Today’s big topic: New Danish social media aims to be everything Facebook is not
Meningspunktet requires MitID login to ensure users are over 18 and to reduce the risk of misinformation, manipulation, and harmful content.
What’s happening?
In a pushback against data-harvesting and time-stealing tech giants, two brothers are launching a social media platform where users are in control. In Norway, its counterpart Hudd has gained 120,000 users in just six months.
This week, the Oxenvad brothers will push the button that launches Meningspunktet – Denmark’s new social media platform, which pledges to foster communities and facilitate meaningful, locally anchored conversations without fake users, troll armies, and AI-generated noise.
After nearly 20 years of surveillance capitalism dominated by American tech giants, it takes vision and imagination to picture this. Tue Oxenvad and his brother, Jakob, might be called dreamers. But they are not alone. Across Denmark and Scandinavia, new platforms are emerging that promise an ethical and democratically responsible alternative to Facebook, Instagram, X, Snapchat, and TikTok.
Why it matters!
In recent years, there have been several failed attempts in Europe to establish social platforms. But the political developments in the United States, where tech moguls and social platforms have embraced Donald Trump and removed fact-checkers, have seemingly created a new opportunity.
Unlike tech giants, Meningspunktet promises that citizens’ data will not be harvested for commercial purposes and will remain within Danish and EU territory. This is achieved through server power from DTU’s supercomputer Computerome in Risø. Meningspunktet aims to combat noise, manipulation, and meaningless scrolling. The recipe is that users can only join the platform via MitID registration, which excludes fake and anonymous profiles. Users provide their municipality, and the content they are presented with is based on their local community, where they can meet other citizens, associations, local politicians, and businesses.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– Frustration in Copenhagen: »Massive abuse of short-term rental regulations«
Ahead of the summer holidays and the massive influx of tourists, Copenhagen’s Mayor of Technical and Environmental Affairs is asking for assistance in regulating Airbnb rentals. However, a majority in Folketinget refuses to act now, despite the fact that there is a proposal on the table.
Read the full article here.
– The Danish men’s national football team thrash Lithuania 5-0
With intermittent rain as a backdrop, the Danish men’s national team delivered a true goal fest for the locals as they defeated an unusually tame Lithuanian team at Odense Stadium. Funen’s temporarily returned son Christian Eriksen received just a little extra love during Tuesday’s match, and returned the favor with great strike for the second Danish goal.
– Grim threat assessment prompts Denmark to urgently acquire new weapon type
By next year at the latest, the military must be able to deploy ground-based air defense systems at selected locations in Denmark. Together with the broad majority of parties behind the defense agreement, the government has decided to spend over 6 billion DKK on three short-range systems from Germany’s Diehl Defence, Sweden’s Kongsberg, and MBDA France.
– 30,000 public sector employees are to be ’freed’ by artificial intelligence in the future.
In the future, there should be »more time for what matters« in the public sector. This is the vision from the government’s AI task force, an AI expert group backed by the government, the Danish Association of Municipalities, and Danish Regions. More specifically, the report lists a number of examples ranging from assistance with public record requests to route planning for care staff and predictions about busy periods in hospital emergency departments.
Talk of town: Prices at Folkemødet are too expensive
A politician like Mette Frederiksen (S) has no trouble making her voice heard at Folkemødet. However, the Social Democrats have cut costs by no longer renting the fire station they previously used to host debate events.
Folkemødet, which translates to the people’s meeting, is supposed to be a celebration for political Denmark. But things are not looking good for the heart of political Denmark: the political parties. Several parties are scaling back their activities at Folkemødet. To save money, they are sending fewer staff to Allinge and organizing fewer events.
The general sentiment is that the prices for accommodations, as well as renting tents and other equipment at Folkemødet, have skyrocketed. As a result, several parties are opting to cut back.
General Secretary Søren Vandsø from Konservative (C) has observed that expenses for Folkemødet have increased year after year. The party has chosen not to let the budget follow the rising costs, so to stay within budget, the party has decided to send fewer staff to the so-called sunshine island.
Read the full story here.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.