Sign in

Julf Helsingius

@daland.bsky.social
206 followers 180 following 731 posts

Swedish-speaking Finn from Helsinki, living in Amsterdam. Involved with the Internet for way too long, geek, technologist stuck in policy jungle. Like things that go - and go "beep".

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Owen Smigelski @lothar.blue · 05/10/2026
Wow, @cnn.com is really timely with this "analysis". The rest of us have known this for years.
cnn.com
Trump is clearly trying to buy votes with taxpayer money | CNN Politics
President Donald Trump is ramping up his efforts to use taxpayer money and resources to help Republicans win the 2026 midterm elections.
011
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Jillian C. York @jillian.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
AI is going to kill us but also string theory is bullshit and the rainforest is gay. This guy's a real winner, huh? futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com
You Know That Anthropic Employee Who Quit Citing Risks to Humankind? These Strongly Appear to Be His Bizarre Old Tweets
Old tweets that appear to belong to former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon have resurfaced, and they contain questionable assertions.
0247
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Tim Carmody @tcarmody.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This is the funniest thing I've seen today, possibly ever
A tweet by SarahStarberry that says "oh god read the vertical axis" on top of a chart measuring AI models' release dates and model numbers rather than any real capabilities
41119613108
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
When is the right time to compare US politics to the Nazi era? This expert on Christian nationalism says: now www.theguardian.com/books/2026/o...
theguardian.com
When is the right time to compare US politics to the Nazi era? This expert on Christian nationalism says: now
Robert P Jones argues that declining white Christian influence has fuelled an alliance with Trump, and warns it is reshaping US democracy
13276117
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
"Some 70 percent of Dutch people consider social media harmful to democracy, and 93 percent believe that social media platforms manipulate their users" nltimes.nl/2026/10/02/d...
nltimes.nl
Dutch leading growing skeptism of social media; 70% call it a risk to democracy
Skepticism of social media is growing worldwide, but nowhere as fast as in the Netherlands. Some 70 percent of Dutch people consider social media harmful to democracy, and 93 percent believe that soci...
010
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Ciara | Ciaraíoch 🎨 @ciaraioch.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
People casually using genAI instead of their own creativity or capacity for thought genuinely feels like a huge values difference now, on a very fundamental level. We do not hold the same things to be important or worthwhile.
820853
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
www.tomshardware.com/software/the...
tomshardware.com
US sanctions force The Netherlands off Microsoft and toward alternative NixOS-based software ecosystem — trial programs running now, first release expected at end of 2027
The U.S. imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court, preventing it from using ubiquitous U.S.-based software.
011
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"In this paper, we show how malicious super-apps have undeniable capabilities to silently undermine the security and privacy of mini-apps and users without leaving any trace." arxiv.org/html/2609.11...
arxiv.org
Don’t Trust the Super-App: A Case Study of Russia’s Max
010
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Matt Blaze @mattblaze.federate.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026
The "AI changes everything" people rhyme remarkably well with the "blockchain changes everything" people.
7640
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"This group is made up of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. While all three are distinct, these dark traits share features such as egotism and a willingness to lie and cheat to achieve a goal." theconversation.com/members-of-r...
theconversation.com
Members of right-leaning parties prefer leaders with ‘dark triad’ personality traits
The ‘dark triad’ is made up of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy.
010
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
"Voters and members of Congress, allies and adversaries, CEOs and investors alike have had to try to figure out how to read a man whose words are so frequently not true." edition.cnn.com/2026/09/27/p...
edition.cnn.com
I started fact-checking Trump 10 years ago. Here are 15 things I’ve learned | CNN Politics
Ten years ago this month, in my old job as Washington correspondent for the Toronto Star, I started what I believed would be a quick little side project: fact-checking underdog presidential candidate ...
010
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
"From 16,000 to 185 to Zero: Trump’s Claims of Illegal Voting in Nevada Fizzle." www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/u...
nytimes.com
From 15,000 to 185 to Zero: Trump’s Claims of Illegal Voting in Nevada Fizzle (Gift Article)
It was the Trump administration’s latest stumble in its effort to find proof of widespread noncitizen voting, despite decades of evidence that it is extremely rare.
010
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Eric Adamson @eadamson91.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
🇸🇪&🇫🇮 conduct joint operation to intercept and identify Russian military aircraft for the first time. Nordic Air Force cooperation has existed for many years, and this latest operation exemplifies how the Nordics can fly as one, unified Air Force. More here: ilmavoimat.fi/-/suomen-ja-...
06420
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The video that Meta doesn't want you to see is available here: www.bitsoffreedom.nl/en/campagnes...
bitsoffreedom.nl
Pervert glasses – Bits of Freedom
001
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Roel Maalderink @roelmaalderink.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Meta wil niet dat je deze video ziet. Ik herhaal: Meta wil níet dat je deze video ziet.
341038523
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Dutch News @dutchnewsnl.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
“Facade politics” is making far-right ideas acceptable: AIVD www.dutchnews.nl?p=273042
dutchnews.nl
“Facade politics” is making far-right ideas acceptable: AIVD - DutchNews.nl
Far-right organisations are using euphemistic terms such as “remigration” to establish racist and discriminatory ideas in mainstream debate, the Dutch security services have warned. The intelligence…
021
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
“It is important that terms such as ‘remigration’ do not become normalized without people understanding what right-wing extremists mean by them” “In this context, it refers to the forced removal of groups of people because extremists believe they do not belong here.” nltimes.nl/2026/09/22/d...
nltimes.nl
Dutch intelligence service warns far-right extremists are normalizing their ideas
Right-wing extremists are trying to make their ideas more acceptable to a wider audience by presenting a “softer version” of their views, according to warnings from the General Intelligence and Securi...
010
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"Even when avatars signaled an exclusive interest in left-wing politics, right-wing perspectives continued to dominate their feeds, suggesting that platform amplification overrides user preference." www.bi.team/publications...
bi.team
How social media shapes young Europeans’ worldviews | BIT
BIT was commissioned by the Finnish innovation fund Sitra to study young people’s experiences on social media and the political content they encounter.
010
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Trump does seem to have learned something from his buddies Vladimir and Jong Un. - State-run television. - Banning unfavorable journalism. - Acquiring stakes in private companies. - Prosecuting political enemies. - Claiming only elections you lose are rigged. www.yahoo.com/news/politic...
yahoo.com
White House launches 'TRUMP TV' stream following controversial ban of major news outlets
Critics, including members of mainstream media, are deriding the move as an attempt to establish "state media. " The White House launched a live broadcast platform on YouTube called TRUMP TV: The Esse...
000
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
“any mention of civil rights, feminism or social reform [topics that are central to Woolf’s work] are usually classified as ‘social topics’ by our automatic system” and are filtered out. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Meta bans ads for Virginia Woolf play in Spain because they relate to feminism
Theatre told that Facebook and Instagram filter out ads mentioning ‘social topics’ such as civil rights or feminism
010
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"Stevens said there was a clear link between deepening intolerance and the rise of trends on social media such as the “manosphere”, which provides a platform for aggressive and discriminatory messages about women and gays." www.dutchnews.nl/2026/09/lgbt...
dutchnews.nl
LGBT tolerance slumps in the Netherlands as debate turns vicious - DutchNews.nl
Less than a quarter of schoolboys in the Netherlands have a positive view of homosexuality, almost half the proportion of four years ago, according to a Europe-wide survey. The HBSC (Health Behaviour ...
010
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
012
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Nicola Kelly @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I have spent weeks shadowing the RNLI and I can tell you, they do it out of nothing more than compassion. Wrote about the heroes I've met over the years in this free-to-read post. nicolakelly.substack.com/p/the-rnli-a...
nicolakelly.substack.com
The RNLI aren't traitors; they're heroes
I have spent weeks shadowing lifeboat crews. Here's what they do and what it's like.
341523492
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
021
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Aurelien Mondon @aurelmondon.com · 17/09/2026
It was confirmed yesterday that the centre left coalition won the election in Sweden As predicted, with the far right performing poorly, coverage has almost entirely vanished from international media
3739021177
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Tech Policy Press @techpolicypress.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
AI doom talk from tech CEOs is "a misdirection play," writes Paul M. Barrett. His case: Ignore the moguls' "apocalyptic muttering," act on the safety proposals already on the table, and drop the China card, which "makes no sense upon close scrutiny."
buff.ly
Making Sense of AI Dread? Don't Get Distracted by Doomer CEOs or the China Canard
Don’t take the tech moguls’ apocalyptic muttering at face value, writes Paul M. Barrett. Instead, view it as a misdirection play.
12710
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Today is Prinsjesdag, the Dutch equivalent of the US State of the Union or British Opening of Parliament. As part of it includes publishing the budget, the Ministry of Finance web site is temporarily inaccessible while they upload all the material.
010
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Owen Winter @owenwntr.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Sweden's cities swung left while rural areas moved to the right. Change in left bloc vote share: Stockholm +2 Göteborg +3 Malmö +6 Uppsala +3 Linköping +1 Örebro +4 Västerås +2
33213
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
"The assembled tech CEOs agreed that this is a much better story than the true one which is that their industry has blown trillions of investor dollars on technology that works maybe 30% of the time." www.thebeaverton.com/2026/09/tech...
thebeaverton.com
Tech oligarchs agree calling AI "too dangerous" way cooler than just admitting it doesn't work
SILICON VALLEY - The CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic, and GrokAI have released a statement agreeing that claiming artificial intelligence "could potentially kill all humans" sounds much more awesome than ju...
010
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
"Media speculated that the sabotage could have been timed to coincide with Prinsjesdag, the state opening of parliament in The Hague and one of the biggest days in the Dutch political calendar." www.dutchnews.nl/2026/09/dutc...
dutchnews.nl
Dutch railway network disrupted by sabotage to tracks - DutchNews.nl
Train services across the Netherlands were disrupted on Tuesday morning in what network operators say was an act of co-ordinated sabotage. ProRail, the company responsible for managing the track netwo...
021
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
"The lesson that I learned (shamefully) decades ago is that domain experts, by way of their expertise, implicitly hold the public’s trust, and we must not abuse it. It is incumbent upon us to be circumspect in our claims, and maximally so when raising the alarm." bcantrill.dtrace.org/2026/09/13/t...
bcantrill.dtrace.org
The contagion of fear | The Observation Deck
010
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
To quote Asterix albums, "their only fear is that the sky will fall on their heads." "More than three intact satellites or rocket bodies are reentering the Earth’s atmosphere every day on average. At the same time, ten new payloads are launched daily. " www.esa.int/Space_Safety...
esa.int
ESA Space Environment Report 2026
010
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 14/09/2026
Some details: Kremlev, the Russian who sponsored Don Jr's wedding, is a former member of the Night Wolves biker gang, went to China with Putin and is personally sanctioned by Ukraine for his role in abducting children www.propublica.org/article/dona...
propublica.org
Donald Trump Jr.’s Wedding Bankrolled by Putin-Linked Russian Oligarch
The oligarch, Umar Kremlev, spent hundreds of thousands on expenses like renting out a private island. He appears to have met Trump Jr. only recently, but he attended the intimate wedding with a large...
15224441310
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Owen Smigelski @lothar.blue · 14/09/2026
🤮
011
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Darth Putin @darthputinkgb.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
When Iran starts firing jet powered drones they got from us into Isreal, Donald will act as if no one could have predicted it. He'll probably blame Ukraine for forcing Russia to develop them by not surrendering.
18723152
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
KIM F-M @kimf-m.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Correction: ...say, and/or do something stupid.
26117
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Private Eye Magazine @privateeyenews.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
The world’s scientists breathed a sigh of relief this week as temperatures in the UK dropped below 35 degrees, meaning that everything is fine and we can go back to burning fossil fuels forever without any worries. From the Private Eye archive. Issue 1682, August 2026.
436498
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Mike Godwin @mnemonic.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
So here's a science-fiction movie that, I'd guess, hardly anyone alive has ever seen. Based on a relatively famous, or at least much-anthologized, short story by "Lewis Padgett" (pseudonym for Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, writing together). www.imdb.com/title/tt0046...
imdb.com
6336
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Darth Putin @darthputinkgb.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
If you want to know to what Donald will say tomorrow, listen to what the Kremlin says today.
29679198
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 12/09/2026
A past beneficiary of Putin skulduggery, Trump has unilaterally disarmed and, in a way, surrendered to Putin, placing his own interests over those of the nation.
motherjones.com
Will Putin's decade-long war on US elections hit the midterms?
Trump's Russia denialism has left America vulnerable.
1218176
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Very David Lynch
010
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
prettylight @prettylight10.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
"I’ve never read 'the art of the deal'.... But apparently the 'art of the deal', as applied to this war, is to give Russia everything it wants, then commence negotiations through which Russia then gets more than it originally demanded. Donald probably wonders why Putin keeps dragging things out."
116319
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Martin @concretebadger.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Eg: The BBC says "traffic lights installed to improve road safety." Someone thinks, "No! The BBC is The Establishment and biased!" A FB post: "traffic lights are mind-control laser beams installed by the illuminati lizard people!" Someone thinks, "my friend on FB shared this, so it must be true."
2435
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
18 U.S. Code § 597 - Expenditures to influence voting www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/...
law.cornell.edu
18 U.S. Code § 597 - Expenditures to influence voting
010
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Minna Ålander 🌻 @alanderminna.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This is the most counterintuitive part of NATO cooperation for the US to stay out of, because hunting these subs has always been about US homeland security - the Russian idea used to be to sneak through the GIUK gap and continue towards US East Coast. Try to find them in the Atlantic, good luck
politico.com
NATO races to guard against Russian nuclear subs without the US
Allied forces gathered near Iceland to practice hunting for Russian submarines, with a key member missing.
1421469
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Three different angles...
000
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
"It isn’t that Trump can’t tell truth from lies. It is that he has made a deliberate choice to only believe, and only know, what he wants to." www.everythingishorrible.net/p/trumps-911...
everythingishorrible.net
Trump’s 9/11 Lies Are A Moral Failure, Not A Cognitive One
He is a fool because he is evil, not the other way around
053
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Miska Knapek @miskaknapek.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
#defence Finnish company Sensorfusion builds drone interceptor factories that fit inside a shipping container : makes 50 interceptor drones a day (Yes, Mikko Hyppönen of w/f-secure works for them ;-) ...but they also do more (next post) youtube.com/shorts/va8Bs...
youtube.com
Tactical Drone Factory #dronedefense
YouTube video by Sensofusion
2407
Julf Helsingius @daland.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
"The numbers range from 4,300 in California to fewer than 15 in Wyoming—not nearly enough to have affected the outcome of the presidential race. But even these figures seem extremely questionable" www.wired.com/story/a-us-c...
wired.com
A US Census Report on Noncitizen Voting Used Bad Data to Reach Faulty Conclusions
Trump has touted a recent Census report. WIRED found grave flaws in its analysis and the process behind it, and confirmed the identity of several of its authors—among them a one-time DOGE affiliate.
010
Reposted by Julf Helsingius
Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
As Trump calls for thousands of factory workers in Kansas and Indiana to lose their jobs on Labor Day, the WH puts out a video that doesn’t show a single American worker.
732299698