joe•iuculano 
The Constitutional Republic is dead!
The American government has gone full EMPIRE!
No better than Russia!
#ConstitutionalRepublic #Dictatorship #Empire #Russia #StopPutin #StopTrump #StopRussia #StopTheUSA #StopAmerica #LongLiveTheResistance
So, #Putin put forth his #PeacePlan and it was rejected.
And then #Zelenskyy put forth HIS Peace plan, and everyone is all excited.
Now, this would make Putin, in his own eyes, look weak.
So, if you think Putin is going to accept Zelenskyy's deal, you haven't been paying attention
Battalion 👊🗡️⛓️💥Destroying Autocracy – December 25, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
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.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ´em.
So folks, this is the final edition of Destroying Autocracy. Recently, I ran across a quote that fits with why I ran this project:
“I am absolutely convinced that only a small minority, a very small minority, among us, are seriously reached and profoundly moved by our propaganda of criticism, of doubt, of rebellion, of free investigation, of independent research. On the other hand, it is clear that our first interest lies always in seeking to increase this minority; to keep it, under all circumstances alive, active, refreshed. Our own happiness depends on it.
— Emile Armand”
Thanks for following us. Now, on to what’s next.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is now the home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Destroying Autocracy, and Developing the OMN.
You can sign up now.
We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum
Please copy and paste our handle into you favorite client to follow us. Original website content will start next week.
Featured Item(s)
I ran across these last week.
The Resonant Computing Manifesto
These are principles that should be implementing when developing for the Open Media Network.
Jan Wideboer writes:
Over the past few months, I thought a lot about Digital Sovereignty. I talked to experts, from analysts over legal experts to people running companies and public authorities. I tried to distill what is really at the core of the principle.
OCT – My Framework for Digital Sovereignty, Part 1
This is a good way to look at it.
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
TechCrunch reports:
Stanford’s star reporter takes on Silicon Valley’s ‘money-soaked’ startup culture
TechPolicy shares:
Making the Digital Markets Act Developer-Friendly
The Guardian reports:
This is Europe’s secret weapon against Trump: it could burst his AI bubble
The Guardian view on Australia’s social media ban: dragging tech companies into action
MPs question UK Palantir contracts after investigation reveals security concerns
BleepingComputer reports:
Italy fines Apple $116 million over App Store privacy policy issues
Waterfox announces:
No AI* Here – A Response to Mozilla’s Next Chapter
The Register notes:
Waterfox browser goes AI-free, targets the Firefox faithful
You don’t need Linux to run free and open source software
This is one you should read and take action on. 🙂
Airbus to migrate critical apps to a sovereign Euro cloud
Europe gets serious about cutting digital umbilical cord with Uncle Sam’s big tech
It’s FOSS reports:
Denmark Begins its Exit from Microsoft — and This is Just the Beginning
At least the enemies of privacy are slowly telling Microsoft to fuck off.
NextCloud shares:
The Republic of Serbia deploys Nextcloud for compliant, on-premises collaboration
Robert Riemann asks:
EU OS: Which Linux Distribution fits Europe best?
Hamish Campbell asks:
What Did We Learn from Web3, Crypto?
Signal has:
This was 2025 for Signal: strong growth and many new features
CoMaps shares:
CoMaps and its community at the end of 2025
Neutral
The Center for Democracy and Technology has:
TechPolicy Press reports:
The Path to a Sovereign Tech Stack is Via a Commodified Tech Stack
Platforms Report to EU Regulators Under DSA With an Eye on US Politics
Europe Tried to Take Control of Its Digital Stack in 2025. Where Does It Stand Now?
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
Krebs on Security reports:
Dismantling Defenses: Trump 2.0 Cyber Year in Review
Cory Doctorow says:
America’s collapsing consumption is the world’s disenshittification opportunity
Tech Dadu reports:
EU Prepares Wider Data Retention Rules, VPN Providers Could Be Affected
The Register reports:
Denmark takes a Viking swing at VPN-enabled piracy
Pariah States
And:
Amazon security boss blames Russia’s GRU for years-long energy-sector hacks
China, Iran are having a field day with React2Shell, Google warns
BleepingComputer reports:
France arrests Latvian for installing malware on Italian ferry
Denmark blames Russia for destructive cyberattack on water utility
DarkReading reports:
Russia Hits Critical Orgs Via Misconfigured Edge Devices
Dormant Iran APT is Still Alive, Spying on Dissidents
EuronNews reports:
Pro-Russian hackers claim French postal service cyberattack
Big Media
Ben Werdmuller asks:
Just for brain-dead people.
Nieman Lab’s Predictions for Journalism 2026
Journalists talk about the elephant in the room: our relationship with Big Tech
CyberCultural shares:
My 2025 Indie Web Report and Thoughts on the Open Web
404 Media reports:
Archivists Posted the 60 Minutes CECOT Segment Bari Weiss Killed
Big Tech
The Nerd Reich reports:
Tech Billionaires Flirt With the Guillotine
JD Vance’s Theo Bro Network: Silicon Valley Meets ‘God’
Futurism reports:
Professor Warns That the Wealthy Are Trying to Use AI to Seize Control of Everything
The Rebel Tech Alliance reports on:
404 Media reports:
Hack Reveals the a16z-Backed Phone Farm Flooding TikTok With AI Influencers
SuperBloom examines:
From Content to Interface: Rethinking Platform Transparency Through Design
Wanna-be Big Tech
Mozilla spouts techbro delusions:
Mozilla’s Next Chapter: Building the World’s Most Trusted Software Company
Fuck Firefox.
Pivot to AI has the reality:
Firefox browser falls to AI. What do we do now?
Zen, Waterfox, or LibreWolf, peeps.
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Register reports:
New React vulns leak secrets, invite DoS attacks
Poisoned WhatsApp API package steals messages and accounts
Krebs on Security reports:
Most Parked Domains Now Serving Malicious Content
DarkReading reports:
Attackers Use Stolen AWS Credentials in Cryptomining Campaign
BleepingComputer reports:
Microsoft 365 accounts targeted in wave of OAuth phishing attacks
Mullvad is:
Announcing GotaTun, the future of WireGuard at Mullvad VPN
Framasoft asks:
Qui suis-je et quelle est mon identité ?
404 Media reports:
Flock Exposed Its AI-Powered Cameras to the Internet. We Tracked Ourselves
Fediverse
Tim Chambres shares:
My 2026 Open Social Web Predictions
Ploum shares:
How We Lost Communication to Entertainment
The Social Web Foundation explores:
Implementing Encrypted Messaging over ActivityPub
Literally, awesome.
Connected Places has:
PeerTube announces:
Publish your videos with PeerTube for mobile!
It’s FOSS reports:
Decentralized YouTube Alternative PeerTube Adds Creator Mode
Holos shares:
ActivityPub for WordPress has:
Jose Murilo shares:
Museums in the Fediverse: Experiments with Tainacan, ActivityPub, and WebSocial
DeadSuperHerson says:
Ghost’s ActivityPub Integration Feels Half-Baked
I feel the same way. And it’s why I am running a backup of The Programmer’s Fulcrum on WordPress to keep Ghost honest. We’ll see where TPF ends up in 2027.
Mastodon shares its:
Piefed announces:
PieFed 1.4 is released – emoji, federated stackoverflow and AI content filters
Empathy Forward announces:
Fedify shares:
Fedify 1.10.0: Observability foundations for the future debug dashboard
Slightly Decentralized Social Media
Connected Places has:
ATmosphere Report 147 – Year’s end reflections
ATProto Community has:
Ændra Rininsland: Supporting and growing ATProto development in 2025 and beyond
I am going to check Leaflet out.
TechCrunch reports:
Bluesky launches a privacy-focused ‘Find Friends’ feature without invite spam
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.
Never stop fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
Josef Pazderka 
Josef Pazderka 𝕏📤 https://xcancel.com/Mariana_Betsa:
Mariupol before the Russian invasion. We will never forget and never forgive #MakeRussiaPay #StopRussia #StandWithUkrai…
https://xcancel.com/PazderkaJosef/status/2000652404380049688
Mariupol before the Russian invasion. We will never forget and never forgive #MakeRussiaPay #StopRussia #StandWithUkrai…
https://xcancel.com/PazderkaJosef/status/2000652404380049688
BohdanRussia strikes Odesa with 450 drones, 30 missiles
https://www.perplexity.ai/page/russia-strikes-odesa-with-450-w4vVmyMYRaSW7X53u2MY9Q
Djembro, RO, supports 🇺🇦🇬🇪30 min video of a family with small kids taking shelter during the 10 hour attack on Kyiv on Nov 28.
#StandWithUkraine
#StopRussia
Otherwise, prepare to see similar stories unfold across Europe and everywhere authoritarians seek to destroy the rule of law.
What Russian mass attack feels like in Kyiv
Destroying Autocracy – December 11, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
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.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.
This is the penultimate edition of Destroying Autocracy with the final one coming December 25th. We have friends in town so there will not be one next week.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN and it’s coming soon.
You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing next month.
We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum https://ghostverse.link/@thefulcrum
Please copy and paste our handle into you favorite client to follow us. Original website content will start in 2026.
Featured Item(s)
Deutche Welle writes:
DW Access is a lightweight app designed to ensure access to independent information in regions where digital freedom is under threat. It provides users with a secure way to reach DW content even under severe censorship.
DW Access: New app counters global censorship
And Ben Werdmuller writes:
When people think about RSS, they most often associate it with the long-departed Google Reader — but it’s far from dead. From direct subscriptions to syndication into apps that aggregate and re-present content, RSS remains the standard for feeds. It’s the glue that holds the timely web together.
Most people know RSS powers blogs and podcasts. But it powers popular news apps too, from aggregated headlines on MSN or in SmartNews to up-to-date headlines in business services like Lexis Nexis or Bloomberg.
It’s also widely used to keep track of status updates of all kinds: weather, software updates, infrastructure uptime, and so on. Most of this activity happens behind the scenes. Publishers often think of feeds as an afterthought, but entire industries rely on them. It’s a workhorse that’s become essential infrastructure for the web.
There are more RSS items below.
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
The Kyiv Independent reports:
404 Media reports:
DHS’s Immigrant-Hunting App Removed from Google Play Store
ICEBlock Creator Sues U.S. Government Over App’s Removal
Tech Policy Press reports:
The EU’s Fine Against X is Not About Speech or ‘Censorship’
Cory Doctorow has:
Pluralistic: The Reverse-Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI
Speaking of, Josh Collins says:
AI optimism is a class privilege
Speaking as an old affluent white man, I agree.
Fairphone shares:
We’re big fans of open-source buildable code at Fairphone. Here’s why.
Open WebSearch has:
Partner in Focus: Open Search Foundation
The Register reports:
Publishers say no to AI scrapers, block bots at server level
Google’s AI training tactics land it in another EU antitrust fight
Really Simple Licensing spec lets web publishers demand their due from AI scrapers
The Tyee reports:
The Man Who Tracks Silicon Valley’s ‘Nerd Reich’
TechCrunch reports:
The Guardian reports:
Nextcloud reports:
Île-de-France offers 550,000 students and staff a sovereign cloud collaboration platform
6-figure deployments show momentum of sovereignty in France
It’s FOSS opines:
This Could Be The Linux Phone We All Have Been Waiting For
APC shares:
What I shared about digital commons and the NGI0 grant programme during this year’s Global Gathering
NPQ reports:
This Giving Season, Nonprofits Should Address the Chill in the Air
Elena Rossini starts a series:
A newbie’s guide to self-hosting with YunoHost. Part 1: reasons + requirements
Neutral
Tech Policy Press reports:
Europe Fined X, But It’s Still Avoiding the Real Threat to Democracy
Policymakers Overlook How Open Source AI Is Reshaping Global Power
NiemanLab reports:
Public media sees infrastructure as its next act of service
Ars Technica reports:
Big Tech joins forces with Linux Foundation to standardize AI agents
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
404 Media reports:
Border Patrol Agent Recorded Raid with Meta’s Ray-Ban Smart Glasses
Man Charged for Wiping Phone Before CBP Could Search It
NOYB shares:
Digital Omnibus: First Analysis of Select GDPR and ePrivacy Proposals by the Commission
The Nerd Reich reports:
Financial Times Discovers the Network State Cult
The Gist shares:
Pariah States
The Kyiv Post reports:
Cyberattack on Reporters Without Borders Linked to Russian Security Services
The Register reports:
UK to Europe: The time to counter Russia’s information war machine is now
DarkReading reports:
Feds: Pro-Russia Hactivists Target US Critical Infrastructure
BleepingComputer reports:
North Korean hackers exploit React2Shell flaw in EtherRAT malware attacks
Big Media
NiemanLab reports:
The political journalism that matters most will be built from the ground up
The year journalism stops outsourcing its independence
Big Tech
Platformer reports:
Where Meta’s biggest experiment in governance went wrong
404 Media reports:
Instagram Is Generating Inaccurate SEO Bait for Your Posts
NetzPolitik reports:
All you need to know about how adtech data exposes the EU to espionage
TechDirt reports:
Elon’s Crying Censorship Over An EU Fine That Has Nothing To Do With Censorship
Politico reports:
X axes European Commission’s ad account after €120M EU fine
Fascists are such snowflakes.
The Register reports:
Block all AI browsers for the foreseeable future: Gartner
Forever.
Thomas Rigby shares:
They See Your Photos: 12 months on
Amusing, but unfortunately a real product from the c^nts at Google.
Wanna-be Big Tech
Youssuff Quips looks at:
Terror
The Register reports:
193 cybercrims arrested, accused of plotting ‘violence-as-a-service’
Cybersecurity/Privacy
Freedom of the Press Foundation shares:
Lessons from Defense Department ‘Signalgate’ report
BleepingComputer reports:
Portugal updates cybercrime law to exempt security researchers
DarkReading reports:
Gemini Enterprise No-Click Flaw Exposes Sensitive Data
Fediverse
Connected Places has:
The Digital Services Act and Theories of Power
Linuxiac reports:
PeerTube 8.0 Brings a Modern Video Player and Team Channel Management
José Murilo shares:
Museums in the Fediverse: Experiments with Tainacan, ActivityPub, and WebSocial
Steffen Voß has:
Wie spielen WordPress und Mastodon zusammen?
Events, WordPress und das Fediverse
Mastodon has:
Trunk & Tidbits, November 2025
The world needs social sovereignty
RSS
John Onolan says:
Robert Alexander is:
Discovering the IndieWeb with calm tech
Fantastic.
Peter Ries pursues:
Reading news from non-RSS websites
Slightly Decentralized Social Media
TBD
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
Destroying Autocracy – December 04, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
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.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN.
You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing in January.
We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum @thefulcrum.dev and original website content will start next month.
Featured Item(s)
Hamish Campbell writes:
ActivityPub is a shared vocabulary, a public language for moving meaning and connection across the open web. It gives you nouns and verbs, and the community defines the grammar through lived use.
This is why the OMN works with ActivityPub, a metadata and meaning layer, not a platform, flows, not silos. ActivityPub is the widely deployed 4 Opens protocol that treats publishing as a flow, a conversation.
Unlike the more vertical stacks (ATProto is a good example), ActivityPub doesn’t force a worldview. It doesn’t tell you, “this is how your network must be structured.” It doesn’t enforce hierarchy or lock you into one interpretation of identity, authority, or workflow. It’s a KISS path – here’s a shared language, verbs for publishing and receiving, express objects, updates, relationships. The rest is up to the commons.
This flexibility is exactly why the OMN can become a part of this flow.
Why the OMN works with ActivityPub – And why we need a bridge to p2p
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
DDEV has:
Power Through Blackouts: How DDEV Community Helped Me in Ukraine
TechPolicy Press shares:
How to Test New York’s Algorithmic Pricing Law
The EU’s Digital Omnibus Must Be Rejected by Lawmakers. Here is Why.
Singapore announced an:
Issuance of Implementation Directives to Apple and Google Under the Online Criminal Harms Act
The MIT Press Reader has:
The Secret History of Tor: How a Military Project Became a Lifeline for Privacy
The Guardian reports:
Irish authorities asked to investigate Microsoft over alleged unlawful data processing by IDF
Elon Musk’s X fined €120m by EU in first clash under new digital laws
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
After Years of Controversy, the EU’s Chat Control Nears Its Final Hurdle: What to Know
FSFE announces:
Opening the cage: the FSFE flies away from X (Twitter)
Better late than never and what anyone with any morality should do.
Signal announces:
Major expansion of Signal for Linux, announces AppImage
TechCrunch reports:
Chicago Tribune sues Perplexity
The Center for Democracy and Technology announces:
A Framework for Assessing AI Transparency in the Public Sector
Collabora announces:
Collabora Online now available on Desktop
Neutral
TechPolicy Press reports:
What the European Commission and Civil Society Both Get Wrong on the Digital Omnibus
Why Platforms Don’t Catch Climate Misinformation — and How to Change That
EuroNews asks:
Which European countries are building their own sovereign AI to compete in the tech race?
Numerama reports:
TechCrunch reports:
Mistral closes in on Big AI rivals with new open-weight frontier and small models
Wired reports:
The Age-Gated Internet Is Sweeping the states. Activists Are Fighting Back.
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They’re Doing
EDRi has:
Promises unkept: The EU-US Data Privacy Framework under fire
404 Media reports:
Flock Uses Overseas Gig Workers to Build its Surveillance AI
TechCrunch reports:
Pariah States
DarkReading reports:
Tomiris Unleashes ‘Havoc’ With New Tools, Tactics
DPRK’s ‘Contagious Interview’ Spawns Malicious Npm Package Factory
Student Sells Gov’t, University Sites to Chinese Actors
TechPolicy Press reports:
The Gulf’s AI Rise and the Risk of Entrenching Authoritarianism
The Register reports:
China using AI as ‘precision instrument’ of censorship and repression, at home and abroad
Big Media
Axios reports:
Fox News hires Palantir to build AI newsroom tools
Big surprise.
Nieman Lab reports:
Publishers will finally learn to truly value news creators
The OMN can greatly influence this trend.
The Ecologist shares:
‘We need a media consumers union’
This times 1,000.
Big Tech
The Guardian reports:
How big tech is creating its own friendly media bubble to ‘win the narrative battle online’
More than 1,000 Amazon workers warn rapid AI rollout threatens jobs and climate
Anti-immigrant material among AI-generated content getting billions of views on TikTok
The question isn’t whether the AI bubble will burst – but what the fallout will be
BleepingComputer reports:
Leak confirms OpenAI is preparing ads on ChatGPT for public roll out
Big surprise here. But, if you’re amoral enough to use it, you deserve all the privacy invading ads you get.
Google deletes X post after getting caught using a ‘stolen’ AI recipe infographic
Nature reports:
Major AI conference flooded with peer reviews written fully by AI
Wow.
404 Media reports:
Scientists Are Increasingly Worried AI Will Sway Elections
Current Affairs reports:
AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself
Time reports:
Court Filings Allege Meta Downplayed Risks to Children and Misled the Public
National Review reports:
Meta Researchers Privately Compared Instagram to Addictive Drug, Bombshell Court Filing Shows
Wanna-be Big Tech
OMG Unbuntu has:
Mozilla’s ‘Rewiring’ to AI – Saving the Web or Saving Itself?
Cybersecurity/Privacy
TechCrunch reports:
European cops shut down crypto mixing website that helped launder 1.3B euros
DarkReading reports:
New Raptor Framework Uses Agentic Workflows to Create Patches
Bleeping Computer reports:
Fake Calendly invites spoof top brands to hijack ad manager accounts
The Register reports:
Microsoft quietly shuts down Windows shortcut flaw after years of espionage abuse
Fediverse
Coywolf has:
Mastodon creator shares what went wrong with Threads and ponders the future of the fediverse
Ben Werdmuller shares:
Sean Coates explores:
The Fediverse and Content Creation: Monetization
Great and important stuff.
Ploum asks:
Is Pixelfed sawing off the branch that the Fediverse is sitting on?
Wouldn’t the fix to this would be to show a larger version of a user’s profile image with text posts?
Connected Places has:
FediForum shares:
FediForum/Fediverse Track at SFSCon, November 2025, in Bolzano, Italy
SVDJ has:
‘Stapje voor stapje de controle terugpakken’: hoe media hun publiek kunnen heroveren op Big Tech
Beautiful site design for a news website, btw.
Deemlog has a bizarre experiment:
Git as Federation Transport — Rethinking How Small Social Networks Talk to Each Other
Jose Murilo shares:
“Museus no Fediverso” – Apresentação do Ibram-Museus no 1º WebSocialBR
RSS
Planet Codigo has:
Mi solución RSS con software libre y autogestionado
Slightly Decentralized Social Media
TBD
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
#ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Mastodon #Pixelfed #Roundabout #RSS #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #Threads
Destroying Autocracy – November 27, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
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.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN.
You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing in January.
We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum @thefulcrum.dev and original website content will start in 2026.
Featured Item(s)
The Atlantic writes:
Over the weekend, Elon Musk’s X rolled out a feature that had the immediate result of sowing maximum chaos. The update, called “About This Account,” allows people to click on the profile of an X user and see such information as: which country the account was created in, where its user is currently based, and how many times the username has been changed.
Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, said the feature was “an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square.” Roughly four hours later, with the update in the wild, Bier sent another post: “I need a drink.”
Almost immediately, “About This Account” stated that many prominent and prolific pro-MAGA accounts, which signaled that they were run by “patriotic” Americans, were based in countries such as Nigeria, Russia, India, and Thailand.
@MAGANationX, an account with almost 400,000 followers and whose bio says it is a “Patriot Voice for We The People,” is based in “Eastern Europe (Non-EU),” according to the feature, and has changed its username five times since the account was made, last year.
On X and Bluesky, users dredged up countless examples of fake or misleading rage-baiting accounts posting aggressive culture-war takes to large audiences. An account called “Maga Nadine” claims to be living in and posting from the United States but is, according to X, based in Morocco. An “America First” account with 67,000 followers is apparently based in Bangladesh. Poetically, the X handle @American is based in Pakistan, according to the feature.
Elon Musk’s Worthless, Poisoned Hall of Mirrors
Just FYI, December 25th will be the day I stop exploring the stupidity of our current timeline and the last Destroying Autocracy post. Again, see the notes above about The Fulcrum.
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
EuroNews reports:
Life after chatbots: Meet the ‘AI vegans’ refusing to accept a virtual reality
Kagi is:
Introducing SlopStop: Community-driven AI slop detection in Kagi Search
Fucking awesome if you use Macs.
TechPolicy Press reports:
Why Civil Society Is Sounding the Alarm on the EU’s Omnibus Rollback
The Guardian reports:
European parliament calls for social media ban on under-16s
The Free Software Foundation Europe shares:
Germany Stack: Only Free Software Enables Digital Sovereignty
Wikimedia announces:
Unifying our mobile and desktop domains
Decidim reviews:
Decidim Fest 2025: Collective energy, digital sovereignty and a common roadmap
The Conversation reports:
Mullvad reports:
An important victory – but we still need to stop Chat Control.
Ploum says:
Fiona Fokus says:
I don’t care how well your “AI” works
Abso-fucking-lutely.
It’s Foss has:
Self-Hosting is Rising and Linux Users are Leading This Revolution
CNBC reports;
Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever and it’s costing the economy
Neutral
The Guardian asks:
Has Britain become an economic colony?
England always makes sure to ape the shitty parts of America.
W3C shares:
Preventing Abuse of Digital Credentials
Ben Werdmuller covers:
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
Heise reports:
Analysis of the Digital Sovereignty Summit: Open Source Gets Scolded
We Are Solomon reports:
Hungry for data: Inside Europol’s secretive AI program
The Intercept reports:
The FBI wants to use Surveillance Drones with Facial Recognition Technology
How Corporate Partnerships Powered University Surveillance of Palestine Protests
The Counter Offensive reports:
Witkoff was secretly giving Russians advice
Pariah States
The Register reports:
CISA warns spyware crews are breaking into Signal and WhatsApp accounts
DarkReading reports:
DPRK’s FlexibleFerret Tightens macOS Grip
Big Media
The Columbia Journalism Review reports:
Could Public Skepticism of the Press Actually Be Good for Democracy?
It could since most Big Media is owned by right-wing c^nts.
ProPublica shares:
ProPublica’s May-August 2025 Impact Report: Independent Investigations That Spur Change
Big Tech
Sage Journals reports:
Renée DiResta reports:
On the internet, nobody knows you’re a MAGA influencer… in Lagos
The Daily Beast reports:
Top MAGA Influencers Accidentally Unmasked as Foreign Trolls
404 Media reports:
America’s Polarization Has Become the World’s Side Hustle
The Register reports:
Meta knows how bad its sites are for kids, say lawyers
MM+M reports:
What healthcare marketers need to know about Meta’s censoring of abortion ads
The Markup reports:
How American Big Tech guards the profits it extracts around the world
Tuta reports:
Google wants to kill Android freedom: Say Goodbye to installing independent apps
Cybersecurity/Privacy
BleepingComputer reports:
Cox Enterprises discloses Oracle E-Business Suite data breach
Hmm, cable companies are literally shit at everything.
Code beautifiers expose credentials from banks, govt, tech orgs
Malicious LLMs empower inexperienced hackers with advanced tools
DarkReading reports:
Infamous Shai-hulud Worm Resurfaces From the Depths
The Register reports:
FCC guts post-Salt Typhoon telco rules despite ongoing espionage risk
GrapheneOS bails on OVHcloud over France’s privacy stance
Fediverse
Connected Places shares:
Mastodon announces:
Mastodon Joins Forces with WE AID
Bonfire has:
What is Bonfire? Plural by design.
Buttondown has:
Making social networking more like email
Terence Eden has:
Now witness the power of this fully operational Fediverse!
Ghost has:
RadWeb Hosting shares:
How to Host Your Own Mastodon Server on a VPS (5 Minute Quick-Start Guide)
How to Install Pleroma on Ubuntu VPS (5 Minute Quick-Start Guide)
NodeBB announces:
NodeBB v4.7.0 — category boost fixes, remote media/emoji in chats, and more!
Slightly Decentralized Social Media
Connected Places has:
Internet Exchange reports:
‘Composable Moderation’ May Protect Bluesky from Political Pressure
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
#ActivityPub #AI #ATProto #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bonfire #Buttondown #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Ghost #Mastodon #NodeBB #Pleroma #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism
Destroying Autocracy – November 20, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
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.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN.
You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing in January.
We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum @thefulcrum.dev and original website content will start in 2026.
Featured Item(s)
Muni Town writes:
I’ve been trying to write this piece for years, really ever since I finished the first version of Open Source Explained (a v2 will drop early next year). Every time I get started I’m just overwhelmed with paralyzing visions of the commentariat accusing me of WrongThink.
So I drop it, because I’m tired to the bone of debating the minutae of open source definitions when the conversation we ought to be having is about power: who has it? (oligarchs), how did they get it? (monopolies & corruption), why is that a problem? (platform autocracy), and how do we the people take that power back? (protocols and open software).
Understanding ownership is power
It’s important to understand the codes in your life, because your life is made up of them. Once you understand which codes you already have access to and even the right to inspect, you can see more clearly which other codes you ought to have insight into.
Nothing makes me more anxious than writing about open source licensing because nothing brings out more opinion-havers, the vast majority of whom are speaking from a point of privilege-blindess in the western world. The widespread ignorance of the deeper power struggle at play (which we’re losing) has brought the free world to the very brink, so I’m pushing past the discomfort to honor the urgency of our moment.
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
404 Media reports:
Ukraine Is Jamming Russia’s ‘Superweapon’ With a Song
Radio Free Europe reports:
How Britain’s Disposable Vape Ban Has Boosted Ukraine’s War Effort
TechCrunch reports:
Five people plead guilty to helping North Koreans infiltrate US companies as ‘remote IT workers’
Surveillance Tech Provide Proteir Was Hacked
Software Maxims has:
How FOSS Won and Why It Matters
Open Future announces:
Open Future Joins the European Network for Technological Resilience and Sovereignty
404 Media reports:
Airlines Will Shut Down Program That Sold Your Flights Records to Government
Elon Musk Could ‘Drink Piss Better Than Any Human in History,’ Grok Says
Literally, pathetic.
Framasoft has:
Renforcez l’internet du partage en contribuant à la robustesse de Framasoft
The Register reports:
Latest Servo release hints at a real Rust alternative to Chromium
Brussels eyes AWS, Azure for gatekeeper tag in cloud clampdown
Game over: Europol storms gaming platforms in extremist content sweep
The Guardian reports:
French authorities investigate alleged Holocaust denial posts on Elon Musk’s Grok AI
TechPolicy Press reports:
Brazil Supreme Court Ruling Redefines Framework for Platform Liability
The Center for Democracy and Technology has:
What Kids and Parents Want: Policy Insights for Social Media Safety Features
The Center for Democracy and Technology has:
What Kids and Parents Want: Policy Insights for Social Media Safety Features
Neutral
TechCrunch reports:
Databricks co-founder argues US must go open source to beat China in AI
The Guardian reports:
AI firms must be clear on risks or repeat tobacco’s mistakes, says Anthropic chief
The Center for Democracy and Technology reports:
Architects of Online Influence: How Creators, Platforms, and Policymakers Shape Political Speech
TechPolicy Press says:
If Europe Wants Digital Sovereignty, It Must Reinvent Who Owns Tech
MIT Technology Review reports:
Quantum physicists have shrunk and “de-censored” DeepSeek R1
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
Corporate Europe reports:
Preparing a roll-back of digital rights: Commission’s secretive meetings with industry
The Brussels Times reports:
Secret EU plans to allow Big Tech to train AI with our personal data
The Guardian reports:
Dark forces are preventing us fighting the climate crisis – by taking knowledge hostage
404 Media reports:
This App Lets ICE Track Vehicles and Owners Across the Country
IRS Accessed Massive Database of Americans Flights Without a Warrant
Cops Used Flock to Monitor No Kings Protests Around the Country
The Register reports:
Palantir plots NHS skills drive for its controversial data platform
Trump, Republicans try again to stop states from regulating AI
Pariah States
TechCrunch reports:
US, UK, and Australia sanction Russian ‘bulletproof’ web host used in ransomware attacks
Forbes reports:
Has Samsung Installed ‘Unremovable Israeli Spyware’ On Your Phone?
The Register reports:
Tens of thousands more ASUS routers pwned by suspected, evolving China operation
DarkReading reports:
Chinese APT Infects Routers to Hijack Software Updates
Big Media
TBD
Big Tech
The Guardian reports:
White nationalist talking points and racial pseudoscience: welcome to Elon Musk’s Grokipedia
MalwareBytes reorts:
Gmail can read your emails and attachments to train its AI, unless you opt out
The Register reports:
Researchers find hole in AI guardrails by using strings like =coffee
404 Media reports:
A Researcher Made an AI That Completely Breaks the Online Surveys Scientists Rely On
The ACLU reports:
Your Smartphone, Their Rules: How App Stores Enable Corporate-Government Censorship
Yep.
TechPolicy Press reports:
How Tech Oligarchs Profit from the Logic of ‘Finitude Capitalism’ and What to Do About It
Cybersecurity/Privacy
Privacy Guides has:
Email Security: Where We Are and What the Future Holds
DarkReading asks:
Can a Global, Decentralized System Save CVE Data?
Heise reports:
3.5 Billion Accounts: Complete WhatsApp Directory Retrieved and Evaluated
Signal or Delta Chat peeps.
Fediverse
Ben Werdmuller reports on:
The State of the Open Social Web
Great Stuff as usual from Ben.
ForBetter explores:
The future of hope on the Social Web
Connected Places has:
Laura Hargreaves has:
Ghost v6 Upgrade + Docker Migration: What I Learned (So You Don’t Have To)
Big news with Mastodon this week:
The Future is Ours to Build – Together
Hopefully the new regime (foundation vs. benevolent dictator) will focus on trust & safety and not trying to be Twitter 2.
Chris Sturmsucht shares:
Fediverse: a new open and social web
Slightly Decentralized Social Media
Connected Places has:
ATmosphere Report 143 – Eurosky Live
TechCrunch reports:
Bluesky announces moderation changes focused on better tracking, improved transparency
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
#activitypub #ai #autocracy #bigJournalism #bigTech #democracy #fascism #fediverse #ghost #mastodon #stopChina #stopIsrael #stopRedAmerica #stopRussia #supportUkraine #technoanarchism #technofeudalism
