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 Item
Hamish Campbell writes:
We need to build a grassroots counterforce, grounded in the principles of the 4 opens, to cultivate digital and physical spaces of resistance. The openweb offers us a framework for doing this, a messy, imperfect garden where we plant alternatives and nurture them with care. But it only grows if people use it. We need joined-up thinking, not the fractured, piecemeal approach of the fashernista crowd. We need people to commit to using and building tools outside the corporate silos, even when it’s inconvenient. Because in the end our communities are all that matters, in the end every click, every post, every conversation shapes the landscape we inhabit.
The rise of fascism and the openweb response
This approach is a very large part of techno-anarchism.
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes and other douchebaggery
DevLink Tips shares:
Top 10 European Open-Source Projects to Watch in 2025
Tech Policy reports:
Understanding the EU’s Digital Services Act Enforcement Against X
Leveraging International Standards to Protect US Consumers Online, No Congress Required
EuroNews reports:
The Register reports:
EU may target US tech giants in tariff response
The Guardian reports:
The BBC reports:
Apple’s encryption row with UK should not be secret, court rules
CTV News reports:
Halifax to phase out use of X as official social media platform
Great news from one of my favorite cities.
Neutral
Rest of the World reports:
What we learned from tracking AI use in global elections
The Evil Empire Strikes Back
So-called newspaper, The New York Times reports:
Trump Weakens U.S. Cyberdefenses at a Moment of Rising Danger
Mother Jones reports:
The Shocking Far-Right Agenda Behind the Facial Recognition Tech Used by ICE and the FBI
Reuters reports:
Exclusive: Musk’s DOGE using AI to snoop on U.S. federal workers, sources say
The Guardian reports:
Under Trump and Musk, billionaires wield unprecedented influence over US national security
UK creating ‘murder prediction’ tool to identify people most likely to kill
Citation Needed reports:
Issue 81 – Crypto crime is legal
Jesus.
Pariah States
Bit Defender reports:
Russian bots hard at work spreading political unrest on Romania’s internet
Ars Technica reports:
“The girl should be calling men.” Leak exposes Black Basta’s influence tactics.
DarkReading reports:
China-Linked Hackers Continue Harassing Ethnic Groups With Spyware
TechCrunch reports:
Governments identify dozens of Android apps bundled with spyware
Court document reveals locations of WhatsApp victims targeted by NSO spyware
Big Media
Tech Policy reports:
Independent Media Has an Infrastructural Problem
DigiDay reports:
Big Tech
Speaking of, Snopes reports:
Historian Heather Cox Richardson said Facebook removed her posts. Here’s what we know
My advice to her is to get the fuck off Facebook and get the fuck off Substack.
The Register reports:
Apple settles unfair labor charges brought by fired engineering manager
Ars Technica reports:
Meta secretly helped China advance AI, ex-Facebooker will tell Congress
404 Media has:
‘Careless People’ Is the Book About Facebook I’ve Wanted for a Decade
The Guardian reports:
Meta faces £1.8bn lawsuit over claims it inflamed violence in Ethiopia
The Dair Institute reports:
Jeremy Keith has:
Nothing personal, but it you use LLMs, you are contributing to this c^ntitry.
Terror
The Kyiv Independent reports:
US neo-Nazi terrorist group pays recruits to carry out attacks in Ukraine, Guardian reports
Mother Jones reports:
Gabbard’s Pick to Run Counterterrorism Center Aided Start of a Right-Wing Paramilitary Group
Cybersecurity/Privacy
Bleeping Computer reports:
Malicious VSCode extensions infect Windows with cryptominers
The Register reports:
That massive GitHub supply chain attack? It all started with a stolen SpotBugs token
If you are using Microsoft software, you almost deserve this.
Clubic reports:
Surveillance, fin du chiffrement : Proton pourrait quitter la Suisse
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announces:
OCC Notifies Congress of Incident Involving Email System
Consumer Reports has:
Mixed Signals: Many Companies May Be Ignoring Opt-Out Requests Under State Privacy Laws
Fediverse
The Fediverse Report has:
IFTAS is:
[Staying the Course: Our Continuing Mission]
(https://about.iftas.org/2025/04/08/staying-the-course-our-continuing-mission/)
If you care about the Fediverse, please join me and make a financial contribution to IFTAS.
Mastodon shares:
CogDogBlog has:
WordPress Serving Posts at the Activity Pub
Tim Bray looks at:
Ghost has:
You think you’re following us, but you might not be
TechCrunch reports:
Tapestry’s app can now de-dupe your social feeds
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
The Fediverse Report has:
TechCrunch reports:
Bluesky’s latest update adds chat reactions and an Explore page, similar to X
ATProto shares its:
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 follow Battalion on Bluesky.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
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