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 Items
Bookmark this book length 😉 but essential article from We Don’t Agree:
Technically Radical: On the Unrecognized Potential of Tech Workers and Hackers
For now scroll down to ON THE STRATEGIC POSSIBILITIES FOR OUR PRESENT and following the advise.
I have also added a quote from it to a new section in The Techno Anarchist Manifesto.
Drew Lyton has:
Great stuff that ties in nicely with what we are advocating here on Battalion.
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:
Proton releases a new app for two-factor authentication
Flights grounded as Russia’s largest airline Aeroflot hacked and systems ‘destroyed’
The Kyiv Independent reports:
The Register reports:
Europe’s AI crackdown starts this week and Big Tech isn’t happy
Italy says Meta may be violating law with AI in WhatsApp
Edge case: Opera claims Microsoft still playing dirty with defaults
US Navy won’t torpedo hurricane forecast satellite feed after all
Open Future opines:
A Step Forward, But Not Far Enough: the EU’s AI Transparency Template
The European Commission reports:
The Cradle reports:
Netherlands labels Israel ‘threat to national security’ for first time
They are a threat to every nation on Earth’s national security, as are all pariah surveillance states.
The European Commission announces:
Commission proposes partial suspension of Israel’s association to Horizon Europe
Unfortunately, the German and Italian pseudo-fascists blocked it.
TechPolicy reports:
Trump’s Attack on Brazil’s Sovereignty May Backfire on US Tech Firms
Bom!
EuroNews reports:
Gloomy times ahead for European political advertising
Bon, bom, bene, e bueno!
EU fails to agree Israeli suspension from research fund over Gaza
Ars Technica reports:
Google confirms it will sign the EU AI Code of Practice
Bleeping Computer reports:
Internet Archive is now a US federal depository library
CISA open-sources Thorium platform for malware, forensic analysis
W3C announces:
Vision for W3C is a W3C Statement
Media Revolution announces:
The Media Revolution countdown campaign is LIVE!
IMHO, this ties in with the Open Media Network idea featured in our Techno Anarchist Manifesto.
Murena shares:
What is a VPN (virtual private network)?
Nextcloud reports:
The Nextcloud Include initiative: How Nextcloud supports diversity in open source
Cory Doctorow has:
You can’t fight enshittification (But we can.)
In addition to the tactics in the Techno Anarchist Manifesto, we have to fight in the political realm as well.
Neutral
Bert Hubert looks at:
Europe’s Self Inflicted Cloud Crisis
The Guardian reports:
Why did thousands of adult titles just disappear from the biggest PC gaming marketplaces?
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
Breach Media reports:
Mark Carney’s AI agenda is a gift to Big Tech
Canada is 1,010 times better than the U.S. but it ain’t perfect.
404 Media reports:
UK Users Need to Post Selfie or Photo ID to View Reddit’s r/IsraelCrimes, r/UkraineWarFootage
The United Kuntsdumb is now only 1.46 times better than the United States of Assholes and getting worse by the minute.
The MIT Technology Review reports:
What you may have missed about Trump’s AI Action Plan
TechDirt reports:
Trump Threatens To Withold Billions From States That Try To Make Broadband Affordable To Poor People
Pariah States
So-called newspaper, The Washington Times reports:
Hackers breach intelligence website used by CIA
BleepingComputer reports:
French telecom giant Orange discloses cyberattack
Microsoft: Russian hackers use ISP access to hack embassies in AiTM attacks
DarkReading reports:
Russia’s Secret Blizzard APT Gains Embassy Access via ISPs
The Register reports:
Silk Typhoon spun a web of patents for offensive cyber tools, report says
Big Media
404 Media reports:
Patreon reports:
Substack sent a push alert promoting a Nazi blog
I am sorry, but if you are on SubStack at this point you are either an uninformed amoral moron or a c^nt. Thankfully, you can still avoid being reincarnated as a cockroach by moving to Ghost or Buttondown.
ArsTechnica reports:
Substack’s “Nazi problem” won’t go away after push notification apology
The Columbia Journalism Review reports:
Traffic Apocalypse: Google’s AI Overviews are killing click-throughs to news sites.
Big Tech
The Register reports:
‘Impossible hill to climb’: US clouds crush European competition on their home turf
Publishers cry foul over W3C crusade to rid web of third-party cookies
Ars Technica reports:
Meta pirated and seeded porn for years to train AI, lawsuit says
TechCrunch reports:
Zuckerberg signals Meta won’t open source all of its ‘superintelligence’ AI models
BTW, their current ones are in no way opensource.
Bikepacking shares:
Terror
The Guardian reports:
Far-right extremists using games platforms to radicalise teenagers, report warns
Cybersecurity/Privacy
TechPolicy asks:
Is There Any Way Forward for Privacy Legislation in the United States?
BleepingComputer reports:
Post SMTP plugin flaw exposes 200K WordPress sites to hijacking attacks
DarkReading shows us:
How to Spot Malicious AI Agents Before They Strike
ChatGPT, GenAI Tools Open to ‘Man in the Prompt’ Browser Attack
Tuta reports:
Switzerland plans surveillance worse than U.S.
BitDefender reports:
French submarine secrets surface after cyber attack
Platformer reports:
Trust and safety workers on why they’re not speaking out
And here’s the previous post he referenced.
404 Media reports:
Tea App Turns Off DMs After Exposing Messages About Abortions, Cheating
FYI, Platformer and 404 Media are on Ghost and thus part of the Open Media Network.
RSS
The wonderful Citation Needed reports:
Curate your own newspaper with RSS
Ben Werdmuller has more:
Curate your own newspaper with RSS
Fediverse
Connected Places has:
For Better has:
Mastodon Defence Command: The Scam Wave
Fedify announces:
Implementing custom collection dispatchers
QCB asks:
So Your Black Ass Still Wants to Get on Mastodon
ActivityPub for WordPress announces:
Slightly Federated Social Media
Connected Places has:
Blacksky has:
Infrastructure for Interdependence: Building technology in service of collective power
Blacksky is what Bluesky would be if it wasn’t created and run by tech bros.
404 Media reports:
This Company Wants to Bring End-to-End Encrypted Messages to Bluesky’s AT Protocol
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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