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:
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
The Register reports:
The year of the European Union Linux desktop may finally arrive
TechCrunch reports:
German data protection official wants Apple, Google to remove DeepSeek from the country’s app stores
The Guardian reports:
Denmark to tackle deepfakes by giving people copyright to their own features
Senator Blackburn announces:
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:
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
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Today’s Supreme Court Decision on Age Verification Tramples Free Speech and Undermines Privacy
The Supreme C^nts strike again.
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:
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:
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:
Timothy Chambers has:
The Seven Deadly Fediverse UX Sins Part 2: The Road To Redemption
Bless his soul.
Jaz-Michael King introduces:
Ghost hosting platform, MagicPages shares:
ActivityPub Federation Issue (June 21, 2025)
Activity Pub for WordPress reports:
What we shipped so far in 2025
Bonfire has:
Long-form content in Bonfire: Part 1
NLnet Foundation announces:
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:
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
Follow me on the Fediverse
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