24.06.2024, 13:46

Dear supporters of the appeal to the HRK,

some members of the Action Alliance (AB) recently had a conversation with representatives of the German Rectors' Conference (HRK) about the appeal we sent to the HRK, and we would like to report on what came of it.

The discussion took place online rather than in person and lasted a little over an hour. The HRK was represented by Prof. Tippe, Vice President and Chair of the Standing Commission on Digitization, Dr. Gaul, Secretary General, Dr. Hilgert, Press Officer, and Dr. Schultz, Head of the Department for New Media. Our Action Alliance was represented by Mario Birkholz, Leonhard Dobusch, Lambert Heller and David Lohnert. Here are the most important results in short:
Firstly, the HRK agreed with AB's diagnosis that negative excesses on platform X (formerly Twitter) have reached such an extent that it is hardly suitable for universities anymore. However, the HRK does not consider the current time to be appropriate to leave X, as many journalists and university politicians are still active on X and a significant exchange takes place there. When Mastodon was tested two years ago, the medium made a rather uninspiring impression. However, our AB and our input were appreciated by the HRK and we were seen as a kind of "sounding board" that they would like to consult with again at the next opportunity.
Overall, this conversation has not yet led to a breakthrough. We were confronted with hesitation and procrastination, even though the current situation of disinformation and attacks on democracy on the major platforms demands decisive action. After the conversation, we sent the HRK a draft of a joint declaration, to which we have not yet received a response.

This discussion was certainly not the last word. We remain confident that we can convince the universities of our proposals. The eXit and the development of presences in the Fediverse are also already in full swing, see
bewegung.social/@neuSoM/112568822443346777
bewegung.social/@neuSoM/112603008092037434

Last but not least, we feel encouraged by the fact that AlgorithmWatch and the Open Knowledge Foundation have joined our group of supporting organizations. It's great that they're on board! We will therefore keep the appeal active on OpenPetition for another three months. And we would like to ask you to actively participate in the implementation on the ground, i.e. to directly call on universities to use Mastodon channels and to consider setting up their own Fediverse servers. In this sense, it would be helpful if local contacts could get in touch with us so that we can make them known to other supporters in order to prepare joint activities.

We will send further information as soon as new developments arise.
Best regards