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.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN.
You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to and featured articles for each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing.
Featured Item
Cory Doctorow writes:
(I just gave) my first-ever speech about AI and I wasn’t sure how it would go over, but thankfully, it went great and sparked a lively Q&A. One of those questions came from a young man who said something like “So, you’re saying a third of the stock market is tied up in seven AI companies that have no way to become profitable and that this is a bubble that’s going to burst and take the whole economy with it?”
I said, “Yes, that’s right.”
He said, “OK, but what can we do about that?”
The real (economic) AI apocalypse is nigh
Just adjusted my investments as these c^nts are going to drag down everyone else with them.
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 Guardian has a guest editorial:
Why I gave the world wide web away for free
LibreOffice celebrates:
LibreOffice turns 15: a celebration of freedom, collaboration and open technologies and standards
It’s FOSS News has:
Austria’s Armed Forces Gets Rid of Microsoft Office (Mostly) for LibreOffice
Framablog has:
Fin de Windows 10 : faisons le point
TechCrunch reports:
DJI loses lawsuit over classification as Chinese military company
California Governor Newsom signs landmark AI safety bill SB 53
BleepingComputer reports:
EU probes SAP over anti-competitive ERP support practices
NOS reports:
Judge: Instagram and Facebook should be given algorithm-free option
Tangle says:
It’s time to embrace the tech backlash.
TechDirt reports:
Disney’s Stupid, Pointless Ban Of Jimmy Kimmel Lost Them 1.7 Million Streaming Subscribers
NPR reports:
Hundreds of celebrities relaunch a McCarthy-era committee to defend free speech
The Daily Northwestern reports:
Flock contract termination talks persist after cameras reinstalled, city orders cease-and-desist
404 Media reports:
404 Media and Freedom of the Press Foundation Sue DHS
The Register reports:
EU funds are flowing into spyware companies, and politicians are demanding answers
Signal announces:
Signal Protocol and Post-Quantum Ratchets
DIY Conspiracy has:
The Counterforce: Building a DIY Punk Infrastructure Against Corporate Platforms
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
404 Media reports:
ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day
The Register reports:
ICE plans to scour Facebook, TikTok, X, and even defunct Google+ for illegal immigration leads
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
EFF, ACLU to SFPD: Stop Illegally Sharing Data With ICE and Anti-Abortion States
Mexican Allies Raise Alarms About New Mass Surveillance Laws, Call for International Support
TechPolicy reports:
Control for Whom? Keeping an Eye on the Dark Side of America’s New Wearables Campaign.
This tracks for the Supreme C^nts.
The Guardian reports:
Starmer to unveil digital ID cards in plan set to ignite civil liberties row
TechCrunch reports:
UK government tries again to access encrypted Apple customer data: Report
The United Kuntdum is at it again.
The Association for Progressive Communications shares:
Pariah States
The Register reports:
Fake North Korean IT workers sneaking into healthcare, finance, and AI
Most HR types I have run into are stupid, but this is approaching ridiculous.
Hunt for RedNovember: Beijing hacked critical orgs in year-long snooping campaign
DarkReading reports:
New China APT Strikes With Precision and Persistence
BleepingComputer reports:
Dutch teens arrested for trying to spy on Europol for Russia
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Moldova casts blame on Russia for attempts to disrupt pivotal parliamentary elections
Big Media
Columbia Journalism Review reports:
The Pentagon Press Gears Up for a Fight
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Wave of Phony News Quotes Affects Everyone—Including EFF
NiemanLab reports:
Scammers are using video deepfakes of journalists to peddle products online
Kagi announces:
Big Tech
Open Media Network says:
The #AI bubble might be nastier than the Dot.com crash
The Guardian reports:
Leading UK tech investor warns of ‘disconcerting’ signs of AI stock bubble
Again, see the featured article.
TikTok ‘directs child accounts to pornographic content within a few clicks’
DarkReading reports:
‘Trifecta’ of Google Gemini Flaws Turn AI Into Attack Vehicle
F-Droid needs our help:
F-Droid and Google’s Developer Registration Decree
Fuck Google.
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Register reports:
Feds cut funding to program that shared cyber threat info with local governments
Tile trackers are a stalker’s dream, say Georgia Tech researchers
BleepingComputer reports:
Sendit sued by the FTC for illegal collection of children data
Ben Werdmuller says:
Your private data isn’t as private as you think
Fediverse
Connected Places has a late:
NHAM announces:
How Indie Video Killed The Spotify Star
This looks awesome.
IFTAS announces:
The Social Web Foundation previews:
Cooperative Social Networks Berlin Fediday
The Applied Social Media Lab has:
Introducing the ASML ActivityPub Fuzzer: Improving Testing in the Fediverse
Great, great stuff.
Newsmast announces:
Building apps for social spaces
This is exactly the type of content The Programmer’s Fulcrum will cover. And we need more Fediverse businesses like this.
Mastodon has:
Bringing Quote Posts to Mastodon
Speaking of, Terence Eden has:
Getting started with Mastodon’s Quote Posts – technical implementation details for servers
Activity Pub for WordPress announces:
7.5.0 — Follow the Feed, Quote the Lead
TechCrunch reports:
Threads takes on X with new communities feature
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
TechCrunch reports:
Bluesky rolls out age verification for users in Ohio
The Social Web Foundation says:
The BlueSky Patent Non-Aggression Pledge is Good for The Social Web
Internet Exchange reports:
Bluesky Adopts More Flexible Model for Content Moderation
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 even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
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