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
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