Welcome to this week’s “Defending Democracy”.
It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber space arena with a focus on protecting democracy. That necessitates an opinionated Butlerian jihad against big tech as well as evangelizing for open-source and the Fediverse. We also cover the cybersecurity world. You can’t be free without safety and privacy.
It 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.
Featured Item
MIT Technology Review writes:
Artificial intelligence could put us on the path to a booming economic future, but getting there will take some serious course corrections.
And it won’t be easy for AI companies to rethink their huge foundation models for … real-world problems. They will need to engage with industry experts from a wide variety of sectors and respond to their needs. But the reality is that the big AI companies are the only organizations with the vast computational power to run today’s foundation models and the talent to invent the next generations of the technology.
So like it or not, in dominating the field, they have taken on the responsibility for its broad applicability. Whether they will shoulder that responsibility for all our benefit or (once again) ignore it for the siren song of wealth accumulation will eventually reveal itself.
How to fine-tune AI for prosperity
Short-term profits or productivity? Which will those pushing “AI” choose? I think we know which way this will go.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes and other douchebaggery
The Kyiv Independent shares a story from The Counteroffensive:
The Guardian reports:
Authors sue Anthropic for copyright infringement over AI training
Open Society Foundations reports on:
Reuters reports:
At DNC, influencers battle journalists for space and access
Oliver Willis Explains reports:
Time For A Break: Democrats Don’t Need The Media
The.Ink reports:
The rise of the “Brat Pack” — and a new Democratic political style
The Verge reports:
With the DNC, Democrats finally understand that content is king
Speaking of, MindWar reports:
The Love Bomb: In psychological warfare terms, we’re witnessing a brutal, devastating counterstrike
BBC reports:
‘Keyboard warrior’ jailed for part in UK disorder
Cory Doctorow says:
The Register reports:
Amazon antitrust case in Washington DC is resurrected
The Record reports:
Biden administration pledges $11 million to open source security initiative
TechDirt reports:
New FCC Rule Would Make Robocallers Disclose They’re Using AI
The Justice Department announces:
MIT Technology Review reports:
The race to save our online lives from a digital dark age
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Court to California: Try a Privacy Law, Not Online Censorship
NGI has an:
Interview with Esther Payne and Brett Sheffield (Librecast) – NGI Assure beneficiaries
The Evil Empire Strikes Back
The Kyiv Post reports:
Russian Search Engine Sets Trap for Pro-Kyiv Sympathizers
Radio Free Europe reports:
U.S. Sanctions Hundreds Of Targets In Effort To Cripple Kremlin’s Military Production
Bleeping Computer reports:
Russian laundering millions for Lazarus hackers arrested in Argentina
US warns of Iranian hackers escalating influence operations
The Guardian reports:
Israel feared legal trouble over US advocacy efforts, leaked files suggest
Inciting rioters in Britain was a test run for Elon Musk. Just see what he plans for America
Neo-Nazi terrorist group using Steve Bannon account to radicalize people
Revealed: JD Vance promoted far-right views in speech about extremists’ book
Georgia approves election rule that could delay vote certification
Ars Technica reports:
Windows 0-day was exploited by North Korea to install advanced rootkit
Tech Dirt reports:
DHS: We May Start Tracking Minors With Facial Recognition Tech; Also DHS: No, We Won’t
The Vice Media Collapse Was Entirely The Fault Of Incompetent, Fail-Upward Brunchlords
Republicans Pump Brakes on KOSA After Realizing It Could Censor Them Too
There is no bottom to this kind of dumbfuckery.
Bloomberg reports:
How Tech Companies Are Obscuring AI’s Real Carbon Footprint
The San Francisco Standard reports:
How billionaires Ben and Felicia Horowitz made a MAGA U-turn
This is what living in Las Vegas will do to you.
VoteBeat reports:
The New Republic reports:
Beware the Pundit-Brained Version of the Democratic Convention
The Weekly Sift reports:
Harris, Trump, and Our Broken News Media
Again, fuck corporate Big Journalism.
Jeff Jarvis has:
Public Citizen reports:
Is small crypto a thing? Anyway fuck Big Crypto too.
404 Media reports:
404 are celebrating their one-year anniversary. And it’s been a great year of reporting. Subscribe today!
Cybersecurity/Privacy
DarkReading reports:
Human Nature Is Causing Our Cybersecurity Problem
Microsoft Copilot Studio Exploit Leaks Sensitive Cloud Data
W3 has:
Web Security: shaping the secure Web
The Verge reports:
Feds charge alleged negotiator for Russian ransomware group
9 to 5 Mac reports:
Vulnerability in Microsoft apps allowed hackers to spy on Mac users
Fediverse
The Fediverse Report has:
Last Week in Fediverse – ep 80
The Fediversalist Papers researched:
What happens behind the curtain of Fediverse server operation
Here is the full report:
Findings Report: Governance on Fediverse Microblogging Servers
Neatnik has some notes on:
IFTAS shares:
Fediverse Trust and Safety: The Founding and Future of IFTAS
Elena Rossini shares:
The Future of Social is Here: a Show and Tell (part 4: Lemmy, PieFed & Mbin)
PieFed has:
PieFed development update August 2024 – prepping for 1.0 release
Ghost also has an update:
Netzgemeinde Hubzilla has this interesting thread:
We need to get to identities that aren’t tethered to particular instances
We Distribute reports:
Flohmarkt is a Fediverse Marketplace
Andy Piper has thoughts:
Browser Pub is:
A browser for debugging ActivityPub and the ⁂fediverse
For Better asks:
The Future of Social Media: Are Ethics Enough?
The Guardian reports:
TechCrunch reports:
Threads explores ads, but says ‘no immediate timeline’ toward monetization
And if you are on Threads, you deserve to be stuck watching them.
Other Federated Social Media
A group of researchers report:
The Dawn of Decentralized Social Media: An Exploration of Bluesky’s Public Opening
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Defending Democracy.
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- Or follow Battalion on Bluesky
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
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