#technofeudalism — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #technofeudalism, aggregated by home.social.
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You say it’s capitalism… But I say it’s #copyright.
Copyright is the kingpin all of this rentier capitalism hangs on.
Illegal #repair, monopolies, #technofeudalism, all of it.
The new tech ’nobility’ that controls the new digital land, controls it through copyright.
With #AI and artists, don’t side with copyright, side with the people’s right to use the #devices they own, how they want to.
They already showed they don’t care for your copyright. Don’t go begging.. !
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You say it’s capitalism… But I say it’s #copyright.
Copyright is the kingpin all of this rentier capitalism hangs on.
Illegal #repair, monopolies, #technofeudalism, all of it.
The new tech ’nobility’ that controls the new digital land, controls it through copyright.
With #AI and artists, don’t side with copyright, side with the people’s right to use the #devices they own, how they want to.
They already showed they don’t care for your copyright. Don’t go begging.. !
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You say it’s capitalism… But I say it’s #copyright.
Copyright is the kingpin all of this rentier capitalism hangs on.
Illegal #repair, monopolies, #technofeudalism, all of it.
The new tech ’nobility’ that controls the new digital land, controls it through copyright.
With #AI and artists, don’t side with copyright, side with the people’s right to use the #devices they own, how they want to.
They already showed they don’t care for your copyright. Don’t go begging.. !
-
You say it’s capitalism… But I say it’s #copyright.
Copyright is the kingpin all of this rentier capitalism hangs on.
Illegal #repair, monopolies, #technofeudalism, all of it.
The new tech ’nobility’ that controls the new digital land, controls it through copyright.
With #AI and artists, don’t side with copyright, side with the people’s right to use the #devices they own, how they want to.
They already showed they don’t care for your copyright. Don’t go begging.. !
-
You say it’s capitalism… But I say it’s #copyright.
Copyright is the kingpin all of this rentier capitalism hangs on.
Illegal #repair, monopolies, #technofeudalism, all of it.
The new tech ’nobility’ that controls the new digital land, controls it through copyright.
With #AI and artists, don’t side with copyright, side with the people’s right to use the #devices they own, how they want to.
They already showed they don’t care for your copyright. Don’t go begging.. !
-
@wackJackle
From my PoV, #TechnoFeudalism and #TechnoFascism are two distinct but heavily overlapping concepts.
Techno-feudalism focuses on how the economy works - rent based vs. production based. Techno-fascism focuses on power / politics. Obviously, they are heavily interlinked and dependent on each other (currently). -
@wackJackle
From my PoV, #TechnoFeudalism and #TechnoFascism are two distinct but heavily overlapping concepts.
Techno-feudalism focuses on how the economy works - rent based vs. production based. Techno-fascism focuses on power / politics. Obviously, they are heavily interlinked and dependent on each other (currently). -
@wackJackle
From my PoV, #TechnoFeudalism and #TechnoFascism are two distinct but heavily overlapping concepts.
Techno-feudalism focuses on how the economy works - rent based vs. production based. Techno-fascism focuses on power / politics. Obviously, they are heavily interlinked and dependent on each other (currently). -
@wackJackle
From my PoV, #TechnoFeudalism and #TechnoFascism are two distinct but heavily overlapping concepts.
Techno-feudalism focuses on how the economy works - rent based vs. production based. Techno-fascism focuses on power / politics. Obviously, they are heavily interlinked and dependent on each other (currently). -
@wackJackle
From my PoV, #TechnoFeudalism and #TechnoFascism are two distinct but heavily overlapping concepts.
Techno-feudalism focuses on how the economy works - rent based vs. production based. Techno-fascism focuses on power / politics. Obviously, they are heavily interlinked and dependent on each other (currently). -
Mural seen in San Francisco, California.
#bigtech #AI #Google #degoogle #oracle #microsoft #apple #Techbros #fascism #politics #streetart #graffiti #neoliberalisme #technology #Capitalism #Capitalisme #technofeudalism #technofascism -
*👉️️️️️️️Who says #DonaldJTrump is unpredictable?👈️️️️️️️*
(12/n)
...have caught too few of these modern-day tyrants👈: #Raisi, #DaSilva, #Yoon + #Maduro.
However, much more serious than these individuals is the global degeneration of #democracies into #plutocracies and the almost enslaving trend of #Technofeudalism*..
* Technofeudalism:
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/111949124362576334
(#Thiel, #Musk, #Zuckerberg, #Bezos, and many others) in connection with #enshittification 5), and #shrinkflation 6). -
*👉️️️️️️️Who says #DonaldJTrump is unpredictable?👈️️️️️️️*
(12/n)
...have caught too few of these modern-day tyrants👈: #Raisi, #DaSilva, #Yoon + #Maduro.
However, much more serious than these individuals is the global degeneration of #democracies into #plutocracies and the almost enslaving trend of #Technofeudalism*..
* Technofeudalism:
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/111949124362576334
(#Thiel, #Musk, #Zuckerberg, #Bezos, and many others) in connection with #enshittification 5), and #shrinkflation 6). -
*👉️️️️️️️Who says #DonaldJTrump is unpredictable?👈️️️️️️️*
(12/n)
...have caught too few of these modern-day tyrants👈: #Raisi, #DaSilva, #Yoon + #Maduro.
However, much more serious than these individuals is the global degeneration of #democracies into #plutocracies and the almost enslaving trend of #Technofeudalism*..
* Technofeudalism:
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/111949124362576334
(#Thiel, #Musk, #Zuckerberg, #Bezos, and many others) in connection with #enshittification 5), and #shrinkflation 6). -
*👉️️️️️️️Who says #DonaldJTrump is unpredictable?👈️️️️️️️*
(12/n)
...have caught too few of these modern-day tyrants👈: #Raisi, #DaSilva, #Yoon + #Maduro.
However, much more serious than these individuals is the global degeneration of #democracies into #plutocracies and the almost enslaving trend of #Technofeudalism*..
* Technofeudalism:
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/111949124362576334
(#Thiel, #Musk, #Zuckerberg, #Bezos, and many others) in connection with #enshittification 5), and #shrinkflation 6). -
*👉️️️️️️️Who says #DonaldJTrump is unpredictable?👈️️️️️️️*
(12/n)
...have caught too few of these modern-day tyrants👈: #Raisi, #DaSilva, #Yoon + #Maduro.
However, much more serious than these individuals is the global degeneration of #democracies into #plutocracies and the almost enslaving trend of #Technofeudalism*..
* Technofeudalism:
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/111949124362576334
(#Thiel, #Musk, #Zuckerberg, #Bezos, and many others) in connection with #enshittification 5), and #shrinkflation 6). -
"Big Tech’s greatest achievement is the success of its machines and AI-algorithms in recruiting billions of us to work for free — posting videos, writing reviews, submitting texts — thus increasing its capacity to extract cloud rents. But what happens as the ratio of AI-driven cloud rents to Big Tech’s wage bill increases? Society’s aggregate spending power falls, the trajectory of the capitalist enterprises’ profit rate dips and, eventually, Big Tech’s cloud rents also decline. The volatility and secular stagnation that was always endemic to capitalism will, in this manner, graduate to a doom loop of collapsing cloud rents and capitalist profits.
That’s the story of AI’s second face and how a stupendous technology with Promethean capabilities will end up, in all probability, Daedalian (...) So too today with AI. Promethean engineers invented and developed it only for AI’s second, uglier, face to imprison them — as well as the rest of us — inside a hyper-complex, enveloping, labyrinthine technological system.
And so when friends ask me why I bother with electoral politics, which they know I dislike intensely, I reply that there is only one route from the Daedalian prison to the Promethean ideal: radical democratic politics. “Which means what?”, they ask. It means starting with small regulatory steps, like legislating interoperability or rescinding legislation that heightens Big Tech’s exorbitant power, before moving on to the grander tasks of building a digital monetary commons and re-thinking property rights over data and cloud capital. Only then will we have a shot at turning AI into humanity’s benign enabler."
https://unherd.com/2026/02/how-to-escape-ai-slavery/
#AI #Capitalism #AIBubble #TechnoFeudalism #BigTech #Rentism #Enshittification
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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 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
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I really don't think the technofeudalism theory makes much sense and I'm not really sure if Varoufakis has convincingly argued in its favor here...
"Q. Your analogy between feudalism and digital platforms has been criticized as excessive or merely metaphorical. Doesn’t your thesis risk obscuring, rather than clarifying, the real dynamics of power and exploitation in contemporary capitalism?
A. My critics often mistake my argument for claiming we have somehow returned to feudalism. That has never been my argument. My position is that we have moved to a new societal structure based on a mutated form of capital for wealth accumulation — unlike feudalism, which relied on land. The rise of this mutant capital, cloud capital, means that markets are replaced by cloud-based fiefdoms and profits by cloud rents. So, this new system shares some features with feudalism but is fundamentally built on capital, not land. Also — and this is crucial — because cloud capital is not productive, technofeudalism is parasitic and wholly depends on an ever-shrinking traditional capitalist sector, which, however, has lost its dominance in the distribution of income, wealth, and power. This is the best way to understand power and exploitation in today’s societies.
Q. To clarify, doesn’t the majority of the world’s workforce still operate within a capitalist system rooted in private ownership of the means of production and the extraction of surplus value from wage labor, as Marx described?
A. Yes. But that does not diminish my technofeudal hypothesis. Let me remind you that even in 1860, most people still worked under feudal relations of production, not capitalist ones. Yet feudalism was already dead and capitalism had taken its place."
#Technofeudalism #Capitalism #Marxism #CloudCapital #BigTech
-
Destroying Autocracy – July 3, 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.
Next week I will be on holiday so there won’t be an issue. I will probably boost some things on the Fediverse though.
Featured Item
DevCollaborative writes:
The Trump administration and its supporters are attacking dissenting views on a terrifying scale. With so much of online communications compromised and censored, independent websites are a critical piece of social movement infrastructure that we need to promote and defend.
If your nonprofit has a website, you are part of this essential communications work.
There are looming threats of financially independent nonprofits being censored under the guise of fighting “terrorism” or “sedition.”
Protecting Nonprofit Websites from a Hostile Government
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
Time has a profile:
How Signal President Meredith Whittaker Took on Signal-Gate
The Register reports:
Proton bashes Apple and joins antitrust suit that seeks to throw the App Store wide open
The Register reports:
Huawei can’t wriggle out of Iran sanctions trial, judge rules
Tara Tarakiyee explores:
Digital Sovereignty in Practice: Web Browsers as a Reality Check
TechPolicy reports:
EU Disinformation Code Takes Effect Amid Censorship Claims and Trade Tensions
Politico reports:
The first American ‘scientific refugees’ arrive in France
BleepingComputer reports:
Hikvision Canada ordered to cease operations over security risks
Germany asks Google, Apple to remove DeepSeek AI from app stores
Raconteur has:
‘You need to be a little bit crazy’: Nextcloud CEO on confronting the hyperscalers
Nextclound reports on:
Why organizations migrate from Microsoft 365 in 2025
TechCrunch reports:
ICEBlock, an app for anonymously reporting ICE sightings, goes viral overnight after Bondi criticism
Ars Technica reports:
Meta, TikTok can’t toss wrongful death suit from mom of “subway surfing” teen
Ted Cruz plan to punish states that regulate AI shot down in 99-1 vote
The Markup has more:
State AI regulations safe after Senate strips moratorium from ‘big, beautiful bill’
MIT Technology Review reports:
Cloudflare will now, by default, block AI bots from crawling its clients’ websites
Cloudfare has the details:
The crawl before the fall… of referrals: understanding AI’s impact on content providers
Neutral
CNBC reports:
The AI-boom’s multi-billion dollar blind spot: Reasoning models hitting a wall
Dries Buyaert (of Drupal fame) writes:
The web’s broken deal with AI companies
Dries, you say you may be naive. You are if you think anything other than politics (regulation or huge boycotts) are going to fix the problem.
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
The Guardian opines:
Peter Thiel’s Palantir poses a grave threat to Americans
TechDirt reports:
Supreme Court Cripples FCC Further, Making Robocall Enforcement Likely Impossible
The Supreme C^nts strike again.
The Guardian reports:
Trump officials create searchable national citizenship database
TechPolicy reports:
Countering the Politics of Deservingness in the Fight for Digital Equity
How US Firms Are Weakening the EU AI Code of Practice
Pariah States
TechCrunch reports:
US government takes down major North Korean ‘remote IT workers’ operation
DarkReading reports:
Scope, Scale of Spurious North Korean IT Workers Emerges
Silver Fox Suspected in Taiwanese Campaign Using DeepSeek Lure
Russian APT ‘Gamaredon’ Hits Ukraine With Fierce Phishing
The Kyiv Independent reports:
US sanctions Russian IT company Aeza Group over ransomware operations
Big Media
The PressGazette reports:
How SFGATE is making local news pay and filling California’s news gaps
Ars Technica reports:
NYT to start searching deleted ChatGPT logs after beating OpenAI in court
Torment Nexus reports:
Why Substack shouldn’t be the future of online publishing
CNN reports:
After settling with Trump, CBS News staffers fear what comes next
There are cowards, and then there are cowardly c^nts.
Big Tech
TechPolicy reports:
Tech Oligarchs and the Rise of Silicon Valley Pronatalism
The Guardian reports:
Fears AI factcheckers on X could increase promotion of conspiracy theories
Ars Technica reports:
Everything that could go wrong with X’s new AI-written community notes
TikTok is being flooded with racist AI videos generated by Google’s Veo 3
Android Authority reports:
You’re not alone: This email from Google’s Gemini team was concerning (Updated: Google statement)
Tuta asks:
“Sovereign cloud” or “sovereign washing”? A Trojan Horse at Europe’s digital gates.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Flock Safety’s Feature Updates Cannot Make Automated License Plate Readers Safe
The Register reports:
AI agents get office tasks wrong around 70% of the time, and a lot of them aren’t AI at all
AI models just don’t understand what they’re talking about
The Verge reports:
Facebook is starting to feed its AI with private, unpublished photos
TechCrunch reports:
Meta users say paying for Verified support has been useless in the face of mass bans
TechCrunch reports:
Meta has found another way to keep you engaged: Chatbots that message you first
I guess if you are amoral enough to use Meta products and you are a moron who talks to AI, this is what you deserve.
PC Gamer reports:
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Verge asks:
How vulnerable is critical infrastructure to cyberattack in the US?
Bleeping Computer reports:
FBI: Cybercriminals steal health data posing as fraud investigators
BleepingComputer reports:
Spain arrests hackers who targeted politicians and journalists
Fediverse
Connected Places has:
Mastodon has:
Dead Superher looks at:
Mitigating the “7 Deadly Fediverse UX Sins”
Jaz-Michael King shares:
Digital Belonging: Why Language and Locality Matter
Viger has:
TechCrunch reports:
Automattic puts Tumblr migration to WordPress on hold
Ghost has:
The Longformers: Ghost, WordPress, Flipboard, Fediverse
NodeBB asks:
Longform content has the best chance to grow the Fediverse, IMHO.
IT Notes shares:
FediMeteo: How a Tiny €4 FreeBSD VPS Became a Global Weather Service for Thousands
Forgejo has its:
Forgejo monthly report – June 2025
ActivityPub for WordPress announces:
HTTP Signature Upgrades Coming Soon
TechCrunch reports:
Not everyone is thrilled with Threads’ DMs
RSS
Preslav Rachev shares:
From Outbound to Inbound and Back Again: The Hidden Power of RSS Feeds
Great stuff. RSS is still my main curation source. So, get an RSS feed on your blog, handle, etc. 🙂
Slightly Federated 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.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse#123 #ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Forgejo #Ghost #Mastodon #NodeBB #RSS #StopChina #StopIran #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #WordPress
-
https://youtube.com/watch?v=hMjLaTiY0vA&si=DKMzXxaV5C6ymXpN
Yanis Varoufakis - hard talk about western capitalist “liberal democracy” vs China and the global south #anticapitalism #antifa #palestine #china #cloudcapital #technofeudalism -
Destroying Autocracy – June 26, 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.
Featured Item
Hamish Campbell writes:
It’s good to see events like NGIFORUM2025 as it’s trying to be on the path of the Fediverse and the wider Open Web reboot which are real forces for social good, messy, hopeful, and grounded in decades of grassroots digital culture, which we do need to support. BUT, we also need to speak honestly, as these spaces are not healthy by default.
Too often, they are co-opted by NGO and institutional actors who bring with them a dangerous kind of “common sense”, what I’ve long described as the parasite class. We see this clearly at NGIFORUM and similar NGO events.
NGIFORUM2025 is timidly touching sense
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
Numerique reports:
C’est un grande headline. 😉
The Conversation reviews:
Is AI a con? A new book punctures the hype and proposes some ways to resist
The U.K. governmnet announce:
CMA takes first steps to improve competition in search services in the UK
Le Monde reports:
Lyon délaisse la suite Office de Microsoft pour l’open source
Nextcloud reports:
A sovereign Microsoft 365 alternative: Nextcloud and IONOS join forces
Senator Blackburn announces:
The Verge reviews:
The smaller Fairphone 6 introduces swapable accessories
404 Media reports:
‘FuckLAPD.com’ Lets Anyone Use Facial Recognition to Instantly Identify Cops
Ars Technica reports:
Media Matters sues FTC, says agency is retaliating on behalf of Elon Musk
Neutral
Politico reports:
Trump can pull the plug on the internet, and Europe can’t do anything about it
Ars Technica reports:
Judge denies creating “mass surveillance program” harming all ChatGPT users
TechCrunch reports:
And another just sided with Meta. Fuck!
The Evil Empire Strikes Back
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
EFF to European Commission: Don’t Resurrect Illegal Data Retention Mandates
How Cops Can Get Your Private Online Data
Politico reports:
Top Pentagon spy pick rejected by White House
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Trump administration sends layoff notices to 600 Voice of America staff, NYT reports
The Gray Zone reports:
US Army appoints Palantir, Meta, OpenAI execs as Lt. Colonels
The Center for Democracy and Technology reports:
New Orleans’ Dragnet Facial Recognition Program Threatens Innocent People
404 Media reports:
Flock Removes States From National Lookup Tool After ICE and Abortion Searches Revealed
Pariah States
DarkReading reports:
How Geopolitical Tensions Are Shaping Cyber Warfare
Bleeping Computer reports:
Russian hackers bypass Gmail MFA using stolen app passwords
APT28 hackers use Signal chats to launch new malware attacks on Ukraine
Canada says Salt Typhoon hacked telecom firm via Cisco flaw
The Register reports:
Typhoon-like gang slinging TLS certificate ‘signed’ by the Los Angeles Police Department
Big Media
The Columbia Journalism Review reports:
AI Search Has A Citation Problem
Atoms vs. Bytes has:
Fuck the Nerd Reich’s S.S.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
New Journalism Curriculum Module Teaches Digital Security for Border Journalists
Big Tech
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has:
Protect Yourself From Meta’s Latest Attack on Privacy
The BBC reports:
Musk’s X sues New York state over social media hate speech law
Frontiers reports:
Some of your AI prompts could cause 50 times more CO2 emissions than others
Zero prompts = zero emissions.
Neural Trust reports:
Echo Chamber: A Context-Poisoning Jailbreak That Bypasses LLM Guardrails
Computer Weekly reports:
Beyond the AI hype: How data laws quietly handed power to government and Big Tech
Axios has:
Publishers facing existential threat from AI, Cloudflare CEO says
The Register reports:
The AIpocalypse is here for web sites as search referrals plunge
Hey you AI lovers, these are the sites you build. No traffic equals no money for you. Plus, the AI c^nts stole the info from the people whose traffic they are destroying. And maybe your code. Not to mention devastating the environment. Look in the fucking mirror. And avoid being reincarnated as a cockroach.
The Register reports:
Top AI models – even American ones – parrot Chinese propaganda, report finds
Psylo browser tries to obscure digital fingerprints by giving every tab its own IP address
If you want to do something about the next article.
Texas A&M University reports:
Websites Are Tracking You Via Browser Fingerprinting
noyb reports:
Bumble’s AI icebreakers are mainly breaking EU law
EuroNews reports:
Big Tech isn’t doing enough to fight disinformation, EU body says
Cybersecurity/Privacy
TechCrunch reports:
US House bans WhatsApp from staff devices
You’ve got to be clowns if these mofos ban you.
Dark Reading reports:
How the US Military Is Redefining Zero Trust
Hundreds of MCP Servers Expose AI Models to Abuse, RCE
BleepingComputer reports:
New FileFix attack weaponizes Windows File Explorer for stealthy commands
3 key takeaways from the Scattered Spider attacks on insurance firms
Earth reports:
China breaks RSA encryption with a quantum computer, threatening global data security
Tommy Mysk announces:
Introducing Psylo — A New Kind of Private Web Browser
Fediverse
Connected Places (rebrand) has:
Hamish Campbell has:
This is a story of power, plain and simple
And he’s correct.
Actors, Power, and Collective Publishing: Rethinking Fediverse Architecture for Grassroots Media
On a similar note, Jeremy Herve explores:
WordPress, WordLand, and the Open Web
Dave Winer has the details on WordLand:
Timothy Chambers has:
The Seven Deadly Fediverse UX Sins Part 2: The Road To Redemption
Bless his soul.
Jaz-Michael King introduces:
Ghost hosting platform, MagicPages shares:
ActivityPub Federation Issue (June 21, 2025)
Activity Pub for WordPress reports:
What we shipped so far in 2025
NLnet Foundation announces:
62 new projects contribute to digital commons
There are other Fediverse grants in this article including WordPress, Activity Pub, Funkwhale, and Node BB.
Slightly Federated Social Media
Connected Places has:
The Globe and Mail reports:
Tech leaders ready launch of Canadian social-media platform Gander to buck U.S. dominance
Basically Blacksky for Canadians.
TechDirt has:
Community And Choice Are Not Bubbles
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.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse#122 #ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Funkwhale #Ghost #Mastodon #StopChina #StopIran #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #WordPress
-
Destroying Autocracy – June 19, 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.
Featured Item
404 Media reports:
AI Scraping Bots Are Breaking Open Libraries, Archives, and Museums
When you use AI, you contribute to this c^ntitry.
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
Micah Flee explores:
Using Signal groups for activism
The Guardian reports:
Makers of air fryers and smart speakers told to respect users’ right to privacy
Spy ships, cyber-attacks and shadow fleets: the crack security team braced for trouble at sea
TechCrunch reports:
The ‘OpenAI Files’ push for oversight in the race to AGI
The Register reports:
LibreOffice adds voice to ‘ditch Windows for Linux’ campaign
Microsoft brings 365 suite on-prem as part of sovereign cloud push
France 24 reports:
‘We’re done with Teams’: German state hits uninstall on Microsoft
TechPolicy shares:
What the EU Needs to Do to Challenge Big Tech Cloud Dominance
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Apple to Australians: You’re Too Stupid to Choose Your Own Apps
BleepingComputer reports:
Police seizes Archetyp Market drug marketplace, arrests admin
The Register reviews:
/e/ OS 3.0: Slightly less clunky, slightly more private
Vox reports:
He’s the godfather of AI. Now, he has a bold new plan to keep us safe from it.
Neutral
The Register reports:
The launch of ChatGPT polluted the world forever, like the first atomic weapons tests
Euronews reports:
Dutch online platform watchdog struggling to connect with other EU member states
The Register reports:
MiniMax M1 model claims Chinese LLM crown from DeepSeek – plus it’s true open-source
Dems hyperventilate about Palantir’s work with the IRS in letter to CEO Karp
I would trust Palantir as far as I could kick their CEO.
The Evil Empire Strikes Back
404 Media reports:
Emails Reveal the Casual Surveillance Alliance Between ICE and Local Police
California Cops Investigate ‘Immigration Protest’ With AI-Camera System
The Markup reports:
California police are illegally sharing license plate data with ICE and Border Patrol
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Open Rights Group reports:
Police forces to get authoritarian powers to extract data from online accounts
False alarm: fake news and the right fuel attack on NGOs
EuroNews reports:
Ukrainian journalists fear USAID cuts opened up space for Russian disinformation campaigns
Pariah States
DarkReading reports:
‘HoldingHands’ Acts Like a Pickpocket With Taiwan Orgs
Iran-Israel War Triggers a Maelstrom in Cyberspace
Paragon Commercial Spyware Infects Prominent Journalists
The Register reports:
Amazon CISO: Iranian hacking crews ‘on high alert’ since Israel attack
404 Media reports:
The AI Slop Fight Between Iran and Israel
EuroNews reports:
Israel’s spy agency used AI and smuggled-in drones to prepare attack on Iran, sources say
Bleeping Computer reports:
North Korean hackers deepfake execs in Zoom call to spread Mac malware
Telecom giant Viasat breached by China’s Salt Typhoon hackers
Citizen Lab reports:
Same Sea, New Phish: Russian Government-Linked Social Engineering Targets App-Specific Passwords
Big Media
The Guardian reports:
The mainstream media has enabled Trump’s war on universities
BleepingComputer reports:
Washington Post’s email system hacked, journalists’ accounts compromised
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting reports:
Working Hard to Justify Israel’s Unprovoked Attack on Iran
One Man and his Blog reports:
Digital News Report 2025: exponential media change is here
Big Tech
Ars Technica reports:
OpenAI weighs “nuclear option” of antitrust complaint against Microsoft
How surprising. Two big tech c^nts can’t get along.
The Register reports:
Salesforce study finds LLM agents flunk CRM and confidentiality tests
‘AI is not doing its job and should leave us alone’ says Gartner’s top analyst
Absolutely.
noyb reports:
WhatsApp is getting ads using personal data from Instagram and Facebook
The Guardian reports:
(AI)‘It’s terrifying’: WhatsApp AI helper mistakenly shares user’s number
TechCrunch reports:
xAI is facing a lawsuit for operating over 400 MW of gas turbines without permits
Tumblr’s content-filtering systems have been falsely flagging posts as ‘mature,’ users blame AI
Instagram users complain of mass bans, pointing finger at AI
BleepingComputer reports:
Instagram ‘BMO’ ads use AI deepfakes to scam banking customers
BellingCat reports:
Ludic Mataroa schools the AI Bros:
Contra Ptacek’s Terrible Article On AI
Wired reports:
How Much Energy Does AI Use? The People Who Know Aren’t Saying
The BBC reports:
Is Google about to destroy the web?
Antitrust Intelligence reports:
Microsoft Could Repeat its Teams Strategy, this time with Bing and Edge
The Markup reports:
We caught 4 more states sharing personal health data with Big Tech
Terror
404 Media reports:
The People Search Sites in the Suspected Minnesota Killer’s Notebook Are a Failure of Congress
Cybersecurity/Privacy
Krebs on Security reports:
Inside a Dark Adtech Empire Fed by Fake CAPTCHAs
The Register reports:
Sitecore CMS flaw let attackers brute-force ‘b’ for backdoor
Fuck corporate CMSs.
BleepingComputer reports:
DuckDuckGo beefs up scam defense to block fake stores, crypto sites
Fediverse
The Fediverse Report reports:
The W3C Community Group looks at:
Messaging Layer Security over ActivityPub
Timothy Chambers shares:
The Seven Deadly UX Sins of the Fediverse Web Experience (To Fix)
Mastodon has:
Mastodon is a digital public good
Emily McClue has a bone to pick with them:
New Terms of Service IP clause cannot be terminated or revoked, not even by deleting content
PeerTube announces:
App crowdfunding — Let’s go live!
Elena Rossini shares a valuable asset:
Ghost is:
Bonfire announces:
ActivityPub for WordPress announces:
New Look, Faster Blocks in ActivityPub 6.0.0
TechCrunch reports:
Mastodon updates its terms to prohibit AI model training
Threads is testing spoiler text, Zuckerberg says
Threads expands open social web integrations with fediverse feed, user profile search
Remember to block the instance, threads.net.
Other Slightly Federated Social Media
The Fediverse Report has:
Mathew Ingram says:
Reports of Bluesky’s death have been greatly exaggerated
Tedium shares:
Again, none of this would matter if Bluesky were not a company trying to make money and in debt to VCs.
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.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse#121 #ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bluesky #Bonfire #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Ghost #Mastodon #Peertube #StopChina #StopIran #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #Threads #WordPress
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”Capital killed capitalism”
”Jeff Bezos bypasses markets. Capitalists are his servants whom he charges 40%”
”They don’t even want you to buy anything. They have a new form of capital for putting ideas into your brain”
”There is no such thing as AI, it’s a marketing term for a wide variety of cybernetic systems”
”The center-left is entirely responsible for the rise of fascism”
-Yanis Varoufakis
https://youtube.com/watch?v=GYBnSPX3BMo
#technofeudalism #cloudcapital #platformeconomy #algorithm #capitalism #ai -
”The moment you enter Amazon.com, you have exited the free market”
-Yanis Varoufakis#cloudcapital #technofeudalism #broligarchy
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y_3_PnnZ14I -
Great conversation on Big tech, Global economy and politics, and democracy.
Elon Musk’s Move Into Politics: Yanis #Varoufakis and Cory #Doctorow @pluralistic on Fighting Billionaire Control
https://youtube.com/live/I0kvjNh7czM
#bigtech #enshittification #technofeudalism #cloudcapital #diem25 -
#TechnoFeudalism
"O que aconteceu nos últimos 10-15 anos, que eu mostro em #Tecnofeudalismo", é que a China é o único locus alternativo onde o capital de nuvem (#cloudcapital) eclodiu. A Europa não tem. A emergência do capital de nuvem chinês explica porque #Taiwan é um problema."
#YanisVaroufakis explica como as #bigtech, tanto nos EUA quanto na China, expandem seu controle sobre o planeta.
"o verdadeiro campo de batalha é o "mercado imobiliário digital".
https://youtu.be/2o0lB5buQwQ?si=NkKB6zEbUQjcjuJ6 -
Apparently Libertarian Marxism is a thing. And I must say Iike it!
#amreading Yanis Varoufakis - Techno Feudalism: What killed capitalism
Everyone should read this book. Especially MAGA. But they won’t, since they have been emotionally programmed to think neoliberalism is capitalism & Marx’s economic theories only apply to communism.
#bookstodon #capitalism #economics #marxism #libertarianism #cloudcapital #technofeudalism #memes #yeschad
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#FightTechnofeudalism by #BigTech
(1/5)
Thank you.
There is much more going on regarding the global economic system as well:As the former economics minister of #Greece, #YanisVaroufakis phrases it, 👉#CloudCapital has once again transformed almost all of us into mere serfs, very much like during medieval times, feudal lords extracting rent from us.👈
I am in the process of listening to his fascinating book, #Technofeudalism:
"The world-famous #1 bestselling...
@scott -
Varoufakis’s new book "#Technofeudalism: What Killed #Capitalism" argues that we no longer live in a capitalist society; capitalism has morphed into a “technologically advanced form of feudalism”.
A new form of algorithmic capital has evolved – what #Varoufakis calls #cloudcapital – and it has displaced “capitalism’s two pillars: markets and profits”.
