Spaceship leaving scene of a battle

Destroying Autocracy – 30 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

It’s obviously, Deepseek.

Live Science reports:

Chinese researchers just built an open-source rival to ChatGPT in 2 months. Silicon Valley is freaked out.

Ha.

MIT Technology Review has more details:

How a top Chinese AI model overcame US sanctions

The Guardian reports on the hilarious impact on AI markets:

Sputnik moment’: US tech stocks in turmoil after Chinese firm unveils AI chatbot

404 Media has more laughs:

OpenAI Furious DeepSeek Might Have Stolen All the Data OpenAI Stole From Us

TechCrunch reports:

Hugging Face researchers are trying to build a more open version of DeepSeek’s AI ‘reasoning’ model


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

The response to Russia’s War Crimes and other douchebaggery

Dark Reading reports:

DoJ Busts Up Another Multinational DPRK IT Worker Scam

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has:

Second Circuit Rejects Record Labels’ Attempt to Rewrite the DMCA

Texas Is Enforcing Its State Data Privacy Law. So Should Other States.

The C^ntboys are doing something good. It’s hard to believe.

Tech Policy reports:

The Paris AI Action Summit: A Pivotal Moment to Reclaim AI from Big Tech

FOSS Force reports:

Open Letter Urges EU to Not Be Bullied By Trump and His Tech Bros on Cyber Issues

The Record reports:

EU sanctions Russian intelligence personnel for cyberattacks against Estonia

TechCrunch reports:

Bookshop.org challenges Amazon with new e-book platform

Great news. I usually buy print books but this will be good for tech books you know won’t be evergreen.

Speaking of eBooks, 404 Media reports:

Declassified CIA Guide to Sabotaging Fascism Is Suddenly Viral

Neutral

The Guardian reports:

Gov.uk app could lead to ‘mandatory ID scheme’, claim privacy groups

Adële’s smolweb site shares:

Rethinking monetization for Internet publishers


The Evil Empire Strikes Back

The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:

California Law Enforcement Misused State Databases More Than 7,000 Times in 2023

America 2.0 reports:

No Limits: Crypto Scams Set to Proliferate in 2025

Tech Policy reports:

To Protect Democracy, Policymakers Must Protect Journalists from Spyware

Pariah States

The Committee to Protect Journalists reports:

In record year, China, Israel, and Myanmar are world’s leading jailers of journalists

The Guardian reports:

WhatsApp says journalists and civil society members were targets of Israeli spyware

The London Review of Books reports:

Militarised AI

The Tibetan review reports:

Sichuan-based ‘cyber security’ firm bared for hacking operations against Tibetans, Uyghurs

Socket reports:

North Korean APT Lazarus Targets Developers with Malicious npm Package

Big Media

The Guardian reports:

‘Our job is to be truthful not neutral’: Christiane Amanpour on Trump, tech and fighting for the truth

Press Watchers reports:

Why is Trump coverage so feeble?

Big Tech

BleepingComputer reports:

PayPal to pay $2 million settlement over 2022 data breach

Tom’s Hardware reports:

Facebook flags Linux topics as ‘cybersecurity threats’ — posts and users being blocked

TechCrunch reports:

Meta AI can now use your Facebook and Instagram data to personalize its responses

TechDirt reports:

Meta Pays Trump $25M Protection Money After Mar-a-Lago ‘Offer’

Tech Policy reports:

Big Tech Chose a Side. Here’s What’s Next.


Cybersecurity/Privacy

404 Media reports:

Hackers Mined AT&T Breach for Data on Trump’s Family, Kamala Harris

TechCrunch reports:

How to switch off Apple Intelligence on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Hackers are hijacking WordPress sites to push Windows and Mac malware

Krebson on Security reports:

A Tumultuous Week for Federal Cybersecurity Efforts

Infrastructure Laundering: Blending in with the Cloud

The Guardian reports:

DeepSeek advances could heighten safety risk, says ‘godfather’ of AI

BleepingComputer reports:

FBI seizes domains for Cracked.io, Nulled.to hacking forums

Police dismantles HeartSender cybercrime marketplace network

The Register reports:

Trump admin’s purge of US cyber advisory boards was ‘foolish,’ says ex-Navy admiral

Europol announces:

Law enforcement takes down two largest cybercrime forums in the world


Fediverse

The Fediverse Report has:

Fediverse Report #101

Elena Rossini is:

Supporting the Fediverse, one small act at a time

Racoon Bits shares:

A Guide to Implementing ActivityPub in a Static Site (or Any Website) – Part 8

Bandwagon is:

Testing a New Search Engine

Gyptazy is:

Hosting a new ActivityPub Relay for the Fediverse including Mastodon and snac

The Letter Two reviews:

Hands-On with Surf: Flipboard’s New App Makes Discovering Content in the Fediverse Easier

TechCrunch reports:

Automattic and others back Openvibe, an app that’s unifying the open social web

Unless you’re a Nostr Nazi, you’ll want Surf over Openvibe 99 times out of a 100.

Other Slightly Federated Social Media

The Fediverse Report has:

Last Week in the ATmosphere – 2025jan.d

TechCrunch reports:

Reelo stands out among the apps building a ‘TikTok for Bluesky’

Aidan Raymond explains:

Why BlueSky Isn’t the Alternative to X (Formerly Twitter) You’re Looking For — and Why Mastodon Is the Better Choice Over X, Threads, and BlueSky

Scripting News asks:

Is Bluesky billionaire-proof?

Obviously not. ATProtocol probably isn’t either. Although hopefully it will get there.


CTAs (aka show us some free love)

Keep fighting!

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Reuben Walker
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