Media outlets will have to develop their own audiences over time by using decentralized digital services. It may (seem to) take longer than using centralized services, but it’s the only way to avoid censorship and make independent decisions in their strategy and operations.

Basically, media outlets will grow their own audiences like in the old days, just now they do with the digital help.

This is, as we all know, what the internet was supposed to be in the beginning: a decentralized network.

I strongly disagree. The case we have here is a good example why. You become too dependent on centralized services. What you need to do is using decentralized tools enabling you to control your own content and processes. If you follow tools like Facebook, Threads, Tiktok, Twitter, etc., you are on the wrong track.

What we see in this story is something like a soft version of Chinese censorship (and censorship will become stronger the more powerful these centralized platforms become).

As far as I know, 404 Media is using Threads. If I am right , it would be interesting to know whether they consider stop using it.

Quotes from the article (emphasis mine):

“A relatively good period for the Russian economy, which was based on previously accumulated resources, is over,” said Oleg Vyugin, an economist and former top central bank official. “High inflation eats away at all that seemingly short-lived success.”

“If we talk about the middle class, it feels fine now,” said Sergey Dmitrieyev, an IT specialist from Moscow. “Less well-off people are feeling more stressed.”

The agriculture sector is also feeling the squeeze. “The risk of bankruptcies is rising along with the key rate,” said Eduard Zernin, who served as the head of the Russian Union of Grain Exporters. “When farmers need to fund the sowing in the spring, we will see if those risks materialized.”

It will be “a year of belt tightening,” said Sofya Donets, an economist at T-Investments. “Creditors win, and borrowers can hardly imagine how they will live.” […] “In some quarters, growth may be negative next year. For now, our main forecast is still growth by the end of next year, slightly below 1%.”

“The main risks for Russia are problems with payments,” said Alexey Vedev, a former deputy economy minister.

State-controlled pipeline operator Transneft PJSC and Russian Railways JSC sharply cut investment programs partly due to borrowing costs.

Private businesses […] are also trimming expenditures, while United Co. Rusal International PJSC, a top aluminum producer, is considering cutting output by more than 10%, citing the economic situation as one of the reasons.

This is about targeting Wikipedia editrors, Israel is here just a pretext.

Whether or not you are right, the article is about China as it grandstands about Gaza while repressing a Muslim community within its own borders, but hardly anyone seems to notice.

I guess what is meant here is that

The Israelis keep the Palestinians something of a people apart; Xi seeks to assimilate the Uyghurs into a broader “Chinese” identity by suppressing their language, history, and religious life.

Not that one is less worse than the other (I get your point of genocide), the author is suggesting that there are two different policies: The Israeli policy of segregation versus China’s assimiliation:

… the Communist Party insists that Xinjiang is an integral part of China. Beijing has imposed its political system and Chinese language and culture on the Uyghurs, who are a Central Asian people and speak a language related to Turkish. The community of less than 12 million is also under pressure from an influx of migrants (you could call them “settlers”) from the dominant Han Chinese ethnic group. Official census data from 2020 show that the Han population in Xinjiang expanded by 25 percent over the preceding decade, while the number of Uyghurs grew by only 16 percent.

Western countries are supporting genocide by the Chinese government by buying cheap EVs and many other products made by forced labour in Xinjiang. As the article also suggests, for example, politicians are speaking about China’s abuse of the Uyghurs ‘behind closed doors’ while they should rather call out Beijing in public.

Addition: Just stumbled upon this that seems to confirm what I said in this comment (it’s an article originally published in September 2024, republished January 2025). It’s about Australia, but we could replace Australia with almost any Western country, maybe with another product than batteries, but the principle remains:

Australia’s climate ambitions have a modern slavery problem: examining the origins of our big batteries

Several big battery projects in Australia vital for storing renewable energy to meet the nation’s climate goals are highly likely to be using materials sourced through the forced labour of Uyghur and other Turkic ethnic groups in China, […] research has found. […]

Two of the largest companies that supply batteries and lithium cells for batteries—Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) and EVE—are used in Australian projects in spite of having been reported to be implicated in grave human rights violations, notably forced labour of Uyghur and other Turkic ethnic groups in the manufacturing and processing of raw materials. In a damning 2022 report, the United Nations stated that such violations might constitute crimes against humanity.

?

https://beehaw.org/u/[email protected]

China has created a large system of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance. Approximately one million Uyghurs have been imprisoned in detention centers, for reasons as simple as practicing their religion, having international contacts or communications, or attending a western university […]

Some have reported experiencing torture and sexual violence [in detention camps]. Those who are detained are often unable to communicate with or receive visits from their families. Children whose parents are detained are placed in government-run adoption centers, sometimes far from their homes and families.

The Chinese government uses sophisticated technology to monitor people throughout the country. The goal is to spot any perceived infractions, such as connections with people outside of China or expressions of faith. Being caught can result in detention and/or disappearance. Uyghurs are also being watched closely by their neighbors and state agents in their communities.

Under the “Unite as One Family” program, the Chinese government has stationed an estimated one million Han Chinese citizens in Uyghur households for mandatory homestays to monitor and report on their activities and ensure that they are conforming to Han Chinese rather than Uyghur cultural practices. Uyghur families cannot refuse this in-person monitoring.

The [Chinese] state began imposing harsh penalties for violations of birth limits [in Xinjiang]. It also implemented an aggressive campaign of mass sterilization and intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD) implantation programs. […] Leaked government documents show that violations of birth limits are the most common reason Uyghur women are placed in a detention camp. Women have testified to being sterilized without their consent while in detention. Other women have testified that they were threatened with detention if they refused sterilization or IUD implantation procedures. In such a coercive environment, it is unlikely that any Uyghur woman can be said to have voluntarily consented to these procedures.

China has a long history of imposing forced labor on Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Researchers have documented a network of factories being built within and near detention camps in Xinjiang. Leaked government documents reveal that working in these factories is often a condition for release from the camps. Uyghurs have no real choice but to work in these factories, often for low or no wages. Uyghurs are also being transferred in large groups to work at factories throughout China.

Source.

Tihs is just a TINY list of atrocities, and similar things happen in Tibet as well (you find a lot of evidence from reliable source).

[Edit typo.]

The first thing I found troubling with this post is the source. This is a Chinese state-controlled propaganda medium. It’s owned by Alibaba and based in Hong Kong.

After the attempted assassination of Robert Fico last year, world leaders -such as German chancellors Olaf Scholz, his Austrian counterpart Karl Nehammer, Hungary’s Viktor Orban, and many others- rightfully condemned the cowardly act that has no place in a civilized world. And where are these critics now?

I think the ‘NATO threat’ is a pretext for Putin while his real enemy is democracy and a free society. Putin knows that NATO doesn’t pose a threat to Russia. No one in the alliance wants to attack Russia in the future as it never did in the past.

Back in 2000, Putin himself even suggested that Russia could join NATO:

“Why not? Why not? […] I do not rule out such a possibility [of Russia joining NATO …] In the case that Russia’s interests will be reckoned with, if it will be an equal partner. Russia is a part of European culture, and I do not consider my own country in isolation from Europe and from […] what we often talk about as the civilized world […] Therefore, it is with difficulty that I imagine NATO as an enemy.”

A thriving democracy in Ukraine, and one that also prospers economically -developments that we have seen in other former Soviet republics-, would constitute a severe threat to Putin’s regime, and this -not NATO- questioned the rationale of his autocratic leadership, and possibly undermined Putin’s political stability within Russia. If neighboring Ukrainians are living and prospering in a free society, Russians may also wish to develop a civil society and decide upon Russia’s future on their own. For the same reasons, Putin won’t stop in Ukraine if he is successful here. He will attack other countries, too.

From what I understand, this is just a start. They’ll cover all regions and areas over time.

Nah, shit just happens once in while. But nice that it works now, and hope the sun shines wherever you are 🌞 😎

Strange. Here everything works fine … https://fedimeteo.com

Yes, they are running out of options.

Just a question: Where have you got the data from? I assume the $54billion are the total asset. According to the data I have, Russia’s National Wealth Fund’s liquid assets - which are supposedly more relevant when it comes to defend the currency - stand at just $31bn as per November 2024. But please correct me if you think I am mistaken.

Yes, but not only this, but also Ukraine, China, and all the others.

Yeah, but that appears to be two sides of one coin. A year ago, a researcher from Hong Kong argued in a book that a rise in the number of autocracies “expand Chinese global influence via Belt and Road.” From the excerpt of this book:

When rulers in autocracies with semi-competitive elections […] have a weak hold on power, their desire for Chinese spending is amplified. This relates to clientelism, or the delivery of goods and services in exchange for political support.

A higher level of state control in autocracies grants political leaders greater influence over the allocation of clientelist benefits, which aids leaders’ reelection efforts.

That’s maybe a good example that democracy -not ‘the West’- is China’s real and only enemy.

The linked post in my comment says, among others:

• All 9 Austrian teenagers between 14 and 17 years of age see radical right-wing propaganda, “free home delivered from China,” as the magazine writes.

• The young people see Herbert Kickl, the current leader of the far-right Austrian Freedom Party, the avatar of Jörg Haider, a former right-wing politician who died in a car accident in 2008, and Alice Weidel, the head of the far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany - Alternative for Germany).

• Russian propaganda arises, too, promoting immigration to Russia: “We offer work, a house, a Russian wife and military training,” promises a mock Vladimir Putin to a 15-year-old teenager from Styria, one of Austria’s nine states. Teenagers must apply only at “einbü[email protected]”.

• Donald Trump is doing his ‘Trump Dance’, anti-EU propaganda and pro-Islamic propaganda are as widespread as Quran videos, and, of course, there’s no lack of China’s Xi Jinping.

What has that to do with GDPR, Edward Snowden, and the NSA? What you are doing is blatant whataboutism.