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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.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/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. Fuck ’em.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Happy May Day! Cast off your chains.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Cory Doctorow writes:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The point of AI isn\u2019t to make workers more productive, it\u2019s to make them weaker when they bargain with their bosses.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tech workers are workers, and they once held the line against enshittification, refusing to break the things they\u2019d built for their bosses in meaningless all-nighters motivated by vocational awe. Long after tech bosses were able to buy all their competitors, capture their regulators, and expand IP law to neutralize the threat of innovative, interoperable products like alternative app stores, ad-blockers and jailbreaking kits, tech workers held the line.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n There\u2019ve been half a million US tech layoff since 2023. Tech workers\u2019 scarcity-derived power has been vaporized. Tech workers can avoid the fate of the factory, warehouse and delivery workers their bosses literally work to death \u2014 but only by unionizing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In other words, the workers in re-shored factories and tech workers need the same thing. They are class allies \u2014 and tech bosses are their class enemies. This is class war.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The enshittification of tech jobs<\/a><\/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 Tech Policy reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Labor Unions Can Counterbalance the Big Tech Oligarchy, But Only If They Rediscover Their Power<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Expats Czechia reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Court rules that Czechia collects phone data illegally in landmark decision<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mashable reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Elon Musk’s X lost 11 million users in the EU over the past 5 months<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Calyx Institute: A Case Study in Grassroots Innovation<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n EFF Leads Prominent Security Experts in Urging Trump Administration to Leave Chris Krebs Alone<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n EuroNews reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n EU governments discuss action on disinformation over climate policy<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bleeping Computer reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TikTok fined \u20ac530 million for sending European user data to China<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fast Company reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n How Big Tech\u2019s Faustian bargain with Trump backfired<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Framablog has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Docilit\u00e9s num\u00e9riques<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Verge reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A judge just blew up Apple\u2019s control of the App Store<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Register reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Cook’d: Judge says Apple lied to court in Epic case, asks Feds to mull criminal charges<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Double awesome.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TechCrunch reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Apple changes US App Store rules to let apps link to external payment systems<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Register reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n DARPA to ‘radically’ rev up mathematics research. And yes, with AI<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Journal of Online Trust and Safety has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Science and Causality in Technology Litigation<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TechDirt has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Government Actually Threatens Wikipedia\u2019s Editorial Freedom; Self-Proclaimed Free Speech Warriors Suddenly Have Other Plans<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Congress Moving Forward On Unconstitutional Take It Down Act<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ars Technica reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Trump\u2019s hasty Take It Down Act has \u201cgaping flaws\u201d that threaten encryption<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Micah Flee looks at:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TM SGNL, the obscure unofficial Signal app Mike Waltz uses to text with Trump officials<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Register reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n DOGE may help Elon Musk’s biz empire dodge $2.4B in liabilities \u2013 Senate probe<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Framablog looks at:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n L\u2019\u00c9tat artificiel : la vie civique automatis\u00e9e<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n BleepingComputer reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n France ties Russian APT28 hackers to 12 cyberattacks on French orgs<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pro-Russia hacktivists bombard Dutch public orgs with DDoS attacks<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n DarkReading has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Putin’s Cyberattacks on Ukraine Rise 70%, With Little Effect<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Adversaries Are Toying With US Networks & DC Is Short on Answers<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Billbug Expands Cyber-Espionage Campaign in Southeast Asia<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Register reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n China now America’s number one cyber threat \u2013 US must get up to speed<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Open source text editor poisoned with malware to target Uyghur users<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n NPR reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Corporation for Public Broadcasting sues Trump after he tries to fire board members<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ars Technica reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBlatantly unlawful\u201d: Trump slammed for trying to defund PBS, NPR<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Daily Beast reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n MAGA Billionaire Leads L.A. Times to Lose $50 Million<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ars Technica reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n CBS owner Paramount reportedly intends to settle Trump\u2019s $20 billion lawsuit<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Semafor reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The group chats that changed America<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Guardian reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meta faces Ghana lawsuits over impact of extreme content on moderators<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meta slowest to remove scam content, says City watchdog<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TechCrunch reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Report finds Meta\u2019s celebrity-voiced chatbots could discuss sex with minors<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n OpenAI is fixing a \u2018bug\u2019 that allowed minors to generate erotic conversations<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 404 Media has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Researchers Secretly Ran a Massive, Unauthorized AI Persuasion Experiment on Reddit Users<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mbin or PieFed, peeps.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Reddit Issuing ‘Formal Legal Demands’ Against Researchers Who Conducted Secret AI Experiment on Users<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n This Is Palantir\u2019s Justification for Building ICE\u2019s Master Database<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Instagram’s AI Chatbots Lie About Being Licensed Therapists<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Markup reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kids should avoid AI companion bots\u2014under force of law, assessment\u00a0says<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Center for Democracy and Technology reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Report \u2013 In Deep Trouble: Surfacing Tech-Powered Sexual Harassment in K-12 Schools<\/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 Lawfare covers:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Advancing Secure by Design through Security Research<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 404 Media reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Age of Realtime Deepfake Fraud Is Here<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Markup reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n How California sent residents\u2019 personal health data to LinkedIn<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n BleepingComputer reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hackers ramp up scans for leaked Git tokens and secrets<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n FBI shares massive list of 42,000 LabHost phishing domains<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tech Policy Press reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Reverse Keyword Search Warrants and the Threat to Online Privacy<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Jacobin reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Big Tech Wants Free Rein to Sell Your Data<\/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 Fediverse Report has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fediverse Report \u2013 #114<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fosstodon has more on its drama:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n An Intro\/Update From Gina<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n ActivityPub for WordPress announces:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n V5.8.0 \u2013 If it\u2019s on the Fediverse, you can embed it.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n ActivityPods shares:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Key learnings from building social apps with ActivityPods<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Forgejo has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Forgejo monthly update – April 2025<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Social Web Foundation has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Steps Forward in Long-form Text<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mastodon is:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Evolving the Team<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Matthew Tift has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Finding an Ethical Path Through Social Media: Why I Choose Mastodon<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n PieFed has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n PieFed development update Apr 2025 – S3, OAuth, Federation retry queue, Stripe<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n NodeBB has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n NodeBB v4.3.0 \u2014 Remote Categories are a go!<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n WinBuzzer reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bluesky\u2019s Decentralized Network Faces Major Outage Caused by Centralized Servers<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Internet Review asks:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Where Does Bluesky Go from Here? What is the Bluesky of 2036?<\/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><\/ul>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Keep fighting!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome to this week’s \u201cDestroying Autocracy\u201d. 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[69],"tags":[204,57,66,156,67,92,74,73,65,75,58,59,155,93,153,143,63,61,116],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772"}],"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=1772"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1801,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772\/revisions\/1801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\nFeatured Item(s)<\/h2>\n
\n\nThe response to Russia\u2019s War Crimes, TechnoFeudalism, and other douchebaggery<\/h2>\n
Neutral<\/h2>\n
\n\nThe Evil Empire Strikes Back<\/h2>\n
Pariah States<\/h3>\n
Big Media<\/h3>\n
Big Tech<\/h3>\n
\n\nCybersecurity\/Privacy<\/h2>\n
\n\nFediverse<\/h2>\n
Other Slightly Federated Social Media<\/h3>\n
\n\nCTAs (aka show us some free love)<\/h2>\n
\n