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'Technofascist military fantasy': Spotify faces boycott calls over CEO’s investment in AI military startup (www.middleeasteye.net)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Spotify, the world’s leading music streaming platform, is facing intense criticism and boycott calls following CEO Daniel Ek’s announcement of a €600m ($702m) investment in Helsing, a German defence startup specialising in AI-powered combat drones and military software.

The move, announced on 17 June, has sparked widespread outrage from musicians, activists and social media users who accuse Ek of funnelling profits from music streaming into the military industry.

Many have started calling on users to cancel their subscriptions to the service.

“Finally cancelling my Spotify subscription – why am I paying for a fuckass app that works worse than it did 10 years ago, while their CEO spends all my money on technofascist military fantasies?” said one user on X.

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[–] 74 points 1 year ago (14 children)

I think one of the most toxic things on Lemmy is the prevalence of judging normies for using incredibly popular services and ascribing it to a character defect instead of life just being too complex for most people to be able to prioritize exploring more ethical technology choices.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago* (6 children)

    I get where you're coming from, but it's not like there aren't multiple obvious alternatives (and not just on the fediverse). And someone being clued in enough to boycott Spotify should have no trouble finding those alternatives. Additionally, the platform being owned by an outright Nazi should give even the most out of touch people pause.

    But agreed that people could stand to be a bit more tactful about it and not immediately go on the attack.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    So what is there for normies? YouTube which is also owned by a fascist company. Deezer which is shit. Apple which is another fascist company that supports trump. Tidal which has also had its fair share of controversy ( not paying artists), shit ui etc.

    And if you mention the fediverse people will look at you like you speak an alien language.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (1 child)

    Most of those are lesser evils compared to X, and that's probably the best you can hope for. And Bluesky is the obvious alternative lesser evil choice if you want a like for like replacement and aren't open to Mastodon.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Additionally, the platform being owned by an outright Nazi should give even the most out of touch people pause.

    How is Daniel Ek a nazi? That's a wild take if I've ever heard one.

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  • [–] 19 points 1 year ago*

    😎 If you're not compiling your own kernel 🏋🏼‍♂️ you're missing out on substantial gains 💪🏼. Just drink a little Nix shake in the morning 🤙🏼, then hit your favorite systemd alternative GitHub pages and pull the nightly 🤘🏼. You'll be so swole bro, you'll be Godify. 🎶

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    No... It's just laziness let's not sugar coat it. You have the wealth of human knowledge in your pocket, knowledge of how to do absolutely anything and everything for free on a silver platter, all you have to do is prioritize exploring ethical technology choices. Complexity of the problem itself is not a good excuse to not learning to solve it as it continues to become a bigger problem.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Laziness doesn't exist. Everyone has their own struggles and it's pretty fucked up to judge someone because they don't choose to put their limited energy toward overcoming the obstacles that you take you've taken for granted having the ability to overcome. We should be encouraging curiosity and exploration, not demonizing people who got left behind and are too scared to try new things.

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