<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Programmer\u2019s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n You can sign up now<\/a> and for 2025 get an email with links to and featured articles for each week’s Symfony Station Communiqu\u00e9 and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you\u2019ll be set with TPF after the fusing.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum @thefulcrum.dev and original website content will start in 2026.<\/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 Open Media Network writes:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A central thesis of Tolkien\u2019s books is that evil provides the means of its own defeat. Sauron forged the One Ring that destroyed him. Shelob impaled herself on Sam\u2019s blade. Smaug exposed his belly to Bilbo and revealed the weak point that brought him down. Tolkien\u2019s world is full of this pattern: the seed of destruction lies buried inside the will to dominate. Power over others always carries its own undoing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But there\u2019s a second truth, less often spoken. Good must still act. The Ring did not cast itself into the fires of Mount Doom, it had to be carried, inch by inch, through the mud and terror, by two small Hobbits who refused to give up. Shelob could only fall because Sam held his arm firm when it would have been easier to drop the blade. Smaug was slain not by fate, but by the hand that fired the black arrow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Even when evil weakens itself, the act of courage still has to be taken. The small people still have to step up. And there\u2019s a third lesson here, one that feels painfully relevant to our time: good only loses when it surrenders to hopelessness. Denethor\u2019s despair nearly doomed Minas Tirith.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Frodo would have fallen without Sam\u2019s stubborn love. Bilbo\u2019s small act of faith. In Tolkien\u2019s world, hope is not na\u00efve optimism, it\u2019s an act of defiance.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A Tolkien view of OMN<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Join us and become a hobbit in the Open Media Network.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Speaking of OMN, we have an announcement this week:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Announcing The Programmer\u2019s Fulcrum, our retirement project<\/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 The Kyiv Independent reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The military branch behind Ukraine\u2019s battlefield apps turns to weapons bureaucracy<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ukraine’s parliament backs creation of cyber forces in first reading<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Christian Science Monitor reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n How Ukrainian drones are slowing Russia\u2019s advance in the east<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n What Europe\u2019s New Gig Work Law Means for Unions and Technology<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Eiffair shares:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kagi Love<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Its FOSS News reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Wikidata Launches Free Vector Database as Open Alternative to Closed AI Systems<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n NiemanLab reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nonprofit news is growing strong \u2014 especially local nonprofit news, a new report shows<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And the Columbia Journalism Review reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Too Small to Mess With<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Heisse reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A defeat at the Supreme Court: Google must prepare changes to the Play Store<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nextcloud has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nextcloud vs Microsoft interoperability: how open source gets it right<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Open letter to EU Member States on the proposed CSA Regulation or \u201cChat Control\u201d law<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tuta announces:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Europe’s future is at stake: Open letter against Chat Control<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Patrick shares the good news that pressure still works:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Citizen Protest Halts Chat Control; Breyer Celebrates Major Victory for Digital Privacy<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 404 Media reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Data Hoarder Uses AI to Create Searchable Database of Epstein Files<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Help Us Investigate Book Bans and Educational Censorship Around America<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Igalia announces:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Igalia, Servo, and the Sovereign Tech Fund<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Guardian reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n You won\u2019t believe what degrading practice the pope just condemned<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Clever headline.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Register reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pro-Russia hacktivist group dies of cringe after falling into researchers’ trap<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n UK slaps ‘strategic market status’ on Google, unlocking power to pry open search<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Burning Web shares:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Five Beliefs<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Great Stuff.<\/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 CyberCultural shares:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n What the Internet Was Like in 2000<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Homestar Runner \ud83d\ude42<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Brookings Institute says:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We should all be Luddites<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Guardian reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Governments are spending billions on their own \u2018sovereign\u2019 AI technologies \u2013 is it a big waste of money?<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Poynter announces:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Poynter launches AI Innovation Lab to house its growing AI portfolio<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n CommonsDB is:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Exploring CommonsDB\u2019s role in AI training 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 TechCrunch reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy on phones<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Italian businessman\u2019s phone reportedly targeted with Paragon spyware<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Kyiv Independent reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Russia’s digital Iron Curtain descends as Kremlin chokes remaining internet freedoms<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n IFTAS reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Coordinated Pro-Russian Propaganda Network Targeting ActivityPub and ATProto Services<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bleeping Computer reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Russian Hacktivists target critical infrastructure, hit decoy plant<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n North Korean hackers stole over $2 billion in crypto this year<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Columbia Journalism Review reports on:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Israel\u2019s Influencer Insiders<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n DarkReading reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Chinese Gov’t Fronts Trick the West to Obtain Cyber Tech<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n China-Nexus Actors Weaponize ‘Nezha’ Open Source Tool<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Register reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n OpenAI bans suspected Chinese accounts using ChatGPT to plan surveillance<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Columbia Journalism Review reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n How Anti-Cybercrime Laws Are Being Weaponized to Repress Journalism<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n FAIR reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n MAGA\u2019s Little Helpers: Sinclair, Nexstar and the Consolidation of Broadcast TV<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Poynter reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The leader of a major press association resigned after his board opposed a lawsuit defending journalists\u2019 rights<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 404 Media reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Apple Banned an App That Simply Archived Videos of ICE Abuses<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n CNET reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Hidden Dangers of the Digital ‘Yes Man’: How to Push Back Against Sycophantic AI<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Guardian has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n LitHub has more Cory Doctorow action:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n How American Tech Cartels Use Apps to Break the Law<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TechDirt reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Apple Decides ICE Agents Are A Protected Class, Because Apparently Government Accountability Is Now \u201cHate Speech\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And evidently make the law.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n NOYB shares:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n noyb win: Microsoft 365 Education may not track school children<\/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 Tile\u2019s Lack of Encryption Is a Danger for Users Everywhere<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n FBI takes down BreachForums portal used for Salesforce extortion<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fuck Salesforce, BTW.<\/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 Social Experience Design says:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Welcome to Social coding commons<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hamish Campbell has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Live at c-base a #fluffy Fediverse conference<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n STAR WARS: The Soft Empire<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Riley Testut reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Evolving AltStore PAL<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The New Stack reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Everything Big Starts Small: Building Open Social Web Apps<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Social Web Foundation has an:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Interview with John O\u2019Nolan about Ghost 6<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Connected Places has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fediverse Report \u2013 137<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fedify announces:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Sovereign Tech Fund is investing \u20ac192,000 in Fedify’s development over 2025\u20132026 to strengthen the fediverse ecosystem<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fedify 2.0\u2014the CLI now runs natively on Node.js and Bun, not just Deno<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Go To Social announces:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We’ve just made the proper release of v0.20.0 of GoToSocial, aka Sinister Sloth<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TechCrunch reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Alternative app store AltStore raises $6M, connects with the Fediverse<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mastodon is taking cues from Bluesky with plans for its own starter \u2018Packs\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mastodon has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Community consultation: new Terms of Service (for mastodon.social and mastodon.online)<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It’s cool to join Mastodon but not these two instances.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our ideas about Packs<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Trunk & Tidbits, September 2025<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Terence Eden explores:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Getting started with Mastodon’s Quote Posts – technical implementation details for servers<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n NHAM announces:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n NHAM Update Opus 10 (Fedi Music Television Edition)<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Super awesome.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Castopod announces:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Official Castopod Plugin Repository<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n InEssential explains:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Why NetNewsWire Is Not a Web App<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lighthouse has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A deep dive into the rss feed reader landscape<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Azhdarchid has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Delusions of a protocol<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TechCrunch reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Waffles eat Bluesky<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Niko Mara-McKay goes into the nitty-gritty:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bluesky\u2019s CEO meltdown: How leadership continues to fail its most marginalized users<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I have said from day one that Bluesky will become enshittified. But, ATProto has some potential.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And to be fair, some of the leaders of ActivityPub and its largest platform (who value growth over safety) are egotistical pissy ass fucks when they are even slightly criticized.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But we are all fighting technofascism so let’s try to work together on the protocols front at least. Its okay to have debates and disagreements with allies. But treat them like allies when doing so. If they are your friends you can even call them pissy ass fucks. \ud83d\ude09<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Speaking of, A New Social announces:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bounce from Mastodon to Bluesky<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Why would you? Although maybe its works with Blacksky, Northsky, or Eurosky.<\/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":528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[69],"tags":[57,66,290,148,67,92,74,73,150,65,75,58,292,141,288,59,291,153,86,143,63,61,252,250],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587"}],"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=2587"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2611,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587\/revisions\/2611"}],"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=2587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/TPF-logo.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/figure>\n
\n\nFeatured Item(s)<\/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
\n\nFediverse<\/h2>\n
RSS<\/h3>\n
Other Slightly Federated Social Media<\/h3>\n
\n\nCTAs (aka show us some free love)<\/h2>\n
\n