Jack Dorsey, who previously owned Twitter and now runs Block, will be giving a talk at FOSDEM 2025 entitled “Infusing Open Source Culture into Company DNA: A Conversation with Jack Dorsey and Manik Surtani, Block’s head of Open Source” and some people don’t like having a billionaire giving a talk at an open-source event and plan to host a protest.
I recently wrote about my own FOSDEM 2025 schedule focusing on embedded systems topics, and while the event is usually non-controversial, I was startled by a tweet by FOSDEM organizers who issued a “statement on planned protests during the upcoming FOSDEM 2025”. I eventually found out that it was related to a post by Drew DeVault who did not appreciate having a billionaire talk during the open-source-focused event.
The talk is planned in the Janson venue which is the biggest at the event with a capacity of up to 1,500 people and will be live-streamed to a worldwide audience. Some of the complaints include “selling the platform [Twitter] out to the far right”, “Dorsey presumably being platformed in Janson because his blockchain bullshit company is a main sponsor of FOSDEM”, and “billionaires are not welcome at FOSDEM”.
So Drew DeVault plans to organize a peaceful protest as explained in his post:
To that end, I am organizing a sit-in, in which I and anyone who will join me are going to sit ourselves down on the Janson stage during his allocated time slot and peacefully prevent the talk from proceeding as scheduled. We will be meeting at 11:45 AM outside of Janson, 15 minutes prior to Dorsey’s scheduled time slot. Once the stage is free from the previous speaker, we will sit on the stage until 12:30 PM.
So I suppose a peaceful protest would imply that Jack Dorsey would still be able to walk to the podium surrounded by protestors and give his talk. Whether you want to join or avoid the protest, the talk is scheduled on Sunday between 12:00 and 12:30.
Needless to say, FOSDEM organizers want protesters to be able to exercise their rights while keeping everything peaceful:
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.

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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sizeof.cat/project/the-devault-report/
kiwifarms.st/threads/drew-chadwick-devault-ddevault-sircmpwn.175606/
Nice, thank you
hey, by any chance could the comment linking to a hate site be deleted? apologies – I’m new to the site, I’m not sure whether hatred is tolerated here
(for those not familiar with that site: its site rules include a flowchart describing which slur to use for who, and there is a running gag to the effect that nobody has yet proven in court that the site and its users are motivated by Nazi ideology.)
Yeah nuke that garbage you don’t want that domain name anywhere near you.
It is not a “hate site”, but nice try sweeping it up for Drew.
It is not a “hate site”, but nice try sweeping it up for Drew. How else would you characterize <kf>, if not as a hate site? Let’s pull a quote (not from Drew, but from the site poster about Drew): But it wasn’t enough then, and it’s not enough now, because for woke leftist <transgender-slur> <another slur> suckers like DeVault, it’s never good enough. I would think that for those complaining about someone that supports the environment and the marginalized transgender community as bad things somehow, the complainants need to take a moment of self-reflection. The entire site is like… Read more »
Kiwi Farms is a gossip site. People don’t oppose the site because the users are saying mean things about the “marginalized” transgender community that is dominating open source. They oppose it because it archives the dirty laundry that sickos like Drew DeVault desperately want forgotten, and offers a rare place to freely criticize such figures. If you want a more sober analysis of DeVault, you can check out The DeVault Report in the other link.
Yuck, dude.
This talk looks interesting. I would like to watch it. I hope the crappy drama folks realizes how cringe they are.
Looking at reactions on the fediverse.
A lot of people seem to feel like DeVault regarding this, even if they don’t like DeVault either.
Lifetime ban for everyone who disrupts the talk–at a minimum.
Not surprised to a see a bunch of billionaire bootlickers in the comments.
We don’t want to hear about what you’ve been licking, dude.