Spaceship at the site of a battle

Destroying Autocracy – 23 January 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 democracy. 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.

DD 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

Nextcloud asks:

Trump’s second term: A critical turning point for open source and digital sovereignty?

You should use Nextcloud BTW.


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

The response to Russia’s War Crimes and other douchebaggery

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has:

Mad at Meta? Don’t Let Them Collect and Monetize Your Personal Data

Five Things to Know about the Supreme Court Case on Texas’ Age Verification Law, Free Speech Coalition v Paxton

VICTORY! Federal Court (Finally) Rules Backdoor Searches of 702 Data Unconstitutional

The European Commission announces:

Commission addresses additional investigatory measures to X in the ongoing proceedings under the Digital Services Act

Commission welcomes the integration of the revised Code of conduct on countering illegal hate speech online into the Digital Services Act

The Register reports:

Meta, X sign up to Euro Commish code of conduct on hate speech

This is what happens when you have proper governments, and competent governance.

Meta’s pay-or-consent model under fire from EU consumer group

Hackers game out infowar against China with the US Navy

TechCrunch reports:

Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg sanctioned by judge for allegedly deleting emails

Luckily this is in Delaware state court, so she might at least get fined for it.

404 Media reports:

Hundreds of Subreddits Are Considering Banning All Links to X

Nothing personal, but if you are still active on Shitter, you’re a c^nt.

The Markup reports:

California Is Investigating OpenAI’s Conversion To a For-Profit Company

Gov.UK announces:

CMA to investigate Apple and Google’s mobile ecosystems

The Justice Department announces:

Two North Korean Nationals and Three Facilitators Indicted for Multi-Year Fraudulent Remote Information Technology Worker Scheme that Generated Revenue for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea


The Evil Empire Strikes Back

The Atlantic reports:

America Is No Longer the Home of the Free Internet

404 Media reports:

The Powerful AI Tool That Cops (or Stalkers) Can Use to Geolocate Photos in Seconds

The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:

Online Behavioral Ads Fuel the Surveillance Industry—Here’s How

Tripwire reports:

New Law Could Mean Prison for Reporting Data Leaks

The Register reports:

Trump ‘waved a white flag to Chinese hackers’ as Homeland Security axed cyber advisory boards

Pariah States

Bleeping Computer reports:

Star Blizzard hackers abuse WhatsApp to target high-value diplomats

Recorded Future reports:

“Crazy Evil” Cryptoscam Gang: Unmasking a Global Threat in 2024

Tenable reports:

Salt Typhoon: An Analysis of Vulnerabilities Exploited by this State-Sponsored Actor

Big Media

Washington Monthly reports:

Three Disturbing Signs of Fourth Estate Failure

Reuters Institute reports:

Who owns the AI tools journalists use? A new study exposes a dangerous transparency gap

Big Tech

TechCrunch reports:

FTC says partnerships like Microsoft-OpenAI raise antitrust concerns

The Register asks:

Why is Big Tech hellbent on making AI opt-out?

The Verge reports:

Welcome to the era of gangster tech regulation

This is what happens when you have shit governments, and shit governance.

Tech Policy reports:

Mark Zuckerberg’s Immoderate Proposal

Free Speech Was Never the Goal of Tech Billionaires. Power Was.

No shit.

ProPublica reports:

How Facebook Undermines Privacy Protections for Its 2 Billion WhatsApp Users

404 Media reports:

TikTok Says It’s Not Censoring ‘Free Palestine’ Comments. Users See Something Different

The Guardian reports:

Revealed: Microsoft deepened ties with Israeli military to provide tech support during Gaza war

Terror

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

What a pardon of 2 D.C. cops says about Trump and the U.S. violence to come


Cybersecurity/Privacy

TechCrunch reports:

DOJ confirms arrested US Army soldier is linked to AT&T and Verizon hacks

Bleeping Computer reports:

FTC orders GM to stop collecting and selling driver’s data

Telegram captcha tricks you into running malicious PowerShell scripts

Sigh.

404 Media reports:

Cloudflare Issue Can Leak Chat App Users’ Broad Location

The Register reports:

HPE probes IntelBroker’s bold data theft boasts

One of Salt Typhoon’s favorite flaws still wide open on 91% of at-risk Exchange Servers


Fediverse

The Fediverse Report has:

Last Week in Fediverse – ep 100

404 Media opines:

Decentralized Social Media Is the Only Alternative to the Tech Oligarchy

They are correct and intelligent people have known this for years.

France 24 reports:

French researchers aim to ease X refugees’ path with ‘HelloQuitX’

European Digital Rights opines:

Meta and X are going rogue. Here is what Europe should do now.

Basta Media reports:

Ne laissez pas un algo vous dicter l’info

Does Stuff shares:

Teaching Mastodon Through Practical Interactions

Owncast shares its:

Owncast Newsletter January 2025

ActivityPods shares:

Our roadmap for 2025

We Distribute reports:

NodeBB Officially Joins the Fediverse

The Challenge of Upward Momentum

Pixelfed Smashes Kickstarter Campaign Goal on Day One

Diverse Tech Geek has:

A look at Pixelfed (2025 edition)

CNET reports:

Fed Up With Instagram? How to Move Your Photos to Pixelfed

Kyle Reddoch has a review:

Surfing the Social Wave: A Beta Tester’s Insight into Flipboard’s Surf App

Shellsharks does as well:

Surfing the Social Web

Follow us there at @the-fediverse-vs-corporate-social-media-mobileatom@flipboard.com

Tumblr has an update:

While it is still on the list, the Tumblr to WordPress migration will definitely unlock ActivityPub for Tumblr!

TechCrunch reports:

Bridgy Fed, a project to connect the open social web, is now becoming a nonprofit

Threads rolls out a post scheduler, ‘markup’ feature, and more

Other Slightly Federated Social Media

The Fediverse Report has:

Last Week in Bluesky – 2025jan.c

ATProto Explained – Lexicons and video

TechCrunch reports:

Bluesky launches a custom feed for vertical videos

TechDirt has:

The Technological Poison Pill: How ATProtocol Encourages Competition and Resists Evil Billionaires, Lock-In & Enshittification


CTAs (aka show us some free love)

Keep fighting!

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Reuben Walker
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