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
Fediverse favorite and video pro, Elena Rossini has done the ecosystem an outstanding favor by producing a phenomenal promotional video. She is:
Introducing the Fediverse: a New Era of Social Media
I make a cameo appearance at the end. 😎
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
The Kyiv Independent reports:
US accuses Russian of laundering millions, helping Moscow obtain sensitive technology
DarkReading reports:
‘Librarian Ghouls’ Cyberattackers Strike at Night
OpenAI Bans ChatGPT Accounts Linked to Nation-State Threat Actors
Open_Future has:
Europe Talks Digital Sovereignty
Heise reports:
Digital sovereignty: EU launches its own DNS service with practical functions
Tech Policy has:
Public Sector Triage of the Federal Government’s Data Hemorrhage
Tech Oligarchy Imperils Democratic Information Flows
And everything else to do with democracy.
The Register reports:
Apple AI boffins puncture AGI hype as reasoning models flail on complex planning
Nordjyske reports:
Digitaliseringsminister vil mindske brug Microsoft i eget ministerium
Denmark tells Microsoft to get fucked. Well half-fucked for now.
Bloomberg Law reports:
DOGE Access to Government Personnel Data Blocked by Judge
Until the SupremeC^nts reverse it.
404 Media reports:
Wikipedia Pauses AI-Generated Summaries After Editor Backlash
Neutral
Balfour Jarnasob says:
Trusting your own judgement on ‘AI’ is a huge risk
The Guardian reports:
DarkReading reports:
New COPPA Rules to Take Effect Over Child Data Privacy Concerns
The Evil Empire Strikes Back
TechCrunch reports:
Trump administration takes aim at Biden and Obama cybersecurity rules
404 Media reports:
Airlines Don’t Want You to Know They Sold Your Flight Data to DHS
GitHub is Leaking Trump’s Plans to ‘Accelerate’ AI Across Government
Pariah States
The Guardian reports:
Frequent TikTok users in Taiwan more likely to agree with pro-China narratives, study finds
DarkReading reports:
China-Backed Hackers Target SentinelOne in ‘PurpleHaze’ Attack Spree
The Register reports:
Chinese spy crew appears to be preparing for conflict by backdooring 75+ critical orgs
AP New reports:
US-backed Israeli company’s spyware used to target European journalists, Citizen Lab finds
Big Media
The Nerd Reich reports:
Politico’s $50M Peter Thiel Problem
The San Francisco Standard reports:
The ICE agents disappearing your neighbors would like a little privacy, please
Citation Needed opines:
Indeed!
Big Tech
The Guardian reports:
Misogyny in the metaverse: is Mark Zuckerberg’s dream world a no-go area for women?
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project reports:
Telegram, the FSB, and the Man in the Middle
The Register reports:
nterprise AI adoption stalls as inferencing costs confound cloud customers
Verso Books asks:
Is the AI Bubble About to Burst?
If only.
Dutch News reports:
Dutch government websites still reliant on US cloud services
Fortune reports:
‘Sovereign AI’ is political branding. The reality is closer to digital colonialism
404 Media reports:
A Researcher Figured Out How to Reveal Any Phone Number Linked to a Google Account
Senators Demand Meta Answer For AI Chatbots Posing as Licensed Therapists
Zero Party Data reports:
“Localhost tracking” explained. It could cost Meta 32 billion.
Business Insider reports:
Mark Zuckerberg has created the saddest place on the internet with Meta AI’s public feed
And the least private. What a c^nt.
Cybersecurity/Privacy
DarkReading reports:
Next-Gen Developers Are a Cybersecurity Powder Keg
GitHub: How Code Provenance Can Prevent Supply Chain Attacks
Gartner: How Security Teams Can Turn Hype Into Opportunity
The Conversation reports:
Tracking apps monitor remote employees’ performance — and invade their privacy
The Register reports:
Peep show: 40K IoT cameras worldwide stream secrets to anyone with a browser
DeepSeek installer or just malware in disguise? Click around and find out
This is what happens when you use Chinese software and AI. You get what you deserve.
Fediverse
Elena Rossini has this regarding the video in our featured item section:
My Fediverse Promo Video: Frequently Asked Questions
The Fediverse report has:
Bounce, and how the Open Social Web is continually changing
Hamish Campell asks:
ActivityPub for WordPress has:
The IT Blog shares:
Peertube starts a series:
Flutter application development: feedback (1/2)
This is very interesting if you are a developer.
Flutter application development: feedback (2/2)
The Social Web Foundation announces:
TheNewStack reports:
Bringing Joy Back to the Web: Fediverse vs. Centralized Apps
Mastodon has:
We Distribute reports:
Bandwagon is Bringing Music Sales to the Fediverse
Fedihost shares:
I would recommend PieFed or mbin.
ActivityPub for WordPress announces:
Our 2025 Roadmap: Building the Future of WordPress Federation
This has the potential to double the size of the Fediverse (or more) in the long run.
Ben Werdmuller says:
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
The Fediverse Report has:
Is Bad Behaviour Spoiling the Move from Big Tech?
TechCrunch reports:
Bluesky backlash misses the point
None of this would matter if Bluesky were not a company trying to take money and in debt to VCs.
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.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
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