🚨Ricochet Refresh users: update announcement On Sept 1, 2026, a Tor network protocol change means Ricochet Refresh versions older than 3.0.43 won’t connect to Tor at all. Please be sure to install the latest version of Ricochet Refresh before Sept 1. Full announcement:

Ricochet Refresh announcement – please update by September 1 — Blueprint for Free Speech

All Ricochet Refresh users must update to versions newer than 3.0.43 (released June 2, 2026) before September 1, 2026, when a Tor protocol change breaks older clients’ network access.

blueprintforfreespeech.net

Courts in Mozambique struck down a decree granting the government draconian powers to spy on citizens, collect user data and shut down the internet. A victory for freedom of expression, privacy and the right to access and share information freely. #MediaFreedom #Mozambique

Mozambique court nullifies decree allowing government to shut down internet

New York, August 3—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the decision by Mozambique’s constitutional court to strike down a decree that allowed the government to shut down the internet. In…

moz24h.co.mz

Anthropic secretly scanned and pulped millions of books – some of them rare – to train its AI models, because pre-2022 print is free of AI-generated slop now degrading large language models. Time to dust off those old library cards. www.blueprintforfreespeech.net/en/news/anti...

Antique hard copy the best antidote to AI slop — Blueprint for Free Speech

Anthropic secretly scanned and pulped millions of books to train its AI, because pre-2022 print is free of AI-generated slop now degrading large language models.

blueprintforfreespeech.net

Weaponising the law: Reuters released a new report on threats to press freedom in South Africa. Half the journalists surveyed faced ‘lawfare’ & SLAPPs to silence them, incl gagging orders, abuse of privacy laws & huge damages claims to intimidate @rsf.org @pressfreedom.bsky.social buff.ly/DGOqt5u

Threats to media freedom in South Africa

The legal threats eroding South Africa’s hard-won freedoms, and how to address them.

trust.org

Bernie Sanders wants citizens to own half of Big AI. Sceptics rightly warn public stakes would make governments protect the firms they should be regulating. This amounts to corporate capture – not accountability. #AIGovernance #AIPolicy

How public good can trump private profit — Blueprint for Free Speech

Bernie Sanders wants citizens to own half of Big AI. Critics warn public stakes would make governments protect the firms they should be regulating, amounting to capture, not accountability.

blueprintforfreespeech.net

It turns out Hugging Face wasn't the only victim of OpenAI's agent that went rogue. It appears to have hacked into four accounts after finding exposed credentials on the open web. One belonged to Modal, a company that produces software for training and running AI services. #RogueAI buff.ly/qTqwVIm

OpenAI’s Rogue AI Agent Hacked More Than Just Hugging Face

In a new disclosure, OpenAI says its agent used exposed logins to gain access to at least four “publicly available services” in its unhinged quest to solve a test.

wired.com

Bloodbath looms at KPMG Australia, with over 1 000 staff and dozens of partners facing the chop over audit whistleblowing scandal. This comes after COO Eileen Hoggett was fired on Friday when a damning email confirmed whistleblower's most damning disclosures. Via @FinancialReview shorturl.at/FiaRN

KPMG will sack dozens of partners, 1000 staff amid audit scandal fallout

KPMG Australia plans to cut more than 10 per cent of its workforce in September as leadership works to stem the financial hit from its audit misconduct scandal.

afr.com

AI spend on lobbying is going through the roof. OpenAI has almost doubled expenditure this year, while Anthropic spent close to 3x as much. This comes as political battles loom in Washington over regulation, new models and getting pro-industry policies adopted. #PayToPlay shorturl.at/qGruq via @ft

AI companies spend record sums on Washington lobbying

Rising expenditure from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Microsoft reflects growing battle over federal policy

ft.com

🚨Ricochet Refresh users: update announcement On Sept 1, 2026, a Tor network protocol change means Ricochet Refresh versions older than 3.0.43 won’t connect to Tor at all. Please be sure to install the latest version of Ricochet Refresh before Sept 1. Full announcement: buff.ly/4buG1sa

Ricochet Refresh announcement – please update by September 1 — Blueprint for Free Speech

All Ricochet Refresh users must update to versions newer than 3.0.43 (released June 2, 2026) before September 1, 2026, when a Tor protocol change breaks older clients’ network access.

blueprintforfreespeech.net

Carmody Grey says frontier AI labs are asking the wrong questions in their drive to court the humanities. They want to focus on LLM morals & metaphysics – 'I wanted to talk about the user, about addiction and dehumanisation, about power and accountability’ www.ft.com/content/bdb3... via @ft

Why this philosopher turned down Anthropic

The AI industry is courting the humanities — but it is asking the wrong questions

ft.com

In the largest known copyright payout in history, a US judge has signed off on a landmark $1.5 billion settlement in a case brought by authors against Anthropic for using pirated versions of their books for AI chatbot training. #AIcopyright #AuthorRights apnews.com/article/ai-a...

How Trump is weaponizing the FBI to target journalists 👇️ #MediaFreedom buff.ly/PFLSmMM via newyorker.com

Trump’s War on Journalists

The recent subpoenas of reporters make clear that the President is trying to threaten the press. Few protections are in place to stop him.

newyorker.com

Thanks to the KPMG whistleblower scandal, Australian audit firms face closer scrutiny & stronger oversight, including random reviews. Still, scandal or not, KPMG keeps winning new contracts, including 3 with the Finance Dept worth A$25m 👇 buff.ly/DvgKhRE via @australian

The Hugging Face debacle exposes just how easily an AI agent can go rogue, lending weight to arguments by safety researchers such as Mrinank Sharma who warn the tech is evolving faster than humans can control it. #AISafety #AIGoneRogue www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/...

OpenAI says its AI model ‘went rogue’: What do we know?

The system hacked into another company without being prompted by a human.

aljazeera.com

Lawyers for Mozambican journalist @estaciosvaloi have asked the District Attorney’s office to revoke the warrant used to seize his laptop & phones, and return them immediately. The seizure violates his right to privacy and to work & threatens press freedom #MediaFreedom moz24h.co.mz/defesa-de-es...

Defesa de Estácio Valoi pede revogação do mandado de apreensão e devolução imediata dos equipamentos

Por Quinton Nicuete A defesa do jornalista investigativo Estácio Valoi submeteu, esta segunda-feira (20), à Procuradoria Distrital da República de Pemba, um requerimento formal solicitando a…

moz24h.co.mz

The EU's latest Rule of Law Report says several members states are updating legislation to comply with the European Media Freedom Act, but warns media ownership and editorial independence remain a concern with candidate countries. #MediaFreedom dig.watch/updates/eu-p...

2026 Rule of Law Report strengthens Europe's prosperity, security and democratic resilience

The European Commission published its seventh annual Rule of Law Report, assessing the state of the rule of law across all EU Member States, as well as four candidate countries: Albania, Montenegro,…

digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu

Nigeria's courts have prioritised pre-election disputes over a whistleblower's freedom. Nnamdi Emeh's trial has been marred by endless delays in a case that raises profound questions about the respect for due process and the rule of law. @pplaaf.bsky.social @theicir.bsky.social buff.ly/T8b8NpD

EU pledges social media ban for children after releasing results of expert panel review of online child safety. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

EU chief pledges social media ban to protect children from ‘predatory algorithms’

Ursula von der Leyen’s commitment comes after panel of experts calls for restriction for under-13s

theguardian.com

Blueprint whistleblowing prize winner Nnamdi Emeh has spent 3 years and 4 months behind bars despite being granted bail, raising serious concerns about rights to fair trial and due process, as enshrined in Nigeria’s constitution 👇

PPLAAF@pplaaf.bsky.social · 3w ago

1/ #Nigeria 🇳🇬: Whistleblower Nnamdi Emeh remains in detention despite being granted bail and repeated court orders for his release. His prolonged detention and delayed trial threaten the rule of law and the protection of whistleblowers.

1/ #Nigeria 🇳🇬: Whistleblower Nnamdi Emeh remains in detention despite being granted bail and repeated court orders for his release. His prolonged detention and delayed trial threaten the rule of law and the protection of whistleblowers.

Meta warned that Facebook & Instagram’s addictive feeds may breach new EU content rules by failing to assess risks to users’ mental health. EC finding comes just ahead of Ursula von der Leyen's presentation on child safety online on Monday ft.com/content/e5af... via @ft

For his reports on dodgy timber exports from Mozambique to China, Estácio Valoi was slapped with a criminal defamation case, his home was raided and his equipment seized. This isn't the rule of law, it's a SLAPP weaponised to silence reporting on power. #SLAPPs #PressFreedom buff.ly/RJp8QhM

Mozambique: Threats to environmental reporters continue – ipi.media

The International Press Institute (IPI) is deeply concerned by the continued pattern of judicial harassment, intimidation, and violence targeting independent journalists in Mozambique, particularly…

buff.ly

A regional court in Germany has opened the door for tech companies to be held legally liable for errors made by their generative AI systems. This landmark ruling could have far-reaching implications for AI regulation. #AI #Google #AIAccountability Our story 👇️ buff.ly/pSGXtuT

German court holds Google accountable for defamatory AI hallucinations — Blueprint for Free Speech

A landmark ruling could herald a new era of legal liability for fake information generated by AI tools

blueprintforfreespeech.net

Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse at KPMG Australia. The audit firm's new chair, who was tasked with "addressing integrity issues and rebuilding trust" has been outed for trashing the whistleblower who exposed the rot in the first place. #KPMG #Whistleblowing buff.ly/97QxBtI

Meta silenced her for a year. Now she's fighting back. Sarah Wynn-Williams – winner of our 2025 Blueprint Asia-Pacific Whistleblowing Prize – has gone to court to throw out the gag order she calls "prior restraint" on her speech. Our story 👇 buff.ly/RJPXM20 @pressfreedom.bsky.social @freedom.press

Blueprint prize winner fights her gag order in court — Blueprint for Free Speech

Meta gagged our 2025 whistleblowing prizewinner Sarah Wynn-Williams for over a year. Now she's filed a 57-page complaint asking a US court to throw out the order and allow her to speak freely again

buff.ly

A firm that surveilled its own whistleblower, deployed 5 law firms across 4 jurisdictions & leaked their identity runs a whistleblower hotline for other companies, including its own audit clients. The KPMG Australia scandal shows why independent advice matters. #Whistleblowing #KPMG

When the watchdog watches itself: lessons from the KPMG Australia scandal — Blueprint for Free Speech

When KPMG suppressed its own whistleblower for two years, the consequences were devastating — a lesson that ignoring internal disclosures is now a direct personal liability for executives.

blueprintforfreespeech.net

In a significant victory for media freedom and open public debate, Poland has passed a new law that protects journalists, activists and whistleblowers against vexatious lawsuits aimed at silencing them. The law covers both domestic and cross border SLAPPs. #AntiSLAPP #MediaFreedom

Poland introduces new law against SLAPP lawsuits aimed at silencing critics

Jun 22, 2026 | Law, Media, Politics, Society

notesfrompoland.com

White House wants staggered release of OpenAI’s latest model, GPT 5.6, so that it can vet early users ahead of general rollout amid fears of advanced hacking capabilities and leaks to China #AISafety www.ft.com/content/0580... via @ft

Trump administration asks OpenAI to stagger release of new model to vet users

The US Treasury, commerce department and other government offices request limited distribution of GPT 5.6

ft.com

Meta whistleblower and Blueprint prize winner Sarah Wynn-Williams goes to court to challenge gagging order and ‘coercive surveillance campaign’ www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Whistleblower Sarah Wynn-Williams sues Meta over attempts to ‘silence’ her

Former employee files complaint accusing company of ‘coercive surveillance’ and first amendment violation

theguardian.com

A firm that surveilled its own whistleblower, deployed 5 law firms across 4 jurisdictions & leaked their identity runs a whistleblower hotline for other companies, including its own audit clients. The KPMG Australia scandal shows why independent advice matters. #Whistleblowing #KPMG

When the watchdog watches itself: lessons from the KPMG Australia scandal — Blueprint for Free Speech

When KPMG suppressed its own whistleblower for two years, the consequences were devastating — a lesson that ignoring internal disclosures is now a direct personal liability for executives.

blueprintforfreespeech.net