ICYMI

Candidate News – Timothy Grady, independent gubernatorial from Ohio and candidate endorsed by the Pirate Party, was a guest on Talk the Plank! on Saturday. You can check out that episode here.

Hunter Rand, Pirate candidate running in the nonpartisan Sparks City Council race in Nevada, appeared on the US Transhumanist Party‘s Virtual Enlightenment Salon on Sunday, which you can find here.

Another Pirate candidate will be properly revealed on Wednesday, one which we are proud to reveal more than happy to endorse. During last night’s meeting, the endorsement was made official and is no secret to anyone watching last night’s meeting. Even as such, the official announcement will come Wednesday.

Committee News – No major updates from IT Committee. Outreach Committee met and discussed different ideas to help state parties, including business cards and in-person recruiting. Platform committee has been asked to explore both the idea of term limits and #ProjectNoCap, the latter being a Mr. Beat started project to uncap the United States House of Representatives.

Massachusetts – Preparations are actively being made for the 2026 Pirate National Conference in Boston. The conference will be hybrid with both in-person and online options to attend. The conference will take prior to the FIFA World Cup, and given Boston will play host, it is advised that those looking to attend book early before prices begin to rise. The conference will begin June 6th and is expected to conclude on the 7th. We WILL be on a boat for the conference.

You can check out the latest Pirate National Committee meeting here.

uspirates.org/icymi-updates-fr…

10 января 2026 года прошла очередная Генеральная Ассамблея Пиратского Интернационала (Pirate Parties International).

Пиратскую партию России на Генассамблее представляли члены Федерального Штаба ППР Александр Исавнин, Григорий Дизер, Валерия Клестова и член Контрольно-ревизионной комиссии ППР Николай Воронов.

Ключевое приветствие и вступительное слово произнесла Лилия Кайра Куюмджу (председатель Пиратской партии Германии), подчеркнув ценности свободы, цифровых прав и международного сотрудничества внутри Пиратского движения.

Поступили отчёты от руководящих органов PPI:
Совет (Board) — обзор деятельности за 2025 год, участие в международных форумах и конференциях, деятельность в ООН.
Казначей (Treasurer), Арбитражный суд (Court of Arbitration) и Независимый аудитор (Lay Auditor) — отчёты и замечания.

Ассамблея рассмотрела и утвердила бюджет PPI на 2026 год.

На Генассамблее приняты две важных для мирового пиратского движения резолюции:

1. Солидарность с иранским движением за свободу и против избирательной цензуры в сфере защиты цифровых прав

1. Народная партия Ирана подтверждает свою непоколебимую солидарность с иранским народом, призывая к немедленному включению Корпуса стражей исламской революции (КСИР) в список террористических организаций на территории всего ЕС, введению всеобъемлющих санкций против должностных лиц режима и активной поддержке диаспорных сетей, противостоящих влиянию режима и цифровым репрессиям.

2. Мы осуждаем все формы цензуры, включая систематические цифровые репрессии иранского режима и западные механизмы «доверенной маркировки» в рамках DSA, которые позволяют осуществлять избирательный контроль над контентом, как это показано в деле HateAid. Мы призываем партии-члены выступать за реформы, отдающие приоритет устойчивому, плюралистическому диалогу, а не технократическому контролю.

3. Партиям-членам Международной организации пиратских партий настоятельно рекомендуется без исключения интегрировать универсальные права человека в свои платформы, способствуя открытым, плюралистическим и устойчивым внутренним дебатам, избегая при этом избирательного активизма, игнорирующего режимы, подобные иранскому, или усиливающего внутренние догмы, – обеспечивая тем самым, чтобы наше движение оставалось неукротимым, устойчивым, последовательным и заслуживающим доверия.

2. Рамочная основа этического регулирования искусственного интеллекта

По мере того как искусственный интеллект (ИИ) и машинное обучение (МО) все глубже интегрируются в общественную инфраструктуру, рынок труда и судебные системы, пиратское движение осознает как преобразующий потенциал, так и экзистенциальные риски для неприкосновенности частной жизни и автономии личности. Необходимо обеспечить, чтобы ИИ служил инструментом расширения прав и возможностей человека, а не механизмом социального контроля или непрозрачного корпоративного доминирования.
Мы признаем следующие основные принципы:

1. Прозрачность алгоритмов: Любая система искусственного интеллекта, внедряемая в государственном секторе или используемая для принятия важных частных решений (например, в сфере кредитования, трудоустройства или жилищного обеспечения), должна подлежать независимой государственной проверке. Базовая логика и обучающие наборы данных должны быть прозрачными, доступными и проверяемыми.

2. Право на участие человека в процессе принятия решения: Ни одно решение, коренным образом влияющее на правовой статус или средства к существованию человека, не должно приниматься исключительно автоматизированной системой. Граждане должны иметь юридически закрепленное право на содержательную проверку со стороны человека.

3. Запрет массового биометрического наблюдения: Мы выступаем за глобальный запрет на биометрическую идентификацию в режиме реального времени (например, распознавание лиц) в общественных местах как государственными, так и частными организациями.

4. Открытый исходный код как обязательное условие: для обеспечения безопасности и общественного доверия системы искусственного интеллекта, заказываемые или используемые правительствами, должны основываться на свободном и открытом программном обеспечении (FOSS).

Предлагаемые действия
Генеральная Ассамблея поручает новому 16-му составу Совета воссоздать Постоянный комитет по политике в области ИИ. Этот комитет будет координировать международные усилия по продвижению этих принципов на уровне ООН и ЕС, особенно с Европейской пиратской партией, стремясь обеспечить их интеграцию в формирующиеся глобальные рамки и правила.

Также проведено несколько выборных сессий:
— Заместителем председателя Борды избран Грегори Энгельс, член Пиратской партии Германии, уроженец Москвы и наш большой друг;
— членами Борды избраны на двухлетний срок Себастьян Кроне, Карлос Поло и член Федерального Штаба ППР Григорий Дизер;
— альтернативными членами Борды избраны Барт Оверкамп, Лилия Кайра Куюмджу, Томас Гал и выдвинутый ППР член ПП Германии Numero6;
— аудиторами избраны Ноам Кузар и член КРК ППР Николай Воронов;
— также 6 членами CoA избраны Миа Утц, Александр Колер, Охад Шем Тов, Майлз Уитикер.

Кроме того, было принято заявление о солидарности с ПП США в связи с ситуацией в США:
Пиратский Интернационал выражает свою поддержку Пиратской партии США в связи с недавним убийством Рене Николь Гуд сотрудником Федеральной иммиграционной и таможенной службы (ICE). Пусть в Соединенных Штатах или любой другой стране не будет убежища для врагов свободы.

С полной повесткой Генассамблеи можно ознакомиться на сайте Пиратского интернационала: wiki.pp-international.net/wiki…

Пиратская партия России является членом-учредителем и неотъемлемой частью Пиратского Интернационала, что мы в том числе закрепили в Уставе и Программе. И, несмотря на мировые дезинтеграционные процессы и всеобщее недоверие, мы продолжим активно участвовать в стирании границ, стремиться к созданию и развитию инструментов и ресурсов для построения более справедливого мира, сохранения существующих и создания новых возможностей.

Сообщение Представители ППР избраны на руководящие должности Пиратского Интернационала появились сначала на Пиратская партия России | PPRU.

For journalists who work online, the most dangerous assumption is that press freedom is territorial. It is not. In the digital age, journalists publish globally by default, and states increasingly assert criminal jurisdiction globally as well.

The recent assertion of U.S. authority to seize (kidnapping is such an “ugly” word) Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro illustrates a broader and deeply unsettling truth: Once a state claims jurisdiction, the limiting factor is not law, but power. For journalists, that reality has been quietly unfolding for decades.

Extraterritorial jurisdiction and the press

Domestic law (and law enforcement) does not stop at the border. Most countries reserve the “right” to prosecute those outside the country whose actions are directed inside the country, or which impact that country’s laws, citizens, or property.

The concept of “extraterritorial” jurisdiction of domestic law was recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1922 in United States v. Bowman, where the court noted that certain criminal statutes apply extraterritorially by their nature when they protect national interests. This is commonly called the “protective” principle of extraterritorial application of law. In the cyber era, courts have applied this doctrine aggressively to online conduct, including speech, publication, and data access.

Journalists are not exempt. While the First Amendment provides robust protection against U.S. prosecution for publishing truthful information of public concern, those protections are not portable. They do not bind foreign courts, nor do they prevent foreign states from asserting jurisdiction over content accessible within their borders.

Journalists prosecuted for online speech abroad

One of the earliest and most influential cases illustrating this problem is LICRA v. Yahoo! Inc., a 2000 French case where the court asserted jurisdiction over Yahoo, a U.S. company, for hosting Nazi memorabilia auctions accessible from France, where French law prohibited the display of Nazi materials.

Although Yahoo ultimately resisted enforcement in U.S. courts, the case established the principle that online publication can subject speakers and publishers to the criminal law of any country where the content is accessible. Countries routinely attempt to enforce their own laws — terrorism, defamation, etc., over the activities of journalists outside their borders.

For example, in Akçam v. Turkey, the European Court of Human Rights recognized the chilling effect of Turkey’s criminal laws on speech, including academic and journalistic commentary. But Turkish prosecutors continue to attempt to use Interpol red notices — which alert law enforcement agencies worldwide to locate and detain an individual — to have foreign journalists prosecuted.

In 2023, Russian authorities issued criminal charges against foreign reporters for coverage of the war in Ukraine, alleging dissemination of “false information” about the Russian military — conduct that would be core protected speech in the United States — in violation of the Russian criminal code.

If other countries adopt the Maduro precedent, a foreign country can enforce its laws against U.S. journalists simply by force or power.

China has attempted to use Article 12 of the Cybersecurity Law of the PRC to prosecute those who disseminate online content that “endangers national security” or “damages the public interest” of China. Foreign journalists have been detained, expelled, or prosecuted for online reporting hosted on servers outside China but accessible within it. The Maduro regime itself cracked down on journalists within its own borders, prosecuting them for crimes like terrorism, incitement, and conspiracy.

The United States recently proposed to require those entering the country to provide border agents with access to five years of their social media history, threatening to use this information to ban, arrest, detain, or punish those whose history indicates some vaguely defined “un-American” political persuasion. Moreover, the U.S. government spent years attempting to obtain jurisdiction over Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for his publication from abroad of materials the U.S. government claimed could not be published under U.S. law.

There is no ‘there there’

Typically, if speech is permitted (or protected) in the jurisdiction in which it is uttered or published, but prohibited or regulated in another country, the “injured” country has few remedies to go after the speaker/publisher. While it can charge the person with a crime and request that they be extradited, extradition treaties typically require that the conduct be considered “criminal” in both countries. And many countries (including the U.S.) do not typically extradite their own citizens.

Add to that the fact that most extradition treaties also permit the host country to resist extradition for “political speech” or “political activity,” and that an extradition request is subject to both a legal and political process. In addition, the likelihood that a U.S. journalist would be extradited to China, Turkey, or another country for First Amendment-protected activity is small — not nonexistent, but small.

Countries may, however, consider the activities of journalists to constitute violations of surveillance, theft, intellectual property, threat, defamation, or espionage laws, increasing the chance that they will be treated as nonpolitical offenses. Put simply, we extradite whom we want to countries we want for purposes we want. And that’s what other countries do as well.

Kidnapping, rendition, and the Ker–Frisbie Doctrine

What the Maduro case shows is that governments (including the U.S. government) reserve either the right or the pure ability to invade the territorial sovereignty of other nations to obtain jurisdiction over those (including heads of state) we believe have violated U.S. law. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed the authority of the U.S. to “kidnap” persons overseas and bring them to U.S. courts — and presumably the opposite applies as well.

Under what is called the Ker-Frisbie Doctrine, the domestic courts do not look at the way the court obtained jurisdiction over the defendant (unless this “shocks the conscience”), but simply look at whether the defendant is physically present.

In the 1886 case Ker v. Illinois, the Supreme Court held that a defendant abducted from Peru could still be tried in U.S. court. It affirmed the principle in 1952 in Frisbie v. Collins. In the 1992 case United States v. Alvarez-Machain, after U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents abducted a doctor in Mexico and brought him to trial in the U.S., the court noted that the U.S./Mexico extradition treaty was just “one way” to obtain jurisdiction over a person. Apparently, kidnapping is another. As a federal appellate court made clear five years later in United States v. Noriega, this principle applies to foreign heads of state as well.

What this means for journalists

For journalists, the implication is sobering. Publishing an article, hosting leaked documents, or reporting on state misconduct online can expose a reporter to criminal liability in jurisdictions with radically different views of press freedom.

The fact that the work is lawful — and even celebrated — in the United States offers no protection abroad. We saw that when Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was abducted and dismembered by the Saudi government at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

What typically “saves” journalists is that foreign countries may fear invading the territorial sovereignty of the host nation. This is why most prosecutions of journalists occur in the country in which they are operating. Russia’s prosecutions of Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist working for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich follow this pattern, as does the Turkish government’s detention of freelance journalist Lindsey Snell in Turkey in 2016.

In a networked world, journalism is inherently transnational, but press freedom is not.

However, if a journalist can be lured into a compliant country, or if other countries adopt the Maduro precedent, a foreign country can enforce its laws on people in the U.S. simply by force or power. Instructive is the case of Henry Liu, a Chinese American critic of the Taiwanese government, which hired Taiwanese gang members to kill him in California, or the attempted murder in Brooklyn, New York, of Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad.

While journalists and others may be protected by the First Amendment, that protection typically applies only if they are physically in the United States, and assumes that the U.S. has no interest in extraditing the journalist to another country. With the Maduro precedent extending the authority to kidnap those who we perceive to have violated the law of one nation, other nations can be expected to follow suit. It’s no longer about what White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called “international niceties” but is about “a world, … the real world, … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power.”

Law as narrative, power as reality

The lesson for journalists is not that the law is meaningless, but that it is secondary. Power determines who is charged, who is seized, and who is left alone. Law supplies justification after the fact.

In a networked world, journalism is inherently transnational, but press freedom is not. For journalists who work online, the question is no longer merely, “Is this lawful where I am?” It is, “Who might claim jurisdiction, and what can they do to enforce it?”

The answer, increasingly, depends less on courts than on geopolitics.

In cyberspace, publication is global. So is exposure.

freedom.press/issues/what-the-…

Dear Friend of Press Freedom,

Welcome to 2026. Rümeysa Öztürk has now been facing deportation for 290 days for co-writing an op-ed the government didn’t like, and journalist Ya’akub Vijandre remains locked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over social media posts about issues he reported on. Read on for more on the year’s turbulent start for press freedom.

House committee votes to subpoena journalist for Venezuela reporting

A motion introduced Jan. 7 by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., to subpoena journalist Seth Harp passed the House Oversight Committee in a bipartisan voice vote. Luna accused Harp of “leaking classified intel about Operation Absolute Resolve, including doxxing a Delta Force commander.”

The next day, Luna wrote a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi calling for a criminal investigation of Harp. The journalist, however, merely reported the name and publicly available online biography of the commander involved in the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

In a statement we issued with Defending Rights & Dissent and the First Amendment Foundation following the subpoena, Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern explained that, “Identifying government officials by name is not doxxing or harassment, no matter how many times Trump allies say otherwise.” Everyone who supported Luna’s motion — including Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, the ranking member of the oversight committee — should be ashamed.

• Read the statement

John Cusack wants to talk about paywalls

Actor and activist John Cusack, a founding board member of FPF, spoke to Columbia Journalism Review about why more news outlets need to remove paywalls for reporting based on Freedom of Information Act requests.

“There’s an irony in the fact that FOIA-based reporting often ends up behind a paywall, because the public owns government records. We fund their creation through taxes, and we fund the agencies that produce them. We fund the FOIA office that processes the disclosure request—the entire apparatus is built on the premise that this information belongs to us,” Cusack said.

He’s not just making a moral case, though. As Cusack notes, outlets like Wired and 404 Media have seen subscriptions surge after unpaywalling their public records reporting.

• Read the interview

The document giving ICE 80 million Medicaid patients’ data

Last year, FPF and 404 Media sued the Department of Homeland Security for a copy of a data-sharing agreement enabling Immigration and Customs Enforcement to receive personal data of Medicaid patients after the agency failed to turn it over in response to FOIA requests. A U.S. attorney working on that case then flagged that the document had quietly been released in a separate lawsuit.

At the end of December, a judge ruled that the Trump administration could resume sharing much of the data after it had been blocked from doing so, Politico reported. That means ICE can use Medicaid data in deportation cases starting Jan. 6, Politico added.

• Read more here

Don’t forget who really sold out CBS News

It’s easy to understand why the outrage over CBS News’ recent self-censorship and propaganda — from spiking stories to airing segments “saluting” the politicians it’s supposed to scrutinize — has largely been directed at CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss and her boss, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison.

But, as Stern wrote for The Contrarian, let’s not forget who first sold out CBS News: former Paramount Chair Shari Redstone.

• Read the article

Transparency did not delay justice for Kelly or Epstein. Prosecutors did

One of the prosecutors who helped put sexual predator and R&B star R. Kelly behind bars wrote that releasing the Jeffrey Epstein documents without extensive redactions would hinder future prosecutions. Transparency, argued Elizabeth Geddes, would interfere with investigators gaming out 3D chess moves to build airtight cases against Epstein’s associates.

Most Americans, however, don’t share her confidence in the system that packs private prisons with small-time offenders while the Epsteins and Kellys of the world walk free for decades. In fact, there’s an excellent chance both of them would still be preying on young girls from Chicago to the U.S. Virgin Islands if not for the transparency forced by dogged journalism.

Stern and Jim DeRogatis, the reporter who broke the R. Kelly story, wrote about how misguided Geddes’ take and others like it are.

• Read more here

What we're reading

A rough year for journalists in 2025, with a little hope for things to turn around

The Associated Press
The year 2025 was a dangerous one for journalists in the U.S., reports the AP, citing our U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. There were at least 170 assaults on journalists last year, 94% of them at the hands of law enforcement.

2025 left a stressed-out First Amendment

Free Speech Center
“By any measure, 2025 was a stressful year for those who worry about the First Amendment and its status as the bedrock of American liberty.”

The battle for press freedom in the streets

Columbia Journalism Review
Journalists who experience press freedom abuses should speak out and document the incidents on social media, in their publications, and via the Tracker, FPF Deputy Director of Advocacy Adam Rose told CJR.

Filming ICE agents is a First Amendment right. So why might it land you in jail?

Straight Arrow News
“There’s a reason DHS and its counterparts keep getting humiliated in court when they pretend to be victims,” Rose told Straight Arrow News. “They’re losing in front of juries, judges are calling them not credible.”

freedom.press/issues/identifyi…

404 Media

2025-10-01 14:25:57

404 Media and Freedom of the Press Foundation Sue DHS

Last week Freedom of the Press Foundation and 404 Media filed a lawsuit against the multiple parts of the U.S. government demanding they hand over a copy of an agreement that shares the personal data of nearly 80 million Medicaid patients with ICE. The data sharing marked a watershed moment for ICE and its access to highly sensitive data that is ordinarily siloed off from the agency. We believe it’s important for the public to see this unprecedented data sharing agreement for themselves.

As the Associated Press wrote when it first reported on the data sharing agreement between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the agreement will give ICE the ability to find “the location of aliens.” The data shared includes home addresses and ethnicities, according to the Associated Press.

💡
Do you know anything else about this data sharing agreement? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at joseph.404 or send me an email at joseph@404media.co.

Both Freedom of the Press Foundation and 404 Media filed similar Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with DHS and CMS seeking a copy of the agreement. Neither agency provided the requested records in time, so we have now filed the lawsuit. In 404 Media’s case, CMS acknowledged the request but has not provided the records, and DHS did not even acknowledge the request at all.

404 Media’s request asked for a copy of the specific agreement, and if the agencies were unable to locate it, to alternatively provide copies of all agreements between DHS and CMS from this year.

“Despite having received the FOIA requests, and despite their obligations under the law, Defendants have failed to notify Plaintiffs of the scope of documents that they will produce or the scope of documents that they plan to withhold in response to the FOIA requests,” the lawsuit reads.
playlist.megaphone.fm?p=TBIEA2…
Freedom of the Press Foundation is a non-profit organization that monitors press freedom issues in the U.S. and trains journalists on how to keep themselves and their sources safe. It regularly sues the U.S. government for access to records.

The data sharing agreement is just one of a growing list of ways that ICE is sourcing highly sensitive, and sometimes legally protected, information as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort. ProPublica reported on the vast system the IRS is building to share millions of taxpayers’ data with ICE. 404 Media previously reported ICE has gained access to ISO Claimsearch, a massive insurance and medical bill database to find deportation targets. The database is nearly all encompassing and contains details on more than 1.8 billion insurance claims and 58 million medical bills.

Separately, 404 Media filed a lawsuit against ICE in September for access to the agency’s $2 million spyware contract.

If you want to support this work, become a paid subscriber here. If you would like to make a larger, tax deductible donation, please email us at donate@404media.co.

Membership

404 Media is a new independent media company founded by technology journalists Jason Koebler, Emanuel Maiberg, Samantha Cole, and Joseph Cox.

^{Outpost Staff (404 Media)}

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A motion introduced today by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., to subpoena journalist Seth Harp passed unanimously in the House Oversight Committee. Luna accused Harp of “leaking classified intel about Operation Absolute Resolve, including doxxing a Delta Force commander.”

The motion was apparently in response to Harp’s reporting the name and publicly available online biography of the commander involved in the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Politico reports that the subpoena appears to have arisen from an agreement between Luna and California Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia to issue a flurry of subpoenas, including some relating to Jeffrey Epstein. Garcia reportedly supported the Harp subpoena.

Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern said:

“Journalists don’t work for the government and can’t ‘leak’ government information — to the contrary, it’s their job to find and publish the news, whether the government wants it made public or not. Identifying government officials by name is not doxxing or harassment, no matter how many times Trump allies say otherwise. Reporters have a constitutional right to publish even classified leaks, as long as they don’t commit any crimes to obtain them, but Harp merely published information that was publicly available about someone at the center of the world’s biggest news story. In 2024, the House unanimously passed the PRESS Act to protect journalists from subpoenas about their newsgathering. The bill died after Trump ordered the Senate to kill it on Truth Social. Apparently, so did the principles of Reps. Luna, Garcia, and their colleagues.”

Chip Gibbons, policy director at Defending Rights & Dissent, said:

“Rep. Luna’s subpoena of investigative reporter Seth Harp is clearly designed to chill and intimidate a journalist doing some of the most significant investigative reporting on U.S. Special Forces. Her own statement makes clear that far from having a valid legislative purpose, she seeks to hold a journalist ‘accountable’ for what is essentially reporting she dislikes. Her rationale is based on easily debunkable disinformation. Harp did not share classified information about the U.S. regime change operation in Venezuela. And even if he had, his actions would firmly be protected by the First Amendment. This is a dangerous assault on the press freedom, as well as the U.S. people’s right to know. It is shameful it passed the committee.”

Bobby Block, executive director of Florida’s First Amendment Foundation, added:

“This is a naked attempt to intimidate a journalist for doing his job. Rep. Luna’s own words make clear this subpoena has no legitimate legislative purpose — it’s about punishing reporting she doesn’t like. That kind of abuse of power strikes at the heart of the First Amendment and threatens the public’s right to know.”

Please contact us if you would like further comment.

freedom.press/issues/house-com…

By Schoresch Davoodi, Board Member of Pirate Party International, Delegate for European Policy and Member of the Foreign Policy Working Group in Pirate Party of Germany

Published in Pirate Times, January 9, 2026

The protests raging across Iran since late December 2025 lay bare the Mullah-Regime’s vulnerability—and its ruthless reliance on digital repression to survive. Born from economic desperation—galloping inflation, blackouts plunging cities into darkness, and water shortages threatening survival—these demonstrations have swiftly transcended grievances, erupting into a nationwide demand for the Islamic Republic’s downfall.

In Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, and dozens more cities, voices rise in unison: “Death to the Dictator,” aimed squarely at Supreme Leader Khamenei. This is not transient anger but a profound revolution against a regime that lavishes billions on proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis while its people endure crumbling infrastructure and environmental collapse.

Tehran itself, once a beacon of modernity, now embodies this decay—its ground sinking, its air toxic, as I recently highlighted on X linking to a stark video: “How Tehran Became an Awful Place to Live”. From my family’s enduring resistance to tyranny and my work in the Pirate Party International (PPI), I see Iran’s crisis as inseparable from a worldwide erosion of digital freedoms: the “taming” of online activism in the West and the selective hypocrisies that fracture universal human rights.

The Digital Siege

The regime’s survival hinges on a meticulously engineered digital siege. Cloudflare and NetBlocks data confirm a 30-40% plunge in traffic, with pinpoint blackouts in hotspots and relentless VPN assaults—tools outlawed without state approval since 2024. This is no accident; it is designed to fracture coordination, bury atrocity evidence, and isolate protesters from the world, turning their fight invisible.

In my 2023 Flaschenpost interview, I exposed the regime’s relentless fabrications, mirrored by its “Axis of Autocracies” allies—Russia, China, Iran—in corrupting open discourse. They insist only “leftist” revolts are authentic, a Soviet relic I’ve repeatedly challenged, dismissing Iran’s organic uprising as foreign-orchestrated while throttling its digital pulse. Such deceit exposes a deeper rot: fierce outrage against certain censors, yet tacit tolerance when ideology aligns.

The “Taming” of Net Politics

This Iranian ordeal finds a chilling parallel in Babak Tubis’s piercing January 2, 2026, PPI piece, “The Taming of Net Politics: HateAid as a Cautionary Tale for Digital Freedom”. As my PPI colleague and Iranian-rooted advocate, Tubis reveals how grassroots digital activism surrenders to state symbiosis, losing its defiant edge.

HateAid, launched to shield hate victims, became a Digital Services Act (DSA) “Trusted Flagger,” only to incur U.S. sanctions amid transatlantic digital strife in December 2025. Tubis captures the peril:

“HateAid fits this pattern perfectly. As a state-funded organisation with accelerated flagging privileges under the DSA’s trusted-flagger framework, it has moved from grassroots support for victims of online violence into a semi-institutional role inside the regulatory apparatus.”

This exposure invites autocrats to exploit legal levers for suppression. As I questioned on X: “Is fighting online hate worth trading digital freedom for state ties & censorship tools? Pirate Parties warn: HateAid’s path shows the risks.” Western excuses for censorship—”protecting democracy” from misinformation—eerily echo the Mullahs’ blackout justifications, eroding Kantian Mündigkeit, our capacity for independent thought, in favor of technocratic overseers.

The Silence of the Left

Our Pirate heritage, forged in Enlightenment principles, demands we confront hatred without sacrificing pluralism or trading autonomy for institutional favor. In Iran, regime disinformation permeates Western channels via lobbyists and influencers, breeding unchallenged myths. I’ve long unmasked German left-wing parties—the SPD and Greens—tethered by historic bonds to the Islamic Republic, recycling Soviet narratives that undermine legitimate opposition.

The Pirate Party Hesse’s 2023 indictment, “Proteste im Iran – und die politische Linke schaut weg”, stands as a beacon: the left bypasses a truly progressive revolution it should champion, favoring doctrine over universal rights. Hesse embodies consistency, upholding digital and liberal freedoms as indivisible. By contrast, Baden-Württemberg, despite past boldness (such as their September 2024 probe of political Islam), has offered no voice on this latest surge.

These inconsistencies lay bare ethical fractures, illuminated in Hesse’s 2025 reflection by Nasrin Amirsedghi, “Freiheit, die den Hass schützt – Frankfurt und der moralische Bankrott”. It probes how assembly rights can harbor venom, bolstering democracy’s enemies much like Mullah agents exploit Western indulgence for propaganda.

A Call for Solidarity

PPI’s January 3, 2026, affirmation, “Solidarity with Iran: PPI Supports the Path to a Democratic Future”, anchors our resolve. We envision a secular democracy amplifying liberties, urging an Iranian Pirate Party for non-violent digital resistance—via tools like Starlink, long my advocacy against throttling.

The regime totters. Victory requires urgency:

• Compel Elon Musk for Starlink access.
• Expel regime diplomats and sanction oppressors.
• Demand the Revolutionary Guards’ listing as a terrorist organization.

As I declared on X honoring Hannover’s Jina Mahsa Amini square: Freedom defies borders; we champion it everywhere. The Islamic Republic will soon be a dark footnote in the history of Iran. Democracy rises.

piratetimes.info/the-mullah-re…

The Black Response will host three community dinners to share presentations on ShotSpotter surveillance devices in Cambridge. The first event will be Thursday, January 22nd at 6pm at The Community Art Center. We encourage all Pirate Party supporters to attend this presentation. The community dinner is a potluck, so please bring some food to share.

The Community Art Center is at 119 Windsor Street, Cambridge. It is a nine minute walk from Central Square and the MBTA Red Line stop there.

The second event will be on Wednesday, February 11th at CIC Cambridge. It is at 1 Broadway in Kendall Square a short walk from the MBTA Red Line stop. The third event will be in March. All events are on our calendar.

Past TBR ShotSpotter presentations:

youtube.com/embed/pnnokS7YtiY?…

youtube.com/embed/QpoNnNDKyEo?…

youtube.com/embed/bFeNPdgpS4Q?…

masspirates.org/blog/2026/01/0…

Our first of four upcoming Cambridge/Somerville Pirate Meetups is this Saturday:

• 1/10/2026, 2-4pm, 1369 Coffee House, 757 Mass. Ave., Cambridge;
• 1/25/2026, 3-5pm, Diesel Cafe, 257 Elm St., Somerville;
• 2/7/2026, 2-4pm, Tatte Bakery & Cafe, 318 Third St., Cambridge;
• 2/22/2026, 1-3pm, 37 Woodbine St., Somerville.

Click the links to go to their respective registration pages. Knowing how many people plan to attend helps to choose the right sized table.

Looking forward to meeting with fellow pirates in Camberville!

PS: You can also join our local mailing list.

masspirates.org/blog/2026/01/0…

Dear All Members of Pirate Parties International and all interested parties,

The 2025-2026 PPI Winter GA will take place on Saturday, January 10th, 2026, starting at 09:00 UTC.
The event will be hybrid, with some participants physically attending in Potsdam, Germany.

If representatives from your organization intend to participate in person, please let us know by
requesting a completely free ticket here: eventbrite.com/e/1975346809482

The venue is located in Potsdam-Babelsberg (old town hall).

AWO Kulturhaus Babelsberg
Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 135
14482 Potsdam
openstreetmap.org/export/embed…
Größere Karte anzeigen

Day 2 will be scheduled if necessary, but at a different location!
Am Bürohochhaus 2-4
14778 Potsdam-Drewitz

openstreetmap.org/export/embed…
Größere Karte anzeigen

Discussion about the GA is currently on Discourse: ga.pp-international.net/
Further information is also available on our Wiki:
wiki.pp-international.net/wiki…

The meeting will take place on the PPI Board Jitsi Channel: jitsi.pirati.cz/PPI-Board

If we have connection problems, we will revert to our Mumble:
wiki.pp-international.net/wiki…

Motions and discussions can be found on Discourse:

ga.pp-international.net/c/wint…

If you have any statute amendments or new member applications, please make sure that you send
them to the board by December 10th. If you have any other motions or any other business, feel
free to bring them up before the meeting, and you are free to propose them at the meeting itself.

It is very important that we make a quorum, so please delegate your vote to another member if
you cannot come to the event. Please also forward this message to other PPI members.

Delegates should be announced to the board prior to the start of the GA. Each member may have
up to 6 delegates. Others are welcome to attend without voting. Rules of the GA can be reviewed
on the Wiki: wiki.pp-international.net/wiki…

We also remind full members to pay membership fees. We don’t want anyone not to participate if
they don’t have funds to pay membership fees, so please let us know if you require a discount or
accommodation. Please note that nascent members have no membership fees.

We hope that many of you can attend, either in person or online.

Good luck to us on having a successful event!

Thank you for your assistance,

The Board of PPI

pp-international.net/2026/01/u…

January 7 – This Saturday, January 10th, Ohio’s Independent Gubernatorial Candidate Timothy Grady will be joining us for the newest episode of Talk the Plank!, the official podcast of the United States Pirate Party.

During our August 10th Pirate National Committee meeting, the board voted to endorse Grady’s campaign. While the Grady campaign is not strictly a Pirate campaign, the United States Pirate Party values honest campaigns, person-first agendas and anyone who fights for free and open. We were happy to endorse the gubernatorial campaign and are further excited to have Timothy Grady join this week’s episode, especially following the news of the Ohio Pirate Party’s ascension to the Pirate National Committee.

Be sure to check out his official campaign website, and don’t forget to tune in on Saturday at 9pmET! See you there!

uspirates.org/talk-the-plank-r…

International Pirates pay attention!
The 20th Council Meeting is coming: 30 – 31 January in Ljubljana. Participation is appreciated, discourse.european-pirateparty…

Online participation will be possible via:

europeanpirates.eu/streaming/

Read more about the event here:

discourse.european-pirateparty…

europeanpirates.eu/pirates-ass…

Every Thursday of the week, Bastian’s Night is broadcast from 21:30 CET.

Bastian’s Night is a live talk show in German with lots of music, a weekly round-up of news from around the world, and a glimpse into the host’s crazy week in the pirate movement.

If you want to read more about @BastianBB: –> This way

piratesonair.net/bastians-nigh…

We elect 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/2026/01/0…

Dear All Members of Pirate Parties International and all interested parties,

The 2025-2026 PPI Winter GA will take place on Saturday, January 10th, 2026, starting at 09:00 UTC.
The event will be hybrid, with some participants physically attending in Potsdam, Germany.

If representatives from your organization intend to participate in person, please let us know by
requesting a completely free ticket here: eventbrite.com/e/1975346809482

The venue is located in Potsdam-Babelsberg (old town hall).

AWO Kulturhaus Babelsberg
Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 135
14482 Potsdam
openstreetmap.org/export/embed…
Größere Karte anzeigen

Day 2 will be scheduled if necessary, but at a different location!
Am Bürohochhaus 2-4
14778 Potsdam-Drewitz

openstreetmap.org/export/embed…
Größere Karte anzeigen

Discussion about the GA is currently on Discourse: ga.pp-international.net/
Further information is also available on our Wiki:
wiki.pp-international.net/wiki…

The meeting will take place on the PPI Board Jitsi Channel: jitsi.pirati.cz/PPI-Board

If we have connection problems, we will revert to our Mumble:
wiki.pp-international.net/wiki…

Motions and discussions can be found on Discourse:

ga.pp-international.net/c/wint…

If you have any statute amendments or new member applications, please make sure that you send
them to the board by December 10th. If you have any other motions or any other business, feel
free to bring them up before the meeting, and you are free to propose them at the meeting itself.

It is very important that we make a quorum, so please delegate your vote to another member if
you cannot come to the event. Please also forward this message to other PPI members.

Delegates should be announced to the board prior to the start of the GA. Each member may have
up to 6 delegates. Others are welcome to attend without voting. Rules of the GA can be reviewed
on the Wiki: wiki.pp-international.net/wiki…

We also remind full members to pay membership fees. We don’t want anyone not to participate if
they don’t have funds to pay membership fees, so please let us know if you require a discount or
accommodation. Please note that nascent members have no membership fees.

We hope that many of you can attend, either in person or online.

Good luck to us on having a successful event!

Thank you for your assistance,

The Board of PPI

pp-international.net/2026/01/u…

ICYMI

Ohio – The Ohio Pirate Party was unanimously voted in as the ninth Pirate National Committee member state! Congratulations to the Ohio Pirate Party!
OHPP
Young Pirates USA – Bylaws for our Young Pirates USA organization was approved during last night’s meeting. Co-Captains Lily and Jack were both in attendance for the approval of the bylaws.

Other News – Arizona and Illinois hosted their first in-person meeting for the year, with more meetings for state parties and their local affiliates to come this month. More candidates for the U.S. Pirate Party are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Just a reminder that our 2026 Pirate National Conference will take place June 6th, 2026, which will mark 20 years of the United States Pirate Party. The conference will take place in Boston, MA, as decided by our members. The next piece of business to be voted on by the Pirate Party supporters shall be in regards to the theme and/or tagline of the conference.

Remember: we will host the conference aboard a boat!

uspirates.org/icymi-updates-fr…