If we’re doing security checkups in Bitcoin self-custody, we need to cover everything: cold and hot wallets, multi-signature setups, all of it. We can’t audit one storage type and leave the rest for later. AI-driven attacks won’t wait for us to finish patching one vulnerability before moving to the next. Many people are offline, not following X or Nostr discussions. Please check your contact lists and make the effort to reach everyone in the bitcoin space. Also, telling people to use such platforms as GoFundMe after a bitcoin hack is dangerous advice. GoFundMe will freeze accounts after a few donations once they see funds are being raised in connection with bitcoin / hack attacks. You are sending people into a wall. @ODFoundation take our responsibility to inform our network of activists, where bitcoin is the only financial tool they have. But we also live in a different reality from most of the bitcoin community. A hot wallet with a small amount is our everything. We need a coordinated response - develop clear instructions on what we can actually advise, reflecting this new reality where AI systems are testing us endlessly.

With the Digital ID framework, the Digital Euro, and Chat Control all moving toward implementation, the question 'what happens when the state turns off your money?' is no longer theoretical for any EU resident or entity. Are you ready to fight back for your rights? Let's meet at @BTCHEL 25.-26. SEPTEMBER in September!

Addressing the weaponization of INTERPOL: 3/3 This is where your voice can make a difference in protecting people from INTERPOL abuse. As constituents, lawyers, civil society, privacy specialists and people who have been victims of INTERPOL’s abuse, we should jointly push for the reform. France holds the Presidency of INTERPOL's Executive Committee. The US, Germany and Canada also sit on it — four of the thirteen members of the body that supervises the General Secretariat. These are the states with a direct hand in INTERPOL's governance. They are the ones who can turn the resolution's recommendations into protection and accountability. Safeguards that depend on the good faith of the requesting state are not safeguards. Notification and published statistics work regardless of who issues the notice. In the next posts we will go through the remedies and accountability measures the OSCE PA proposes. If you want to support this advocacy — now is the moment. Join us!

2/3 Why you should work with parliamentarians from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly as a constituent? Because the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is one of the few tables where the EU, the US, Canada and Central Asia sit together — and transnational financial repression does not respect any single jurisdiction. As result, our personal data, access to financial services, our security under real threat. What one parliament alone cannot fix, European, American and Canadian parliamentarians can address together. That is where the resolution comes from on countering transnational financial repression and the weaponisation of INTERPOL, FATF AML/CFT laws and cybersecurity regulations, initiated by Italian parliamentarian Mauro Del Barba. It maps the impact on the rights of citizens and entities in Western societies, and sets out remedies and accountability for the abuse of these tools. We have been working on this with Mauro for a long time. It started in 2013, with our first recommendation that INTERPOL provide clear remedies for refugees. This time it reaches Russia and other adversary states abusing inter-state mechanisms to collect the data and attack the rights of citizens, entities and officials of Western countries — including officials of the EU and NATO. I’m very grateful to Euractiv for covering this, especially the INTERPOL dimension. Euractiv reports the OSCE is "alarmed" that INTERPOL's Purple Notices and its newer Silver Notices can be used without giving targeted individuals a clear way to appeal or request review. INTERPOL tightened scrutiny of Russian requests after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But concerns remain around the Silver Notice — an international alert that lets member countries track, identify and recover assets. A German law official told Euractiv the mechanism gives Russia "an excellent tool" to make discreet inquiries into the assets of the people it targets: bank accounts, real estate, companies held abroad. Several of these reforms mirror provisions already moving through the US Congress. Legislators on both sides of the Atlantic can now reference a common standard. Link: https://www.euractiv.com/news/exclusive-osce-warns-against-russias-weaponisation-of-interpol/

TRANSNATIONAL FINANCIAL REPRESSION: WHAT THE OSCE PA IS ASKING FOR 1/3 Close to vacation time, the European Commission is pushing on Chat Control and age verification — measures that erode the privacy of communication and of access to the internet, and put citizens and entities in the EU at serious risk. At the same time, parliamentarians across the transatlantic space are calling for something the EU has not done: a proper assessment of how third countries weaponise INTERPOL, AML/CFT and cybersecurity tools against citizens and entities in the West. These two things cannot be separated. Every mechanism built to see more of what people do gets abused, eventually, by states or their proxies that mean them harm. For the first time in the transatlantic space, an OSCE PA resolution defines who the victims of transnational financial repression actually are. Not only civil society and diaspora — but entrepreneurs, donors, judges, MPs, scientists, and officials of the EU and NATO. The resolution says an attack on any of these categories has to be treated as an attack on the democratic, economic and security architecture of the OSCE area as a whole. It also calls for neutral regulatory language on privacy-preserving tools. AML/CFT and cybersecurity frameworks should describe end-to-end encryption, secure messaging, donation platforms ensuring donor privacy, digital payment tools and VPNs in terms respectful of fundamental rights — and must not treat the use of these tools as an intrinsic indicator of suspicious or criminal activity. Overbroad application of international cooperation mechanisms hits journalists, donors and human rights defenders who rely on them legitimately, for their own security. As a victim of transnational financial repression and president of the Open Dialogue Foundation I'm very grateful for OSCE PA and Mauro Del Barba for introducing this important reporm.

#Nostr resists relay-level censorship — but not a digital-ID gateway, which moves the chokepoint below the protocol, to the connection itself. You can’t sign your way past a network you’re not allowed to reach. Unfortunately, if governments want to block access to Nostr - they can. Which is exactly why the privacy safeguards we advocate to be included in laws matter more than ever. Do you agree?

Are you in #Prague and want to know how your voice can make a difference in protecting the privacy of payments, communications, and internet access in general? Let's meet and talk. Come join our panel tomorrow at the amazing BTC Prague conference. Seriously. We have no time for further delays. #Bitcoin and #freedom #tech need you, just as you need #privacy tools in the digital age. Privacy is your human right—defend it or lose it.

Age verification for the internet is the end of human rights and freedom of speech for generations to come: not only in the EU, UK - also in the US. We are watching the freedom values of Western civilization collapse — adopting the same digital cage that others are already trapped in. Human rights are taken away every single day — all because too many of us are still not ready to defend them, mistakenly believing these rights are simply given. Generations fought for these freedoms, high standards of values, and paid with their lives so that we could enjoy and live in a free Western society. Ask yourself: what have you done, and what are you doing every day, to protect this heritage?

Reclaim The Net: Free Speech, Privacy, Digital Rights

South Carolina Governor Signs Social Media Age Verification Law

A bill sold as child protection builds the legal framework for surveilling every user in the state.

How can philanthropy be better protected in an era of growing data collection, AI-driven analysis, and geopolitical risks? At the Open Dialogue Foundation, we are currently conducting a joint research project with the Democratic Futures Project at the University of Virginia to explore that question. As part of this work, we are speaking with people across philanthropy and civil society about experiences with banking, compliance, financial access, privacy, and the broader pressures, including transnational repression, that can affect charitable and democratic work. We know these issues can take many different forms, from administrative burdens to concerns about data, visibility, and how organizations and their partners are treated. Our goal is to listen, learn from those working in this space, and help inform practical recommendations for stronger protections. If you work in philanthropy, civil society, donor advising, digital rights, or a related field and would be open to a short conversation, we would be very grateful to connect. If you know someone whose perspective would be valuable, we would also greatly appreciate any introductions. Please feel free to message us directly if you would be open to a brief conversation or know someone we should speak with. #Philanthropy #CivilSociety #Privacy #DigitalRights #HumanRights #Democracy #AI

European Parliament has just rejected the Chat Control proposal again! 🫶🚀 Your voice always matters! Stay ready and keep standing up for your rights!🫶 As a follow-up, ask your MEP to investigate: 📌 Why are EPP MEPs following the agenda and timelines set by Google, Meta, TikTok, and other big platforms, instead of defending the fundamental rights of EU citizens? 📌 On what legal and political basis was this vote reopened, and who requested it — was it driven by the public interest or corporate lobbying? Ask EPP’s MEPs to show their proposal publicly! 📌 If this vote can be reopened once, does that mean it can be reopened again whenever the outcome pleases powerful actors — but not when citizens and civil society are dissatisfied with the result?

For years ago speed and permissionless of bitcoin helped me collect, buy and deliver protective and medical equipment to Kyiv and Lviv, while the world was wondering how send humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Thank you #satoshi 💙💛

2025 was an incredibly rewarding year, full of unexpected gifts and meaningful opportunities. With Open Dialogue Foundation, we continued supporting people where it mattered most. We assisted in delivering hundreds of bionic hands to veterans in Ukraine, exposed in the U.S. Congress and European Parliament the weaponisation of behavioural data, Silver and Purple Notice of #INTERPOL and shed light on transnational financial repression by authoritarian regimes like #Kazakhstan, #Kyrgyzstan, and Russia reaching EU and U.S. citizens and entities. We contributed proudly to stopping Chat Control regulation again and shared personal stories reminding why we should be especially active in protecting the privacy of payments, communications, and their developers in the digital era. Encryption of communication and #Bitcoin are the two tools serving as fundamental guarantees for human rights in the digital era. On a personal note, after years of separation and health challenges, long-pending divorce papers were finally granted this year, and I fully regained my health. I'm deeply grateful for the people, lessons, and moments that shaped this year. Looking ahead to another wonderful one. Photo credits: @mkphotons

Update on bringing attention of #transnational financial repression - urgent need to defend our privacy, #behavioral data by the European Parliament. 🧡

BEHAVIORAL DATA MUST BE PROTECTED Some results after our advocacy mission educating MEPs in #Brussels about how dictators and their proxies weaponise behavioural data against #EU and #US citizens and entities: travel, communication, and financial service providers collect data about every single person. This work is now reflected in the 2025 annual human rights report introduced by the European Parliament. We are grateful that MEPs are ready to back our testimony and the evidence from the #Belgian court on how #FATF recommendations are being heavily abused to undermine security and financial integrity. This why our top priority to defend privacy as a fundamental human right in digital age regulation.