Brave just did something great for anyone fed up with Big Tech’s grip on their phone. You can now install Brave’s Android browser straight from their own F-Droid repo, no Google Play, no hidden tracking, no unnecessary gatekeepers.
A bombshell House Judiciary report just dropped: and it lays bare a quiet, coordinated assault on American speech. The story: GARM, a group of mega-advertisers controlling ~90% of global ad spend, didn’t only police ads. They acted as a censorship cartel, colluding with foreign governments (yes, including the EU and Australia) to choke lawful speech they didn’t like. GARM’s leaders called President Trump’s speech a “contagion” to be contained... image
Kenyan Government Blocks Telegram, Shuts Down TV Broadcasters Amid Anti-Finance Bill Protests
🚨 The Supreme Court just greenlit Texas’s online digital ID law; a 6-3 ruling that will shape the future of speech and privacy online.
German Court Overrules Ban on Right-Leaning Magazine
🚨 A Senate bill meant to protect teens’ privacy online could erode privacy for everyone. The new COPPA 2.0 (S.836) expands protections for kids under 17: but to enforce it, platforms will need to identify who’s underage. The standard shifts from “actual knowledge” to “knowledge fairly implied,” a foggy legal phrase that pressures platforms into preemptive surveillance of all users. To play it safe, websites will likely roll out sweeping age checks: facial scans, ID uploads, behavioral profiling. These systems will target teens, but catch everyone. Expect more uploads of government IDs, more biometric scans, more data hoarding with zero national guardrails. And still no federal privacy law.
A new push for public power to challenge court sentences is gaining steam in UK Parliament, sparked by the case of Lucy Connolly, jailed for a social media post. Reform UK’s Richard Tice is championing "Lucy’s Bill," which would allow citizens to petition the Criminal Cases Review Commission if they believe a punishment is unjust. After 500 signatures, the case could be reviewed and even sent to the Court of Appeal.
Millions trusted California’s state health exchange with deeply personal info: pregnancy, domestic abuse, prescriptions, and it quietly funneled that data to LinkedIn for over a year...
The UK government is quietly pushing a major expansion of state surveillance powers, and almost no one is paying attention. Buried in new amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill is a proposal (NC63) that would let senior officers access online accounts, email, cloud storage, social media, without a warrant, so long as the device used to access them has been lawfully seized. No judge. No independent oversight. Just internal sign-off.
Media Matters is suing the FTC, claiming the agency’s investigation into its role in the X advertiser boycott is political retaliation. In 2023, Media Matters ran a campaign highlighting that ads from major brands were appearing next to neo-Nazi content on X. The result was a flood of advertiser exits, and lawsuits from Musk accusing the group of deliberately misleading the public to tank the platform's revenue. Now the FTC wants to know: was this just reporting, or did Media Matters coordinate behind the scenes, like others did, with other advocacy groups to orchestrate an economic hit job? Media Matters denies any wrongdoing.