Destroying Autocracy – November 13, 2025
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Destroying Autocracy – November 13, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber arena with a focus on protecting it. That necessitates an opinionated Butlerian jihad against big tech as well as evangelizing for open-source and the Fediverse. Since big media’s journalism wing is flailing and failing in its core duty to democracy, this is also a collection of alternative reporting on the eternal battle between autocracy and democracy. We also cover the cybersecurity world. You can’t be free without safety and privacy.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.
The Programmer’s Fulcrum is the future (and smaller) home for a fusion of Symfony Station and Battalion. Its tagline is Devs Defending Democracy, Developing the OMN.
You can sign up now and for 2025 get an email with links to and featured articles for each week’s Symfony Station Communiqué and Battalion “Destroying Autocracy” post along with their featured articles. And you’ll be set with TPF after the fusing.
We are posting on the Fediverse now at @thefulcrum @thefulcrum.dev and original website content will start in 2026.
Featured Item(s)
Wrekage/Salvage writes:
Once you’ve seized the tools of political life to build communal power, it’s hard to forget what a hammer feels like in your hand.
Bonfire Networks is a tiny software org that has spent the past couple of years building a framework for communities on the open social web. At the end of last week, they released Bonfire Social, a microblogging app.
Like Mastodon, Bonfire Social runs on ActivityPub, but it takes differently opinionated approach to sociability.
(It has) features I (and many others) have been advocating for in Fediverse software for years, often while people explained at length that such things simply could not be implemented.
Most exhilarating to me, though, is that they aren’t just building another microblogging app. They’re making a toolkit for internet community software that is healthy and good and designed around real human needs from the start.
As they put it in their crowdfunding campaign, they’re making building blocks for communities on the open social web.
Total awesomeness that needs to blow up. We will cover (and support) Bonfire extensively on The Programmer’s Fulcrum.
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
The Kyiv Independent reports:
Ukraine slaps new sanctions on Putin’s team and propagandist publishers
Radio Free Europe reports:
EU ‘Democracy Shield’ Aims To Counter Russian Disinformation
Open Web Advocacy has:
Tim Berners-Lee On Apple’s Browser Engine Ban and Web Apps
Heise reports:
Office alternative from Germany by Ionos and Nextcloud is now available
Great.
Speaking of Germany, The Guardian reports:
ChatGPT violated copyright law by ‘learning’ from song lyrics, German court rules
Meta could face millions in fines for not signing content deals in Australia
Digital Rights Bytes asks:
Can the government read my text messages?
404 Media reports:
Judge Rules Flock Surveillance Images Are Public Records That Can Be Requested By Anyone
TechCrunch reports:
Wikipedia urges AI companies to use its paid API, and stop scraping
Brookings says:
Preach brother.
Poynter reports:
As independent newspapers disappear, a secretive alliance fights to save them
Neutral
Open Knowledge shares:
Open letter: Harnessing open source AI to advance digital sovereignty
The Ringer has:
How Catastrophic Is It If the AI Bubble Bursts? An FAQ.
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
404 Media reports:
DHS Gives Local Cops a Facial Recognition App To Find Immigrants
TechCrunch reports:
Why a lot of people are getting hacked with government spyware
Lawmakers warn Democratic governors that states are sharing drivers’ data with ICE
Euractiv reports:
EU’s red tape bonfire puts AI ahead of privacy protection
NOYB reports:
EU Commission internal draft would wreck core principles of the GDPR
The Guardian reports:
The EU has let US tech giants run riot. Diluting our data law will only entrench their power.
Tech giants vow to defend users in US as spyware companies make inroads with Trump administration
Freedom of the Press Foundation reports:
Kansas county pays $3M for forgetting the First Amendment
Pariah States
BleepingComputer reports:
APT37 hackers abuse Google Find Hub in Android data-wiping attacks
BitDefender reports:
Russian hacker admits helping Yanluowang ransomware infect companies
The Register reports:
UK asks cyberspies to probe whether Chinese buses can be switched off remotely
Krebs on Security reports:
Google Sues to Disrupt Chinese SMS Phishing Triad
Big Media
The Columbia Journalism Review has:
Editorial Independence Means Technological Independence
The Open Media Network peeps.
The Guardian reports:
EU investigates Google over ‘demotion’ of commercial content from news media
Big Tech
And:
Big Tech’s control freak era is breaking itself apart
The Techno Anarchist Manifesto lists tools to help you avoid most of this AI horseshit.
Lies, damned lies and AI: the newest way to influence elections may be here to stay
Jesus.
Digital colonialism: the new frontier of Latin American dependency.
A side effect of techno feudalism.
PC Mag reports:
Asking ChatGPT About Affairs or Abortion? Be Careful, Marketers Are Peeking at Your Prompts
Cybersecurity/Privacy
The Register reports:
OWASP Top 10: Broken access control still tops app security list
IEEE Spectrum reports:
Your AI Agent Is Now a Target for Email Phishing. New tools can help thwart the attacks.
Like bitcoin, if you use this shit you deserve what you get.
DarkReading reports:
Orgs Move to SSO, Passkeys to Solve Bad Password Habits
GlassWorm Returns, Slices Back into VS Code Extensions
Check out VS Codium friends.
BleepingComputer reports:
Police disrupts Rhadamanthys, VenomRAT, and Elysium malware operations
Fediverse
Elena Rossini shares:
The rebellion will be federated – 2025 edition
A New Social has:
Bonfire explains:
Matters of care – why Bonfire maintenance comes first.
Comciencia has:
A comunicação da ciência no Fediverso
Laura Hargreves shares:
Growing My Own Little Fediverse: The Joy of Going Further Down the Rabbit Hole
Inside My Matrix: How I Reclaimed Messaging from the Cloud
TechCrunch reports:
Threads targets podcasters with new features, aiming to become the home for show discussions
BTW, fuck Threads.
Slightly Decentralized Social Media
The Dabbler has:
Chicken Caesars: they’re messing with your Bluesky feed
TechCrunch reports:
Jack Dorsey funds diVine, a Vine reboot that includes Vine’s video archive
Hmm, this is built with Nostr.
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS. Or even our future home in 2026, if you want a head start.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse#activitypub #ai #autocracy #bigJournalism #bigTech #bluesky #bonfire #bridgyfed #democracy #fascism #fediverse #matrix #stopChina #stopIsrael #stopRedAmerica #stopRussia #supportUkraine #technoanarchism #technofeudalism #threads #xmpp
Gli ultimi otto messaggi ricevuti dalla Federazione
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Anatomy of an E2EE ActivityPub Note in Enigmatick
Over the break I spent some time revamping my structs and enums for handling #E2EE #ActivityPub exchanges. This is what I have at the moment for the initial Create from the client (this is subject to change).
{ "@context": [ "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams", "https://purl.archive.org/socialweb/mls" ], "type": "Create", "actor": "https://enigmatick.social/user/jdt", "to": [ "https://enigmatick.social/user/mls-tester" ], "cc": [], "object": { "mediaType": "message/mls", "encoding": "base64", "published": "2025-12-29T21:11:17Z", "type": "Note", "to": [ "https://enigmatick.social/user/mls-tester" ], "cc": [], "attributedTo": "https://enigmatick.social/user/jdt", "content": "AAEAAhDIkTdahK5U3s1SQBbA2fIvAAAAAAAAAAEBABzHJj3+WZDE3Hw6H5W9YNhE3bhDSyExL4tnn0E5QOvPUeOgYdo/2n+rGUI1M8wupeK2bt919jAs8yTj2awvBAsprxAInHm8qWgq2FER2xjcpAx9f42ncAL8Xehfy3v6vonGuAPkYteAzdFCC8mGWxg3slpI+VoPrSWThSKqjMNxttZSfvbnhEFYw0jUFmJwxOecDS8n3UVjuLDt14V0Fw9YMv+XXUgKj9bWaCPi0qhuatcgxCqXwXzpevJBhY0trbPZgjB8LlhC/zcx5NNLI9WJtCF9zq3RPkG6ByPdH6IWTH5drOJyvefILElybP4eGMSoGWZATmGUQm/k3iKG6tRyzMM/fHxpIz34", "tag": [ { "type": "Mention", "name": "[at]mls-tester@enigmatick.social", "href": "https://enigmatick.social/user/mls-tester" } ], "attachment": [] }, "published": "2025-12-29T21:11:17Z", "instrument": [ { "type": "VaultItem", "content": "oAjN0c2+q5gCtrFlauGU1kbKGizm5a5pH+iY5cObdihVBjjsSiSbkeu6XQ7/RR4lcn0OIqS9O+MVJ0QyympRxt7JI9qzCGlkCFcAyp4oe8nhh/YG7WHoLWL272vPqlq8A/Yf0YFprhIBlU48sJF6A1iRlU4fEBaRwnwV4gniSCQr55jpDe++M/HD3bSFJNcvpmf5BH9G4Z3VBaB8HMnDECGzFrB8zFycAR0w1SNYbGJuXFsopfMb4EfPkZoHT28=" }, { "type": "Welcome", "mediaType": "message/mls", "encoding": "base64", "content": "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" } ] }The mention of mls-tester has an [at] to avoid triggering my automatic webfinger resolution.
I've adopted the mediaType and encoding attributes from the draft ActivityPub specification. And I've standardized the Welcome message to incorporate those.
The Create includes the Welcome and a VaultItem as instruments rather than being sent as separate activities. The Welcome can include any number of recipients, so one within the activity should be sufficient.
The VaultItem is specific to the #Enigmatick client and isn't intended to be federated. That's how I'm handling ongoing access to the decrypted data; the VaultItem is a symmetrically encrypted representation of the original content that can be safely stored on the server for repeated use by the client. I'll need to eventually update the @context with that extension.
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We're expanding beta testing for #Holos on Android before the public release.
Quick reminder: Holos runs a full ActivityPub server on your phone, your data stays with you.
Learn more: https://holos.social/how-it-works
Dedicated account: @HolosSocial
Interested? Let us know! iOS coming next.
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@silverpill @julian Fair point.
I suppose I was thinking of the ability to assign it to a shortened name in the @'context - but this is probably relatively unimportant once it's been gzipped.
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Here's the first recorded collision in the history of Fediverse: https://github.com/bookwyrm-social/bookwyrm/issues/3731
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>The ability to make up brand new, guaranteed-unique identifiers on the fly is probably the thing I like most about JSON-LD.
But it is not a JSON-LD thing, right?
A JSON document can have property names that are URIs, or reverse-DNS strings, or UUIDs, or longNamesThatIncludeSoftwareNameAndVersion. All of those can be globally unique.
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@fentiger@mastodon.social the purportedly world-ending effects of property collisions are overblown, imho.
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@julian The ability to make up brand new, guaranteed-unique identifiers on the fly is probably the thing I like most about JSON-LD.
As you imply, though, it's not really a problem in practice, because devs are used to JSON, and know what happens when you add extensions to standards.
