Taking a stand against Musk (or not)

This morning I saw an announcement (dated 19th December 2024) that the Université Paris-Saclay has, to its credit, ceased its activity on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter and now known as Elon Musk’s personal mouthpiece. I have written about why individuals and institutions should leave Twitter several times before, e.g. here.

According to the Saclay announcement:

It comes following changes to the platform’s content policy, which is no longer in compliance with the European Union’s Code of Practice on Disinformation, making the platform incompatible with the universal values that the university and its community share.

Bravo!

But why are so many other universities still supporting Twitter/X? I suppose it may be because many of them have specifically employed staff to broadcast news about themselves on this platform and without it they’d have nothing to do. That’s not a very good argument, in my opinion. I’m sure other bullshit jobs can be found. Another possibility, of course, is that they just don’t care. Given the prevalence of toxic management in higher education these days, this may well be the real reason. Whatever the motivation I find it deeply shaming to be working for an institution that is still happy to tout for trade in a neo-Nazi chatroom.

I very much doubt my own institution’s management will take the correct ethical course. The Maynooth University leadership doesn’t even follow the institution’s own Statutes, so I doubt that a mere EU Code of Conduct will have any influence on them. I do hope, however, the decision by the mega-University Saclay – one of the world’s top research institutions may influence others to do the right thing. As well all known, University “leadership” these days largely involves copying what others do.

It’s not only universities, and not only via Xitter, that institutions are being degraded by their association with Elon Musk. The venerable Royal Society still counts him as a Fellow, despite his overtly antiscientific dissemination of false information and his support for far-right extremism. I don’t know how Musk was elected an FRS in 2018, perhaps before the worst of his character became widely known, but the fact that he remains a Fellow tarnishes the reputation of that organization.

P.S. I had the opportunity to visit Saclay about 13 months ago.

#ElonMusk #MaynoothUniversity #RoyalSociety #Twitter #TwitterX #UniversitéParisSaclay #XTwitter

Elon Musk pens German newspaper opinion piece supporting far-right AfD party

Billionaire Trump adviser said his ‘significant investments’ in the country justify his wading into German politics

^{Guardian staff reporter (The Guardian)}

In the Dark

2023-11-28 07:06:53

To Saclay

I am up early this morning ahead of a trip to Saclay, best known for CEA Saclay and the relatively new Paris-Saclay University, which involves an approximately 30-minute trip on an RER to Le Guichet, followed by road transport. It’s anomalous that Saclay itself is not served by either train or Metro, though I am told there are plans.

The only significant annoyance about yesterday’s journey was that the WIFI was hopeless, so I had to catch up with a lot of things last night and have more to do today. Still, my talk is this morning so I should have plenty time this afternoon and evening before heading back to Barcelona tomorrow.

Here are the slides I used for my talk, which was virtually identical to the one given at Montpellier last week.

slideshare.net/telescoper/open…

Update: It has been a long day. I’m now back in the hotel in Port-Royal. The new Paris-Saclay campus is very impressive. The IPhT is a bit older and of a different style but is a nice working environment. Thanks to everyone there for their hospitality and especially for the splendid lunch after my talk!

#LeGuichet #Saclay

Open Access Publishing in Astrophysics

Open Access Publishing in Astrophysics - Download as a PDF or view online for free

^SlideShare