FOSDEM '25 protest January 20, 2025 on Drew DeVault's blog
Last week, I wrote to object to Jack Dorsey and his company, Block, Inc., being accepted as main track speakers at FOSDEM, and proposed a protest action in response. FOSDEM issued a statement about our plans on Thursday.
I would like to emphasize that we are not protesting FOSDEM or its organizers. We are protesting Jack Dorsey and his company, first and foremost, from promoting their business at FOSDEM. We are members of the FOSDEM community. We have variously been speakers, devroom organizers, volunteers, and attendees for years — in other words, we are not activism tourists. We have a deep appreciation for the organizers and all of the work that they have done over the years to make FOSDEM such a success.
That we are taking action demonstrates that we value FOSDEM, that we believe it represents our community, and that we want to defend its — our — ethos. Insofar as we have a message to the FOSDEM organizers, it is one of gratitude, and an appeal to build a more open and participatory process, in the spirit of open source, and especially to improve the transparency of the talk selection process, sponsorship terms, and conflict of interest policies, so protests like ours are not necessary in the future. To be clear, we do not object to the need for sponsors generally at FOSDEM — we understand that FOSDEM is a free, volunteer driven event, many of us having volunteered for years — but we do object specifically to Jack Dorsey and Block, Inc. being selected as sponsors and especially as speakers.
As for the planned action, I have some more information for anyone who wishes to participate. Our purpose is to peacefully disrupt Dorsey’s talk, and only Dorsey’s talk, which is scheduled to take place between 12:00 and 12:30 on Sunday, February 2nd in Janson. If you intend to participate, we will be meeting outside of the upper entrance to Janson at 11:45 AM. We will be occupying the stage for the duration of the scheduled time slot in order to prevent the talk from proceeding as planned.
