Michael Ballweg and Elias Sasek – Digital Freedom in Times of Omnipresent AI-Surveillance – Personal Responsibility and Self-determination in the Digital Sphere

07.09.2024 | www.kla.tv/30386

[Ivo Sasek:] Believe it or not, we are coming to the home stretch. That's how quickly a day goes by. We are going into the last round, now with two real luminaries of the IT industry. Millions of people were worried about the main speaker while he was imprisoned for months, completely innocent. But as soon as he was released, he showed his profile again and demonstrated indomitable civil courage. He is interviewed by our fourth son Elias. Elias is an IT luminary - he leads hundreds of technicians from Kla.TV and AZK, including all of our IT specialists. Elias is also responsible for our entire technical infrastructure and he himself will round off the main speaker with a new IT creation that he and his crew are working on. But let's first look at the life story of the man - I would say - who should really be hailed as a hero of the times. I say: "Welcome to the 20th AZK - Michael Ballweg!" [Biography of Michael Ballweg] • Michael Ballweg is a German entrepreneur and software developer from Stuttgart. • Born in 1974 in Wertheim am Main, Germany. • In 1996, he completed a dual course of study at the Stuttgart University of Cooperative Education, graduating in 1998 with a degree in business administration. • In 1998, he founded the IT company media access GmbH with an international workforce. His major customers included Bosch, ZF, thyssenkrupp, Mercedes Benz and many more. He implemented over 120 projects for Robert Bosch GmbH. • In 2020, he sold an IT product to Bosch for half a million euros, as the desire for change and a year-long trip around the world pushed him to do so. But then came Corona, lockdowns, the internet censorship of competent expert voices, bans on demonstrations and much more. Shaken up by these events, he began to campaign at his own expense for the preservation of democracy, the Basic Law and open debate. • Michael Ballweg founded the "Querdenken" movement and brought what is probably the largest extra-parliamentary opposition in the Federal Republic onto the streets during the plandemic. • Since 2022, he has been using his in-depth IT knowledge to campaign for freedom in the digital space. • In June 2022, the Stuttgart public prosecutor's office arrested Ballweg on charges of fraud and money laundering in connection with Querdenken-711. • After 9 months in prison, Michael Ballweg was released after the charges were reduced to only "unsuitable attempted fraud". • Because he did not submit his tax return on time from prison, he is also accused of attempted tax evasion. • His financial resources have been frozen to this day. • All attempts to incapacitate Michael Ballweg have failed to date and have not been able to extinguish the fire of his convictions. Michael Ballweg is a guest at the 20th AZK in conversation with Elias Sasek, IT expert and son of AZK founder Ivo Sasek, on the topic: Digital freedom in times of omnipresent AI surveillance. [Elias:] Yes, Michael, it is a great honor to have you with us. FOCUS online and the leading media called you the most dangerous leader of the lateral thinking movement. I think that was right. [Michael:] We have done dangerous things like meditating and standing up for peace and freedom, dancing a lot at the demonstrations, showing that we simply won't join in and so from a spiritual level we are of course very dangerous for the existing system. [Elias:] A question that we are all interested in, especially after this clip: What happened after the arrest? What has become of this charge now? Is everything now concluded or are negotiations and court dates still open? Where do you stand? [Michael:] Yes, I am actually doing what I actually wanted to do in 2020. I am now traveling around the world, a little bit differently. I am here with you today and I am very happy, I think it is a very beautiful environment. So thank you very much for the invitation. And yes, what is the next step in the proceedings? First the Stuttgart Regional Court decided that the charges would not be admitted at all. Then the Higher Regional Court decided that the case should now be heard. 60 days of hearings are scheduled from October 1st. You can look at other trials and see how many days are scheduled for more serious crimes. So much, much less. That means that they simply want to keep me and my lawyer, Ralf Ludwig, busy and then ruin us financially, because a court case like that obviously costs a lot of money. And yes, all the funds are frozen; but I am still organizing a big demonstration in Berlin this year and simply showing that we are not discouraged, but that we are constantly continuing on our path, our peaceful hen way, but our specific way. [Elias:] Yes, you have just mentioned that from 2020 to 2022 you brought incredible demonstrations to the stage, to the people. We can all certainly still remember August 1st, 2020. The police told you that there were over 800,000 participants. You put that into words in your book "Correction!" The leading media then said in the Tagesschau etc. that yes, there were 20,000. Tell us what we can expect right now. [Michael:] Yes, now very specifically, August 3rd is coming next week. We will have a big demonstration that will start again at 12 noon. It is very important to me that lateral thinking has always been a decentralized movement. And August 1st was so great because the main stage was occupied, but lots of participants had their demonstration equipment with them. And then the demo on Straße des 17. Juni really got going. And that's exactly what we're banking on now. The movement has decentralized. Now we're bringing it together again. But of course I hope that lots of initiatives will come with their own program, because there are four topics. One is the topic of dealing with Corona, the topic of freedom, which also includes the topic of digital freedom, the topic of peace, which is very important at the time, but also this topic: offers of change. Because lots of people want to change, but they don't know where the offers are. And that's why every initiative can come to Berlin with a truck, with its own truck, and then present their solution offer, their program of change. [Elias:] Yes, awesome. Are we there next week? Great. We're looking forward to it. It will definitely be a great event again. We wish you all the best and we will support you wherever we can and will come. Wonderful. [Michael:] Thank you. [Elias:] Yes, let's get to the core topic of our conversation. We heard about your career earlier, your incredible career. You also call yourself a "digital activist". There is a motto on your website digitaler-aktivist.de that I would like to read out briefly. There you write: "Thinking laterally stands for personal responsibility and self-determination. This of course also applies to the digital space." AI digital surveillance is also a topic at this 20th AZK and we are talking about that now. And I will briefly use two quotes as the basis for our conversation. For example, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that data is the new oil and the new gold. Well, that is a bold statement. Oil, gold. He says that is the new gold. The second quote is from WEF advisor Yuval Noah Harari. He says: "Whoever controls the data controls the future - not just of humanity, but the future of life itself." And we have a lot of people here today who are not very technically savvy. What happens to data? How does it work? And so on. How should we understand these two statements? What does that mean in practice? How does it work in this day and age, when such blatant statements are made by personalities? Yuval Noah Harari in particular is being praised by everyone. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and so on. Take us into that. [Michael:] Yes, you only have to look at the stock prices of these companies. They are now the largest corporations in the world - and therefore also the most powerful. A concentration of power has arisen, which is of course unhealthy. And in the end, we were all lured into these systems by making them very user-friendly or very simple. There was a time when cell phones were given away for free. For one euro you could get them with a contract that would allow you to enter these digital ecosystems. You have to know that nothing in this world is free, at least if you look at the existing economic constructs. And if I don't pay with my money, then of course I pay with my data. And why are these large corporations so interested in our data? Because they can use it to create personality profiles. And I would say that in the best case scenario they use it for manipulation through advertising. I think one or two people have already thought about that. You're talking about some topic at the table, a holiday in Spain. The next day an ad pops up: travel offers for Spain. That means that these digital devices - and Edward Snowden made this public in 2014 - are permanently on and they are constantly monitoring us. And now, of course, things are getting even more perfidious with AI. Some people may know. There are huge data centers in the Nevada desert, owned by the NSA, where all this data converges. And up until now, you had to go to the trouble of sending all this data there and processing it centrally, which was expensive. And now the next technology is coming. That means that the AI ​​comes directly to your cell phone, constantly listens to yourrnd, creates a personality profile of you and then only needs to send this cumulative data set. And why is privacy so important? I also want to address this point, because many say: "Yes, I have nothing to hide, I don't care." Well, the first thing is of course that it is used massively for manipulation. But a second important point is: the Internet never forgets anything. And if, for example, I watched Kla.TV - and this is deliberate - and at some point Kla.TV were to become illegal and a government were to say: "This program is now illegal," then of course you could find out who all the users are. And you could also say - you never know, laws are very flexible these days - you could also say: "Now everyone will get an administrative offence retroactively." So, you just have to be really aware that the Internet never forgets anything. That's why, for me, privacy is also digital self-defense. We must actively defend basic rights that are taken away from us. And that is the idea of ​​the digital activist. Lateral thinking is always a peaceful movement, but we peacefully withdraw our energy from the other side by simply no longer participating. We are not participating in corona measures or vaccinations, but we are also no longer voluntarily giving our data to the big corporations so that they can then do the things I have just described. [Elias:] Great! Exactly! [Michael:] And I also want to briefly address the second quote from Harari. So anyone who knows the book "1984", where history is always rewritten, that is what he is referring to. Because whoever ultimately controls the data, whoever controls the big AIs - we are currently experiencing a shift away from the search engine to the AI ​​that answers our questions. And at the moment these AIs still function relatively neutrally, but of course they can also be changed at the push of a button and then tell a completely different story. Then you have to imagine: At school, the students - the children - are taught these tools, and then they are told a completely new story. The books no longer exist, or it is simply no longer en vogue to read books. And the person who has access to the data and who controls it then determines the story and actually determines the truth. [Elias:] Yes, very well explained, thank you very much. But in our society, if you don't have a cell phone, you are really excluded. So, you have to know that I use my smartphone very consciously, consistently, for example only with an internet cable, only the apps that really cannot be used otherwise. But if you don't want to be completely shut out of communication today - or even up to the tax office these days - you are simply excluded. And here I would like to talk about a project that you are driving forward, which I am very excited about. You call it the freedom cell phone, and you have developed practical solutions here. I think it's brilliant how you do things practically. You don't say: "You should do it, you should do it," but you sit down and say: "Nobody has done it before, I'll do it." A round of applause for that! Yes, tell us, what is this freedom phone all about? How did you come up with it? How does it work? [Michael:] I would first like to say a sentence about the topic of "using a smartphone" or not. Well, we are a modern society. We don't want to go back to the Stone Age. And I am an IT entrepreneur, so I am familiar with it. I want to have modern tools that I can use to work easily and productively. But what I don't want is: I don't want the other side to suck up my data all the time. What then happened: In 2021, a lot of pictures from the Querdenken demonstrations on my phone went black, including videos - that was Apple. They then suddenly blacked out data under the motto: "We are protecting you and are therefore scanning your device." And it was clear to me how far this digital censorship has gone. And then I simply looked on the Internet - there is open source software, that is, free software that is freely available on the Internet. Open source simply means that you can also look at the source code. It is developed by people who enjoy making offers - unlike the big companies. And then I came across LineageOS, it's called. It is a free operating system for cell phones, supports around 250 cell phones. And then I said: "I'll just try it out." Of course, I also come from the Apple ecosystem. It wasn't easy to get out of there. That's why I did it in parallel. So I still had my old iPhone andd then, in parallel, I set up this new cell phone in such a way - let's say - that at some point I actually only needed the new cell phone. And I think that's what's important when you make such changes, that you don't make the hard cut and then maybe suffer and say: "Now I'm no longer able to work." And yes, when all my devices were taken away from me and I got out of prison, of course I only started with the new one. Because I'm a pioneer, regardless of whether it's about digital communication or the topic of money. I don't have a bank account anymore. That means that I'm also busy looking for solutions there. How can you live there. The important thing is that all the videos are free on the digital activists' website. We've always been like that, we gave everything away. There are also workshops for those who don't dare to do it themselves. But actually the idea is that local groups form and organize themselves. There are always people who have a bit more understanding of technology. Others have other talents. And if you help each other, then it multiplies very quickly. I do it like with Querdenken. With Querdenken we have formed decentralized groups. There is already the digital activist Munich and the digital activist Berlin. It's just that it multiplies much faster, instead of me doing maybe 20 training courses with 20 participants in a year. We reached 400 people. And that's just not enough for me. [Elias:] So I understood correctly, this work that you did to build this freedom phone - all these instructions, these weeks of work that it took - you can study it yourself for free here on digitaler-aktivist.de, form local groups and implement it? [Michael:] Yes, the principle of open source is that you can help yourself. And of course open source is not just about actively writing code and maybe helping out. It's also about creating these training videos and explaining to people how it works. That's also an active part of open source. And we found this great free preparatory work that others have done. And that's our contribution now, that we simply say we're helping. And product development consists of many parts. Well, I normally have software development. Then I also have quality assurance. But then of course I also have documentation, instructions and support. Software developers don't really like writing documentation. That's why we said: we'll take this path and just make it really easy for people. [Elias:] Incredible work, incredible work. Yes. I'd like to ask a question here that was hotly debated just a few weeks ago, here in Switzerland. It turned out that US companies - a journalist contacted them and was able to buy movement data from 1.3 million Swiss cell phones for a few thousand francs. That's here now, we're here in Switzerland. He showed exactly where the cell phone was and when and said: I have this data legally, I'm selling it for marketing purposes. 1.3 million, that's - out of 8 million - that's almost 20 percent. And now the question: the freedom cell phone - wouldn't my data with the freedom cell phone be offered for sale by these companies? That shows how closely we are being monitored. And they say that this data is anonymous. But you can't tell me that if you can see the location data and the location is at the same point from 12 p.m. to 5 a.m., then you know where they live. And you can see who is behind it, you just have to compare it. Is this danger averted with the freedom cell phone? [Michael:] Yes, absolutely. Because it's about that... For example, many people no longer read the terms of use. So, if I use Google Maps or Google for navigation, the product works so well because lots of people are constantly sending their data to it. And Google of course evaluates it and turns it into a great product, in the sense that I can see the live data straight away. I can also share other people's locations and can follow everything. And as I said before, the product is free. So we are the product. And that's why these companies can sell this data. It's gotten to the point where Facebook, I think, has already said: If you upload a picture, then the image rights belong to us. Many people don't know that either. It's also happened with many AIs. There was an actress in the USA who protested against it.t that it was artificially created by an AI. And it lost because it had not complied with the terms of use. That means it now lives as a virtual avatar, so to speak. These companies can use it without a license. And that is exactly what we are doing by simply using this open source solution, which is data-efficient and does not send any data to any large corporations. And of course I can also actively switch off the various functions on my cell phone, whether I switch off the location function or of course the WiFi. Well, many people don't know that. WiFi is also used for location and mapping. And I can switch all of these things off there. But of course I have to do it consciously again and again. We said on my cell phone this afternoon, I have never looked. My location was actually still switched on. I have to admit, you always have to get used to it and keep remembering to do it actively. [Elias:] Very good. Yes, before we open the next can of worms, two or three quick questions. Which operating system on the computer, not on the cell phone, do you currently recommend? [Michael:] Yes, I would go for Linux. Because that is also open source. You can no longer trust the big companies. There are actually only two alternatives, Apple and Microsoft. Microsoft has just announced with Recall that they will photograph the screen, I think 60 times an hour, or even a minute. Just for our safety, of course. So that if we can't remember what we did on the computer, they can then play it back to us. Of course they use that for their AI. And Apple used to be a very privacy-focused company. But it isn't anymore now that Steve Jobs has - well, at least left the physical level, a lot of things have changed there. [Elias:] Which browser? [Michael:] Personally, I use the Brave browser. It's simply a browser that already has a lot of data economy and data security included. It also blocks a lot of advertising. It lets me focus on the energy, on the focus, on what's really on the screen. [Elias:] Which search engine? [Michael:] Well, I'm using two at the moment. Brave, they have their own, and Quant. And of course there's a whole list of alternative search engines that you can set up there. I wouldn't use Bing from Microsoft or Google anymore, of course. You can set that up here too. But everyone can decide for themselves. [Elias:] Great, but that gives us a good direction. Thank you very much. Let's move on to the next topic. Hot topic. What has been done with our internet? We've been talking together the other day. And you have more experience than me. You've been in the business much earlier. And you just said, well, that was a statement that really bothered me. You said that the internet used to be really decentralized. So it means it was really decentralized. And what do we have today? We have YouTube, Facebook, TikTok. I could also list Google, I could list a few more, but that would be it. We have large data octopuses that are like octopuses on the Internet that collect this data, that need our data to train AI. But decentralization has been lost. If I look at the Corona period, not only that, but also which of the enlighteners has not lost their YouTube channel, for example. Censorship is spreading in these topics. And you have started a project here, also to show the enlighteners a way out. I always hear the word decentralization very strongly in your work, in order to ensure this decentralization and not to give power to large data octopuses that censor you and so on. Key word here is PeerTube - I saw some advances from you a few years ago. Take us through it. What is PeerTube? How does it work, or decentralization in general here on the Internet? How do we really get back to the Internet as it was originally intended? [Michael:] Well, I would go into a bit more detail, if that's okay. Because then I'll just go into the history of the Internet. The Internet was once a military project. In the sense that if there is a major nuclear war, we are now building a system where parts can fail and everyone can still communicate with each other. Or the military structures can still communicate via it. And then it was opened up. Then there was email. Of course, that was decentralized from the start. We communicate directly when we use decentralized services. That means you have your own email server, I have my own email server. And then of coursethe system recognized that this was a big danger and built central systems on top of it. We know that these large corporations that we are talking about now were partly financed by the CIA in the early stages. That means that the CIA had a hand in it very early on in the early phase of financing because they were naturally interested in centralizing this decentralized network again. And how do you do that? By simply offering services like Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, which are of course free and which everyone uses. And in the end, when I see how people use their cell phones today, they have a lot of apps on their phones, but they don't actually use the Internet in this decentralized way anymore. Decentralized also means that everyone has their own website. We used to have search engines that didn't work like Google with AdWords, where everyone has to advertise and pay for their website to be at the top, but there were still real search engines where these pages could be found. And you also have to say that if we look at the constitution and the structure of society, these large corporations and these centralized monolithic systems are in contradiction to our constitutional rights. So, the principle of subsidiarity applies here. That means that the community decides for itself. And we also have to take a look at ourselves a little. We all took part. That means that the system we live in today is nothing other than the result of our actions, in which we did not fight back early on. I was not aware of how blatant it is until 2020. Edward Snowden, as I mentioned earlier, would have said it earlier or would have clarified it earlier. WikiLeaks has also, of course, made many things clear. So the enlightenment was there, it just didn't reach people or we were too comfortable to change. And that's why it's really important to me that every, let's say, impulse that I get - like my YouTube channel being deleted, for example - leads me to change and see. I'm not fighting to be allowed back on YouTube because, you just have to say, the financial power of the other side is so powerful. Maybe I'll win the court case, then they'll delete me again, then it'll cost me the next court case and 20, 30, 40,000 euros is nothing. And that's the question: How do I use the resources that I have at my disposal in a meaningful way? And then I looked at what alternatives there are to YouTube. Then I found this PeerTube server. I thought, that's great. Now we'll upload everything to our PeerTube server. There we're censorship-free. [Elias:] So PeerTube is your own server where you set it up? [Michael:] It's our own server, which runs a video portal, which of course inspired me, or KenFM, who suffered the same fate. Kayvan [Ken Jebsen] is also very visionary in the sense that he sees the things that are happening. And we've experienced that the big companies don't like us. And that's why this own PeerTube server is actually important. We're now in a phase of upheaval. That doesn't mean that it's over just because we've had a phase of relaxation. You also have your own PeerTube server. And I have to criticize the movement a bit, of course. The number of hits we had was sometimes 50,000, 60,000. And now that everything has relaxed again, everything is switching back to YouTube. And lots of people are still trying their luck on YouTube and saying: Oh, if I make another channel, I'll get the reach. You just can't get it, because I think you have 120,000 subscribers yourself and the AI ​​and the algorithm just regulate you down. That means it's just wasted energy for me. And that's why this PeerTube project is so important to me, because injustice can only take place in the dark. And if we shine a spotlight on it with the truth... it's very important that we document this time. If we didn't have a PeerTube server, then all the documentation of all the demonstrations would actually be gone. And then we'd be back to 1984. Who would write the history then, the mainstream media? Because we can't prove what happened anymore. [Elias:] So I'll repeat briefly. The vision would actually be that the individual enlightenment movements, every enlightener or every enlightenment medium says, I'm setting up my own PeerTube server, decentrally. And we network with each other. And we willNow and together we are somehow forming a new YouTube that runs decentrally, in contrast to the data octopus YouTube. But that hasn't happened. You mentioned the keyword convenience. I'd like to go into that again briefly. I see it that way too, it's just tedious with YouTube, Telegram, all these messengers. You have everything right in front of you. You can scroll through, this way and that. And click into the website anywhere. It takes a bit of effort. Is a decentralized Internet more tiring? [Michael:] It's not more tiring. I think it's more unusual for people. And there are all these mechanisms. It was just this beautiful picture to see how an organism is networked. That's practically the real Internet. Because there I can take out one page and all the others are still there. And you just have to ask yourself again: How do we want to live? And if I say I want to live self-determined in the commune in the offline area, then I want that in the online area too. And actually every municipality or community should have its own decentralized systems. It goes further. It's not just about the PeerTube server. It's also important to consider where I store my data? Is it in the cloud with Google and Microsoft and Apple? Or do I have it locally with me again? So this whole issue of data sovereignty is a very important issue. And it's just a matter of getting used to it. The day before yesterday I showed you our systems, how we are working decentrally again and how we are supporting the initiatives in this. And it's like changing cars. Some people drive the same make of car their whole lives because they can't imagine this change - I'm now changing from brand A to brand B - or don't want to put up with it. There's a nice saying that goes: Life takes place where you haven't been before, everything else is repetition. And that's why everyone has to think about how long they want to live in repetition, or whether we should just try something new. And I think it is up to us, the media or the free media, to make sure that the systems are more visible and user-friendly. But of course that only works if they are used. Because nothing is more frustrating for a service provider than when they say: I am offering a great portal here and in the end it is not used. That is another resource issue. And the other issue that really belongs to it for me is the issue of truth. That means keeping these things safe so that they can no longer be deleted and that they cannot be censored. Because we live in a very, let's say, major time of upheaval. And if we do not preserve the truth so that it can be used at some point in a processing phase - which will also happen - then I think we have forgotten an important step that is also part of our work. [Elias:] Very good. I think very important points have been raised here. And I would say, I think we should go back to how it was at the beginning of the Internet, where everyone creates their own link lists, knows where to find someone, and goes through these link lists. And who knows, maybe something will come up that we can put a search engine on top of it. But we also talked about a search engine, for example, via peer-to-peer instances, etc. There are a lot of problems that arise again. Who is allowed into the search engine and who isn't? What do you do if someone uploads really illegal pornographic material? That raises a thousand questions. We're not that far yet. But we see decentralization, creating link lists, going there, strengthening decentralization and taking this path. And it will pay off. I would like to address one more topic - Telegram, briefly. Do you have a solution for that? People used to say, Telegram, no, it doesn't censor. Today we're at the point where they're under so much pressure that the App Store version already has censorship. You have to get around things again. Is there also a decentralization in communication, where you see a next step for decentralization? [Michael:] Yes, absolutely. So what we have now experienced on YouTube or what we have now experienced with the large corporations is being transferred to other large corporations. Telegram is also a large corporation, I think it now has 900 million users, and is growing rapidly. And of course these systems are being actively attacked by governments and the EU. And for me, that's the issue again: I no longer trust any central system because it can be attacked. I think Telegram is a wonderful thing. It was given to us. We would have to imagine that the entire Corona period had taken place without Telegram. We would have been left with our pants down and would have had few options. But we also have to see this as a transitional tool. And there is something great called Matrix. [Elias:] Also decentralized? [Michael:] Matrix is ​​completely decentralized, again with its own server. I also want to say something about the costs. Having your own server always sounds expensive, but it is no longer expensive today. It costs five euros a month. You need two. One server that practically handles the communication, one that handles the backup. And then decentralized groups can come together again - secure, highly encrypted. You also have to say that Telegram is unencrypted. Many people don't know that. But everything that happens on Telegram, unless you activate the encryption function that it has, is per se unencrypted. And that's why I think it is also extremely interesting for the services. There is also Signal as an alternative and Threema. But both of these are central systems that, when they become relevant, will certainly be forced to disclose their data due to pressure from the services and governments. There was this chat control in the EU for voting, which has not yet been passed. But we know, Jean-Claude Juncker said it, we'll try something and wait to see how big the outcry is. And then we'll just try it again and keep going. And that's why this topic is Matrix, the software on the computer is called Element. It's a bit... you have to get it clear in your head. So you have a server called Matrix and the software on the cell phone is called Element. For example, and this is very important, you really get your privacy back because it's encrypted. You can do lots of things using this convenient manager. You can also make phone calls. You can have video conferences, i.e. just 1:1 conferences. And I actually handle all my communication through it. That means that when I make a phone call, I make a phone call via Matrix, via my own server, where the communication is encrypted. With the other user, who also has encrypted data on his server. And the audio quality, for example, is much, much better and clearer than when communicating via the existing networks. [Elias:] Yes, amazing, amazing. I think it would be worth investing in training here, right? Should we actually keep at it? After your presentation, I will also present a new feature. But I think it would be worth investing here, giving people the tools to find the next step in this decentralization. You said it very well, Telegram, it was like a transition. We don't know what's coming. We don't know how the whole AI wave, how it all comes. We don't know where the governments will strike, what they will ban, what they won't. But a new window is opening here, a new door is opening. And I would say there is nothing else. We have to go down this path, but we simply have to win. We have to keep educating people. We also have to get away from, let's say, technology. You did that very well with the demos. You networked people regionally, started local initiatives. That is the model for the future, isn't it? And the connection, the connection from heart to heart, cannot be censored. It is not possible. And I would just like to put on a quick advert. We also do this local networking as Kla.TV and AZK teams. Local networking is important. Viewers, please contact us at www.kla.tv/Vernetzung if you would like to be networked by a regional networker in your region. Today's AZK is of course a prime example, local groups met everywhere to be here on this day. Let's keep building on that. And a huge thank you to you for your work, for your selflessness, for your dedication. It is unbelievable. Thank you, Michael. [Michael:] Thank you very much. [Elias:] Great. The demo is just around the corner. It is with a heavy heart that we have to let you go. All the best to you. Lots of strength, lots of success. We are there. Those who cannot be there are with us in spirit. And we will find the next step together as enlightenment movements. [Michael:] Thank you very much. [Elias:] See you soon then. Yes, wonderful. I think Michael's comments have given us all a very good insight into the topic - physical connection, extremely important. I would like to repeat briefly, we have all now experienced the ban on the Compact magazine, which has shown how censorship works, Michael said it is another passage, here too witht our own servers, we don't know what will happen, what legal requirements will come, that our own servers will have to be shut down later because the providers will be forced to stop the program. Everything can become a law, which is why I really liked Focus on personal networking. And of course these comments should not be understood as advertising, e.g. to buy a cell phone, etc. We are now dealing with the topic today, e.g. mobile phone radiation - a huge topic that we haven't even touched on. There are a lot of people among us who have been damaged by radiation and they are right when they say: "The solution is to give up the cell phone." I just want to stress that we are not cell phone advocates here either, all the radiation exposure and everything, but we simply have to make the best of the time for each individual, each in the situation they are in, and here Michael has given a great guide with the freedom cell phone. As announced, I can now continue, and also introduce a new product. We heard from Michael earlier that he has worked out ways to make the freedom phone possible and we have done something similar, or in the same vein, with computers. I will tell you briefly what it is about and take you into it in the last part. Yes, we have a historic day that also deserves an anniversary gift, and this anniversary gift should actually answer the question of what can each individual do right now? Michael and I also talked about these long-term goals earlier, and that all takes time, but what can each individual do now when they leave this conference, what can we do? That is the big question that keeps on coming up for us. We can talk a lot, but what is the next step, where is it necessary, where can each individual really take action and escape this AI octopus. And, I would like to repeat very briefly, the AI ​​octopus is spreading everywhere, it wants to get its hands on our data - I will just briefly mention three facts that underline how far this has already progressed. Microsoft revised its service contract at the end of 2023 and now grants itself full rights to your data. I can't go into too much detail here, there are also lawyers who study the texts, how far it goes, how far it doesn't go. I won't go into that now, but Microsoft has the rights to your data, everyone who has a Windows operating system takes that. Whistleblower Edward Snowden writes about Apple's latest surveillance tools: "Apple has just declared war on your privacy." Michael explained it, cell phones, the pictures, suddenly blacked out. Meta, Facebook, WhatsApp, they all want to use the data for their AI training, take trends, AI training, data, and now the question is, what can each individual do directly to minimize their risk of surveillance? I ask myself this question, and this is where I came into play, it's like a principle in life, we've often learned it from a young age, even from our father. He always taught us that you have to remove the big stones first, I would say, and then the next steps will follow. And I asked myself here, what is the big stone key that really affects all of us and can say that we can take this step to counteract the whole madness, the whole AI training madness. And I would say this big stone, it's very clear to me, we have to get out of the clouds of Microsoft, Apple and the big players, we have to cut our operating systems off this cloud. That's the first step that I see very clearly. Switching to Linux etc., that's what we're all striving for, that's a process that we're continuing. That's the first step and I'd say there's more to this step, but this is also what our anniversary gift is about. I'll just say again very briefly what the consequences are. If you have your computer connected to the cloud today, what dimensions it is already taking. The all-knowing AI can decide - you've written a document about hate speech, so you can no longer log into your computer. And that's not a future scenario, it's already the case that if we're connected to this computer, to the cloud, then people can no longer log in. You all know that little mouse face on YouTube: No longer available! Something like that and then you're standing in front of your computer, you have no more data, you're switched off. And the new AZK campaign, which we would like to present to you now, addresses exactly this point: We want to clear the big obstacles out of the way, we want to give guidance on how tothe big stones of this AI connection are separated, even if a switch to new systems is not possible in the short term. This campaign is called anti-control, www.anti-control.info is based on the website anti-zensur.info. We have taken the time in this project to develop really simple, well-founded, understandable instructions. For all of you out there and they are accessible with instructions on how you can set up your computers so that the big stones, as I said, are cleared out of the way. Let's take a quick look at this website. How do you get to this website? On the one hand, you can do this via the official website. There's a new button up here. It's now called: anti-control.info. You can click on it or of course also via the direct link www.anti-control.info. The website is structured in such a way that you can click on various products - there is really a lot covered - e.g. Microsoft Office, Apple, Microsoft Windows, etc. and there are really simple instructions on what you can do directly on your computer, for example to disconnect from a cloud, to make settings so that less data is transmitted. Software is recommended that slows down transmissions, etc. There is a video, a video format linked here for those who want to check it out, but also in text form so that all the big obstacles can be cleared out of the way of all the products. Anyone can start. That is the goal of anti-control.info. We concentrate here on computer technology, Windows, Apple, Linux and these operating systems. Working through such instructions alone is boring, not everyone's thing. Questions still arise, etc. That's why we use the same concept as Michael Ballweg with the freedom cell phone and his campaigns. We offer computer security workshops. You can take the piece of paper to the front and write down the next date: In two weeks from today, Saturday, August 10th, we will be dealing with the topic in your region. You can come. You can come with your computer, with your laptop, and we will offer the opportunity to go through this approach with you and answer questions. I am quite sure that each and every one of you has things from this great work that we have done that they can change, where we can deal with this topic together. Make sure you get in touch with your AZK contact person and ask where this will take place. In the Berlin area it is already clear. It will be on the 24th, that is two weeks later. We want to give you this. We want to offer it. And just like everything we do, this course is completely free of charge for you, it costs nothing. It is a labor of love from us and definitely make use of it. The workshop is like if you do this work in a workshop somewhere else, you will quickly lose hundreds or even thousands of euros. But here we want to take you by the hand as a labor of love and continue to work on networking. We look forward to seeing you! Thank you! Yes, I'm through, we're through. [Ivo Sasek:] Wow, that was exciting. Yes. I say: Thank you Michael Ballweg for being with us. Thank you Elias for the addition. What you've brought us is really exciting. And now we're going straight into the landing. Ruth announces the last part. Then I'll say goodbye to you. [Ruth Schneider] Yes, very much. Thank you very much. Thank you.

from hm

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