<\/p>\n
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There is some news about us this week. We are definitely retiring next year and sooner than expected. Once we move to Europe, I don’t want to spend 30 hours a week working on Symfony Station and Battalion. Producing short documentaries will be my main hobby.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But, I am willing to spend 10 hours weekly on The Programmer\u2019s Fulcrum. It’s the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n For now its built with Ghost though WordPress is still in the running as a long-term site\/newsletter\/fediverse account solution. Sorry Drupal CMS you are dead in the water.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In any event, you can\u00a0sign up now<\/a>\u00a0and for 2025 get an email with links and featured articles for each week’s Symfony Station Communiqu\u00e9 and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post. And you\u2019ll be set with TPF after the fusing. I appreciate all of you.<\/em><\/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 The Sunday Times has an interview with my hero:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meredith Whittaker, boss of WhatsApp rival Signal, says the UK\u2019s Investigatory Powers Act could create a weakness that threatens users\u2019 private data.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Signal boss: \u2018disturbing\u2019 laws show the UK doesn\u2019t understand tech<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fuck Meta, and fuck What’s App.<\/strong><\/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 TechCrunch reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n US government seized $1M from Russian ransomware gang<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Reuters reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Poland foiled cyberattack on big city’s water supply, deputy PM says<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n BleepingComputer reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n US sanctions Grinex crypto-exchange, successor to Garantex<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n North Korean Kimsuky hackers exposed in alleged data breach<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TechCrunch reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Australian court finds Apple, Google abused app store market power<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Association for Progressive Communications reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Every Door on going from a map user to an open source map creator<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Grenoble, France announces:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Access kit Open source software<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Commons DB has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Connecting the Commons: Shared Benefits for Wikimedia Commons and CommonsDB<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Center for Democracy and Technology shares:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 2024 Annual Report<\/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 Next Web reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Opinion: Europe can regulate its way to a better fintech future<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Infrequently reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n How Do Committees Fail To Invent?<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ren\u00e9e DiResta reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n No Clapping Allowed: A Social Media Free Speech Debate Without the Usual Theater<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Stateline reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n More than half the states have issued AI guidance for schools<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dries Buytaert has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Funding Open Source like public infrastructure<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I disagree with 88.2% of Dries’ AI stance, but he’s 100% correct about this. \ud83d\ude09<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dave Troy asks:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Is democracy dying? Here’s why \u2014 and what to do about it.<\/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 Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Americans, Be Warned: Lessons From Reddit\u2019s Chaotic UK Age Verification Rollout<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Unfortunately, our fools will follow in their fools’ footsteps. And btw fuck Reddit.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Register reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Wikimedia Foundation loses first court battle to swerve Online Safety Act regulation<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 404 Media reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Trump Has Dropped a Third of All Government Investigations Into Big Tech<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Trump Is Launching an AI Search Engine Powered by Perplexity<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n If there was any doubt that c^nts attract c^nts, now you know. Especially Clownish ones who want to buy Chrome.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Feds Used Local Cop’s Password to Do Immigration Surveillance With Flock Cameras<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n LAPD Eyes \u2018GeoSpy\u2019, an AI Tool That Can Geolocate Photos in Seconds<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Euractiv has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Palantir is well on its way to conquering Europe<\/a><\/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 Russia’s RomCom among those exploiting a WinRAR 0-day in highly-targeted attacks<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TechCrunch reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Russian government hackers said to be behind US federal court filing system hack: Report<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n BleepingComputer reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pro-Russian hackers blamed for water dam sabotage in Norway<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Curly COMrades cyberspies hit govt orgs with custom malware<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dark Reading reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n REvil Actor Accuses Russia of Planning 2021 Kaseya Attack<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n EuroNews reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Russia blocks calls via WhatsApp and Telegram as it tightens control over the internet<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Signals, peeps.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Israel faces widespread condemnation after Al Jazeera correspondent killed in Gaza<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TechPolicy reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Artificial Intelligence and the Orchestration of Palestinian Life and Death<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Poynter says:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Press freedoms can slip away<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And have.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Racket reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Substack’s extremist ecosystem is flourishing<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n They are on Beehiiv, which like Ghost is a moral alternative to SubStack.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n NiemanLab reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Can nonprofit news mix with local TV? A Pennsylvania partnership aims to find out<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Local TV news is shit. But, this is interesting.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Seeking Alpha reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Companies find new avenues to drive up sessions as Google’s AI Search tools reduce web traffic<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 404 Media reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Trump Administration Outlines Plan to Throw Out an Agency’s FOIA Requests En Masse<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Data Brokers Are Ignoring Privacy Law. We Deserve Better.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ben Werdmuller reports on:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lifelogging under fascism<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TechPolicy reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In an Age of Information Gatekeeping, Don’t Just Google It<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fuck Google.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TechPolicy reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2018Big Cloud\u2019 is Building Power via Pervasive Investments<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TechCrunch reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Leaked Meta AI rules show chatbots were allowed to have romantic chats with kids<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n How to Save the World asks:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Has the Internet Succumbed to the Tragedy of the Commons?<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Platformer has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Three big lessons from the GPT-5 backlash<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Grok is on the rocks<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ars Technica reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n LLMs\u2019 \u201csimulated reasoning\u201d abilities are a \u201cbrittle mirage,\u201d researchers find<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n AP reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Students have been called to the office \u2014 and even arrested \u2014 for AI surveillance false alarms<\/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 The inside story of the Telemessage saga, and how you can view the data<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n DEF CON hackers plug security holes in US water systems amid tsunami of threats<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Deepfake detectors are slowly coming of age, at a time of dire need<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n LLM chatbots trivial to weaponize for data theft, say boffins<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Connected Places has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fediverse Report \u2013 129<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hopefully the link is fixed now.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n IFTAS says:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The 2025 Fediverse Needs Assessment is Open: Have Your Say<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Salvatore Noschese shares:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mastodon: parliamone un po\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We Distribute reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Big Updates Are Coming to Loops<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n tchncs has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bonfire Social: Shared user<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We Distribute asks?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Is Meta Scraping the Fediverse for AI?<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Did I say fuck Meta?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TechCrunch reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Threads now has more than 400 million monthly active users<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fuck Threads too.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Arxiv is:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Exploring Left-Wing Extremism on the Decentralized Web: An Analysis of Lemmygrad.ml<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The proper term is Tankies not left-wing. And it’s why you should use Mbin or Piefed.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Paths & Patches has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Third Spaces in the Fediverse: FediCon thoughts Part II<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Newsmast unplugged: FediCon Part III<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Register reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Secure chat darling Matrix admits pair of ‘high severity’ protocol flaws need painful fixes<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TechCrunch reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bluesky rolls out massive revamp to policies and Community Guidelines<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Cory Doctorow has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bluesky creates the world’s weirdest, hardest-to-understand binding arbitration clause<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Same here.<\/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 <\/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":689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[69],"tags":[57,66,148,67,92,74,73,210,65,75,58,95,142,59,280,112,153,86,143,63,276,61,252,250,278,279,281],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395"}],"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=2395"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2428,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395\/revisions\/2428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/fulcrum-handle-medium-221x300.png\")
<\/figure>\n
\n\nFeatured Item<\/h2>\n
\n\nThe response to Russia\u2019s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery<\/h2>\n
\n\nNeutral<\/h2>\n
\n\nThe Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back<\/h2>\n
Pariah States<\/h3>\n
Big Media<\/h3>\n
Big Tech<\/h3>\n
\n\nCybersecurity\/Privacy<\/h2>\n
Fediverse<\/h2>\n
Slightly Federated Social Media<\/h3>\n
\n\nCTAs (aka show us some free love)<\/h2>\n
\n