Pirate News: 2026 Ballot Initiatives Steve and James discuss some of the ballot initiatives and Trump denying legal immigrants from becoming citizens if they were born in 19 countries. youtube.com/embed/ibCR41u3KIw?… Sign up to our newsletter to get notified of new events or volunteer. Join us on: Mastodon; Facebook; Blue Sky; Twitter. Check out: Surveillance Memory Bank and Resources; Our Administrative Coup Memory Bank; Our Things to Do when Fascists are Taking Over. Some links we mentioned: Tuesday: Speak out against surveillance! Lead the Party! DiZoglio launches ballot push to put State House under Public Records Law; Rent control could soon be in the hands of Massachusetts voters; Immigrants kept from Faneuil Hall citizenship ceremony as feds crackdown nationwide. Image Credit: Heather Katsoulis, CC By-SA 2.0, Wikimedia commons page. masspirates.org/blog/2025/12/1…
Anlasslose Massenüberwachung: SPD-Politiker fordert Inhaltskontrolle auf allen Endgeräten netzpolitik.org/2025/anlasslos… image
Google, Amazon und Mastercard: Wo US-Konzerne beim digitalen Euro mitreden netzpolitik.org/2025/google-am… image
Auszeichnung für unsere Chefredaktion: „netzpolitik.org war in diesem Jahr unverzichtbar“ netzpolitik.org/2025/auszeichn… image
netzpolitik.org wirkt: Was unser Journalismus im Jahr 2025 verändert hat netzpolitik.org/2025/netzpolit… image
Interview mit Gutachter: „Spätestens jetzt sollte die Bundesdruckerei den Datenatlas öffentlich zugänglich machen“ netzpolitik.org/2025/interview… image
World Summit on the Information Society Conference Results The UN has decided the fate of the Internet at the WSIS Today, December 18, 2025 a major international conference has concluded at the UN HQ in NY with vast represcusions for the future of a free, global internet. For the first time at this level, the UN explicitly admits: **”Digital Public Goods” are the foundation.** The document clearly spells out support for: * Open Source Software (OSS) * Open Data * Open AI models * Open Standards This is what Pirates have been shouting about for years! Knowledge and code must belong to humanity, not locked behind corporate paywalls. Copyright must not strangle progress. The main fear was that governance of the Web would be handed over exclusively to states. The resolution confirms decisions aren’t just made by the suits in ministries The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is now a permanent UN institution! While there are positives that came out of the event, there are also texts we need to carefully observe. 1. **”Sovereign Equality of States” (Para 4):** Human rights do not end where a state’s IP address range begins. 2. **”Security” vs Freedom:** Lots of words about cybersecurity and “malicious acts.” We know how often total surveillance and encryption backdoors are implemented under the pretext of fighting “fakes” and “cyber threats.” 3. **The Digital Divide:** A third of the world is still offline. The UN promises to connect everyone, but if that connection is to a fenced-off, censored intranet then access is worthless. The resolution opens doors for PPI: * We will continue to participate in the IGF! * We will push for Open Source * We will defend encryption and anonymity. We look forward to updating you more about our activities at the IGF next year, as well as future conferences about the global governance of the internet. pp-international.net/2025/12/w…
Lead the Party! We are electing our Pirate Council in February. Positions include Captain, First Officer, Quartermaster, PR/Media Director, Activism Director, Swarmwise Director, Web/Info Director, three Arbitrators and two representatives to the US Pirate Party. If you are interested in throwing your hat in for any of these positions, nominations are open on-line until end of day Friday, January 30th. Before you do, become a member, join our activists email list, and read our Articles of Agreement and Code of Conduct. Ballots will be sent out by February 13th and are due back by February 27th. We will use the same voting mechanism we used in our previous election. Voters will be emailed a randomly generated id that only the voter will know. Once the election is done, we will delete the ids. In this way, we can ensure that only supporters can vote, while also maintaining the secrecy of votes. We look forward to multiple candidates for all positions. masspirates.org/blog/2025/12/1…
Aufwachsen im Internet: „Die Verantwortung für alles, was auf dem Kinderhandy passiert, liegt bei den Eltern” netzpolitik.org/2025/aufwachse… image
Bedrohung für die Pressefreiheit: Neue Spionage-Software entdeckt netzpolitik.org/2025/bedrohung… image