Our initial port to Android 16 has been completed and can be built for the emulator from our 16 branch. All of the device-independent GrapheneOS code has been ported. There are some parts of the port which will be redone better and a lot of testing and fixing regressions to do.

Spyware from US-backed Israeli firm Paragon was used to target European journalists, raising concerns about abuse in democracies. Citizen Lab's analysis ties infections to Italy, as questions mount over state surveillance.

https://apnews.com/article/spyware-italy-paragon-meloni-pegasus-f36dd32106f44398ee24001317ccf2bb

#Spyware #Surveillance #PressFreedom #Infosec

Meta launched a stand-alone AI app and now it is full of sensitive content from Facebook users who appear to be unaware that they have made their conversations public: https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-meta-ai-chatbot-discover-feed-depressing-why-2025-6

Big update: The Internet Archive has launched a new version of GifCities, the search engine for vintage GeoCities GIFs. It's now easier to explore the glitter, chaos, and charm of early web animation.

Search better. Share better. Blink more.

Learn more: https://blog.archive.org/2025/06/09/keep-on-gifin-a-new-version-of-gifcities-internet-archives-geocities-animated-gif-search-engine/

There's an excellent new video telling the world about the Fediverse:

"Introducing the Fediverse"
https://videos.elenarossini.com/w/64VuNCccZNrP4u9MfgbhkN

There are also many other good intro videos:

"Mastodon in 180 seconds"
https://tilvids.com/w/f747058d-3991-4046-a1c9-29c184daa0ff

"What is Mastodon?"
https://fedi.video/w/cbQE3NRw76FayQCSdb14TU

"Crafter's Guide to the Fediverse" (not just for crafters!)
https://makertube.net/w/e0482fe7-2143-443e-9db4-68ae52ac34a7

"What is the Fediverse?"
https://framatube.org/w/4294a720-f263-4ea4-9392-cf9cea4d5277

"What is PeerTube?"
https://tilvids.com/w/gMdn3DYqBUmbCuSsCbkQAt

These can be useful in spreading the word 🙂

Dear Fedi friends,

I'm really proud to share with you a video I made: "Introducing the Fediverse: a New Era of Social Media" https://news.elenarossini.com/fediverse-video/

In this 4-minute video I explain what the #fediverse is to people not familiar with it, mentioning some of its great features and benefits (interoperability, no ads, no surveillance...) and I set it in contrast to the world of Big Tech social platforms. I argue that, with the rise of Big Tech oligarchs and the current political climate, there has never been a better time to join the fediverse.

I hope you will enjoy this video and that you will find it useful (maybe as a tool to introduce your friends, family, colleagues, school administrators, local government officials to it).

The fediverse has truly changed my life, making me a better, more empowered digital citizen. I am endlessly grateful for it, so this is my contribution to the cause ❤️

I am also incredibly thankful for the work of @samaaberg and @patel.riyen who helped me bring my vision to life with their amazing cinematography skills and their assistance throughout the process, providing brilliant feedback to the script / edits from the POV of fedi newbies.

And I was also moved by the generous help of people of the Fediverse who volunteered to translate the script into many foreign languages: @jan @fritjof @erikkemp @sknob @severin @clabru @tarcisiosurdi @hongminhee @danielcasanueva @ainali @nacly

Lastly, I'm thankful for the opportunity I had to premiere the video last week at #FediForum - thank you @j12t and @anca

The video is up on my self-hosted PeerTube instance (thank you @yunohost) and for now it is unlisted as I have no idea how my VPS will hold up. I also included an alternate location in the blog post.

I hope you'll enjoy it! It's been a real labor of love (a month of full time work on it)... I see it as my love letter to the fediverse 💌

Edit/update: THANK YOU for all the people who volunteered to have their avatar show up in the last shot. There were 750+ submissions and only 135 spots - sorry I couldn't include everyone 🥲

#TheFutureIsFederated

OMG... maybe we should stop buying Android phones bundled with Facebook / Instagram or whatever from Meta from now on...

https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/03/meta_pauses_android_tracking_tech/

Meta is now a defence contractor for the Trump regime:

"Meta has partnered with (Palmer Luckey's) Anduril Industries to build augmented and virtual reality devices for the (US) military."

https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/30/meta_is_now_a_defense/

Please Fedi admins, defederate Threads (threads.net, threads.com).

#Threads #DefederateThreads #Meta

Announcing: https://justaqrcode.com.

Tired of "free" QR code generators that are full of ads and trackers, that share your data, and that want to sell you something? Me too. Here's my act of resistance: I made a one-page site that works entirely in your browser to generate a simple QR code. And that's all it does. You can download the HTML page and run it locally, even. Read the source; nothing up my sleeves. Just a QR code.

My offer to you -- I will continue to pay for the domain name and web hosting for it, myself. If you find it valuable, you can pay it back by creating your own useful thing for the world and releasing it for free. Let's take back the friendly web, one vexingly-monetized utility at a time!

#QRcode #Free #FriendlyWeb #Resistance

Yup, I need one of these

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/pc-cases/silverstone-reveals-the-flp02-late-80s-style-tower-pc-case-proudly-beige-but-thoroughly-modern-inside

The European Vulnerability Database (EUVD) is now fully operational, offering a streamlined platform to monitor critical and actively exploited security flaws amid the US struggles with budget cuts, delayed disclosures, and confusion around the future of its own tracking systems https://euvd.enisa.europa.eu/

#security #infosec

Signal just used SetWindowDisplayAffinity to defeat Recall. The excludefromcapture flag was added eons ago to placate the DRM crowd.

https://signal.org/blog/signal-doesnt-recall/

#signal #recall

Oh yay. Our dystopian AI agentic future is now at 4.0

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44063703

For a clue at how new agentic AI is for most noobs (including me), agentic is not even technically a globally accepted word yet AFAICT.

There are a number of AI platforms now that will allow people to engage agentic AI bots, and I have to say these places are generally libertarian utopias. It's kind of like CoPilot, but w/out any of the ethical and security guardrails.

Come to think of it, we're not far from a future in which nation states are founded on the idea that AI should be unbridled by laws and regulations.

#News accounts on the Fediverse by country or region.

NOTE: Use Mastodon's Lists feature if an account is posting too much (more info at https://fedi.tips/how-to-use-the-lists-feature-on-mastodon)..

🌍 AFRICA
@thecontinent
@beverly_ochieng
@ZekuZelalem

🇦🇹 AUSTRIA
@derStandard

🇦🇺 AUSTRALIA
@www.9news.com.au.rss
@www.theage.com.au.rss.feed.xml
@www.crikey.com.au
@theshovel.com.au
@www.smh.com.au.rss.feed.xml

🇧🇷 BRAZIL
@Band
@Poder360
@UOL

🧵 1/9

Fun accounts that provide temporary escape from the current world:

➡️ @cat_news - Illustrated news about cats, lots of cat content

➡️ @moxxi@mastodon.social (main) & @moxxi@makertube.net (videos) - Adventures of a corgi dog

➡️ @netkitty - Digital kitten on the Fediverse

➡️ @admiralwonderboat - Fun webcomics about cartoon animals

➡️ @heyheymomo - Cute wholesome cartoons

➡️ @almostplausible - Podcast of film plots built around random objects

➡️ @fesshole - Amusing, sometimes shocking confessions from anonymous people

🧵 1/5

#Adobe just raised its prices, some are over US$100 a month 😬

Stop paying rent on your tools, switch to #FOSS alternatives:

➡️ @kdenlive - Video editing

➡️ @ardour - Digital audio workstation

➡️ @tenacity - Audio editing

➡️ @Blender@mastodon.social (main) & @blender@video.blender.org (videos) - 3D animation & video effects

➡️ @Krita@mastodon.art (main) & @krita@tube.kockatoo.org (videos) - Painting & illustration

➡️ @inkscape - Vector drawing

➡️ @darktable - Organise & develop raw photos

➡️ @www.scribus.net.news - Desktop publishing (feed)

We need an Android OEM or someone working at one to provide us with early access to the Android 16 sources in order to have a smooth port this year. We need this before June. We requested it to help with this very difficult situation (see the linked thread) and still need it.

https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/114359660453627718

Start reading this book from @micahflee After reading the first two chapters, I regret I haven't read it earlier.

Hey Apple. Sort your fucking house out. I just got a notification summary that ‘Dad had another stroke’ when he hadn’t (he’s had a stroke before so there was a small reference in the message).
Naturally I shit my pants and tapped on the message straight away so wasn’t able to get a screen grab.