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Battalion 👊🗡️⛓️‍💥<p><strong>Destroying Autocracy – July 17, 2025</strong></p><p><strong>Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.</strong></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p><strong>FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.</strong></p><p><strong>We are back from holiday and brief respite from Fascism Friendly Florida.</strong></p> <p><strong>Featured Item</strong></p> <p>Hamish Campbell writes:</p><p>Capitalism’s invisible hand has always relied on hidden data. In the digital age, that data is metadata the overlooked, under-the-hood information that tells us who, where, when, how often, and what next. It doesn’t matter what you say or do if someone else controls the context around it. That’s where the power lies. Let’s be clear: the battle for metadata is the battle for the future.</p><p><strong>Capitalism:</strong>&nbsp;Metadata is hoarded by the dotcons. This is the tech-feudalism of today—soft fascism in algorithmic form.</p><p><strong>Chinese Communism:</strong>&nbsp;Here, the state doesn’t outsource metadata – it owns it. Surveillance is centralised. Social credit systems reduce people to patterns and can be used to penalise deviation.</p><p><strong>Liberalism:</strong>&nbsp;Wants to privatise metadata to the individual, to revive the mythical free market of rational actors with perfect information. But this is a fantasy—metadata’s power comes from aggregation, and no individual can match corporate or state capacity to hoard it. The liberal path leads to a slightly less abusive cage.</p><p><strong>Anarchism and the Commons: A Fourth Way</strong></p><p>What does anarchism want? It wants the social conditions for free association. It wants autonomy, not just individual, but community autonomy.</p><p>In commons vs. the market, capitalism uses metadata to target, extract, and sell. We use metadata to share, trust, and build. The Open Media Network proposes a radical shift to replace the market with metadata commons. In capitalism, knowledge is hoarded for advantage. In the commons, it is shared for coordination. The market’s “invisible hand” becomes the commons’ visible knowledge, messy, partial, human, but rooted in mutual aid, not profit.</p><p><a href="https://hamishcampbell.com/metadata-and-the-omn-path-who-controls-the-invisible-hand/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Metadata and the OMN Path: Who Controls the Invisible Hand?</a></p> <p><strong>We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.</strong></p> <p><strong>The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery</strong></p> <p>TechCrunch reports:</p><p><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/15/ukrainian-hackers-claim-to-have-destroyed-servers-of-russian-drone-maker" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Ukrainian hackers claim to have destroyed servers of Russian drone maker</a></p><p>The Kyiv Independent reports:</p><p><a href="https://kyivindependent.com/eu-puts-sanctions-on-russian-individuals-entities-over-hybrid-threats-and-disinformation-campaigns/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">EU slaps new sanctions on Russia over hybrid threats, disinformation</a></p><p>BleepingComputer reports:</p><p><a href="https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/europol-disrupts-pro-russian-noname05716-ddos-hacktivist-group/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Europol disrupts pro-Russian NoName057(16) DDoS hacktivist group</a></p><p>ETH Zurich announces:</p><p><a href="https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2025/07/a-language-model-built-for-the-public-good.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">A language model built for the public good</a></p><p>Open Future reports on:</p><p><a href="https://openfuture.eu/our-work/ai-and-the-commons/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Our Work/ Public AI</a></p><p>It’s FOSS reports:</p><p><a href="https://news.itsfoss.com/europe-open-source-alternative-confluence/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Europe on a Roll: Plans Open Source Alternative to Confluence and Jira</a></p><p>OpenProject shares:</p><p><a href="https://www.openproject.org/blog/public-sector-project-management-case-studies/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Empowering the Public Sector with OpenProject: An Open Source alternative for project management</a></p><p>Bloomberg Law reports:</p><p><a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/states-target-ai-hiring-tools-as-federal-freeze-attempt-fails" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">States Target AI Hiring Tools as Federal Freeze Attempt Fails</a></p><p>404 Media has:</p><p><a href="https://www.404media.co/the-open-source-software-saving-the-internet-from-ai-bot-scrapers/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">The Open-Source Software Saving the Internet From AI Bot Scrapers</a></p><p><a href="https://www.404media.co/immigration-raid-tracking-app-ice-block-keeps-your-data-private-researcher-finds/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Immigration Raid Tracking App ‘ICE Block’ Keeps Your Data Private, Researcher Finds</a></p><p>Open Ice is a new resource:</p><p><a href="https://www.openice.org/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">OpenIce</a></p><p>TechPolicy reports:</p><p><a href="https://techpolicy.press/states-are-fighting-back-to-defend-medical-privacy-and-safeguard-democracy" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">States Are Fighting Back To Defend Medical Privacy and Safeguard Democracy</a></p><p>The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:</p><p><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/07/despite-supreme-court-setback-eff-fights-against-online-age-mandates" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Despite Supreme Court Setback, EFF Fights On Against Online Age Mandates</a></p> <p><strong>Neutral</strong></p> <p>TechPolicy reports:</p><p><a href="https://techpolicy.press/how-the-eus-voluntary-ai-code-is-testing-industry-and-regulators-alike" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">How the EU’s Voluntary AI Code is Testing Industry and Regulators Alike</a></p><p><a href="https://techpolicy.press/making-media-pluralism-work-in-the-age-of-algorithms" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Making Media Pluralism Work in the Age of Algorithms</a></p><p>The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:</p><p><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/07/effs-guide-getting-records-about-axons-ai-generated-police-reports" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">EFF’s Guide to Getting Records About Axon’s Draft One AI-Generated Police Reports</a></p> <p><strong>The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back</strong></p> <p>Platformer reports:</p><p><a href="https://www.platformer.news/andrew-bailey-chatgpt-trump-jawboning-legal-case/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">The campaign to make it illegal for ChatGPT to criticize Trump</a></p><p>Krebs on Security reports:</p><p><a href="https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/07/doge-denizen-marko-elez-leaked-api-key-for-xai/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">DOGE Denizen Marko Elez Leaked API Key for xAI</a></p><p>404 Media reports:</p><p><a href="https://www.404media.co/ice-is-searching-a-massive-insurance-and-medical-bill-database-to-find-deportation-targets/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">ICE Is Searching a Massive Insurance and Medical Bill Database to Find Deportation Target</a></p><p>TechPolicy reports:</p><p><a href="https://techpolicy.press/the-us-just-logged-off-from-internet-freedom" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">The US Just Logged Off from Internet Freedom</a></p><p>ProPublica has:</p><p><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-irs-share-tax-records-ice-dhs-deportations" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">The IRS Is Building a Vast System to Share Millions of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE</a></p><p><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/microsoft-digital-escorts-pentagon-defense-department-china-hackers" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">A Little-Known Microsoft Program Could Expose the Defense Department to Chinese Hackers</a></p><p>Ars Technica reports:</p><p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/07/trump-sues-corporation-for-public-broadcasting-directors-who-refused-to-be-fired/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Trump sues Corporation for Public Broadcasting directors who refused to be fired</a></p> <p><strong>Pariah States</strong></p> <p>BleepingComputer reports:</p><p><a href="https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/north-korean-xorindex-malware-hidden-in-67-malicious-npm-packages/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">North Korean XORIndex malware hidden in 67 malicious npm packages</a></p><p>DarkReading reports:</p><p><a href="https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/salt-typhoon-hacks-us-national-guard" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">China-Backed Salt Typhoon Hacks US National Guard for Nearly a Year</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/4-chinese-apts-taiwan-semiconductor-industry" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">4 Chinese APTs Attack Taiwan’s Semiconductor Industry</a></p><p>Noyb has:</p><p><a href="https://noyb.eu/en/how-tiktok-aliexpress-wechat-ignore-your-gdpr-rights" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">How TikTok, AliExpress &amp; WeChat ignore your GDPR rights</a></p> <p><strong>Big Media</strong></p> <p>404 Media reports:</p><p><a href="https://www.404media.co/the-medias-pivot-to-ai-is-not-real-and-not-going-to-work/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">The Media’s Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work</a></p><p>TechPolicy reports:</p><p><a href="https://www.techpolicy.press/old-tricks-new-tech-how-legacy-media-capture-fuels-todays-digital-authoritarianism" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Old Tricks, New Tech: How Legacy Media Capture Fuels Today’s Digital Authoritarianism</a></p><p>Mediations in an Emergency reports:</p><p><a href="https://www.meditationsinanemergency.com/please-shout-fire-this-tis-burning/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Please Shout Fire. This Theater Is Burning</a></p> <p><strong>Big Tech</strong></p> <p>Ars Technica reports:</p><p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2025/07/new-grok-ai-model-surprises-experts-by-checking-elon-musks-views-before-answering/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">New Grok AI model surprises experts by checking Elon Musk’s views before answering</a></p><p>TechCrunch reports:</p><p><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/15/of-course-groks-ai-companions-want-to-have-sex-and-burn-down-schools/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Of course, Grok’s AI companions want to have sex and burn down schools</a></p><p><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/16/openai-and-anthropic-researchers-decry-reckless-safety-culture-at-elon-musks-xai/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">OpenAI and Anthropic researchers decry ‘reckless’ safety culture at Elon Musk’s xAI</a></p><p>The Verge asks:</p><p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/news/706569/apple-ios-iphone-alternative-browser-webkit-owa" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Where are the iPhone’s WebKit-less browsers?</a></p><p>Pluralistic by Cory Doctorow has:</p><p><a href="https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/15/inhuman-gigapede/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Where are the iPhone’s WebKit-less browsers?</a></p><p>404 Media reports:</p><p><a href="https://www.404media.co/a16z-backed-ai-site-civitai-is-mostly-porn-despite-claiming-otherwise/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">a16z-Backed AI Site Civitai Is Mostly Porn, Despite Claiming Otherwise</a></p><p>The Markup reports:</p><p><a href="https://themarkup.org/artificial-intelligence/2025/07/16/ai-is-helping-students-be-more-independent-but-the-isolation-could-be-career-poison" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">AI is helping students be more independent, but the isolation could be career&nbsp;poison</a></p><p><strong>This times 1,000.</strong></p> <p><strong>Terror</strong></p> <p>404 Media reports:</p><p><a href="https://www.404media.co/3d-printing-patterns-might-make-ghost-guns-more-traceable-than-we-thought/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">3D Printing Patterns Might Make Ghost Guns More Traceable Than We Thought</a></p> <p><strong>Cybersecurity/Privacy</strong></p> <p>Bleeping Computer has:</p><p><a href="https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-gemini-flaw-hijacks-email-summaries-for-phishing/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Google Gemini flaw hijacks email summaries for phishing</a></p><p><a href="https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/malicious-vscode-extension-in-cursor-ide-led-to-500k-crypto-theft/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Malicious VSCode extension in Cursor IDE led to $500K crypto theft</a></p><p><strong>Sounds like a win-win.</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/police-disrupt-diskstation-ransomware-gang-attacking-nas-devices/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Police disrupt “Diskstation” ransomware gang attacking NAS devices</a></p><p>Ars Technica reports:</p><p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/07/hackers-exploit-a-blind-spot-by-hiding-malware-inside-dns-records/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Hackers exploit a blind spot by hiding malware inside DNS records</a></p><p>DarkReading reports:</p><p><a href="https://www.darkreading.com/remote-workforce/military-veterans-cybersecurity" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Military Veterans May Be What Cybersecurity Is Looking For</a></p><p><strong>Beats being in the National Guard.</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.darkreading.com/cybersecurity-operations/women-hacked-status-quo-cybersecurity-careers" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Women Who ‘Hacked the Status Quo’ Aim to Inspire Cybersecurity Careers</a></p><p>The Next Web reports:</p><p><a href="https://thenextweb.com/news/startup-whisper-emerges-from-stealth-with-god-mode-to-tackle-cybercrime" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Whisper emerges from stealth with ‘God Mode’ to tackle cybercrime</a></p> <p><strong>Fediverse</strong></p> <p>Connected Places has:</p><p><a href="https://connectedplaces.online/reports/fediverse-report-125/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Fediverse Report – #125</a></p><p><a href="https://connectedplaces.online/age-verification-laws-are-the-new-social-networks-different-or-not-at-all/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Age Verification Laws: Are the New Social Networks Different, Or Not At All?</a></p><p>Steve Bate has:</p><p><a href="https://www.stevebate.net/activitypub-client-api-a-way-forward/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">ActivityPub Client API: A Way Forward</a></p><p>The Social Web Foundation has:</p><p><a href="https://socialwebfoundation.org/2025/07/14/seeking-interop-testing-for-geosocial-activitypub-client/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Seeking interop testing for geosocial ActivityPub client</a></p><p>Mastodon has:</p><p><a href="https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/07/trunk-tidbits-june-2025/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Trunk &amp; Tidbits, June 2025</a></p><p>Privacy Guides has:</p><p><a href="https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/07/15/mastodon-privacy-and-security/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Privacy and Security on Mastodon</a></p><p>Bandwagon has an update:</p><p><a href="https://bandwagon.fm/2025-july" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">July 2025</a></p><p>Elena Rossini has:</p><p><a href="https://elenarossini.com/2025/07/my-adventures-in-self-hosting-day-211-cdn-edition/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">My adventures in self-hosting: day 211 (CDN edition)</a></p><p>Forgejo announces:</p><p><a href="https://forgejo.org/2025-07-release-v12-0/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Forgejo v12.0 is available</a></p><p>TechCrunch reports:</p><p><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/17/meta-appoints-generative-ai-vp-to-run-threads/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Meta appoints generative AI VP to run Threads</a></p><p><strong>I guess it wasn’t shitty enough.</strong></p> <p><strong>Slightly Federated Social Media</strong></p><p>Connected Places has:</p><p><a href="https://connectedplaces.online/reports/bluesky-report-125/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Bluesky Report – #125</a></p><p>Reuters reports:</p><p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/european-project-eurosky-aims-reduce-reliance-us-tech-giants-2025-07-15/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">European project Eurosky aims to reduce reliance on US tech giants</a></p> <p><strong>CTAs (aka show us some free love)</strong></p> <ul><li>That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.</li><li><a href="https://friendica.me/profile/friendofsymfony/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Follow me on the Fediverse</a>. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via <a href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/feed/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">RSS</a>.</li></ul> <p>Keep fighting!</p> <p class=""><strong><em>Ringleader, Battalion</em></strong><br>Reuben Walker<br> <a href="https://friendica.me/profile/friendofsymfony/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Follow me on the Fediverse</a></p> <p><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/125/" target="_blank">#125</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/activitypub/" target="_blank">#ActivityPub</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/ai/" target="_blank">#AI</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/atproto/" target="_blank">#ATProto</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/autocracy/" target="_blank">#Autocracy</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/bandwagon/" target="_blank">#Bandwagon</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/big-journalism/" target="_blank">#BigJournalism</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/big-tech/" target="_blank">#BigTech</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/bluesky/" target="_blank">#Bluesky</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/democracy/" target="_blank">#Democracy</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/fascism/" target="_blank">#Fascism</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/fediverse/" target="_blank">#Fediverse</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/forgejo/" target="_blank">#Forgejo</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/mastodon/" target="_blank">#Mastodon</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/stop-china/" target="_blank">#StopChina</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/stop-israel/" target="_blank">#StopIsrael</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/stop-red-america/" target="_blank">#StopRedAmerica</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/stop-russia/" target="_blank">#StopRussia</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/support-ukraine/" target="_blank">#SupportUkraine</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/technoanarchism/" target="_blank">#TechnoAnarchism</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/technofeudalism/" target="_blank">#TechnoFeudalism</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/tag/threads/" target="_blank">#Threads</a></p><p><a href="https://battalion.mobileatom.net/?p=2105" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">battalion.mobileatom.net/?p=21</span><span class="invisible">05</span></a></p>
Continued thread

The first campaign of the German Battalion of the #NAFO #69thSniffingBrigade is active! 🇺🇦 🇩🇪

For donations of € 100 or more, there is a beautiful, limited edition patch as a small thank you.

Click here to go to the campaign page:
help99.co/patches/german-batta

If Ukraine falls, Europe falls!

#69th_sniffing_brigade #Ukraine #supportUkraine #HelpUkraine #fella #fellas #fellas4europe #GermanFellas
#GermanBattalion

www.help99.coGerman BattalionJoin us in raising funds with the German Battalion for NAFO Truck 2.0 evacuation vehicles for Ukraine.

Eine herzliche Einladung!

Die erste Kampagne des deutschen Battalion der #NAFO #69thSniffingBrigade ist aktiv! 🇺🇦 🇩🇪

Für Spenden ab € 100 gibt es ein wunderschönes, limitiertes Patch als kleines Dankeschön.

Hier geht es zur Kampagnenseite:
help99.co/patches/german-batta

Fällt die Ukraine, dann fällt Europa!

#69th_sniffing_brigade #Ukraine #supportUkraine #HelpUkraine #fella #fellas #fellas4europe #GermanFellas
#GermanBattalion

www.help99.coGerman BattalionJoin us in raising funds with the German Battalion for NAFO Truck 2.0 evacuation vehicles for Ukraine.

#Stadt #WeideninderOberpfalz: Solidarität mit den #Juden und ihren #Staat #Israel

Die Gesellschaft für #ChristlichjüdischeZusammenarbeitWeiden lädt zu einem "Tag der Solidarität mit Juden und Israel" ein.

Als Auftakt zeigt die Gesellschaft am 9. Juli den Film “Shalom 75 – Gottes einzigartige Treue” im Pfarrheim Herz Jesu, Lerchenfeldstraße 7, Beginn 19 Uhr. Der Eintritt ist frei

gruppe8maiweiden.blogspot.com/
#jewslivesmatter #Antideutsche #Antifa #SupportIsrael #SupportUkraine #mensch #againsthamas

Destroying Autocracy – July 3, 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.

Next week I will be on holiday so there won’t be an issue. I will probably boost some things on the Fediverse though.

Featured Item

DevCollaborative writes:

The Trump administration and its supporters are attacking dissenting views on a terrifying scale. With so much of online communications compromised and censored, independent websites are a critical piece of social movement infrastructure that we need to promote and defend.

If your nonprofit has a website, you are part of this essential communications work.

There are looming threats of financially independent nonprofits being censored under the guise of fighting “terrorism” or “sedition.”

Protecting Nonprofit Websites from a Hostile Government

We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.

The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery

Time has a profile:

How Signal President Meredith Whittaker Took on Signal-Gate

The Register reports:

Proton bashes Apple and joins antitrust suit that seeks to throw the App Store wide open

The Register reports:

Huawei can’t wriggle out of Iran sanctions trial, judge rules

Tara Tarakiyee explores:

Digital Sovereignty in Practice: Web Browsers as a Reality Check

TechPolicy reports:

EU Disinformation Code Takes Effect Amid Censorship Claims and Trade Tensions

Politico reports:

The first American ‘scientific refugees’ arrive in France

BleepingComputer reports:

Hikvision Canada ordered to cease operations over security risks

Germany asks Google, Apple to remove DeepSeek AI from app stores

Raconteur has:

‘You need to be a little bit crazy’: Nextcloud CEO on confronting the hyperscalers

Nextclound reports on:

Why organizations migrate from Microsoft 365 in 2025

TechCrunch reports:

ICEBlock, an app for anonymously reporting ICE sightings, goes viral overnight after Bondi criticism

Ars Technica reports:

Meta, TikTok can’t toss wrongful death suit from mom of “subway surfing” teen

Ted Cruz plan to punish states that regulate AI shot down in 99-1 vote

The Markup has more:

State AI regulations safe after Senate strips moratorium from ‘big, beautiful bill’

MIT Technology Review reports:

Cloudflare will now, by default, block AI bots from crawling its clients’ websites

Cloudfare has the details:

Control content use for AI training with Cloudflare’s managed robots.txt and blocking for monetized content

The crawl before the fall… of referrals: understanding AI’s impact on content providers

Neutral

CNBC reports:

The AI-boom’s multi-billion dollar blind spot: Reasoning models hitting a wall

Dries Buyaert (of Drupal fame) writes:

The web’s broken deal with AI companies

Dries, you say you may be naive. You are if you think anything other than politics (regulation or huge boycotts) are going to fix the problem.

The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back

The Guardian opines:

Peter Thiel’s Palantir poses a grave threat to Americans

TechDirt reports:

Supreme Court Cripples FCC Further, Making Robocall Enforcement Likely Impossible

The Supreme C^nts strike again.

The Guardian reports:

Trump officials create searchable national citizenship database

TechPolicy reports:

Countering the Politics of Deservingness in the Fight for Digital Equity

How US Firms Are Weakening the EU AI Code of Practice

Pariah States

TechCrunch reports:

US government takes down major North Korean ‘remote IT workers’ operation

DarkReading reports:

Scope, Scale of Spurious North Korean IT Workers Emerges

Silver Fox Suspected in Taiwanese Campaign Using DeepSeek Lure

Russian APT ‘Gamaredon’ Hits Ukraine With Fierce Phishing

The Kyiv Independent reports:

US sanctions Russian IT company Aeza Group over ransomware operations

Big Media

The PressGazette reports:

How SFGATE is making local news pay and filling California’s news gaps

Ars Technica reports:

NYT to start searching deleted ChatGPT logs after beating OpenAI in court

Torment Nexus reports:

Why Substack shouldn’t be the future of online publishing

CNN reports:

After settling with Trump, CBS News staffers fear what comes next

There are cowards, and then there are cowardly c^nts.

Big Tech

TechPolicy reports:

Tech Oligarchs and the Rise of Silicon Valley Pronatalism

The Guardian reports:

Fears AI factcheckers on X could increase promotion of conspiracy theories

Ars Technica reports:

Everything that could go wrong with X’s new AI-written community notes

TikTok is being flooded with racist AI videos generated by Google’s Veo 3

Android Authority reports:

You’re not alone: This email from Google’s Gemini team was concerning (Updated: Google statement)

Tuta asks:

“Sovereign cloud” or “sovereign washing”? A Trojan Horse at Europe’s digital gates.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:

Flock Safety’s Feature Updates Cannot Make Automated License Plate Readers Safe

The Register reports:

AI agents get office tasks wrong around 70% of the time, and a lot of them aren’t AI at all

AI models just don’t understand what they’re talking about

The Verge reports:

Facebook is starting to feed its AI with private, unpublished photos

TechCrunch reports:

Meta users say paying for Verified support has been useless in the face of mass bans

TechCrunch reports:

Meta has found another way to keep you engaged: Chatbots that message you first

I guess if you are amoral enough to use Meta products and you are a moron who talks to AI, this is what you deserve.

PC Gamer reports:

‘AI is no longer optional’: Microsoft is allegedly pressuring employees to use AI tools through manager evaluations

Cybersecurity/Privacy

The Verge asks:

How vulnerable is critical infrastructure to cyberattack in the US?

Bleeping Computer reports:

FBI: Cybercriminals steal health data posing as fraud investigators

BleepingComputer reports:

Spain arrests hackers who targeted politicians and journalists

Fediverse

Connected Places has:

Fediverse Report – #123

Mastodon has:

Mastodon 4.4 for Developers

Dead Superher looks at:

Mitigating the “7 Deadly Fediverse UX Sins”

Jaz-Michael King shares:

Digital Belonging: Why Language and Locality Matter

Viger has:

Flipboard Surf

TechCrunch reports:

Automattic puts Tumblr migration to WordPress on hold

Ghost has:

The Longformers: Ghost, WordPress, Flipboard, Fediverse

NodeBB asks:

What drew you to ActivityPub?

Longform content has the best chance to grow the Fediverse, IMHO.

IT Notes shares:

FediMeteo: How a Tiny €4 FreeBSD VPS Became a Global Weather Service for Thousands

Forgejo has its:

Forgejo monthly report – June 2025

ActivityPub for WordPress announces:

HTTP Signature Upgrades Coming Soon

TechCrunch reports:

Not everyone is thrilled with Threads’ DMs

RSS

Preslav Rachev shares:

From Outbound to Inbound and Back Again: The Hidden Power of RSS Feeds

Great stuff. RSS is still my main curation source. So, get an RSS feed on your blog, handle, etc. 🙂

Slightly Federated Social Media

Connected Places has:

Bluesky Report – #123

CTAs (aka show us some free love)

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Kein Platz für antisemitische Vernichtungsparolen!
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Destroying Autocracy – June 26, 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.

Featured Item

Hamish Campbell writes:

It’s good to see events like NGIFORUM2025 as it’s trying to be on the path of the Fediverse and the wider Open Web reboot which are real forces for social good, messy, hopeful, and grounded in decades of grassroots digital culture, which we do need to support. BUT, we also need to speak honestly, as these spaces are not healthy by default.

Too often, they are co-opted by NGO and institutional actors who bring with them a dangerous kind of “common sense”, what I’ve long described as the parasite class. We see this clearly at NGIFORUM and similar NGO events.

NGIFORUM2025 is timidly touching sense

We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.

The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery

Numerique reports:

Le Cigref soutient la démarche de résilience numérique portée par la France, l’Allemagne et les Pays-Bas pour construire une Europe numérique durable et de confiance dans le cadre d’Eurostack

C’est un grande headline. 😉

The Conversation reviews:

Is AI a con? A new book punctures the hype and proposes some ways to resist

The U.K. governmnet announce:

CMA takes first steps to improve competition in search services in the UK

Le Monde reports:

Lyon délaisse la suite Office de Microsoft pour l’open source

Nextcloud reports:

A sovereign Microsoft 365 alternative: Nextcloud and IONOS join forces

Senator Blackburn announces:

Blackburn, Blumenthal, Lee, Klobuchar, and Durbin Introduce Bipartisan Antitrust Bill to Promote App Store Competition

The Verge reviews:

The smaller Fairphone 6 introduces swapable accessories

404 Media reports:

‘FuckLAPD.com’ Lets Anyone Use Facial Recognition to Instantly Identify Cops

Ars Technica reports:

Media Matters sues FTC, says agency is retaliating on behalf of Elon Musk

Neutral

Politico reports:

Trump can pull the plug on the internet, and Europe can’t do anything about it

Ars Technica reports:

Judge denies creating “mass surveillance program” harming all ChatGPT users

TechCrunch reports:

A federal judge sides with Anthropic in lawsuit over training AI on books without authors’ permission

And another just sided with Meta. Fuck!

The Evil Empire Strikes Back

The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:

EFF to European Commission: Don’t Resurrect Illegal Data Retention Mandates

How Cops Can Get Your Private Online Data

Politico reports:

Top Pentagon spy pick rejected by White House

The Kyiv Independent reports:

Trump administration sends layoff notices to 600 Voice of America staff, NYT reports

The Gray Zone reports:

US Army appoints Palantir, Meta, OpenAI execs as Lt. Colonels

The Center for Democracy and Technology reports:

New Orleans’ Dragnet Facial Recognition Program Threatens Innocent People

404 Media reports:

Flock Removes States From National Lookup Tool After ICE and Abortion Searches Revealed

Pariah States

DarkReading reports:

How Geopolitical Tensions Are Shaping Cyber Warfare

Bleeping Computer reports:

Russian hackers bypass Gmail MFA using stolen app passwords

APT28 hackers use Signal chats to launch new malware attacks on Ukraine

Canada says Salt Typhoon hacked telecom firm via Cisco flaw

The Register reports:

Typhoon-like gang slinging TLS certificate ‘signed’ by the Los Angeles Police Department

Big Media

The Columbia Journalism Review reports:

AI Search Has A Citation Problem

Atoms vs. Bytes has:

Substack’s Secret

Fuck the Nerd Reich’s S.S.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:

New Journalism Curriculum Module Teaches Digital Security for Border Journalists

Big Tech

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has:

Protect Yourself From Meta’s Latest Attack on Privacy

The BBC reports:

Musk’s X sues New York state over social media hate speech law

Frontiers reports:

Some of your AI prompts could cause 50 times more CO2 emissions than others

Zero prompts = zero emissions.

Neural Trust reports:

Echo Chamber: A Context-Poisoning Jailbreak That Bypasses LLM Guardrails

Computer Weekly reports:

Beyond the AI hype: How data laws quietly handed power to government and Big Tech

Axios has:

Publishers facing existential threat from AI, Cloudflare CEO says

The Register reports:

The AIpocalypse is here for web sites as search referrals plunge

Hey you AI lovers, these are the sites you build. No traffic equals no money for you. Plus, the AI c^nts stole the info from the people whose traffic they are destroying. And maybe your code. Not to mention devastating the environment. Look in the fucking mirror. And avoid being reincarnated as a cockroach.

The Register reports:

Top AI models – even American ones – parrot Chinese propaganda, report finds

Psylo browser tries to obscure digital fingerprints by giving every tab its own IP address

If you want to do something about the next article.

Texas A&M University reports:

Websites Are Tracking You Via Browser Fingerprinting

noyb reports:

Bumble’s AI icebreakers are mainly breaking EU law

EuroNews reports:

Big Tech isn’t doing enough to fight disinformation, EU body says

Cybersecurity/Privacy

TechCrunch reports:

US House bans WhatsApp from staff devices

You’ve got to be clowns if these mofos ban you.

Dark Reading reports:

How the US Military Is Redefining Zero Trust

Hundreds of MCP Servers Expose AI Models to Abuse, RCE

BleepingComputer reports:

New FileFix attack weaponizes Windows File Explorer for stealthy commands

3 key takeaways from the Scattered Spider attacks on insurance firms

Earth reports:

China breaks RSA encryption with a quantum computer, threatening global data security

Tommy Mysk announces:

Introducing Psylo — A New Kind of Private Web Browser

Fediverse

Connected Places (rebrand) has:

Fediverse Report – #122

Welcome to Connected Places

Hamish Campbell has:

This is a story of power, plain and simple

And he’s correct.

Actors, Power, and Collective Publishing: Rethinking Fediverse Architecture for Grassroots Media

On a similar note, Jeremy Herve explores:

WordPress, WordLand, and the Open Web

Dave Winer has the details on WordLand:

WordPress and me

Timothy Chambers has:

The Seven Deadly Fediverse UX Sins Part 2: The Road To Redemption

Bless his soul.

Jaz-Michael King introduces:

StartHereSocial

Ghost hosting platform, MagicPages shares:

ActivityPub Federation Issue (June 21, 2025)

Activity Pub for WordPress reports:

What we shipped so far in 2025

NLnet Foundation announces:

Mastodon for institutions

62 new projects contribute to digital commons

There are other Fediverse grants in this article including WordPress, Activity Pub, Funkwhale, and Node BB.

Slightly Federated Social Media

Connected Places has:

ATmosphere Report – #122

The Globe and Mail reports:

Tech leaders ready launch of Canadian social-media platform Gander to buck U.S. dominance

Basically Blacksky for Canadians.

TechDirt has:

Community And Choice Are Not Bubbles

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.

Keep fighting!

Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
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#122 #ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Funkwhale #Ghost #Mastodon #StopChina #StopIran #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #WordPress

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Replied in thread

@chowderman
Thank you. The article states that when they are retired (most are still in service), they will have served over 40 years. I hope compelling MPs to discuss the matter will force them to quantify that cost of refurbishment and associated training, and where that money gets spent (probably mostly in the UK), and weigh that up against the benefit it would confer to Ukraine, and the other spending options that might compete for that money. I understand we're committing 5% of GDP on defence spending. I'd love to see it spent in the UK. If these vehicles are going to be scrapped, and if so doing it is economical, I would like to see them turned to scrap on the battlefield, protecting the lives (and sovereignty) of our allies.