FOSDEM 2025 - Statement on planned protests during the upcoming FOSDEM 2025

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2025-01-17 00:30:15

We were made aware of planned protests during the upcoming FOSDEM 2025 in response to a scheduled talk which is causing controversy. The talk in question is claimed to be on the schedule for sponsorship reasons; additionally, some of the speakers scheduled to speak during this talk are controversial to some of our attendees.

To be clear, in our 25 year history, we have always had the hard rule that sponsorship does not give you preferential treatment for talk selection; this policy has always applied, it applied in this particular case, and it will continue to apply in the future. Any claims that any talk was allowed for sponsorship reasons are false.

At FOSDEM, we have always allowed and welcomed protest, even when that protest was directed at the organization or one of our sponsors. Open Source and Free Software are inherently political, and as such it is normal and expected that our attendees are more vocal about the wider world, and about FOSDEM in particular. As such, if a peaceful protest were to take place during the talk in question, we will not take action, provided the protest is indeed peaceful and does not disrupt the proceedings.