Most importantly, IMHO, regarding protocol:

"Does the substructure require one specific application"?

Proper distributed and decentralized, as a protocol, does not require one specific application. I would be very concerned if it did. I think that's a major point people miss.

It's the equivalent of saying, I only want my communications to go through Microsoft programs. If I simply do not want Microsoft (or session) products for what ever reason, I cannot participate. That's called vendor lock in. That never ends well. lol

XMPP allows for any vendor application which follows the open protocol.

Once the message leaves my device, it's out of my control, whether I want to accept that or not. Another thing people need to accept.

Friends,

We are excited to announce the official themes for the 5 days of The Greater Reset 3: Integration from January 26-30, 2022! The themes are:

Wed. Jan 26 - Liberate Your Body, Mind & Soul
Thurs. Jan 27 - Agorism & Parallel Networks
Friday Jan 28 - Permaculture & Food Independence
Sat. Jan 29 - Take Back Our Tech
Sun. Jan 30 - Building Conscious Communities

Start planning your Community Watch Parties and making your plans to attend the In Person events in Texas or Mexico!

In the coming weeks we will be announcing the rest of the speaker lineup and more details on how YOU can get involved!

#TheGreaterReset https://thegreaterreset.org

Privacy Phone Review: Librem 5 vs. Above.Phone

Derrick Broze takes a look at 2 privacy phones: the Purism Librem 5 and the Above.Phone and shares which one he prefers.

https://theconsciousresistance.com/privacy-phone-review-librem-5-vs-above-phone/

PREVIEW: XMPP, A Comeback Story Pt II - Making Anonymous Phone Calls & Texts With JMP.chat
—
Official Blog
Telegram Channel

This coming Monday we'll be putting a little spice 🔥 in XMPP's comeback story by exploring JMP.chat - an extension of XMPP that'll allow you to make anonymous calls & texts.

I hope you'll enjoy the full length interview with the developers of JMP.chat, a breakdown of how it works, and how to protect your privacy while using it.

For now, checkout this preview:

When newcomers join XMPP for the first time they are often blown away by the simplicity and quality of the messaging, voice calls, and video calls. The second realization is that although they'd love to use XMPP 100% of the time - they don't know many people in real life that they can talk to.

I'm sure you're already spreading the magic of XMPP to friends and family, but while we wait - we can bridge the gap between ourselves and ourselves and the rest of the world using JMP.chat...

I've been using Linux since 2006. My first experience was daunting as I soon discovered why there was no need for hard drive defragmentation. I installed Xubuntu on a 32-bit netbook and it runs to this day with the same OS installed. These days I use Linux Mint with XFCE on new hardware with no problems. I also use BunsenLabs (formerly CrunchBang) for it's fast responsiveness.

Have you read Pt II of Derrick Broze's latest report about the Metaverse?

Many consumers and enthusiasts alike are excited about Virtual Reality - especially now that its nearing mass adoption.

However I've always been skeptical on how it might be used against its users, and have wondered why there is such a strong push towards it.

This article shines a light on its dark side.

https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/great-narrative-metaverse-part-2-will-metaverse-end-human-freedom/

#TBOT: XMPP, A Comeback Story Pt II:
Making Anonymous Phone Calls & Texts with JMP.chat 🤙⚡️

Its finally time to expand our reach to phone networks - in today's article & video we show you how to register an anonymous phone number that can call & text real phone numbers, all without leaving your XMPP client.

📑 Read the article
👀 Watch the video

In our video interview, we speak with the founder and lead developers of JMP.chat, getting the rich backstory of how this free & open source software project was born.

In the accompanying article, I perform my own analysis of the technologies involved, and think through the privacy considerations of JMP.chat.

TBOT Challenge
- Share the first XMPP article with 3 people, get them online and begin an encrypted chat or voice/video call with them.
- Watch today's video/read the article and test out JMP chat!
- Let us know what you think on our XMPP group (tbot@group.chat.above.im)

Watch All TGR Replays 🔄

https://thegreaterreset.org/the-greater-catch-up/

👨‍💻 Are you a software engineer who cares about freedom & privacy? 👩‍💻
Help build the next version of Above Privacy Suite🔺

We'd like to thank everyone for making above.phone a reality this year - the collective consciousness is ready to #TakeBackOurTech by supporting independent software services like Above Privacy Suite.

We are about to cross the 100 member mark for our services, which include VPN, Email, Encrypted Chat, Voice & Video Calls, and Video Conferencing!

But we're not stopping here - we're going to replace every abusive software service we've become accustomed to with a privacy friendly alternative.

Part of this effort will be creating a dashboard or hub for people to see their services, manage their accounts, and top up their subnoscriptions using traditional methods or cryptocurrencies.

Are you a developer who wants to help build this? We're looking to put together a team of full-stack developers with experience in the following areas:

- Full Stack Javanoscript
- Front End Design & Development
- Back End Development & Networking
- CI/CD

This project will be particularly exciting as we'll choose tools & technologies that give our developers & users the most freedom. You'll learn a lot along the way, have ownership of your role, and will get paid in crypto ;)

Interested parties, please send thoughts & relevant experience to team@above-agency.com

~ Our connection is sacred

The Beechat Clip will come bundled with a custom open-source cable which allows using the Clip and charging the phone at the same time. Only the internal components are pictured here, while in the release version the cable will have a case. Also note, the black parts are flexible, to suit different phones and attachments. Pictured here is the USB-C version, but a Micro-USB version will also be available at launch. Find out more at https://github.com/BeechatNetworkSystemsLtd/BeechatCable

XMPP❤️Telegram Bridged!
—

Today we successfully set up the bridge between our Telegram & XMPP communities. Your #TBOT family just got a lot bigger!

XMPP: tbot@group.chat.above.im
Telegram: https://news.1rj.ru/str/takebackourtech_chat

(Really Long Passwords + 50g Actuation on my Keyboard)

= lots of password attempts --> frustrated Ramiro 😤😤😤

Time for a new keyboard or switches... HHKB anyone?

Amazing, we just got the first Telegram spam message bridged into XMPP.

Truly pioneering communications here.

Alright, list of improvements for the bridge:

- Remove the full text of replies to XMPP

Its been quite some time since I've written anything original for @neo_network, but I'm wanting to write a piece on viable ways to counter domain censorship as Ice Age Farmer has observed happening.

Domain censorship has been happening since 2016 to counterfeiting and pirating sites over intellectual property issues, and now it could be used to attack any sites that go against the narrative.

However, its not all doom and gloom as there are different top level domains and governing bodies that are further out of Western reaches.

If you're interested in how domain censorship works, check out the article I wrote for @neo_network a while back: https://news.1rj.ru/str/neo_network_chat/1663

U.N. Taking Down Private Websites - Domain Level Censorship

The U.N. Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate (CTED) is now responsible for taking entire privately hosted websites offline, as they seek to take total control of the flow of information and establish their "Great Narrative." CTED notifies domain registrars of "extremist" sites -- i.e., those that promote narratives they don't approve of -- and the sites can no longer be found. This reflects a new level of internet censorship, but it is not just publishers who are in the crosshairs...it is all of us. Christian breaks it down in this Ice Age Farmer broadcast.

via @iceagefarmer

#iafvideo #censorship

FULL SHOW NOTES: https://www.iceagefarmer.com/2021/12/02/u-n-taking-down-private-websites-domain-level-censorship/

https://youtu.be/qFFEI60SThU
https://www.bitchute.com/video/FGgptMetfqWm/

Are We On The Brink Of An Internet Apocalpyse: Part I
@neo_network
🌏☄️🤯

Since 2020 we've become aware of the growing pressure to homogenize discussion across the internet on key issues - all for our safety of course.

The major players in Internet 2.0 have take huge steps to moderate their platforms:

- Youtube removed over 2M channels between January & March 2020 alone
- Twitter has suspended a million accounts in the first half of 2020
- Facebook took action on over 100M+ pieces of content across Q3 and Q4 of 2020,

Although these platforms claim to be upholding common morals rather than subjective guidelines, they do not provide any transparency below aggregate statistics. This leaves plenty of room for truthful content & users to get removed and lumped in with these ban waves. One such case that comes to mind is The Conscious Resistance, which had 150K subscribers in October 2020. It had multiple videos deleted with interviews of doctors talking about the benefits Vitamin C, which eventually led to the channel being taken down entirely.

My point is that it is too hard to tell who is actually getting banned without being a part of the banned groups themselves. There is no independent listing for people to make the case for their channels outside the platforms themselves.

As this pressure has increased, the individuals who valued the right to dissent naturally moved towards alternative platforms where they could communicate freely.

And these alt-media platforms have continued to disappoint us, like Bitchute - which has become overrun with far-right & hateful media channels that kill the signal to noise ratio and stink of a limited hangout. And there are even reports of Bitchute terminating channels (which you can really only hear about if you follow the content creator directly)

This process seems to repeat in a perpetual search of alternative-to-the-alternative platforms. Rather than rely on aggregators (which are convenient), we as truth seekers should interact directly with our content creators.

Still, the nightmare scenario is waking up one day to find our favorite sites de-listed from the internet entirely.

In this 2 part series, I wanted to explore if this nightmare scenario is possible, and what it might look like - to give us a better chance of protecting ourselves:

We need to explore three things:

1. What does the judicial precedent look like for the de-listing of domains on the internet?
2. Why did it happen, for what purposes, and at what scale?
3. How does the seizure of a domain work?

You're In Our Sites

The first major thing to know, is that domain seizures started becoming commonplace in 2010, and operation have continued to ramp up every year since then, all across the world - but mainly in the United States & EU.

There were two laws that served as legal basis for these seizures:

- PRO-IP Act of 2008, which increased civil & criminal penalties for copyright infringement, and was used by record labels & recording agencies to sue individuals for sharing copyrighted material
- The civil forfeiture provision (2323) of Title 18 U.S Criminal Code which amended the PRO-IP act, and allowed the agencies conducting these operations to seize domains, goods, and money from targeted operations.

The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center is a joint-task force agency led by U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These two organization launched Operation In Our Sites in 2010. This operation ‘targets websites and their operators that distribute counterfeit and pirated items over the Internet, including counterfeit pharmaceuticals and pirated movies, television shows, music, software, electronics, and other merchandise as well as products that threaten public health and safety’.

This global organization encompasses 24 US & international agencies ranging from agencies in multiple branches of the US armed forces, the postal service, and international law enforcement agencies like Europol, and more.

Year after year, NIPRCC & ICE have come up with cute names for their operations to go after sites that sell counterfeit goods. This started at a small scale at first, with tens to a few hundred domain names being seized, and then grew in size after operation Transatlantic, which seized close to 30,000 domain names.

The latest operation which has been publicly released actually seized over a million websites. Again, they target copyright-infringing sites that sell various fake goods which can range from counterfeit clothing to counterfeit airplane parts.

Though only around 33K websites were criminally seized (transferred into the hands of Homeland Security), an additional 1.21 domain names were civilly seized by ‘industry partners'.

What ‘civilly’ seized means isn't fully explained, but one could surmise that the internet service providers or domain registrars for those zones took measures to strip ownership from the targeted sites.

There aren't any details about the monetary seizures from these new operations, but in past operations we've seen sums of up to 1M seized from the criminal organizations.

Is there a monetary incentive for these agencies to conduct seizures? How much have they seized from the latest operations?

Either way, I'm not sure how much safer I feel being protected from the horrors of the counterfeit basketball jersey industry. 🏀🗑

How Does This Work?

Now that we're aware that this happens at a large scale, and why it may occur, let's discuss how it happens.

First of all, the entire seizure process happens before a trial even takes place. This is allowed through the US forfeiture laws (mentioned earlier in this article).

In the case of these copyright domain seizures, a magistrate judge can grant a seizure warrant based on probable cause. (and they can be convinced to do this based on in-person testimony / hearsay).

Here's an example of one of these seizure warrants in the 2018 takedown of ToKnowAll by the FBI. The request was sent in on Tuesday and was granted the next day.

The process is actually simple and outlined in the warrant itself.

1. The government agency finds the domain registrar hosting the target domain, which must be under its jurisdiction.
2. The Magistrate Judge must find probable cause a crime has been committed and agree on the seizure.
3. The agency then serves the registrar with a seizure warrant, in which the registrar is required to shift registration of that domain to the agency

Is This Even Effective?

By now you must realize that this doesn't actually scrub the content off the internet, it merely makes it inaccessible by its domain name. New domains can be registered in its place, and the IP address can be even be bookmarked by individuals for later use.

Additionally, this domain seizure practice is heavy handed and can be inaccurate. The Center for Democracy & Technology pointed out one case of mistaken seizure targeting a parent domain of thousands of other individual & separate sites.

There's even been instances of the operating taking down legal sites in foreign countries. In 2011, ICE seized a domain from RojaDirecta, a sports streaming site which was declared legal in Spain. A international legal battle ensued which led ICE to give it back.

We must wonder why we allow these practices to continue. It is wrong to have domains seized on ‘probable cause’ without due process. It happens without warning from the owners, and destroys the value of the domain by directing users to splash pages accusing the owners of crimes.

In the second & final part of this article, we will discuss how countries like China implement country-wide censorship and how individuals & developers can utilize old & new technologies to avoid being walled in.

🧱🧱🌤
Read more at @neo_network
Discuss with digital warriors at @neo_network_chat

Friends,

Have you heard of Greece, Austria, and Germany initiating lockdowns and fines for the unvaccinated? Austria will make the jab mandatory beginning in February.

Think back to February and March 2020 - did you ever think it would come to this?

I did. I knew it would because these psychopaths plans are out in the open if you pay attention.

Also, while traveling across the United States for The Activation Tour I told every single crowd to not make the mistake of believing this agenda is over. Especially for those in Texas and Florida and elsewhere who feel pretty comfortable.

Specifically, I said that there would be another variant that would be used against us around Winter. Here we are now and this Omicron BS is being used to bring back lockdowns, travel restrictions, mask mandates, and more.

It's not going to go away, and, as much as I love seeing people on the streets, it's not going to stop because of protests, petitions, or lawsuits.

You need to prepare for this inevitable totalitarian technocratic takeover by breaking free from the systems they will use to enslave you in the near term future. That is the answer. Opting out of their systems and building new ones.

Do it. Now. Don't wait. Figure out how to feed your family, how to work, how to live free without their systems. They are going to squeeze you every single way you can imagine.

Bank account, drivers license, veterans check, welfare check, grocery stores. It's going to happen.

Stop waiting around for someone to save you. Stop being afraid or giving in because of discomfort. Think of your children. The future generations.

Taking steps now to save those in the future is the only answer. What are you waiting for?

Telegram ↔️ XMPP Bridge Wish List
— (so i don't forget)

- Have XMPP messages formatted to HTML so we can bold usernames
- Can remove the XMPP/Telegram identifiers in each bridge message and update the name of the bot in either room to be clearer (got this idea from another room's matrix bridge)
- Run a media server so that images pass through