The 256th Block: Eurofascism, data privacy and AI IP

"Sulfuric acid, for the eyes of men who tell lies"

Mar 30, 2025

From the 1962 classic, a personal favourite, *Jules et Jim* (dir. **François Truffaut**).

I’m spending the time to complete an assignment on a podcast script for climate law show for law school. I am not a fan of school assignments that make students pretend to be media people because I am media people by profession—and spent many years on climate and environmental reporter—and I feel the pressure to be good at it. Also, what a drab and cheerless topic for a podcast.

Your reading time is about 5 minutes. Let’s start.

Your Wikipedia this week: Self-handicapping

And now, a selection of top stories on my radar, a few personal recommendations, and the chart of the week.

ICYMI: The Previous Block was about digital sovereignty.

CORRECTION NOTICE: None notified.

POLITICS

How AfD’s Alice Weidel went from German pariah to top opposition figure

Kate Connolly for The Guardian:

Under her watch the AfD has attracted donations from German millionaires, and in the run-up to the vote she was praised by Elon Musk, who repeatedly hailed the AfD on his X platform as the only party capable of saving Germany, where he hosted her for a tête-à-tête in which they appeared to downplay the Nazi era, even appearing on screen at the AfD’s final pre-election rally.
In many respects her backstory and home life make her an improbable figurehead for a radical anti-immigration party that is under surveillance by security authorities for suspected extremism.
A Mandarin speaker who has previously lived in Singapore and Hong Kong, she lives in Switzerland with her Sri Lanka-born wife and their children. On the campaign trail she was unable to answer a question about how many people live in the constituency she represents.

Loosely linked:

‘It’s disinformation’: Turkish state TV avoids any coverage of mass street protests by Ruth Michaelson for The Guardian.
Austria uncovers Russia-led disinformation campaign targeting Ukraine by Tamsin Paternoster for Euronews.
Europe’s far right in Jerusalem for conference on anti-Semitism by Assiya Hamza for France24.
Marine Le Pen’s presidential hopes could die next week. Her party hasn’t really planned for it by Victor Goury-Laffont and Sarah Paillou for Politico.eu.
Italy’s Meloni and the false promise of moderation ($) by Nathalie Tocci for Foreign Affairs.

DATA AND PRIVACY

23andMe users struggle to delete their highly sensitive data

Lily Jamali for BBC:

The computer systems of 23andMe have been struggling to cope with the sheer volume of customers racing to delete their data, after the DNA-testing company announced that it was filing for bankruptcy protection.
The firm says it has now resolved the IT problems caused by increased traffic on its website at the start of the week.
But users have reported ongoing difficulties as they scrambled to protect their genetic information, health histories, and ancestry details.
A number of those who have successfully removed their data have also told the BBC of their ongoing anxieties about 23andMe's future.

Loosely linked:

Kink and LGBT dating apps exposed 1.5m private user images online by Joe Tidy for BBC.
OnlyFans fined over user age-check information failings by Tom Singleton for BBC.
Before the Signal scandal, Yemen was already on edge by Adam Baron for New Lines Mag.
In Thailand, TikTok users have turned the depiction of illicit activity by Chinese nationals into a stylised narrative where aesthetics and humour intertwine by Alexandra Colombier for Fulcrum.

AI

ChatGPT’s viral Studio Ghibli-style images highlight AI copyright concerns

Matt O'Brien and Sarah Parvini for AP:

As users posted their Ghibli-style images on social media, [Hayao Miyazaki’s] previous comments on AI animation also began to resurface. When Miyazaki was shown an AI demo in 2016, he said he was “utterly disgusted” by the display, according to documentary footage of the interaction. The person demonstrating the animation, which showed a writhing body dragging itself by its head, explained that AI could “present us grotesque movements that we humans can’t imagine.” It could be used for zombie movements, the person said.
That prompted Miyazaki to tell a story.
“Every morning, not in recent days, I see my friend who has a disability,” Miyazaki said. “It’s so hard for him just to do a high five; his arm with stiff muscle can’t reach out to my hand. Now, thinking of him, I can’t watch this stuff and find it interesting. Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is.”
He said he would “never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all.”
“I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself,” he added.

Loosely linked: