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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 a buildup of Cultural Technical Debt \u2014 the weight of outdated values, obsolete taboos, and entrenched grudges embedded in society\u2019s operating system. Just as technical debt hinders code efficiency and causes breakdowns, this cultural baggage blocks our shared progress.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It’s holding back human rights and throwing wrenches into efforts at global cooperation, climate action, empathy, and anything resembling growth. We\u2019re dragging a legacy code of ancient hang-ups into a world that demands something faster, smarter, and less oppositional.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In a world of accelerating change, we are confronted with an uncomfortable truth: much of our cultural \u201ccode\u201d \u2014 the values, beliefs, and traditions that have historically held societies together \u2014 may be obsolete, no longer fit for the world we now inhabit.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yes is the answer. This is something I’ve long believed. The piece looks at the problem and possible solutions. They range from the optimistic, to pragmatic, to catastrophic.<\/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 404 Media reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Open Source Project DeFlock Is Mapping License Plate Surveillance Cameras All Over the World<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Signal announces:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Improving Private Signal Calls: Call Links & More<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Freedom Press has more:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Secure communication<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I’m definitely checking this out.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Next Web asks:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n How close are we to an accurate AI fake news detector?<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The European Commission shares:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Commission and national authorities call on Apple to stop geo-blocking practices on Apple Media Services<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TechCrunch reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n French newspapers want social media platform X to pay for news reuse<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Generative disinfo is real \u2014 you\u2019re just not the target, warns deepfake tracking nonprofit<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lawyer allegedly hacked with spyware names NSO founders in lawsuit<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meta slapped with a \u20ac798M fine in Europe over anticompetitive Marketplace practices<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Consumer Financial Protection Bureau moves to place Google under supervision<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n EU AI Act: Draft guidance for general purpose AIs shows first steps for Big AI to comply<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n FTC reportedly begins investigating Microsoft\u2019s cloud business practices<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Verge reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Apple faces a new $3.75 billion antitrust lawsuit over iCloud storage<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meta must face FTC trial that could separate Instagram and WhatsApp<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Register reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Air National Guardsman gets 15 years after splashing classified docs on Discord<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Google decides Europe’s political ad rules are too hard to implement at scale<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Onion announes:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here\u2019s Why I Decided To Buy \u2018InfoWars\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n There is a tiny bit of justice in the world after all.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Guardian reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n FBI raids home and seizes phone of Polymarket founder<\/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 Tech Radar opines (and they are right):<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The death of the internet: why the future is terrifying, and how we fix it<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ars Technica asks:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Is \u201cAI welfare\u201d the new frontier in ethics?<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tech Policy asks:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Salvation, Abundance, Apocalypse: Is Technology the World’s Most Powerful Religion?<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I don’t know what could be worse than combining two of the shittiest things in existence.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 404 Media reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n ‘FYI. A Warrant Isn\u2019t Needed’: Secret Service Says You Agreed To Be Tracked With Location Data<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Record reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Controversial UN cybercrime treaty clears final hurdle before full vote as US defends support<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Guardian reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n NSO \u2013 not government clients \u2013 operates its spyware, legal documents reveal<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Wired reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n More Spyware, Fewer Rules: What Trump\u2019s Return Means for US Cybersecurity<\/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 Volt Typhoon rebuilds malware botnet following FBI disruption<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n North Korean hackers create Flutter apps to bypass macOS security<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Register reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Reminder: China-backed crews compromised ‘multiple’ US telcos in ‘significant cyber espionage campaign’<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dark Reading reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hamas Hackers Spy on Mideast Gov’ts, Disrupt Israel<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n BleepingComputer reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n NSO Group used another WhatsApp zero-day after being sued, court docs say<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Working Systems asks:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Journalists – is Twitter actually your community?<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n If it is, you’re a c^nt.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Engadget reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meta cuts the price of its ad-free plan by 40 percent in a bid to sate EU regulators<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 404 Media reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Absurd AI Slop About How Elon Musk Will Fix America Is Megaviral on Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ars Technica reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Seeking favor with Musk and Trump, advertisers plot return to X<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n NBC News reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n X sees largest user exodus since Musk takeover<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tech Policy reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n New Research Points to Possible Algorithmic Bias on X<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n No shit.<\/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 DarkReading reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Open Source Security Incidents Aren’t Going Away<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TSA Proposes Cyber-Risk Mandates for Pipelines, Transportation Systems<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n BleepingComputer reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Leaked info of 122 million linked to B2B data aggregator breach<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fraud network uses 4,700 fake shopping sites to steal credit cards<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Register reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Five Eyes infosec agencies list 2024’s most exploited software flaws<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 404 Media reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pregnancy Tracking App \u2018What to Expect\u2019 Refuses to Fix Issue that Allows Full Account Takeover<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Speaking of, The Markup reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n How Do I Protect My Privacy If I\u2019m Seeking an\u00a0Abortion?<\/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 Last Week in Fediverse \u2013 ep 92<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Augment has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bridges & The Last Network Effect<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Terrance Eden is:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Introducing ActivityBot – the simplest way to build Mastodon Bots<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A Russian shares:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A bare-minimum ActivityPub server from scratch<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Guardian announces:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Why the Guardian is no longer posting on X<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Paths and Patches shares:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Five reasons for charities to cheerfully leave X<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ghost has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Queue theory & post offices<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mastodon has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Trunk & Tidbits, October 2024<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Verge reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Threads might get ads early next year<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Threads is testing custom feeds for your favorite topics<\/a><\/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 Last Week in the ATmosphere \u2013 2411.b<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TechCrunch reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bluesky and Mastodon users can now talk to each other with Bridgy Fed<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But does it fucking work? Not for me.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Guardian reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bluesky adds 700,000 new members as users flee X after the US election<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It’s approaching 2 million now.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As long as they are leaving shitter, good for them.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Devin Gaffney explores:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Democratizing Algorithmic Feeds on Bluesky<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n TechCrunch reports:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n How to use Bluesky, the Twitter-like app that\u2019s taking on Elon Musk\u2019s X<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 404 Media opines:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Great Migration to Bluesky Gives Me Hope for the Future of the Internet<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It doesn’t me.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n ShellSharks has:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Cloudy with a chance of not enshittifying<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Small chance.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Verge <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We’ll see.<\/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>\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":689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[69],"tags":[57,66,139,67,92,74,73,65,78,75,58,77,59,140,64,86,63,61,62],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985"}],"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=985"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1006,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions\/1006"}],"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=985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battalion.mobileatom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\nFeatured Item<\/h2>\n
Is Cultural Technical Debt Sabotaging Our Survival?<\/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
\n\nCybersecurity\/Privacy<\/h2>\n
\n\nFediverse<\/h2>\n
Other Federated Social Media<\/h3>\n
Bluesky says it won\u2019t train AI on your posts<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\nCTAs (aka show us some free love)<\/h2>\n
\n