Luis Fernando García
@luisfgarcia.bsky.social
Fighting digital authoritarianism.
Co-Founder and former Executive Director at @r3d.mx
Co-Founder and former Executive Director at @r3d.mx
In Mexico 🇲🇽, Sheinbaum's government is pushing through Congress sweeping legal reforms that will establish mass identification and surveillance systems of the population.
Here is a thread 🧵 summarizing the scope and reach of these reforms:
Here is a thread 🧵 summarizing the scope and reach of these reforms:
June 25, 2025 at 9:59 PM
In Mexico 🇲🇽, Sheinbaum's government is pushing through Congress sweeping legal reforms that will establish mass identification and surveillance systems of the population.
Here is a thread 🧵 summarizing the scope and reach of these reforms:
Here is a thread 🧵 summarizing the scope and reach of these reforms:
Reposted by Luis Fernando García
It’s clear that trans people face unique, advanced, and persistent threats—online and off. Here are some strategies for resisting the tech-enabled violence that trans people face.
Strategies for Resisting Tech-Enabled Violence Facing Transgender People
Today's Supreme Court’s ruling in U.S. v. Skrmetti upholding bans on gender-affirming care for youth makes it clear: trans people are under attack. Threats to trans rights and healthcare are coming fr...
www.eff.org
June 21, 2025 at 12:35 AM
It’s clear that trans people face unique, advanced, and persistent threats—online and off. Here are some strategies for resisting the tech-enabled violence that trans people face.
Reposted by Luis Fernando García
I was encouraged to see the #G7 Leaders' Statement on Transnational Repression which also calls out mitigating harms around mercenary spyware 👇🇨🇦
www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/stat...
www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/stat...
June 18, 2025 at 12:56 PM
I was encouraged to see the #G7 Leaders' Statement on Transnational Repression which also calls out mitigating harms around mercenary spyware 👇🇨🇦
www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/stat...
www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/stat...
Reposted by Luis Fernando García
NEW today from myself @citizenlab.ca, on the unspoken implications of Canada's Bill C-2 for data-sharing with the United States and other foreign countries:
citizenlab.ca/2025/06/a-pr...
citizenlab.ca/2025/06/a-pr...
Unspoken Implications: A Preliminary Analysis of Bill C-2 and Canada’s Potential Data-Sharing Obligations Towards the United States and Other Countries - The Citizen Lab
On June 3, 2025, the federal government tabled Bill C-2, An Act respecting certain measures relating to the security of the border between Canada and the United States and respecting other related sec...
citizenlab.ca
June 16, 2025 at 6:55 PM
NEW today from myself @citizenlab.ca, on the unspoken implications of Canada's Bill C-2 for data-sharing with the United States and other foreign countries:
citizenlab.ca/2025/06/a-pr...
citizenlab.ca/2025/06/a-pr...
Reposted by Luis Fernando García
Calling all journalists covering the US-MX border and immigration: we're teaming up with @freedom.press , @tcij.org g, and ACOS Alliance to offer dedicated security workshops in Albuquerque and El Paso in August. Apply here! eff.org/jstapp
APPLICATION FORM
In an increasingly uncertain time for journalists' security in the US, this safety training initiative will support local journalists and freelancers who cover migration and events on the US border wi...
eff.org
June 18, 2025 at 5:45 AM
Calling all journalists covering the US-MX border and immigration: we're teaming up with @freedom.press , @tcij.org g, and ACOS Alliance to offer dedicated security workshops in Albuquerque and El Paso in August. Apply here! eff.org/jstapp
Reposted by Luis Fernando García
In April, President Trump and Salvadoran President Bukele shook hands in the Oval Office to celebrate a deal to ship gang members to the notorious CECOT prison.
But a new ProPublica investigation found there’s more to the story. 🧵👇
But a new ProPublica investigation found there’s more to the story. 🧵👇
June 12, 2025 at 11:06 AM
In April, President Trump and Salvadoran President Bukele shook hands in the Oval Office to celebrate a deal to ship gang members to the notorious CECOT prison.
But a new ProPublica investigation found there’s more to the story. 🧵👇
But a new ProPublica investigation found there’s more to the story. 🧵👇
Reposted by Luis Fernando García
NEW @citizenlab.ca report confirms the targeting of two more journalist with #Paragon spyware in the context of 🇮🇹
Details here: citizenlab.ca/2025/06/firs...
@billmarczak.org @jsrailton.bsky.social
Details here: citizenlab.ca/2025/06/firs...
@billmarczak.org @jsrailton.bsky.social
Graphite Caught: First Forensic Confirmation of Paragon’s iOS Mercenary Spyware Finds Journalists Targeted - The Citizen Lab
We conducted a forensic analysis of devices belonging to two journalists who were notified by Apple that they were targeted with advanced spyware.
citizenlab.ca
June 12, 2025 at 12:37 PM
NEW @citizenlab.ca report confirms the targeting of two more journalist with #Paragon spyware in the context of 🇮🇹
Details here: citizenlab.ca/2025/06/firs...
@billmarczak.org @jsrailton.bsky.social
Details here: citizenlab.ca/2025/06/firs...
@billmarczak.org @jsrailton.bsky.social
Reposted by Luis Fernando García
NEW REPORT: Our forensic analysis confirms ✅ two more European journalists targeted with Paragon's Graphite spyware.
Read it here: citizenlab.ca/2025/06/firs...
Read it here: citizenlab.ca/2025/06/firs...
Graphite Caught: First Forensic Confirmation of Paragon’s iOS Mercenary Spyware Finds Journalists Targeted - The Citizen Lab
On April 29, 2025, a select group of iOS users were notified by Apple that they were targeted with advanced spyware. Among the group were two journalists who consented to the technical analysis of the...
citizenlab.ca
June 12, 2025 at 3:46 PM
NEW REPORT: Our forensic analysis confirms ✅ two more European journalists targeted with Paragon's Graphite spyware.
Read it here: citizenlab.ca/2025/06/firs...
Read it here: citizenlab.ca/2025/06/firs...
Reposted by Luis Fernando García
Confidential records obtained by WIRED & @propertyofthepeople.org show the ag industry deploying moles to infiltrate activist meetings, while functionally serving as FBI informants, in a shadow campaign to brand the animal rights movement America's biggest bioterrorism threat.
My latest @wired.com:
My latest @wired.com:
How the Farm Industry Spied on Animal Rights Activists and Pushed the FBI to Treat Them as Terrorists
For years, a powerful ‘Big Ag’ trade group served up information on activists to the FBI. Records reveal a decade-long effort to see the animal rights movement labeled a legitimate terrorism threat.
www.wired.com
June 3, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Confidential records obtained by WIRED & @propertyofthepeople.org show the ag industry deploying moles to infiltrate activist meetings, while functionally serving as FBI informants, in a shadow campaign to brand the animal rights movement America's biggest bioterrorism threat.
My latest @wired.com:
My latest @wired.com:
Reposted by Luis Fernando García
BREAKING: jury awards massive $167 million in punitive damages against spyware company NSO Group.
Precedent-setting win against notorious #Pegasus spyware maker.
Very consequential for victims to see this.
Congratulations to #WhatsApp on sticking this case through since 2019. Some thoughts 1/
Precedent-setting win against notorious #Pegasus spyware maker.
Very consequential for victims to see this.
Congratulations to #WhatsApp on sticking this case through since 2019. Some thoughts 1/
May 6, 2025 at 9:30 PM
In the coming weeks, I will be leaving my position as Executive Director of @r3d.mx . I do so with enormous satisfaction and pride, having dedicated 11 years to collectively building a transcendental organization for the defense of human rights in Mexico and the region.
Tenemos una importante noticia que compartirles. Después de una larga reflexión y planificación colectiva, Luis Fernando García cerrará su ciclo al frente de R3D.
¡Muchas gracias a @tumbolian.bsky.social por estos 11 años de liderazgo y dedicación!
r3d.mx/2025/04/15/r...
¡Muchas gracias a @tumbolian.bsky.social por estos 11 años de liderazgo y dedicación!
r3d.mx/2025/04/15/r...
R3D anuncia cambios en su Dirección Ejecutiva | R3D: Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales
A partir del 1 de mayo de 2025, Luis Fernando García cerrará su ciclo al frente de R3D. El Consejo Directivo conducirá un proceso de transición para seleccionar la nueva Dirección Ejecutiva, cuyo resu...
r3d.mx
April 15, 2025 at 7:55 PM
In the coming weeks, I will be leaving my position as Executive Director of @r3d.mx . I do so with enormous satisfaction and pride, having dedicated 11 years to collectively building a transcendental organization for the defense of human rights in Mexico and the region.
Reposted by Luis Fernando García
A LOT of folks in the US have moved away from texts, WhatsApp, iMessage, etc. to Signal. That’s a good thing. Also - Signal is a non-profit. If you’re relying on @signal.org to have your back, make sure you have their back too. Go donate and get your friends to do so as well!
signal.org/donate/
signal.org/donate/
Donate to Signal Private Messenger
Your donation helps pay for the development, servers, and bandwidth of an app used by millions around the world for private and instantaneous communication. Please make a donation today.
signal.org
February 5, 2025 at 9:35 PM
A LOT of folks in the US have moved away from texts, WhatsApp, iMessage, etc. to Signal. That’s a good thing. Also - Signal is a non-profit. If you’re relying on @signal.org to have your back, make sure you have their back too. Go donate and get your friends to do so as well!
signal.org/donate/
signal.org/donate/
The U.S. trains them, arms them, pays them as intelligence assets, launders their money, condecorates them, then prosecutes them or, as Trump did, let them go, but always, uses their example to denounce Mexico’s corruption while obscuring its own.
www.nytimes.com/2022/12/08/m...
www.nytimes.com/2022/12/08/m...
The Cienfuegos Affair: Inside the Case that Upended the Drug War in Mexico (Published 2022)
A Times Magazine-ProPublica investigation reveals how the U.S. painstakingly built a case against a Mexican general suspected of links to organized crime — and then decided to let him go.
www.nytimes.com
February 2, 2025 at 4:08 PM
The U.S. trains them, arms them, pays them as intelligence assets, launders their money, condecorates them, then prosecutes them or, as Trump did, let them go, but always, uses their example to denounce Mexico’s corruption while obscuring its own.
www.nytimes.com/2022/12/08/m...
www.nytimes.com/2022/12/08/m...
Reposted by Luis Fernando García
As someone who has reported on AI for 7 years and covered China tech as well, I think the biggest lesson to be drawn from DeepSeek is the huge cracks it illustrates with the current dominant paradigm of AI development. A long thread. 1/
January 27, 2025 at 2:12 PM
As someone who has reported on AI for 7 years and covered China tech as well, I think the biggest lesson to be drawn from DeepSeek is the huge cracks it illustrates with the current dominant paradigm of AI development. A long thread. 1/
Europe wants to save democracy from the techno-authoritarians by *checks notes twice because can't believe this level of idiocy* ending anonymity and encryption online to facilitate surveillance.
January 22, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Europe wants to save democracy from the techno-authoritarians by *checks notes twice because can't believe this level of idiocy* ending anonymity and encryption online to facilitate surveillance.
Reposted by Luis Fernando García
We need #encryption backdoors to 'enforce' democracy says Europol chief.
Says anonymity "not a fundamental right"
I disagree.
Giving governments total access to private communications lays the technical groundwork for undermining democracy 1/
www.ft.com/content/1e6a...
Says anonymity "not a fundamental right"
I disagree.
Giving governments total access to private communications lays the technical groundwork for undermining democracy 1/
www.ft.com/content/1e6a...
January 22, 2025 at 4:19 PM
We need #encryption backdoors to 'enforce' democracy says Europol chief.
Says anonymity "not a fundamental right"
I disagree.
Giving governments total access to private communications lays the technical groundwork for undermining democracy 1/
www.ft.com/content/1e6a...
Says anonymity "not a fundamental right"
I disagree.
Giving governments total access to private communications lays the technical groundwork for undermining democracy 1/
www.ft.com/content/1e6a...
Labeling calls for mercy on the most vulnerable people as hate speech is the type of newspeak we can expect from the “censorship in the name of free speech” policies in X, Meta and TikTok moving forward.
January 22, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Labeling calls for mercy on the most vulnerable people as hate speech is the type of newspeak we can expect from the “censorship in the name of free speech” policies in X, Meta and TikTok moving forward.
Free speech restored bigly
TikTok Says It’s Not Censoring ‘Free Palestine’ Comments. Users See Something Different www.404media.co/tiktok-free-...
TikTok Says It’s Not Censoring ‘Free Palestine’ Comments. Users See Something Different
When TikTok returned after being pulled from the U.S., hours before President Trump’s inauguration, users reported “free palestine” comments were being instantly removed.
www.404media.co
January 22, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Free speech restored bigly
Reposted by Luis Fernando García
Decentralized social media Is the only alternative to the Tech Oligarchy
🔗 www.404media.co/decentralize...
🔗 www.404media.co/decentralize...
January 21, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Decentralized social media Is the only alternative to the Tech Oligarchy
🔗 www.404media.co/decentralize...
🔗 www.404media.co/decentralize...
Reposted by Luis Fernando García
Nazis: "that's a nazi salute"
Historians: "that's a nazi salute"
Average person: "that's a nazi salute"
The Media: "Elon Musk makes odd gesture throwing his heart to the crowd."
Historians: "that's a nazi salute"
Average person: "that's a nazi salute"
The Media: "Elon Musk makes odd gesture throwing his heart to the crowd."
January 21, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Nazis: "that's a nazi salute"
Historians: "that's a nazi salute"
Average person: "that's a nazi salute"
The Media: "Elon Musk makes odd gesture throwing his heart to the crowd."
Historians: "that's a nazi salute"
Average person: "that's a nazi salute"
The Media: "Elon Musk makes odd gesture throwing his heart to the crowd."
Normalization of fascist symbols goes like this:
1. "It wasn´t a nazi salute"
2. "I'm just doing it to own the libs"
3. "Heil Trump"
We might reach number 3 before midnight.
1. "It wasn´t a nazi salute"
2. "I'm just doing it to own the libs"
3. "Heil Trump"
We might reach number 3 before midnight.
January 20, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Normalization of fascist symbols goes like this:
1. "It wasn´t a nazi salute"
2. "I'm just doing it to own the libs"
3. "Heil Trump"
We might reach number 3 before midnight.
1. "It wasn´t a nazi salute"
2. "I'm just doing it to own the libs"
3. "Heil Trump"
We might reach number 3 before midnight.
If drug cartels are designated as terrorist organizations:
Are U.S. gun vendors, businesses, and banks that launder cartel's money and U.S. drug consumers going to be labeled as persons providing material support/resources to FTOs?
Will Mexico be designated as a "State sponsor of terrorism"?
Are U.S. gun vendors, businesses, and banks that launder cartel's money and U.S. drug consumers going to be labeled as persons providing material support/resources to FTOs?
Will Mexico be designated as a "State sponsor of terrorism"?
January 20, 2025 at 9:31 PM
If drug cartels are designated as terrorist organizations:
Are U.S. gun vendors, businesses, and banks that launder cartel's money and U.S. drug consumers going to be labeled as persons providing material support/resources to FTOs?
Will Mexico be designated as a "State sponsor of terrorism"?
Are U.S. gun vendors, businesses, and banks that launder cartel's money and U.S. drug consumers going to be labeled as persons providing material support/resources to FTOs?
Will Mexico be designated as a "State sponsor of terrorism"?
Banning TikTok wasn’t about protecting privacy.
Restoring TikTok wasn’t about free speech.
The problem for the U.S. empire wasn’t the tool, it was about who owns it.
It was always about having power over a magnificent surveillance and censorship tool.
Textbook fascism.
Restoring TikTok wasn’t about free speech.
The problem for the U.S. empire wasn’t the tool, it was about who owns it.
It was always about having power over a magnificent surveillance and censorship tool.
Textbook fascism.
January 20, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Banning TikTok wasn’t about protecting privacy.
Restoring TikTok wasn’t about free speech.
The problem for the U.S. empire wasn’t the tool, it was about who owns it.
It was always about having power over a magnificent surveillance and censorship tool.
Textbook fascism.
Restoring TikTok wasn’t about free speech.
The problem for the U.S. empire wasn’t the tool, it was about who owns it.
It was always about having power over a magnificent surveillance and censorship tool.
Textbook fascism.
Every authoritarian in the world is taking note that you can shut down entire applications by claiming "national security concerns" without even having to entertain any freedom of expression analysis.
January 17, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Every authoritarian in the world is taking note that you can shut down entire applications by claiming "national security concerns" without even having to entertain any freedom of expression analysis.