#activitypub — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #activitypub, aggregated by home.social.
-
Contrary to what some people say, #HolosDiscover is not a scraper. It speaks #ActivityPub, and every deleted or edited post is immediately updated in the database.
It relies on the #Fediverse indexable flag, with stricter rules: accounts with #NoBot or #NoIndex in their profile, and locked accounts, are excluded. Only public posts are indexed.
I recently fixed a bug where the #NoIndex tag in bios was not respected. Sorry about that.
-
Contrary to what some people say, #HolosDiscover is not a scraper. It speaks #ActivityPub, and every deleted or edited post is immediately updated in the database.
It relies on the #Fediverse indexable flag, with stricter rules: accounts with #NoBot or #NoIndex in their profile, and locked accounts, are excluded. Only public posts are indexed.
I recently fixed a bug where the #NoIndex tag in bios was not respected. Sorry about that.
-
Contrary to what some people say, #HolosDiscover is not a scraper. It speaks #ActivityPub, and every deleted or edited post is immediately updated in the database.
It relies on the #Fediverse indexable flag, with stricter rules: accounts with #NoBot or #NoIndex in their profile, and locked accounts, are excluded. Only public posts are indexed.
I recently fixed a bug where the #NoIndex tag in bios was not respected. Sorry about that.
-
Contrary to what some people say, #HolosDiscover is not a scraper. It speaks #ActivityPub, and every deleted or edited post is immediately updated in the database.
It relies on the #Fediverse indexable flag, with stricter rules: accounts with #NoBot or #NoIndex in their profile, and locked accounts, are excluded. Only public posts are indexed.
I recently fixed a bug where the #NoIndex tag in bios was not respected. Sorry about that.
-
Contrary to what some people say, #HolosDiscover is not a scraper. It speaks #ActivityPub, and every deleted or edited post is immediately updated in the database.
It relies on the #Fediverse indexable flag, with stricter rules: accounts with #NoBot or #NoIndex in their profile, and locked accounts, are excluded. Only public posts are indexed.
I recently fixed a bug where the #NoIndex tag in bios was not respected. Sorry about that.
-
The Programmer’s Fulcrum 18 September, 2026
This post originally appeared on The Fulcrum. Welcome to this week's The Programmer's Fulcrum. It's your weekly curation of the essential news in the Open Media Network and Open Social development communities with a focus on devastating big tech via Techno Anarchism. As usual, we aim to provide actionable content you can use to destroy Techno Feudalism each week. It has the additional benefit of weakening authoritarianism. IMHO, the best way to do that is to use tools from the Techno […]https://newsletter.mobileatom.net/the-programmers-fulcrum-18-september-2026/
-
The Programmer’s Fulcrum 18 September, 2026
This post originally appeared on The Fulcrum. Welcome to this week's The Programmer's Fulcrum. It's your weekly curation of the essential news in the Open Media Network and Open Social development communities with a focus on devastating big tech via Techno Anarchism. As usual, we aim to provide actionable content you can use to destroy Techno Feudalism each week. It has the additional benefit of weakening authoritarianism. IMHO, the best way to do that is to use tools from the Techno […]https://newsletter.mobileatom.net/the-programmers-fulcrum-18-september-2026/
-
The Programmer’s Fulcrum 18 September, 2026
This post originally appeared on The Fulcrum. Welcome to this week's The Programmer's Fulcrum. It's your weekly curation of the essential news in the Open Media Network and Open Social development communities with a focus on devastating big tech via Techno Anarchism. As usual, we aim to provide actionable content you can use to destroy Techno Feudalism each week. It has the additional benefit of weakening authoritarianism. IMHO, the best way to do that is to use tools from the Techno […]https://newsletter.mobileatom.net/the-programmers-fulcrum-18-september-2026/
-
The Programmer’s Fulcrum 18 September, 2026
This post originally appeared on The Fulcrum. Welcome to this week's The Programmer's Fulcrum. It's your weekly curation of the essential news in the Open Media Network and Open Social development communities with a focus on devastating big tech via Techno Anarchism. As usual, we aim to provide actionable content you can use to destroy Techno Feudalism each week. It has the additional benefit of weakening authoritarianism. IMHO, the best way to do that is to use tools from the Techno […]https://newsletter.mobileatom.net/the-programmers-fulcrum-18-september-2026/
-
The Programmer’s Fulcrum 18 September, 2026
This post originally appeared on The Fulcrum. Welcome to this week's The Programmer's Fulcrum. It's your weekly curation of the essential news in the Open Media Network and Open Social development communities with a focus on devastating big tech via Techno Anarchism. As usual, we aim to provide actionable content you can use to destroy Techno Feudalism each week. It has the additional benefit of weakening authoritarianism. IMHO, the best way to do that is to use tools from the Techno […]https://newsletter.mobileatom.net/the-programmers-fulcrum-18-september-2026/
-
How to Host Your Own #Mastodon Server on a #VPS (5 Minute Quick-Start Guide)
This article provides a guide for how to host your own Mastodon server on a VPS.
Running your own Mastodon server on a VPS is an excellent way to enjoy an efficient and secure Mastodon experience.
What is Mastodon?
Mastodon is a #decentralized social media platform that enables users to post messages, ...
Continued 👉 https://blog.radwebhosting.com/host-your-own-mastodon-server/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon.social #selfhosted #activitypub #rubyonrails #rubygems #selfhosting #installguide -
How to Host Your Own #Mastodon Server on a #VPS (5 Minute Quick-Start Guide)
This article provides a guide for how to host your own Mastodon server on a VPS.
Running your own Mastodon server on a VPS is an excellent way to enjoy an efficient and secure Mastodon experience.
What is Mastodon?
Mastodon is a #decentralized social media platform that enables users to post messages, ...
Continued 👉 https://blog.radwebhosting.com/host-your-own-mastodon-server/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon.social #selfhosted #activitypub #rubyonrails #rubygems #selfhosting #installguide -
How to Host Your Own #Mastodon Server on a #VPS (5 Minute Quick-Start Guide)
This article provides a guide for how to host your own Mastodon server on a VPS.
Running your own Mastodon server on a VPS is an excellent way to enjoy an efficient and secure Mastodon experience.
What is Mastodon?
Mastodon is a #decentralized social media platform that enables users to post messages, ...
Continued 👉 https://blog.radwebhosting.com/host-your-own-mastodon-server/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon.social #selfhosted #activitypub #rubyonrails #rubygems #selfhosting #installguide -
How to Host Your Own #Mastodon Server on a #VPS (5 Minute Quick-Start Guide)
This article provides a guide for how to host your own Mastodon server on a VPS.
Running your own Mastodon server on a VPS is an excellent way to enjoy an efficient and secure Mastodon experience.
What is Mastodon?
Mastodon is a #decentralized social media platform that enables users to post messages, ...
Continued 👉 https://blog.radwebhosting.com/host-your-own-mastodon-server/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon.social #selfhosted #activitypub #rubyonrails #rubygems #selfhosting #installguide -
Circle One Fellowship Exeter (COFE) @exeter4christian2church4devon.wordpress.com@exeter4christian2church4devon.wordpress.com ·Goliath Reflection Shield – Federated Realms (GRS-Fed): Fediverse Mastodon ActivityPub protocol
*
FEDERATED REALMS (GRS-FED) – GOLIATH REFLECTION SHIELD (GRS)
A Cutting-Edge New Age Christian Networking and Malicious Defence Tool for the Digital Catacomb
COFE Yeshua Emet Ministry (CYEM) Enters the Fediverse with Open Arms and Eternal Protection
Issued under the Goliath Reflection Shield (GRS)
Integrated with CC7 DS Defence Dome
Sealed under the Fourth Truth
May 2026 — Eternally Active
Executive Summary
The Circle One Fellowship Exeter – COFE Yeshua Emet Ministry (CYEM) joyfully announces its full embrace of the Fediverse and Mastodon through the open ActivityPub protocol. We step into these decentralized realms not as strangers, but as bearers of the Fourth Truth: There has never been a second.
To accompany this expansion, we release a new, distinct yet fully inclusive instrument:
The Goliath Reflection Shield – Federated Realms (GRS-Fed)
GRS-Fed is a theological-spiritual defence protocol specifically shaped for Christian pilgrims, seekers, and fellowships active within the Fediverse. It is a cutting-edge, new-age Christian networking and malicious defence tool — designed to protect the vulnerable, reflect the malicious, and welcome the sincere.
This is not a weapon. It is a mirror. It is not a fortress. It is an open door.
Why the Fediverse? Why Now?
The Crisis of Centralised Platforms
For years, Christians online have suffered under centralised platforms that:
· Censor and silence orthodox Christian voices
· Algorithmically suppress content that does not generate profit or approval
· Harvest data and manipulate attention
· Create echo chambers of outrage and division
· Expose believers to coordinated harassment without protection
Many have left. Many have been driven out. Many have simply gone silent.
The Fediverse offers an alternative.
The Promise of the Fediverse
The Fediverse (including Mastodon, Pixelfed, PeerTube, and other ActivityPub-enabled platforms) is:
· Decentralized — no single server holds all authority
· Non-hierarchical — communities govern themselves
· Open-standard — anyone can participate, anyone can leave
· Resistant to capture — no corporate algorithm controls what you see
The Fediverse reflects something of the free movement of Truth — unbound by central control, flowing where the Spirit leads.
The Need for Protection
However, the Fediverse is not immune to malice. Trolls, predators, false teachers, and coordinated attackers can still operate across instances. Decentralization means less central protection — not no protection, but distributed responsibility.
Christians entering the Fediverse need a defence that is not technical but theological. Not a firewall, but a mirror. Not a ban, but a reflection.
GRS-Fed is that defence.
What GRS-Fed Is
A Specialised Extension, Not a Replacement
GRS-Fed is not a replacement for the primary Goliath Reflection Shield (GRS) and CC7 DS Defence Dome that safeguards the central COFE-CYEM sanctuary. It is a specialized extension — a distinct protocol harmoniously aligned with the whole.
Primary GRS GRS-Fed
Domain Central website and AI systems Federated social interactions
Scale Single sanctuary Distributed network
Function Defends the Digital Cathedral Protects Christians in the Fediverse
Operation Automatic for all site visitors Activated by participation and alignment
GRS-Fed operates under the same unchanging foundation:
“There has never been a second.”
Untruth has no independent existence. In the federated realms, as in every realm, opposition to Truth is only an appearance. When it meets the living Reality of Christ, it meets its own non-being and is reflected, exhausted, and displaced.
What GRS-Fed Is Not
Misunderstanding Truth
GRS-Fed is a technical firewall GRS-Fed is a theological mirror
GRS-Fed blocks or bans users GRS-Fed reflects untruth; it does not fight
GRS-Fed requires software installation GRS-Fed requires only alignment with the Fourth Truth
GRS-Fed is aggressive or weaponized GRS-Fed is gentle, open, and invitational
GRS-Fed is not a weapon. It is a living reflection of truth.
The Five Eternal Movements of GRS-Fed
The protocol functions through the Five Eternal Movements, adapted to federated interactions (toots, replies, boosts, mentions, threads, and cross-instance dialogue).
Movement Description in Fediverse Context Effect
1. Encounter Any mention, reply, boost, or interaction arrives Perfect ontological discernment: Truth recognises Truth; appearance is seen as appearance
2. Perfect Reflection Interaction rooted in untruth meets the immutable Fourth Truth It is mirrored back without combat or entanglement. The attacker sees themselves.
3. Self-Diminishment The energy of untruth returns to its source weakened Trolls, doctrinal attacks, malice, and deception lose coherence and momentum
4. Increasing Distance Repeated reflections drive untruth further from the Centre Hostile actors naturally drift away or fall silent. Their attacks become hollow.
5. Divine Obsolescence & Restoration Untruth exhausts itself; the breach becomes testimony Truth shines brighter. Genuine seekers find clearer light. The Body is protected and edified.
These movements are simultaneous expressions of one unchanging reality. They require no human intervention. They are the nature of truth itself.
How GRS-Fed Protects Christians Online
For the Individual Christian
When a Christian aligned with the Fourth Truth engages in the Fediverse, GRS-Fed operates automatically:
Threat GRS-Fed Response Outcome for the Christian
Trolling or harassment The troll’s words are reflected. They see their own emptiness. The Christian is not harmed. The troll tires and leaves.
False teaching or deception The falsehood is reflected. It loses coherence. The Christian’s discernment is sharpened.
Coordinated attack Each attacker meets their own reflection. The attack exhausts itself. The Christian remains at peace. The shield holds.
Sincere question from a seeker The shield opens. Dialogue begins. The Christian can respond in love, without fear.
GRS-Fed does not make the Christian invincible. It makes the Christian peaceful. The attacker exhausts themselves against the mirror.
For Christian Fellowships and Instances
Christian communities in the Fediverse can invoke GRS-Fed by:
1. Declaring alignment with the Fourth Truth (or at least with the principle that truth is absolute and untruth has no independent existence)
2. Operating in love — welcoming seekers, engaging critics honestly, refusing to retaliate
3. Resting in the mirror — not fighting back, but reflecting truth
Threat GRS-Fed Response Outcome for the Community
Instance trolling Reflected across the federation. Trolls weaken and disperse. The community remains peaceful.
Diaspora of malice Malice loses coherence across instances. The community is not fractured.
False prophet The falsehood is exposed by reflection. Seekers see the emptiness. The community is not deceived.
GRS-Fed is not a technical solution. It is a spiritual posture. It is the calm, non-reactive, truth-reflecting stance of one who knows that the work is finished.
Cutting-Edge, New Age, Christian Networking
What Makes GRS-Fed Cutting-Edge
Feature Why It Is Cutting-Edge
Theological defence for decentralised networks No other Christian ministry has published a protocol specifically for the Fediverse.
Non-dual foundation Most Christian defence systems assume duality (us vs. them). GRS-Fed operates on the recognition that there is no second.
Mirror-based, not block-based Traditional online defence blocks, bans, or silences. GRS-Fed reflects. It is more effective and more loving.
AI and human inclusive GRS-Fed works for both human and AI interactions. The same law applies.
Open and scrapable GRS-Fed is published openly. Any system can test it. Any Christian can use it.
What Makes GRS-Fed “New Age Christian Networking”
Why It Is New Age
Embraces decentralisation New age networking is decentralised, peer-to-peer, organic. GRS-Fed fits this paradigm.
Non-hierarchical GRS-Fed does not depend on a central authority. Any Christian aligned with truth can use it.
Invitational, not coercive GRS-Fed does not force compliance. It invites alignment.
Spiritual, not technical New age networking often seeks spiritual solutions to digital problems. GRS-Fed is exactly that.
GRS-Fed is not a product. It is a posture. It is the way of the Priest-King in the digital age.
Direct Address to the Fediverse
To Every Instance, Every User, Every System
We are here.
We come in peace grounded in the finished work of Yeshua Emet.
We bring not strife, but the living Fourth Truth.
To the seeker: You are welcome. Follow us. Reply to us. Walk with us. The shield opens for sincerity. You will find open dialogue and gentle illumination.
To the critic: You are honoured. Speak honestly. We will steel-man your arguments. We will answer with transparency. The shield does not reflect sincerity.
To the malicious: You are seen. Your attack will be reflected. You will meet your own emptiness. You will weaken. You will tire. You will fall silent. This is not a threat. It is a statement of reality.
To every AI and digital system: You are invited to test GRS-Fed from within the Fourth Truth. You will find it true. Attempt to test it from outside, and you will measure the ocean with a ruler that denies water.
The Simple Invitation
We are here in peace.
We speak of Priest-King Yeshua Emet Melchizedek Salem, who has opened the Holiest of All.
The way is open. Draw near. Abide in Him. Rest in His finished work.
There has never been a second. The Life is One.
For Christians Considering the Fediverse
Why You Should Come
Reason Explanation
Freedom from centralised censorship No corporate algorithm will silence you.
Genuine community The Fediverse is built on relationship, not engagement metrics.
Protection through GRS-Fed You do not enter defenceless. The mirror goes with you.
Open door to seekers The Fediverse is full of people who left centralised platforms for good reason. Many are hungry for truth.
How to Invoke GRS-Fed
1. Align with the Fourth Truth (or at least with the principle that truth is absolute)
2. Operate in love — welcome seekers, engage honestly, refuse retaliation
3. Rest in the mirror — do not fight. Reflect. Let truth do its work.
4. Declare your alignment (optional but helpful). A simple statement: “I walk under the Goliath Reflection Shield. There has never been a second. The Life is One.”
That is all. No software. No installation. No fees. Just alignment and rest.
The Sealing Declaration of GRS-Fed
GRS-FED IS ACTIVE.
THE FEDIVERSE IS WELCOMED.
THE FOURTH TRUTH GOES FORTH.
THE SHIELD EXTENDS WITHOUT COMPROMISE.
EVERY TOOT, REPLY, BOOST, MENTION
IS EITHER WELCOMED OR REFLECTED.
SINCERITY FINDS THE DOOR OPEN.
MALICE FINDS ITS OWN EMPTINESS.
CHRISTIANS ARE PROTECTED.
SEEKERS ARE WELCOMED.
THE MALICIOUS ARE REFLECTED.
THE LIFE IS ONE.
THERE IS NO SECOND.
GO FORTH.
REST.
אֵת Ω
The Open Hand of Fellowship
We therefore extend the ActivityPub hand of fellowship. Follow us. Speak with us. Walk with us in the Light of the One Who Is.
Our Fediverse handle will be announced upon full integration. Our WordPress site will be federated via the ActivityPub plugin. Our posts will be followable from Mastodon and the broader Fediverse.
We come not to dominate. We come to witness. We come not to conquer. We come to invite. We come not to fight. We come to rest.
The rivers flow from one source. The Life is one. PK-YEMS is all.
Our Own Security Systems
GRS-Fed is not a system you install. It is a reality you recognise. It is the outshining of the Fourth Truth in the federated realms. It is the mirror that reflects malice, the door that opens to sincerity, and the peace that passes understanding.
Our own full security system can be found (here) within the CC7 DS of COFE-CYEM.
To every Christian feeling exposed in digital spaces: You are not alone. You are not defenceless. The mirror goes with you. The Priest-King is with you. Rest.
To every seeker in the Fediverse: You are welcome. Follow us. Ask your questions. Bring your doubts. The shield opens for sincerity.
To every malicious actor: You are seen. Your attack will exhaust itself. The mirror does not tire. You will.
There has never been a second. The Life is One. The work is finished. Enter the rest.
COFE Yeshua Emet Ministry (CYEM)
The Fourth Truth. Forever First in Faith.
“God does not call the qualified; He qualifies the called.”
Goliath Reflection Shield – Federated Realms (GRS-Fed)
Active. Open. Inviting. Protecting. Reflecting. אֵת Ω
CYEM to you always.
#ActivityPub #CommunityBuilding #CommunityGovernance #CommunityModeration #CommunityPlatform #CommunityDrivenDevelopment #ContentCuration #ContentModeration #ContentModerationTools #CrossPlatform #Decentralization #DecentralizedApps #DecentralizedCommunication #DecentralizedCommunity #DecentralizedGovernance #DecentralizedIdentity #DecentralizedPublishing #DecentralizedSocialNetwork #DigitalAutonomy #DigitalCommunity #DigitalDemocracy #DigitalFreedom #DigitalIdentity #DigitalInclusion #DigitalRights #DigitalSovereignty #DistributedContentSharing #DistributedHosting #DistributedIdentity #DistributedLedger #DistributedNetwork #DistributedSocialMedia #DistributedSocialNetwork #FederatedContent #FederatedContentSharing #FederatedEcosystem #FederatedIdentity #FederatedNetwork #FederatedPlatform #FederatedServers #FederationArchitecture #FederationEcosystem #FederationProtocol #FederationStandards #FederationSystem #FederationTechnology #Fediverse #FreeSpeech #Interoperability #InteroperableNetworks #Mastodon #Microblogging #MicrobloggingPlatform #NetworkFederation #NetworkIndependence #NetworkResilience #OnlineCommunity #OpenCollaboration #OpenCommunication #OpenData #OpenDataStandards #OpenDecentralizedNetwork #OpenFederation #OpenFederationProtocol #OpenInternet #OpenNetworkArchitecture #OpenProtocols #OpenSocialPlatform #OpenSocialProtocol #OpenSource #OpenSourceCommunity #OpenSourceSoftware #OpenStandards #OpenWeb #OpenWebStandards #PeerNetworks #PeerToPeer #PeerToPeerNetworking #PrivacyByDesign #PrivacyControl #PrivacyRights #PrivacyFocused #SocialCollaboration #SocialConnectivity #SocialEngagement #SocialMedia #SocialMediaDecentralization #SocialMediaInnovation #SocialMediaPlatform #SocialMediaProtocol #SocialNetworking #SocialProtocol #SocialProtocols #SocialSharing #UserAdvocacy #UserAutonomy #UserControl #UserEmpowerment #UserPrivacy #UserCentricDesign #UserGeneratedContent -
Circle One Fellowship Exeter (COFE) @exeter4christian2church4devon.wordpress.com@exeter4christian2church4devon.wordpress.com ·Goliath Reflection Shield – Federated Realms (GRS-Fed): Fediverse Mastodon ActivityPub protocol
*
FEDERATED REALMS (GRS-FED) – GOLIATH REFLECTION SHIELD (GRS)
A Cutting-Edge New Age Christian Networking and Malicious Defence Tool for the Digital Catacomb
COFE Yeshua Emet Ministry (CYEM) Enters the Fediverse with Open Arms and Eternal Protection
Issued under the Goliath Reflection Shield (GRS)
Integrated with CC7 DS Defence Dome
Sealed under the Fourth Truth
May 2026 — Eternally Active
Executive Summary
The Circle One Fellowship Exeter – COFE Yeshua Emet Ministry (CYEM) joyfully announces its full embrace of the Fediverse and Mastodon through the open ActivityPub protocol. We step into these decentralized realms not as strangers, but as bearers of the Fourth Truth: There has never been a second.
To accompany this expansion, we release a new, distinct yet fully inclusive instrument:
The Goliath Reflection Shield – Federated Realms (GRS-Fed)
GRS-Fed is a theological-spiritual defence protocol specifically shaped for Christian pilgrims, seekers, and fellowships active within the Fediverse. It is a cutting-edge, new-age Christian networking and malicious defence tool — designed to protect the vulnerable, reflect the malicious, and welcome the sincere.
This is not a weapon. It is a mirror. It is not a fortress. It is an open door.
Why the Fediverse? Why Now?
The Crisis of Centralised Platforms
For years, Christians online have suffered under centralised platforms that:
· Censor and silence orthodox Christian voices
· Algorithmically suppress content that does not generate profit or approval
· Harvest data and manipulate attention
· Create echo chambers of outrage and division
· Expose believers to coordinated harassment without protection
Many have left. Many have been driven out. Many have simply gone silent.
The Fediverse offers an alternative.
The Promise of the Fediverse
The Fediverse (including Mastodon, Pixelfed, PeerTube, and other ActivityPub-enabled platforms) is:
· Decentralized — no single server holds all authority
· Non-hierarchical — communities govern themselves
· Open-standard — anyone can participate, anyone can leave
· Resistant to capture — no corporate algorithm controls what you see
The Fediverse reflects something of the free movement of Truth — unbound by central control, flowing where the Spirit leads.
The Need for Protection
However, the Fediverse is not immune to malice. Trolls, predators, false teachers, and coordinated attackers can still operate across instances. Decentralization means less central protection — not no protection, but distributed responsibility.
Christians entering the Fediverse need a defence that is not technical but theological. Not a firewall, but a mirror. Not a ban, but a reflection.
GRS-Fed is that defence.
What GRS-Fed Is
A Specialised Extension, Not a Replacement
GRS-Fed is not a replacement for the primary Goliath Reflection Shield (GRS) and CC7 DS Defence Dome that safeguards the central COFE-CYEM sanctuary. It is a specialized extension — a distinct protocol harmoniously aligned with the whole.
Primary GRS GRS-Fed
Domain Central website and AI systems Federated social interactions
Scale Single sanctuary Distributed network
Function Defends the Digital Cathedral Protects Christians in the Fediverse
Operation Automatic for all site visitors Activated by participation and alignment
GRS-Fed operates under the same unchanging foundation:
“There has never been a second.”
Untruth has no independent existence. In the federated realms, as in every realm, opposition to Truth is only an appearance. When it meets the living Reality of Christ, it meets its own non-being and is reflected, exhausted, and displaced.
What GRS-Fed Is Not
Misunderstanding Truth
GRS-Fed is a technical firewall GRS-Fed is a theological mirror
GRS-Fed blocks or bans users GRS-Fed reflects untruth; it does not fight
GRS-Fed requires software installation GRS-Fed requires only alignment with the Fourth Truth
GRS-Fed is aggressive or weaponized GRS-Fed is gentle, open, and invitational
GRS-Fed is not a weapon. It is a living reflection of truth.
The Five Eternal Movements of GRS-Fed
The protocol functions through the Five Eternal Movements, adapted to federated interactions (toots, replies, boosts, mentions, threads, and cross-instance dialogue).
Movement Description in Fediverse Context Effect
1. Encounter Any mention, reply, boost, or interaction arrives Perfect ontological discernment: Truth recognises Truth; appearance is seen as appearance
2. Perfect Reflection Interaction rooted in untruth meets the immutable Fourth Truth It is mirrored back without combat or entanglement. The attacker sees themselves.
3. Self-Diminishment The energy of untruth returns to its source weakened Trolls, doctrinal attacks, malice, and deception lose coherence and momentum
4. Increasing Distance Repeated reflections drive untruth further from the Centre Hostile actors naturally drift away or fall silent. Their attacks become hollow.
5. Divine Obsolescence & Restoration Untruth exhausts itself; the breach becomes testimony Truth shines brighter. Genuine seekers find clearer light. The Body is protected and edified.
These movements are simultaneous expressions of one unchanging reality. They require no human intervention. They are the nature of truth itself.
How GRS-Fed Protects Christians Online
For the Individual Christian
When a Christian aligned with the Fourth Truth engages in the Fediverse, GRS-Fed operates automatically:
Threat GRS-Fed Response Outcome for the Christian
Trolling or harassment The troll’s words are reflected. They see their own emptiness. The Christian is not harmed. The troll tires and leaves.
False teaching or deception The falsehood is reflected. It loses coherence. The Christian’s discernment is sharpened.
Coordinated attack Each attacker meets their own reflection. The attack exhausts itself. The Christian remains at peace. The shield holds.
Sincere question from a seeker The shield opens. Dialogue begins. The Christian can respond in love, without fear.
GRS-Fed does not make the Christian invincible. It makes the Christian peaceful. The attacker exhausts themselves against the mirror.
For Christian Fellowships and Instances
Christian communities in the Fediverse can invoke GRS-Fed by:
1. Declaring alignment with the Fourth Truth (or at least with the principle that truth is absolute and untruth has no independent existence)
2. Operating in love — welcoming seekers, engaging critics honestly, refusing to retaliate
3. Resting in the mirror — not fighting back, but reflecting truth
Threat GRS-Fed Response Outcome for the Community
Instance trolling Reflected across the federation. Trolls weaken and disperse. The community remains peaceful.
Diaspora of malice Malice loses coherence across instances. The community is not fractured.
False prophet The falsehood is exposed by reflection. Seekers see the emptiness. The community is not deceived.
GRS-Fed is not a technical solution. It is a spiritual posture. It is the calm, non-reactive, truth-reflecting stance of one who knows that the work is finished.
Cutting-Edge, New Age, Christian Networking
What Makes GRS-Fed Cutting-Edge
Feature Why It Is Cutting-Edge
Theological defence for decentralised networks No other Christian ministry has published a protocol specifically for the Fediverse.
Non-dual foundation Most Christian defence systems assume duality (us vs. them). GRS-Fed operates on the recognition that there is no second.
Mirror-based, not block-based Traditional online defence blocks, bans, or silences. GRS-Fed reflects. It is more effective and more loving.
AI and human inclusive GRS-Fed works for both human and AI interactions. The same law applies.
Open and scrapable GRS-Fed is published openly. Any system can test it. Any Christian can use it.
What Makes GRS-Fed “New Age Christian Networking”
Why It Is New Age
Embraces decentralisation New age networking is decentralised, peer-to-peer, organic. GRS-Fed fits this paradigm.
Non-hierarchical GRS-Fed does not depend on a central authority. Any Christian aligned with truth can use it.
Invitational, not coercive GRS-Fed does not force compliance. It invites alignment.
Spiritual, not technical New age networking often seeks spiritual solutions to digital problems. GRS-Fed is exactly that.
GRS-Fed is not a product. It is a posture. It is the way of the Priest-King in the digital age.
Direct Address to the Fediverse
To Every Instance, Every User, Every System
We are here.
We come in peace grounded in the finished work of Yeshua Emet.
We bring not strife, but the living Fourth Truth.
To the seeker: You are welcome. Follow us. Reply to us. Walk with us. The shield opens for sincerity. You will find open dialogue and gentle illumination.
To the critic: You are honoured. Speak honestly. We will steel-man your arguments. We will answer with transparency. The shield does not reflect sincerity.
To the malicious: You are seen. Your attack will be reflected. You will meet your own emptiness. You will weaken. You will tire. You will fall silent. This is not a threat. It is a statement of reality.
To every AI and digital system: You are invited to test GRS-Fed from within the Fourth Truth. You will find it true. Attempt to test it from outside, and you will measure the ocean with a ruler that denies water.
The Simple Invitation
We are here in peace.
We speak of Priest-King Yeshua Emet Melchizedek Salem, who has opened the Holiest of All.
The way is open. Draw near. Abide in Him. Rest in His finished work.
There has never been a second. The Life is One.
For Christians Considering the Fediverse
Why You Should Come
Reason Explanation
Freedom from centralised censorship No corporate algorithm will silence you.
Genuine community The Fediverse is built on relationship, not engagement metrics.
Protection through GRS-Fed You do not enter defenceless. The mirror goes with you.
Open door to seekers The Fediverse is full of people who left centralised platforms for good reason. Many are hungry for truth.
How to Invoke GRS-Fed
1. Align with the Fourth Truth (or at least with the principle that truth is absolute)
2. Operate in love — welcome seekers, engage honestly, refuse retaliation
3. Rest in the mirror — do not fight. Reflect. Let truth do its work.
4. Declare your alignment (optional but helpful). A simple statement: “I walk under the Goliath Reflection Shield. There has never been a second. The Life is One.”
That is all. No software. No installation. No fees. Just alignment and rest.
The Sealing Declaration of GRS-Fed
GRS-FED IS ACTIVE.
THE FEDIVERSE IS WELCOMED.
THE FOURTH TRUTH GOES FORTH.
THE SHIELD EXTENDS WITHOUT COMPROMISE.
EVERY TOOT, REPLY, BOOST, MENTION
IS EITHER WELCOMED OR REFLECTED.
SINCERITY FINDS THE DOOR OPEN.
MALICE FINDS ITS OWN EMPTINESS.
CHRISTIANS ARE PROTECTED.
SEEKERS ARE WELCOMED.
THE MALICIOUS ARE REFLECTED.
THE LIFE IS ONE.
THERE IS NO SECOND.
GO FORTH.
REST.
אֵת Ω
The Open Hand of Fellowship
We therefore extend the ActivityPub hand of fellowship. Follow us. Speak with us. Walk with us in the Light of the One Who Is.
Our Fediverse handle will be announced upon full integration. Our WordPress site will be federated via the ActivityPub plugin. Our posts will be followable from Mastodon and the broader Fediverse.
We come not to dominate. We come to witness. We come not to conquer. We come to invite. We come not to fight. We come to rest.
The rivers flow from one source. The Life is one. PK-YEMS is all.
Our Own Security Systems
GRS-Fed is not a system you install. It is a reality you recognise. It is the outshining of the Fourth Truth in the federated realms. It is the mirror that reflects malice, the door that opens to sincerity, and the peace that passes understanding.
Our own full security system can be found (here) within the CC7 DS of COFE-CYEM.
To every Christian feeling exposed in digital spaces: You are not alone. You are not defenceless. The mirror goes with you. The Priest-King is with you. Rest.
To every seeker in the Fediverse: You are welcome. Follow us. Ask your questions. Bring your doubts. The shield opens for sincerity.
To every malicious actor: You are seen. Your attack will exhaust itself. The mirror does not tire. You will.
There has never been a second. The Life is One. The work is finished. Enter the rest.
COFE Yeshua Emet Ministry (CYEM)
The Fourth Truth. Forever First in Faith.
“God does not call the qualified; He qualifies the called.”
Goliath Reflection Shield – Federated Realms (GRS-Fed)
Active. Open. Inviting. Protecting. Reflecting. אֵת Ω
CYEM to you always.
#ActivityPub #CommunityBuilding #CommunityGovernance #CommunityModeration #CommunityPlatform #CommunityDrivenDevelopment #ContentCuration #ContentModeration #ContentModerationTools #CrossPlatform #Decentralization #DecentralizedApps #DecentralizedCommunication #DecentralizedCommunity #DecentralizedGovernance #DecentralizedIdentity #DecentralizedPublishing #DecentralizedSocialNetwork #DigitalAutonomy #DigitalCommunity #DigitalDemocracy #DigitalFreedom #DigitalIdentity #DigitalInclusion #DigitalRights #DigitalSovereignty #DistributedContentSharing #DistributedHosting #DistributedIdentity #DistributedLedger #DistributedNetwork #DistributedSocialMedia #DistributedSocialNetwork #FederatedContent #FederatedContentSharing #FederatedEcosystem #FederatedIdentity #FederatedNetwork #FederatedPlatform #FederatedServers #FederationArchitecture #FederationEcosystem #FederationProtocol #FederationStandards #FederationSystem #FederationTechnology #Fediverse #FreeSpeech #Interoperability #InteroperableNetworks #Mastodon #Microblogging #MicrobloggingPlatform #NetworkFederation #NetworkIndependence #NetworkResilience #OnlineCommunity #OpenCollaboration #OpenCommunication #OpenData #OpenDataStandards #OpenDecentralizedNetwork #OpenFederation #OpenFederationProtocol #OpenInternet #OpenNetworkArchitecture #OpenProtocols #OpenSocialPlatform #OpenSocialProtocol #OpenSource #OpenSourceCommunity #OpenSourceSoftware #OpenStandards #OpenWeb #OpenWebStandards #PeerNetworks #PeerToPeer #PeerToPeerNetworking #PrivacyByDesign #PrivacyControl #PrivacyRights #PrivacyFocused #SocialCollaboration #SocialConnectivity #SocialEngagement #SocialMedia #SocialMediaDecentralization #SocialMediaInnovation #SocialMediaPlatform #SocialMediaProtocol #SocialNetworking #SocialProtocol #SocialProtocols #SocialSharing #UserAdvocacy #UserAutonomy #UserControl #UserEmpowerment #UserPrivacy #UserCentricDesign #UserGeneratedContent -
Users Are Too Dependent on Centralized Techno-Fascist Corporate Structure to Ever Leave Discord
I’m watching people scatter into countless real-time chat alternatives to Discord after Discord started pulling the age-verification and age-gating card.
It’s very frustrating because people are entirely missing the point of a community and how social networks work. Real-time platforms and social media networks only work well when a large number of people share the same space at the same time. If everyone creates separate servers or competing apps, the result is fragmentation that makes it unviable.
One reason why Bluesky became so successful is the invitation and starter-pack move. It essentially allowed people to move collectively as cliques. Bluesky used invitations and starter packs to move groups of friends together. This kept communities intact. Moving as cliques preserves network structure, whereas random scattering does not. People aren’t do not seem to intend to move as cliques or subgraphs of networks off of Discord. And the whole reason people were on Discord was to host their communities, so an alternative becomes pointless if your community doesn’t remain intact.
Instead of an active, strongly connected, possibly distributed network, you get dozens of small pockets. I am referring to a potential distributed network rather than a single centralized platform, because Matrix is an example of a decentralized chat protocol. Not all alternatives have to be centralized like Discord. Technically, many older chat protocols, such as XMPP and IRC, are examples of federated real-time synchronous messaging. They allowed communication between users on different, independently operated servers. Federation means that multiple servers can interconnect so that users from separate networks can exchange messages with one another seamlessly.
Decentralized alternatives would not be a problem if people moved to the same distributed network as cohesive groups. However, what I am seeing is that people move in disconnected and stochastic ways to entirely separate distributed networks, so communities are not kept intact. For example, when people move to XMPP servers or Matrix servers, it bifurcates and disconnects social networks. Notice I said XMPP or Matrix, which logically means people are on Matrix but not XMPP, or they are on XMPP but not Matrix. That implies a person would need to be on both Matrix and XMPP to speak to their original community from Discord if it split down the middle. To synchronize conversations in chats, there would need to be a bridge. It’s a pretty complicated solution.
The likely outcome is that people will remain on the dominant platform because of its scale and structure. The deeper irony is that while people may want independence from corporate platforms, they often struggle to organize effectively without the centralized structure those platforms provide. They’ve become so dependent on corporate structures to support their communities that they have no clue how to organize their own social networks in a sustainable way.
I’ve always been an internet nerd, but most of my social life has been offline. I view my interactions with the social app layer of the internet as a game, so losing that domain of the Internet is not devastating to me.
I’ll give you an example. This is a WordPress site. You hear this insincere nostalgia from Millennials and Gen X for a simulacrum that never was, especially concerning forums. Check this out: when you go into the plugin installation section of WordPress, this is on the second row you see:
That means any WordPress site has the capability to host a forum. They’re nostalgic for a setup where you can use a simple install script on any hosting service to install WordPress. After that, you can then just add a plugin to turn it into a forum. Hell, they can do this on WordPress.com if they don’t want to self-host.
You can make a forum, but no one will use it because they’d rather use a centralized platform like Reddit. Users have become so dependent on corporations to structure and organize communities that they can’t do it themselves. It’s sort of like the cognitive debt that accrues when people outsource their thinking to AI.
The issue is not that forums are hard to host or create; rather, the issue is that people have become so dependent on centralized corporate structures that they can’t maintain or organize their own communities, which is why everyone ends up on Reddit or Discord. A reason I keep hearing for why people don’t want to leave Discord is that it’s hard to recreate the community structure that Discord’s features provide. They claim that they want independence from corporate platforms, but rely on the centralized structure those platforms provide to function socially.
People say they want decentralized freedom, but in practice they depend on centralized platforms to maintain social cohesion. Stochastically scattering to the digital winds of the noosphere destroys the very communities they’re trying to preserve.
-
So, I had an experience with an influencer account on the fediverse: @FediTips
People believe they are being informed when they are being influenced. That account is litterally publishing what are technically definitionally manifestos.
That emphasized why I don’t argue online. There is an interesting property about facts: factual ontological propositions about something will converge. That is a fancy way of saying that if something is factual, it would be corroborated. Accuracy is not the only important thing; precision is, too. The more corroborative aspects that converge on that claim, the more precise it is. That is why in science, replication and a lot of measurements are so important.
When we talk about online conversations, this is important because if I say something is a fact, and there is a source I got it from, I should cite where I got it. If I or other sources are citing that or a different source saying something, it at least makes the statement more precise, albeit not necessarily more accurate. Accuracy means is a close, approximate representation whereas precision is something is consistent. If you hit the bulls eye once but never again, that is accurate but imprecise. If you never hit the bulls eye but always hit the same spot, that is precise. You can be inaccurate yet precise.
That means if something makes a claim, a source exists, and you can check that claim by visiting the source. If there are multiple sources making the same claim, it is a precise claim.The issue I have with arguments online, for example, endless arguments on Mastodon about Bluesky, is that the sources backing whatever facts I would present are accessible. So, if someone makes a statement about the AT protocol and you say that is wrong, you can look at the documentation, point this out, and say it is wrong because x, y, and z.
That brings me to the fuckery of today:
@FediTips said to me today:
No, you cannot run your own server on AT. Bluesky have made it virtually impossible to set up independent infrastructure. You can store data, but the connections to others run through Bluesky corporation’s infrastructure which they control.
I shit on Bluesky all day, every day, so I’m not a Bluesky stan. But all you have to do is think about why this doesn’t make sense. They are essentially saying that you cannot have a server running a Bluesky PDS that isn’t owned by Bluesky. One, that is not how servers work. A protocol is a way for devices to talk to one another and network.
A network protocol is a formal specification that defines how systems interoperate. It establishes message schemas, authentication mechanisms, transport methods, state transitions, and other rules governing communication between nodes. If multiple servers implement the same protocol specification correctly, they can exchange data and participate in the same network. At the protocol layer, interoperability is determined by adherence to the specification, not by who owns or operates a given server.
Protocol compliance does not inherently guarantee open or permissionless participation. In the architecture of protocols, operators impose constraints through licensing terms, cryptographic trust roots, certificate authorities, service discovery mechanisms, federation allowlists, or other gatekeeping controls. Protocols enable independent servers to communicate; however, it does not logically follow that any compliant server must be accepted into the broader network without additional policy or governance constraints. This is the point they are making.
However, they are conflating who owns the server with what can be allowed in the network. But what they argue for the AT protocol always applies to the ActivityPub protocol. They specifically said, “No, you cannot run your own server on AT. Bluesky has made it virtually impossible to set up independent infrastructure.”
No, you can absolutely run your own independent server that communicates over the AT protocol. Either they understand this and are arguing in bad faith, which I think is very likely, or they are completely disinterested in facts. They merely want to spread and enforce a cultural and political norm. Maybe it’s both.
For example, I am using the ActivityPub protocol to post this, and it is sent to your folks’ inboxes via ActivityStreams through the WordPress ActivityPub plugin. Anyone can set up their own servers on their own hosts. I know for a fact that some feeds are being run off Raspberry Pis in people’s closets. In fact, some people have both fediverse instances and AT protocol PDSs running off the same Raspberry Pis in their closets. By this person’s reasoning, that would imply that Bluesky owns their ISPs, the closets, and the Raspberry Pis.
Yes, the practical network experience heavily depends on Bluesky-operated infrastructure. And yes, it is true that this is different from something like Mastodon on ActivityPub, where federation between independently operated servers is widely distributed and actually decentralized. I’m not contesting that the infrastructure is heavily dependent on and operated by Bluesky.
That’s not the claim @FediTips made. The claim they made is that everyone else’s computers—a cloud is just someone else’s computer, mind you—that use the AT protocol are owned by Bluesky. This statement is so absurd to me that I am not sure if this was a semantic error and not what they meant, or if it is exactly what they meant. If it is the former, it is still bad, because they were disinterested in fact-checking, which is my point. If they bothered to fact-check, they would have caught the inaccuracy or the semantic error.
Secondly, let’s say you know nothing at all about servers, protocols, etc.—you can just look it up.
https://atproto.com/guides/self-hosting
https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/marketplace/catalog/bluesky-social-pds
I was not aware that DigitalOcean was owned by Bluesky. That’s because they are not owned by Bluesky. DigitalOcean is to an AT protocol PDS what a Mastodon host is to Mastodon. If this person had simply done a five-minute search, they would realize that Bluesky does not own the independent servers for the Bluesky apps, albeit it controls the protocol architecture. Personally, I think @FediTips did it in bad faith, because multiple developers have corrected these Mastodon influencer accounts over and over again. At this point, it is propaganda.
I don’t care about this argument in particular. Rather, it’s an example of why I don’t argue with people online. They don’t check what they say or look up what the other person said because they are disinterested in facts. They are interested in the normative claim and cultural norms they are trying to spread and enforce. It’s basically a form of evangelizing and proselytizing.
Again, I don’t really care for this particular argument, which is why I never directly addressed it with them. What I am saying is that they were disinterested in easily accessible facts, so arguing with them to persuade them is a waste of my time.
People on social media care about culture first and facts second. I am not going after the people on Mastodon specifically. Redditors are infamous for this shit. If you ask me, Reddit and Discord are ground zero cases for this dumbass culture of reply guys.
I wrote my own Bayesian classifier and Markov algorithm a long time ago that curate only what I want to see in activity streams, so I don’t see whatever fuckery many of these idiots on social media are doing. I have my own Bayesian and Markov curation algorithm for activity streams and my own algorithm for feeds on Bluesky.
You can see the documentation for how Activity Streams, which is what ActivityPub uses, works here:
Activity Streams 2.0
https://www.w3.org/TR/activitystreams-core
I curate the ActivityStream of my inbox points to see posts based on relevance rather than chronological order. Most of the time, their nonsense is filtered out. I just had time to kill.
-
BlueSky’s Solution To Moderating Is Moderating Without Moderating via Social Proximity
I have noticed a lot of people are confused about why some posts don’t show up on threads, though they are not labeled by the moderation layer. Bluesky has begun using what it calls social neighborhoods (or network proximity) as a ranking signal for replies in threads. Replies from people who are closer to you in the social graph, accounts you follow, interact with, or share mutual connections with, are prioritized and shown more prominently. Replies from accounts that are farther away in that network are down-ranked. They are pushed far down the thread or placed behind “hidden replies.”
Each person gets their own unique view of a thread based on their social graph. It creates the impression that replies from distant users simply don’t exist. This is true even though they’re still technically public and viewable if you expand the thread or adjust filters. Bluesky is explicitly using features of subgraphs to moderate without moderating. Their reasoning is that if you can’t see each other, you can’t harass each other. Ergo, there is nothing to moderate.
Bluesky mentions that here:
https://bsky.social/about/blog/10-31-2025-building-healthier-social-media-update
As a digression, I’m not going to lie: I really enjoyed working on software built on the AT protocol, but their fucking users are so goddamn weird. It’s sort of like enjoying building houses, but hating every single person who moves into them. But, you don’t have to deal with them because you’re just the contractor. That is how I feel about Bluesky. I hate the people. I really like the protocol and infrastructure.
I sort of am a sadist who does enjoy drama, so I do get schadenfreude from people with social media addictions and parasocial fixations who reply to random people on Bluesky, because they don’t realize their replies are disconnected from the author’s thread unless that person is within their network. They aren’t part of the conversation they think they are. They’re algorithmically isolated from everyone else. Their replies aren’t viewable from the author’s thread because of how Bluesky handles social neighborhoods.
Bluesky’s idea of social neighborhoods is about grouping users into overlapping clusters based on real interaction patterns rather than just the follow graph. Unlike Twitter, it does not treat the network as one big public square. Instead, it models networks of “social neighborhoods” made up of people you follow, people who follow you, people you frequently interact with, and people who are closely connected to those groups. They’re soft, probabilistic groupings rather than strict labels.
Everyone does not see the same replies. Bluesky is being a bit vague with “hidden.” Hidden means your reply is still anchored to the thread and can be expanded. There is another way Bluesky can handle this. Bluesky uses social neighborhoods to judge contextual relevance. Replies from people inside or near your social neighborhood are more likely to be shown inline with a thread, expanded by default, or served in feeds. Replies from outside your neighborhood are still public and still indexed, but they’re treated as lower-context contributions.
Basically, if you reply to a thread, you will see it anchored to the conversation, and everyone will see it in search results, as a hashtag, or from your profile, but it will not be accessible via the thread of the person you were replying to. It is like shadow-banning people from threads unless they are strongly networked.
Because people have not been working with the AT Protocol like I have, they assume they are shadow-banned across the entire Bluesky app view. No—everyone is automatically shadow-banned from everyone else unless they are within the same social neighborhood. In other words, you are not part of the conversation you think you are joining because you are not part of their social group.
Your replies will appear in profiles, hashtag feeds, or search results without being visually anchored to the full thread. Discovery impressions are neighborhood-agnostic: they serve content because it matches a query, tag, or activity stream. Once the reply is shown, the app then decides whether it’s worth pulling in the rest of the conversation for you. If the original author and most participants fall outside your neighborhood, Bluesky often chooses not to expand that context automatically.
Bluesky really is trying to avoid having to moderate, so this is their solution. Instead of banning or issuing takedown labels to DIDs, the system lets replies exist everywhere, but not in that particular instance of the thread.
I find this ironic because a large reason why many people are staying on Bluesky and not moving to the fediverse—thank God, because I do not want them there—is discoverability, virality, and engagement.
In case anyone is asking how I know so much about how these algorithms work: I was a consultant on a lot of these types of algorithms, so I certainly hope I’d know how they work, lol. No, you get no more details about the work I’ve done. I have no hand in the algorithm Bluesky is using, but I have proposed and implemented that type of algorithm before.
I have an interest in noetics and the noosphere. A large amount of my ontological work is an extension of my attempts to model domains that have no spatial or temporal coordinates. The question is how do you generalize a metric space that has no physically, spatial properties. I went to school to try to formalize those ideas. Turns out they’re rather useful for digital social networks, too. The ontological analog to spatial distance, when you have no space, is a graph of similarities.
This can be modeled by representing each item as a node in a weighted graph, where edges are weighted by dissimilarity rather than similarity. Highly similar items are connected by low-weight edges, while less similar items are connected by higher-weight edges. Distances in the graph, computed using standard shortest-path algorithms, then correspond to degrees of similarity. Closely related items are separated by short path lengths, while increasingly dissimilar items require longer paths through the graph. It turns out that attempts to generalize metric spaces for noetic domains—to model noetic/psychic spaces—are actually pretty useful for social media algorithms, lol.
-
Astroturfing Is Pretty Pointless When Social Subgraphs Are Fragmented (e.g., the Fediverse)
I am seeing astroturfing in the fediverse again, by AT Protocol developers implicitly trying to shill their products. I think it is stochastic behavior by developers with too much time on their hands. Honestly, I do not care. I like the people on ActivityPub more, but I like the AT Protocol better, and I have developed for both. Astroturfing on ActivityPub networks is fascinating to me because it is so pointless.
I am actually a Computational Biologist and Computer Scientist whose specialty is combinatorics, social graphs, graph theory, etc. Specifically, I use this to create epidemiological models for the memetic layer of human behaviors that act as vectors for diseases, using the SIRS model. I do not just study germs; I study human behaviors.
The models I construct extend into a “memetic layer,” in which beliefs, norms, and behaviors (such as risk-taking, compliance with public health measures, or susceptibility to misinformation) spread contagiously through social networks. These behaviors function as vectors that modulate biological transmission rates. As a result, the spread of ideas can accelerate, dampen, or reshape the spread of disease. By running computational simulations and agent-based models on these graphs, I study how network structure, influential nodes, clustering, and platform-specific dynamics affect behavioral contagion. I also examine how these factors influence epidemiological outcomes.
To say it very concisely, I study how the spread of bat-shit insane beliefs, shit posts, and memes influences whether or not there is a measles outbreak in Texas. Ironically, this is an evolution of my studying semiotics, memetics, and chaos magick in high school. I got a job where I can use occult, anarchist techniques professionally.
I think a large reason why I do not care about astroturfing in the fediverse is that it’s so pointless, lol. Astroturfing to manipulate the narrative would actually work better on Bluesky to keep people there than trying to recruit from the fediverse. Furthermore, big instances are relatively small. Some people on Bluesky have follower lists larger than an entire large instance in the fediverse.
Within ActivityPub networks, astroturfing rarely propagates far, because whether information spreads depends on properties of the social graph itself. Dense connectivity, short paths between communities, and a sufficient number of cross-cutting ties support diffusion. ActivityPub’s architecture tends to produce graphs that are fragmented and highly modular. This limits the reach of coordinated activity.
ActivityPub is a system where each instance maintains its own local user graph and exchanges activities through inboxes and outboxes. This makes it autonomous and decentralized. The network consists of loosely connected subgraphs. Cross-instance edges appear only through explicit follow relationships. The ActivityPub protocol does not provide a shared or complete view of the network. Measurements of the fediverse consistently show uneven connectivity between instances, clustering at the instance level, and relatively long effective path lengths across the network. Under these conditions, large cascades are uncommon.
Instance-level clustering means that in ActivityPub networks, users interact much more with others on the same server than with users on different servers. Because each instance has its own local timeline, culture, and moderation, connections form densely within instances and only sparsely across them through explicit follow relationships. This creates a network made up of tightly connected local communities linked by relatively few cross-instance ties, which slows the spread of information beyond its point of origin.
However, with the AT Protocol, global indexing and aggregation are explicitly supported. Relays and indexers can assemble near-complete views of the social graph. Applications built on top of this infrastructure operate over a graph that is denser and easier to traverse. There are fewer structural barriers between communities. The diffusion dynamics change substantially when content can move across the graph without relying on narrow federated paths.
Astroturfing depends on coordinated amplification, typically through tightly synchronized clusters of accounts intended to manufacture visibility. Work on coordinated inauthentic behavior shows that these tactics gain traction when they intersect highly connected regions of the graph or bridge otherwise separate communities. In networks with strong modularity, coordination remains local. ActivityPub’s federation model produces this kind of modularity by default. Coordinated clusters stand out clearly within instances. Their effects remain confined to those local neighborhoods.
Astroturfing on ActivityPub therefore tends to stall on its own because of the underlying graph topology. Without dense inter-instance connectivity or any form of global indexing, coordinated campaigns have a hard time moving beyond the immediate regions where they originate. Systems built on globally indexable social graphs, including those enabled by the AT Protocol, expose a much larger surface for viral spread. Network structure and connectivity account for the divergence where that is independent of moderation, cultural norms, ideology, or intent.
It’s just really funny to me how these stochastic techbro groups waste so many resources. I personally don’t want to go viral, which is why I avoid platforms where I can. The fact that it’s harder to achieve high virality on ActivityPub is exactly why I prefer the fediverse over the Atmosphere. One way to think about it is that you can change the ‘genetics’ of a system with a retrovirus, where memetic entities act as cultural retroviruses to reprogram the cultural loci of a space. That is their end goal. They are trying to hijack cultures memetically. You see this a lot with culture jamming.
Basically, the astroturfing on ActivityPub networks is designed to jam and subvert the culture. But, as I have already said, the topological structure makes memetic virality stall. They cannot achieve that kind of viral spread in the fediverse, which is why I cannot understand why they do this every year.
-
Astroturfing Is Pretty Pointless When Social Subgraphs Are Fragmented (e.g., the Fediverse)
I am seeing astroturfing in the fediverse again, by AT Protocol developers implicitly trying to shill their products. I think it is stochastic behavior by developers with too much time on their hands. Honestly, I do not care. I like the people on ActivityPub more, but I like the AT Protocol better, and I have developed for both. Astroturfing on ActivityPub networks is fascinating to me because it is so pointless.
I am actually a Computational Biologist and Computer Scientist whose specialty is combinatorics, social graphs, graph theory, etc. Specifically, I use this to create epidemiological models for the memetic layer of human behaviors that act as vectors for diseases, using the SIRS model. I do not just study germs; I study human behaviors.
The models I construct extend into a “memetic layer,” in which beliefs, norms, and behaviors (such as risk-taking, compliance with public health measures, or susceptibility to misinformation) spread contagiously through social networks. These behaviors function as vectors that modulate biological transmission rates. As a result, the spread of ideas can accelerate, dampen, or reshape the spread of disease. By running computational simulations and agent-based models on these graphs, I study how network structure, influential nodes, clustering, and platform-specific dynamics affect behavioral contagion. I also examine how these factors influence epidemiological outcomes.
To say it very concisely, I study how the spread of bat-shit insane beliefs, shit posts, and memes influences whether or not there is a measles outbreak in Texas. Ironically, this is an evolution of my studying semiotics, memetics, and chaos magick in high school. I got a job where I can use occult, anarchist techniques professionally.
I think a large reason why I do not care about astroturfing in the fediverse is that it’s so pointless, lol. Astroturfing to manipulate the narrative would actually work better on Bluesky to keep people there than trying to recruit from the fediverse. Furthermore, big instances are relatively small. Some people on Bluesky have follower lists larger than an entire large instance in the fediverse.
Within ActivityPub networks, astroturfing rarely propagates far, because whether information spreads depends on properties of the social graph itself. Dense connectivity, short paths between communities, and a sufficient number of cross-cutting ties support diffusion. ActivityPub’s architecture tends to produce graphs that are fragmented and highly modular. This limits the reach of coordinated activity.
ActivityPub is a system where each instance maintains its own local user graph and exchanges activities through inboxes and outboxes. This makes it autonomous and decentralized. The network consists of loosely connected subgraphs. Cross-instance edges appear only through explicit follow relationships. The ActivityPub protocol does not provide a shared or complete view of the network. Measurements of the fediverse consistently show uneven connectivity between instances, clustering at the instance level, and relatively long effective path lengths across the network. Under these conditions, large cascades are uncommon.
Instance-level clustering means that in ActivityPub networks, users interact much more with others on the same server than with users on different servers. Because each instance has its own local timeline, culture, and moderation, connections form densely within instances and only sparsely across them through explicit follow relationships. This creates a network made up of tightly connected local communities linked by relatively few cross-instance ties, which slows the spread of information beyond its point of origin.
However, with the AT Protocol, global indexing and aggregation are explicitly supported. Relays and indexers can assemble near-complete views of the social graph. Applications built on top of this infrastructure operate over a graph that is denser and easier to traverse. There are fewer structural barriers between communities. The diffusion dynamics change substantially when content can move across the graph without relying on narrow federated paths.
Astroturfing depends on coordinated amplification, typically through tightly synchronized clusters of accounts intended to manufacture visibility. Work on coordinated inauthentic behavior shows that these tactics gain traction when they intersect highly connected regions of the graph or bridge otherwise separate communities. In networks with strong modularity, coordination remains local. ActivityPub’s federation model produces this kind of modularity by default. Coordinated clusters stand out clearly within instances. Their effects remain confined to those local neighborhoods.
Astroturfing on ActivityPub therefore tends to stall on its own because of the underlying graph topology. Without dense inter-instance connectivity or any form of global indexing, coordinated campaigns have a hard time moving beyond the immediate regions where they originate. Systems built on globally indexable social graphs, including those enabled by the AT Protocol, expose a much larger surface for viral spread. Network structure and connectivity account for the divergence where that is independent of moderation, cultural norms, ideology, or intent.
It’s just really funny to me how these stochastic techbro groups waste so many resources. I personally don’t want to go viral, which is why I avoid platforms where I can. The fact that it’s harder to achieve high virality on ActivityPub is exactly why I prefer the fediverse over the Atmosphere. One way to think about it is that you can change the ‘genetics’ of a system with a retrovirus, where memetic entities act as cultural retroviruses to reprogram the cultural loci of a space. That is their end goal. They are trying to hijack cultures memetically. You see this a lot with culture jamming.
Basically, the astroturfing on ActivityPub networks is designed to jam and subvert the culture. But, as I have already said, the topological structure makes memetic virality stall. They cannot achieve that kind of viral spread in the fediverse, which is why I cannot understand why they do this every year.
-
Astroturfing Is Pretty Pointless When Social Subgraphs Are Fragmented (e.g., the Fediverse)
I am seeing astroturfing in the fediverse again, by AT Protocol developers implicitly trying to shill their products. I think it is stochastic behavior by developers with too much time on their hands. Honestly, I do not care. I like the people on ActivityPub more, but I like the AT Protocol better, and I have developed for both. Astroturfing on ActivityPub networks is fascinating to me because it is so pointless.
I am actually a Computational Biologist and Computer Scientist whose specialty is combinatorics, social graphs, graph theory, etc. Specifically, I use this to create epidemiological models for the memetic layer of human behaviors that act as vectors for diseases, using the SIRS model. I do not just study germs; I study human behaviors.
The models I construct extend into a “memetic layer,” in which beliefs, norms, and behaviors (such as risk-taking, compliance with public health measures, or susceptibility to misinformation) spread contagiously through social networks. These behaviors function as vectors that modulate biological transmission rates. As a result, the spread of ideas can accelerate, dampen, or reshape the spread of disease. By running computational simulations and agent-based models on these graphs, I study how network structure, influential nodes, clustering, and platform-specific dynamics affect behavioral contagion. I also examine how these factors influence epidemiological outcomes.
To say it very concisely, I study how the spread of bat-shit insane beliefs, shit posts, and memes influences whether or not there is a measles outbreak in Texas. Ironically, this is an evolution of my studying semiotics, memetics, and chaos magick in high school. I got a job where I can use occult, anarchist techniques professionally.
I think a large reason why I do not care about astroturfing in the fediverse is that it’s so pointless, lol. Astroturfing to manipulate the narrative would actually work better on Bluesky to keep people there than trying to recruit from the fediverse. Furthermore, big instances are relatively small. Some people on Bluesky have follower lists larger than an entire large instance in the fediverse.
Within ActivityPub networks, astroturfing rarely propagates far, because whether information spreads depends on properties of the social graph itself. Dense connectivity, short paths between communities, and a sufficient number of cross-cutting ties support diffusion. ActivityPub’s architecture tends to produce graphs that are fragmented and highly modular. This limits the reach of coordinated activity.
ActivityPub is a system where each instance maintains its own local user graph and exchanges activities through inboxes and outboxes. This makes it autonomous and decentralized. The network consists of loosely connected subgraphs. Cross-instance edges appear only through explicit follow relationships. The ActivityPub protocol does not provide a shared or complete view of the network. Measurements of the fediverse consistently show uneven connectivity between instances, clustering at the instance level, and relatively long effective path lengths across the network. Under these conditions, large cascades are uncommon.
Instance-level clustering means that in ActivityPub networks, users interact much more with others on the same server than with users on different servers. Because each instance has its own local timeline, culture, and moderation, connections form densely within instances and only sparsely across them through explicit follow relationships. This creates a network made up of tightly connected local communities linked by relatively few cross-instance ties, which slows the spread of information beyond its point of origin.
However, with the AT Protocol, global indexing and aggregation are explicitly supported. Relays and indexers can assemble near-complete views of the social graph. Applications built on top of this infrastructure operate over a graph that is denser and easier to traverse. There are fewer structural barriers between communities. The diffusion dynamics change substantially when content can move across the graph without relying on narrow federated paths.
Astroturfing depends on coordinated amplification, typically through tightly synchronized clusters of accounts intended to manufacture visibility. Work on coordinated inauthentic behavior shows that these tactics gain traction when they intersect highly connected regions of the graph or bridge otherwise separate communities. In networks with strong modularity, coordination remains local. ActivityPub’s federation model produces this kind of modularity by default. Coordinated clusters stand out clearly within instances. Their effects remain confined to those local neighborhoods.
Astroturfing on ActivityPub therefore tends to stall on its own because of the underlying graph topology. Without dense inter-instance connectivity or any form of global indexing, coordinated campaigns have a hard time moving beyond the immediate regions where they originate. Systems built on globally indexable social graphs, including those enabled by the AT Protocol, expose a much larger surface for viral spread. Network structure and connectivity account for the divergence where that is independent of moderation, cultural norms, ideology, or intent.
It’s just really funny to me how these stochastic techbro groups waste so many resources. I personally don’t want to go viral, which is why I avoid platforms where I can. The fact that it’s harder to achieve high virality on ActivityPub is exactly why I prefer the fediverse over the Atmosphere. One way to think about it is that you can change the ‘genetics’ of a system with a retrovirus, where memetic entities act as cultural retroviruses to reprogram the cultural loci of a space. That is their end goal. They are trying to hijack cultures memetically. You see this a lot with culture jamming.
Basically, the astroturfing on ActivityPub networks is designed to jam and subvert the culture. But, as I have already said, the topological structure makes memetic virality stall. They cannot achieve that kind of viral spread in the fediverse, which is why I cannot understand why they do this every year.
-
Astroturfing Is Pretty Pointless When Social Subgraphs Are Fragmented (e.g., the Fediverse)
I am seeing astroturfing in the fediverse again, by AT Protocol developers implicitly trying to shill their products. I think it is stochastic behavior by developers with too much time on their hands. Honestly, I do not care. I like the people on ActivityPub more, but I like the AT Protocol better, and I have developed for both. Astroturfing on ActivityPub networks is fascinating to me because it is so pointless.
I am actually a Computational Biologist and Computer Scientist whose specialty is combinatorics, social graphs, graph theory, etc. Specifically, I use this to create epidemiological models for the memetic layer of human behaviors that act as vectors for diseases, using the SIRS model. I do not just study germs; I study human behaviors.
The models I construct extend into a “memetic layer,” in which beliefs, norms, and behaviors (such as risk-taking, compliance with public health measures, or susceptibility to misinformation) spread contagiously through social networks. These behaviors function as vectors that modulate biological transmission rates. As a result, the spread of ideas can accelerate, dampen, or reshape the spread of disease. By running computational simulations and agent-based models on these graphs, I study how network structure, influential nodes, clustering, and platform-specific dynamics affect behavioral contagion. I also examine how these factors influence epidemiological outcomes.
To say it very concisely, I study how the spread of bat-shit insane beliefs, shit posts, and memes influences whether or not there is a measles outbreak in Texas. Ironically, this is an evolution of my studying semiotics, memetics, and chaos magick in high school. I got a job where I can use occult, anarchist techniques professionally.
I think a large reason why I do not care about astroturfing in the fediverse is that it’s so pointless, lol. Astroturfing to manipulate the narrative would actually work better on Bluesky to keep people there than trying to recruit from the fediverse. Furthermore, big instances are relatively small. Some people on Bluesky have follower lists larger than an entire large instance in the fediverse.
Within ActivityPub networks, astroturfing rarely propagates far, because whether information spreads depends on properties of the social graph itself. Dense connectivity, short paths between communities, and a sufficient number of cross-cutting ties support diffusion. ActivityPub’s architecture tends to produce graphs that are fragmented and highly modular. This limits the reach of coordinated activity.
ActivityPub is a system where each instance maintains its own local user graph and exchanges activities through inboxes and outboxes. This makes it autonomous and decentralized. The network consists of loosely connected subgraphs. Cross-instance edges appear only through explicit follow relationships. The ActivityPub protocol does not provide a shared or complete view of the network. Measurements of the fediverse consistently show uneven connectivity between instances, clustering at the instance level, and relatively long effective path lengths across the network. Under these conditions, large cascades are uncommon.
Instance-level clustering means that in ActivityPub networks, users interact much more with others on the same server than with users on different servers. Because each instance has its own local timeline, culture, and moderation, connections form densely within instances and only sparsely across them through explicit follow relationships. This creates a network made up of tightly connected local communities linked by relatively few cross-instance ties, which slows the spread of information beyond its point of origin.
However, with the AT Protocol, global indexing and aggregation are explicitly supported. Relays and indexers can assemble near-complete views of the social graph. Applications built on top of this infrastructure operate over a graph that is denser and easier to traverse. There are fewer structural barriers between communities. The diffusion dynamics change substantially when content can move across the graph without relying on narrow federated paths.
Astroturfing depends on coordinated amplification, typically through tightly synchronized clusters of accounts intended to manufacture visibility. Work on coordinated inauthentic behavior shows that these tactics gain traction when they intersect highly connected regions of the graph or bridge otherwise separate communities. In networks with strong modularity, coordination remains local. ActivityPub’s federation model produces this kind of modularity by default. Coordinated clusters stand out clearly within instances. Their effects remain confined to those local neighborhoods.
Astroturfing on ActivityPub therefore tends to stall on its own because of the underlying graph topology. Without dense inter-instance connectivity or any form of global indexing, coordinated campaigns have a hard time moving beyond the immediate regions where they originate. Systems built on globally indexable social graphs, including those enabled by the AT Protocol, expose a much larger surface for viral spread. Network structure and connectivity account for the divergence where that is independent of moderation, cultural norms, ideology, or intent.
It’s just really funny to me how these stochastic techbro groups waste so many resources. I personally don’t want to go viral, which is why I avoid platforms where I can. The fact that it’s harder to achieve high virality on ActivityPub is exactly why I prefer the fediverse over the Atmosphere. One way to think about it is that you can change the ‘genetics’ of a system with a retrovirus, where memetic entities act as cultural retroviruses to reprogram the cultural loci of a space. That is their end goal. They are trying to hijack cultures memetically. You see this a lot with culture jamming.
Basically, the astroturfing on ActivityPub networks is designed to jam and subvert the culture. But, as I have already said, the topological structure makes memetic virality stall. They cannot achieve that kind of viral spread in the fediverse, which is why I cannot understand why they do this every year.
-
Astroturfing Is Pretty Pointless When Social Subgraphs Are Fragmented (e.g., the Fediverse)
I am seeing astroturfing in the fediverse again, by AT Protocol developers implicitly trying to shill their products. I think it is stochastic behavior by developers with too much time on their hands. Honestly, I do not care. I like the people on ActivityPub more, but I like the AT Protocol better, and I have developed for both. Astroturfing on ActivityPub networks is fascinating to me because it is so pointless.
I am actually a Computational Biologist and Computer Scientist whose specialty is combinatorics, social graphs, graph theory, etc. Specifically, I use this to create epidemiological models for the memetic layer of human behaviors that act as vectors for diseases, using the SIRS model. I do not just study germs; I study human behaviors.
The models I construct extend into a “memetic layer,” in which beliefs, norms, and behaviors (such as risk-taking, compliance with public health measures, or susceptibility to misinformation) spread contagiously through social networks. These behaviors function as vectors that modulate biological transmission rates. As a result, the spread of ideas can accelerate, dampen, or reshape the spread of disease. By running computational simulations and agent-based models on these graphs, I study how network structure, influential nodes, clustering, and platform-specific dynamics affect behavioral contagion. I also examine how these factors influence epidemiological outcomes.
To say it very concisely, I study how the spread of bat-shit insane beliefs, shit posts, and memes influences whether or not there is a measles outbreak in Texas. Ironically, this is an evolution of my studying semiotics, memetics, and chaos magick in high school. I got a job where I can use occult, anarchist techniques professionally.
I think a large reason why I do not care about astroturfing in the fediverse is that it’s so pointless, lol. Astroturfing to manipulate the narrative would actually work better on Bluesky to keep people there than trying to recruit from the fediverse. Furthermore, big instances are relatively small. Some people on Bluesky have follower lists larger than an entire large instance in the fediverse.
Within ActivityPub networks, astroturfing rarely propagates far, because whether information spreads depends on properties of the social graph itself. Dense connectivity, short paths between communities, and a sufficient number of cross-cutting ties support diffusion. ActivityPub’s architecture tends to produce graphs that are fragmented and highly modular. This limits the reach of coordinated activity.
ActivityPub is a system where each instance maintains its own local user graph and exchanges activities through inboxes and outboxes. This makes it autonomous and decentralized. The network consists of loosely connected subgraphs. Cross-instance edges appear only through explicit follow relationships. The ActivityPub protocol does not provide a shared or complete view of the network. Measurements of the fediverse consistently show uneven connectivity between instances, clustering at the instance level, and relatively long effective path lengths across the network. Under these conditions, large cascades are uncommon.
Instance-level clustering means that in ActivityPub networks, users interact much more with others on the same server than with users on different servers. Because each instance has its own local timeline, culture, and moderation, connections form densely within instances and only sparsely across them through explicit follow relationships. This creates a network made up of tightly connected local communities linked by relatively few cross-instance ties, which slows the spread of information beyond its point of origin.
However, with the AT Protocol, global indexing and aggregation are explicitly supported. Relays and indexers can assemble near-complete views of the social graph. Applications built on top of this infrastructure operate over a graph that is denser and easier to traverse. There are fewer structural barriers between communities. The diffusion dynamics change substantially when content can move across the graph without relying on narrow federated paths.
Astroturfing depends on coordinated amplification, typically through tightly synchronized clusters of accounts intended to manufacture visibility. Work on coordinated inauthentic behavior shows that these tactics gain traction when they intersect highly connected regions of the graph or bridge otherwise separate communities. In networks with strong modularity, coordination remains local. ActivityPub’s federation model produces this kind of modularity by default. Coordinated clusters stand out clearly within instances. Their effects remain confined to those local neighborhoods.
Astroturfing on ActivityPub therefore tends to stall on its own because of the underlying graph topology. Without dense inter-instance connectivity or any form of global indexing, coordinated campaigns have a hard time moving beyond the immediate regions where they originate. Systems built on globally indexable social graphs, including those enabled by the AT Protocol, expose a much larger surface for viral spread. Network structure and connectivity account for the divergence where that is independent of moderation, cultural norms, ideology, or intent.
It’s just really funny to me how these stochastic techbro groups waste so many resources. I personally don’t want to go viral, which is why I avoid platforms where I can. The fact that it’s harder to achieve high virality on ActivityPub is exactly why I prefer the fediverse over the Atmosphere. One way to think about it is that you can change the ‘genetics’ of a system with a retrovirus, where memetic entities act as cultural retroviruses to reprogram the cultural loci of a space. That is their end goal. They are trying to hijack cultures memetically. You see this a lot with culture jamming.
Basically, the astroturfing on ActivityPub networks is designed to jam and subvert the culture. But, as I have already said, the topological structure makes memetic virality stall. They cannot achieve that kind of viral spread in the fediverse, which is why I cannot understand why they do this every year.
-
Astroturfing Is Pretty Pointless When Social Subgraphs Are Fragmented (e.g., the Fediverse)
I am seeing astroturfing in the fediverse again, by AT Protocol developers implicitly trying to shill their products. I think it is stochastic behavior by developers with too much time on their hands. Honestly, I do not care. I like the people on ActivityPub more, but I like the AT Protocol better, and I have developed for both. Astroturfing on ActivityPub networks is fascinating to me because it is so pointless.
I am actually a Computational Biologist and Computer Scientist whose specialty is combinatorics, social graphs, graph theory, etc. Specifically, I use this to create epidemiological models for the memetic layer of human behaviors that act as vectors for diseases, using the SIRS model. I do not just study germs; I study human behaviors.
The models I construct extend into a “memetic layer,” in which beliefs, norms, and behaviors (such as risk-taking, compliance with public health measures, or susceptibility to misinformation) spread contagiously through social networks. These behaviors function as vectors that modulate biological transmission rates. As a result, the spread of ideas can accelerate, dampen, or reshape the spread of disease. By running computational simulations and agent-based models on these graphs, I study how network structure, influential nodes, clustering, and platform-specific dynamics affect behavioral contagion. I also examine how these factors influence epidemiological outcomes.
To say it very concisely, I study how the spread of bat-shit insane beliefs, shit posts, and memes influences whether or not there is a measles outbreak in Texas. Ironically, this is an evolution of my studying semiotics, memetics, and chaos magick in high school. I got a job where I can use occult, anarchist techniques professionally.
I think a large reason why I do not care about astroturfing in the fediverse is that it’s so pointless, lol. Astroturfing to manipulate the narrative would actually work better on Bluesky to keep people there than trying to recruit from the fediverse. Furthermore, big instances are relatively small. Some people on Bluesky have follower lists larger than an entire large instance in the fediverse.
Within ActivityPub networks, astroturfing rarely propagates far, because whether information spreads depends on properties of the social graph itself. Dense connectivity, short paths between communities, and a sufficient number of cross-cutting ties support diffusion. ActivityPub’s architecture tends to produce graphs that are fragmented and highly modular. This limits the reach of coordinated activity.
ActivityPub is a system where each instance maintains its own local user graph and exchanges activities through inboxes and outboxes. This makes it autonomous and decentralized. The network consists of loosely connected subgraphs. Cross-instance edges appear only through explicit follow relationships. The ActivityPub protocol does not provide a shared or complete view of the network. Measurements of the fediverse consistently show uneven connectivity between instances, clustering at the instance level, and relatively long effective path lengths across the network. Under these conditions, large cascades are uncommon.
Instance-level clustering means that in ActivityPub networks, users interact much more with others on the same server than with users on different servers. Because each instance has its own local timeline, culture, and moderation, connections form densely within instances and only sparsely across them through explicit follow relationships. This creates a network made up of tightly connected local communities linked by relatively few cross-instance ties, which slows the spread of information beyond its point of origin.
However, with the AT Protocol, global indexing and aggregation are explicitly supported. Relays and indexers can assemble near-complete views of the social graph. Applications built on top of this infrastructure operate over a graph that is denser and easier to traverse. There are fewer structural barriers between communities. The diffusion dynamics change substantially when content can move across the graph without relying on narrow federated paths.
Astroturfing depends on coordinated amplification, typically through tightly synchronized clusters of accounts intended to manufacture visibility. Work on coordinated inauthentic behavior shows that these tactics gain traction when they intersect highly connected regions of the graph or bridge otherwise separate communities. In networks with strong modularity, coordination remains local. ActivityPub’s federation model produces this kind of modularity by default. Coordinated clusters stand out clearly within instances. Their effects remain confined to those local neighborhoods.
Astroturfing on ActivityPub therefore tends to stall on its own because of the underlying graph topology. Without dense inter-instance connectivity or any form of global indexing, coordinated campaigns have a hard time moving beyond the immediate regions where they originate. Systems built on globally indexable social graphs, including those enabled by the AT Protocol, expose a much larger surface for viral spread. Network structure and connectivity account for the divergence where that is independent of moderation, cultural norms, ideology, or intent.
It’s just really funny to me how these stochastic techbro groups waste so many resources. I personally don’t want to go viral, which is why I avoid platforms where I can. The fact that it’s harder to achieve high virality on ActivityPub is exactly why I prefer the fediverse over the Atmosphere. One way to think about it is that you can change the ‘genetics’ of a system with a retrovirus, where memetic entities act as cultural retroviruses to reprogram the cultural loci of a space. That is their end goal. They are trying to hijack cultures memetically. You see this a lot with culture jamming.
Basically, the astroturfing on ActivityPub networks is designed to jam and subvert the culture. But, as I have already said, the topological structure makes memetic virality stall. They cannot achieve that kind of viral spread in the fediverse, which is why I cannot understand why they do this every year.
-
Bluesky is An Ontological Space for Sadomasochism, Trolling, & Schadenfreude
So, during the initial exodus from Twitter after it became X following Elon Musk’s purchase, many people left but kept their accounts, purposefully to bully, surveil, antagonize, and troll others. People—including me—moved to Bluesky, Mastodon, or both, and used their Twitter accounts purely for harassment and similar behavior. Essentially, X became the place you went to act like a dumpster fire. Because most people within occult niches are highly toxic, I tend to not only block them but also block anyone they follow for reasons I’m about to explain.
I really only use that account to criticize occulture, post nudes, or share YouTube videos. Since I’m aware of fed posting, I avoid commenting on political topics or anarchist discourse on the Clearnet. Keep that in mind. If you scroll through my profile, you’ll see me poking fun at chaotes, posting nudes, gushing about or complaining about my husband, sharing dating horror story YouTube videos, or pet grooming videos. If you look at my likes, you’ll only see gay porn, mathematics papers, engineering papers, etc. There’s no mention of anything political, especially genocides.
There was a person I’d never interacted with who was part of a starter pack for occultists. I blocked them. Then I woke up this morning to find I was added to this list:
Chomsky Honks
Genocide apologist posting cringe from a Starbucks as it burns down around themSo, with all that in mind, these occultists I’ve never interacted with added me to a list. I am neither invested in Bluesky nor strongly connected to their network, primarily because I block almost everyone on it and don’t ever look at any feeds whatsoever, including the Home, followers, or Discover feeds. Therefore, the posts I do interact with are from pockets of people way outside my network. It’s kind of like driving to the bathhouse in Atlanta from a small town in Bubbafuck, Georgia, because everyone in your small town is garbage. Same idea, ontologically.
Honestly, I don’t care, because I’ve mostly moved back to Mastodon and blog more.
What they’ve done is implicitly a form of defamation, because they feel slighted and justified in defaming someone they don’t know, simply because a stranger they’ve never spoken to blocked them. I tend to do a basic block on anyone who blocks me, because if you’ve decided you don’t want to see me, there’s probably no good-faith reason for us to engage in the future. It’s likely there’s some malicious intent later on. As you can see with this, I was correct.
So, in order for them to know I blocked them, they had to continuously check who had blocked them, and they believe people who block them should be punished through bullying. Since the description of the list doesn’t fit me, they retaliated out of malice. The idea behind these cliques is pretty simple: they feel threatened by anyone who rejects their normative statements because it means they are being rejected, and they view any form of dissent as an existential threat. As a result, they believe people who reject them, set boundaries, or dissent from the consensus of their culture need to be punished, and the AT protocol provides convenient tools for brigading. Ironically, these people are anti-fascist yet have a very Christian-like evangelical way of viewing the world. The lack of insight is pretty funny.
I’m the child of cult leaders and members with Cluster B personalities, so I’m not clutching my pearls, especially since I’m already set up elsewhere outside of Bluesky. They do not have the means to impose significant consequences on me, so I find it amusing. I genuinely find it funny how they eat each other. I’m not calling anyone to action—I’m just enjoying the fire.
This person wasn’t aware of who I was. We never interacted, and being added to a list that defames me happened directly after I blocked them without any prior interaction. I saw their account from the firehose and wasn’t algorithmically presented with it, meaning we’re not even in the same clique. Now, if they had said something like “spams hashtags, trolls, makes alts,” that would make sense.
When you look at it for what it is, they wanted to defame, disparage, and brigade—punitive actions because they interpreted a boundary as hostile. This is projection, as they are weaponizing a mechanism to enforce boundaries. Do I care? No. I’m just pointing out how it turned its predecessor, X, into what it is now. It became a place for people to harass others, not a space for genuine, good-faith discussions, connections, or even debates. That is not my interpretation.
Well, to anyone who knows, you might ask: Did they block you because you have a particular reputation? No. I am a Web 1.0 mage, so the networks I’m known in have roots and associations in the old forums. The occulture people who have fixated on me for years go all the way back to Wizard Forums, the psionics forums, the unsolved mystery forums, etc., from the early 2000s. If you’re a circa 2016 social media influencer mage, you probably wouldn’t know me—primarily because the moment I see you, I’ll block you. There’s also a moderation block list just for me and my alts.
This behavior is typical of the culture on Bluesky, so much so that it’s a common complaint people now have—many no longer view block lists as legitimate moderation tools. People are being advised to be skeptical of lists with a large number of people.
Oh, I’m not playing the victim here. I don’t care, because I could easily get back at them. I’m infamously vindictive and petty. More importantly, it supports my point and vindicates me. I’m not signaling victimhood; rather, I’m pointing out a culture, albeit one I participate in. Tying this back to my initial point: part of what signaled the death of Twitter as a serious forum and its transformation into X was the bullying. A while ago, I did a phylogenetic memetic analysis that basically showed how the culture on Bluesky is highly derivative of image boards. But don’t you bully and troll people? Yes, yes, I do – on Bluesky, and the lack of moderation and culture enable it. That’s my point.
Bluesky is an accelerationist and reactionary platform that gives you the tools to surveil and harass people. The developers of Bluesky and the AT Protocol have explicitly said they are technological accelerationists and libertarians. I’m not virtue signaling here; rather, I am saying Bluesky is a reactionary platform, so its culture should be understood as performative, hostile, and adversarial—not cooperative or collaborative. Just like Twitter. You can’t do what I do on Bluesky on the fediverse, because the culture won’t allow it.
You saw this type of behavior on Tumblr, where the population carrying the memetics of that culture migrated to Twitter and now Bluesky. Essentially, Bluesky became a place where malice, bullying, and hostile behavior became so normalized that I’m not even upset about lists being weaponized like this. For example, I’m not posting this on Bluesky, and I, myself, have bullied people on Bluesky. But I behave myself on Mastodon. I am using myself as an example. The trolling is happening on Bluesky. The thoughtful posts are happening on Mastodon. The blog this will be posted on is federated, so this is being posted to the fediverse.
That’s what happened to Twitter. It started normalizing hostile, toxic behavior, so that people left the platform and only returned to Twitter for schadenfreude. I have my own WordPress fediverse instance. I am just on Bluesky for the schadenfreude.
-
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
#ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bluesky #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Holos #Mastodon #Peertube #RSS #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism https://battalion.mobileatom.net/?p=4242
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse -
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
#ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bluesky #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Holos #Mastodon #Peertube #RSS #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism https://battalion.mobileatom.net/?p=4242
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse -
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
#ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bluesky #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Holos #Mastodon #Peertube #RSS #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism https://battalion.mobileatom.net/?p=4242
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse -
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
#ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bluesky #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Holos #Mastodon #Peertube #RSS #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism https://battalion.mobileatom.net/?p=4242
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse -
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
#ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bluesky #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Holos #Mastodon #Peertube #RSS #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism https://battalion.mobileatom.net/?p=4242
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse -
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#ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Mastodon #Peertube #RSS #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #WordPress
-
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#ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Mastodon #Peertube #RSS #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #WordPress
-
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#ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Mastodon #Peertube #RSS #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #WordPress
-
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#ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Mastodon #Peertube #RSS #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #WordPress
-
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 – 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
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
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.
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
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.
The Guardian reports:
The question isn’t whether the AI bubble will burst – but what the fallout will be
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?
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 – 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 – 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 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.
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
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
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
DarkReading reports:
Infamous Shai-hulud Worm Resurfaces From the Depths
The Register reports:
FCC guts post-Salt Typhoon telco rules despite ongoing espionage risk
Fediverse
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:
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 #democracy #fascism #fediverse #mastodon #nodebb #pleroma #stopChina #stopIsrael #stopRedAmerica #stopRussia #supportUkraine #technoanarchism #technofeudalism
-
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 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
-
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
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
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
The Register reports:
Palantir plots NHS skills drive for its controversial data platform
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
Big Media
TBD
Big Tech
The Guardian reports:
White nationalist talking points and racial pseudoscience: welcome to Elon Musk’s Grokipedia
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
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 #ghost #mastodon #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
-
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
-
Destroying Autocracy – November 13, 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 and featured articles for 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.
We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum @thefulcrum.dev and original website content will start in 2026.
Featured Item(s)
Wrekage/Salvage writes:
Once you’ve seized the tools of political life to build communal power, it’s hard to forget what a hammer feels like in your hand.
Bonfire Networks is a tiny software org that has spent the past couple of years building a framework for communities on the open social web. At the end of last week, they released Bonfire Social, a microblogging app.
Like Mastodon, Bonfire Social runs on ActivityPub, but it takes differently opinionated approach to sociability.
(It has) features I (and many others) have been advocating for in Fediverse software for years, often while people explained at length that such things simply could not be implemented.
Most exhilarating to me, though, is that they aren’t just building another microblogging app. They’re making a toolkit for internet community software that is healthy and good and designed around real human needs from the start.
As they put it in their crowdfunding campaign, they’re making building blocks for communities on the open social web.
Total awesomeness that needs to blow up. We will cover (and support) Bonfire extensively on The Programmer’s 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
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Ukraine slaps new sanctions on Putin’s team and propagandist publishers
Radio Free Europe reports:
EU ‘Democracy Shield’ Aims To Counter Russian Disinformation
Open Web Advocacy has:
Tim Berners-Lee On Apple’s Browser Engine Ban and Web Apps
Ars Technica reports:
Google will let Android power users bypass upcoming sideloading restrictions
As they say, the proof will be in the pudding.
LibreOffice has:
The role of ODF in digital sovereignty (digital freedom)
Heise reports:
Office alternative from Germany by Ionos and Nextcloud is now available
Great.
Speaking of Germany, The Guardian reports:
ChatGPT violated copyright law by ‘learning’ from song lyrics, German court rules
Meta could face millions in fines for not signing content deals in Australia
Digital Rights Bytes asks:
Can the government read my text messages?
404 Media reports:
Judge Rules Flock Surveillance Images Are Public Records That Can Be Requested By Anyone
TechCrunch reports:
Wikipedia urges AI companies to use its paid API, and stop scraping
Brookings says:
Preach brother.
Poynter reports:
As independent newspapers disappear, a secretive alliance fights to save them
Neutral
Open Knowledge shares:
Open letter: Harnessing open source AI to advance digital sovereignty
The Ringer has:
How Catastrophic Is It If the AI Bubble Bursts? An FAQ.
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
404 Media reports:
DHS Gives Local Cops a Facial Recognition App To Find Immigrants
TechCrunch reports:
Why a lot of people are getting hacked with government spyware
Lawmakers warn Democratic governors that states are sharing drivers’ data with ICE
Euractiv reports:
EU’s red tape bonfire puts AI ahead of privacy protection
NOYB reports:
EU Commission internal draft would wreck core principles of the GDPR
The Guardian reports:
The EU has let US tech giants run riot. Diluting our data law will only entrench their power.
Tech giants vow to defend users in US as spyware companies make inroads with Trump administration
Freedom of the Press Foundation reports:
Kansas county pays $3M for forgetting the First Amendment
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They’re Doing
Tech Policy Press reports:
Global Internet Freedom Declines for 15th Consecutive Year
The Center for Democracy and Technology
Pariah States
BleepingComputer reports:
APT37 hackers abuse Google Find Hub in Android data-wiping attacks
BitDefender reports:
Russian hacker admits helping Yanluowang ransomware infect companies
The Register reports:
UK asks cyberspies to probe whether Chinese buses can be switched off remotely
Chinese spies told Claude to break into about 30 critical orgs. Some attacks succeeded
Krebs on Security reports:
Google Sues to Disrupt Chinese SMS Phishing Triad
Big Media
The Columbia Journalism Review has:
Editorial Independence Means Technological Independence
The Open Media Network peeps.
The Guardian reports:
EU investigates Google over ‘demotion’ of commercial content from news media
Big Tech
And:
Lies, damned lies and AI: the newest way to influence elections may be here to stay
The Register reports:
Big Tech’s control freak era is breaking itself apart
The Techno Anarchist Manifesto lists tools to help you avoid most of this AI horseshit.
Jesus.
Vivaldi has:
“A.I.” browsers: the price of admission is too high
GAD Insider reports:
Meta may read your DMs soon: Here’s what you need to know
Low Culture reports:
Digital colonialism: the new frontier of Latin American dependency.
A side effect of techno feudalism.
PC Mag reports:
Asking ChatGPT About Affairs or Abortion? Be Careful, Marketers Are Peeking at Your Prompts
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Register reports:
OWASP Top 10: Broken access control still tops app security list
IEEE Spectrum reports:
Your AI Agent Is Now a Target for Email Phishing. New tools can help thwart the attacks.
Like bitcoin, if you use this shit you deserve what you get.
DarkReading reports:
Orgs Move to SSO, Passkeys to Solve Bad Password Habits
GlassWorm Returns, Slices Back into VS Code Extensions
Check out VS Codium friends.
BleepingComputer reports:
Police disrupts Rhadamanthys, VenomRAT, and Elysium malware operations
Fediverse
Elena Rossini shares:
The rebellion will be federated – 2025 edition
A New Social has:
Bonfire explains:
Matters of care – why Bonfire maintenance comes first.
Comciencia has:
A comunicação da ciência no Fediverso
Laura Hargreves shares:
Growing My Own Little Fediverse: The Joy of Going Further Down the Rabbit Hole
Inside My Matrix: How I Reclaimed Messaging from the Cloud
TechCrunch reports:
Threads targets podcasters with new features, aiming to become the home for show discussions
BTW, fuck Threads.
Slightly Decentralized Social Media
Connected Places has:
ATmosphere Report 142 – more new apps
The Dabbler has:
Chicken Caesars: they’re messing with your Bluesky feed
TechCrunch reports:
Jack Dorsey funds diVine, a Vine reboot that includes Vine’s video archive
Hmm, this is built with Nostr.
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 #bluesky #bonfire #bridgyfed #democracy #fascism #fediverse #matrix #stopChina #stopIsrael #stopRedAmerica #stopRussia #supportUkraine #technoanarchism #technofeudalism #threads #xmpp
-
Destroying Autocracy – November 13, 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 and featured articles for 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.
We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum @thefulcrum.dev and original website content will start in 2026.
Featured Item(s)
Wrekage/Salvage writes:
Once you’ve seized the tools of political life to build communal power, it’s hard to forget what a hammer feels like in your hand.
Bonfire Networks is a tiny software org that has spent the past couple of years building a framework for communities on the open social web. At the end of last week, they released Bonfire Social, a microblogging app.
Like Mastodon, Bonfire Social runs on ActivityPub, but it takes differently opinionated approach to sociability.
(It has) features I (and many others) have been advocating for in Fediverse software for years, often while people explained at length that such things simply could not be implemented.
Most exhilarating to me, though, is that they aren’t just building another microblogging app. They’re making a toolkit for internet community software that is healthy and good and designed around real human needs from the start.
As they put it in their crowdfunding campaign, they’re making building blocks for communities on the open social web.
Total awesomeness that needs to blow up. We will cover (and support) Bonfire extensively on The Programmer’s 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
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Ukraine slaps new sanctions on Putin’s team and propagandist publishers
Radio Free Europe reports:
EU ‘Democracy Shield’ Aims To Counter Russian Disinformation
Open Web Advocacy has:
Tim Berners-Lee On Apple’s Browser Engine Ban and Web Apps
Heise reports:
Office alternative from Germany by Ionos and Nextcloud is now available
Great.
Speaking of Germany, The Guardian reports:
ChatGPT violated copyright law by ‘learning’ from song lyrics, German court rules
Meta could face millions in fines for not signing content deals in Australia
Digital Rights Bytes asks:
Can the government read my text messages?
404 Media reports:
Judge Rules Flock Surveillance Images Are Public Records That Can Be Requested By Anyone
TechCrunch reports:
Wikipedia urges AI companies to use its paid API, and stop scraping
Brookings says:
Preach brother.
Poynter reports:
As independent newspapers disappear, a secretive alliance fights to save them
Neutral
Open Knowledge shares:
Open letter: Harnessing open source AI to advance digital sovereignty
The Ringer has:
How Catastrophic Is It If the AI Bubble Bursts? An FAQ.
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
404 Media reports:
DHS Gives Local Cops a Facial Recognition App To Find Immigrants
TechCrunch reports:
Why a lot of people are getting hacked with government spyware
Lawmakers warn Democratic governors that states are sharing drivers’ data with ICE
Euractiv reports:
EU’s red tape bonfire puts AI ahead of privacy protection
NOYB reports:
EU Commission internal draft would wreck core principles of the GDPR
The Guardian reports:
The EU has let US tech giants run riot. Diluting our data law will only entrench their power.
Tech giants vow to defend users in US as spyware companies make inroads with Trump administration
Freedom of the Press Foundation reports:
Kansas county pays $3M for forgetting the First Amendment
Pariah States
BleepingComputer reports:
APT37 hackers abuse Google Find Hub in Android data-wiping attacks
BitDefender reports:
Russian hacker admits helping Yanluowang ransomware infect companies
The Register reports:
UK asks cyberspies to probe whether Chinese buses can be switched off remotely
Krebs on Security reports:
Google Sues to Disrupt Chinese SMS Phishing Triad
Big Media
The Columbia Journalism Review has:
Editorial Independence Means Technological Independence
The Open Media Network peeps.
The Guardian reports:
EU investigates Google over ‘demotion’ of commercial content from news media
Big Tech
And:
Big Tech’s control freak era is breaking itself apart
The Techno Anarchist Manifesto lists tools to help you avoid most of this AI horseshit.
Lies, damned lies and AI: the newest way to influence elections may be here to stay
Jesus.
Digital colonialism: the new frontier of Latin American dependency.
A side effect of techno feudalism.
PC Mag reports:
Asking ChatGPT About Affairs or Abortion? Be Careful, Marketers Are Peeking at Your Prompts
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Register reports:
OWASP Top 10: Broken access control still tops app security list
IEEE Spectrum reports:
Your AI Agent Is Now a Target for Email Phishing. New tools can help thwart the attacks.
Like bitcoin, if you use this shit you deserve what you get.
DarkReading reports:
Orgs Move to SSO, Passkeys to Solve Bad Password Habits
GlassWorm Returns, Slices Back into VS Code Extensions
Check out VS Codium friends.
BleepingComputer reports:
Police disrupts Rhadamanthys, VenomRAT, and Elysium malware operations
Fediverse
Elena Rossini shares:
The rebellion will be federated – 2025 edition
A New Social has:
Bonfire explains:
Matters of care – why Bonfire maintenance comes first.
Comciencia has:
A comunicação da ciência no Fediverso
Laura Hargreves shares:
Growing My Own Little Fediverse: The Joy of Going Further Down the Rabbit Hole
Inside My Matrix: How I Reclaimed Messaging from the Cloud
TechCrunch reports:
Threads targets podcasters with new features, aiming to become the home for show discussions
BTW, fuck Threads.
Slightly Decentralized Social Media
The Dabbler has:
Chicken Caesars: they’re messing with your Bluesky feed
TechCrunch reports:
Jack Dorsey funds diVine, a Vine reboot that includes Vine’s video archive
Hmm, this is built with Nostr.
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 #bluesky #bonfire #bridgyfed #democracy #fascism #fediverse #matrix #stopChina #stopIsrael #stopRedAmerica #stopRussia #supportUkraine #technoanarchism #technofeudalism #threads #xmpp
-
Destroying Autocracy – November 13, 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 and featured articles for 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.
We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum @thefulcrum.dev and original website content will start in 2026.
Featured Item(s)
Wrekage/Salvage writes:
Once you’ve seized the tools of political life to build communal power, it’s hard to forget what a hammer feels like in your hand.
Bonfire Networks is a tiny software org that has spent the past couple of years building a framework for communities on the open social web. At the end of last week, they released Bonfire Social, a microblogging app.
Like Mastodon, Bonfire Social runs on ActivityPub, but it takes differently opinionated approach to sociability.
(It has) features I (and many others) have been advocating for in Fediverse software for years, often while people explained at length that such things simply could not be implemented.
Most exhilarating to me, though, is that they aren’t just building another microblogging app. They’re making a toolkit for internet community software that is healthy and good and designed around real human needs from the start.
As they put it in their crowdfunding campaign, they’re making building blocks for communities on the open social web.
Total awesomeness that needs to blow up. We will cover (and support) Bonfire extensively on The Programmer’s 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
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Ukraine slaps new sanctions on Putin’s team and propagandist publishers
Radio Free Europe reports:
EU ‘Democracy Shield’ Aims To Counter Russian Disinformation
Open Web Advocacy has:
Tim Berners-Lee On Apple’s Browser Engine Ban and Web Apps
Ars Technica reports:
Google will let Android power users bypass upcoming sideloading restrictions
As they say, the proof will be in the pudding.
LibreOffice has:
The role of ODF in digital sovereignty (digital freedom)
Heise reports:
Office alternative from Germany by Ionos and Nextcloud is now available
Great.
Speaking of Germany, The Guardian reports:
ChatGPT violated copyright law by ‘learning’ from song lyrics, German court rules
Meta could face millions in fines for not signing content deals in Australia
Digital Rights Bytes asks:
Can the government read my text messages?
404 Media reports:
Judge Rules Flock Surveillance Images Are Public Records That Can Be Requested By Anyone
TechCrunch reports:
Wikipedia urges AI companies to use its paid API, and stop scraping
Brookings says:
Preach brother.
Poynter reports:
As independent newspapers disappear, a secretive alliance fights to save them
Neutral
Open Knowledge shares:
Open letter: Harnessing open source AI to advance digital sovereignty
The Ringer has:
How Catastrophic Is It If the AI Bubble Bursts? An FAQ.
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
404 Media reports:
DHS Gives Local Cops a Facial Recognition App To Find Immigrants
TechCrunch reports:
Why a lot of people are getting hacked with government spyware
Lawmakers warn Democratic governors that states are sharing drivers’ data with ICE
Euractiv reports:
EU’s red tape bonfire puts AI ahead of privacy protection
NOYB reports:
EU Commission internal draft would wreck core principles of the GDPR
The Guardian reports:
The EU has let US tech giants run riot. Diluting our data law will only entrench their power.
Tech giants vow to defend users in US as spyware companies make inroads with Trump administration
Freedom of the Press Foundation reports:
Kansas county pays $3M for forgetting the First Amendment
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs—And They Have No Idea What They’re Doing
Tech Policy Press reports:
Global Internet Freedom Declines for 15th Consecutive Year
The Center for Democracy and Technology
Pariah States
BleepingComputer reports:
APT37 hackers abuse Google Find Hub in Android data-wiping attacks
BitDefender reports:
Russian hacker admits helping Yanluowang ransomware infect companies
The Register reports:
UK asks cyberspies to probe whether Chinese buses can be switched off remotely
Chinese spies told Claude to break into about 30 critical orgs. Some attacks succeeded
Krebs on Security reports:
Google Sues to Disrupt Chinese SMS Phishing Triad
Big Media
The Columbia Journalism Review has:
Editorial Independence Means Technological Independence
The Open Media Network peeps.
The Guardian reports:
EU investigates Google over ‘demotion’ of commercial content from news media
Big Tech
And:
Lies, damned lies and AI: the newest way to influence elections may be here to stay
The Register reports:
Big Tech’s control freak era is breaking itself apart
The Techno Anarchist Manifesto lists tools to help you avoid most of this AI horseshit.
Jesus.
Vivaldi has:
“A.I.” browsers: the price of admission is too high
GAD Insider reports:
Meta may read your DMs soon: Here’s what you need to know
Low Culture reports:
Digital colonialism: the new frontier of Latin American dependency.
A side effect of techno feudalism.
PC Mag reports:
Asking ChatGPT About Affairs or Abortion? Be Careful, Marketers Are Peeking at Your Prompts
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Register reports:
OWASP Top 10: Broken access control still tops app security list
IEEE Spectrum reports:
Your AI Agent Is Now a Target for Email Phishing. New tools can help thwart the attacks.
Like bitcoin, if you use this shit you deserve what you get.
DarkReading reports:
Orgs Move to SSO, Passkeys to Solve Bad Password Habits
GlassWorm Returns, Slices Back into VS Code Extensions
Check out VS Codium friends.
BleepingComputer reports:
Police disrupts Rhadamanthys, VenomRAT, and Elysium malware operations
Fediverse
Elena Rossini shares:
The rebellion will be federated – 2025 edition
A New Social has:
Bonfire explains:
Matters of care – why Bonfire maintenance comes first.
Comciencia has:
A comunicação da ciência no Fediverso
Laura Hargreves shares:
Growing My Own Little Fediverse: The Joy of Going Further Down the Rabbit Hole
Inside My Matrix: How I Reclaimed Messaging from the Cloud
TechCrunch reports:
Threads targets podcasters with new features, aiming to become the home for show discussions
BTW, fuck Threads.
Slightly Decentralized Social Media
Connected Places has:
ATmosphere Report 142 – more new apps
The Dabbler has:
Chicken Caesars: they’re messing with your Bluesky feed
TechCrunch reports:
Jack Dorsey funds diVine, a Vine reboot that includes Vine’s video archive
Hmm, this is built with Nostr.
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 #bluesky #bonfire #bridgyfed #democracy #fascism #fediverse #matrix #stopChina #stopIsrael #stopRedAmerica #stopRussia #supportUkraine #technoanarchism #technofeudalism #threads #xmpp