading tactics that do not comply with the EU rules on unfair commercial practices. In particular we identified that:

🎰 Gamers cannot see the real cost of digital items, leading to overspending.

💵 Companies’ claims that gamers prefer in-game premium currencies are wrong.

⚖ Consumers are often denied their rights when using premium in-game currencies.

🚸 Children are vulnerable to these manipulative tactics.

If a social media account is spreading Russian disinformation - does sharing content from the account give it legitimacy?

No, says Carl-Oskar Bohlin, Minister for Civil Defence. But at the authority the minister is responsible for, the answer sounds different.

— In any case, you spread something that a foreign power might intend to spread to make us worried, says Mikael Östlund, press officer at the authority.

It was a year ago that Carl-Oskar Bohlin shared a tweet from the American influencer Lauren Southern, known for her far-right advocacy. The original video warned of how AI is used in influence operations, something the minister forwarded to his around 45,000 followers. "The ability and height of the impact operations risk increasing avalanche-like with disruptive technology shifts," wrote Carl-Oskar Bohlin on X.

Now, an American indictment against two Russian government employees shows that the production company Tenet media, where Lauren Southern is employed, must have been secretly financed by the Russian news agency RT. A total of just over SEK 100 million is said to have been transferred from the Russian state employees to the American company. In turn, influencers would push specific issues—such as questioning support for Ukraine—to their millions of followers. On YouTube alone, the videos have received more than 16 million views.

In light of the American indictment, Carl-Oskar Bohlin has been criticized for not checking his sources better. But the Minister of Civil Defense lets the tweet stay on X.

"For the simple reason that it is difficult to misunderstand." writes Bohlin to DN.

"One should of course refrain from spreading harmful narratives from foreign powers. However, it is a somewhat strange indictment that my warning about deepfakes and doctored videos would in itself constitute Russian disinformation. With such a threshold, it will be difficult to talk about or warn about the phenomenon at all," continues the minister.

Carl-Oskar Bohlin is responsible for the agency for psychological defence, MPF. Countering misdirection and misinformation, including rumor spreading and propaganda, is one of the agency's main missions.

In case you wonder, mr. Bohlin is from the conservative party (Moderaterna).

Makes me feel a bit better about my general political anxiousness.