Tootfinder

Freedom House's Freedom on the Net 2025 report: for the 15th straight year, global internet freedom is in decline; of the 72 countries surveyed, Kenya fell most (Tech Policy Press)
https://www.techpolicy.press/global-internet-freedom-declines-for-…

Global Internet Freedom Declines for 15th Consecutive Year | TechPolicy.Press
Despite funding cuts, Freedom House delivered its annual report on how countries are performing on measures of digital rights and internet freedom.

I feel as though I should illustrate the difference that this one single constraint can make by two examples.
The rules of Simon Says are maximally authoritarian. You must perform any action ordered, with the only restriction that the authority must say "Simon says" first. Were you forced to stay in this system, it would be the most despotic autocracy possible. But it's not. It's a silly game because you can leave at any time.
Let's flip this and imagine a room. During a specific period of time you will have absolute control over everything in this room. In this room you have total freedom. This is not even the limited freedom, the coordinated freedom, the compromising freedom of civil society. You could, without consequence, perform any action you wish in this room. You could say anything, destroy or steal any object, order any individual to perform any action, kill any person in the room with you and take anything they own. This is the sovereign freedom, the absolute freedom, of dictators and kings. The only restriction is that you are not allowed to leave the room while you have this freedom. In fact, you really only have this level of freedom because the room is actually empty other than for you. I am, of course, talking about a form of torture still common in the US: solitary confinement.

Werte Mitglieder des Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen,
es gibt folgenden Antrag innerhalb eurer Partei zu einer Bekenntnis gegen die Wehrpflicht:
🔗 https://antraege.gruene.de/51bdk/Nein-zur-Wehrpflicht-Ja-zur-Friedentuchtigkeit-19582

I feel as though I should illustrate the difference that this one single constraint can make by two examples.
The rules of Simon Says are maximally authoritarian. You must perform any action ordered, with the only restriction that the authority must say "Simon says" first. Were you forced to stay in this system, it would be the most despotic autocracy possible. But it's not. It's a silly game because you can leave at any time.
Let's flip this and imagine a room. During a specific period of time you will have absolute control over everything in this room. In this room you have total freedom. This is not even the limited freedom, the coordinated freedom, the compromising freedom of civil society. You could, without consequence, perform any action you wish in this room. You could say anything, destroy or steal any object, order any individual to perform any action, kill any person in the room with you and take anything they own. This is the sovereign freedom, the absolute freedom, of dictators and kings. The only restriction is that you are not allowed to leave the room while you have this freedom. In fact, you really only have this level of freedom because the room is actually empty other than for you. I am, of course, talking about a form of torture still common in the US: solitary confinement.

Sources: Disney has been hesitant to license its IP to Roblox because it doesn't consider it a safe platform, bucking the trend followed by Netflix and others (Jennifer Maas/Variety)
https://variety.com/2025/gaming/news/roblox-fortnite-hollywood-…

Roblox and Fortnite Team With Hollywood: Brand Collabs, Safety Issues
How Roblox and Fortnite are being utilized by Hollywood studios to spread brand awareness, even as safety proves to be an issue.

Endra, whose AI tools automate mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design for commercial buildings, raised a $20M seed led by Notion (Jeremy Kahn/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2025/12/18/endra-ai-startup-automating-mep-design…

Exclusive: Swedish startup automating mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design for commercial buildings raises $20 million in seed round
Notion Capital is leading the seed round for Endra, which says reduces the time to design buildings' electrical systems from months to hours.

Ankar, which develops LLM-powered AI tools to streamline the process of drafting patent applications for patent attorneys, raised a $20M Series A led by Atomico (Jeremy Kahn/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2025/12/17/exclusi

Exclusive: Palantir alums using AI to streamline patent filing secure $20 million in Series A venture funding
Palantir alumni Tamar Gomez and Wiem Gharbi founded Ankar which counts L'Oreal and Vorys among early customers

Sources: Tempo, a stablecoin-focused blockchain developed by Stripe and Paradigm, raised a $500M Series A led by Greenoaks and Thrive Capital at a $5B valuation (Fortune)
https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/10/17/stripe-para…

Exclusive: Stripe-backed blockchain startup Tempo raises $500 million round led by Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital and Greenoaks
The Series A values the Matt Huang-led Tempo at $5 billion and includes participation from Sequoia, Ribbit, and SV Angel.

Kraken raised $200M at a $20B valuation, after raising $600M at a $15B valuation in Sept.; prior to the two rounds, Kraken raised only $27M in venture capital (Ben Weiss/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2025/11/18/kraken-citadel-securities-ken-griffin-…

Exclusive: Crypto exchange Kraken raises $200 million from Ken Griffin’s Citadel to notch $20 billion valuation
Once skittish about digital assets, Citadel has warmed towards the crypto business in 2025.

Sources: Salient, which uses AI to automate loan servicing, raised $10M following a $60M Series A in June, pushing its valuation to ~$500M; its ARR hit $25M (Lily Mae Lazarus/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2025/12/18/salient

Salient’s quiet AI boom: How this two-year old startup is building a company to survive the bubble burst
Salient cofounder Ari Malik built AI to automate loan servicing, turning collections calls into a high-growth business now valued around $500 million.