#iftas — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #iftas, aggregated by home.social.
-
#HolosDiscover now uses #IFTAS denylists for moderation. A script automatically imports both the DNI (Do Not Interact) and AUD (Abandoned & Unmanaged Domains) lists to block dangerous or unmaintained instances from indexing. I am in contact with IFTAS and will continue improving moderation.
Account: @iftas
More: https://about.iftas.org/
Blocked instances are automatically logged on the stats page.
Stats page: https://discover.holos.social/stats
-
#HolosDiscover now uses #IFTAS denylists for moderation. A script automatically imports both the DNI (Do Not Interact) and AUD (Abandoned & Unmanaged Domains) lists to block dangerous or unmaintained instances from indexing. I am in contact with IFTAS and will continue improving moderation.
Account: @iftas
More: https://about.iftas.org/
Blocked instances are automatically logged on the stats page.
Stats page: https://discover.holos.social/stats
-
#HolosDiscover now uses #IFTAS denylists for moderation. A script automatically imports both the DNI (Do Not Interact) and AUD (Abandoned & Unmanaged Domains) lists to block dangerous or unmaintained instances from indexing. I am in contact with IFTAS and will continue improving moderation.
Account: @iftas
More: https://about.iftas.org/
Blocked instances are automatically logged on the stats page.
Stats page: https://discover.holos.social/stats
-
#HolosDiscover now uses #IFTAS denylists for moderation. A script automatically imports both the DNI (Do Not Interact) and AUD (Abandoned & Unmanaged Domains) lists to block dangerous or unmaintained instances from indexing. I am in contact with IFTAS and will continue improving moderation.
Account: @iftas
More: https://about.iftas.org/
Blocked instances are automatically logged on the stats page.
Stats page: https://discover.holos.social/stats
-
#HolosDiscover now uses #IFTAS denylists for moderation. A script automatically imports both the DNI (Do Not Interact) and AUD (Abandoned & Unmanaged Domains) lists to block dangerous or unmaintained instances from indexing. I am in contact with IFTAS and will continue improving moderation.
Account: @iftas
More: https://about.iftas.org/
Blocked instances are automatically logged on the stats page.
Stats page: https://discover.holos.social/stats
-
https://www.europesays.com/ie/356334/ We’ve been waiting for a year for an Irish language film, then two come along at the same time #Cine4 #EimearNoone #Éire #Entertainment #GaeltachtNoir #IE #IFTAs #Ireland #Kneecap #ManchanMagan #RéÓrgaGhaelach #RuánMagan #ScannáinNaGaeilge #SpongebobSquarepants #TG4 #TheLake
-
https://www.europesays.com/ie/348913/ Jonathan Rhys Meyers says loss of home to California wildfires was 'shocking' but 'cathartic’ – The Journal #CaliforniaWildfires #Éire #Entertainment #IE #IFTAs #Ireland #JonathanRhysMeyers
-
https://www.europesays.com/ie/348166/ Gúnas and glam: Here's a look at some of the red carpet arrivals at the IFTAs – The Journal #actors #Éire #Entertainment #film #IE #IFTA #IFTAs #InPictures #Ireland #RedCarpet #television
-
Leonardo DiCaprio, Emma Stone, Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley, Among Irish Film & TV Awards Winners
#MovieNews #Movies #IFTAs #International #IrishFilmandTelevisionAwardshttps://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/ifta-awards-winners-2026-1236510551/
-
#TIL about the #IntegrityInstitute;
"We’re a community-powered think tank transforming how social platforms impact society through public interest research, cross-sector collaboration, and community engagement."
https://www.integrityinstitute.org/about-us
Seems to be a cross between @iftas and the Center for Humane Technology. In that their focus is improving trust & safety on the "social Internet", and like #HumaneTech, many of them are former (or current) platform workers.
-
The #Fediverse is such a wonderful place, but it's sad to hear it's really under threat, as #moderators face #burnout
"Decentralised platforms pride themselves on being community-led and member-directed. But community care requires people. And right now, those people are overwhelmed.
"If we want the social web to remain open, resilient, and safe for marginalised users, we need to support the humans at its core."
Great work all of you & #IFTAS thank you
-
The #Fediverse is such a wonderful place, but it's sad to hear it's really under threat, as #moderators face #burnout
"Decentralised platforms pride themselves on being community-led and member-directed. But community care requires people. And right now, those people are overwhelmed.
"If we want the social web to remain open, resilient, and safe for marginalised users, we need to support the humans at its core."
Great work all of you & #IFTAS thank you
-
The #Fediverse is such a wonderful place, but it's sad to hear it's really under threat, as #moderators face #burnout
"Decentralised platforms pride themselves on being community-led and member-directed. But community care requires people. And right now, those people are overwhelmed.
"If we want the social web to remain open, resilient, and safe for marginalised users, we need to support the humans at its core."
Great work all of you & #IFTAS thank you
-
The #Fediverse is such a wonderful place, but it's sad to hear it's really under threat, as #moderators face #burnout
"Decentralised platforms pride themselves on being community-led and member-directed. But community care requires people. And right now, those people are overwhelmed.
"If we want the social web to remain open, resilient, and safe for marginalised users, we need to support the humans at its core."
Great work all of you & #IFTAS thank you
-
Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal and Daniel Day-Lewis Score Irish Film & TV Awards Nominations
#MovieNews #Movies #CillianMurphy #DanielDayLewis #Hamnet #IFTA #IFTAs #International #Ireland #JessieBuckley #PaulMescal -
Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal and Daniel Day-Lewis Score Irish Film & TV Awards Nominations
#MovieNews #Movies #CillianMurphy #DanielDayLewis #Hamnet #IFTA #IFTAs #International #Ireland #JessieBuckley #PaulMescal -
Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal and Daniel Day-Lewis Score Irish Film & TV Awards Nominations
#MovieNews #Movies #CillianMurphy #DanielDayLewis #Hamnet #IFTA #IFTAs #International #Ireland #JessieBuckley #PaulMescal -
Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal and Daniel Day-Lewis Score Irish Film & TV Awards Nominations
#MovieNews #Movies #CillianMurphy #DanielDayLewis #Hamnet #IFTA #IFTAs #International #Ireland #JessieBuckley #PaulMescal -
Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal and Daniel Day-Lewis Score Irish Film & TV Awards Nominations
#MovieNews #Movies #CillianMurphy #DanielDayLewis #Hamnet #IFTA #IFTAs #International #Ireland #JessieBuckley #PaulMescal -
Jackie Brenneman New Head of IFTA
#Business #BusinessNews #AFM #IFTAs #International #Internationalfilmandtelevisionalliance -
A new @iftas report brings insights from fediverse moderators, administrators, and community managers: worsening mod-to-user ratio, spam, burnout, lack of tools.
"Moderators are the backbone of a safer social web – but most are unpaid, under-supported, and under constant strain. If we want a future for decentralised platforms that respects user agency, civil speech, and community autonomy, we need to support the infrastructure that keeps it safe."
https://about.iftas.org/2026/01/08/the-2025-social-web-trust-safety-report-is-here/
-
In the Fediverse track at SFSCon, Jaz-Michael King spoke about: Hiraeth and Hashtags: Building a Bilingual Community on the Fediverse fediforum.org/2025-1... #fediforum #sfscon #fediverse #socialweb #iftas #tootwales
-
In the Fediverse track at SFSCon, Jaz-Michael King spoke about:
Hiraeth and Hashtags: Building a Bilingual Community on the Fediverse
-
Casually mentioning misleading people to ensure donations keep coming in for work she may be stepping down from...
Emelia has been highly problematic for a long time, I'm not surprised she would mislead people. Her role in Fedi Trust & Safety is a big part of why I do not subscribe to #IFTAS after Emelia defended a coordinated attack that deplatformed a trans anarchist. She has also repeatedly slandered one of the major developers in the fediverse, a gay man who already faces a lot of hate.
I am not saying here that it's fair that her fedi work compensates her so poorly. I am saying that she is not qualified for Trust & Safety work due to her past behavior. Bluesky made the right choice, although likely for the wrong reasons. -
Les deux réseaux Bsky/Fédi sont même tellement compatibles/comparables qu'on a un cas d'utilisation type botnet/troll Russe de Masto pour infoxer Bluesky – apparemment via le pont Bridgy 🌉. Voir ce thread : https://kolektiva.social/@A_Mimi/115562603745411511
Attaque levée et suivie par l' #IFTAS https://about.IFTAS.org @iftas
Thread : traduction d'un post de l'IFTAS au sujet de «l'infection» Russe en cours, 300+ comptes masto répartis sur plusieurs instances, dont certaines abandonnées ou pas modérées.
Mitigation en cours par l'IFTAS, qui a identifié les comptes, traque la croissance du botnet, organise la réponse de la Fédé, contacte les admins et fournit une blocklist.
-
@A_Mimi Heureusement, c'est aussi une superbe occasion de démontrer que le système immunitaire de la Fedi, système de défense "naturel" décentralisé, autogéré, collaboratif, fonctionne parfaitement et avec une efficacité redoutable. On va même pouvoir mesurer sa vitesse de réaction, son impitoyabilité et probablement sa transparence.
Après, faudra certainement faire gaffe, avec la comm' sur le sujet, à pas se faire "retourner" ou "manipuler" dans un sens qui desservirait la Fedi. Ça semble super-pro de ce côté, j'ai pas trop de doutes que l' #IFTAS sera carrée jusqu'au bout.
2/2
-
That infection of russian bot accounts isn't going away, it seems.
-
That infection of russian bot accounts isn't going away, it seems.
-
That infection of russian bot accounts isn't going away, it seems.
-
Asylum Executive Paul Bales Named Chair of IFTA
#Business #BusinessNews #AFM #AFM2025 #IFTAs #International -
Ich glaube, ganz so einfach ist das dann doch nicht. Es gibt allerdings Bots von #iftas, die gezielt nach solchen Accounts suchen. Vor ein paar Tagen wurde ja auch einer bei uns gefunden und gemeldet.
Außerdem haben sie eine Seite mit weiteren Informationen zum Blockieren zusammengestellt:
https://connect.iftas.org/library/tools-resources/denylist-resources/
-
Good day all! Fireside Fedi episode 50 starts NOW!
@jaz is my guest today. Executive Director of @iftas #IFTAS ; fighter for the #fediverse; awesome dude; amazing #singer .
Watch the show live:
#Owncast #Livestream - https://stream.firesidefedi.live
After the show:
#Peertube #VOD - https://video.firesidefedi.live
#Castopod #Fedicast - https://audio.firesidefedi.live
#Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@btfree_org
All #Links - https://firesidefedi.live
#stream #interview #firesideFedi #FsF #people #peopleOverPlatforms #protocolsOverPlatforms #fedi #fediverse #open #internet #openInternet #podcast #show #episode #peertube #vod #castopod #writefreely #lemmy #boostplease #fedizen #btfree #bigTechFree #nonprofit #signup #tubeFree
If you're enjoying the show, please consider supporting our new nonprofit btfree.org at https://givebutter.com/btfree. We're currently running https://tubefree.org which is a moderated peertube open for signups right now! -
Good day all! Coming up this week on Fireside Fedi! (All times are UTC-4)
10-21 1300 - @jaz Executive Director of @iftas - #IFTAS is a #charity dedicated to supporting the thousands of #admins, #moderators and #community #managers nurturing a safe, open web - and building #BetterSocialMedia for all.
10-22 1300 @mike - Co-founder and CEO, #Flipboard flipboard.com/@mike
Watch the show live:
#Owncast #Livestream - https://stream.firesidefedi.live
After the show:
#Peertube #VOD - https://video.firesidefedi.live
#Castopod #Fedicast - https://audio.firesidefedi.live
#Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@btfree_org
All #Links - https://firesidefedi.live
#stream #interview #firesideFedi #FsF #people #peopleOverPlatforms #protocolsOverPlatforms #fedi #fediverse #open #internet #openInternet #podcast #show #episode #peertube #vod #castopod #writefreely #lemmy #boostplease #fedizen #btfree #bigTechFree #nonprofit #signup #tubeFree
If you're enjoying the show, please consider supporting our new nonprofit btfree.org at https://givebutter.com/btfree. We're currently running https://tubefree.org which is a moderated peertube open for signups right now! -
Good day all! Coming up this week on Fireside Fedi! (All times are UTC-4)
10-21 1300 - @jaz Executive Director of @iftas - #IFTAS is a #charity dedicated to supporting the thousands of #admins, #moderators and #community #managers nurturing a safe, open web - and building #BetterSocialMedia for all.
10-22 1300 @mike - Co-founder and CEO, #Flipboard flipboard.com/@mike
Watch the show live:
#Owncast #Livestream - https://stream.firesidefedi.live
After the show:
#Peertube #VOD - https://video.firesidefedi.live
#Castopod #Fedicast - https://audio.firesidefedi.live
#Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@btfree_org
All #Links - https://firesidefedi.live
#stream #interview #firesideFedi #FsF #people #peopleOverPlatforms #protocolsOverPlatforms #fedi #fediverse #open #internet #openInternet #podcast #show #episode #peertube #vod #castopod #writefreely #lemmy #boostplease #fedizen #btfree #bigTechFree #nonprofit #signup #tubeFree
If you're enjoying the show, please consider supporting our new nonprofit btfree.org at https://givebutter.com/btfree. We're currently running https://tubefree.org which is a moderated peertube open for signups right now! -
Good day all! Coming up this week on Fireside Fedi! (All times are UTC-4)
10-21 1300 - @jaz Executive Director of @iftas - #IFTAS is a #charity dedicated to supporting the thousands of #admins, #moderators and #community #managers nurturing a safe, open web - and building #BetterSocialMedia for all.
10-22 1300 @mike - Co-founder and CEO, #Flipboard flipboard.com/@mike
Watch the show live:
#Owncast #Livestream - https://stream.firesidefedi.live
After the show:
#Peertube #VOD - https://video.firesidefedi.live
#Castopod #Fedicast - https://audio.firesidefedi.live
#Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@btfree_org
All #Links - https://firesidefedi.live
#stream #interview #firesideFedi #FsF #people #peopleOverPlatforms #protocolsOverPlatforms #fedi #fediverse #open #internet #openInternet #podcast #show #episode #peertube #vod #castopod #writefreely #lemmy #boostplease #fedizen #btfree #bigTechFree #nonprofit #signup #tubeFree
If you're enjoying the show, please consider supporting our new nonprofit btfree.org at https://givebutter.com/btfree. We're currently running https://tubefree.org which is a moderated peertube open for signups right now! -
Good day all! Coming up this week on Fireside Fedi! (All times are UTC-4)
10-21 1300 - @jaz Executive Director of @iftas - #IFTAS is a #charity dedicated to supporting the thousands of #admins, #moderators and #community #managers nurturing a safe, open web - and building #BetterSocialMedia for all.
10-22 1300 @mike - Co-founder and CEO, #Flipboard flipboard.com/@mike
Watch the show live:
#Owncast #Livestream - https://stream.firesidefedi.live
After the show:
#Peertube #VOD - https://video.firesidefedi.live
#Castopod #Fedicast - https://audio.firesidefedi.live
#Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@btfree_org
All #Links - https://firesidefedi.live
#stream #interview #firesideFedi #FsF #people #peopleOverPlatforms #protocolsOverPlatforms #fedi #fediverse #open #internet #openInternet #podcast #show #episode #peertube #vod #castopod #writefreely #lemmy #boostplease #fedizen #btfree #bigTechFree #nonprofit #signup #tubeFree
If you're enjoying the show, please consider supporting our new nonprofit btfree.org at https://givebutter.com/btfree. We're currently running https://tubefree.org which is a moderated peertube open for signups right now! -
Good day all! Coming up this week on Fireside Fedi! (All times are UTC-4)
10-21 1300 - @jaz Executive Director of @iftas - #IFTAS is a #charity dedicated to supporting the thousands of #admins, #moderators and #community #managers nurturing a safe, open web - and building #BetterSocialMedia for all.
10-22 1300 @mike - Co-founder and CEO, #Flipboard flipboard.com/@mike
Watch the show live:
#Owncast #Livestream - https://stream.firesidefedi.live
After the show:
#Peertube #VOD - https://video.firesidefedi.live
#Castopod #Fedicast - https://audio.firesidefedi.live
#Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@btfree_org
All #Links - https://firesidefedi.live
#stream #interview #firesideFedi #FsF #people #peopleOverPlatforms #protocolsOverPlatforms #fedi #fediverse #open #internet #openInternet #podcast #show #episode #peertube #vod #castopod #writefreely #lemmy #boostplease #fedizen #btfree #bigTechFree #nonprofit #signup #tubeFree
If you're enjoying the show, please consider supporting our new nonprofit btfree.org at https://givebutter.com/btfree. We're currently running https://tubefree.org which is a moderated peertube open for signups right now! -
Destroying Autocracy – October 09, 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.
DA comes out on Thursday and is updated through the end of day on Friday. Then we start over. So take your time in perusing it and check back in over the weekend.
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)
Open Media Network writes:
A central thesis of Tolkien’s books is that evil provides the means of its own defeat. Sauron forged the One Ring that destroyed him. Shelob impaled herself on Sam’s blade. Smaug exposed his belly to Bilbo and revealed the weak point that brought him down. Tolkien’s world is full of this pattern: the seed of destruction lies buried inside the will to dominate. Power over others always carries its own undoing.
But there’s a second truth, less often spoken. Good must still act. The Ring did not cast itself into the fires of Mount Doom, it had to be carried, inch by inch, through the mud and terror, by two small Hobbits who refused to give up. Shelob could only fall because Sam held his arm firm when it would have been easier to drop the blade. Smaug was slain not by fate, but by the hand that fired the black arrow.
Even when evil weakens itself, the act of courage still has to be taken. The small people still have to step up. And there’s a third lesson here, one that feels painfully relevant to our time: good only loses when it surrenders to hopelessness. Denethor’s despair nearly doomed Minas Tirith.
Frodo would have fallen without Sam’s stubborn love. Bilbo’s small act of faith. In Tolkien’s world, hope is not naïve optimism, it’s an act of defiance.
Join us and become a hobbit in the Open Media Network.
Speaking of OMN, we have an announcement this week:
Announcing The Programmer’s Fulcrum, our retirement project
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:
The military branch behind Ukraine’s battlefield apps turns to weapons bureaucracy
Ukraine’s parliament backs creation of cyber forces in first reading
The Christian Science Monitor reports:
How Ukrainian drones are slowing Russia’s advance in the east
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
What Europe’s New Gig Work Law Means for Unions and Technology
Eiffair shares:
Its FOSS News reports:
Wikidata Launches Free Vector Database as Open Alternative to Closed AI Systems
NiemanLab reports:
Nonprofit news is growing strong — especially local nonprofit news, a new report shows
And the Columbia Journalism Review reports:
Heisse reports:
A defeat at the Supreme Court: Google must prepare changes to the Play Store
Nextcloud has:
Nextcloud vs Microsoft interoperability: how open source gets it right
Open letter to EU Member States on the proposed CSA Regulation or “Chat Control” law
Tuta announces:
Europe’s future is at stake: Open letter against Chat Control
Patrick shares the good news that pressure still works:
Citizen Protest Halts Chat Control; Breyer Celebrates Major Victory for Digital Privacy
404 Media reports:
Data Hoarder Uses AI to Create Searchable Database of Epstein Files
Help Us Investigate Book Bans and Educational Censorship Around America
Igalia announces:
Igalia, Servo, and the Sovereign Tech Fund
The Guardian reports:
You won’t believe what degrading practice the pope just condemned
Clever headline.
The Register reports:
Pro-Russia hacktivist group dies of cringe after falling into researchers’ trap
UK slaps ‘strategic market status’ on Google, unlocking power to pry open search
Burning Web shares:
Great Stuff.
Neutral
CyberCultural shares:
What the Internet Was Like in 2000
Homestar Runner 🙂
The Brookings Institute says:
The Guardian reports:
Poynter announces:
Poynter launches AI Innovation Lab to house its growing AI portfolio
CommonsDB is:
Exploring CommonsDB’s role in AI training data
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
TechCrunch reports:
ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy on phones
Italian businessman’s phone reportedly targeted with Paragon spyware
Pariah States
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Russia’s digital Iron Curtain descends as Kremlin chokes remaining internet freedoms
IFTAS reports:
Coordinated Pro-Russian Propaganda Network Targeting ActivityPub and ATProto Services
Bleeping Computer reports:
Russian Hacktivists target critical infrastructure, hit decoy plant
North Korean hackers stole over $2 billion in crypto this year
The Columbia Journalism Review reports on:
DarkReading reports:
Chinese Gov’t Fronts Trick the West to Obtain Cyber Tech
China-Nexus Actors Weaponize ‘Nezha’ Open Source Tool
The Register reports:
OpenAI bans suspected Chinese accounts using ChatGPT to plan surveillance
The Columbia Journalism Review reports:
How Anti-Cybercrime Laws Are Being Weaponized to Repress Journalism
Big Media
FAIR reports:
MAGA’s Little Helpers: Sinclair, Nexstar and the Consolidation of Broadcast TV
Poynter reports:
Big Tech
404 Media reports:
Apple Banned an App That Simply Archived Videos of ICE Abuses
CNET reports:
The Hidden Dangers of the Digital ‘Yes Man’: How to Push Back Against Sycophantic AI
The Guardian has:
Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?
LitHub has more Cory Doctorow action:
How American Tech Cartels Use Apps to Break the Law
TechDirt reports:
And evidently make the law.
NOYB shares:
noyb win: Microsoft 365 Education may not track school children
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Tile’s Lack of Encryption Is a Danger for Users Everywhere
FBI takes down BreachForums portal used for Salesforce extortion
Fuck Salesforce, BTW.
Fediverse
Social Experience Design says:
Welcome to Social coding commons
Hamish Campbell has:
Live at c-base a #fluffy Fediverse conference
Riley Testut reports:
The New Stack reports:
Everything Big Starts Small: Building Open Social Web Apps
The Social Web Foundation has an:
Interview with John O’Nolan about Ghost 6
Connected Places has:
Fedify announces:
Fedify 2.0—the CLI now runs natively on Node.js and Bun, not just Deno
Go To Social announces:
We’ve just made the proper release of v0.20.0 of GoToSocial, aka Sinister Sloth
TechCrunch reports:
Alternative app store AltStore raises $6M, connects with the Fediverse
Mastodon is taking cues from Bluesky with plans for its own starter ‘Packs’
Mastodon has:
Community consultation: new Terms of Service (for mastodon.social and mastodon.online)
It’s cool to join Mastodon but not these two instances.
Trunk & Tidbits, September 2025
Terence Eden explores:
Getting started with Mastodon’s Quote Posts – technical implementation details for servers
NHAM announces:
NHAM Update Opus 10 (Fedi Music Television Edition)
Super awesome.
Castopod announces:
The Official Castopod Plugin Repository
RSS
InEssential explains:
Why NetNewsWire Is Not a Web App
Lighthouse has:
A deep dive into the rss feed reader landscape
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
Azhdarchid has:
TechCrunch reports:
Niko Mara-McKay goes into the nitty-gritty:
Bluesky’s CEO meltdown: How leadership continues to fail its most marginalized users
I have said from day one that Bluesky will become enshittified. But, ATProto has some potential.
And to be fair, some of the leaders of ActivityPub and its largest platform (who value growth over safety) are egotistical pissy ass fucks when they are even slightly criticized.
But we are all fighting technofascism so let’s try to work together on the protocols front at least. Its okay to have debates and disagreements with allies. But treat them like allies when doing so. If they are your friends you can even call them pissy ass fucks. 😉
Speaking of, A New Social announces:
Bounce from Mastodon to Bluesky
Why would you? Although maybe its works with Blacksky, Northsky, or Eurosky.
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 #AltStore #ATProto #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bluesky #Castopod #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #fluffy #GoToSocial #IFTAS #Mastodon #NHAM #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism
-
Destroying Autocracy – October 09, 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.
DA comes out on Thursday and is updated through the end of day on Friday. Then we start over. So take your time in perusing it and check back in over the weekend.
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)
Open Media Network writes:
A central thesis of Tolkien’s books is that evil provides the means of its own defeat. Sauron forged the One Ring that destroyed him. Shelob impaled herself on Sam’s blade. Smaug exposed his belly to Bilbo and revealed the weak point that brought him down. Tolkien’s world is full of this pattern: the seed of destruction lies buried inside the will to dominate. Power over others always carries its own undoing.
But there’s a second truth, less often spoken. Good must still act. The Ring did not cast itself into the fires of Mount Doom, it had to be carried, inch by inch, through the mud and terror, by two small Hobbits who refused to give up. Shelob could only fall because Sam held his arm firm when it would have been easier to drop the blade. Smaug was slain not by fate, but by the hand that fired the black arrow.
Even when evil weakens itself, the act of courage still has to be taken. The small people still have to step up. And there’s a third lesson here, one that feels painfully relevant to our time: good only loses when it surrenders to hopelessness. Denethor’s despair nearly doomed Minas Tirith.
Frodo would have fallen without Sam’s stubborn love. Bilbo’s small act of faith. In Tolkien’s world, hope is not naïve optimism, it’s an act of defiance.
Join us and become a hobbit in the Open Media Network.
Speaking of OMN, we have an announcement this week:
Announcing The Programmer’s Fulcrum, our retirement project
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:
The military branch behind Ukraine’s battlefield apps turns to weapons bureaucracy
Ukraine’s parliament backs creation of cyber forces in first reading
The Christian Science Monitor reports:
How Ukrainian drones are slowing Russia’s advance in the east
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
What Europe’s New Gig Work Law Means for Unions and Technology
Eiffair shares:
Its FOSS News reports:
Wikidata Launches Free Vector Database as Open Alternative to Closed AI Systems
NiemanLab reports:
Nonprofit news is growing strong — especially local nonprofit news, a new report shows
And the Columbia Journalism Review reports:
Heisse reports:
A defeat at the Supreme Court: Google must prepare changes to the Play Store
Nextcloud has:
Nextcloud vs Microsoft interoperability: how open source gets it right
Open letter to EU Member States on the proposed CSA Regulation or “Chat Control” law
Tuta announces:
Europe’s future is at stake: Open letter against Chat Control
Patrick shares the good news that pressure still works:
Citizen Protest Halts Chat Control; Breyer Celebrates Major Victory for Digital Privacy
404 Media reports:
Data Hoarder Uses AI to Create Searchable Database of Epstein Files
Help Us Investigate Book Bans and Educational Censorship Around America
Igalia announces:
Igalia, Servo, and the Sovereign Tech Fund
The Guardian reports:
You won’t believe what degrading practice the pope just condemned
Clever headline.
The Register reports:
Pro-Russia hacktivist group dies of cringe after falling into researchers’ trap
UK slaps ‘strategic market status’ on Google, unlocking power to pry open search
Burning Web shares:
Great Stuff.
Neutral
CyberCultural shares:
What the Internet Was Like in 2000
Homestar Runner 🙂
The Brookings Institute says:
The Guardian reports:
Poynter announces:
Poynter launches AI Innovation Lab to house its growing AI portfolio
CommonsDB is:
Exploring CommonsDB’s role in AI training data
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
TechCrunch reports:
ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy on phones
Italian businessman’s phone reportedly targeted with Paragon spyware
Pariah States
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Russia’s digital Iron Curtain descends as Kremlin chokes remaining internet freedoms
IFTAS reports:
Coordinated Pro-Russian Propaganda Network Targeting ActivityPub and ATProto Services
Bleeping Computer reports:
Russian Hacktivists target critical infrastructure, hit decoy plant
North Korean hackers stole over $2 billion in crypto this year
The Columbia Journalism Review reports on:
DarkReading reports:
Chinese Gov’t Fronts Trick the West to Obtain Cyber Tech
China-Nexus Actors Weaponize ‘Nezha’ Open Source Tool
The Register reports:
OpenAI bans suspected Chinese accounts using ChatGPT to plan surveillance
The Columbia Journalism Review reports:
How Anti-Cybercrime Laws Are Being Weaponized to Repress Journalism
Big Media
FAIR reports:
MAGA’s Little Helpers: Sinclair, Nexstar and the Consolidation of Broadcast TV
Poynter reports:
Big Tech
404 Media reports:
Apple Banned an App That Simply Archived Videos of ICE Abuses
CNET reports:
The Hidden Dangers of the Digital ‘Yes Man’: How to Push Back Against Sycophantic AI
The Guardian has:
Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?
LitHub has more Cory Doctorow action:
How American Tech Cartels Use Apps to Break the Law
TechDirt reports:
And evidently make the law.
NOYB shares:
noyb win: Microsoft 365 Education may not track school children
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Tile’s Lack of Encryption Is a Danger for Users Everywhere
FBI takes down BreachForums portal used for Salesforce extortion
Fuck Salesforce, BTW.
Fediverse
Social Experience Design says:
Welcome to Social coding commons
Hamish Campbell has:
Live at c-base a #fluffy Fediverse conference
Riley Testut reports:
The New Stack reports:
Everything Big Starts Small: Building Open Social Web Apps
The Social Web Foundation has an:
Interview with John O’Nolan about Ghost 6
Connected Places has:
Fedify announces:
Fedify 2.0—the CLI now runs natively on Node.js and Bun, not just Deno
Go To Social announces:
We’ve just made the proper release of v0.20.0 of GoToSocial, aka Sinister Sloth
TechCrunch reports:
Alternative app store AltStore raises $6M, connects with the Fediverse
Mastodon is taking cues from Bluesky with plans for its own starter ‘Packs’
Mastodon has:
Community consultation: new Terms of Service (for mastodon.social and mastodon.online)
It’s cool to join Mastodon but not these two instances.
Trunk & Tidbits, September 2025
Terence Eden explores:
Getting started with Mastodon’s Quote Posts – technical implementation details for servers
NHAM announces:
NHAM Update Opus 10 (Fedi Music Television Edition)
Super awesome.
Castopod announces:
The Official Castopod Plugin Repository
RSS
InEssential explains:
Why NetNewsWire Is Not a Web App
Lighthouse has:
A deep dive into the rss feed reader landscape
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
Azhdarchid has:
TechCrunch reports:
Niko Mara-McKay goes into the nitty-gritty:
Bluesky’s CEO meltdown: How leadership continues to fail its most marginalized users
I have said from day one that Bluesky will become enshittified. But, ATProto has some potential.
And to be fair, some of the leaders of ActivityPub and its largest platform (who value growth over safety) are egotistical pissy ass fucks when they are even slightly criticized.
But we are all fighting technofascism so let’s try to work together on the protocols front at least. Its okay to have debates and disagreements with allies. But treat them like allies when doing so. If they are your friends you can even call them pissy ass fucks. 😉
Speaking of, A New Social announces:
Bounce from Mastodon to Bluesky
Why would you? Although maybe its works with Blacksky, Northsky, or Eurosky.
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 #AltStore #ATProto #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bluesky #Castopod #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #fluffy #GoToSocial #IFTAS #Mastodon #NHAM #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism
-
Destroying Autocracy – October 09, 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.
DA comes out on Thursday and is updated through the end of day on Friday. Then we start over. So take your time in perusing it and check back in over the weekend.
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)
Open Media Network writes:
A central thesis of Tolkien’s books is that evil provides the means of its own defeat. Sauron forged the One Ring that destroyed him. Shelob impaled herself on Sam’s blade. Smaug exposed his belly to Bilbo and revealed the weak point that brought him down. Tolkien’s world is full of this pattern: the seed of destruction lies buried inside the will to dominate. Power over others always carries its own undoing.
But there’s a second truth, less often spoken. Good must still act. The Ring did not cast itself into the fires of Mount Doom, it had to be carried, inch by inch, through the mud and terror, by two small Hobbits who refused to give up. Shelob could only fall because Sam held his arm firm when it would have been easier to drop the blade. Smaug was slain not by fate, but by the hand that fired the black arrow.
Even when evil weakens itself, the act of courage still has to be taken. The small people still have to step up. And there’s a third lesson here, one that feels painfully relevant to our time: good only loses when it surrenders to hopelessness. Denethor’s despair nearly doomed Minas Tirith.
Frodo would have fallen without Sam’s stubborn love. Bilbo’s small act of faith. In Tolkien’s world, hope is not naïve optimism, it’s an act of defiance.
Join us and become a hobbit in the Open Media Network.
Speaking of OMN, we have an announcement this week:
Announcing The Programmer’s Fulcrum, our retirement project
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:
The military branch behind Ukraine’s battlefield apps turns to weapons bureaucracy
Ukraine’s parliament backs creation of cyber forces in first reading
The Christian Science Monitor reports:
How Ukrainian drones are slowing Russia’s advance in the east
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
What Europe’s New Gig Work Law Means for Unions and Technology
Eiffair shares:
Its FOSS News reports:
Wikidata Launches Free Vector Database as Open Alternative to Closed AI Systems
NiemanLab reports:
Nonprofit news is growing strong — especially local nonprofit news, a new report shows
And the Columbia Journalism Review reports:
Heisse reports:
A defeat at the Supreme Court: Google must prepare changes to the Play Store
Nextcloud has:
Nextcloud vs Microsoft interoperability: how open source gets it right
Open letter to EU Member States on the proposed CSA Regulation or “Chat Control” law
Tuta announces:
Europe’s future is at stake: Open letter against Chat Control
Patrick shares the good news that pressure still works:
Citizen Protest Halts Chat Control; Breyer Celebrates Major Victory for Digital Privacy
404 Media reports:
Data Hoarder Uses AI to Create Searchable Database of Epstein Files
Help Us Investigate Book Bans and Educational Censorship Around America
Igalia announces:
Igalia, Servo, and the Sovereign Tech Fund
The Guardian reports:
You won’t believe what degrading practice the pope just condemned
Clever headline.
The Register reports:
Pro-Russia hacktivist group dies of cringe after falling into researchers’ trap
UK slaps ‘strategic market status’ on Google, unlocking power to pry open search
Burning Web shares:
Great Stuff.
Neutral
CyberCultural shares:
What the Internet Was Like in 2000
Homestar Runner 🙂
The Brookings Institute says:
The Guardian reports:
Poynter announces:
Poynter launches AI Innovation Lab to house its growing AI portfolio
CommonsDB is:
Exploring CommonsDB’s role in AI training data
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
TechCrunch reports:
ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy on phones
Italian businessman’s phone reportedly targeted with Paragon spyware
Pariah States
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Russia’s digital Iron Curtain descends as Kremlin chokes remaining internet freedoms
IFTAS reports:
Coordinated Pro-Russian Propaganda Network Targeting ActivityPub and ATProto Services
Bleeping Computer reports:
Russian Hacktivists target critical infrastructure, hit decoy plant
North Korean hackers stole over $2 billion in crypto this year
The Columbia Journalism Review reports on:
DarkReading reports:
Chinese Gov’t Fronts Trick the West to Obtain Cyber Tech
China-Nexus Actors Weaponize ‘Nezha’ Open Source Tool
The Register reports:
OpenAI bans suspected Chinese accounts using ChatGPT to plan surveillance
The Columbia Journalism Review reports:
How Anti-Cybercrime Laws Are Being Weaponized to Repress Journalism
Big Media
FAIR reports:
MAGA’s Little Helpers: Sinclair, Nexstar and the Consolidation of Broadcast TV
Poynter reports:
Big Tech
404 Media reports:
Apple Banned an App That Simply Archived Videos of ICE Abuses
CNET reports:
The Hidden Dangers of the Digital ‘Yes Man’: How to Push Back Against Sycophantic AI
The Guardian has:
Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?
LitHub has more Cory Doctorow action:
How American Tech Cartels Use Apps to Break the Law
TechDirt reports:
And evidently make the law.
NOYB shares:
noyb win: Microsoft 365 Education may not track school children
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Tile’s Lack of Encryption Is a Danger for Users Everywhere
FBI takes down BreachForums portal used for Salesforce extortion
Fuck Salesforce, BTW.
Fediverse
Social Experience Design says:
Welcome to Social coding commons
Hamish Campbell has:
Live at c-base a #fluffy Fediverse conference
Riley Testut reports:
The New Stack reports:
Everything Big Starts Small: Building Open Social Web Apps
The Social Web Foundation has an:
Interview with John O’Nolan about Ghost 6
Connected Places has:
Fedify announces:
Fedify 2.0—the CLI now runs natively on Node.js and Bun, not just Deno
Go To Social announces:
We’ve just made the proper release of v0.20.0 of GoToSocial, aka Sinister Sloth
TechCrunch reports:
Alternative app store AltStore raises $6M, connects with the Fediverse
Mastodon is taking cues from Bluesky with plans for its own starter ‘Packs’
Mastodon has:
Community consultation: new Terms of Service (for mastodon.social and mastodon.online)
It’s cool to join Mastodon but not these two instances.
Trunk & Tidbits, September 2025
Terence Eden explores:
Getting started with Mastodon’s Quote Posts – technical implementation details for servers
NHAM announces:
NHAM Update Opus 10 (Fedi Music Television Edition)
Super awesome.
Castopod announces:
The Official Castopod Plugin Repository
RSS
InEssential explains:
Why NetNewsWire Is Not a Web App
Lighthouse has:
A deep dive into the rss feed reader landscape
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
Azhdarchid has:
TechCrunch reports:
Niko Mara-McKay goes into the nitty-gritty:
Bluesky’s CEO meltdown: How leadership continues to fail its most marginalized users
I have said from day one that Bluesky will become enshittified. But, ATProto has some potential.
And to be fair, some of the leaders of ActivityPub and its largest platform (who value growth over safety) are egotistical pissy ass fucks when they are even slightly criticized.
But we are all fighting technofascism so let’s try to work together on the protocols front at least. Its okay to have debates and disagreements with allies. But treat them like allies when doing so. If they are your friends you can even call them pissy ass fucks. 😉
Speaking of, A New Social announces:
Bounce from Mastodon to Bluesky
Why would you? Although maybe its works with Blacksky, Northsky, or Eurosky.
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 #AltStore #ATProto #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bluesky #Castopod #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #fluffy #GoToSocial #IFTAS #Mastodon #NHAM #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism
-
Destroying Autocracy – October 09, 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.
DA comes out on Thursday and is updated through the end of day on Friday. Then we start over. So take your time in perusing it and check back in over the weekend.
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)
Open Media Network writes:
A central thesis of Tolkien’s books is that evil provides the means of its own defeat. Sauron forged the One Ring that destroyed him. Shelob impaled herself on Sam’s blade. Smaug exposed his belly to Bilbo and revealed the weak point that brought him down. Tolkien’s world is full of this pattern: the seed of destruction lies buried inside the will to dominate. Power over others always carries its own undoing.
But there’s a second truth, less often spoken. Good must still act. The Ring did not cast itself into the fires of Mount Doom, it had to be carried, inch by inch, through the mud and terror, by two small Hobbits who refused to give up. Shelob could only fall because Sam held his arm firm when it would have been easier to drop the blade. Smaug was slain not by fate, but by the hand that fired the black arrow.
Even when evil weakens itself, the act of courage still has to be taken. The small people still have to step up. And there’s a third lesson here, one that feels painfully relevant to our time: good only loses when it surrenders to hopelessness. Denethor’s despair nearly doomed Minas Tirith.
Frodo would have fallen without Sam’s stubborn love. Bilbo’s small act of faith. In Tolkien’s world, hope is not naïve optimism, it’s an act of defiance.
Join us and become a hobbit in the Open Media Network.
Speaking of OMN, we have an announcement this week:
Announcing The Programmer’s Fulcrum, our retirement project
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:
The military branch behind Ukraine’s battlefield apps turns to weapons bureaucracy
Ukraine’s parliament backs creation of cyber forces in first reading
The Christian Science Monitor reports:
How Ukrainian drones are slowing Russia’s advance in the east
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
What Europe’s New Gig Work Law Means for Unions and Technology
Eiffair shares:
Its FOSS News reports:
Wikidata Launches Free Vector Database as Open Alternative to Closed AI Systems
NiemanLab reports:
Nonprofit news is growing strong — especially local nonprofit news, a new report shows
And the Columbia Journalism Review reports:
Heisse reports:
A defeat at the Supreme Court: Google must prepare changes to the Play Store
Nextcloud has:
Nextcloud vs Microsoft interoperability: how open source gets it right
Open letter to EU Member States on the proposed CSA Regulation or “Chat Control” law
Tuta announces:
Europe’s future is at stake: Open letter against Chat Control
Patrick shares the good news that pressure still works:
Citizen Protest Halts Chat Control; Breyer Celebrates Major Victory for Digital Privacy
404 Media reports:
Data Hoarder Uses AI to Create Searchable Database of Epstein Files
Help Us Investigate Book Bans and Educational Censorship Around America
Igalia announces:
Igalia, Servo, and the Sovereign Tech Fund
The Guardian reports:
You won’t believe what degrading practice the pope just condemned
Clever headline.
The Register reports:
Pro-Russia hacktivist group dies of cringe after falling into researchers’ trap
UK slaps ‘strategic market status’ on Google, unlocking power to pry open search
Burning Web shares:
Great Stuff.
Neutral
CyberCultural shares:
What the Internet Was Like in 2000
Homestar Runner 🙂
The Brookings Institute says:
The Guardian reports:
Poynter announces:
Poynter launches AI Innovation Lab to house its growing AI portfolio
CommonsDB is:
Exploring CommonsDB’s role in AI training data
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
TechCrunch reports:
ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy on phones
Italian businessman’s phone reportedly targeted with Paragon spyware
Pariah States
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Russia’s digital Iron Curtain descends as Kremlin chokes remaining internet freedoms
IFTAS reports:
Coordinated Pro-Russian Propaganda Network Targeting ActivityPub and ATProto Services
Bleeping Computer reports:
Russian Hacktivists target critical infrastructure, hit decoy plant
North Korean hackers stole over $2 billion in crypto this year
The Columbia Journalism Review reports on:
DarkReading reports:
Chinese Gov’t Fronts Trick the West to Obtain Cyber Tech
China-Nexus Actors Weaponize ‘Nezha’ Open Source Tool
The Register reports:
OpenAI bans suspected Chinese accounts using ChatGPT to plan surveillance
The Columbia Journalism Review reports:
How Anti-Cybercrime Laws Are Being Weaponized to Repress Journalism
Big Media
FAIR reports:
MAGA’s Little Helpers: Sinclair, Nexstar and the Consolidation of Broadcast TV
Poynter reports:
Big Tech
404 Media reports:
Apple Banned an App That Simply Archived Videos of ICE Abuses
CNET reports:
The Hidden Dangers of the Digital ‘Yes Man’: How to Push Back Against Sycophantic AI
The Guardian has:
Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?
LitHub has more Cory Doctorow action:
How American Tech Cartels Use Apps to Break the Law
TechDirt reports:
And evidently make the law.
NOYB shares:
noyb win: Microsoft 365 Education may not track school children
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Tile’s Lack of Encryption Is a Danger for Users Everywhere
FBI takes down BreachForums portal used for Salesforce extortion
Fuck Salesforce, BTW.
Fediverse
Social Experience Design says:
Welcome to Social coding commons
Hamish Campbell has:
Live at c-base a #fluffy Fediverse conference
Riley Testut reports:
The New Stack reports:
Everything Big Starts Small: Building Open Social Web Apps
The Social Web Foundation has an:
Interview with John O’Nolan about Ghost 6
Connected Places has:
Fedify announces:
Fedify 2.0—the CLI now runs natively on Node.js and Bun, not just Deno
Go To Social announces:
We’ve just made the proper release of v0.20.0 of GoToSocial, aka Sinister Sloth
TechCrunch reports:
Alternative app store AltStore raises $6M, connects with the Fediverse
Mastodon is taking cues from Bluesky with plans for its own starter ‘Packs’
Mastodon has:
Community consultation: new Terms of Service (for mastodon.social and mastodon.online)
It’s cool to join Mastodon but not these two instances.
Trunk & Tidbits, September 2025
Terence Eden explores:
Getting started with Mastodon’s Quote Posts – technical implementation details for servers
NHAM announces:
NHAM Update Opus 10 (Fedi Music Television Edition)
Super awesome.
Castopod announces:
The Official Castopod Plugin Repository
RSS
InEssential explains:
Why NetNewsWire Is Not a Web App
Lighthouse has:
A deep dive into the rss feed reader landscape
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
Azhdarchid has:
TechCrunch reports:
Niko Mara-McKay goes into the nitty-gritty:
Bluesky’s CEO meltdown: How leadership continues to fail its most marginalized users
I have said from day one that Bluesky will become enshittified. But, ATProto has some potential.
And to be fair, some of the leaders of ActivityPub and its largest platform (who value growth over safety) are egotistical pissy ass fucks when they are even slightly criticized.
But we are all fighting technofascism so let’s try to work together on the protocols front at least. Its okay to have debates and disagreements with allies. But treat them like allies when doing so. If they are your friends you can even call them pissy ass fucks. 😉
Speaking of, A New Social announces:
Bounce from Mastodon to Bluesky
Why would you? Although maybe its works with Blacksky, Northsky, or Eurosky.
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 #AltStore #ATProto #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bluesky #Castopod #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #fluffy #GoToSocial #IFTAS #Mastodon #NHAM #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism
-
Destroying Autocracy – October 02, 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.
DA comes out on Thursday and is updated through the end of day on Friday. Then we start over. So take your time in perusing it and check back in over the weekend.
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.
Featured Item
Cory Doctorow writes:
(I just gave) my first-ever speech about AI and I wasn’t sure how it would go over, but thankfully, it went great and sparked a lively Q&A. One of those questions came from a young man who said something like “So, you’re saying a third of the stock market is tied up in seven AI companies that have no way to become profitable and that this is a bubble that’s going to burst and take the whole economy with it?”
I said, “Yes, that’s right.”
He said, “OK, but what can we do about that?”
The real (economic) AI apocalypse is nigh
Just adjusted my investments as these c^nts are going to drag down everyone else with them.
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 Guardian has a guest editorial:
Why I gave the world wide web away for free
LibreOffice celebrates:
LibreOffice turns 15: a celebration of freedom, collaboration and open technologies and standards
It’s FOSS News has:
Austria’s Armed Forces Gets Rid of Microsoft Office (Mostly) for LibreOffice
Framablog has:
Fin de Windows 10 : faisons le point
TechCrunch reports:
DJI loses lawsuit over classification as Chinese military company
California Governor Newsom signs landmark AI safety bill SB 53
BleepingComputer reports:
EU probes SAP over anti-competitive ERP support practices
NOS reports:
Judge: Instagram and Facebook should be given algorithm-free option
Tangle says:
It’s time to embrace the tech backlash.
TechDirt reports:
Disney’s Stupid, Pointless Ban Of Jimmy Kimmel Lost Them 1.7 Million Streaming Subscribers
NPR reports:
Hundreds of celebrities relaunch a McCarthy-era committee to defend free speech
The Daily Northwestern reports:
Flock contract termination talks persist after cameras reinstalled, city orders cease-and-desist
404 Media reports:
404 Media and Freedom of the Press Foundation Sue DHS
The Register reports:
EU funds are flowing into spyware companies, and politicians are demanding answers
Signal announces:
Signal Protocol and Post-Quantum Ratchets
DIY Conspiracy has:
The Counterforce: Building a DIY Punk Infrastructure Against Corporate Platforms
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
404 Media reports:
ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day
The Register reports:
ICE plans to scour Facebook, TikTok, X, and even defunct Google+ for illegal immigration leads
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
EFF, ACLU to SFPD: Stop Illegally Sharing Data With ICE and Anti-Abortion States
Mexican Allies Raise Alarms About New Mass Surveillance Laws, Call for International Support
TechPolicy reports:
Control for Whom? Keeping an Eye on the Dark Side of America’s New Wearables Campaign.
This tracks for the Supreme C^nts.
The Guardian reports:
Starmer to unveil digital ID cards in plan set to ignite civil liberties row
TechCrunch reports:
UK government tries again to access encrypted Apple customer data: Report
The United Kuntdum is at it again.
The Association for Progressive Communications shares:
Pariah States
The Register reports:
Fake North Korean IT workers sneaking into healthcare, finance, and AI
Most HR types I have run into are stupid, but this is approaching ridiculous.
Hunt for RedNovember: Beijing hacked critical orgs in year-long snooping campaign
DarkReading reports:
New China APT Strikes With Precision and Persistence
BleepingComputer reports:
Dutch teens arrested for trying to spy on Europol for Russia
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Moldova casts blame on Russia for attempts to disrupt pivotal parliamentary elections
Big Media
Columbia Journalism Review reports:
The Pentagon Press Gears Up for a Fight
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Wave of Phony News Quotes Affects Everyone—Including EFF
NiemanLab reports:
Scammers are using video deepfakes of journalists to peddle products online
Kagi announces:
Big Tech
Open Media Network says:
The #AI bubble might be nastier than the Dot.com crash
The Guardian reports:
Leading UK tech investor warns of ‘disconcerting’ signs of AI stock bubble
Again, see the featured article.
TikTok ‘directs child accounts to pornographic content within a few clicks’
DarkReading reports:
‘Trifecta’ of Google Gemini Flaws Turn AI Into Attack Vehicle
F-Droid needs our help:
F-Droid and Google’s Developer Registration Decree
Fuck Google.
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Register reports:
Feds cut funding to program that shared cyber threat info with local governments
Tile trackers are a stalker’s dream, say Georgia Tech researchers
BleepingComputer reports:
Sendit sued by the FTC for illegal collection of children data
Ben Werdmuller says:
Your private data isn’t as private as you think
Fediverse
Connected Places has a late:
NHAM announces:
How Indie Video Killed The Spotify Star
This looks awesome.
IFTAS announces:
The Social Web Foundation previews:
Cooperative Social Networks Berlin Fediday
The Applied Social Media Lab has:
Introducing the ASML ActivityPub Fuzzer: Improving Testing in the Fediverse
Great, great stuff.
Newsmast announces:
Building apps for social spaces
This is exactly the type of content The Programmer’s Fulcrum will cover. And we need more Fediverse businesses like this.
Mastodon has:
Bringing Quote Posts to Mastodon
Speaking of, Terence Eden has:
Getting started with Mastodon’s Quote Posts – technical implementation details for servers
Activity Pub for WordPress announces:
7.5.0 — Follow the Feed, Quote the Lead
TechCrunch reports:
Threads takes on X with new communities feature
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
TechCrunch reports:
Bluesky rolls out age verification for users in Ohio
The Social Web Foundation says:
The BlueSky Patent Non-Aggression Pledge is Good for The Social Web
Internet Exchange reports:
Bluesky Adopts More Flexible Model for Content Moderation
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 #Bluesky #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #IFTAS #Mastodon #Newsmast #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #Threads #WordPress
-
Destroying Autocracy – October 02, 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.
DA comes out on Thursday and is updated through the end of day on Friday. Then we start over. So take your time in perusing it and check back in over the weekend.
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.
Featured Item
Cory Doctorow writes:
(I just gave) my first-ever speech about AI and I wasn’t sure how it would go over, but thankfully, it went great and sparked a lively Q&A. One of those questions came from a young man who said something like “So, you’re saying a third of the stock market is tied up in seven AI companies that have no way to become profitable and that this is a bubble that’s going to burst and take the whole economy with it?”
I said, “Yes, that’s right.”
He said, “OK, but what can we do about that?”
The real (economic) AI apocalypse is nigh
Just adjusted my investments as these c^nts are going to drag down everyone else with them.
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 Guardian has a guest editorial:
Why I gave the world wide web away for free
LibreOffice celebrates:
LibreOffice turns 15: a celebration of freedom, collaboration and open technologies and standards
It’s FOSS News has:
Austria’s Armed Forces Gets Rid of Microsoft Office (Mostly) for LibreOffice
Framablog has:
Fin de Windows 10 : faisons le point
TechCrunch reports:
DJI loses lawsuit over classification as Chinese military company
California Governor Newsom signs landmark AI safety bill SB 53
BleepingComputer reports:
EU probes SAP over anti-competitive ERP support practices
NOS reports:
Judge: Instagram and Facebook should be given algorithm-free option
Tangle says:
It’s time to embrace the tech backlash.
TechDirt reports:
Disney’s Stupid, Pointless Ban Of Jimmy Kimmel Lost Them 1.7 Million Streaming Subscribers
NPR reports:
Hundreds of celebrities relaunch a McCarthy-era committee to defend free speech
The Daily Northwestern reports:
Flock contract termination talks persist after cameras reinstalled, city orders cease-and-desist
404 Media reports:
404 Media and Freedom of the Press Foundation Sue DHS
The Register reports:
EU funds are flowing into spyware companies, and politicians are demanding answers
Signal announces:
Signal Protocol and Post-Quantum Ratchets
DIY Conspiracy has:
The Counterforce: Building a DIY Punk Infrastructure Against Corporate Platforms
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
404 Media reports:
ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day
The Register reports:
ICE plans to scour Facebook, TikTok, X, and even defunct Google+ for illegal immigration leads
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
EFF, ACLU to SFPD: Stop Illegally Sharing Data With ICE and Anti-Abortion States
Mexican Allies Raise Alarms About New Mass Surveillance Laws, Call for International Support
TechPolicy reports:
Control for Whom? Keeping an Eye on the Dark Side of America’s New Wearables Campaign.
This tracks for the Supreme C^nts.
The Guardian reports:
Starmer to unveil digital ID cards in plan set to ignite civil liberties row
TechCrunch reports:
UK government tries again to access encrypted Apple customer data: Report
The United Kuntdum is at it again.
The Association for Progressive Communications shares:
Pariah States
The Register reports:
Fake North Korean IT workers sneaking into healthcare, finance, and AI
Most HR types I have run into are stupid, but this is approaching ridiculous.
Hunt for RedNovember: Beijing hacked critical orgs in year-long snooping campaign
DarkReading reports:
New China APT Strikes With Precision and Persistence
BleepingComputer reports:
Dutch teens arrested for trying to spy on Europol for Russia
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Moldova casts blame on Russia for attempts to disrupt pivotal parliamentary elections
Big Media
Columbia Journalism Review reports:
The Pentagon Press Gears Up for a Fight
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Wave of Phony News Quotes Affects Everyone—Including EFF
NiemanLab reports:
Scammers are using video deepfakes of journalists to peddle products online
Kagi announces:
Big Tech
Open Media Network says:
The #AI bubble might be nastier than the Dot.com crash
The Guardian reports:
Leading UK tech investor warns of ‘disconcerting’ signs of AI stock bubble
Again, see the featured article.
TikTok ‘directs child accounts to pornographic content within a few clicks’
DarkReading reports:
‘Trifecta’ of Google Gemini Flaws Turn AI Into Attack Vehicle
F-Droid needs our help:
F-Droid and Google’s Developer Registration Decree
Fuck Google.
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Register reports:
Feds cut funding to program that shared cyber threat info with local governments
Tile trackers are a stalker’s dream, say Georgia Tech researchers
BleepingComputer reports:
Sendit sued by the FTC for illegal collection of children data
Ben Werdmuller says:
Your private data isn’t as private as you think
Fediverse
Connected Places has a late:
NHAM announces:
How Indie Video Killed The Spotify Star
This looks awesome.
IFTAS announces:
The Social Web Foundation previews:
Cooperative Social Networks Berlin Fediday
The Applied Social Media Lab has:
Introducing the ASML ActivityPub Fuzzer: Improving Testing in the Fediverse
Great, great stuff.
Newsmast announces:
Building apps for social spaces
This is exactly the type of content The Programmer’s Fulcrum will cover. And we need more Fediverse businesses like this.
Mastodon has:
Bringing Quote Posts to Mastodon
Speaking of, Terence Eden has:
Getting started with Mastodon’s Quote Posts – technical implementation details for servers
Activity Pub for WordPress announces:
7.5.0 — Follow the Feed, Quote the Lead
TechCrunch reports:
Threads takes on X with new communities feature
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
TechCrunch reports:
Bluesky rolls out age verification for users in Ohio
The Social Web Foundation says:
The BlueSky Patent Non-Aggression Pledge is Good for The Social Web
Internet Exchange reports:
Bluesky Adopts More Flexible Model for Content Moderation
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 #Bluesky #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #IFTAS #Mastodon #Newsmast #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #Threads #WordPress
-
Destroying Autocracy – October 02, 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.
DA comes out on Thursday and is updated through the end of day on Friday. Then we start over. So take your time in perusing it and check back in over the weekend.
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.
Featured Item
Cory Doctorow writes:
(I just gave) my first-ever speech about AI and I wasn’t sure how it would go over, but thankfully, it went great and sparked a lively Q&A. One of those questions came from a young man who said something like “So, you’re saying a third of the stock market is tied up in seven AI companies that have no way to become profitable and that this is a bubble that’s going to burst and take the whole economy with it?”
I said, “Yes, that’s right.”
He said, “OK, but what can we do about that?”
The real (economic) AI apocalypse is nigh
Just adjusted my investments as these c^nts are going to drag down everyone else with them.
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 Guardian has a guest editorial:
Why I gave the world wide web away for free
LibreOffice celebrates:
LibreOffice turns 15: a celebration of freedom, collaboration and open technologies and standards
It’s FOSS News has:
Austria’s Armed Forces Gets Rid of Microsoft Office (Mostly) for LibreOffice
Framablog has:
Fin de Windows 10 : faisons le point
TechCrunch reports:
DJI loses lawsuit over classification as Chinese military company
California Governor Newsom signs landmark AI safety bill SB 53
BleepingComputer reports:
EU probes SAP over anti-competitive ERP support practices
NOS reports:
Judge: Instagram and Facebook should be given algorithm-free option
Tangle says:
It’s time to embrace the tech backlash.
TechDirt reports:
Disney’s Stupid, Pointless Ban Of Jimmy Kimmel Lost Them 1.7 Million Streaming Subscribers
NPR reports:
Hundreds of celebrities relaunch a McCarthy-era committee to defend free speech
The Daily Northwestern reports:
Flock contract termination talks persist after cameras reinstalled, city orders cease-and-desist
404 Media reports:
404 Media and Freedom of the Press Foundation Sue DHS
The Register reports:
EU funds are flowing into spyware companies, and politicians are demanding answers
Signal announces:
Signal Protocol and Post-Quantum Ratchets
DIY Conspiracy has:
The Counterforce: Building a DIY Punk Infrastructure Against Corporate Platforms
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
404 Media reports:
ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day
The Register reports:
ICE plans to scour Facebook, TikTok, X, and even defunct Google+ for illegal immigration leads
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
EFF, ACLU to SFPD: Stop Illegally Sharing Data With ICE and Anti-Abortion States
Mexican Allies Raise Alarms About New Mass Surveillance Laws, Call for International Support
TechPolicy reports:
Control for Whom? Keeping an Eye on the Dark Side of America’s New Wearables Campaign.
This tracks for the Supreme C^nts.
The Guardian reports:
Starmer to unveil digital ID cards in plan set to ignite civil liberties row
TechCrunch reports:
UK government tries again to access encrypted Apple customer data: Report
The United Kuntdum is at it again.
The Association for Progressive Communications shares:
Pariah States
The Register reports:
Fake North Korean IT workers sneaking into healthcare, finance, and AI
Most HR types I have run into are stupid, but this is approaching ridiculous.
Hunt for RedNovember: Beijing hacked critical orgs in year-long snooping campaign
DarkReading reports:
New China APT Strikes With Precision and Persistence
BleepingComputer reports:
Dutch teens arrested for trying to spy on Europol for Russia
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Moldova casts blame on Russia for attempts to disrupt pivotal parliamentary elections
Big Media
Columbia Journalism Review reports:
The Pentagon Press Gears Up for a Fight
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Wave of Phony News Quotes Affects Everyone—Including EFF
NiemanLab reports:
Scammers are using video deepfakes of journalists to peddle products online
Kagi announces:
Big Tech
Open Media Network says:
The #AI bubble might be nastier than the Dot.com crash
The Guardian reports:
Leading UK tech investor warns of ‘disconcerting’ signs of AI stock bubble
Again, see the featured article.
TikTok ‘directs child accounts to pornographic content within a few clicks’
DarkReading reports:
‘Trifecta’ of Google Gemini Flaws Turn AI Into Attack Vehicle
F-Droid needs our help:
F-Droid and Google’s Developer Registration Decree
Fuck Google.
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Register reports:
Feds cut funding to program that shared cyber threat info with local governments
Tile trackers are a stalker’s dream, say Georgia Tech researchers
BleepingComputer reports:
Sendit sued by the FTC for illegal collection of children data
Ben Werdmuller says:
Your private data isn’t as private as you think
Fediverse
Connected Places has a late:
NHAM announces:
How Indie Video Killed The Spotify Star
This looks awesome.
IFTAS announces:
The Social Web Foundation previews:
Cooperative Social Networks Berlin Fediday
The Applied Social Media Lab has:
Introducing the ASML ActivityPub Fuzzer: Improving Testing in the Fediverse
Great, great stuff.
Newsmast announces:
Building apps for social spaces
This is exactly the type of content The Programmer’s Fulcrum will cover. And we need more Fediverse businesses like this.
Mastodon has:
Bringing Quote Posts to Mastodon
Speaking of, Terence Eden has:
Getting started with Mastodon’s Quote Posts – technical implementation details for servers
Activity Pub for WordPress announces:
7.5.0 — Follow the Feed, Quote the Lead
TechCrunch reports:
Threads takes on X with new communities feature
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
TechCrunch reports:
Bluesky rolls out age verification for users in Ohio
The Social Web Foundation says:
The BlueSky Patent Non-Aggression Pledge is Good for The Social Web
Internet Exchange reports:
Bluesky Adopts More Flexible Model for Content Moderation
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 #Bluesky #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #IFTAS #Mastodon #Newsmast #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #Threads #WordPress
-
Destroying Autocracy – October 02, 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.
DA comes out on Thursday and is updated through the end of day on Friday. Then we start over. So take your time in perusing it and check back in over the weekend.
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.
Featured Item
Cory Doctorow writes:
(I just gave) my first-ever speech about AI and I wasn’t sure how it would go over, but thankfully, it went great and sparked a lively Q&A. One of those questions came from a young man who said something like “So, you’re saying a third of the stock market is tied up in seven AI companies that have no way to become profitable and that this is a bubble that’s going to burst and take the whole economy with it?”
I said, “Yes, that’s right.”
He said, “OK, but what can we do about that?”
The real (economic) AI apocalypse is nigh
Just adjusted my investments as these c^nts are going to drag down everyone else with them.
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 Guardian has a guest editorial:
Why I gave the world wide web away for free
LibreOffice celebrates:
LibreOffice turns 15: a celebration of freedom, collaboration and open technologies and standards
It’s FOSS News has:
Austria’s Armed Forces Gets Rid of Microsoft Office (Mostly) for LibreOffice
Framablog has:
Fin de Windows 10 : faisons le point
TechCrunch reports:
DJI loses lawsuit over classification as Chinese military company
California Governor Newsom signs landmark AI safety bill SB 53
BleepingComputer reports:
EU probes SAP over anti-competitive ERP support practices
NOS reports:
Judge: Instagram and Facebook should be given algorithm-free option
Tangle says:
It’s time to embrace the tech backlash.
TechDirt reports:
Disney’s Stupid, Pointless Ban Of Jimmy Kimmel Lost Them 1.7 Million Streaming Subscribers
NPR reports:
Hundreds of celebrities relaunch a McCarthy-era committee to defend free speech
The Daily Northwestern reports:
Flock contract termination talks persist after cameras reinstalled, city orders cease-and-desist
404 Media reports:
404 Media and Freedom of the Press Foundation Sue DHS
The Register reports:
EU funds are flowing into spyware companies, and politicians are demanding answers
Signal announces:
Signal Protocol and Post-Quantum Ratchets
DIY Conspiracy has:
The Counterforce: Building a DIY Punk Infrastructure Against Corporate Platforms
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
404 Media reports:
ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day
The Register reports:
ICE plans to scour Facebook, TikTok, X, and even defunct Google+ for illegal immigration leads
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
EFF, ACLU to SFPD: Stop Illegally Sharing Data With ICE and Anti-Abortion States
Mexican Allies Raise Alarms About New Mass Surveillance Laws, Call for International Support
TechPolicy reports:
Control for Whom? Keeping an Eye on the Dark Side of America’s New Wearables Campaign.
This tracks for the Supreme C^nts.
The Guardian reports:
Starmer to unveil digital ID cards in plan set to ignite civil liberties row
TechCrunch reports:
UK government tries again to access encrypted Apple customer data: Report
The United Kuntdum is at it again.
The Association for Progressive Communications shares:
Pariah States
The Register reports:
Fake North Korean IT workers sneaking into healthcare, finance, and AI
Most HR types I have run into are stupid, but this is approaching ridiculous.
Hunt for RedNovember: Beijing hacked critical orgs in year-long snooping campaign
DarkReading reports:
New China APT Strikes With Precision and Persistence
BleepingComputer reports:
Dutch teens arrested for trying to spy on Europol for Russia
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Moldova casts blame on Russia for attempts to disrupt pivotal parliamentary elections
Big Media
Columbia Journalism Review reports:
The Pentagon Press Gears Up for a Fight
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Wave of Phony News Quotes Affects Everyone—Including EFF
NiemanLab reports:
Scammers are using video deepfakes of journalists to peddle products online
Kagi announces:
Big Tech
Open Media Network says:
The #AI bubble might be nastier than the Dot.com crash
The Guardian reports:
Leading UK tech investor warns of ‘disconcerting’ signs of AI stock bubble
Again, see the featured article.
TikTok ‘directs child accounts to pornographic content within a few clicks’
DarkReading reports:
‘Trifecta’ of Google Gemini Flaws Turn AI Into Attack Vehicle
F-Droid needs our help:
F-Droid and Google’s Developer Registration Decree
Fuck Google.
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Register reports:
Feds cut funding to program that shared cyber threat info with local governments
Tile trackers are a stalker’s dream, say Georgia Tech researchers
BleepingComputer reports:
Sendit sued by the FTC for illegal collection of children data
Ben Werdmuller says:
Your private data isn’t as private as you think
Fediverse
Connected Places has a late:
NHAM announces:
How Indie Video Killed The Spotify Star
This looks awesome.
IFTAS announces:
The Social Web Foundation previews:
Cooperative Social Networks Berlin Fediday
The Applied Social Media Lab has:
Introducing the ASML ActivityPub Fuzzer: Improving Testing in the Fediverse
Great, great stuff.
Newsmast announces:
Building apps for social spaces
This is exactly the type of content The Programmer’s Fulcrum will cover. And we need more Fediverse businesses like this.
Mastodon has:
Bringing Quote Posts to Mastodon
Speaking of, Terence Eden has:
Getting started with Mastodon’s Quote Posts – technical implementation details for servers
Activity Pub for WordPress announces:
7.5.0 — Follow the Feed, Quote the Lead
TechCrunch reports:
Threads takes on X with new communities feature
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
TechCrunch reports:
Bluesky rolls out age verification for users in Ohio
The Social Web Foundation says:
The BlueSky Patent Non-Aggression Pledge is Good for The Social Web
Internet Exchange reports:
Bluesky Adopts More Flexible Model for Content Moderation
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 #Bluesky #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #IFTAS #Mastodon #Newsmast #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #Threads #WordPress
-
I'm sad to see IFTAS Connect shutting down. #IFTAS offered a community platform for server admins and moderators, committed to keeping the #fediverse safe.
Thanks everyone at @iftas for your hard work. 🫶
https://about.iftas.org/2025/09/29/sunsetting-iftas-connect/
-
Help Shape the Future of Moderation in the Fediverse
Running a community in the Fediverse means balancing openness with safety. Every year, @iftas takes the pulse of administrators, moderators, and community managers with their Annual Needs Assessment. This survey helps identify what’s working, where support is needed, and which tools can make a difference for those keeping decentralized spaces safe. The 2025 survey is now open Take part in the IFTAS Needs Assessment (5–10 minutes). Take the survey now (If you […]https://activitypub.blog/2025/09/15/help-shape-the-future-of-moderation-in-the-fediverse/
-
🚨 Calling all Fediverse admins/mods!
The 2025 Needs Assessment needs YOUR input.
Last year's report covered 4.3M+ hosted accounts - but response rates are low this year.
Anonymous survey takes minutes but makes a real impact: https://about.iftas.org/moderator-needs-assessment/
Help us get this in front of every admin who needs to see it, boosts appreciated 🙏
-
Abbiamo aggiornato i nostri Termini di Servizio secondo le direttive IFTAS. Siamo l'unica istanza italiana che ha una pagina dedicata ai Termini di Servizio. È consigliata la lettura a tutti gli utenti di varese.social. Qui il link: https://varese.social/terms-of-service
Se ci sono dubbi o suggerimenti su come migliorare i Termini di Servizio fatecelo sapere! Buon proseguimento.
