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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.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
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FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joan Westenberg writes:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The modern left argues that unrestricted speech enables extremism. They point to how social media amplifies radical content, how harassment campaigns silence marginalized voices, and how misinformation undermines democratic discourse. \u201cYour right to swing your fist ends at my nose,\u201d they say, \u201cand your right to speak ends at causing genuine harm.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The modern right counters that \u201cspeech control\u201d inevitably becomes \u201cthought control.\u201d They reference how authoritarian regimes consolidate power by restricting speech. They argue that sunlight is the best disinfectant \u2014 bad ideas should be debated openly rather than driven underground where they fester.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n They\u2019re both wrong, but in interesting ways.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ukrinform reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Russian propaganda Telegram channels blocked in Europe \u2013 media<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tech Policy reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Baltic Leadership in Brussels: What the New High Representative Kaja Kallas Means for Tech Policy<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Verge reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The US proposes rules to make healthcare data more secure<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ars Technica reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tech worker movements grow as threats of RTO, AI loom<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Krebson on Security reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n U.S. Army Soldier Arrested in AT&T, Verizon Extortions<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n DarkReading reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Treasury Dept. Sanctions Chinese Tech Vendor for Complicity<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Michael Taggart shares:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Year of Disconnect<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 404 Media reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Secret Service Admits It Didn\u2019t Check if People Really Consented to Being Tracked<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Verge reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Net neutrality eviscerated by appeals court ruling<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Verge reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n US sanctions Russian group over AI-generated election disinformation<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lloyds Lists reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Russia-linked cable-cutting tanker seized by Finland \u2018was loaded with spying equipment\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n BleepingComputer reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n AT&T and Verizon say networks secure after Salt Typhoon breach<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n DarkReading reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Chinese State Hackers Breach US Treasury Department<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Cradle reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n BBC staffers reveal editor’s ‘entire job’ to whitewash Israeli war crimes<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Guardian reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2018Godfather of AI\u2019 shortens odds of the technology wiping out humanity over next 30 years<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meta is killing off its own existing AI-powered Instagram and Facebook profiles<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Futurism reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Facebook Planning to Flood Platform with AI-Powered Users<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But they are working on new ones??? C^nts gonna c^nt. Speaking of…<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Citation Needed reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Elon Musk and the right\u2019s war on Wikipedia<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Please join me and become a monthly contributor.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Apple offers to settle ‘snooping Siri’ lawsuit for an utterly incredible $95M<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Salon reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n “This is Trump\u2019s America now!”: MAGA diehards jumpstart a new year of political violence<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n EuroNews reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n FBI finds 150 homemade bombs in Virginia, one of largest seizures ever<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Guardian reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bid to tackle extremism in US military unlikely to be revived under Trump<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Register reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It’s only a matter of time before LLMs jump start supply-chain attacks<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dark Reading reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n ‘Bad Likert Judge’ Jailbreak Bypasses Guardrails of OpenAI, Other Top LLMs<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Why Small Businesses Can’t Rely Solely on AI to Combat Threats<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n NLNet announces funding:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 50 Free and Open Source Projects Selected for NGI Zero grants<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n There are a good number of Fediverse recipients. \ud83d\ude42<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Svenssons Nyheter has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tumblr och Fediversum<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Castopod celebrates:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The first 12 plugins of Castopod<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Friendica announces:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Friendica 2024.12 released<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tom Casavant<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Untitled Gaming Social<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p><\/ul>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome to this week’s \u201cDefending Democracy\u201d. 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[69],"tags":[57,66,67,92,74,150,65,75,58,128,59,86,143,63,61,151],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1083"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1098,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083\/revisions\/1098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\nFeatured Item<\/h2>\n
The Left and Right Are Both Wrong About Free Speech<\/a><\/h3>\n
\n\nThe response to Russia\u2019s War Crimes and other douchebaggery<\/h2>\n
\n\nThe Evil Empire Strikes Back<\/h2>\n
Pariah States<\/h3>\n
Big Media<\/h3>\n
Big Tech<\/h3>\n
Terror<\/h3>\n
\n\nCybersecurity\/Privacy<\/h2>\n
\n\nFediverse<\/h2>\n
\n\nCTAs (aka show us some free love)<\/h2>\n
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