#encrypted messaging platforms

[olivergisttv]

The Best Open-Source Software for Secure Messaging

In an age where privacy concerns are growing, secure messaging has become a priority for many users. Open-source software, known for its transparency and security, offers some of the best solutions for secure messaging. If you want to communicate privately without worrying about third-party access or data breaches, here are the top open-source platforms that can safeguard your…

[techdriveplay]

How Many Users Are There on Major Social Media Platforms in 2024?

Social media continues to be a pivotal part of our daily lives, shaping how we communicate, share information, and consume content. As of 2024, the landscape of social media is more expansive and influential than ever. But how many users are there on major social media platforms in 2024? Let’s dive into the latest statistics to understand the scale of this digital phenomenon. Facebook: 2.96…

[audristarzz]

Stop the take it down act

While many censorship bills are trying to be passed, the Take It Down act is one that we should be making much noise about alongside KOSA. Unfortunately it’s already passed senate but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep calling. And reblogging and saying “boost” while that spreads awareness across Tumblr, it in my opinion doesn’t do much else. If we really want to try to keep the internet and our first amendment we have to continue to fight and call. While things look scary at this time given circumstances, I urge you not to give up and keep calling.

the Take It Down Act as stated in this article is require platforms to remove nonconsensually distributed intimate imagery (NDII) within 48 hours of notice by a user, but provides no exception for encrypted private messages.  This means companies would be required to abandon end-to-end encryption so they can read and moderate your DMs. The bill also has no safeguards against false reports being used to remove protected and already censored speech.

we should be making as much noise for the take it down act as we do for KOSA and the more we sit around and do nothing that’s when we are all in trouble.

[cryptosocialnetwork]

Focus.xyz – Redefining the Creator Economy with Web3

Welcome to the future of social media. Focus.xyz isn’t just another platform—it’s a revolution. Built on the powerful DeSo blockchain, Focus empowers creators to monetize directly, build communities freely, and own their content without middlemen or platform fees. 🔥 Why Creators Are Switching to Focus.xyz

1. 100% Creator Revenue: No Cuts, No Catch. Say goodbye to heavy platform fees. With Focus, creators keep 100% of their earnings, from tips and subscriptions to premium content unlocks and even custom token launches.

2. Post-to-Earn Model : Every post can earn you real crypto rewards. Focus incentivizes quality engagement—your content isn’t just liked, it’s valued. Some posts have earned up to $1,000.

3. Complete Content Ownership : p Your followers, your content, your rules. Built on a decentralized blockchain, Focus gives creators full control and ensures censorship resistance and permanence.

4. Private & Secure by Design Focus enables anonymous posting, end-to-end encrypted messaging, and decentralized identity. Engage with your audience without ever compromising your privacy.

💡 Perfect for: Influencers tired of being demonetized. Educators and experts are monetizing premium knowledge. Communities and DAOs are looking for secure social engagement. Web3-native creators wanting real crypto-native monetization.

📈 Built for Viral Growth Referral Rewards: Invite others and earn from their activity—perfect for community builders. Engagement Bounties: Discover top content creators and get rewarded. Early Mover Advantage: With $75M in early backing from names like Coinbase, Sequoia, and a16z, now’s the time to grow with Focus.

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👉 Start today: https://focus.xyz

👉 Follow and earn: Post. Engage. Get rewarded.

[mariacallous]

Neo-Nazis and white supremacists are sharing Hitler-related propaganda and trying to recruit new members on TikTok, according to a new report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) shared exclusively with WIRED. The TikTok algorithm is also promoting this content to new users, researchers found, as extremist communities are leveraging the huge popularity of TikTok among younger audiences to spread their message.

The report from ISD details how hundreds of extremist TikTok accounts are openly posting videos promoting Holocaust denial and the glorification of Hitler and Nazi-era Germany, and suggesting that Nazi ideology is a solution to modern-day issues such as the alleged migrant invasion of Western countries. The accounts also show support for white supremacist mass shooters and livestream-related footage or recreations of these massacres. Many of the accounts use Nazi symbols in their profile pictures or include white supremacist codes in their usernames.

Nathan Doctor, an ISD researcher who authored the report, says he began his investigation earlier this year when he came across one neo-Nazi account on TikTok while conducting research for another project.

He was quickly able to unmask a much broader network of accounts that appeared to be actively helping each other through liking, sharing, and commenting on each other’s accounts in order to increase their viewership and reach.

The groups promoting neo-Nazi narratives are typically siloed in more fringe platforms, like Telegram, the encrypted messaging app. But Telegram has become a place to discuss recruitment techniques for TikTok specifically: White supremacist groups there share videos, images, and audio tracks that members can use, explicitly telling other members to cross-post the content on TikTok.

“We posted stuff on our brand new tiktok account with 0 followers but had more views than you could ever have on bitchute or twitter,” one account in a Neo-Nazi group posted on Telegram about their outreach on TikTok. “It just reaches much more people.”

Others have followed suit. One prominent neo-Nazi has often asked his thousands of Telegram followers to “juice,” or algorithmically boost, his TikTok videos to increase their viral potential.

An extremist Telegram channel with 12,000 followers urged members to promote the neo-Nazi documentary Europa: The Last Battle by blanketing TikTok with reaction videos in an effort to make the film go viral. Researchers from ISD found dozens of videos on TikTok featuring clips from the film, some with over 100,000 views. “One account posting such snippets has received nearly 900k views on their videos, which include claims that the Rothschild family control the media and handpick presidents, as well as other false or antisemitic claims,” the researchers wrote.

This is far from the first time the role that TikTok’s algorithm plays in promoting extremist content has been exposed. Earlier this month, the Global Network on Extremism and Technology reported that TikTok’s algorithm was promoting the “adoration of minor fascist ideologues.” The same researchers found last year that it was boosting Eurocentric supremacist narratives in Southeast Asia. Earlier this month, WIRED reported how TikTok’s search suggestions were pushing young voters in Germany towards the far-right Alternative for Germany party ahead of last month’s EU elections.

“Hateful behavior, organizations and their ideologies have no place on TikTok, and we remove more than 98 percent of this content before it is reported to us,” Jamie Favazza, a TikTok spokesperson tells WIRED. “We work with experts to keep ahead of evolving trends and continually strengthen our safeguards against hateful ideologies and groups.”

Part of the reason platforms like TikTok have in the past been unable to effectively clamp down on extremist content is due to the use of code language, emojis, acronyms, and numbers by these groups. For example, many of the neo-Nazi accounts used a juice box emoji to refer to Jewish people.

“At present, self-identified Nazis are discussing TikTok as an amenable platform to spread their ideology, especially when employing a series of countermeasures to evade moderation and amplify content as a network,” the researchers write in the report.

But Doctor points out that even when viewing non-English-language content, spotting these patterns should be possible. “Despite seeing content in other languages, you can still pretty quickly recognize what it means,” says Doctor. “The coded nature of it isn't an excuse, because if it's pretty easily recognizable to someone in another language, it should be recognizable to TikTok as well.”

TikTok says it has more than “40,000 trust and safety professionals” working on moderation around the globe, and the company says its Trust and Safety Team has specialists in violent extremism who constantly monitor developments in these communities, including the use of new coded language.

While many of the identified accounts are based in the US, Doctor found that the network was also international.

“It's definitely global, it's not even just the English language,” Doctor tells WIRED. “We found stuff in French, Hungarian, German. Some of these are in countries where Naziism is illegal. Russian is a big one. But we even found things that were a bit surprising, like groups of Mexican Nazis, or across Latin America. So, yeah, definitely a global phenomenon.”

Doctor did not find any evidence that the international groups were actively coordinating with each other, but they were certainly aware of each others’ presence on TikTok: “These accounts are definitely engaging with each others' content. You can see, based on comment sections, European English-speaking pro-Nazi accounts reacting with praise toward Russian-language pro-Nazi content.”

The researchers also found that beyond individual accounts and groups promoting extremist content, some real-world fascist or far-right organizations were openly recruiting on the platform.

Accounts from these groups posted links in their TikTok videos to a website featuring antisemitic flyers and instructions on how to print and distribute them. They also boosted Telegram channels featuring more violent and explicitly extremist discourse.

In one example cited by ISD, an account whose username contains an antisemitic slur and whose bio calls for an armed revolution and the complete annihilation of Jewish people, has shared incomplete instructions to build improvised explosive devices, 3D-printed guns, and “napalm on a budget.”

To receive the complete instructions, the account holder urged followers to join a “secure groupchat” on encrypted messaging platforms Element and Tox. Doctor says that comments under the account holder’s videos indicate that a number of his followers had joined these chat groups.

ISD reported this account, along with 49 other accounts, in June for breaching TikTok’s policies on hate speech, encouragement of violence against protected groups, promoting hateful ideologies, celebrating violent extremists, and Holocaust denial. In all cases, TikTok found no violations, and all accounts were initially allowed to remain active.

A month later, 23 of the accounts had been banned by TikTok, indicating that the platform is at least removing some violative content and channels over time. Prior to being taken down, the 23 banned accounts had racked up at least 2 million views.

The researchers also created new TikTok accounts to understand how Nazi content is promoted to new users by TikTok’s powerful algorithm.

Using an account created at the end of May, researchers watched 10 videos from the network of pro-Nazi users, occasionally clicking on comment sections but stopping short of any form of real engagement such as liking, commenting, or bookmarking. The researchers also viewed 10 pro-Nazi accounts. When the researchers then flipped to the For You feed within the app, it took just three videos for the algorithm to suggest a video featuring a World War II-era Nazi soldier overlayed with a chart of US murder rates, with perpetrators broken down by race. Later, a video appeared of an AI-translated speech from Hitler overlaid with a recruitment poster for a white nationalist group.

Another account created by ISD researchers saw even more extremist content promoted in its main feed, with 70 percent of videos coming from self-identified Nazis or featuring Nazi propaganda. After the account followed a number of pro-Nazi accounts in order to access content on channels set to private, the TikTok algorithm also promoted other Nazi accounts to follow. All 10 of the first accounts recommended by TikTok to this account used Nazi symbology or keywords in their usernames or profile photos, or featured Nazi propaganda in their videos.

“In no way is this particularly surprising,” says Abbie Richards, a disinformation researcher specializing in TikTok. "These are things that we found time and time again. I have certainly found them in my research."

Richards wrote about white supremacist and militant accelerationist content on the platform in 2022, including the case of neo-Nazi Paul Miller, who, while serving a 41-month sentence for firearm charges, featured in a TikTok video that racked up more than 5 million views and 700,000 likes during the three months it was on the platform before being removed.

Marcus Bösch, a researcher based in Hamburg University who monitors TikTok, tells WIRED that the report’s findings “do not come as a big surprise,” and he’s not hopeful there is anything TikTok can do to fix the problem.

“I’m not sure exactly where the problem is,” Bösch says. “TikTok says it has around 40,000 content moderators, and it should be easy to understand such obvious policy violations. Yet due to the sheer volume [of content], and the ability by bad actors to quickly adapt, I am convinced that the entire disinformation problem cannot be finally solved, neither with AI nor with more moderators.”

TikTok says it has completed a mentorship program with Tech Against Terrorism, a group that seeks to disrupt terrorists’ online activity and helps TikTok identify online threats.

“Despite proactive steps taken, TikTok remains a target for exploitation by extremist groups as its popularity grows,” Adam Hadley, executive director of Tech Against Terrorism, tells WIRED. “The ISD study shows that a small number of violent extremists can wreak havoc on large platforms due to adversarial asymmetry. This report therefore underscores the need for cross-platform threat intelligence supported by improved AI-powered content moderation. The report also reminds us that Telegram should also be held accountable for its role in the online extremist ecosystem.”

As Hadley outlines, the report’s findings show that there are significant loopholes in the company’s current policies.

“I've always described TikTok, when it comes to far-right usage, as a messaging platform,” Richards said. “More than anything, it's just about repetition. It's about being exposed to the same hateful narrative over and over and over again, because at a certain point you start to believe things after you just see them enough, and they start to really influence your worldview.”

[taikeero-lecoredier]

3 BAD BILLS TO KEEP IN MIND FOR 2025

KOSA : Kosa is a terrible internet bill that would make it mandatory for platforms online to enforce age verification via ID, and deeming any content “inappropriate” for kids to be banned. This could range from not safe for work content, to health ressources,LGBT ressources, to climate change. It’ll be up to politicians to dictate what is and isn’t proper for kids,and, of course, killing encryption. Here are some ressources to get ready to fight KOSA : https://taikeero-lecoredier.tumblr.com/post/738573191699660800/we-have-a-server-to-help-fight-against-this-we Scripts to use : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IyBUe6frFGF44rJQU3TahZ5zyG3tC7jai_hPneAKlnM/edit?tab=t.0 JOIN OUR SERVER AGAINST IT ! We organize call in days and other ressources. https://discord.gg/FPDJYkUujM

HR9495 would allow to stripe an organization of it's "non profits" status, and force them to pay taxes if the govt can "prove" that they are affiliated with terrorists with barely any concrete proof. This will impact non profit organizations such as ACLU, AO3, Fight For The Future, Electronic Frontier Foundation, AO3, The Internet Archive and many more that fight for human rights. Here is more infos and scripts you can use here : (THE POST IS OUTDATED DATE WISE BUT THE SCRIPTS IN THIS POST CAN STILL BE USED) : https://taikeero-lecoredier.tumblr.com/post/767859383226056704/hr9495-on-its-way-to-senate#notes Keep an eye for when ACLU makes a new call tool you can use,or contact your reps directly when the time needs it,they should look like this (The "Stop The Internet Censorship" discord server link above also help fight against it !) CHAT CONTROL If you are in Europe, I urge you to keep your eyes on this horrid EU proposal, as it will make it mandatory for private messages to be scanned by artificial intelligence, and users have to agree to be scanned or else they cant send images, videos or links anymore. More infos here : https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/posts/chat-control/ Email English script: https://taikeero-lecoredier.tumblr.com/post/769688923967537152/chat-control-email-script-english#notes Contact your meps : https://op.europa.eu/en/web/who-is-who/organization/-/organization/COREPER/ Join our server against it, we gather ressources and scripts against it ! Non EU people are more than welcome to join us ! https://discord.com/invite/e7FYdYnMkS

[misssparklingpaws]

Hey!! So, I watched Thunderbolts a few weeks ago and I've been obsessed! It kind of felt like 2016 all over again. After the movie, I had this idea and decided to write it down. I'm not a writer, but I wanted to give it a try. I hope you like it!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shadow in flame

Aria Stark, Tony’s grieving older daughter, returns to train the Thunderbolts at Bucky Barnes’ request. She’s here to keep them alive—not to heal them. But facing broken people means confronting her own buried grief… and maybe finding unexpected love in Robert Reynolds, a sweet but powerful unstable man.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shadow in the Flame

Chapter 1: Ghosts Don’t Knock, They Walk In

Bucky Barnes had never been good at asking for help. But standing in the half-lit command room of the newly reoccupied Avengers Tower, now Thunderbolt HQ, he found himself hesitating in front of a comm unit that hadn’t been used in months.

“Are you gonna press the damn button or not?” Yelena’s voice came from behind him, tired but amused.

He sighed. “She’s not the easiest person to ask.”

“Well,” Yelena leaned against the console, arms crossed, “neither are you.”

Bucky smirked despite himself. “Fair.”

He pressed the button.

---

Aria Lucía Stark wasn’t used to being summoned anymore. Not by SHIELD. Not by the government. Not bye old friends.

Running Stark Industries didn’t leave Aria much time to breathe, exactly how she liked it. Meetings, tech launches, diplomatic dinners, defense contracts... all perfect distractions from the emptiness that had never quite gone away since her father’s death.

She lived in quiet obscurity, floating between labs and work. Grief never left her.

She spoke to Pepper daily, more like reports than conversations. And every weekend, like clockwork, she took Morgan out for ice cream, teaching her to build circuits and ignore grief the same way she did: by moving forward.

Aria didn’t cry. Ever. Not when she returned after the Snap. Not when she meet her 5 year old sister and the little girl hugged her like she knew her from years, Not at the funeral. Not even when Morgan asked her once, “Do you miss him too?”

She just nodded, kissed the top of the little girl’s head, and changed the subject.

When Bucky Barnes called, he didn’t use official channels. Just a voice message on the encrypted line her father once reserved for Avengers business.

"Need someone who knows how to handle messes. And broken people. You were raised by one. Come to the tower. It’s time.”

She didn't know why but after hearing the message she didn’t hesitate. She packed one bag and boarded the jet herself.

---

Aria Lucia Stark stood at the platform's edge as her quinjet landed. Stark Tech. Sleek. Perfect. Like her.

She stepped out in black tight outfit, black compression shirt, black expensive leggings and combat boots, her expression unreadable beneath oversized sunglasses. Long dark brown almost black hair pull in a high ponytail, body petite but undeniably strong. Her presence was magnetic.

She hadn’t expected the tower to look this alive.

“Welcome home, Stark.”

“I don’t live here,” Aria replied coolly, setting her bags. “I’m consulting two months then I go back to dealing with things that don’t explode.” She said plainly. “You cut your hair."

“You didn’t,” he replied.

She allowed herself a twitch of a smirk.

“I appreciate you coming,” he added, tone softening. “I know it’s not easy, coming back here.”

“I didn’t come for here,” Aria said, arms crossed. “You called. I owe you.”

Yelena snorted. “You must be fun at parties.”

“I don’t attend them.” Aria’s voice was even, her face unreadable.

Walker nodded once in acknowledgment. Ava just blinked and vanished from sight. Red Guardian looking excited.

And then there was Robert Reynolds, fidgety, brown-haired. He barely looked up when she entered. Eyes wide like he was seeing ghosts and fingers twitching at his sides like static lived under his skin.

“Is he stable?” she asked Bucky.

“He’s trying.”

“I’ll need a full psychological scan and containment protocols.”

“He’s not a weapon.”

She met Bucky’s eyes. “Neither was Dad. Didn’t stop the universe from aiming him like one.”

Robert Reynolds kept his eyes on the floor.

“This is Aria Stark,” Bucky said. “You listen to her, you learn from her, and if you're lucky, you survive her training.”

“I’m not here to make friends,” Aria added, gaze scanning them like data points. “I’m here because the last time people like you were left unsupervised, half the planet evaporated.”

---

By nightfall, she sat in the kitchen and took a video call.

Morgan waved wildly through the screen. “Ari! I built a robot that waters Mom’s plants! It has a face now!”

“Very efficient,” Aria said, lips twitching at the edges. “Just don’t make it sentient.”

Pepper appeared behind Morgan. “How’s the tower?”

“Dysfunctional,” Aria answered. “But I’ve seen worse.”

“You’re doing the right thing,” Pepper said gently. “Even if it doesn’t feel like it.”

“It never does.”

Morgan frowned. “You sound sad.”

“I’m not I'm just tired corazón.”

Morgan beamed. “You should sleep in the lab! That always makes you happy!”

Aria smiled, just a little. “Maybe I will.”

A loud crash startled her. She turned to see Robert Reynolds tripping over a table trying to escape his own shadow again.

Aria sighed, stood ending the call after saying bye to her half baby sister and walking over to help him up.

“You’re not very good at walking,” she said dryly, offering a hand.

He looked up at her, eyes wide with confusion and fear, but took her hand.

“I’m... trying, and sorry I interrupt your mom call, wanted a milkshake" He mumbled.

She look him in the eye, ice cold "Pepper isn't my mother, but don't worry I was already saying goodbye"

"Mmm sorry I..." Robert started

"See you in the morning Reynolds" Aria Said and leave the room.

---

She returned to the training floor the next morning. The team was already assembled, half-arguing, half-stretching.

She cleared her throat. Her voice rang out like iron.

“From today on, I’m in charge of your combat refinement, psychological evaluations, and mission planning. You don’t have to like me. But you will follow orders. Any questions?”

Nobody responded.

She stared at them “Survive a week without destroying each other, and I’ll consider it.”

The room went quiet.

And then, for the first time in years, Aria Stark felt something close to anticipation.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------I hope you like it

[vldunchartedregions]

Honestly, it really makes me wonder if there's any group out there that is actually working in restoring season 8 to what it actually was supposed to originally be, as in, making actually video files with the original season 8 script, or as close to it as possible!

Hello, hello, hello!

We wonder as well. I'm 99% sure it's in a vault (that, or at least the animatics or storyboards are still on file. Hell, even the full comic con poster would suffice because we know these exist out there).

Why would we know that?

Someone on our team works in an entertainment company. These types of files do not get deleted or thrown out. It would more than likely be in a vault or locked up in encrypted files.

Files will only be truly lost if they're transitioning over to new portals, or drives, or whatever platform they use to store data. Sometimes hard copies are saved on discs too.

Speaking to your message, we won't have videos... but we have artists on board who are going to edit some screenshots to what they would originally would've looked like.

Case in point, since @honeyspeeches has already done some of the work and pointed out the Pidge might have been Lance in Knight of Lights Part 1:

They were correct! (allegedly, of course)

See how obvious it is that it's Lance now when we just recoloured the hand armour?

Inch resting, my friends. Honestly, we've had a gut feeling that this year something's going to drop. We think it'll be something that'll truly blow all of us out the water.

UPDATE: We aim to post our table of contents and glossary outline (which will be pinned for easy access to readers) by June 10th.

We appreciate your patience!

[gracien-system]

Hey folks, now's a good time to switch to encrypted messaging platforms. No reason in particular. Just, y'know, discord is known to give information over to the police if they politely ask.

If you want something similar to discord, might I recommend Element? It's free, open source, end-to-end encrypted, and is similar (although not identical) to how discord is formatted.

If you want something that has been proven to work in the past, and that works more like telegram, go for Signal.

There are others out there. Go looking for stuff based on Matrix. Never trust shit that is closed source. Happy hunting.

[darkeagleruins]

Kinda weird a 20 year kid in Pennsylvania shooting guns at the same gun range used by DHS agents had an encrypted messaging account in Belgium, where NATO is headquartered.

[howlsofbloodhounds]

Idk if u answered this before but would color have social media

cause idk why but I find it funny as hell that they would know brainrot and the souls would be laughing about it so much

I personally don’t think he’d be on social media much, at least not compared to Epic or Killer.

He’d definitely have a phone and probably has a few games and social media apps downloaded, like Tumblr mainly because he likes the stimboards and looking at posts about his interests, probably has YouTube.

I can only see him having TikTok because Killer and Epic kept sending him videos via text messages that he could never watch because he didn’t have the app downloaded.

Other than that, I think not only is Color very behind on recent apps, trends, memes, etc. due to his decades of isolation and having to figure out how to operate and adjust to technology again (especially recently developed technology that he might’ve missed out on during his time in the Void), but I also don’t think he spends much time on his phone except during periods where he felt too alone and isolated (during his time in the hospital perhaps) and during the period where his and Killer’s friendship was still developing during Killer’s time under Nightmare.

I’m considering the idea that maybe lurking on social media apps, not doing anything but watching videos and reading comments or just silently watching other people talk to each other in discord servers or group chats, could potentially help Color feel less alone without the overwhelm and stress of having to physically be around people before his mind and body has time to adjust to it.

But there’s also the possibility that lurking in group chats and not being acknowledged because he’s not chiming in to chat—or worse, deciding to chime in and being ignored—could trigger an episode of derealization in him.

He can’t see, touch, or even hear the people that’s supposedly behind the screens and typing those messages—he has no proof they’re actually real. He has no proof that his existence is still real, and that he hasn’t been forgotten or erased again.

These times are probably when he needs to take breaks from social media, from his phone, and try to find a way to ground himself before he spirals into a panic attack or an episode of psychosis.

On top of this, with time still moving on while he was in the Void and there being no technology during his time in captivity—and very little activities to do to keep his mind and body active—not only would Color be very far behind in technological advancements, but he may struggle with cognitive decline—such as memory degeneration or struggle with memory retrieval.

So even if he’s handed a phone he knew existed before he fell into the Void—even if he knows that he understood how to use this phone before—he’ll still struggle to recall how to use it.

Skills require reinforcement. Without practice, even basic technological skills (like using a phone, typing, or navigating software) could deteriorate. If he used to code, edit videos, or operate specific devices, those abilities might be rusty or completely forgotten.

Without the mental exercise of problem-solving daily issues (which technology often requires), their ability to “figure things out” could be impaired.

He might experience anxiety or frustration when encountering technology, feeling overwhelmed by how much they don’t understand.

Phones, computers, smart assistants, AR/VR, and even basic interfaces would feel foreign. He might not immediately understand touchscreen gestures, biometric security (face ID, fingerprint scanning), or AI assistants.

With social media platforms, he wouldn’t understand what’s popular, how they work, or digital etiquette. They might not recognize how entertainment has shifted from DVDs or early internet platforms to on-demand streaming.

Entire ways of communicating—like meme culture, slang, internet trends—may be lost on him. Multi-factor authentication, encryption, and cybersecurity concerns would be unfamiliar.

They may not understand how to navigate digital privacy, potentially making him vulnerable to scams or data exploitation. He might expect direct phone calls rather than texting or social media messaging.

Emojis, GIFs, and shorthand might be confusing or seem meaningless to them. Color might begin to feel frustrated and alienated, feeling like a “time traveler” thrown into a world he doesn’t understand, struggling to keep up.

They may resist using modern technology due to intimidation or resentment. He could avoid it as much as possible, or even grow to develop Technophobia.

The sheer speed and saturation of digital life (ads, notifications, video content, instant access to information) might be too much at once—and Color could struggle with overwhelm and sensory overload, the stress leading to episodes of dissociation.

He might try to make a call but not understand why payphones no longer exist or how smartphones work. He might struggle to use a self-checkout machine because he expected cashiers.

He might not recognize voice-activated AI assistants like Siri or Alexa, thinking a person is speaking to them. He might find modern websites overly cluttered and overwhelming compared to the simpler internet he knew.

He might get lost in a city because he expected to read paper maps rather than use GPS apps. He might feel isolated in conversations when people reference digital culture, memes, or slang he doesnt understand.

They might have an emotional reaction to something like facial recognition or biometric security, feeling watched or controlled.

They’d need gradual reintroduction to prevent overwhelm. Someone patient would need to walk him through even basic things like using a phone or searching online.

He might prefer physical books, notes, and manual methods rather than digital alternatives at first. If he focuses too much on how far behind they are, it could fuel self-loathing or despair.

This could be a deeply frustrating and alienating experience, reinforcing the sense that the world moved on without him.

On top of all this, too, is the fact that 1. he is a Sans alternate timeline, therefore he likely ‘grew up’ Underground and only had access to whatever technology fell from the Surface intact or whatever was able to be scavenged and repurposed, and 2. he has the souls of human children inside him.

He can potentially be effected by their knowledge of things on the Surface and human culture based on their what they’re able to tell him, show him, what he dreams about (potentially souls’ memories), or even if something triggers one of the souls and he sees whatever they’re remembering.

Taking further into account that not only have the souls been removed from the rest of the world for about two decades like Color has, but they were removed from the Surface and human world for even longer via being locked away in jars.

On top of that, it all depends on what year the souls were born and what year they Fell/were killed, and how far apart the six of them were. One soul might know something about technology none of the others do, because the other souls either weren’t born yet or died before getting to know.

[reading-writing-revolution]

This week, the FBI and CISA published a guide encouraging Americans not to text, and to use encryption messaging as much as possible.

Here's our practical guide on protecting yourself from surveillance, from best encryption messaging platforms to location services:

This is simple, smart, and practical. Don't freak out, but read and think about what you put out there.

[audristarzz]

Take it down act

While many censorship bills are trying to be passed, the Take It Down act is one that we should be making much noise about alongside KOSA. Unfortunately it’s already passed senate but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep calling. And reblogging and saying “boost” while that spreads awareness across Tumblr, it in my opinion doesn’t do much else. If we really want to try to keep the internet and our first amendment we have to continue to fight and call. While things look scary at this time given circumstances, I urge you not to give up and keep calling.

the Take It Down Act as stated in this article is require platforms to remove nonconsensually distributed intimate imagery (NDII) within 48 hours of notice by a user, but provides no exception for encrypted private messages.  This means companies would be required to abandon end-to-end encryption so they can read and moderate your DMs. The bill also has no safeguards against false reports being used to remove protected and already censored speech.

[thelostdreamsthings]

{Why is Telegram a big headache for the Jews, USA and France?

Why did they decide to literally kidnap the owner Pavel Durov at the Paris Airport?

Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of Telegram, was arrested today in France, there are different charges against him.

Telegram is the main source of information about the Israeli genocide and massacre in Gaza.

Thousands of videos of Jews massacring children have been posted on Telegram channels by journalists living in Gaza.

Israel is trying to stop that flow of information and that is why it has killed over 100 journalists in Gaza alone.

The most accurate information about the situation on the ground in Ukraine comes out on Telegram, and NATO can't control it.

Many people use Telegram as their source of information because the information comes directly from the field.

Many dead NATO soldiers appear on Telegram and the CIA and NATO command can no longer hide their direct involvement in the war broke out in Russia.

Telegram did a lot of damage to the French army in Africa.

The Africans organized all their protests, resistance and everything else against the French occupation forces through Telegram.

Russian mercenaries, obviously, use different platforms, but Telegram played for them an important role in accelerating the deterioration of France's military posture, especially in Africa.

This is a famous photo of Telegram founder Pavel Durov giving Putin his middle finger.

In 2011, Durov said that the Russian government had requested him to cancel the accounts of anti-government figures on his social media platform.

Durov not only did not follow, but also publicly released this photo of "raising the middle finger to Putin" in the media, which received cheers from the West.

After the 2014 Ukrainian coup, Durov refused to provide the Russian government with information on users involved in the Ukrainian colorful revolution.

In the same year, he left Russia, claiming that Russia was "unable to keep up with the information age". Shortly after, he acquired French and UAE citizenship and stated that he had no plans to return to Russia.

Today, Durov was arrested by France on charges of using the platform to "support terrorist activities" and "pedophilia" after refusing to provide user information to the United States and Israel, facing 20 years of imprisonment.

Durov helped Ukrainians stage a coup d'état in 2014.

Then the whole West glorified him.

He also trolled the Russian FSB and sent them the “encryption keys” to telegram in 2017.

Back then the west cheered his fight on.

The founder of Telegram has been detained by French intelligence services at Le Bourget Airport in Paris while exiting a private jet.

He is expected to be presented to a judge later this evening, facing multiple charges, according to TF1.

Potential charges include terrorism, drug-related offenses, complicity, fraud, money laundering, concealment, and possession of child exploitation content.

The main concern of EU authorities regarding Telegram is its encrypted messaging, as reported by TF1}

{And despite Durlov helped NATO in the 2014 coup in Ukraine, Russia is working to free Telegram founder Pavel Durov after he was arrested in France.}

If Pavel Durov could be arrested on these charges, then any country can arrest the leaders of Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft… any tech company that helps people communicate!

France is a 🤡 puppet of USA and Israel, who are mad at not having backdoor to Telegram.

Regarding Pavel Durov, Julian Assange, TikTok, Scott Ritter etc. etc. ⬇️

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater." Frank Zappa

[mariacallous]

Jack and Fiona wanted to do something, but they didn’t know where to start. For months, the couple had watched as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, then spearheading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), had turned the US into what they thought was “a fascist hellscape.” But they live in a deeply red county in a deeply red state in the South, and were worried that speaking out publicly could mean putting them and their children in danger.

Jack, who requested WIRED use a pseudonym to safeguard his identity, has long been familiar with extremism in the US. He says he was brought to his first KKK meeting at the age of 7. “I have seen the kind of behavior exhibited by MAGA, and know that it's exactly what I saw when I was younger,” he says. “The strain it is putting on society is the same strain that it puts on every single one [of us] who was in that space.”

So Jack and Fiona turned to technology. Searching on platforms like Reddit and Bluesky, Fiona stumbled on Realtime Fascism, a website that uses AI to trawl the internet for news articles featuring keywords linked to fascism. The tool analyzes those stories to produce a score for the threat posed by fascism in the US at any given time. The rating they found when they opened the site in February? CRITICAL.

The couple wanted more people to understand what was happening, so they built their own website called Stick It to Fascists. They bought a $100 thermal label printer, created a QR code linking to Realtime Fascism, and began making stickers.

What began with 500 stickers posted all over their small town “in the heart of MAGA country” quickly grew—with the help of an appeal on Reddit—to a campaign that has so far seen the couple and their children send 750,000 stickers to more than 1,000 people in all 50 states.

Stick It to Fascists is one of countless grassroots efforts that have emerged since Trump took office a second time. Many of them are fueled by technology: printers, QR codes, Reddit, online platforms, encrypted messaging apps like Signal. Across the country, small local groups have used a wide variety of online tools to mobilize their resistance to Trump 2.0 while trying to protect themselves against backlash from the administration. As millions of Americans joined some 2,000 “No Kings” protests last Saturday, these tools were powering the movement.

Spinning up crowdsourced collaborative tools is relatively easy. Maintaining them is much more difficult, however, and without aligned goals or aims, many of them could eventually become digital wastelands. But that is not stopping people who see no other option.

WIRED spoke to more than a dozen people involved in organizing against the Trump administration who all believe that the Democratic Party has not presented a coherent opposition to Trump and DOGE’s dismantling of the government. As a result, the organizers say, they had no choice but to get involved.

“We're doing this now, because in a couple of months, what we're doing may be illegal,” Fiona says. “This administration is already doing everything within their power to limit free speech, and it's extremely important that dissenting voices not be silenced.”

In the early days of Trump's second term, there was concern that an opposition movement against Trump was nowhere to be found.

But the reality is that protest movements this time around are just different than during Trump’s first term. Last time, while groups like the Women’s March and others organized large-scale demonstrations in the early months of his first presidency, this time around opposition is being driven by decentralized groups and individuals focused on a smaller-scale approach.

The change from a top-down movement to a much more decentralized one is key to understanding what’s happening, says Dana Fisher, a professor of sociology at American University and author of American Resistance: From the Women's March to the Blue Wave. “This is what we who study social movements call a moment of tactical innovation, where there are going to be all these innovative ideas about ways to break through and to get people to mobilize and work together in these very dark moments,” Fisher says.

People are still in the streets, as well. Data from the Crowd Counting Consortium, a joint project of the Harvard Kennedy School and the University of Connecticut, shows that in late January and February alone there were over twice as many street protests in the US than in February 2017. The numbers have kept growing.

The protests at Tesla dealerships, for example, began as a grassroots effort that has grown into a nationwide movement. There are also people working together online to combat the disinformation being pushed by Musk and DOGE, in addition to individuals like Jack and Fiona doing what they can. In isolation, these are small-scale protests; viewed as a whole, they show the level of anger that ordinary Americans feel at what has been happening in Washington over the past five months.

The number and scale of the protests has grown significantly, with millions of people turning out at more than a thousand separate protests in all 50 states on April 5. Last Saturday’s No Kings protest, which was organized by dozens of groups, drew over 5 million people to more than 2,100 events across the nation, according to the organizers, though notably not in Washington, DC, where Trump held his military parade to celebrate the US Army’s 250th anniversary.

Many of these calls for protest can be traced back to a single post on a subreddit called 50501, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement.

Sydney Wilson first learned about the online movement against Trump through this subreddit. Her journey into political activism began in late January while she was idly poking around on Reddit and came across a flyer for an event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, at which citizens would be protesting against the Trump administration. Wilson was intrigued, but living 200 miles away, she wondered if there were any events closer to her home in Pittsburgh.

That’s when she found 50501. Though the subreddit had been created just a few days earlier, it was already amassing huge support. It began on January 25 with a single Reddit post calling for citizens to fight back against executive overreach. The idea took hold, and within 10 days, those who signed up had organized protests in 80 cities across the US. Two weeks later, on February 17, they held another set of protests, with thousands of people attending.

Wilson, who had attended political protests in the past but had never been involved in organizing them, joined the group’s Discord channel to help plan.

“Not even in my wildest dreams did I think that my first protest that I organized with another group of Pennsylvanians would have 200 people show up,” Wilson tells WIRED. “Then the next one, I think we had 300 or 400, so I'm optimistic right now. The trick will be to keep this energy going.”

Like Wilson, many of the 311,000 subscribers to the subreddit and the 17,000 members of the group’s Discord have no experience in organizing protests. Still, they felt they had to.

“Democracy needs to be defended, and it's up to us as community members to stand up and do that work, because no one else will do it for us,” Wilson says.

The 50501 group also uses a wide variety of other online platforms to coordinate their efforts, including encrypted messaging apps like Signal and Matrix, which smaller subgroups use for sensitive conversations. Platforms like Mobilize.us allow participants to share information about upcoming protests, while state-level groups come up with ideas for signs and chants on shared Google Docs.

“Everybody's kind of using different strategies to communicate, so it's all over the place,” says TJ Demetriou, the public affairs officer for a 50501 subgroup for veterans. “If you're involved in a couple different groups, it can be confusing.”

Discord is the primary platform for planning and assigning volunteer positions within local groups, but it also serves as a place for the community to vent. Following the group’s protests on March 4, many of the members gathered on the group’s Discord server to watch Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress.

The “general chat” channel was quickly filled with anger, not at what Trump was saying but at the response from the Democrats in the chamber, who had decided the best way to confront Trump was to wear pink blouses and hold up tiny signs that no one could see.

“I kid you not, they are holding signs instead of booing,” one member wrote incredulously. “Bunch of spineless fucks,” another added, after no other Democrat came to the defense of representative Al Green of Texas, who was removed from the chamber for heckling Trump.

“Well I'm glad YOU all are protesting because holy shit that was a weak showing from dems with their bitch=ass [sic] paddles and pink shirts and blue ties,” another member wrote.

Though the group has had a lot of successes, some infighting has unfortunately become a distraction.

In April, the person who posted the original 50501 post, known online as Evolved Fungi, locked down the subreddit entirely, claiming that some national groups were seeking to take control of the 50501 group for their own ends. According to a since-deleted post on Reddit, Fungi believed someone had sought to file trademark applications for the 50501 name. A member of the 50501 leadership group subsequently claimed in a Reddit post that there was an attempt to trademark the name and create a 501c4 entity, but that this was done by “a separate, independent group of three people wholly unconnected to the broader 50501 group.

Fungi, who was posting anonymously, says they were doxed and accused of what some felt was inappropriate behavior during a Zoom call with other members of the 50501 group. Some 50501 members circulated a petition calling for them to step down before they finally did so. Fungi declined to comment when contacted by WIRED.

Fungi's departure didn't slow the movement down. By late spring the organization was deeply involved in organizing the No Kings protests on June 14, ultimately helping bring people to protests across the US and bolstering the movement's momentum even further.

The 50501 movement is not the only grassroots effort that began life online. The Tesla Takedown protests began with a single Bluesky post that exploded in large part thanks to social media posts, including protesters’ pictures and videos outside dealerships. These efforts were boosted when celebrities got involved, and Instagram reels went viral from people like Grammy-winning singer Sheryl Crow waving goodbye to her Tesla.

Other movements online, including tools for keeping tabs on the Trump administration, have also sprung up. One online tracker follows how many of Trump's policy actions align with Project 2025's goals. As of this writing, it shows that more than half of them have been completed or are in progress. Another tracker, Spotlight on DOGE, aims to fact-check claims made about the department's savings. The organizer, who asked to remain anonymous, says they recruited more than a dozen professionals, including lawyers and doctors, across the US to help analyze DOGE's actual savings.

But for all the work being done online to organize, educate, and plan, veteran activists who protested the first Trump presidency believe that success this time around will rely on turning that online support and activity into real-world demonstrations.

“I do think that there's a lot of work to do to move people from where we are now to the kind of mass society-wide struggle that it will take to stop this regime,” Sam Goldman, host of the Refuse Fascism podcast, tells WIRED.

“What this is going to require is sacrifice,” he continues. “It is going to require what people did in the Arab Spring, which was, get in the streets, stay in the streets, bring more people into the streets, coming back again and again and again, and not stopping until their demands were met.”

But deciding what those demands are can be difficult, especially in a movement that is so decentralized, and often leaderless. As national groups and bigger names seek to leverage recently activated grassroots activism, conflicts and disagreements are inevitable. This happened among the leadership of the Women’s March, and it’s already happened within the 50501 subreddit.

Last week, as people took to the streets of Los Angeles to protest deportation raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Trump called in the National Guard and Marines over the objections of California governor Gavin Newsom and LA mayor Karen Bass. Protests persisted anyway, as online supporters hit the streets.

[taikeero-lecoredier]

Chat Control in a nutshell (please reblog this, US people)

Find out more about Chat Control here TAKE ACTION HERE ! OR HERE Calling is much more efficient ! The latter link will redirect you to the official websites of your respective reps. Under the "read more", you will find what you need to say/write when contacting your reps. You will also find an alternate format of this comic,and I give explicit permission for people to translate it and spread it anywhere for awareness. Credit really not needed, I don't care about that rn Even if this is a EU proposal, I am urging Americans to also share this, since it goes hand in hand with KOSA. DON'T FORGET TO JOIN OUR DISCORD SERVER AGAINST CHAT CONTROL ! https://discord.com/invite/e7FYdYnMkS

(Latest update on Chat Control was the 12 september 2024) This is a little long, so feel free to shorten it as you wish : Subject line: "2022/0155(COD) Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing to express my grave concerns regarding the proposed introduction of "Chat Control" This measure poses a serious threat to the privacy and fundamental rights of all EU citizens and stands in stark contradiction to the core principles that the European Union seeks to uphold. The proposed Chat Control contravenes Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which guarantee the right to respect for private and family life and the protection of personal data. The indiscriminate surveillance of private messages without specific suspicion or cause directly violates these fundamental rights. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) sets out stringent rules for the processing of personal data. The proposed indiscriminate surveillance and scanning of private messages before end-to-end encryption is fundamentally incompatible with the principles of data minimization and purpose limitation enshrined in the GDPR. Specifically, Articles 5 and 6 of the GDPR, which govern the lawfulness and principles of data processing, would be violated by the introduction of such measures. The implementation of Client-Side Scanning (CSS) on devices means that all messages and files are scanned on the user's device before being encrypted and sent. This effectively nullifies the protection offered by end-to-end encryption and opens the door to misuse and additional security vulnerabilities. Moreover, the technical capability to scan such content could be exploited by malicious actors to circumvent or manipulate surveillance mechanisms. Such far-reaching surveillance measures not only endanger privacy but also freedom of expression. The knowledge that their private messages are being scanned and monitored could significantly restrict individuals' willingness to freely express themselves. Additionally, trust in digital communication platforms would be severely undermined. I urge you to take a strong stance against this disproportionate and unlawful measure. The privacy and digital rights of EU citizens must be safeguarded. It is imperative that we protect our fundamental rights and ensure transparency in the decision-making processes of our leaders. For more detailed information on the proposal and its implications, please refer to the following resource: Link to Netzpolitik article. https://www.patrick-breyer.de/rat-soll-chatkontrolle-durchwinken-werde-jetzt-aktiv/ Thank you for your attention to this critical matter. Sincerely, [Name] Art. 10 GG , Art. 8 & 11 EU Charta , Art. 8 EMRK (Alternate comic here V)