📣 The number of followers of German scientific institutions in the #Fediverse surpassed the 160k mark 💥 last weekend, see
👉 https://mastodon-listen.playground.54gradsoftware.de/?liste=institute-de

Yes, it's true: we shouldn't get caught up in this nonsensical discussion about #reach of #socialmedia.
On the other hand, it’s a great success 🏆 for initiatives such as #Unis4Mastodon, #Byebyeelon, #WissXit, #SaveSocial, @helloQuitX, @leavex and others that more than 150 research institutions in Germany are contributing to the expansion of the Fediverse.

To our friends in the #USA, we say that we are alarmed at how the new #USpolicy is attacking #science. We are trying to build decentralized and independent #socialnetworks to make our research institutions and democracy resilient to attacks from #autocrats and #hostilitytoscience.
And we think this transformation should happen in other countries, too, to strengthen #democracy.

#SciComm #eXit

#Universities with #Mastodon accounts have steadily increased their follower numbers. ↗️ ↗️
The image shown here can be downloaded as PDF from
👉 https://tubcloud.tu-berlin.de/s/X4Yb4sXs9Mj7zRj
with logos directly linking to the Mastodon accounts.

The #fediverse 🕸️ already is a cornerstone of 🗣️ #SciComm.

We just need to use it to establish our #digital #sovereignity. 💪

#Unis4Mastodon 🐘 #SaveSocial #SocialMedia

Please, share this picture widely - also on other platforms.

#Harvard #USA #Unis4Mastodon #X #eXit #solidarity #SciComm #University

@epfl

Welcome!
After #uniinnsbruck you represent now the second role model for a modern university with an up-to-date communication plattform.
Hoping that the first German university will follow soon.
#unis4mastodon

The #eXit wave of #universities continues in northern #Europe, in #Finland.

After the university of Oulu also the university of #Helsinki will stop communicating via X.

“X no longer serves the purpose for which we have used it: disseminating the University’s communications content to our desired target groups. ..,” says Director of Communications Taina Kyllönen.

“We don’t want to promote a conflict-seeking conversational culture, nor do we wish to expose our #researchers to offensive behaviour through our own posts,” says Kyllönen.

https://studies.helsinki.fi/instructions/news/university-give-x-formerly-twitter-end-january

#Unis4Mastodon

Also „The University of Oulu leaves X“

👉 https://www.oulu.fi/en/news/university-oulu-leaves-x-focuses-other-social-media-platforms

The #University of #Oulu will discontinue university-level communications in the X. … Some Finnish universities, many public administration organizations, associations, and #companies have made the decision to abandon the channel.
"X's reach has dropped considerably. The platform's nature has become unpredictable and an instrument of a certain kind of policy. As a university, we want to participate in a #democratic and constructive debate that includes appreciating #science and #research. Now #X does not seem to offer such a platform," says Marja Jokinen, Director of Communications at the University of Oulu.

Bravo, UniOulu. Great decision! 🎇
#eXit #Unis4Mastodon

(1/2) Dear supporters,

yesterday our petition for #Unis4Mastodon ended with more than 2,070 signatures.
Yesterday alone, another 114 signatures were collected
https://openpetition.de/Unis4Mastodon
This shows how pressing the issue of using truly #socialmedia is for many people.

We have managed to get a number of #universities to shut down their X-accounts. And we know that many are considering taking this step as well.
Furthermore, #SciComm is no longer conceivable without the #Fediverse, as the steadily growing number of followers on #Mastodon channels shows.
https://mastodon-listen.playground.54gradsoftware.de/?liste=hochschulen-de

In 2 days our appeal to #universities and the #HRK for an #eXit and #Unis4Mastodon will close.

Everyday, X demonstrates how unsuitable it is for #SciComm. And finally, the eXit wave has reached the universities, as our logo image shows, which is getting increasingly bigger. 👍 Most of them are also active on #Mastodon, see https://mastodon-listen.playground.54gradsoftware.de/

So, sign up ✍️ quickly that other universities will follow (everyone from Germany and abroad may participate)
👉 https://openpetition.de/Unis4Mastodon

Happy New Year 2025!
And good luck to the #Fediverse.

In 4 days our petition to the #universities and the #HRK for the eXit and #Unis4Mastodon 👩‍🎓 🐘 👨‍🎓 will end.
So, please, sign quickly:
👉 https://openpetition.de/Unis4Mastodon

For inspiration, here is a picture of the logos of #research institutes in Europe that have already made the #eXit. Great, and congratulations!
(forgot anyone? → feel free to let us know).
Some of them have already set up #Mastodon channels, see the amazing list by @scammo
https://mastodon-listen.playground.54gradsoftware.de/?liste=institute-de

The #OpenScience community at #Maastricht #University has been active on Mastodon since May last year; see also
https://openscience-maastricht.nl

In our appeal
👉 https://openpetition.de/Unis4Mastodon (please, sign, if not done yet),
we call on universities to #eXit and become active on #Mastodon.
We are currently seeing that some are indeed leaving X, but are going to #Bluesky. We do not consider this to be a sustainable solution, as we expect Bluesky to develop in a similar way to Xitter. Our experiences clearly show that true social media only exist if they are operated under the control of the users, like the services in the #Fediverse.
Nevertheless, we want to address and convince people who have not yet taken this step. The OSCM has recently set up a good approach to this by bridging its Mastodon channel to Bluesky:
https://bewegung.social/@oscmaastricht@social.edu.nl/113680679738281497

Dear @oscmaastricht, that looks interesting. Can you give those interested here in the Fediverse a detailed technical guide on how to build this bridge? Thank you. #unis4mastodon 🐘

@daniel @ricmac @evan @social @BBCRD

A #PeerTube channel for university videos is a cool thing. We recommend this as the second activity that #universities in the #Fediverse should take after setting up a #Mastodon channel. It's great that you've already done that. Feel free to report on it here; there are many university teachers and researchers who would like to benefit from your experiences.

#Unis4Mastodon

@univienna @tuberlin @KIT_Karlsruhe @UniOldenburg @unibremen @freieuniversitaet @UniUlm @HTW_Berlin @uni_paderborn

We had to complement our figure, because the university of #Erfurt was missing as one of the eXiters.
Now it has been added. People in the #fediverse would be happy to see a #Mastodon account of #UniErfurt that would allow to follow by real #socialmedia.

#unis4mastodon

European Universities started …
.. leaving X

#Universities in #Amsterdam, #Vienna, #Berlin, #Karlsruhe, #Aachen and other cities in Europe have left microblogging service X during the last week(s).

They justify this step with the systematic lack of moderation on the platform, which has resulted in a flood of hate speech, disinformation and cyberbullying.

Some of them have already started to run channels on Mastodon: @univienna, @tuberlin, @KIT_Karlsruhe, @UniOldenburg @unibremen, @freieuniversitaet, @UniUlm , @HTW_Berlin, @uni_paderborn.

X is not a suitable medium for communication in #research and #education. Help get the other #universities to follow suit and sign the petition
👉 https://openpetition.de/Unis4Mastodon
#unis4mastodon 🌻 👩‍🎓 #eXit

Strengthening European digital sovereignty

So many institutions are just talking about it. You do it.

Bravo,
@ngi @NGITransoceanic @NGICommons @fediversity @NGIZero @e_mydata @NGI_Localforlocal @NGI_Taler @ngisargasso @ngitrustchain @ngisearch @openwebsearcheu @NGI_Enrichers @review
A very good decision.

You may help the universities to follow by signing
👉 https://openpetition.de/unis4mastodon

#Unis4Mastodon

European Federation of Journalists is leaving X

X-odus: @EFJEUROPE account will be frozen from 20 January 2025
“We cannot continue to participate in feeding the social network of a man who proclaims the death of the media and therefore of journalists,” said EFJ President Maja Sever. “The social media site X has become the preferred vector for conspiracy theories, racism, far-right ideas and misogynistic rhetoric. X is a platform that no longer serves the public interest at all, but the particular ideological and financial interests of its owner and his political allies.”

https://europeanjournalists.org/blog/2024/11/26/x-odus-efjeurope-account-will-be-frozen-from-20-january-2025/

Please, sign the petition, so that universities will follow 👇
https://openpetition.de/Unis4Mastodon

#eXit #exodus #EFJ #Journalists #Unis4Mastodon

“We wanted to let readers know that we will no longer post on any official Guardian editorial accounts on the social media site X,” the Guardian said. 👇

📣 https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/nov/13/the-guardian-no-longer-post-on-x-twitter-elon-musk
#Unis4Mastodon

If you would like to see universities to follow, please, sign the petition
👉 https://openpetition.de/Unis4Mastodon

The methods practiced on #X disqualify the network for any sensible communication.
Now it is also making money by spreading #AI-generated #FakeNews and influencing elections in the USA, as the BBC reports:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2dpj485nno

#Universities and other #research and #educational institutions that want to provide fact-based information should switch to the real social media of the #Fediverse 🐿️ like #Mastodon 🐘 as soon as possible.

It is beyond reason that the legitimization of lying networks like X is supported with #taxpayers' money.
Help change this soon and sign the petition 👇
https://openpetition.de/Unis4Mastodon

#Unis4Mastodon #eXit
@maxplanckgesellschaft @fraunhofergesellschaft

Some people who want to leave #X wonder if #BlueSky is an alternative. 😕
In our petition, we advocate using the decentralized #Mastodon. We do not consider BlueSky to be a sustainable alternative because it is another commercial service that spies on user data to generate customized #advertising with it.

The BlueSky Terms of Service https://bsky.social/about/support/tos
and Privacy Policy comprise 7100+ words 😡. Nobody reads this; this is not an “informed consent” as required by #GDPR. We see the #universities here as having a duty of care towards their students and employees, whom they must protect from such data collection. Mastodon and the other #Fediverse 🦩 services are much more suitable for university communication.
BlueSky is just another data leech.

That's why you should sign the petition for #Unis4Mastodon 🐘 👩‍🎓 🐘 :
https://openpetition.de/Unis4Mastodon

We forgot to add the University of Applied Sciences #HTW_Berlin to the list of #universities that did the #eXit 👣. They silenced their #X account this year and do not post there anymore.
Bravo, @HTW_Berlin, a good step! 👏
👉 https://www.htw-berlin.de/en/

In addition, a channel has been set up into the Fediverse 🌳 and the X logo has been removed from the homepage (a small hint: now add the Mastodon logo to the homepage).
Many potential followers would certainly be interested in finding out more about #HTW_Berlin via the #Mastodon channel.
Sign the petition: ✍️ https://openpetition.de/Unis4Mastodon

#Unis4Mastodon 🐘