this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2026
525 points (99.2% liked)

Europe

8399 readers
1516 users here now

News and information from Europe πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί

(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)

Rules (2024-08-30)

  1. This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
  2. No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
  3. Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
  4. No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism. We follow German law; don't question the statehood of Israel.
  5. Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
  6. If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
  7. Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in other communities.
  8. Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
  9. No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
  10. Always provide context with posts: Don't post uncontextualized images or videos, and don't start discussions without giving some context first.

(This list may get expanded as necessary.)

Posts that link to the following sources will be removed

Unless they're the only sources, please also avoid The Sun, Daily Mail, any "thinktank" type organization, and non-Lemmy social media (incl. Substack). Don't link to Twitter directly, instead use xcancel.com. For Reddit, use old:reddit:com

(Lists may get expanded as necessary.)

Ban lengths, etc.

We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.

If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 7 or 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.

If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the primary mod account @EuroMod@feddit.org

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Granted, the part

The globally recommended app by privacy and security experts, Signal, is now being downloaded massively and tops the Danish Google Play Store

is a little ironic, but you gotta push this winning tide and then work from that.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] architect@thelemmy.club 5 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

The people that are orchestrating the takeover of Greenland literally owns that fucking platform you fucking idiots.

Does no one in the west have a fucking brain?

[–] GarbadgeGoober@feddit.org 5 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Perfect is the enemy of the good.

Just see it as a first step. Signal is still better than WhatsApp being owned by Meta. If we get more people of WhatsApp, in the future there might be more European alternatives.

There are no big European alternatives the majority of people are willing to switch.

I got rid of WhatsApp last year myself and could only convince 8 people to use Signal. I tried Threema and Matrix, but most normal people are not willing to do this and don't care they give up their data and so on...

[–] kaulquappus@feddit.org 1 points 16 hours ago

Thank you for contributing to the critical mass o7

I joined Signal for the very few people in my contact list that use it, but I am holding out for the further establishment / gaining traction of a non-walled-garden solution before I start evangelizing Signal... So that I don't get more people to switch, and then after a few months/years have to try to get them to switch again e.g. to a Matrix solution (and once again losing my chat history in the process).

[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 3 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

From one american service to another american service? Good job m'Danes, that'll show'em.

Less flippantly though, Signal is a better american service, and incremental improvements are good too.

[–] Alph4d0g@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 1 day ago (6 children)

Meshtastic. Let’s get some critical mass. Get single points of trust out of the equation.

[–] percent@infosec.pub 1 points 7 hours ago

IIRC, I looked into Meshtastic a while back, and it was known to be unreliable. Is that still the case? It seems like a really cool concept

[–] paulcdb@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago

Sadly Meshtastic is limited to the number of nodes it'll go through (think it was 7) so pretty limited. MeshCore goes up to something like 64 so is better but still both have huge limitations right now besides the 'no nodes around me' issue.

still, I have some MeshCore nodes and hopefully get 1 fairly high up when I can afford the Β£100 to buy it but its a lot to waste when no-one around here is interested.

[–] VisionScout@lemmy.wtf 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Wrdlbrmpfd@feddit.org 2 points 19 hours ago

Tox is not really great for multi-device, is it?

[–] zarathustra0@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yeah, a network based on the principle of flooding ain't gonna work across that many people.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Muffi@programming.dev 119 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I am from Denmark. I have spent the last 10 years fighting to get schools and government institutions to switch away from American software.

What a waste of time, when all it takes is the threat of an imperialist take-over of Greenland to actually get my fellow countrymen to finally listen and act.

[–] Quantillion@mstdn.io 1 points 27 minutes ago

@Muffi @Novocirab
Same. This applies to EVERY non-US country!!
I can't believe that the EU, France, UK, Spain, Italy etc. do not have their own comprehensive Fedi servers for their own institutions, govt departments & citizens! ALL still relying on US tech.

[–] biofaust@lemmy.world 4 points 19 hours ago

Italian in Denmark here.

I thank you so much for this! I am amazed at the dependence of all facets of social life and information on Meta and Google's properties.

I am cut out of my building's initiatives because I don't have a Facebook account. There are no events (such as dance events, protests, etc) published anywhere else than on Facebook's Events.

When I propose to be contacted on Signal people look at me as if I was an alien.

You are doing God's work, as a Christian would say.

[–] CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de 51 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (16 children)

Signal is still centralized US software.

[–] Mucki@feddit.org 48 points 1 day ago (17 children)

It is the least evil for the ignorant technology end user.

[–] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

Ignorant feels harsh, technically accurate but harsh. Yes technology permiates our lives but its such a broad term that no one can be fluent in all its aspects and most of us have to have in depth knowledge of at least one part of it to do our day jobs. We can't expect everyone to have the time to learn about the inner workings of communications infastructure.

[–] Wrdlbrmpfd@feddit.org 1 points 19 hours ago

Concerning the usability, yes. Otherwise Matrix would be the best option, it can be hosted locally.

[–] architect@thelemmy.club 0 points 17 hours ago

Why do you think that? The owner of it is alt right and the fascists are using it. Why feel safe on it? Doesn’t make sense.

load more comments (14 replies)
load more comments (15 replies)
[–] Duke_Nukem_1990@feddit.org 87 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Kinda ironic that if the danish representatives in the EU got their way with chat control, danish people wouldn't even be able to install signal (officially at least), since Signal said they would leave the EU in such a case.

[–] dzsimbo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 39 points 1 day ago

I'm pretty sure this isn't irony, but rather a reaction from the population that is realizing the shit their government is doing.

[–] TheCorminator@lemmy.ml 98 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Are they switching in the hope they'll get added to a group chat planning the invasion?

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Drekaridill@lemmy.wtf 31 points 1 day ago (3 children)

That is one fucked up looking flag

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: next β€Ί