The Constitutional Republic is dead!
The American government has gone full EMPIRE!
No better than Russia!
#ConstitutionalRepublic #Dictatorship #Empire #Russia #StopPutin #StopTrump #StopRussia #StopTheUSA #StopAmerica #LongLiveTheResistance
#StopRussia
So, #Putin put forth his #PeacePlan and it was rejected.
And then #Zelenskyy put forth HIS Peace plan, and everyone is all excited.
Now, this would make Putin, in his own eyes, look weak.
So, if you think Putin is going to accept Zelenskyy's deal, you haven't been paying attention
Destroying Autocracy – December 25, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber arena with a focus on protecting it. That necessitates an opinionated Butlerian jihad against big tech as well as evangelizing for open-source and the Fediverse. Since big media’s journalism wing is flailing and failing in its core duty to democracy, this is also a collection of alternative reporting on the eternal battle between autocracy and democracy. We also cover the cybersecurity world. You can’t be free without safety and privacy.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ´em.
So folks, this is the final edition of Destroying Autocracy. Recently, I ran across a quote that fits with why I ran this project:
“I am absolutely convinced that only a small minority, a very small minority, among us, are seriously reached and profoundly moved by our propaganda of criticism, of doubt, of rebellion, of free investigation, of independent research. On the other hand, it is clear that our first interest lies always in seeking to increase this minority; to keep it, under all circumstances alive, active, refreshed. Our own happiness depends on it.
— Emile Armand”
Thanks for following us. Now, on to what’s next.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is now the home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Destroying Autocracy, and Developing the OMN.
You can sign up now.
We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum
Please copy and paste our handle into you favorite client to follow us. Original website content will start next week.
Featured Item(s)
I ran across these last week.
The Resonant Computing Manifesto
These are principles that should be implementing when developing for the Open Media Network.
Jan Wideboer writes:
Over the past few months, I thought a lot about Digital Sovereignty. I talked to experts, from analysts over legal experts to people running companies and public authorities. I tried to distill what is really at the core of the principle.
OCT – My Framework for Digital Sovereignty, Part 1
This is a good way to look at it.
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
TechCrunch reports:
Stanford’s star reporter takes on Silicon Valley’s ‘money-soaked’ startup culture
TechPolicy shares:
Making the Digital Markets Act Developer-Friendly
The Guardian reports:
This is Europe’s secret weapon against Trump: it could burst his AI bubble
The Guardian view on Australia’s social media ban: dragging tech companies into action
MPs question UK Palantir contracts after investigation reveals security concerns
BleepingComputer reports:
Italy fines Apple $116 million over App Store privacy policy issues
Waterfox announces:
No AI* Here – A Response to Mozilla’s Next Chapter
The Register notes:
Waterfox browser goes AI-free, targets the Firefox faithful
You don’t need Linux to run free and open source software
This is one you should read and take action on. 🙂
Airbus to migrate critical apps to a sovereign Euro cloud
Europe gets serious about cutting digital umbilical cord with Uncle Sam’s big tech
It’s FOSS reports:
Denmark Begins its Exit from Microsoft — and This is Just the Beginning
At least the enemies of privacy are slowly telling Microsoft to fuck off.
NextCloud shares:
The Republic of Serbia deploys Nextcloud for compliant, on-premises collaboration
Robert Riemann asks:
EU OS: Which Linux Distribution fits Europe best?
Hamish Campbell asks:
What Did We Learn from Web3, Crypto?
Signal has:
This was 2025 for Signal: strong growth and many new features
CoMaps shares:
CoMaps and its community at the end of 2025
Neutral
The Center for Democracy and Technology has:
TechPolicy Press reports:
The Path to a Sovereign Tech Stack is Via a Commodified Tech Stack
Platforms Report to EU Regulators Under DSA With an Eye on US Politics
Europe Tried to Take Control of Its Digital Stack in 2025. Where Does It Stand Now?
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
Krebs on Security reports:
Dismantling Defenses: Trump 2.0 Cyber Year in Review
Cory Doctorow says:
America’s collapsing consumption is the world’s disenshittification opportunity
Tech Dadu reports:
EU Prepares Wider Data Retention Rules, VPN Providers Could Be Affected
The Register reports:
Denmark takes a Viking swing at VPN-enabled piracy
Pariah States
And:
Amazon security boss blames Russia’s GRU for years-long energy-sector hacks
China, Iran are having a field day with React2Shell, Google warns
BleepingComputer reports:
France arrests Latvian for installing malware on Italian ferry
Denmark blames Russia for destructive cyberattack on water utility
DarkReading reports:
Russia Hits Critical Orgs Via Misconfigured Edge Devices
Dormant Iran APT is Still Alive, Spying on Dissidents
EuronNews reports:
Pro-Russian hackers claim French postal service cyberattack
Big Media
Ben Werdmuller asks:
Just for brain-dead people.
Nieman Lab’s Predictions for Journalism 2026
Journalists talk about the elephant in the room: our relationship with Big Tech
CyberCultural shares:
My 2025 Indie Web Report and Thoughts on the Open Web
404 Media reports:
Archivists Posted the 60 Minutes CECOT Segment Bari Weiss Killed
Big Tech
The Nerd Reich reports:
Tech Billionaires Flirt With the Guillotine
JD Vance’s Theo Bro Network: Silicon Valley Meets ‘God’
Futurism reports:
Professor Warns That the Wealthy Are Trying to Use AI to Seize Control of Everything
The Rebel Tech Alliance reports on:
404 Media reports:
Hack Reveals the a16z-Backed Phone Farm Flooding TikTok With AI Influencers
SuperBloom examines:
From Content to Interface: Rethinking Platform Transparency Through Design
Wanna-be Big Tech
Mozilla spouts techbro delusions:
Mozilla’s Next Chapter: Building the World’s Most Trusted Software Company
Fuck Firefox.
Pivot to AI has the reality:
Firefox browser falls to AI. What do we do now?
Zen, Waterfox, or LibreWolf, peeps.
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Register reports:
New React vulns leak secrets, invite DoS attacks
Poisoned WhatsApp API package steals messages and accounts
Krebs on Security reports:
Most Parked Domains Now Serving Malicious Content
DarkReading reports:
Attackers Use Stolen AWS Credentials in Cryptomining Campaign
BleepingComputer reports:
Microsoft 365 accounts targeted in wave of OAuth phishing attacks
Mullvad is:
Announcing GotaTun, the future of WireGuard at Mullvad VPN
Framasoft asks:
Qui suis-je et quelle est mon identité ?
404 Media reports:
Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves
Fediverse
Tim Chambres shares:
My 2026 Open Social Web Predictions
Ploum shares:
How We Lost Communication to Entertainment
The Social Web Foundation explores:
Implementing Encrypted Messaging over ActivityPub
Literally, awesome.
Connected Places has:
PeerTube announces:
Publish your videos with PeerTube for mobile!
It’s FOSS reports:
Decentralized YouTube Alternative PeerTube Adds Creator Mode
Holos shares:
ActivityPub for WordPress has:
Jose Murilo shares:
Museums in the Fediverse: Experiments with Tainacan, ActivityPub, and WebSocial
DeadSuperHerson says:
Ghost’s ActivityPub Integration Feels Half-Baked
I feel the same way. And it’s why I am running a backup of The Programmer’s Fulcrum on WordPress to keep Ghost honest. We’ll see where TPF ends up in 2027.
Mastodon shares its:
Piefed announces:
PieFed 1.4 is released – emoji, federated stackoverflow and AI content filters
Empathy Forward announces:
Fedify shares:
Fedify 1.10.0: Observability foundations for the future debug dashboard
Slightly Decentralized Social Media
Connected Places has:
ATmosphere Report 147 – Year’s end reflections
ATProto Community has:
Ændra Rininsland: Supporting and growing ATProto development in 2025 and beyond
I am going to check Leaflet out.
TechCrunch reports:
Bluesky launches a privacy-focused ‘Find Friends’ feature without invite spam
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.
Never stop fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
Josef Pazderka 𝕏📤 https://xcancel.com/Mariana_Betsa:
Mariupol before the Russian invasion. We will never forget and never forgive #MakeRussiaPay #StopRussia #StandWithUkrai…
https://xcancel.com/PazderkaJosef/status/2000652404380049688
Russia strikes Odesa with 450 drones, 30 missiles
https://www.perplexity.ai/page/russia-strikes-odesa-with-450-w4vVmyMYRaSW7X53u2MY9Q
30 min video of a family with small kids taking shelter during the 10 hour attack on Kyiv on Nov 28.
#StandWithUkraine
#StopRussia
Otherwise, prepare to see similar stories unfold across Europe and everywhere authoritarians seek to destroy the rule of law.
Destroying Autocracy – December 11, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber arena with a focus on protecting it. That necessitates an opinionated Butlerian jihad against big tech as well as evangelizing for open-source and the Fediverse. Since big media’s journalism wing is flailing and failing in its core duty to democracy, this is also a collection of alternative reporting on the eternal battle between autocracy and democracy. We also cover the cybersecurity world. You can’t be free without safety and privacy.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.
This is the penultimate edition of Destroying Autocracy with the final one coming December 25th. We have friends in town so there will not be one next week.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN and it’s coming soon.
You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing next month.
We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum https://ghostverse.link/@thefulcrum
Please copy and paste our handle into you favorite client to follow us. Original website content will start in 2026.
Featured Item(s)
Deutche Welle writes:
DW Access is a lightweight app designed to ensure access to independent information in regions where digital freedom is under threat. It provides users with a secure way to reach DW content even under severe censorship.
DW Access: New app counters global censorship
And Ben Werdmuller writes:
When people think about RSS, they most often associate it with the long-departed Google Reader — but it’s far from dead. From direct subscriptions to syndication into apps that aggregate and re-present content, RSS remains the standard for feeds. It’s the glue that holds the timely web together.
Most people know RSS powers blogs and podcasts. But it powers popular news apps too, from aggregated headlines on MSN or in SmartNews to up-to-date headlines in business services like Lexis Nexis or Bloomberg.
It’s also widely used to keep track of status updates of all kinds: weather, software updates, infrastructure uptime, and so on. Most of this activity happens behind the scenes. Publishers often think of feeds as an afterthought, but entire industries rely on them. It’s a workhorse that’s become essential infrastructure for the web.
There are more RSS items below.
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
The Kyiv Independent reports:
404 Media reports:
DHS’s Immigrant-Hunting App Removed from Google Play Store
ICEBlock Creator Sues U.S. Government Over App’s Removal
Tech Policy Press reports:
The EU’s Fine Against X is Not About Speech or ‘Censorship’
Cory Doctorow has:
Pluralistic: The Reverse-Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI
Speaking of, Josh Collins says:
AI optimism is a class privilege
Speaking as an old affluent white man, I agree.
Fairphone shares:
We’re big fans of open-source buildable code at Fairphone. Here’s why.
Open WebSearch has:
Partner in Focus: Open Search Foundation
The Register reports:
Publishers say no to AI scrapers, block bots at server level
Google’s AI training tactics land it in another EU antitrust fight
Really Simple Licensing spec lets web publishers demand their due from AI scrapers
The Tyee reports:
The Man Who Tracks Silicon Valley’s ‘Nerd Reich’
TechCrunch reports:
The Guardian reports:
Nextcloud reports:
Île-de-France offers 550,000 students and staff a sovereign cloud collaboration platform
6-figure deployments show momentum of sovereignty in France
It’s FOSS opines:
This Could Be The Linux Phone We All Have Been Waiting For
APC shares:
What I shared about digital commons and the NGI0 grant programme during this year’s Global Gathering
NPQ reports:
This Giving Season, Nonprofits Should Address the Chill in the Air
Elena Rossini starts a series:
A newbie’s guide to self-hosting with YunoHost. Part 1: reasons + requirements
Neutral
Tech Policy Press reports:
Europe Fined X, But It’s Still Avoiding the Real Threat to Democracy
Policymakers Overlook How Open Source AI Is Reshaping Global Power
NiemanLab reports:
Public media sees infrastructure as its next act of service
Ars Technica reports:
Big Tech joins forces with Linux Foundation to standardize AI agents
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
404 Media reports:
Border Patrol Agent Recorded Raid with Meta’s Ray-Ban Smart Glasses
Man Charged for Wiping Phone Before CBP Could Search It
NOYB shares:
Digital Omnibus: First Analysis of Select GDPR and ePrivacy Proposals by the Commission
The Nerd Reich reports:
Financial Times Discovers the Network State Cult
The Gist shares:
Pariah States
The Kyiv Post reports:
Cyberattack on Reporters Without Borders Linked to Russian Security Services
The Register reports:
UK to Europe: The time to counter Russia’s information war machine is now
DarkReading reports:
Feds: Pro-Russia Hactivists Target US Critical Infrastructure
BleepingComputer reports:
North Korean hackers exploit React2Shell flaw in EtherRAT malware attacks
Big Media
NiemanLab reports:
The political journalism that matters most will be built from the ground up
The year journalism stops outsourcing its independence
Big Tech
Platformer reports:
Where Meta’s biggest experiment in governance went wrong
404 Media reports:
Instagram Is Generating Inaccurate SEO Bait for Your Posts
NetzPolitik reports:
All you need to know about how adtech data exposes the EU to espionage
TechDirt reports:
Elon’s Crying Censorship Over An EU Fine That Has Nothing To Do With Censorship
Politico reports:
X axes European Commission’s ad account after €120M EU fine
Fascists are such snowflakes.
The Register reports:
Block all AI browsers for the foreseeable future: Gartner
Forever.
Thomas Rigby shares:
They See Your Photos: 12 months on
Amusing, but unfortunately a real product from the c^nts at Google.
Wanna-be Big Tech
Youssuff Quips looks at:
Terror
The Register reports:
193 cybercrims arrested, accused of plotting ‘violence-as-a-service’
Cybersecurity/Privacy
Freedom of the Press Foundation shares:
Lessons from Defense Department ‘Signalgate’ report
BleepingComputer reports:
Portugal updates cybercrime law to exempt security researchers
DarkReading reports:
Gemini Enterprise No-Click Flaw Exposes Sensitive Data
Fediverse
Connected Places has:
The Digital Services Act and Theories of Power
Linuxiac reports:
PeerTube 8.0 Brings a Modern Video Player and Team Channel Management
José Murilo shares:
Museums in the Fediverse: Experiments with Tainacan, ActivityPub, and WebSocial
Steffen Voß has:
Wie spielen WordPress und Mastodon zusammen?
Events, WordPress und das Fediverse
Mastodon has:
Trunk & Tidbits, November 2025
The world needs social sovereignty
RSS
John Onolan says:
Robert Alexander is:
Discovering the IndieWeb with calm tech
Fantastic.
Peter Ries pursues:
Reading news from non-RSS websites
Slightly Decentralized Social Media
TBD
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
Destroying Autocracy – December 04, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber arena with a focus on protecting it. That necessitates an opinionated Butlerian jihad against big tech as well as evangelizing for open-source and the Fediverse. Since big media’s journalism wing is flailing and failing in its core duty to democracy, this is also a collection of alternative reporting on the eternal battle between autocracy and democracy. We also cover the cybersecurity world. You can’t be free without safety and privacy.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN.
You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing in January.
We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum @thefulcrum.dev and original website content will start next month.
Featured Item(s)
Hamish Campbell writes:
ActivityPub is a shared vocabulary, a public language for moving meaning and connection across the open web. It gives you nouns and verbs, and the community defines the grammar through lived use.
This is why the OMN works with ActivityPub, a metadata and meaning layer, not a platform, flows, not silos. ActivityPub is the widely deployed 4 Opens protocol that treats publishing as a flow, a conversation.
Unlike the more vertical stacks (ATProto is a good example), ActivityPub doesn’t force a worldview. It doesn’t tell you, “this is how your network must be structured.” It doesn’t enforce hierarchy or lock you into one interpretation of identity, authority, or workflow. It’s a KISS path – here’s a shared language, verbs for publishing and receiving, express objects, updates, relationships. The rest is up to the commons.
This flexibility is exactly why the OMN can become a part of this flow.
Why the OMN works with ActivityPub – And why we need a bridge to p2p
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
DDEV has:
Power Through Blackouts: How DDEV Community Helped Me in Ukraine
TechPolicy Press shares:
How to Test New York’s Algorithmic Pricing Law
The EU’s Digital Omnibus Must Be Rejected by Lawmakers. Here is Why.
Singapore announced an:
Issuance of Implementation Directives to Apple and Google Under the Online Criminal Harms Act
The MIT Press Reader has:
The Secret History of Tor: How a Military Project Became a Lifeline for Privacy
The Guardian reports:
Irish authorities asked to investigate Microsoft over alleged unlawful data processing by IDF
Elon Musk’s X fined €120m by EU in first clash under new digital laws
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
After Years of Controversy, the EU’s Chat Control Nears Its Final Hurdle: What to Know
FSFE announces:
Opening the cage: the FSFE flies away from X (Twitter)
Better late than never and what anyone with any morality should do.
Signal announces:
Major expansion of Signal for Linux, announces AppImage
TechCrunch reports:
Chicago Tribune sues Perplexity
The Center for Democracy and Technology announces:
A Framework for Assessing AI Transparency in the Public Sector
Collabora announces:
Collabora Online now available on Desktop
Neutral
TechPolicy Press reports:
What the European Commission and Civil Society Both Get Wrong on the Digital Omnibus
Why Platforms Don’t Catch Climate Misinformation — and How to Change That
EuroNews asks:
Which European countries are building their own sovereign AI to compete in the tech race?
Numerama reports:
TechCrunch reports:
Mistral closes in on Big AI rivals with new open-weight frontier and small models
Wired reports:
The Age-Gated Internet Is Sweeping the states. Activists Are Fighting Back.
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They’re Doing
EDRi has:
Promises unkept: The EU-US Data Privacy Framework under fire
404 Media reports:
Flock Uses Overseas Gig Workers to Build its Surveillance AI
TechCrunch reports:
Pariah States
DarkReading reports:
Tomiris Unleashes ‘Havoc’ With New Tools, Tactics
DPRK’s ‘Contagious Interview’ Spawns Malicious Npm Package Factory
Student Sells Gov’t, University Sites to Chinese Actors
TechPolicy Press reports:
The Gulf’s AI Rise and the Risk of Entrenching Authoritarianism
The Register reports:
China using AI as ‘precision instrument’ of censorship and repression, at home and abroad
Big Media
Axios reports:
Fox News hires Palantir to build AI newsroom tools
Big surprise.
Nieman Lab reports:
Publishers will finally learn to truly value news creators
The OMN can greatly influence this trend.
The Ecologist shares:
‘We need a media consumers union’
This times 1,000.
Big Tech
The Guardian reports:
How big tech is creating its own friendly media bubble to ‘win the narrative battle online’
More than 1,000 Amazon workers warn rapid AI rollout threatens jobs and climate
Anti-immigrant material among AI-generated content getting billions of views on TikTok
The question isn’t whether the AI bubble will burst – but what the fallout will be
BleepingComputer reports:
Leak confirms OpenAI is preparing ads on ChatGPT for public roll out
Big surprise here. But, if you’re amoral enough to use it, you deserve all the privacy invading ads you get.
Google deletes X post after getting caught using a ‘stolen’ AI recipe infographic
Nature reports:
Major AI conference flooded with peer reviews written fully by AI
Wow.
404 Media reports:
Scientists Are Increasingly Worried AI Will Sway Elections
Current Affairs reports:
AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself
Time reports:
Court Filings Allege Meta Downplayed Risks to Children and Misled the Public
National Review reports:
Meta Researchers Privately Compared Instagram to Addictive Drug, Bombshell Court Filing Shows
Wanna-be Big Tech
OMG Unbuntu has:
Mozilla’s ‘Rewiring’ to AI – Saving the Web or Saving Itself?
Cybersecurity/Privacy
TechCrunch reports:
European cops shut down crypto mixing website that helped launder 1.3B euros
DarkReading reports:
New Raptor Framework Uses Agentic Workflows to Create Patches
Bleeping Computer reports:
Fake Calendly invites spoof top brands to hijack ad manager accounts
The Register reports:
Microsoft quietly shuts down Windows shortcut flaw after years of espionage abuse
Fediverse
Coywolf has:
Mastodon creator shares what went wrong with Threads and ponders the future of the fediverse
Ben Werdmuller shares:
Sean Coates explores:
The Fediverse and Content Creation: Monetization
Great and important stuff.
Ploum asks:
Is Pixelfed sawing off the branch that the Fediverse is sitting on?
Wouldn’t the fix to this would be to show a larger version of a user’s profile image with text posts?
Connected Places has:
FediForum shares:
FediForum/Fediverse Track at SFSCon, November 2025, in Bolzano, Italy
SVDJ has:
‘Stapje voor stapje de controle terugpakken’: hoe media hun publiek kunnen heroveren op Big Tech
Beautiful site design for a news website, btw.
Deemlog has a bizarre experiment:
Git as Federation Transport — Rethinking How Small Social Networks Talk to Each Other
Jose Murilo shares:
“Museus no Fediverso” – Apresentação do Ibram-Museus no 1º WebSocialBR
RSS
Planet Codigo has:
Mi solución RSS con software libre y autogestionado
Slightly Decentralized Social Media
TBD
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
#ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Mastodon #Pixelfed #Roundabout #RSS #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #Threads
Destroying Autocracy – November 27, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber arena with a focus on protecting it. That necessitates an opinionated Butlerian jihad against big tech as well as evangelizing for open-source and the Fediverse. Since big media’s journalism wing is flailing and failing in its core duty to democracy, this is also a collection of alternative reporting on the eternal battle between autocracy and democracy. We also cover the cybersecurity world. You can’t be free without safety and privacy.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN.
You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing in January.
We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum @thefulcrum.dev and original website content will start in 2026.
Featured Item(s)
The Atlantic writes:
Over the weekend, Elon Musk’s X rolled out a feature that had the immediate result of sowing maximum chaos. The update, called “About This Account,” allows people to click on the profile of an X user and see such information as: which country the account was created in, where its user is currently based, and how many times the username has been changed.
Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, said the feature was “an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square.” Roughly four hours later, with the update in the wild, Bier sent another post: “I need a drink.”
Almost immediately, “About This Account” stated that many prominent and prolific pro-MAGA accounts, which signaled that they were run by “patriotic” Americans, were based in countries such as Nigeria, Russia, India, and Thailand.
@MAGANationX, an account with almost 400,000 followers and whose bio says it is a “Patriot Voice for We The People,” is based in “Eastern Europe (Non-EU),” according to the feature, and has changed its username five times since the account was made, last year.
On X and Bluesky, users dredged up countless examples of fake or misleading rage-baiting accounts posting aggressive culture-war takes to large audiences. An account called “Maga Nadine” claims to be living in and posting from the United States but is, according to X, based in Morocco. An “America First” account with 67,000 followers is apparently based in Bangladesh. Poetically, the X handle @American is based in Pakistan, according to the feature.
Elon Musk’s Worthless, Poisoned Hall of Mirrors
Just FYI, December 25th will be the day I stop exploring the stupidity of our current timeline and the last Destroying Autocracy post. Again, see the notes above about The Fulcrum.
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
EuroNews reports:
Life after chatbots: Meet the ‘AI vegans’ refusing to accept a virtual reality
Kagi is:
Introducing SlopStop: Community-driven AI slop detection in Kagi Search
Fucking awesome if you use Macs.
TechPolicy Press reports:
Why Civil Society Is Sounding the Alarm on the EU’s Omnibus Rollback
The Guardian reports:
European parliament calls for social media ban on under-16s
The Free Software Foundation Europe shares:
Germany Stack: Only Free Software Enables Digital Sovereignty
Wikimedia announces:
Unifying our mobile and desktop domains
Decidim reviews:
Decidim Fest 2025: Collective energy, digital sovereignty and a common roadmap
The Conversation reports:
Mullvad reports:
An important victory – but we still need to stop Chat Control.
Ploum says:
Fiona Fokus says:
I don’t care how well your “AI” works
Abso-fucking-lutely.
It’s Foss has:
Self-Hosting is Rising and Linux Users are Leading This Revolution
CNBC reports;
Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever and it’s costing the economy
Neutral
The Guardian asks:
Has Britain become an economic colony?
England always makes sure to ape the shitty parts of America.
W3C shares:
Preventing Abuse of Digital Credentials
Ben Werdmuller covers:
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
Heise reports:
Analysis of the Digital Sovereignty Summit: Open Source Gets Scolded
We Are Solomon reports:
Hungry for data: Inside Europol’s secretive AI program
The Intercept reports:
The FBI wants to use Surveillance Drones with Facial Recognition Technology
How Corporate Partnerships Powered University Surveillance of Palestine Protests
The Counter Offensive reports:
Witkoff was secretly giving Russians advice
Pariah States
The Register reports:
CISA warns spyware crews are breaking into Signal and WhatsApp accounts
DarkReading reports:
DPRK’s FlexibleFerret Tightens macOS Grip
Big Media
The Columbia Journalism Review reports:
Could Public Skepticism of the Press Actually Be Good for Democracy?
It could since most Big Media is owned by right-wing c^nts.
ProPublica shares:
ProPublica’s May-August 2025 Impact Report: Independent Investigations That Spur Change
Big Tech
Sage Journals reports:
Renée DiResta reports:
On the internet, nobody knows you’re a MAGA influencer… in Lagos
The Daily Beast reports:
Top MAGA Influencers Accidentally Unmasked as Foreign Trolls
404 Media reports:
America’s Polarization Has Become the World’s Side Hustle
The Register reports:
Meta knows how bad its sites are for kids, say lawyers
MM+M reports:
What healthcare marketers need to know about Meta’s censoring of abortion ads
The Markup reports:
How American Big Tech guards the profits it extracts around the world
Tuta reports:
Google wants to kill Android freedom: Say Goodbye to installing independent apps
Cybersecurity/Privacy
BleepingComputer reports:
Cox Enterprises discloses Oracle E-Business Suite data breach
Hmm, cable companies are literally shit at everything.
Code beautifiers expose credentials from banks, govt, tech orgs
Malicious LLMs empower inexperienced hackers with advanced tools
DarkReading reports:
Infamous Shai-hulud Worm Resurfaces From the Depths
The Register reports:
FCC guts post-Salt Typhoon telco rules despite ongoing espionage risk
GrapheneOS bails on OVHcloud over France’s privacy stance
Fediverse
Connected Places shares:
Mastodon announces:
Mastodon Joins Forces with WE AID
Bonfire has:
What is Bonfire? Plural by design.
Buttondown has:
Making social networking more like email
Terence Eden has:
Now witness the power of this fully operational Fediverse!
Ghost has:
RadWeb Hosting shares:
How to Host Your Own Mastodon Server on a VPS (5 Minute Quick-Start Guide)
How to Install Pleroma on Ubuntu VPS (5 Minute Quick-Start Guide)
NodeBB announces:
NodeBB v4.7.0 — category boost fixes, remote media/emoji in chats, and more!
Slightly Decentralized Social Media
Connected Places has:
Internet Exchange reports:
‘Composable Moderation’ May Protect Bluesky from Political Pressure
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
#ActivityPub #AI #ATProto #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bonfire #Buttondown #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Ghost #Mastodon #NodeBB #Pleroma #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism
Destroying Autocracy – November 20, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber arena with a focus on protecting it. That necessitates an opinionated Butlerian jihad against big tech as well as evangelizing for open-source and the Fediverse. Since big media’s journalism wing is flailing and failing in its core duty to democracy, this is also a collection of alternative reporting on the eternal battle between autocracy and democracy. We also cover the cybersecurity world. You can’t be free without safety and privacy.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN.
You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing in January.
We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum @thefulcrum.dev and original website content will start in 2026.
Featured Item(s)
Muni Town writes:
I’ve been trying to write this piece for years, really ever since I finished the first version of Open Source Explained (a v2 will drop early next year). Every time I get started I’m just overwhelmed with paralyzing visions of the commentariat accusing me of WrongThink.
So I drop it, because I’m tired to the bone of debating the minutae of open source definitions when the conversation we ought to be having is about power: who has it? (oligarchs), how did they get it? (monopolies & corruption), why is that a problem? (platform autocracy), and how do we the people take that power back? (protocols and open software).
Understanding ownership is power
It’s important to understand the codes in your life, because your life is made up of them. Once you understand which codes you already have access to and even the right to inspect, you can see more clearly which other codes you ought to have insight into.
Nothing makes me more anxious than writing about open source licensing because nothing brings out more opinion-havers, the vast majority of whom are speaking from a point of privilege-blindess in the western world. The widespread ignorance of the deeper power struggle at play (which we’re losing) has brought the free world to the very brink, so I’m pushing past the discomfort to honor the urgency of our moment.
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
404 Media reports:
Ukraine Is Jamming Russia’s ‘Superweapon’ With a Song
Radio Free Europe reports:
How Britain’s Disposable Vape Ban Has Boosted Ukraine’s War Effort
TechCrunch reports:
Five people plead guilty to helping North Koreans infiltrate US companies as ‘remote IT workers’
Surveillance Tech Provide Proteir Was Hacked
Software Maxims has:
How FOSS Won and Why It Matters
Open Future announces:
Open Future Joins the European Network for Technological Resilience and Sovereignty
404 Media reports:
Airlines Will Shut Down Program That Sold Your Flights Records to Government
Elon Musk Could ‘Drink Piss Better Than Any Human in History,’ Grok Says
Literally, pathetic.
Framasoft has:
Renforcez l’internet du partage en contribuant à la robustesse de Framasoft
The Register reports:
Latest Servo release hints at a real Rust alternative to Chromium
Brussels eyes AWS, Azure for gatekeeper tag in cloud clampdown
Game over: Europol storms gaming platforms in extremist content sweep
The Guardian reports:
French authorities investigate alleged Holocaust denial posts on Elon Musk’s Grok AI
TechPolicy Press reports:
Brazil Supreme Court Ruling Redefines Framework for Platform Liability
The Center for Democracy and Technology has:
What Kids and Parents Want: Policy Insights for Social Media Safety Features
The Center for Democracy and Technology has:
What Kids and Parents Want: Policy Insights for Social Media Safety Features
Neutral
TechCrunch reports:
Databricks co-founder argues US must go open source to beat China in AI
The Guardian reports:
AI firms must be clear on risks or repeat tobacco’s mistakes, says Anthropic chief
The Center for Democracy and Technology reports:
Architects of Online Influence: How Creators, Platforms, and Policymakers Shape Political Speech
TechPolicy Press says:
If Europe Wants Digital Sovereignty, It Must Reinvent Who Owns Tech
MIT Technology Review reports:
Quantum physicists have shrunk and “de-censored” DeepSeek R1
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
Corporate Europe reports:
Preparing a roll-back of digital rights: Commission’s secretive meetings with industry
The Brussels Times reports:
Secret EU plans to allow Big Tech to train AI with our personal data
The Guardian reports:
Dark forces are preventing us fighting the climate crisis – by taking knowledge hostage
404 Media reports:
This App Lets ICE Track Vehicles and Owners Across the Country
IRS Accessed Massive Database of Americans Flights Without a Warrant
Cops Used Flock to Monitor No Kings Protests Around the Country
The Register reports:
Palantir plots NHS skills drive for its controversial data platform
Trump, Republicans try again to stop states from regulating AI
Pariah States
TechCrunch reports:
US, UK, and Australia sanction Russian ‘bulletproof’ web host used in ransomware attacks
Forbes reports:
Has Samsung Installed ‘Unremovable Israeli Spyware’ On Your Phone?
The Register reports:
Tens of thousands more ASUS routers pwned by suspected, evolving China operation
DarkReading reports:
Chinese APT Infects Routers to Hijack Software Updates
Big Media
TBD
Big Tech
The Guardian reports:
White nationalist talking points and racial pseudoscience: welcome to Elon Musk’s Grokipedia
MalwareBytes reorts:
Gmail can read your emails and attachments to train its AI, unless you opt out
The Register reports:
Researchers find hole in AI guardrails by using strings like =coffee
404 Media reports:
A Researcher Made an AI That Completely Breaks the Online Surveys Scientists Rely On
The ACLU reports:
Your Smartphone, Their Rules: How App Stores Enable Corporate-Government Censorship
Yep.
TechPolicy Press reports:
How Tech Oligarchs Profit from the Logic of ‘Finitude Capitalism’ and What to Do About It
Cybersecurity/Privacy
Privacy Guides has:
Email Security: Where We Are and What the Future Holds
DarkReading asks:
Can a Global, Decentralized System Save CVE Data?
Heise reports:
3.5 Billion Accounts: Complete WhatsApp Directory Retrieved and Evaluated
Signal or Delta Chat peeps.
Fediverse
Ben Werdmuller reports on:
The State of the Open Social Web
Great Stuff as usual from Ben.
ForBetter explores:
The future of hope on the Social Web
Connected Places has:
Laura Hargreaves has:
Ghost v6 Upgrade + Docker Migration: What I Learned (So You Don’t Have To)
Big news with Mastodon this week:
The Future is Ours to Build – Together
Hopefully the new regime (foundation vs. benevolent dictator) will focus on trust & safety and not trying to be Twitter 2.
Chris Sturmsucht shares:
Fediverse: a new open and social web
Slightly Decentralized Social Media
Connected Places has:
ATmosphere Report 143 – Eurosky Live
TechCrunch reports:
Bluesky announces moderation changes focused on better tracking, improved transparency
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
#activitypub #ai #autocracy #bigJournalism #bigTech #democracy #fascism #fediverse #ghost #mastodon #stopChina #stopIsrael #stopRedAmerica #stopRussia #supportUkraine #technoanarchism #technofeudalism
Destroying Autocracy – November 13, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber arena with a focus on protecting it. That necessitates an opinionated Butlerian jihad against big tech as well as evangelizing for open-source and the Fediverse. Since big media’s journalism wing is flailing and failing in its core duty to democracy, this is also a collection of alternative reporting on the eternal battle between autocracy and democracy. We also cover the cybersecurity world. You can’t be free without safety and privacy.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN.
You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to and featured articles for each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing.
We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum @thefulcrum.dev and original website content will start in 2026.
Featured Item(s)
Wrekage/Salvage writes:
Once you’ve seized the tools of political life to build communal power, it’s hard to forget what a hammer feels like in your hand.
Bonfire Networks is a tiny software org that has spent the past couple of years building a framework for communities on the open social web. At the end of last week, they released Bonfire Social, a microblogging app.
Like Mastodon, Bonfire Social runs on ActivityPub, but it takes differently opinionated approach to sociability.
(It has) features I (and many others) have been advocating for in Fediverse software for years, often while people explained at length that such things simply could not be implemented.
Most exhilarating to me, though, is that they aren’t just building another microblogging app. They’re making a toolkit for internet community software that is healthy and good and designed around real human needs from the start.
As they put it in their crowdfunding campaign, they’re making building blocks for communities on the open social web.
Total awesomeness that needs to blow up. We will cover (and support) Bonfire extensively on The Programmer’s Fulcrum.
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Ukraine slaps new sanctions on Putin’s team and propagandist publishers
Radio Free Europe reports:
EU ‘Democracy Shield’ Aims To Counter Russian Disinformation
Open Web Advocacy has:
Tim Berners-Lee On Apple’s Browser Engine Ban and Web Apps
Ars Technica reports:
Google will let Android power users bypass upcoming sideloading restrictions
As they say, the proof will be in the pudding.
LibreOffice has:
The role of ODF in digital sovereignty (digital freedom)
Heise reports:
Office alternative from Germany by Ionos and Nextcloud is now available
Great.
Speaking of Germany, The Guardian reports:
ChatGPT violated copyright law by ‘learning’ from song lyrics, German court rules
Meta could face millions in fines for not signing content deals in Australia
Digital Rights Bytes asks:
Can the government read my text messages?
404 Media reports:
Judge Rules Flock Surveillance Images Are Public Records That Can Be Requested By Anyone
TechCrunch reports:
Wikipedia urges AI companies to use its paid API, and stop scraping
Brookings says:
Preach brother.
Poynter reports:
As independent newspapers disappear, a secretive alliance fights to save them
Neutral
Open Knowledge shares:
Open letter: Harnessing open source AI to advance digital sovereignty
The Ringer has:
How Catastrophic Is It If the AI Bubble Bursts? An FAQ.
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
404 Media reports:
DHS Gives Local Cops a Facial Recognition App To Find Immigrants
TechCrunch reports:
Why a lot of people are getting hacked with government spyware
Lawmakers warn Democratic governors that states are sharing drivers’ data with ICE
Euractiv reports:
EU’s red tape bonfire puts AI ahead of privacy protection
NOYB reports:
EU Commission internal draft would wreck core principles of the GDPR
The Guardian reports:
The EU has let US tech giants run riot. Diluting our data law will only entrench their power.
Tech giants vow to defend users in US as spyware companies make inroads with Trump administration
Freedom of the Press Foundation reports:
Kansas county pays $3M for forgetting the First Amendment
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They’re Doing
Tech Policy Press reports:
Global Internet Freedom Declines for 15th Consecutive Year
The Center for Democracy and Technology
Pariah States
BleepingComputer reports:
APT37 hackers abuse Google Find Hub in Android data-wiping attacks
BitDefender reports:
Russian hacker admits helping Yanluowang ransomware infect companies
The Register reports:
UK asks cyberspies to probe whether Chinese buses can be switched off remotely
Chinese spies told Claude to break into about 30 critical orgs. Some attacks succeeded
Krebs on Security reports:
Google Sues to Disrupt Chinese SMS Phishing Triad
Big Media
The Columbia Journalism Review has:
Editorial Independence Means Technological Independence
The Open Media Network peeps.
The Guardian reports:
EU investigates Google over ‘demotion’ of commercial content from news media
Big Tech
And:
Lies, damned lies and AI: the newest way to influence elections may be here to stay
The Register reports:
Big Tech’s control freak era is breaking itself apart
The Techno Anarchist Manifesto lists tools to help you avoid most of this AI horseshit.
Jesus.
Vivaldi has:
“A.I.” browsers: the price of admission is too high
GAD Insider reports:
Meta may read your DMs soon: Here’s what you need to know
Low Culture reports:
Digital colonialism: the new frontier of Latin American dependency.
A side effect of techno feudalism.
PC Mag reports:
Asking ChatGPT About Affairs or Abortion? Be Careful, Marketers Are Peeking at Your Prompts
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Register reports:
OWASP Top 10: Broken access control still tops app security list
IEEE Spectrum reports:
Your AI Agent Is Now a Target for Email Phishing. New tools can help thwart the attacks.
Like bitcoin, if you use this shit you deserve what you get.
DarkReading reports:
Orgs Move to SSO, Passkeys to Solve Bad Password Habits
GlassWorm Returns, Slices Back into VS Code Extensions
Check out VS Codium friends.
BleepingComputer reports:
Police disrupts Rhadamanthys, VenomRAT, and Elysium malware operations
Fediverse
Elena Rossini shares:
The rebellion will be federated – 2025 edition
A New Social has:
Bonfire explains:
Matters of care – why Bonfire maintenance comes first.
Comciencia has:
A comunicação da ciência no Fediverso
Laura Hargreves shares:
Growing My Own Little Fediverse: The Joy of Going Further Down the Rabbit Hole
Inside My Matrix: How I Reclaimed Messaging from the Cloud
TechCrunch reports:
Threads targets podcasters with new features, aiming to become the home for show discussions
BTW, fuck Threads.
Slightly Decentralized Social Media
Connected Places has:
ATmosphere Report 142 – more new apps
The Dabbler has:
Chicken Caesars: they’re messing with your Bluesky feed
TechCrunch reports:
Jack Dorsey funds diVine, a Vine reboot that includes Vine’s video archive
Hmm, this is built with Nostr.
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
#activitypub #ai #autocracy #bigJournalism #bigTech #bluesky #bonfire #bridgyfed #democracy #fascism #fediverse #matrix #stopChina #stopIsrael #stopRedAmerica #stopRussia #supportUkraine #technoanarchism #technofeudalism #threads #xmpp
Destroying Autocracy – November 06, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber arena with a focus on protecting it. That necessitates an opinionated Butlerian jihad against big tech as well as evangelizing for open-source and the Fediverse. Since big media’s journalism wing is flailing and failing in its core duty to democracy, this is also a collection of alternative reporting on the eternal battle between autocracy and democracy. We also cover the cybersecurity world. You can’t be free without safety and privacy.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.
We’re back from France scouting locations for The Fulcrum’s worldwide HQ. 😉 Occitanie won out for the region (department). We’re still working on the town. Nimes, Montpellier, and Toulouse are in the final.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN.
You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to and featured articles for each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing.
We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum @thefulcrum.dev and original website content will start in 2026.
Featured Item(s)
The Authoritarian Stack writes:
Under the banner of “patriotic tech”, this new bloc is building the infrastructure of control—clouds, AI, finance, drones, satellites—an integrated system we call the Authoritarian Stack. It is faster, ideological, and fully privatized: a regime where corporate boards, not public law, set the rules.
Our investigation shows how these firms now operate as state-like powers—writing the rules, winning the tenders, and exporting their model to Europe, where it poses a direct challenge to democratic governance.
How Tech Billionaires Are Building a Post-Democratic America — And Why Europe Is Next
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
Open Future notes:
Open SSF says:
Open Infrastructure is Not Free: A Joint Statement on Sustainable Stewardship
NGI Commons reports:
DC – EDIC: The EU’s New Step Toward a Sovereign Digital Infrastructure
EuroNews reports:
Here are the digital changes EU candidate countries are making to align with the bloc
French investigators open criminal probe into TikTok over impact on children’s mental health
France suspends access to Shein as retailer opens first Paris store
Heisse reports:
International Criminal Court Kicks Out Microsoft
Open Project reports:
That’s an awesome stack.
/e/OS announces:
Nextcloud announces:
Nextcloud Hub 25 Autumn: Your digital workspace, ready in no time
Open Web Advocacy reports:
What Apple’s UK Strategic Market Status Designation means for Browsers and Web Apps
Tuta reports:
Microsoft sued for misleading millions of customers into paying a 45% increase for AI add-ons.
The Guardian reports:
Facebook’s job ads algorithm is sexist, French equality watchdog rules
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports on:
The Legal Case Against Ring’s Face Recognition Feature
404 Media reports:
How to Opt-Out of Airlines Selling Your Travel Data to the Government
Free Software Foundation Europe reports:
Legal Corner: Apple’s “notarisation” – blocking software freedom of developers and users!
TechCrunch reports:
Lina Khan to co-chair NYC mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s transition team
Tech Policy reports:
Mayor-Elect Mamdani Can Build a Tech Agenda for New York and a Model for the Country
Let’s fucking hope so.
The Markup reports:
Why a new California law could change the way all Americans browse the internet
Neutral
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Age Verification, Estimation, Assurance, Oh My! A Guide to the Terminology
Internet Exchange reports on:
Protecting Kids Without Breaking the Internet
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
Tech Policy reports:
Next Steps for Mitigating Harm in the UN Cybercrime Convention
404 Media reports:
Flock Logins Exposed In Malware Infections, Senator Asks FTC to Investigate the Company
DHS Gives Local Cops a Facial Recognition App To Find Immigrants
ProPublica reports:
DHS Wants States to Hand Over Driver’s License Data for Citizenship Checks
TechCrunch reports:
Italian political consultant says he was targeted with Paragon spyware
Pariah States
BleepingComputer reports:
Russian hackers abuse Hyper-V to hide malware in Linux VMs
Sandworm hackers use data wipers to disrupt Ukraine’s grain sector
The Register reports:
Russian spies pack custom malware into hidden VMs on Windows machines
EuroNews reports:
AI chatbots are spewing Russian propaganda, study finds
DarkReading reports:
APT ‘Bronze Butler’ Exploits Zero-Day to Root Japan Orgs
Kimsuky Debuts HTTPTroy Backdoor Against South Korea Users
Iran’s Elusive “SmudgedSerpent’ APT Phishes Influential US Policy Wonks
This Week in Security reports:
Thousands of North Koreans have secretly infiltrated US and European companies as remote IT workers
Big Media
Byline Times reports:
How the Not-So Independent Media Censors Criticism of Its Billionaire Owners
Tech Dirt reports:
NiemanLab reports:
Big Tech
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Application Gatekeeping: An Ever-Expanding Pathway to Internet Censorship
404 Media reports:
The Future of Advertising Is AI Generated Ads That Are Directly Personalized to You
AI Is Supercharging the War on Libraries, Education, and Human Knowledge
ArsTechnica reports:
Bombshell report exposes how Meta relied on scam ad profits to fund AI
FTM reports:
The Intercept reports:
YouTube Erased 700 Videos of Israeli Human Rights Violations
The Guardian reports:
In Grok we don’t trust: academics assess Elon Musk’s AI-powered encyclopedia
Cybersecurity/Privacy
BleepingComputer reports:
Fake Solidity VSCode extension on Open VSX backdoors developers
DarkReading reports:
‘TruffleNet’ Attack Wields Stolen Credentials Against AWS
The Register reports:
Krebs on Security reports:
Cloudflare Scrubs Aisuru Botnet from Top Domains List
Fediverse
Connect Places has:
On the coordination for better moderation systems
TechPolicy reports on:
Public Service Social Media as a Democratic Safeguard
Be It Me Not You reports on:
The Hidden Damage of Social Media & Why Decentralisation Matters
The Social Web Foundation shares:
FOSDEM 2026 – Social Web Devroom – Call For Participation
The Privacy Nexus has:
Media Liberation Day: how can we help newcomers get started and have a good experience on Fedi?
Bonfire has:
Bonfire: building blocks for communities on the open social web
Fan-fucking-tastic!
PeerTube announces:
We’ve just released version 1.2.0 of the official #PeerTube app!
Mastodon announces:
Mastodon 4.5: Featuring Quote posts, a solution to missing replies, and more
XMPP
Movim has:
The difference between XMPP and ActivityPub, explained through the Blog feature
P2P
Korben has:
SendMe – Pour partager des fichiers en P2P comme au bon vieux temps
Slightly Decentralized Social Media
Connected Places has:
Decentralisation and blogging on atproto
This is why I say that although Bluesky will 100% become enshittified, ATProto has potential.
A New Social announces:
Launch: New Blocking Features on Bridgy Fed
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
#ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bonfire #BridgyFed #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Mastodon #Peertube #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #XMPP
the Mexican chemical and building materials company Orbia, the Japanese electronics producer JVCKENWOOD, and Sony Mobile Communications, global telecommunications company
#leaverussia #stoprussia
Between July and September 2025, 23 more international companies finalised their exit from the Russian market, according to Leave Russia/KSE Institute.
Destroying Autocracy – October 16, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber arena with a focus on protecting it. That necessitates an opinionated Butlerian jihad against big tech as well as evangelizing for open-source and the Fediverse. Since big media’s journalism wing is flailing and failing in its core duty to democracy, this is also a collection of alternative reporting on the eternal battle between autocracy and democracy. We also cover the cybersecurity world. You can’t be free without safety and privacy.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.
We’re off to France to scout locations for The Fulcrum’s worldwide HQ. 😉 So, there will not be a post for the next two weeks.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN.
You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to and featured articles for each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing.
We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum @thefulcrum.dev and original website content will start in 2026.
Featured Item(s)
EuroNews writes:
Artificial intelligence is a matter of design – not destiny.
That’s the message from 10 philanthropic foundations aiming to loosen the grip that the technology’s moneyed developers, fueled by an investing frenzy, hold over its evolution.
Launched Tuesday under the name Humanity AI, the coalition is committing $500 million (€427 million) across the next five years to place human interests at the forefront of the technology’s rapid integration into daily life.
“The future belongs to those who actively create it, and that shan’t be a few leaders in Silicon Valley. It’s all of us,” Mozilla Foundation Executive Director Nabiha Syed said in an emailed statement.
Philanthropists to invest €427 million to curbs tech giants’ influence on new AI
Let’s hope they are successful.
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
Ars Technica reports:
Why Signal’s post-quantum makeover is an amazing engineering achievement
Feds seize $15 billion from alleged forced labor scam built on “human suffering”
Inside the web infrastructure revolt over Google’s AI Overviews
EuroNews reports:
Netherlands invokes rare emergency law to take charge of Chinese chipmaker
Free Software Foundation Europe reports:
Refund of pre-installed Windows: Lenovo must pay 20,000 euros in damages
DMA litigation against Apple: a quick recap
The Register reports:
Librephone battles the proprietary binary blob
Fantastic.
Lemonde Informatiqué reports:
Microsoft 365 Education traque illégalement les données des élèves
The Guardian reports:
Italian news publishers demand investigation into Google’s AI Overviews
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Victory! California Requires Transparency for AI Police Reports
Labor Unions, EFF Sue Trump Administration to Stop Ideological Surveillance of Free Speech Online
Signal reports:
Signal Desktop introduces Notification profiles
Tor Browser has an update:
Tor Browser will remove all of the Firefox AI features that Mozilla has been recently adding
Neutral
Ben Werdmueller advises:
News Orgs: Build what makes you special. Buy the rest.
NiemanLab shares:
“How can we help?” The Engaged Journalism Exchange aims to create belonging through media
Tech Policy reports:
To Have Democracy, We Must Contest Data
Government Technology reports:
CDT: Growing AI Use in Schools Brings Benefits and New Risks
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
Poynter reports:
A united media stands up against the Pentagon’s press restrictions
404 Media reports:
ICE, Secret Service, Navy All Had Access to Flock’s Nationwide Network of Cameras
Pariah States
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
EFF and Five Human Rights Organizations Urge Action Around Microsoft’s Role in Israel’s War on Gaza
TechCrunch reports:
Spyware maker NSO confirms acquisition by U.S. investor
404 Media reports:
Senators Warn Saudi Arabia’s Acquisition of EA Will Be Used for ‘Foreign Influence’
BleepingComputer reports:
North Korean hackers use EtherHiding to hide malware on the blockchain
DarkReading reports:
China Hackers Test AI-Optimized Attack Chains in Taiwan
The Register reports:
Chinese cyberspies snoop on Russian IT biz in rare east-on-east attack
Big Tech
Ars Technica reports:
Trump admin pressured Facebook into removing ICE-tracking group
Infrequently Noted reports:
The App Store Was Always Authoritarian
MDR reports:
Windows-Umstellung kostet Sachsen-Anhalt mehr als vier Millionen Euro
404 Media reports:
The End of Windows 10 Support Is an E-Waste Disaster in the Making
Scott Larson reports:
Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft’s move towards a surveillance state
BertHub has:
The Torment Nexus has:
Should we be afraid of AI? Maybe a little
Personally I think of AI as a hammer and humans as nails. 95% of the time, it’s hammering us into a pile of shit. 5% of the time it can be turned around to pull us out.
Speaking of, The Verge reports:
OpenAI allegedly sent police to an AI regulation advocate’s door
Tuta shares:
How GoDaddy hollowed out Host Europe & DomainFactory (plus better European web hosting providers)
Terror
Politico reports:
‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat
Cybersecurity/Privacy
BleepingComputer reports:
Spain dismantles “GXC Team” cybercrime syndicate, arrests leader
Wired reports:
Satellites Are Leaking the World’s Secrets: Calls, Texts, Military and Corporate Data
The Register reports:
British govt agents demand action after UK mega-cyberattacks surge 50%
Internet Exchange shares:
A Shield in Uncertain Times: The Role of Encryption
Fediverse
Connected Places has:
Ben Werdmueller tells us:
Why the open social web matters now
For Better reflects on:
Defining a new kind of social app
Media CCC shares:
Decentralising Freedom: Open Source for Sovereignty
Fedify announces:
Fedify 1.9.0: Security enhancements, improved DX, and expanded framework support
Loops has:
We Distribute has:
Wafrn is for People Who Miss Tumblr’s Chaotic Energy
Mastodon announces:
The first beta release of Mastodon 4.5.0 is ready for testing!
TechCrunch reports:
Threads is getting group chats as messaging rolls out to the EU
Forgejo announces:
Slightly Decentralized Social Media
ATProtocol Dev is:
Announcing ATmosphereConf: Vancouver, March 2026
Remember Bluesky is half-ass but ATProto has potential.
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
#ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Democracy #Fascism #Fedify #Fediverse #GoDaddy #Loops #Mastodon #Newsmast #Signal #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #Threads #WARFN
Destroying Autocracy – October 09, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber arena with a focus on protecting it. That necessitates an opinionated Butlerian jihad against big tech as well as evangelizing for open-source and the Fediverse. Since big media’s journalism wing is flailing and failing in its core duty to democracy, this is also a collection of alternative reporting on the eternal battle between autocracy and democracy. We also cover the cybersecurity world. You can’t be free without safety and privacy.
DA comes out on Thursday and is updated through the end of day on Friday. Then we start over. So take your time in perusing it and check back in over the weekend.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN.
You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to and featured articles for each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing.
We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum @thefulcrum.dev and original website content will start in 2026.
Featured Item(s)
Open Media Network writes:
A central thesis of Tolkien’s books is that evil provides the means of its own defeat. Sauron forged the One Ring that destroyed him. Shelob impaled herself on Sam’s blade. Smaug exposed his belly to Bilbo and revealed the weak point that brought him down. Tolkien’s world is full of this pattern: the seed of destruction lies buried inside the will to dominate. Power over others always carries its own undoing.
But there’s a second truth, less often spoken. Good must still act. The Ring did not cast itself into the fires of Mount Doom, it had to be carried, inch by inch, through the mud and terror, by two small Hobbits who refused to give up. Shelob could only fall because Sam held his arm firm when it would have been easier to drop the blade. Smaug was slain not by fate, but by the hand that fired the black arrow.
Even when evil weakens itself, the act of courage still has to be taken. The small people still have to step up. And there’s a third lesson here, one that feels painfully relevant to our time: good only loses when it surrenders to hopelessness. Denethor’s despair nearly doomed Minas Tirith.
Frodo would have fallen without Sam’s stubborn love. Bilbo’s small act of faith. In Tolkien’s world, hope is not naïve optimism, it’s an act of defiance.
Join us and become a hobbit in the Open Media Network.
Speaking of OMN, we have an announcement this week:
Announcing The Programmer’s Fulcrum, our retirement project
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
The Kyiv Independent reports:
The military branch behind Ukraine’s battlefield apps turns to weapons bureaucracy
Ukraine’s parliament backs creation of cyber forces in first reading
The Christian Science Monitor reports:
How Ukrainian drones are slowing Russia’s advance in the east
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
What Europe’s New Gig Work Law Means for Unions and Technology
Eiffair shares:
Its FOSS News reports:
Wikidata Launches Free Vector Database as Open Alternative to Closed AI Systems
NiemanLab reports:
Nonprofit news is growing strong — especially local nonprofit news, a new report shows
And the Columbia Journalism Review reports:
Heisse reports:
A defeat at the Supreme Court: Google must prepare changes to the Play Store
Nextcloud has:
Nextcloud vs Microsoft interoperability: how open source gets it right
Open letter to EU Member States on the proposed CSA Regulation or “Chat Control” law
Tuta announces:
Europe’s future is at stake: Open letter against Chat Control
Patrick shares the good news that pressure still works:
Citizen Protest Halts Chat Control; Breyer Celebrates Major Victory for Digital Privacy
404 Media reports:
Data Hoarder Uses AI to Create Searchable Database of Epstein Files
Help Us Investigate Book Bans and Educational Censorship Around America
Igalia announces:
Igalia, Servo, and the Sovereign Tech Fund
The Guardian reports:
You won’t believe what degrading practice the pope just condemned
Clever headline.
The Register reports:
Pro-Russia hacktivist group dies of cringe after falling into researchers’ trap
UK slaps ‘strategic market status’ on Google, unlocking power to pry open search
Burning Web shares:
Great Stuff.
Neutral
CyberCultural shares:
What the Internet Was Like in 2000
Homestar Runner 🙂
The Brookings Institute says:
The Guardian reports:
Poynter announces:
Poynter launches AI Innovation Lab to house its growing AI portfolio
CommonsDB is:
Exploring CommonsDB’s role in AI training data
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
TechCrunch reports:
ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy on phones
Italian businessman’s phone reportedly targeted with Paragon spyware
Pariah States
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Russia’s digital Iron Curtain descends as Kremlin chokes remaining internet freedoms
IFTAS reports:
Coordinated Pro-Russian Propaganda Network Targeting ActivityPub and ATProto Services
Bleeping Computer reports:
Russian Hacktivists target critical infrastructure, hit decoy plant
North Korean hackers stole over $2 billion in crypto this year
The Columbia Journalism Review reports on:
DarkReading reports:
Chinese Gov’t Fronts Trick the West to Obtain Cyber Tech
China-Nexus Actors Weaponize ‘Nezha’ Open Source Tool
The Register reports:
OpenAI bans suspected Chinese accounts using ChatGPT to plan surveillance
The Columbia Journalism Review reports:
How Anti-Cybercrime Laws Are Being Weaponized to Repress Journalism
Big Media
FAIR reports:
MAGA’s Little Helpers: Sinclair, Nexstar and the Consolidation of Broadcast TV
Poynter reports:
Big Tech
404 Media reports:
Apple Banned an App That Simply Archived Videos of ICE Abuses
CNET reports:
The Hidden Dangers of the Digital ‘Yes Man’: How to Push Back Against Sycophantic AI
The Guardian has:
Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?
LitHub has more Cory Doctorow action:
How American Tech Cartels Use Apps to Break the Law
TechDirt reports:
And evidently make the law.
NOYB shares:
noyb win: Microsoft 365 Education may not track school children
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Tile’s Lack of Encryption Is a Danger for Users Everywhere
FBI takes down BreachForums portal used for Salesforce extortion
Fuck Salesforce, BTW.
Fediverse
Social Experience Design says:
Welcome to Social coding commons
Hamish Campbell has:
Live at c-base a #fluffy Fediverse conference
Riley Testut reports:
The New Stack reports:
Everything Big Starts Small: Building Open Social Web Apps
The Social Web Foundation has an:
Interview with John O’Nolan about Ghost 6
Connected Places has:
Fedify announces:
Fedify 2.0—the CLI now runs natively on Node.js and Bun, not just Deno
Go To Social announces:
We’ve just made the proper release of v0.20.0 of GoToSocial, aka Sinister Sloth
TechCrunch reports:
Alternative app store AltStore raises $6M, connects with the Fediverse
Mastodon is taking cues from Bluesky with plans for its own starter ‘Packs’
Mastodon has:
Community consultation: new Terms of Service (for mastodon.social and mastodon.online)
It’s cool to join Mastodon but not these two instances.
Trunk & Tidbits, September 2025
Terence Eden explores:
Getting started with Mastodon’s Quote Posts – technical implementation details for servers
NHAM announces:
NHAM Update Opus 10 (Fedi Music Television Edition)
Super awesome.
Castopod announces:
The Official Castopod Plugin Repository
RSS
InEssential explains:
Why NetNewsWire Is Not a Web App
Lighthouse has:
A deep dive into the rss feed reader landscape
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
Azhdarchid has:
TechCrunch reports:
Niko Mara-McKay goes into the nitty-gritty:
Bluesky’s CEO meltdown: How leadership continues to fail its most marginalized users
I have said from day one that Bluesky will become enshittified. But, ATProto has some potential.
And to be fair, some of the leaders of ActivityPub and its largest platform (who value growth over safety) are egotistical pissy ass fucks when they are even slightly criticized.
But we are all fighting technofascism so let’s try to work together on the protocols front at least. Its okay to have debates and disagreements with allies. But treat them like allies when doing so. If they are your friends you can even call them pissy ass fucks. 😉
Speaking of, A New Social announces:
Bounce from Mastodon to Bluesky
Why would you? Although maybe its works with Blacksky, Northsky, or Eurosky.
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
#ActivityPub #AI #AltStore #ATProto #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bluesky #Castopod #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #fluffy #GoToSocial #IFTAS #Mastodon #NHAM #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism
Destroying Autocracy – October 02, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber arena with a focus on protecting it. That necessitates an opinionated Butlerian jihad against big tech as well as evangelizing for open-source and the Fediverse. Since big media’s journalism wing is flailing and failing in its core duty to democracy, this is also a collection of alternative reporting on the eternal battle between autocracy and democracy. We also cover the cybersecurity world. You can’t be free without safety and privacy.
DA comes out on Thursday and is updated through the end of day on Friday. Then we start over. So take your time in perusing it and check back in over the weekend.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN.
You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to and featured articles for each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing.
Featured Item
Cory Doctorow writes:
(I just gave) my first-ever speech about AI and I wasn’t sure how it would go over, but thankfully, it went great and sparked a lively Q&A. One of those questions came from a young man who said something like “So, you’re saying a third of the stock market is tied up in seven AI companies that have no way to become profitable and that this is a bubble that’s going to burst and take the whole economy with it?”
I said, “Yes, that’s right.”
He said, “OK, but what can we do about that?”
The real (economic) AI apocalypse is nigh
Just adjusted my investments as these c^nts are going to drag down everyone else with them.
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
The Guardian has a guest editorial:
Why I gave the world wide web away for free
LibreOffice celebrates:
LibreOffice turns 15: a celebration of freedom, collaboration and open technologies and standards
It’s FOSS News has:
Austria’s Armed Forces Gets Rid of Microsoft Office (Mostly) for LibreOffice
Framablog has:
Fin de Windows 10 : faisons le point
TechCrunch reports:
DJI loses lawsuit over classification as Chinese military company
California Governor Newsom signs landmark AI safety bill SB 53
BleepingComputer reports:
EU probes SAP over anti-competitive ERP support practices
NOS reports:
Judge: Instagram and Facebook should be given algorithm-free option
Tangle says:
It’s time to embrace the tech backlash.
TechDirt reports:
Disney’s Stupid, Pointless Ban Of Jimmy Kimmel Lost Them 1.7 Million Streaming Subscribers
NPR reports:
Hundreds of celebrities relaunch a McCarthy-era committee to defend free speech
The Daily Northwestern reports:
Flock contract termination talks persist after cameras reinstalled, city orders cease-and-desist
404 Media reports:
404 Media and Freedom of the Press Foundation Sue DHS
The Register reports:
EU funds are flowing into spyware companies, and politicians are demanding answers
Signal announces:
Signal Protocol and Post-Quantum Ratchets
DIY Conspiracy has:
The Counterforce: Building a DIY Punk Infrastructure Against Corporate Platforms
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
404 Media reports:
ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day
The Register reports:
ICE plans to scour Facebook, TikTok, X, and even defunct Google+ for illegal immigration leads
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
EFF, ACLU to SFPD: Stop Illegally Sharing Data With ICE and Anti-Abortion States
Mexican Allies Raise Alarms About New Mass Surveillance Laws, Call for International Support
TechPolicy reports:
Control for Whom? Keeping an Eye on the Dark Side of America’s New Wearables Campaign.
This tracks for the Supreme C^nts.
The Guardian reports:
Starmer to unveil digital ID cards in plan set to ignite civil liberties row
TechCrunch reports:
UK government tries again to access encrypted Apple customer data: Report
The United Kuntdum is at it again.
The Association for Progressive Communications shares:
Pariah States
The Register reports:
Fake North Korean IT workers sneaking into healthcare, finance, and AI
Most HR types I have run into are stupid, but this is approaching ridiculous.
Hunt for RedNovember: Beijing hacked critical orgs in year-long snooping campaign
DarkReading reports:
New China APT Strikes With Precision and Persistence
BleepingComputer reports:
Dutch teens arrested for trying to spy on Europol for Russia
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Moldova casts blame on Russia for attempts to disrupt pivotal parliamentary elections
Big Media
Columbia Journalism Review reports:
The Pentagon Press Gears Up for a Fight
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Wave of Phony News Quotes Affects Everyone—Including EFF
NiemanLab reports:
Scammers are using video deepfakes of journalists to peddle products online
Kagi announces:
Big Tech
Open Media Network says:
The #AI bubble might be nastier than the Dot.com crash
The Guardian reports:
Leading UK tech investor warns of ‘disconcerting’ signs of AI stock bubble
Again, see the featured article.
TikTok ‘directs child accounts to pornographic content within a few clicks’
DarkReading reports:
‘Trifecta’ of Google Gemini Flaws Turn AI Into Attack Vehicle
F-Droid needs our help:
F-Droid and Google’s Developer Registration Decree
Fuck Google.
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Register reports:
Feds cut funding to program that shared cyber threat info with local governments
Tile trackers are a stalker’s dream, say Georgia Tech researchers
BleepingComputer reports:
Sendit sued by the FTC for illegal collection of children data
Ben Werdmuller says:
Your private data isn’t as private as you think
Fediverse
Connected Places has a late:
NHAM announces:
How Indie Video Killed The Spotify Star
This looks awesome.
IFTAS announces:
The Social Web Foundation previews:
Cooperative Social Networks Berlin Fediday
The Applied Social Media Lab has:
Introducing the ASML ActivityPub Fuzzer: Improving Testing in the Fediverse
Great, great stuff.
Newsmast announces:
Building apps for social spaces
This is exactly the type of content The Programmer’s Fulcrum will cover. And we need more Fediverse businesses like this.
Mastodon has:
Bringing Quote Posts to Mastodon
Speaking of, Terence Eden has:
Getting started with Mastodon’s Quote Posts – technical implementation details for servers
Activity Pub for WordPress announces:
7.5.0 — Follow the Feed, Quote the Lead
TechCrunch reports:
Threads takes on X with new communities feature
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
TechCrunch reports:
Bluesky rolls out age verification for users in Ohio
The Social Web Foundation says:
The BlueSky Patent Non-Aggression Pledge is Good for The Social Web
Internet Exchange reports:
Bluesky Adopts More Flexible Model for Content Moderation
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
#ActivityPub #AI #ATProto #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bluesky #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #IFTAS #Mastodon #Newsmast #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #Threads #WordPress
@J
#putin #putler #fckptn #medwedew #putinwarcriminal #russland #ruzzia #russiaisaterrorisstate #stoprussia #moskau #kreml #Ukraine #UkraineWillWin #StandWithUkraine #GloryToUkraine #afd #noafd #fckafd #fcknzs #nazis #widerstand
Destroying Autocracy – September 25, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber arena with a focus on protecting it. That necessitates an opinionated Butlerian jihad against big tech as well as evangelizing for open-source and the Fediverse. Since big media’s journalism wing is flailing and failing in its core duty to democracy, this is also a collection of alternative reporting on the eternal battle between autocracy and democracy. We also cover the cybersecurity world. You can’t be free without safety and privacy.
DA comes out on Thursday and is updated through the end of day on Friday. Then we start over. So take your time in perusing it and check back in over the weekend.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN.
You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to and featured articles for each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing.
Featured Item
Tuta shares:
Finally some good news: French MPs want to make it illegal to break encryption and limit surveillance.
Is France finally standing up for encryption and privacy?
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
The Guardian reports:
Too tricky to cancel: Amazon faces US trial over alleged Prime subscription deceptions
Amazon to pay $2.5bn to settle FTC lawsuit over Prime ‘subscription traps’
Ars Technica reports:
How to fight censorship, one Disney+ cancellation at a time
I canceled Hulu, ESPN+, and Disney+. And they’re gonna stay canceled. My drinking budget just went up $90 a month. Cheers!
The Verge reports:
Microsoft forced to make Windows 10 extended security updates truly free in Europe
404 Media reports:
We’re Suing ICE for its $2 Million Spyware Contract
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Ukraine hacks Crimea proxy head, uncovers child abduction files, intelligence source says
FSFE reports:
The Digital Markets Act turns 1: one year of pushing for Device Neutrality
Neutral
The Next Web reports:
The EU’s €2T budget overlooks a key tech pillar: Open source
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
Tech Policy reports:
The Internet Coup Is Here. And the World Is Still Asleep
The Guardian reports:
Documents offer rare insight on Ice’s close relationship with Palantir
Reuters reports:
Exclusive: US could hit entire International Criminal Court with sanctions soon
The EFF reports:
That Drone in the Sky Could Be Tracking Your Car
404 Media reports:
How Surveillance Firms Use ‘Democracy’ As a Cover for Serving ICE and Trump
Ars Technica reports:
Senate staff probes DOGE, finds locked doors and windows covered with trash bags
Pariah States
DarkReading reports:
Chinese APT Leans on Researcher PoCs to Spy on Other Countries
Iran-Linked Hackers Target Europe With New Malware
EuroNews reports:
Inside Russia’s AI-driven disinformation machine shaping Moldova’s election
The Register reports:
SIM city: Feds say 100,000-card farms could have killed cell towers in NYC
Google warns China-linked spies lurking in ‘numerous’ enterprises since March
North Korea’s Lazarus Group shares its malware with IT work scammers
The Guardian reports:
Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its technology in mass surveillance of Palestinians
A small part of it.
Big Media
Fuck Disney, fuck ABC, fuck Sinclair, fuck the FCC, and fuck the orange hate baboon.
Ben Werdmuller has:
Building distributed media for a democratic breakdown
Big Tech
TechCrunch reports:
Meta launches super PAC to fight AI regulation as state policies mount
The Guardian reports:
Parents outraged as Meta uses photos of schoolgirls in ads targeting man
Meta exposé author faces bankruptcy after ban on criticising company
France24 reports:
EU rejects Apple demand to scrap landmark tech rules
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Going Viral vs. Going Dark: Why Extremism Trends and Abortion Content Gets Censored
If we stop using products from the c^nts at Meta, we can solve all these problems.
Computer World reports:
OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws
Hidde shares:
The politics of AI: we’ll need more sustainability, community and democracy
404 Media reports:
AI ‘Workslop’ Is Killing Productivity and Making Workers Miserable
Cybersecurity/Privacy
Camille Bouvat announces:
Saracroche, le bloqueur d’appels indésirables pour iPhone et Android
I was happy to find this spam blocker and put it to use on my Fairphone.
Between Two Firewalls reports:
Identity Is Still the Perimeter
Wired reports:
How Signal’s Meredith Whittaker Remembers SignalGate: ‘No Fucking Way’
BleepingComputer reports:
Police seizes $439 million stolen by cybercrime rings worldwide
Fediverse
Connected Places has:
Elena Rossini shares:
The Future Is Federated: My Fediverse Starter Guide
Open Journals has some new research:
Kalvin has:
Mastodon and Algorithms: Transparent, Simple, and User-Controlled
PeerTube announces:
PeerTube mobile app v1.1.0 is out!
PieFed announces:
Hackers Pub shows us:
How to Build a Simple ActivityPub Reminder Bot in Python.
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
TechCrunch reports:
Bluesky says it’s getting more aggressive about moderation and enforcement
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
#ActivityPub #AI #ATProto #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Mastodon #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism
10 years ago russians were violating Turkish air space, and got warned, and they ignored. Then Turkey shot down their jet, killing one pilot. And russians stopped.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Russian_Sukhoi_Su-24_shootdown
Client Info
Server: https://mastodon.social
Version: 2025.07
Repository: https://github.com/cyevgeniy/lmst