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#technofeudalism

7 posts7 participants2 posts today

Here, Elena Rossini explains Why and How she is purging #BigTech out of her life. While she readily admits she is not totally free of it, she has gone a long way. She has a blog where she talks about her journey to #Freedom from #Technofeudalism and calls out the hypocracy of some #TechWriters along the way。

“I watched a brilliant TED Talk by journalist Carole Cadwalladr about the broligarchy titled “this is what the digital coup looks like.” Shortly thereafter I discovered that Cadwalladr is using Substack (the Nazi-friendly newsletter platform funded by the broligarchs at A16Z) for her blog; her social media platform of choice is Bluesky (funded by crypto bros at Blockchain Capital). Sadly Cadwalladr has no social profiles on the Fediverse and isn’t using - as far as I know - any FOSS platforms to publish her reporting. This feels incredibly incongruous.”

It’s well worth a read. And for those still ‘fenced in’ by commercial social platforms, she offers hope and some ways to ditch them.

Personally, My tie to #TechBros #oligarchy is Gmail (though not for much longer as I am mostly migrated off). Otherwise, I’m on Signal and an Australian hosted mail server (until that one starts getting ideas I won’t agree with). My blog is about to transfer to a platform based in Australia for less $$ (of @shlee fame - I’m gettting there Shlee! Https://enhancecp.9fives.online) and getting off WordPress hosting (I’ll be using a #cpanel equiv #EnhanceDotNet.). My #Microsoft days are numbered with #LinuxMint on my other laptop ready to take over very soon. I’m still tied to Apple with my iPad (tooting away on it atm). My mobile is an old & cheap #Android device. My browser is #LibreWolf. My mail client is #Thunderbird .

Best thing that ever happened to me was to find out about the #Fediverse. I’ve never looked back from this, only forward.

I’m not going to lie, there is a cost to bear. I have lost digital links to all my friends and family (some overseas). But I’ve managed to keep those closest to me via other means (Face-to-face, phone calls, SMS, emails and Signal for those using it). Bottom line is, If am I going to #Rage against #TechBros, I should walk the talk as Elena Rossini is doing. So should you IMO.

#FOSS #Mastodon #Fediverse #cpanel

Read more:

news.elenarossini.com/technofe

enhancecp.9fives.onlineHosting Control Panel
Replied in thread

@_elena

Absolutely! And thanks for walking the talk so thoughtfully, this so resonates & yet it's so unusual I hardly have words to think about it, which is why your example is so valuable: "« In this age of #technofeudalism every writer who covers technology - especially resistance to #BigTech - should disclose their tech stack. Here's mine »"

Ah... Leading by example!
Also... I finally understand the concept of 'tech stack'! Thanks again! 🙏

Is one big flaw in how we generally think about #SocialWeb and #Fediverse development in how we embrace this vibrant feeling and energy that existed at the time the early web was emerging? At that time time the expectation was that the #Web would liberate us.

A decade later we have #BigTech, the Corporate Web and #SurveillanceCapitalism, while #Technofeudalism and #Dystopia are knocking on the door.

Nowadays when we excitedly publish our innovations as we did then, is that still responsible?

Replied in thread

@malte @evan

Yes, I think an interesting follow-up #poll might be to ask people's expectation on whether they think a fediverse that reaches billions is capable of holding corporate capture and #BigTech at bay, and not become just a better instrument than existed before to the further spread and enforcement of #technofeudalism ideology.

And I then usually follow to be that one annoying guy that taps the sign and dims the giddy atmosphere .. 😅

social.coop/@smallcircles/1136

"Don't make me tap the sign" meme with the sign reading "☠️ ☠️ attn: do not build SkyNet™#fedizens 💖".
social.coopjust small circles 🕊 (@smallcircles@social.coop)Attached: 1 image 💖 #fedi

Good morning Fedi friends!

I was supposed to start writing a new blog post about my tech stack - disclaimers about the apps/platforms I use and the ones I actively avoid for ethical reasons…

Well I just started doing some research and reading about #technofeudalism … and fell down a fascinating and haunting rabbit hole.

🔗: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/451795/technofeudalism-by-varoufakis-yanis/9781529926095

“Technofeudalism” is officially my word of the year, if not the decade (century, possibly). I wish more people were aware of it.

The #Fediverse feels more and more like a safe haven for me. And in the bleakness of our current political and technological situation, I’m comforted by the fact I’m currently self-hosting essential services (thank you @yunohost ).

TL;DR: I’m super grateful for the existence of the #Fediverse and the fact I’ve learned how to self-host – two amazing ways to resist technofeudalism.

www.penguin.co.ukTechnofeudalismCapitalism is dead. Welcome to technofeudalism. In his boldest and most far-reaching book, the visionary economist and number-one bestselling author Yanis Varoufakis shows how the owners of big tech became the world's feudal overlords –replacing capitalism with a fundamentally new system that enslaves our minds, defies democracy and rewrite the rules of global power. But as Varoufakis also reveals, technofeudalism contains new opportunities to thwart and overturn it, bringing into focus more clearly than ever the revolution we need to escape our digital prison.

Destroying Autocracy – July 31, 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

Drew Lyton

The Future is NOT Self-Hosted

Great stuff that ties in nicely with what we are advocating here on Battalion.

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:

Proton releases a new app for two-factor authentication

Flights grounded as Russia’s largest airline Aeroflot hacked and systems ‘destroyed’

The Kyiv Independent reports:

Non-EU countries, including Ukraine, can join Europe’s new satellite network rivaling Starlink, commissioner says

The Register reports:

Europe’s AI crackdown starts this week and Big Tech isn’t happy

Italy says Meta may be violating law with AI in WhatsApp

Edge case: Opera claims Microsoft still playing dirty with defaults

US Navy won’t torpedo hurricane forecast satellite feed after all

Open Future opines:

A Step Forward, But Not Far Enough: the EU’s AI Transparency Template

The European Commission reports:

Commission preliminarily finds Temu in breach of the Digital Services Act in relation to illegal products on its platform

The Cradle reports:

Netherlands labels Israel ‘threat to national security’ for first time

They are a threat to every nation on Earth’s national security, as are all pariah surveillance states.

The European Commission announces:

Commission proposes partial suspension of Israel’s association to Horizon Europe

Unfortunately, the German and Italian pseudo-fascists blocked it.

EuroNews reports:

EU fails to agree Israeli suspension from research fund over Gaza

Ars Technica reports:

Google confirms it will sign the EU AI Code of Practice

Bleeping Computer reports:

Internet Archive is now a US federal depository library

CISA open-sources Thorium platform for malware, forensic analysis

W3C announces:

Vision for W3C is a W3C Statement

Media Revolution announces:

The Media Revolution countdown campaign is LIVE!

IMHO, this ties in with the Open Media Network idea featured in our Techno Anarchist Manifesto.

Murena shares:

What is a VPN (virtual private network)?

Nextcloud reports:

The Nextcloud Include initiative: How Nextcloud supports diversity in open source

Cory Doctorow has:

You can’t fight enshittification (But we can.)

In addition to the tactics in the Techno Anarchist Manifesto, we have to fight in the political realm as well.

Neutral

Bert Hubert looks at:

Europe’s Self Inflicted Cloud Crisis

The Guardian reports:

Why did thousands of adult titles just disappear from the biggest PC gaming marketplaces?

The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back

Breach Media reports:

Mark Carney’s AI agenda is a gift to Big Tech

Canada is 1,010 times better than the U.S. but it ain’t perfect.

404 Media reports:

UK Users Need to Post Selfie or Photo ID to View Reddit’s r/IsraelCrimes, r/UkraineWarFootage

The United Kuntsdumb is now only 1.46 times better than the United States of Assholes and getting worse by the minute.

The MIT Technology Review reports:

What you may have missed about Trump’s AI Action Plan

TechDirt reports:

Trump Threatens To Withold Billions From States That Try To Make Broadband Affordable To Poor People

Pariah States

So-called newspaper, The Washington Times reports:

Hackers breach intelligence website used by CIA

BleepingComputer reports:

French telecom giant Orange discloses cyberattack

Microsoft: Russian hackers use ISP access to hack embassies in AiTM attacks

DarkReading reports:

Russia’s Secret Blizzard APT Gains Embassy Access via ISPs

The Register reports:

Silk Typhoon spun a web of patents for offensive cyber tools, report says

Big Media

404 Media reports:

Journalist Discovers Google Vulnerability That Allowed People to Disappear Specific Pages From Search

Patreon reports:

Substack sent a push alert promoting a Nazi blog

I am sorry, but if you are on SubStack at this point you are either an uninformed amoral moron or a c^nt. Thankfully, you can still avoid being reincarnated as a cockroach by moving to Ghost or Buttondown.

ArsTechnica reports:

Substack’s “Nazi problem” won’t go away after push notification apology

The Columbia Journalism Review reports:

Traffic Apocalypse: Google’s AI Overviews are killing click-throughs to news sites.

Big Tech

The Register reports:

‘Impossible hill to climb’: US clouds crush European competition on their home turf

Publishers cry foul over W3C crusade to rid web of third-party cookies

Ars Technica reports:

Meta pirated and seeded porn for years to train AI, lawsuit says

TechCrunch reports:

Zuckerberg signals Meta won’t open source all of its ‘superintelligence’ AI models

BTW, their current ones are in no way opensource.

Bikepacking shares:

When We Get Komooted

Terror

The Guardian reports:

Far-right extremists using games platforms to radicalise teenagers, report warns

Cybersecurity/Privacy

TechPolicy asks:

Is There Any Way Forward for Privacy Legislation in the United States?

BleepingComputer reports:

Post SMTP plugin flaw exposes 200K WordPress sites to hijacking attacks

DarkReading shows us:

How to Spot Malicious AI Agents Before They Strike

ChatGPT, GenAI Tools Open to ‘Man in the Prompt’ Browser Attack

Tuta reports:

Switzerland plans surveillance worse than U.S.

BitDefender reports:

French submarine secrets surface after cyber attack

Platformer reports:

Trust and safety workers on why they’re not speaking out

And here’s the previous post he referenced.

404 Media reports:

Tea App Turns Off DMs After Exposing Messages About Abortions, Cheating

FYI, Platformer and 404 Media are on Ghost and thus part of the Open Media Network.

RSS

The wonderful Citation Needed reports:

Curate your own newspaper with RSS

Fediverse

Connected Places has:

Fediverse Report – 127

For Better has:

Mastodon Defence Command: The Scam Wave

Fedify announces:

Implementing custom collection dispatchers

QCB asks:

So Your Black Ass Still Wants to Get on Mastodon

ActivityPub for WordPress announces:

7.2.0 – Follow ups

Slightly Federated Social Media

Connected Places has:

Bluesky Report – 127

Blacksky has:

Infrastructure for Interdependence: Building technology in service of collective power

Blacksky is what Bluesky would be if it wasn’t created and run by tech bros.

404 Media reports:

This Company Wants to Bring End-to-End Encrypted Messages to Bluesky’s AT Protocol

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

#ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bluesky #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Mastodon #Nextcloud #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #WordPress

battalion.mobileatom.net/?p=22

The Techno Anarchist Manifesto just got an update today. Peruse it for new ideas and tools to defeat Techno
Feudalism. #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #autocracy #democracy #opensource #fediverse #omn
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The Techno Anarchist Manifesto aka Let’s fuck up Techno Feudalism

This practical and profanity-laced manifesto provides the loose philosophy, strategies, battleplans, tactics, and weapons to destroy Techno Feudalism via the practice of Techno Anarchism. It explains the war we are in, the Techno battle’s place in it, and what Techno Feudalism and Techno Anarchism are.

Don’t worry, I not going to start capping tech CEOs anytime soon. I’m not a 1914 anarchist or advocating for it in general.Introduction

The same day I started writing this article about some ideas floating in my head, Joan Westenberg medium.com/westenberg/the-revo… on its premise.

This piece will now be more expansive and a sort of manifesto.

I want to focus my thoughts regarding the battle against Techno Feudalism. And narrow my scope. And be systemic.

I will build whatever this ends up being in public. And put my masters degree in Political Science to work. So, this is just the start of a living document. I will update it with more of the philosophy of Techno Anarchism (and other points) in the coming weeks.

It’s also the first thing I’ve written that needs a table of contents.

Here’s what we’re exploring:Introduction
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battalion.mobileatom.net/techn… Mission

As supporters of democracy we need to engage in a positive fight against this timeline’s bullshit in a manner we can control ourselves.

Our goal should be to destroy autocracy rather than protect democracy. Simply because most of us live in autocracies unfortunately.

Still, we must reform both democracy and neuter it’s biggest threat, Big Tech.

I aim to make this writing more actionable than academic. We need action on the individual level and in small groups – neighborhoods, communities (geographical or digital), libraries, companies, unions, teams, non-profits, associations, clubs, schools, real churches, credit unions, local governments, the arts, independent media, etc. These groups have always been the building blocks of democracy. And they must be nurtured through use and membership.

I call the solution I propose to combat autocracy and Techno Feudalism, Techno Anarchism. While political anarchism as defined by Wikipedia is currently unlikely if not impossible, you will see that in the tech arena, it is possible.

“Major definitional elements of anarchism include the will for a non-coercive society, the rejection of the state apparatus, the belief that human nature allows humans to exist in or progress toward such a non-coercive society, and a suggestion on how to act to pursue the ideal of anarchy.”

It’s idealistic but not 100% practical. But we can build its practicality via our interactions with tech.

Now, Wikipedia defines a manifesto as:

“A manifesto is a written declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party, or government. A manifesto can accept a previously published opinion or public consensus, but many prominent manifestos—such as The Communist Manifesto (1848) and those of various artistic movements—reject accepted knowledge in favor of a new idea.”

Is that what this will be? I think it mostly will.The Problem

But, before going into the details of this manifesto, let’s explore our major problem as humans, what and who we are fighting, and the bigger war that the techno feudalism versus anarchism battle takes place in.

First, let’s look at the problem, ourselves. We have not evolved enough as humans to keep up with the culture, economies, and technology we’ve developed. That’s why we feel alienated and a little lost.

We need a purpose be it one dictated by religion (for the weak-minded) or philosophy. Or a very strong personal moral framework which is difficult. We might even get by with a manifesto. 😉 What we want to avoid is ideologies.

In general our overwhelmed brains need structure for things we don’t understand or can’t explain. We want simple, not the truth, which is why autocrats have an advantage. We’re mostly uneducated, unaware, unobservant, and intellectually lazy so we want easy answers.

Yanis Yaroufakis notes: there’s no doubt “…about humanity’s infinite capacity to mess things up, to turn miraculous technology into living hell.” Or religion’s capacity for the same.

Greg Epstein’s book, mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049207… has this:

“Today technology is the water in which we swim, whether on not we notice we are fish. Tech provides contemporary Western lives, so polarized and divided in countless ways, with a universal organizing principle… It offers myriad rites, capturing our attention and transforming our consciousness, connecting us with a community of people who spend their days…indeed their entire lives engaging in the same repetitive behaviors with the same fervent intensity.

Naturally, we all hope our devotion to this community of fellow travelers will bear fruit: surely tech will lead to a better future! Even a kind of paradise! But the truth is many of us fear, more than we’d like to admit, this may all be heading to a deeply dark place.

In other words: technology has become a religion.”

As you see, Big Tech now functions as a religion. It provides answers as more people reject the horseshit of traditional religion.

But, there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle so it needs to be reformed into a more satisfying religion. More the Tao of Pooh than the Old Testament and Revelations. More philosophy and morality for how to live life and less damnation, doctrine, and hate. One grown by us and not tech oligarchs. More good, less evil. Ok.

More on this will follow in future updates.

Late Stage Capitalism / Techno Feudalism

Next let’s take a look at economics. Currently we are stuck in the economic model of capitalism. The problem is that it’s not really capitalism. It’s rigged, crony, oligarchic capitalism headed back toward feudalism. Some argue persuasively that it has already fully evolved into Techno Feudalism.

So, let’s define Techno Feudalism.

Is it a malign denomination of the Tech religion?

The child of Big Tech and Late Stage / Crony Capitalism?

Or just a bunch of cunts in Silicon Valley?

Yanis Varoufakis coined the term Techno Feudalism. In his book, Techno Feudalism: What Killed Capitalism, he asks this question:

“Now that computers speak to each other, will this network make capitalism impossible to overthrow? Or might it finally reveal its Achilles heel?”

He advises thinking about money in this way:

“It is, above all else a reflection of our relation to one another and to our technologies; i.e. the means and the ways in which we transform matter. …Money is the alienated ability of mankind.”

In other words, if you can’t do it yourself, you can do it with money.

So, here’s his hypothesis:

“… capitalism is dead, in the sense that its dynamics no longer govern our economies. … that role … has been replaced by something fundamentally different, which I call techno feudalism.

… the thing that killed capitalism is capital itself. Not capital as we have known it since the dawn of the industrial revolution, a new form of capital, a mutation of it that has arisen in the last two decades, so much more powerful that its predecessor that like a stupid, overzealous virus it has killed off its host.”

How’s that for an academic sentence. 😉

Yanis continues:

“… capital’s mutation into what I call cloud capital has demolished capitalism’s two pillars: markets and profits.

Markets, the medium of capitalism, have been replaced by digital trading platforms, which look like, but are not markets, and are better understood as fiefdoms. And profit, the engine of capitalism, has been replaced with its feudal predecessor, rent.

… the owners of tradition capital … have become vassals in relation to a new class of feudal overlord, the owners of cloud capital.

… the rest of us have returned to our former status a serfs … contributing to the wealth and power of the new ruling class with our unpaid labor – in addition to the waged labor we perform, when we get the chance.”

Does this sound familiar? I think so.

And who wants to be a fucking serf? Not me.

More on this will follow in future updates.

The subject of equality is obviously relevant to feudal overlords and serfs.

In his book, hup.harvard.edu/books/97806742… Thomas Piketty writes:

“…since the end of the eighteenth century there has been a historical movement toward equality. The world of the early 2020s, no matter how unjust it may seem, is more egalitarian than that of 1950 or that of 1900, which were themselves more egalitarian than those of 1850 or 1780. ..over the long term, no matter the criterion we employ, we arrive at the same conclusion. Between 1780 and 2020 we see developments tending toward greater equality…

To continue… crises and power relations are necessary, as was the case in the past, but we will also need processes of learning and collective engagement, as well as mobilization around new political programs and proposals for new institutions.

Resistance by elites is a reality, in a world in which transnational billionaires are richer than states, much as in the French revolution. Such resistance can be overcome only by powerful collective mobilization during moments of crises and tension.

To ensure that everyone can contribute… in a decentralized way, we must develop new forms of sovereignism with a universalist vocation.”

I maintain that Techno Feudalism is contributing to the current slow to non-existent grow of equality. And I also maintain that Techno Anarchism can reverse the trend and grow equality via small-scale social mobilization and personal-data-sovereignty among other strategies to destroy Techno Feudalism.Politics aka The War

Now, on to politics. Let’s begin with a few points. And a quick note, this isn’t about parties, but policies and exercising political rights.

Autocracy is a threat to democracy. Authoritarianism is a threat to human rights. Fascism is a threat to minorities. Autocrats, Fascists (secular or religious), and Communists are the bad guys.

However, unregulated capitalism and digital technology are a deadlier threat to democracy. Big Money and Big Tech equal the really bad guys. Oligarchs suck.

These two threats to human freedom go hand in hand. Unbound capitalism leads to fascist / authoritarian governments which lead to corrupt, crony capitalism or state capitalism aka hypocritical communism. Both of which erode and eventually destroy democracy, the environment, and human rights.

So, we need to reform and regulate large-scale capitalism and keep autocracy at bay. And again, reform democracy to function in the world we now live in.

Tech both in its Silicon Valley incarnation and the tools of repression Chinese / Israeli model are destroying democracy. One via corrupt, oligarchic capitalism / Techno Feudalism. And one via authoritarianism.

In we want democracy to survive we must fight these two tech models along with autocrats, autocratic political parties, autocratic nations, and autocratic ideologies.

More on this will follow in future updates.The War’s Combatants

To reiterate, the larger war which I think of as WWIII is one between supporters of democracy and what I call the Evil Empire (Reagan is dead and I have commandeered the term!):Unregulated Capitalists / Techno FeudalistsBig Tech in generalAutocratsThe Evil Empire

Unregulated capitalist oligarchs, and Techno Feudalists

We’ve seen who they are.

More on this will follow in future updates.Big Tech which is mostly Techno Feudalists, and some Techno Fascists

Regarding Tech Bros / oligarchs in general and how we got to this point, Cory Doctorow notes the following in his book, penguinrandomhouse.com/books/7…

“Forty years ago, we shot anti-trust laws in the guts, and we let companies led by mediocre idiots no better than their forebearers establish monopolies. These donkeys were able to parlay their monopoly winnings into policies that prevented new technologies from supplanting their own. They got to decide who was allowed to compete with them, and how.

Notably, tech giants today are able to wield the law against interoperators: new technologies that plug into their services, systems, and platforms.”

That sounds about right, doesn’t it.

In her book, thetechcoup.com/, Marietje Schaake writes:

“…the fact that our social, professional, and civil lives are increasingly digitized and, essentially, all aspects of digitation are in the hands of private companies; that certain technologies have inherent antidemocratic characteristics, while laws to protect democratic values and the rule of law are lagging; and that, most important, democratic governments’ outsourcing of key functions has led to a hollowing out of government’s core capabilities.

These systemic problems are now undermining the core principles of democracy: free and fair elections, the rule of law, the separation of powers, a well-informed, public debate, national security and the protection of civil liberties such as freedom of expression, the presumption of innocence, and the right to privacy.

As digitization progresses, we see a gradual shift in responsibility and power away from democratic leaders. This shift accelerates two trends: growing digital authoritarianism and a wholesale decline in democratic governance.”

We are the frogs being slowly boiled in the pot as the temperature rises. But, it’s not a fucking joke.

More on this will follow in future updates.Autocrats

You are probably most familiar with these villains. They either rule your country or are a political party(ies) in it.

In her book, penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/72… Anne Applebaum writes:

“Unlike military or political alliances from other times and places, (today’s Autocrats) operates not like a bloc but rather like an agglomeration of companies, bound not by ideology but rather by a ruthless, single-minded determination to preserve their personal wealth and power, Autocracy, Inc.

Their bonds with one another, and with their friends in the democratic world, are cemented not through ideals but through deals – deals designed to take the edge off sanctions, to exchange surveillance technology, to help one another get rich.

Autocracy, Inc., offers its members not only money and security but also something less tangible, impunity.

Their enmity toward the democratic world is not merely some form of traditional geopolitical competition… (It) …has its roots in the very nature of the democratic political system, in words “accountability,” “transparency,” and “democracy.” They hear that language coming from the democratic world, they hear the same language coming from their on dissidents, and they seek to destroy them both.”

More on this will follow in future updates.Democracy Supporters / Enlightened Humans

This is short. It’s us. At least the intelligent ones in the “Western World”, Oceana, Japan, and South Korea rules-based world. Plus a few other countries in the global south and various dissidents everywhere.Enshittification

Before moving on to Techno Anarchism, here’s a quick note about Enshittification. It is part of techno feudalism and increasingly capitalism in general. Chicken or the egg first? I don’t know.

But, Cory Doctorow describes enshittification like this:

“Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a “two-sided market”, where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them.”

So, not only are Techno Feudalists part of the evil empire, their products suck as well.

Ok, enough about the cunts. Let’s move on the good guys.

The Winnable Battle

Will democracy win the war against autocracy? Who knows? It’s an eternal war that the bad guys currently have the upper hand in. And have had for the last decade or two. And have had for 99.99% of human history. Make what you will of that.

But, one of the war’s largest current battles can definitely be won. Equality can continue to grow. And our lives can be improved. And the world’s apocalypse can be delayed.

This battle is the one where Techno Anarchism opposes Techno Feudalism.

It is winnable because this victory can be achieved at the personal and small group level. It also has the advantage that the bad guys can’t defeat it (only resist it). Only apathy (which is also hard to overcome) can defeat Techno Anarchism. If you have a hundred million of drops of water you might drown an elephant. If you have a hundred you can’t even get one toe wet.

It’s also winnable because it’s more of a matter of changing habits (difficult) than political beliefs (extremely difficult). Anarchists and libertarians can be partial allies here along with many other freedom lovers.

And partial is important because this battle’s tactics are modular. It’s not all or nothing. You can take it one step at a time. It’s easy to be a soldier and not too hard to be an officer. You can increase your efforts over time as you get in the martial groove. Hopefully, you can even become a general.

Finally, the battle’s winnable because software is exceptional. Via backwards engineering in the worst case, programs can be written to interoperate with those for other platforms. iWork literally kept Apple from dying.

As Cory Doctorow notes interoperability can make Big Tech a lot smaller, very quickly (assuming we can kill off monopolies). Siphoning off its users reduces its revenues and lobbying power.

Software is also exceptional because it allows us to fight big tech with its own weapons.

Cory notes in penguinrandomhouse.com/books/7…

“If we someday triumph over labor exploitation, gender discrimination and violence, colonialism, and racism, and snatch a habitable planet from the jaws of extractive capitalism, it will be thanks to technologically enable organizing.”

And more importantly taking actions. Which brings us to ⇊.Techno Anarchism

So, let’s move on to Techno Anarchism / Digital Distributism and Digital Sovereignty (which is slightly different). It is the philosophy, strategies, and actions needed to defeat Techno Feudalism.

As I mentioned before, Joan Westenberg published something similar to my gestating thoughts. So, let’s not reinvent the wheel and look as her points.

The article in question is medium.com/westenberg/the-revo… It’s not really a revolution, but more a radical adjustment of habits. But, if it happens it will be decentralized. Anyway, take a break and go read her article now! You may need to eat lunch too.

You’re back. Great.

She uses the terms Digital Democracy and Digital Feudalism versus Techno Anarchism and Techno Feudalism.

Westenberg’s central idea addresses both distribution and personal data sovereignty:

“The implementation of Digital Distributism rests on three foundational pillars: infrastructure commons, data sovereignty, and algorithmic democracy. Each pillar requires specific technical and organizational structures to function effectively.

The revolution toward digital democracy begins with individual choices. Every person who moves to decentralized platforms weakens the grip of tech monopolies. Every contribution to open source projects builds alternative infrastructure. Every act of resistance against surveillance and control helps shift the balance of power.

But individual action is not, is never enough. It must be coupled with collective organization. We need coordinated efforts to build and promote alternatives. We need political movements that understand the connection between digital and democratic power. We need communities dedicated to practicing digital distributism in their own operations.

The infrastructure of freedom won’t build itself. But neither did the infrastructure of control. Every system of power depends on the daily choices of millions of individuals. Will we shape the change toward digital democracy or submit to digital feudalism?”

That’s the question. And fortunately you can answer it.

How? With a blast from the past.

Joan and I both propose a similar idea, the Digital Distributist Alternative (Joan) and Techno Anarchism (me).

But FYI, these are not new ideas. They existed before as an alternative to capitalism and socialism. Unfortunately, they didn’t win out.Distributism

Traditional Distributism is en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribu… by Wikipedia as:

”Distributism is an economic theory asserting that the world’s productive assets should be widely owned rather than concentrated. Developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, distributism was based upon Catholic social teaching principles, especially those of Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rerum_no… (1891) and Pope Pius XI in en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrage… (1931). It has influenced Anglo Christian Democratic movements, and has been recognized as one of many influences on the social market economy.

Distributism views laissez-faire capitalism and state socialism as equally flawed and exploitative, due to their extreme concentration of ownership. Instead, it favors small independent craftsmen and producers; or, if that is not possible, economic mechanisms such as cooperatives and member-owned mutual organisations, as well as small to medium enterprises and vigorous anti-trust laws to restrain or eliminate overweening economic power.”

Joan says:

“Digital Distributism updates this framework for the internet age, recognizing that digital infrastructure is now as fundamental to human flourishing as land was in the agricultural era. It offers a comprehensive alternative to digital feudalism by reimagining how we structure and govern the technologies that increasingly mediate human existence.”

Techno Distributism / Anarchism is the modern equivalent fighting Techno Feudalism as opposed to unregulated capitalism and state socialism. And it has a better chance of coming out on top. It’s more about the means of computation and consumption versus the means of production.

We’re digital serfs here, not the proletariat.

More on this will follow in future updates.

So, we now have our nebulously defined movement, Techno Anarchism. How do we win the war against its all to real foe?

By slowly killing Techno Feudalism with weapons of course. It will experience death by a thousand cuts.The Arsenal of Techno Anarchism

Okay, so what are the weapons we can use to destroy Techno Feudalism?Open Source Technology

We start by using open-source technology. Again, it has the advantage that it can’t be bought and enshittified at scale.

Let’s examine the arsenal in detail. Please explore and start using these tools while dropping their enshittified, corporate, feudalistic alternatives. Obviously, all of these are not for everyone. But, do what you can.

They will also boost the privacy and security of your personal data aka your digital sovereignty.

More details on these individual tools will follow in future updates. For now please use the links.
Password Manager

bitwarden.com/
VPN

mullvad.net/en

mozilla.org/en-US/products/vpn…
Browser

kagi.com/orion/librewolf.net/p…

Search Engine

kagi.com/ecosia.org/

Cloud

nextcloud.com/
Office Suite

libreoffice.org/
Chat / Messaging

signal.org/
eMail

roundcube.net/tuta.com/

eBook Management

calibre-ebook.com/
Personal Websites via opensource publishing software

new.drupal.org/homewordpress.o…)microweber.org/getpublii.com/

RSS

openrss.org/guides/what-are-rs… And you should follow your allies’ websites with it.
App Building

symfony.com/laravel.com/nodejs…

Project Management

openproject.org/
Operating Systems

Computers – Linux. But very user-friendly, similar to Chromebooks.linuxmint.com/zorin.com/os/

Mobile devices

https://e.foundation/
Hardware

fairphone.com/frame.work/crowd…

In the home stretch, let’s look at the most powerful weapon against techno feudalism, The Fediverse.

Corporate social media is even worse than mass media. Millions of morons can get on it and pontificate as much as they want. It is used by extremists and conspiracy theorists to devastating effect. And it’s run by the motherfuckers behind techno feudalism. Today’s true rulers control the algorithms that show all this horseshit, encourage it, and addict us to following it.

In her book, hachettebookgroup.com/titles/r… Renee DiResta writes:

“My focus is on a profound transformation in the dynamics of power and influence, which have fundamentally shifted, and on how we, the citizens, can come to grips with a force that is altering our politics, our society, and our very relationship to reality. For sure, companies and governments must bear their burden of figuring out how to regulate this new space, and how to restore trust and shore up institutions, but we as citizens, have a responsibility to understand these dynamics so we can build healthy norms and fight back. This is the task of a new civics.”

Well said, though I have no faith in the companies doing shit and little faith in governments doing their part competently. So it falls to us as Techno Anarchists to unfuck this. We can do this by leaving corporate social media and moving to the Fediverse.

In his book, narrowgaugebooks.indielite.org… Nathan Schneider writes:

“The ways people can and cannot collectively self-govern in daily online life, furthermore, have been constrained in dominant social networks… the constraints on governance in online spaces have contributed to the peril of democratic politics in general. It is not enough to merely defend existing governmental institutions, healthy democracy depends on enabling creative new forms of self-governance, especially on networks.

If democracy is on the horizon (for humanity), self-governance is a plausible practice for moving in that direction. Governable Spaces, then, are where democratic self-governance can happen.

…the design of online social spaces has contributed to the atrophy of everyday democratic skills. (Fortunately) …the future of democracy can begin at the level of ordinary community, wherever we find ourselves together, where each of us has a chance to make a difference.”

You and I can have a profound impact on the governance of the Fediverse in addition to the good it does in the world. Pick a platform and get involved.

We covered the enshittification of corporate social media above.

For its penguinrandomhouse.com/books/7… page, Cory Doctorow’s publisher wrote:

“When the tech platforms promised a future of “connection,” they were lying. They said their “walled gardens” would keep us safe, but those were prison walls.

The platforms locked us into their systems and made us easy pickings, ripe for extraction. Twitter, Facebook and other Big Tech platforms are hard to leave by design. They hold hostage the people we love, the communities that matter to us, the audiences and customers we rely on. The impossibility of staying connected to these people after you delete your account has nothing to do with technological limitations: it’s a business strategy in service to commodifying your personal life and relationships.”

Cory writes:

“Switching cost are all the things you have to give up when you stop using a product. When switching costs are high enough, people will keep using products and services even though they hate those products and services.

Interoperability lowers switching costs. It allows users to set the terms on which we use that technology. It allows us to use the parts of products and services that benefit us, and block the parts that don’t.”

His publisher continues:

“We can – we must – dismantle the tech platforms. (We must) …seize the means of computation, by forcing Silicon Valley to do the thing it fears most: interoperate. Interoperability will tear down the walls between technologies, allowing users leave platforms, remix their media, and reconfigure their devices without corporate permission.

Interoperability is the only route to the rapid and enduring annihilation of the platforms. The Internet Con is the disassembly manual we need to take back our internet.”

To counteract enshittification (and speed up the death of these feudal social platforms) we must seize the means of communication / computation via self-publishing with open-source tech. This is provided by personal websites built with open-source technology and distributed with RSS as seen earlier and via the Fediverse. Decentralization and interoperability are key. We must work for these results politically as well.

The Fediverse is the most formidable weapon of Techno Anarchy because it is unbuyable. It is unseizable if hosted in Europe. And it lets us focus on localism (again small groups) vs globalism. It’s distributed not siloed. And open-source not corporate. No ads, less harassment, and less bullshit greet you there. It’s also quite anarchic in general.

Learn more about the technical aspects and platforms of the Fediverse from these Symfony Station articles.symfonystation.mobileatom.net/…

And more details on these individual tools will follow in future updates. For now please use the links.
Publishing – Distribution

flipboard.com/
Publishing – Personal Websites / Blogging

write.as/
Microblogging

joinmastodon.org/ – Do join Mastodon, but don’t join the mastodon.social instance.friendi.ca/friendica.me/profile/friendofs… more.

Photos

pixelfed.org/

Do join Pixelfed, but don’t join the pixelfed.social instance.
Videos

loops.video/joinpeertube.org/

Podcasting

castopod.org/
Forums / Link Aggregators

nodebb.org/joinmbin.org/join-l…

Music

funkwhale.audio/bandwagon.fm/

Curation

about.surf.social/

It’s a critical tactic to use these weapons. It’s also important to support them financially and to be active in their communities.Tactics

Here are some more easy and local tactics.Support the Independent Non-profit Press

The mass media is an unreliable ally in the war against autocracy much less the battle against Techno Feudalism.

Traditional journalism is flailing and failing. And it’s slowly going out of business. Plus, they are too spineless to save themselves. It’s because they are corporate and thus cowards. And they are mostly owned by c^nts.

Instead, we need to support and patronize independent non-profit journalistic organizations. That means giving them money directly my fellow anarchists.

Like this publication the following examples are tech-oriented or political-oriented. But there are many for every issue you care about.https://www.propublica.org/https://www.404media.co/https://themarkup.org/https://calmatters.org/https://19thnews.org/https://goodinternetmagazine.com/– coming soonhttps://theijf.org/https://www.techpolicy.press/https://www.bellingcat.com/https://www.motherjones.comNewsletters, unless they are on SubStackhttps://www.ap.org/https://www.npr.org/Public Mediahttps://www.abc.net.au/ (Australia)aljazeera.com/ (Qatar)bbc.co.uk/ (UK)theconversation.com (US)crikey.com.au/ (Australia)dw.com/en (Germany)theguardian.com/ (UK)haaretz.com/ (Israel)thetyee.ca/ (Canada)thenarwhal.casequencermag.com/… Global, Buy Local

In general, explore.degrowth.net/degrowth/…

But in particular, before spending your capital, think about that decision’s impact on our planet and your fellow humans. That’s basic morality. And please buy physical products from a local brick and mortar store. And only if you need them.

More relevant to Techno Anarchism, buy digital products from small tech suppliers or open-source suppliers or non and not-for-profits. Donate as much money as you can to open-source technology and other non-profit service providers.

This is easy, it just takes a little conscious thought and avoiding lazy thinking. Or a lack of thinking.

Battleplan

I am sure you’re ready to kick some ass. So, what can you do? I think you mostly know by now. It’s not complex. We’re not invading Normandy here.Digital Sovereignty

You must own your communications, own your data, own your digital identity, own your digital devices, and own your own online real estate. Use the open-source technology featured here. Use open-source hardware. Each time you do you place a nail in Techno Feudalism’s coffin. The more you use, the faster that death occurs.Choose Your Weapons and Kill Techno Feudalism

Use the weapons in Techno Anarchism’s arsenal. Again, the battle against Techno Feudalism is modular. It’s not all or nothing. You can take it one step at a time or one weapon at a time. Put more nails in. And add as many as you can over time. Let’s shut that fucker tight.

As Joan says:

“Each new protocol, each independent instance, each decentralized application creates another crack in the walls of digital feudalism.”You’re the General

Again, proceed at your pace. Rome wasn’t built or destroyed in a day and these corporate shits are difficult to leave. Intentionally.

We’re in WWIII here and its going to take a while to kill these fucks and cripple their allies. But, they are going to die. Inglorious bastards style but via Techno Anarchism not bullets or baseball bats. That’s the final resort I hope we never see.

Thanks for reading my semi-manifesto. Please share it, bookmark it, and come back to it later as a reference and to see its updates.

Keep Fighting, Anarchists! We can win this. The power is yours.Resources

To begin with, follow us each week for the latest happenings in this battle via Battalion’s battalion.mobileatom.net/categ…

friendica.me/profile/friendofs… Or follow this site via the button in the footer. Or via battalion.mobileatom.net/feed/… bsky.app/profile/battalion64.b…

If you are of an academic bent, feel free to take a deep dive into the resources inspiring this manifesto.Tech as a Religion

mitpress.mit.edu/9780262049207… War

thetechcoup.com/Autocrats

penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/72… Feudalism

wired.com/story/yanis-varoufak…

versobooks.com/products/2790-h…

newleftreview.org/issues/ii133…

penguin.com.au/books/technofeu…

nathanschneider.info/books/gov… Anarchism/Digital Distributism

medium.com/westenberg/the-revo…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribu…

penguinrandomhouse.com/books/7…

hachettebookgroup.com/titles/r…

hup.harvard.edu/books/97806742…

hup.harvard.edu/books/97806744…

hup.harvard.edu/books/97806749…

narrowgaugebooks.indielite.org… (aka show us some free love)

Please share this article.friendica.me/profile/friendofs… Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via battalion.mobileatom.net/feed/…

Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
friendica.me/profile/friendofs…

#anarchism #arsenal #Authoritarianism #Autocracy #battleplan #BigTech #Capitalism #combatants #Democracy #Distributism #enshittification #Fascism #fedivers #Fediverse #general #local #media #mission #opensource #problem #resources #sovereignty #tactics #TechnoAnarchism #war #weapons #winnable

battalion.mobileatom.net/?p=12…
RE: battalion.mobileatom.net/?p=12…

Destroying Autocracy – July 24, 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

TechDirt writes:

Over the last year or so I’ve seen a disturbing tendency in tech/startup/VC worlds to buy into the neoreactionary view that for startups to be successful they need to get on board the Trump train.

Yes, there are the big name folks who everyone knows about and who didn’t really surprise anyone—Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, David Sacks, Elon Musk (pre-fallout)—but the more troubling trend has been watching younger entrepreneurs and VCs listen to their podcasts, read their posts and books, and slowly nod along to the idea that democracy is holding back innovation.

Fascism For First Time Founders

We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.

The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery

BleepingComputer reports:

Ukraine arrests suspected admin of XSS Russian hacking forum

Radio Free Europe reports:

Drone Attacks Even The Odds For Ukrainian Frontline Units

BitDefender reports:

Europol targets Kremlin-backed cybercrime gang NoName057(16)

Bruce Lawson reports:

CMA designates Google and Apple, proposes measures

TechCentral reports:

Italy takes Meta, X and LinkedIn to court over unpaid tax

404 Media reports:

Hacker Plants Computer ‘Wiping’ Commands in Amazon’s AI Coding Agent

Archivists Recreate Pre-Trump CDC Website, Are Hosting It in Europe

The Register reports:

Radio geeks reveal how to access crucial hurricane data after US Department of Defense cut it off

The Register reports:

AI data-suckers would have to ask permission first under new bill

Laptop farmer behind $17M North Korean IT worker scam locked up for 8.5 years

TechPolicy reports:

The Case for Europe’s Backing of Digital Civil Society Groups

Open_Future shares:

Licensing, Levies, and the Limits of Copyright

Open Forum Europe announces:

OFE Publishes Landmark Study Calling on Funding Europe’s Open Digital Infrastructure through an EU Sovereign Tech Fund (EU-STF)

DarkReading reports:

Stop AI Bot Traffic: Protecting Your Organization’s Website

Speaking of your websites, LocalGhost has:

This page is under construction: a love letter to the personal website

Hamish Campbell has:

The Open Media Network: More Than Just a Tech Project

This is what your site could be a part of.

Neutral

TechPolicy reports:

Brazil Has a Bridge to Defending the Internet

The Financial Times:

UK government seeks way out of clash with US over Apple encryption

When you have three sets of c^nts involved, it’s hard to know who to route for.

TechPolicy opines:

Enforcement of EU’s Tech Laws Should Not Be Traded Away

And they are right.

The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back

So-called newspaper, The Wall Street Journal reports:

White House Prepares Executive Order Targeting ‘Woke AI’

MIT Technology Review reports:

America’s AI watchdog is losing its bite

The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:

Axon’s Draft One is Designed to Defy Transparency

EuroNews reports:

UK online legislation could threaten Wikipedia volunteer safety, group to argue in court

Pariah States

The Register reports:

UK uncovers novel Microsoft snooping malware, blames and sanctions GRU cyberspies

Silicon Valley engineer admits theft of US missile tech secrets

Four new Android spyware samples linked to Iran’s intel agency

TechCrunch reports:

A surveillance vendor was caught exploiting a new SS7 attack to track people’s phone locations

Hackers exploiting SharePoint zero-day seen targeting government agencies

BleepingComputer reports:

Microsoft links Sharepoint ToolShell attacks to Chinese hackers

Big Media

Today in Tabs reports:

Billionaires Destroyed American News Media On Purpose

Mother Jones reports:

Colbert’s Cancellation Is a Dark Warning

Akademie shares:

Investigating AI datasets: A journalist’s guide

Big Tech

Where’s Your ‘Ed shares:

The Hater’s Guide To The AI Bubble

🙂

The Next Web reports:

ChatGPT advises women to ask for lower salaries, study finds

404 Media reports:

A Startup is Selling Data Hacked from Peoples’ Computers to Debt Collectors

Spotify Publishes AI-Generated Songs From Dead Artists Without Permission

Google’s AI Is Destroying Search, the Internet, and Your Brain

Grindr Won’t Let Users Say ‘No Zionists’

EuroNews reports:

Meta ran ads that fundraised for Israeli Defence Forces, analysis shows

Meta won’t sign EU’s AI Code, but who will?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:

Amazon Ring Cashes in on Techno-Authoritarianism and Mass Surveillance

Ars Technica reports:

Researcher threatens X with lawsuit after falsely linking him to French probe

xAI workers balked over training request to help “give Grok a face,” docs show

TechCrunch reports:

Microsoft says it will no longer use engineers in China for Department of Defense work

For privacy and security, think twice before granting AI access to your personal data

Terror

The Register reports:

IRL Com recruits teens for real-life stabbings, shootings, FBI warns

Cybersecurity/Privacy

TechCrunch reports:

Serial spyware founder Scott Zuckerman wants the FTC to unban him from the surveillance industry

BleepingComputer reports:

CISA and FBI warn of escalating Interlock ransomware attacks

DarkReading reports:

Translating Cyber-Risk for the Boardroom

Fediverse

Connected Places has:

Fediverse Report – #126 July 22, 2025

Bonfire is:

Exploring a Bonfire Geosocial Extension

MarkWrites reflects on:

Being a Mastodon Moderator

Mastodon announces:

A nudge to fund our future

If you are on the Fediverse please donate to your instance’s maintainers. Especially if they ask nicely.

Aphyr opines:

The Future of Forums is Lies, I Guess

Fediverse favorite, Elena Rossini shares:

The Future is Federated: Year 2

ActivityPub for WordPress has an update:

7.1.0 — Polishing Tables

We Distribute has details:

WordPress-ActivityPub v 7.1.0 Introduces Following Capabilities

Randall Black show us:

How to Install and Set Up Castopod for Your Podcast

TechCrunch reports:

Threads adds improved content performance metrics for creators

Slightly Federated Social Media

The Register reports:

Selling your digital soul to use Bluesky’s DMs isn’t just a bad idea, it’s the law

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

#126 #ActivityPub #AI #Autocracy #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bluesky #Castopod #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Mastodon #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #Threads #WordPress

battalion.mobileatom.net/?p=21

Tech Billionaires Accused of Quietly Working to Implement "Corporate Dictatorship"

futurism.com/billionaires-corp

"Instead of democracy, we will have basically tech feudalism — fiefdoms run by tech corporations. They're pretty explicit about this point.“
A consortium of the world's most powerful moguls are plotting to rule the world by oligopoly, according to tech industry analyst Gil Duran.

Destroying Autocracy – July 17, 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.

We are back from holiday and brief respite from Fascism Friendly Florida.

Featured Item

Hamish Campbell writes:

Capitalism’s invisible hand has always relied on hidden data. In the digital age, that data is metadata the overlooked, under-the-hood information that tells us who, where, when, how often, and what next. It doesn’t matter what you say or do if someone else controls the context around it. That’s where the power lies. Let’s be clear: the battle for metadata is the battle for the future.

Capitalism: Metadata is hoarded by the dotcons. This is the tech-feudalism of today—soft fascism in algorithmic form.

Chinese Communism: Here, the state doesn’t outsource metadata – it owns it. Surveillance is centralised. Social credit systems reduce people to patterns and can be used to penalise deviation.

Liberalism: Wants to privatise metadata to the individual, to revive the mythical free market of rational actors with perfect information. But this is a fantasy—metadata’s power comes from aggregation, and no individual can match corporate or state capacity to hoard it. The liberal path leads to a slightly less abusive cage.

Anarchism and the Commons: A Fourth Way

What does anarchism want? It wants the social conditions for free association. It wants autonomy, not just individual, but community autonomy.

In commons vs. the market, capitalism uses metadata to target, extract, and sell. We use metadata to share, trust, and build. The Open Media Network proposes a radical shift to replace the market with metadata commons. In capitalism, knowledge is hoarded for advantage. In the commons, it is shared for coordination. The market’s “invisible hand” becomes the commons’ visible knowledge, messy, partial, human, but rooted in mutual aid, not profit.

Metadata and the OMN Path: Who Controls the Invisible Hand?

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:

Ukrainian hackers claim to have destroyed servers of Russian drone maker

The Kyiv Independent reports:

EU slaps new sanctions on Russia over hybrid threats, disinformation

BleepingComputer reports:

Europol disrupts pro-Russian NoName057(16) DDoS hacktivist group

ETH Zurich announces:

A language model built for the public good

Open Future reports on:

Our Work/ Public AI

It’s FOSS reports:

Europe on a Roll: Plans Open Source Alternative to Confluence and Jira

OpenProject shares:

Empowering the Public Sector with OpenProject: An Open Source alternative for project management

Bloomberg Law reports:

States Target AI Hiring Tools as Federal Freeze Attempt Fails

404 Media has:

The Open-Source Software Saving the Internet From AI Bot Scrapers

Immigration Raid Tracking App ‘ICE Block’ Keeps Your Data Private, Researcher Finds

Open Ice is a new resource:

OpenIce

TechPolicy reports:

States Are Fighting Back To Defend Medical Privacy and Safeguard Democracy

The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:

Despite Supreme Court Setback, EFF Fights On Against Online Age Mandates

Neutral

TechPolicy reports:

How the EU’s Voluntary AI Code is Testing Industry and Regulators Alike

Making Media Pluralism Work in the Age of Algorithms

The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:

EFF’s Guide to Getting Records About Axon’s Draft One AI-Generated Police Reports

The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back

Platformer reports:

The campaign to make it illegal for ChatGPT to criticize Trump

Krebs on Security reports:

DOGE Denizen Marko Elez Leaked API Key for xAI

404 Media reports:

ICE Is Searching a Massive Insurance and Medical Bill Database to Find Deportation Target

TechPolicy reports:

The US Just Logged Off from Internet Freedom

ProPublica has:

The IRS Is Building a Vast System to Share Millions of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE

A Little-Known Microsoft Program Could Expose the Defense Department to Chinese Hackers

Ars Technica reports:

Trump sues Corporation for Public Broadcasting directors who refused to be fired

Pariah States

BleepingComputer reports:

North Korean XORIndex malware hidden in 67 malicious npm packages

DarkReading reports:

China-Backed Salt Typhoon Hacks US National Guard for Nearly a Year

4 Chinese APTs Attack Taiwan’s Semiconductor Industry

Noyb has:

How TikTok, AliExpress & WeChat ignore your GDPR rights

Big Media

404 Media reports:

The Media’s Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work

TechPolicy reports:

Old Tricks, New Tech: How Legacy Media Capture Fuels Today’s Digital Authoritarianism

Mediations in an Emergency reports:

Please Shout Fire. This Theater Is Burning

Big Tech

Ars Technica reports:

New Grok AI model surprises experts by checking Elon Musk’s views before answering

TechCrunch reports:

Of course, Grok’s AI companions want to have sex and burn down schools

OpenAI and Anthropic researchers decry ‘reckless’ safety culture at Elon Musk’s xAI

The Verge asks:

Where are the iPhone’s WebKit-less browsers?

Pluralistic by Cory Doctorow has:

Where are the iPhone’s WebKit-less browsers?

404 Media reports:

a16z-Backed AI Site Civitai Is Mostly Porn, Despite Claiming Otherwise

The Markup reports:

AI is helping students be more independent, but the isolation could be career poison

This times 1,000.

Terror

404 Media reports:

3D Printing Patterns Might Make Ghost Guns More Traceable Than We Thought

Cybersecurity/Privacy

Bleeping Computer has:

Google Gemini flaw hijacks email summaries for phishing

Malicious VSCode extension in Cursor IDE led to $500K crypto theft

Sounds like a win-win.

Police disrupt “Diskstation” ransomware gang attacking NAS devices

Ars Technica reports:

Hackers exploit a blind spot by hiding malware inside DNS records

DarkReading reports:

Military Veterans May Be What Cybersecurity Is Looking For

Beats being in the National Guard.

Women Who ‘Hacked the Status Quo’ Aim to Inspire Cybersecurity Careers

The Next Web reports:

Whisper emerges from stealth with ‘God Mode’ to tackle cybercrime

Fediverse

Connected Places has:

Fediverse Report – #125

Age Verification Laws: Are the New Social Networks Different, Or Not At All?

Steve Bate has:

ActivityPub Client API: A Way Forward

The Social Web Foundation has:

Seeking interop testing for geosocial ActivityPub client

Mastodon has:

Trunk & Tidbits, June 2025

Privacy Guides has:

Privacy and Security on Mastodon

Bandwagon has an update:

July 2025

Elena Rossini has:

My adventures in self-hosting: day 211 (CDN edition)

Forgejo announces:

Forgejo v12.0 is available

TechCrunch reports:

Meta appoints generative AI VP to run Threads

I guess it wasn’t shitty enough.

Slightly Federated Social Media

Connected Places has:

Bluesky Report – #125

Reuters reports:

European project Eurosky aims to reduce reliance on US tech giants

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

#125 #ActivityPub #AI #ATProto #Autocracy #Bandwagon #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bluesky #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Forgejo #Mastodon #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #Threads

battalion.mobileatom.net/?p=21

Finished Yanis Varoufakis's Technofeudalism the other day.

Short n sweet takedown of capitalism and a clear argument for the term.

Doesn't delve too deep into political theory or philosophy so it's easy to understand—even for all those people who think they know something about politics.

One of those books everyone should read/listen to.

A rather optimistic conclusion but at least it's prescriptive.

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:

Control content use for AI training with Cloudflare’s managed robots.txt and blocking for monetized content

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:

‘AI is no longer optional’: Microsoft is allegedly pressuring employees to use AI tools through manager evaluations

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:

Fediverse Report – #123

Mastodon has:

Mastodon 4.4 for Developers

Dead Superher looks at:

Mitigating the “7 Deadly Fediverse UX Sins”

Jaz-Michael King shares:

Digital Belonging: Why Language and Locality Matter

Viger has:

Flipboard Surf

TechCrunch reports:

Automattic puts Tumblr migration to WordPress on hold

Ghost has:

The Longformers: Ghost, WordPress, Flipboard, Fediverse

NodeBB asks:

What drew you to ActivityPub?

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:

Bluesky Report – #123

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

battalion.mobileatom.net/?p=20

Re #technofeudalism. Has it really superseded capitalism? Just restating #Marx et al but a concise counter to #Varoufakis.

"We are like feudal serfs forced to hand over some of the product of our labour for free, argues Varoufakis, describing us as “cloud serfs”.

But is this “content” creation really work? In other words, is it the source of economic value that creates profits? Is this a fundamentally new economic relation?

After all, people have long provided content for free in capitalism. Telephone companies could never have turned huge profits without people providing free content for telephone calls. Before that, postal companies could never have survived and profited without people providing content for letters. But were they providing labour by doing so?"

greenleft.org.au/content/techn

Green Left · Technofeudalism: A new era?In his latest book, Yanis Varoufakis, economist and former Greek finance minister in the leftist SYRIZA government, argues that with the advent of the internet and related technologies, we have now entered an era beyond capitalism — technofeudalism. But is this really the case, asks Neville Spencer.

This is well beyond Trump.

This is a kitchen sink wet dream of U.S. oligarchs who have been scheming for its passage for decades. It's a transformation of American society, democracy, economy, etc., and not for the better.

Then they're planning on letting the #ChristoFascist #Dominionists play the role of Kapo in the new #TechnoFeudalism

So...fun times. What are you doing to prepare?

#Resilience is an act of #Resistance

@redstateinsurgents

You don’t have agree with everything Yanis Varoufakis says or thinks. I for example, don’t agree with his thinking of the Russo-Ukrainian war and European defence.

But he’s an economist, and on that front his warnings should be taken very seriously.

Judging the current US regime as clueless as it’s head buffoons — Trump, Hegseth & Vance — is a grave mistake. The financial team behind him has a plan, and they know what they’re doing.

youtube.com/watch?v=hMjLaTiY0v
#economy #usa #technofeudalism