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  • Unearthing a Colombian Politician’s Connections to Neo-Nazi Active Club Group

    Unearthing a Colombian Politician’s Connections to Neo-Nazi Active Club Group

    This investigation is a collaboration between Bellingcat and Colombian media outlet Cerosetenta. You can read Cerosetenta’s piece in Spanish here.

    A video posted on Feb. 26 shows several men painting over graffiti in Restrepo, a neighbourhood in Bogota, Colombia, and replacing them with images of their own: a logo used by Colombian political candidate and businessman Jorge Rodriguez, who is one of the men shown in the footage.

    “Today we are defending public space to stop generating hatred in future generations!” said the caption posted on Instagram by Rodriguez, who unsuccessfully ran for office in the March 2026 congressional elections as part of Centro Democratico, the country’s largest right-wing party. 

    But at least one of the graffiti-ed pieces they painted over carried a message critical of, rather than promoting, hate: “Creole Nazis will not pass” – using a term that refers to Nazi sympathisers in Latin America. 

    A screenshot of Rodriguez’s Feb. 26, 2026 video showing men painting over graffiti with the words “Nazis Criollos no pasaran”, or “Creole Nazis will not pass”. Source: Instagram

    And although the faces of most of the men shown in the video were pixelated, the tattoos visible on one of them have multiple similarities with a prominent member of neo-Nazi group Active Club Bogota – an individual known as Javier “Orlik” Ruiz, whom Rodriguez follows on Instagram and who “liked” the video.

    In response to Bellingcat and Cerosetenta’s queries via Instagram, Rodriguez did not answer questions about his relationship with Active Club Bogota or the individual we identified as appearing in his videos, but said he was “not obligated to respond to any interview or request without a court order”. He also threatened legal action if we used his image or name in this investigation, saying that this would violate his rights to privacy, reputation and data protection, as well as the right to his own image. 

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    Similarly, Ruiz did not reply to questions that Bellingcat sent via email, including on his role in Active Club Bogota, but responded to our query by threatening legal action if we used his name, image or background information about him without his “prior, express and informed authorisation”. Ruiz said in his email that, among other things, processing his personal data without authorisation could be considered a violation of personal data under Colombian law.

    After Bellingcat replied to both Rodriguez and Ruiz, noting that they did not answer our questions and inviting them again to do so, Ruiz responded with another legal threat referencing data laws – again without answering any questions related to this investigation. 

    Bellingcat and Cerosetenta have consulted legal experts in both the Netherlands, where Bellingcat is headquartered, and in Colombia on the question of how privacy laws in both countries are balanced against the right to freedom of expression. In light of (amongst other factors) the public interest in this information and the fact that both Rodriguez and Ruiz qualify as “public figures” (persons who have, through their acts or their position, entered the public arena), the reporting in this article and the editorial choices made by Bellingcat are protected by the freedom of expression.

    Both Rodriguez’s and Ruiz’s full responses are included at the end of this article.

    Active Club Bogota is the local branch of the international Active Club movement. It hosted celebrations of Adolf Hitler’s birthday at a Bogota community centre in 2025 and 2026. At the 2025 event, the group hosted a Nazi-inspired book burning. This year, the group celebrated with Nazi swastika cupcakes, a swastika-emblazoned birthday cake and the screening of a 1940 Nazi propaganda film.

    A still from an April 2025 video posted by Active Club Bogota, showing a Spanish translation of Jewish Holocaust victim Anne Frank’s diary, placed in a charcoal barbecue to be burned outside a Bogota community centre. A Spanish-language translation of a book of essays by physicist Albert Einstein, who was Jewish, was also burned.
    An April 2026 photo posted on Active Club Bogota’s Telegram channel showing a portrait of Hitler and cupcakes decorated with swastikas.
    A photo of an event held at the same community centre commemorating Hitler’s birthday in 2026, posted on Active Club Bogota’s public Telegram channel. Blurring in the original posted image.

    Bellingcat and our Colombian partner Cerosetenta reached out multiple times via email and phone to the president of the relevant Community Action Board managing the community centre where these events were held, using contact information listed in a document by the local mayor’s office. As of publication, we have not received a response to our emails, and calls to the president of the community centre have gone unanswered.

    Active Club Bogota, which has had an online presence since early 2024, appears to be the only officially recognised South American chapter of the neo-Nazi network started in the US by white supremacist Robert Rundo. The international movement, which Bellingcat has covered extensively, is known for using fitness, fighting and fashion to recruit young men and boys into the far right, normalise fascist ideas and prepare them for physical violence against perceived enemies. 

    Active Club Bogota’s official Instagram account followed just over 60 accounts earlier this year. Rodriguez’s public Instagram account was, and continues to be, one of them. In March this year, Rodriguez also “liked” a March 2026 post from the group that featured a flag for a neo-Nazi movement. 

    A March 15, 2026 Instagram post from Active Club Bogota, showing Jorge Rodriguez’s “like” on the post. Bellingcat has obscured account details in the photo.

    While Rodriguez was unsuccessful in his bid for a seat in parliament, garnering just 4,401 votes, he presents himself as a prominent member of Centro Democratico and claims to have founded the party’s largest youth group. 

    He has appeared in photos and events on his social media alongside notable figures from the party, such as former Vice Minister of Justice Rafael Nieto Loaiza, party director Gabriel Vallejo, presidential candidate Paloma Valencia and the party’s founder, Alvaro Uribe Velez.

    Alexander Ritzmann, a senior advisor with the Counter-Extremism Project (CEP), told Bellingcat that an affiliation between Active Club Bogota and a political actor like Rodriguez should be taken seriously.

    Heidi Beirich, co-founder of Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), said that any sort of legitimacy lent to an outwardly neo-Nazi group, like those that make up the Active Club movement, “sets a dangerous precedent”.

    Bellingcat’s investigation into Active Club Bogota also suggests that the group has connections with the international far-right, with allies and “brothers” from Brazil to Spain, as well as apparent links with Combat 18, a violent neo-Nazi network accused of being an “international criminal organisation” and terrorist group. There is no evidence to suggest that Rodriguez has any connections to these other groups.

    Centro Democratico was the biggest challenger to Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s left-wing coalition Pacto Historico in the March elections, securing 17 seats in the Senate, up from 13 in 2022, and a majority of 32 seats in the House of Representatives, double the 16 it won in the previous elections.

    In response to Bellingcat’s queries, Centro Democratico National Director Gabriel Vallejo said the party was unaware of any proven links between Rodriguez and far-right, neo-Nazi, or extremist groups. 

    Vallejo said that the Party’s candidates retain the right to exercise their freedom of expression and define their ideological affinities within the limits of the Constitution and the law. 

    However, Vallejo said that Centro Democratico does not support or endorse any type of link with organisations or movements that incite hate speech, violence or the glorification of crime. 

    “The Party maintains a firm stance in defence of the Constitution, the law, democratic institutions, and respect for human dignity, as well as in the protection of the public interest and fundamental rights,” he said. “In this regard, any conduct that contravenes these principles is contrary to the Party’s guidelines and will be subject to the corresponding actions in accordance with the Statutes and applicable regulations.”

    Tattoo Identifications

    In Rodriguez’s Feb. 26 video, the former political candidate can be clearly seen. However, several others had their identities obscured, with one particular individual being completely pixelated from head to toe in almost every frame he appeared in, even where only part of his arm was visible. 

    Screenshots from the Feb. 26 video showing a heavily pixelated individual

    But thanks to a few frames where parts of the individual’s arms or hands are briefly unpixelated, or where colouration shows through the pixelation, Bellingcat was able to match the person shown in the video to a prominent Active Club Bogota member and possible leader – an individual who goes by Javier or “Orlik” Ruiz – who Rodriguez follows on Instagram and vice versa. 

    Between April and May 2024, the first few weeks after Active Club Bogota’s Telegram channel was set up, eight posts listed an author who went by “Orlik Ruiz”. 

    Bellingcat searched online for social media accounts and information related to “Orlik Ruiz” and quickly found numerous public social media accounts that appear to belong to the same individual, with posts showing photos of his face and tattoos. Several of these accounts used the name Javier Ruiz. These accounts included a YouTube account featuring 2022 video clips showing Ruiz and other men at a shooting range, holding what appear to be automatic rifles.

    Screenshots from Javier or “Orlik” Ruiz’s Telegram and social media accounts. Source: Telegram, Instagram, YouTube; redaction of handles by Bellingcat

    In most of these social media accounts, Ruiz posted numerous photos exposing his face and, more frequently, his tattoos from multiple angles, allowing Bellingcat to confirm that the same individual appears in the vast majority of Active Club Bogota’s online content.

    Active Club Bogota’s Telegram channel listed an account with the name “Javi” as the group’s main contact. There were more than 30 posts on this account’s own profile page, and though the face of the person shown in the photos posted from this account was obscured, the matching tattoos in many of these posts all pointed to the same person.

    Left: A screenshot of an August 2025 video posted by Active Club Bogota showing Javier Ruiz, identifiable by his tattoos including a Nazi swastika flag tattoo and blue band on his left arm. Right: A cropped photo of Ruiz, the same blue band tattoo visible on his left arm, posted on one of his VKontakte accounts in 2020.

    Ruiz’s tattoos had several distinctive features that appeared across multiple photos. The backs of both of his hands are tattooed up to the base knuckles. He also has an arrow tattoo on his left middle finger, pointing down towards the base knuckle, and a red design that circles his left wrist. 

    These match several features of tattoos on the individual’s left hand that can be made out despite the pixelation, including what appears to be red colouration on the individual’s wrist, heavy dark hand tattooing, and also discolouration on the left middle finger, suggesting tattoos on that finger.

    A pixelated left hand in the Feb. 26 video at 0:37, with colouration of tattoos showing through the pixelation. The brightness of the photo has been adjusted by Bellingcat
    A cropped photo of Ruiz from his own Telegram account, showing red tattooing on his left wrist, similar heavy left hand tattoos and two dark left middle finger tattoos, like the individual in the Feb. 26 video

    While blurred footage alone is not enough to confirm matching tattoos, several other significantly more detailed and clearer comparisons could be made. 

    In one frame, a very similar arrow to that seen in photos of Ruiz appears on the left middle finger of the individual shown in the video.

    Left: An arrow tattoo visible on Ruiz’s left middle finger in a photo from his Telegram account. Right: A similar-looking mark visible on the left middle finger of the pixelated individual in Rodriguez’s Feb. 26 video (at 0:43). Annotations by Bellingcat
    The screengrab showing the mark on the pixelated individual’s left middle finger overlaid on the photo from Ruiz’s Telegram account in a GIF created and annotated by Bellingcat. The images have been rotated, and the lighting of the screengrab has been adjusted for clearer comparison. 

    In addition, there are gaps in the tattoos and a rounded shape visible on his left arm that are consistent in position with photos of Ruiz’s tattoos.

    A gap in the tattoos (red arrow) and rounded shape (blue arrow) visible on the unidentified man’s left arm in a screengrab of the Feb. 26 video at 0:19 (left), is consistent with images of Ruiz’s tattooed left arm posted on Telegram (centre and right).

    There are also several frames in the video where the individual’s right hand is visible. These unpixelated, although still blurry, frames show the individual has heavy tattooing on their right hand that forms a curved shape between their knuckles. This is consistent with the shape of the tattoos on the right hand of Active Club Bogota’s Ruiz as seen in photos posted on the group’s Telegram channel and on social media.

    Top left and right: Cropped frames from the Feb. 26 video (at 0:41) showing the individual’s right hand and heavy right-hand tattooing; brightness adjusted by Bellingcat. Bottom left and right: Cropped screenshots from a Jan. 2025 Active Club Bogota video (left) and a Dec. 2025 Instagram video by an Active Club Bogota member (right) showing Ruiz’s right hand and his hand tattoo

    Another frame shows a small red tattoo visible on the middle-right finger as well as a detail between the index finger and right pinky. This matches with other, clearer images of Ruiz’s tattoos visible on his private Instagram.

    Left: A screenshot of a photo from Ruiz’s private Instagram account. Right: a photo of the right hand from the Feb. 26 video (at 0:41). A small anchor tattoo below the knuckle and a detail in his hand tattoo can be seen in the same position.

    Furthermore, in several frames of the video, the pixelated individual’s upper-right arm is visible, showing red colouration that is consistent in size and shape with images of Ruiz’s tattooed right arm.

    A screenshot from the Feb. 26 video (at 0:44), showing red and black tattooing on the pixelated individual’s upper right arm. The brightness of the photo has been adjusted by Bellingcat
    A cropped photo of Ruiz from his own Telegram account, showing very similar red and black tattooing on his upper right arm as the individual in the Feb. 26 video

    Promoting Fascist Ideas in the Region

    The first sign we could find online of Active Club Bogota’s appearance on the city’s neo-Nazi scene was in early 2024, when its official Telegram channel was created. 

    The official Active Club website that Rundo, the American founder of the Active Club movement, has openly promoted in several podcasts features a map of “official” Active Clubs around the world. As of the time of publication, Active Club Bogota is the only one in South America on the map.

    A screenshot of South America from a map on the official Active Club website, featuring the only “official” group on the continent, Active Club Bogota.

    But social media posts from Active Club Bogota suggest that the Colombia-based group has been attempting to promote the development of other Active Clubs in Latin America, with mixed results.

    In September 2025, Active Club Bogota promoted a new Active Club in Brazil, boasting that “our brothers … have also taken a big step forward.” 

    A screenshot of a September 2025 post from Active Club Bogota

    This Brazilian Active Club Telegram channel no longer exists as of February 2026. 

    Also in September 2025, Active Club Bogota promoted the Telegram channel of a new Active Club in Argentina, which they referred to as “our Argentinian friends”. This Telegram channel, like the Brazilian Active Club Telegram channel, no longer exists as of February 2026.

    In December 2025, Active Club Bogota promoted the Telegram channel of another new Active Club based in Mexico City, which the Colombian channel referred to as “our Mexican brothers, who are joining this great movement that seeks to reclaim our identity and heritage”.

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    The Small Bulgarian Streetwear Shop Designing Clothes for the Far-Right ‘Active Club’ Movement

    The Small Bulgarian Streetwear Shop Designing Clothes for the Far-Right ‘Active Club’ Movement

    Beirich, the co-founder of GPAHE, said that Active Clubs are a concerted effort to market the far right to a new generation of young people. 

    “Active Clubs can and do serve as a bridge between older generations of neo-Nazis and the current wave of youth engaging with the movement,” she said.

    “Groups like the one in Bogota are hyper-local enterprises that also connect its members to a transnational extremist network of other Active Clubs and white supremacist groups that share a similar worldview,” she added.

    Ritzmann, from CEP, also said that the threat posed by the group should not only be measured by its size. “Even a small local chapter can function as a recruitment hub, a training environment, and a bridge into wider transnational extremist networks,” he said.

    International Connections

    Our identification of Ruiz also led to evidence of links between Active Club Bogota and international neo-Nazi networks Blood & Honour and Combat 18.

    In a May 2024 photo posted on his public Telegram account, a man whose face is covered by a cloth mask and further obscured with a digital image was pictured standing next to two neo-Nazi musicians who were in Bogota to perform at a concert that Ruiz had promoted on his Telegram account. One of the musicians is British neo-Nazi Ken McLellan, who has long been associated with Blood & Honour. 

    The tattoos on the lower left leg and right hand of the man whose face was obscured appear to be the same as Ruiz’s – matching the shape, colour and position – based on photos publicly posted on Active Club Bogota’s Telegram channel.

    Ruiz, identifiable by his tattoos on his lower left leg and right hand (shown in photos in the “Tattoos Identification” section), posing with Michael Grosch, a member of a German neo-Nazi band (centre) and British neo-Nazi Ken McLellan (right)
    Left: The lower leg tattoo of a man shown in Ruiz’s photo. Right: The same tattoo on Ruiz’s left leg, from public Telegram posts on Active Club Bogota’s Telegram channel.

    Blood & Honour is an international neo-Nazi network founded in the United Kingdom in 1987; McLellan and his band were present at this founding meeting and still regularly perform at Blood & Honour-affiliated concerts. Blood & Honour’s affiliate group Combat 18, described as the “armed branch” of Blood & Honour, was founded in 1992. 

    Members and associates of Blood & Honour and Combat 18 have been accused of crimes including possessing explosives and drug trafficking. Individuals associated with both groups have been convicted of crimes including attempted murder, murder and terrorism. Both groups have been designated terrorist organisations in Canada since 2019 and have been subject to financial counter-terrorism sanctions in the United Kingdom since January 2025. 

    Screenshots from videos posted by Active Club Bogota in October 2024 (left) and January 2025 (right), both featuring a flag commonly associated with international neo-Nazi networks Blood & Honour and Combat 18. The individual speaking is wearing a t-shirt in support of Active Club founder Robert Rundo.
    Above: A cropped version of a photo posted by Active Club Bogota in March 2026, showing Blood & Honour and Combat 18 insignia on a table of merchandise and literature. Below: A rotated close-up of the Blood & Honour/C18 merchandise.

    A Colombia-based neo-Nazi fashion retailer that sells t-shirts with Combat 18 symbolism and branding also lists Ruiz as the main contact on its Telegram channel (Bellingcat is not naming the retailer to avoid amplification). 

    On its WhatsApp Business account, this retailer advertises neo-Nazi clothing and paraphernalia, including content with Combat 18’s name, symbolism and branding, as well as content promoting bands with documented links to Combat 18. Active Club Bogota has also promoted this retailer on its own Telegram channel. After reaching out to Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, a spokesperson told Bellingcat that “this account breaks our terms of service and we have banned it”. As of publication, the WhatsApp Business account has been blocked.

    Screenshots of t-shirts sold by a Colombian-based retailer featuring Combat 18 content. This retailer lists Active Club Bogota’s Ruiz as its main contact and has been promoted on Active Club Bogota’s Telegram channel.

    After a series of arrests of alleged members in Spain in October 2023, Spanish authorities publicly called Combat 18 an “international criminal organisation” and claimed the Spanish wing of the group has relations with Combat 18 members in South America. 

    Spanish media outlet El Periodico further reported that this police operation against Combat 18 in October 2023, according to their sources, “was mounted to pursue organised crime and other related offences, including drug trafficking”. 

    Bellingcat established another link between the two groups through another individual associated with Active Club Bogota. 

    In a 2015 post on one of Ruiz’s public Facebook accounts, an individual (in red below) who at the time was a bassist with a neo-Nazi band that sang songs praising and promoting Combat 18, is visible with a black tattoo on his left bicep.

     A March 2015 photo from one of Ruiz’s Facebook accounts; the caption indicates that Ruiz was posing “with the members” (“con los socios”) of a Bogota neo-Nazi band.

    Almost a decade later, in January 2025, Active Club Bogota posted a video that featured an individual with a tattoo that appeared to be in the same shape and placement.

    Above: Zoomed-in view of the neo-Nazi bassist’s left arm from Ruiz’s 2015 photo. Below: The tattoo of an individual shown in a January 2025 Active Club Bogota video practising jiu-jitsu (screengrab rotated for comparison).

    The bassist’s name was mentioned in two posts by Juan de Dios Osuna Montanez, the alleged leader of Combat 18 in Spain, on Instagram in May 2024. 

    Both posts featured a photo of what Montanez described as “little gifts directly from Colombia,” with Montanez thanking an account under this individual’s name, calling him his “brother.” These posts occurred during the same time period during which Active Club Bogota posted content from Catalonia, in northeastern Spain.

    The photos Montanez posted of the apparent gifts are nearly identical, with the only difference being that the second photo is more zoomed in than the first. The photo shows a sticker with Active Club Bogota’s logo and branding, a t-shirt reading “Blood & Honour Colombia Division,” a sticker featuring both Blood & Honour and Combat 18’s logo, as well as packages of candy and coffee that Bellingcat was able to identify as being from small Colombian brands. 

    “Little gifts directly from Colombia. Thanks brother and family.” The Instagram account belonging to the individual tagged in the post has since become inaccessible.

    Montanez did not respond to Bellingcat’s request for comment via Instagram and Facebook, but we were blocked by his Instagram account after we reached out. We were unable to find any other public contact information for Montanez.

    Ritzmann of CEP said that Active Club Bogota’s repeated display of the Combat 18 flag on its Telegram channel signals identification with one of the most explicitly militant neo-Nazi traditions in Europe.

    He added that while some Active Clubs avoid overtly antisemitic references to avoid scrutiny by law enforcement, reduce negative media attention and attract new recruits without frightening them away, Active Club Bogota “appears to sit at the more explicit edge of the Active Club strategy” with its open celebration of Hitler’s birthday and its antisemitic messaging. 

    “The network wants to appear harmless enough to avoid scrutiny, but radical enough to attract militants. Active Club Bogota is an example of how that balance can shift toward overt neo-Nazi mobilisation while still remaining inside the wider transnational Active Club ecosystem,” he said.

    Full Response from Jorge Rodriguez to Bellingcat’s Queries

    [April 24, 2026]

    Translated to English
    “In response to your questions, I would like to inform you that I am not obligated to respond to any interview or request without a court order. Therefore, I will not respond to any interviews. Furthermore, should you decide to use my name or image, I wish to state that I DO NOT AUTHORISE THE USE OF MY NAME, SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS OR ANY RELATED CONTENT.

    Likewise, if you use my image or name, it constitutes a violation of my fundamental rights to privacy, reputation, habeas data, and the right to my own image, the latter of which has been repeatedly recognised and protected by the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court.

    The unauthorised use of my image or name may constitute a punishable offence, and I will be authorised to initiate the corresponding legal actions to restore my rights.

    Sincerely,

    Jorge Rodríguez”

    In Spanish (Original)

    “De conformidad con sus preguntas, me permito indicarle que no estoy obligado a responder ninguna entrevista o requerimiento sin que medie orden judicial. Por lo anterior, no responderé ninguna entrevista, asimismo, en caso de que ustedes decidan utilizar mi nombre o imagen me permito indicar que NO AUTORIZO LA UTILIZACIÓN DE MI NOMBRE O IMAGEN, REDES SOCIALES Y DEMÁS.

    De igual manera, si ustedes utilizan mi imagen o nombre es una transgresión de mis derechos fundamentales a la intimidad, al buen nombre, al habeas data y al derecho a la propia imagen, este último reconocido y protegido de manera reiterada por la jurisprudencia de la Corte Constitucional.

    Incluso la utilización de imagen o nombre sin autorización puede constituir una conducta punible y estaré autorizado de iniciar las acciones legales correspondientes en aras del restablecimiento de mis derechos.

    Cordialmente,

    Jorge Rodríguez”

    First Response from Javier Ruiz to Bellingcat’s Queries

    [April 21, 2026]

    Translated to English
    “As the data subject of the aforementioned personal data, I hereby submit this formal request regarding the use of my name, image, and background information in an interview request, without my prior, express, and informed consent.

    The described conduct constitutes a potential violation of my fundamental rights to privacy, reputation, habeas data, and the right to my own image, the latter repeatedly recognised and protected by the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court.

    Likewise, the processing of my personal data without authorisation contravenes the provisions of Law 1581 of 2012 and its implementing decrees and could constitute the offence of personal data violation under Article 269F of the Colombian Penal Code.

    Therefore, through this document, I expressly and immediately request:

    – The suspension of any use, processing, circulation, or dissemination of my name, image, and other personal data.

    – The permanent deletion of any content, file, record or publication in which my personal information has been used without my authorisation.

    – A precise indication of the origin of the information, the purposes of its processing, and the third parties with whom it has been shared.

    For the purposes of the foregoing, I grant a maximum period of forty-eight (48) hours from the receipt of this communication to demonstrate compliance with the requirement.

    In case of non-compliance, I will be obligated to initiate the corresponding legal actions, including filing a writ of protection for the violation of my fundamental rights, as well as administrative proceedings before the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce and any applicable criminal actions.

    This communication is understood as a formal prior request.

    Sincerely,

    J.R.”

    In Spanish (Original)

    “En mi calidad de titular de los datos personales referidos, me permito formular el presente requerimiento formal en relación con el uso de mi nombre, imagen y antecedentes dentro de una solicitud de entrevista, sin que medie autorización previa, expresa e informada de mi parte.

    La conducta descrita constituye una posible vulneración de mis derechos fundamentales a la intimidad, al buen nombre, al habeas data y al derecho a la propia imagen, este último reconocido y protegido de manera reiterada por la jurisprudencia de la Corte Constitucional.

    De igual forma, el tratamiento de mis datos personales sin autorización contraviene lo dispuesto en la Ley 1581 de 2012 y sus decretos reglamentarios, y podría adecuarse a la conducta tipificada como violación de datos personales conforme al artículo 269F del Código Penal Colombiano.

    En virtud de lo anterior, por medio del presente escrito requiero de manera expresa e inmediata:

    – La suspensión de cualquier uso, tratamiento, circulación o difusión de mi nombre, imagen y demás datos personales.

    – La eliminación definitiva de cualquier contenido, archivo, registro o publicación en la que se haya hecho uso de los mismos sin mi autorización.

    – La indicación precisa del origen de la información, las finalidades del tratamiento y los terceros con quienes haya sido compartida.

    Para efectos de lo anterior, otorgo un plazo máximo de cuarenta y ocho (48) horas contadas a partir de la recepción de la presente comunicación, a fin de que se acredite el cumplimiento de lo requerido.

    En caso de incumplimiento, me veré en la obligación de iniciar las acciones legales correspondientes, incluyendo la interposición de acción de tutela por la vulneración de mis derechos fundamentales, así como las actuaciones administrativas ante la Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio y las acciones penales a que haya lugar.La presente comunicación se entiende como requerimiento previo formal.

    Cordialmente,

    J.R.”

    Second Response from Javier Ruiz to Bellingcat’s Queries

    [May 7, 2026]

    In English

    “SUBJECT: FORMAL REQUEST FOR CESSATION AND WITHDRAWAL – NOTIFICATION OF VIOLATION OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND DATA PROTECTION REGIME (LAW 1581 OF 2012)

    In my capacity as a fully identified [Colombian] citizen and exercising my legal rights as the owner of personal data, I hereby submit this prior and peremptory request based on the following factual and legal grounds:

    1. Lack of Consent and Legal Basis:

    The unauthorised use of my name, image, and biographical information has been established within the framework of your informational activities. I declare that there has been no prior, express, informed, or qualified authorisation for the processing of said data, contravening the principle of legality and purpose established in Article 4 of Law 1581 of 2012.

    2. Autonomy of the Right to One’s Own Image (Judgment T-040 of 2013): I hereby notify you that, in accordance with the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court in its Judgment T-040 of 2013, the right to one’s own image is an autonomous and independent right. Therefore, the capture, use, or dissemination of my image and name requires my express consent, and journalistic practice does not grant an open licence for its exploitation without prior authorisation, especially when there is no public interest that proportionally justifies it.

    3. Violation of Fundamental Rights:

    Your actions constitute an arbitrary interference that affects my right to Habeas Data, my right to a good name (Art. 15 of the Colombian Penal Code), and, specifically, my right to my own image. According to the jurisprudence of the Honourable Constitutional Court, the use of a person’s image without their consent constitutes an overreach of journalistic practice that is not protected by freedom of information when it affects the private sphere.

    4. Criminal and Administrative Liability: I hereby warn you that the processing of personal data without proper authorisation could constitute the conduct defined in Article 269F of the Colombian Penal Code (Violation of Personal Data), in addition to the fines imposed by the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce (SIC) for non-compliance with data protection regulations. 

    LEGAL CLAIMS:

    • IMMEDIATE CESSATION: The suspension of any act of processing, restricted circulation, or dissemination of my identity, image, or sensitive data.

    • PERMANENT DELETION: The removal of any record from your databases or digital platforms containing information whose collection has not been authorised.

    • TRACEABILITY REPORT: Submission of certification detailing the origin of my data and the identification of third parties to whom it has been transferred or transmitted.

    TERM AND WARNING: You have a non-extendable term of forty-eight (48) hours to demonstrate compliance with the requests made herein. Silence or a negative response will authorise the initiation of a tutela action for the immediate protection of my fundamental rights, as well as the corresponding Administrative Complaint before the Office of the Superintendent Delegate for the Protection of Personal Data of the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce (SIC) and criminal proceedings before the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia.

    1) Freedom of expression cannot infringe upon the right to privacy and honour.

    2) The right to receive information, or rather, to inform, cannot supersede the duty not to disseminate defamatory information about a person or organisation.

    3) A request for information from an independent, foreign media outlet cannot be based on erroneous presumptions regarding rulings, orders, and precedents pertaining to the Colombian judicial system. I thank you in advance for your attention, but I wish to clarify that I do not desire any response, understanding that you are complying with the order I have given and established.”

    In Spanish (Original)

    “ASUNTO: REQUERIMIENTO FORMAL DE CESE Y DESISTIMIENTO – NOTIFICACIÓN DE VULNERACIÓN DE DERECHOS FUNDAMENTALES Y RÉGIMEN DE PROTECCIÓN DE DATOS (LEY 1581 DE 2012)

    En mi condición de ciudadano(a) plenamente identificado(a) y en ejercicio de mis facultades legales como titular de datos personales, presento ante ustedes este requerimiento previo y perentorio con base en los siguientes fundamentos de hecho y de derecho:

    1. Ausencia de Consentimiento y Base Legal:

    Se ha evidenciado el uso no autorizado de mi nombre, imagen y antecedentes biográficos en el marco de su actividad informativa. Manifiesto que no ha mediado autorización previa, expresa, informada ni calificada para el tratamiento de dichos datos, contraviniendo el principio de legalidad y finalidad establecido en el Artículo 4 de la Ley 1581 de 2012.

    2. Autonomía del Derecho a la Propia Imagen (Sentencia T-040 de 2013):

    Les notifico que, conforme a la jurisprudencia de la Corte Constitucional en su Sentencia T-040 de 2013, el derecho a la propia imagen es un derecho autónomo e independiente. Por tanto, la captura, uso o difusión de mi imagen y nombre requiere de mi consentimiento expreso, sin que el ejercicio periodístico otorgue una licencia abierta para su explotación sin autorización previa, especialmente cuando no existe un interés público que lo justifique de manera proporcional.

    3. Vulneración de Derechos de Carácter Fundamental:

    Su actuación constituye una injerencia arbitraria que afecta mi derecho al Habeas Data, al Buen Nombre (Art. 15 C.P.) y, de manera específica, al Derecho a la Propia Imagen. Según la jurisprudencia de la Honorable Corte Constitucional, el uso de la imagen de una persona sin su anuencia es una extralimitación del ejercicio periodístico que no encuentra amparo en la libertad de información cuando se afecta la esfera privada.

    4. Responsabilidad Penal y Administrativa:

    Les advierto que el tratamiento de datos personales sin la debida autorización podría configurar la conducta tipificada en el Artículo 269F del Código Penal Colombiano (Violación de datos personales), además de las sanciones pecuniarias que la Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio (SIC) impone por el incumplimiento del régimen de protección de datos.

    PRETENSIONES LEGALES:

    • CESE INMEDIATO: La suspensión de cualquier acto de tratamiento, circulación restringida o difusión de mi identidad, imagen o datos sensibles.

    • SUPRESIÓN DEFINITIVA: La eliminación de cualquier registro en sus bases de datos o plataformas digitales que contenga información cuya recolección no haya sido autorizada.

    • INFORME DE TRAZABILIDAD: Remitir certificación detallando el origen de mis datos y la identificación de terceros a quienes les hayan sido transferidos o transmitidos.

    TÉRMINO Y ADVERTENCIA:

    Cuentan con un término improrrogable de cuarenta y ocho (48) horas para acreditar el cumplimiento de lo aquí solicitado. El silencio o la respuesta negativa facultará el inicio de la Acción de Tutela para la protección inmediata de mis derechos fundamentales, así como la respectiva Denuncia Administrativa ante la Delegatura para la Protección de Datos Personales de la SIC y las acciones penales ante la Fiscalía General de la Nación.

    1) La libertad de expresión no puede coartar el derecho a la privacidad y a la honra. 

    2)El derecho a recibir información o más bien; a informar no puede supeditar el deber de no difundir información calumniosa sobre una persona u organización 

    3) Un requerimiento de información por un medio independiente y extranjero no puede basarse en presunciones erróneas sobre sentencias, órdenes y antecedentes correspondientes al sistema judicial colombiano

    De ante mano agradezco la atención prestada, sin antes aclarar que no deseo respuesta alguna, teniendo claro que acatan la orden dada y establecida de mi parte.”


    Carlos Gonzales and Pooja Chaudhuri contributed research to this piece.

    Bellingcat is a non-profit and the ability to carry out our work is dependent on the kind support of individual donors. If you would like to support our work, you can do so here. You can also subscribe to our Patreon channel here. Subscribe to our Newsletter and follow us on Bluesky here, Instagram here, Reddit here and YouTube here.

    The post Unearthing a Colombian Politician’s Connections to Neo-Nazi Active Club Group appeared first on bellingcat.

  • Hantavirus-hit ship evacuation completed as quarantines begin

    The passengers and crew have disembarked from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship MV Hondius in Tenerife and many have returned to their home countries, as the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said the operation demonstrated a “triumph of solidarity”.
  • World News in Brief: Human rights in Mongolia, surge in sexual violence in Haiti, worsening hunger in Afghanistan

    UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Monday praised Mongolia’s recent human rights progress during a visit to the country, which recently adopted the region’s first law protecting human rights defenders.
  • Armed drones leading cause of civilian death in Sudan war: UN rights chief

    Drones caused more than 80 per cent of civilian deaths in Sudan’s war during the first four months of 2026, killing at least 880 people, the UN human rights chief said on Monday, warning that escalating drone warfare could push the conflict into an even deadlier phase. 
  • A Thank You to Journalists Supporting the Wayback Machine

    A Thank You to Journalists Supporting the Wayback Machine


    As publishers block web archiving services over unfounded concerns over AI scraping, hundreds of journalists have signed a public letter supporting the Wayback Machine and the importance of preserving the online historical record. Below, Mark Graham shares a message of thanks to the journalism community for standing up for web preservation, accountability, and access to the public record. Journalists who would like to add their names can sign the letter here, and members of the public can sign the broader supporter letter here.


    Dear colleagues,

    On behalf of all of us at the Internet Archive, I want to thank you.

    Your support for the Wayback Machine sends a clear message: preserving the record matters.

    For thirty years, the Wayback Machine has worked in the background, preserving more than 1 trillion web pages so that reporting doesn’t simply vanish with the next site redesign or corporate decision. Today, more than 100 news articles every month reference, cite, or rely on material preserved by the Wayback Machine to verify claims, recover deleted information, or provide historical context.

    Where previous generations could walk into a newsroom morgue or a local library archive, today’s journalists increasingly rely on digital preservation to trace accountability and verify claims that might otherwise be lost. When a source disappears, when a statement is rewritten, when a page is taken down, the ability to recover that record is not a luxury. 

    The stakes are not hypothetical. A Pew Research Center study from 2024 found that 38% of webpages from a decade ago are no longer accessible, and about 25% of pages sampled across the decade have disappeared entirely. But that’s not the whole story. New analysis by Internet Archive data scientist Sawood Alam found that the Wayback Machine has rescued roughly 15% of those otherwise lost pages, preserving reporting and historical evidence that would simply no longer exist online.

    We are especially grateful that you recognized the care with which we approach this work. We are your partners in preservation. We build systems designed for people, not bulk extraction; we monitor our services to manage abusive access; and we actively collaborate with publishers and newsrooms to ensure their work is preserved with integrity.

    Importantly, recent reporting has also underscored a key reality of this debate. As journalist Andrew Deck reported in Marketplace Tech, many publishers blocking the Wayback Machine appear to be acting preemptively out of concern over AI scraping rather than evidence of misuse. “None of the publishers were able to point to a particular AI company or other kinds of direct evidence that their content had already been scraped by the Wayback Machine,” Deck wrote.

    At a time when the pressures on journalism are mounting—from economic shifts to the rapid evolution of AI—your support sends a clear message: preserving the public record is not optional. It is essential infrastructure for a functioning democracy.

    We remain committed to the important task of preserving the web. And we are deeply encouraged to know that so many of you stand with us in defending that work.

    With gratitude,

    Mark Graham
    Director, Wayback Machine
    Internet Archive

  • Taking Legislative Primacy Seriously

    Over the past few weeks, the Trump administration has continued its aggressive expansion of executive power. It has purged federal officials, firing all 22 members of an independent board overseeing the National Science Foundation; it has argued that both the Presidential Records Act and the War Powers Act represent unconstitutional constraints on executive power; and it has continued to defy…

    Source

  • Pluralistic: 2024 (apart from the obvious) (11 May 2026)

    Today’s links

    • 2024 (apart from the obvious): Some unforced errors.
    • Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
    • Object permanence: Denmark legalizing music trading; Babysuit; Patent Office invites “peer review”; DRM protest at the Bastille; Scientology’s “super powers”; Banana Dalek; Florida v pediatricians’ gun safety advice; Copyright filters and wage theft; “Who Broke the Internet?” Vatican astronomer v Creationism; Teens, privacy and Facebook; Čapek’s graveside robot; Save iTunes; NZ laundered money for Latinamerica’s looters; Memex Method.
    • Upcoming appearances: Barcelona, Berlin, Hay-on-Wye, London, NYC, Edinburgh.
    • Recent appearances: Where I’ve been.
    • Latest books: You keep readin’ em, I’ll keep writin’ ’em.
    • Upcoming books: Like I said, I’ll keep writin’ ’em.
    • Colophon: All the rest.



    A meat grinder; disappearing into the top is a sad donkey dressed in Democratic Party livery; emerging from the bottom is a Trump-wigged elephant in GOP livery. The grinder bears an 'I Voted' sticker, with a ? added to the end of it. The background is a Dore engraving of a cloudy sky, tinted blue.

    2024 (apart from the obvious) (permalink)

    Just as Hillary Clinton positioned her run as a third term for Obama (“America is already great”), so did Biden (and then Harris) position their campaigns as a second Biden term. As Biden said (in 2019): “Nothing would fundamentally change”:

    https://www.salon.com/2019/06/19/joe-biden-to-rich-donors-nothing-would-fundamentally-change-if-hes-elected/

    So a vote for Biden would be a vote for another four years of forceful, material support for genocide; another four years of compromise with Democratic establishment on student debt and healthcare gouging; and another four years of a president who was obviously in mental decline.

    Harris’s campaign was, “A vote for me is a vote for all of the above (minus the cognitive decline).” Actually, it was worse: by conspicuously failing to campaign on the Biden administration’s record on reining in corporate power, a vote for Harris was “A vote for all of the above, minus the mental decline and the antitrust.”

    Whereas a vote for Trump was a vote for change, a vote to give the establishment a black eye. It was also a vote for genocide and racist pogroms and gangster kleptocracy, which is why many voters stayed home, casting a ballot for America’s all-time favorite candidate, “None of the above,” while any number of furious people and/or vicious racists turned out for Trump.

    There’s one book that crystallizes my thoughts on this better than any other: Naomi Klein’s 2023 Doppelganger, which analyzes our politics in terms of (warped) “mirror images.” One of the mirror world pairings that Klein analyzes is the progressive movement, a coalition of liberals and leftists (led by liberals).

    Like every coalition, the two main groups that constitute “the progressives” do not agree on many important issues, though they do have common goals. Both groups support equality for people of all genders and races, but for liberals, an equal world is one that fixes the problem that 150 straight white men own everything by replacing 75 of them with racialized people, women and queer people (whereas the leftist fix is abolishing the system in which 150 people own everything).

    Biden set himself up as a peacemaker for this coalition, and his “unity task force” divided up the appointments in his administration between the Warren-Sanders leftists and liberals, including those who clearly belonged to the Manchin-Sinematic universe. This meant that his administration worked at cross-purposes to itself, neutering its boldest initiatives, rendering them impotent.

    Take Biden’s plan to finally allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharma companies, a move that was very long overdue. Before this, the way the system worked was: pharma companies named a price – any price! – and then Uncle Sucker paid it. No other country in the world operates this way, and, of course, the lion’s share of pharma R&D costs are already borne by the American public (or they were, until Musk DOGEd the US research budget to death).

    So the American public pays more than anyone else in the world to develop these drugs, and then they pay more than anyone else in the world to buy these drugs. This is madness, and putting an end to it is an obvious political win. But Biden found a way to do it that “balanced” the leftist principle of protecting people from capitalist exploitation with the liberal principle of protecting businesses lest the essential function of developing life-saving drugs become a state activity (rather than a market one).

    Biden’s solution? A “Build Back Better” plan that would allow the federal government to negotiate up to ten drug prices (and as few as zero drug prices), but the new prices would only kick in after the 2024 election, so no one would see the benefit of this in time for the next general election:

    https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/18/bipartisan-consensus/#corruption

    This is a solution that pleases no one – and that’s the point. Biden and his team viewed the presidency as an institution for making sure everyone was equally unhappy, a philosophy that Anat Shenker-Osorio calls “pizzaburger politics.” This is named for a thought-experiment in which half your family wants pizza and the other half wants burgers, so you serve them “pizzaburgers” and make everyone miserable and declare yourself to have the fair-handed wisdom of Solomon (yes, I’m aware that this analogy has a fatal flaw in that pizzaburgers actually sound delicious, but work with me here).

    Biden prided himself on running a pizzaburger presidency, in which every move that satisfied the left of his party was neutralized by a concession to the party’s right wing establishment:

    https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/29/sub-bushel-comms-strategy/#nothing-would-fundamentally-change

    (Trump enacted mirror-world version of Biden’s pharma price controls: TrumpRx, a program that claims to lower drug prices while those prices actually go up):

    https://democrats-energycommerce.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-energycommerce.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/e-c-democrats-trumprx-big-talk-little-savings.pdf

    Biden’s pizzaburger compromises made everyone unhappy. He appointed generational talents like Lina Khan, Jonathan Kanter and Rohit Chopra to run key agencies charged with crushing corporate power, and then gave lifetime appointments to corporate-friendly judges who blocked their rulemakings and penalties:

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/11/us-judge-turns-down-challenge-to-microsoft-merger-with-activision

    Of course, it wasn’t just Biden’s own judicial appointees who stood in his way; from the Supreme Court on down, on issues from student debt cancellation to noncompetes, judges blocked the Biden administration. When this happened, Biden somehow couldn’t find his way to his bully pulpit. Rather than working the refs – the way Trump does, in ways that energize his base, stiffens his legislators’ resolve and intimidates other judges – Biden tinkered in the margins to find ways to advance half-measures and stayed mum in public.

    This compromise-oriented meekness carried over into Biden’s relationship with Democratic lawmakers who sold out the American people. Rather than campaigning for the primary opponents of monsters like Fetterman, Sinema and Manchin, Biden worked behind the scenes to broker compromises, delivering yet another inedible pizzaburger (and acting hurt and bewildered when no one thanked him for it). The alternative? Constitutional hardball:

    https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/18/states-rights/#cold-civil-war

    It’s not clear whether Harris’s abbreviated campaign could have made the public case that she would govern in a more muscular fashion as befitted the polycrisis facing the nation, but she didn’t even try. A couple Democratic Party insiders of my acquaintance tell me that Biden only agreed to step aside on the condition that Harris not criticize his record. I don’t know if that’s true, but even within that hypothetical constraint, Harris hardly presented herself as an avatar of change. She carried on Biden’s tradition of conspicuously failing to campaign on the significant achievements of Biden’s own trustbusters, and put her brother-in-law, the lawyer who helped Uber crush labor rights in California, in charge of her campaign:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/04/us/politics/kamala-harris-tony-west.html

    The point of all this is that the American people have, on two occasions, comprehensively rejected the “America is already great”/”Nothing would fundamentally change” politics of a liberal-dominated left/liberal progressive coalition. The senior partners in that coalition have driven the country into a ditch, letting Trump stage a fascist takeover that has us fighting not to win another election, but just to have another one.

    Americans are sick of being told that their politicians can’t do anything because “they’re not the Green Lantern:”

    https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

    America isn’t already great. If we are to have more elections – much less win them – we will need to mobilize millions of people. You don’t do that by telling them to oppose Trumpismo – you get them out in the streets by giving them something to support. That was Mamdani’s winning message: “I know what a politician can do, and I will do it“:

    https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/24/mamdani-thought/#public-excellence


    Hey look at this (permalink)



    A shelf of leatherbound history books with a gilt-stamped series title, 'The World's Famous Events.'

    Object permanence (permalink)

    #25yrsago Denmark plans to legalize music trading https://edition.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/05/07/denmark.downloads.idg/index.html

    #20yrsago Babysuit https://web.archive.org/web/20060513013815/https://www.gildlilies.com/pop_ups/phillip_toledano_kaleidoscope.htm

    #20yrsago Patent office will ask the public to “peer review” inventions https://web.archive.org/web/20060512051743/http://www.dotank.nyls.edu/communitypatent/

    #20yrsago Report from France’s DRM protest at Place de la Bastille https://web.archive.org/web/20170902135411/https://tofz.org/?dir=Paris%2Fevents%2FMarch

    #20yrsago Interactive maps show your city’s floodline when the sea rises https://flood.firetree.net/

    #20yrsago Scientology to open “Super Power” training center in FL https://web.archive.org/web/20060522112457/http://www.sptimes.com/2006/05/06/Tampabay/Scientology_nearly_re.shtml/
    #20yrsago Homemade radios http://www.duntemann.com/radiogallery.htm

    #20yrsago Vatican astronomer denounces Creationism as “paganism” https://web.archive.org/web/20060517013332/http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=674042006

    #20yrsago Canada’s New Democratic Party embraces copyfighting musicians https://web.archive.org/web/20060520024734/http://www.ndp.ca/page/3713

    #15yrsago Teens and privacy online: using Facebook is compatible with valuing privacy https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2011/05/09/how-teens-understand-privacy.html

    #15yrsago Ann Arbor library acquires lending, sharing and copying rights to Creative Commons music catalog https://annarborchronicle.com/2011/04/28/ann-arbor-library-signs-digital-music-deal/

    #15yrsago Tin robot on Karel Čapek’s grave https://www.gilesorr.com/travels/Prague2011/BestPrague.20110421.6142.GO.CanonSX10.html

    #15yrsago Just look at this banana Dalek. https://web.archive.org/web/20110716022131/https://www.daleksoftheday.com/2011/05/banana-dalek.html

    #15yrsago NRA and Florida gag pediatricians: no more firearm safety advice for parents https://www.npr.org/2011/05/07/136063523/florida-bill-could-muzzle-doctors-on-gun-safety

    #10yrsago Conservative economics: what’s happened to the UK economy after a year of Tory rule https://web.archive.org/web/20160509113126/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/what-has-happened-to-the-economy-under-the-tories-in-six-charts-a7017131.html

    #10yrsago Save iTunes: how the W3C’s argument for web-wide DRM would have killed iTunes https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/04/save-itunes

    #10yrsago America’s courts are going dark https://www.justsecurity.org/30920/courts-going-dark/

    #10yrsaogo Australian government issues report calling for copyright and patent liberalisation https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/05/australian-productivity-commission-slams-protectionist-copyright-and-patent-laws

    #10yrsago Panama Papers: New Zealand is the go-to money launderer for crooked Latin Americans https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/panama-papers/303356/nz-at-heart-of-panama-money-go-round

    #10yrsago Safe Patient Project: searchable spreadsheet tells Californians whether their doc is on probation, and why https://web.archive.org/web/20160507002350/http://consumersunion.org/research/california-doctors-on-probation/

    #5yrsago The Memex Method https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/09/the-memex-method/

    #5yrsago How copyright filters lead to wage-theft https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/08/copyfraud/#beethoven-just-wrote-music

    #1yrago Who broke the internet? https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/08/who-broke-the-internet/#bruce-lehman


    Upcoming appearances (permalink)

    A photo of me onstage, giving a speech, pounding the podium.



    A screenshot of me at my desk, doing a livecast.

    Recent appearances (permalink)



    A grid of my books with Will Stahle covers..

    Latest books (permalink)



    A cardboard book box with the Macmillan logo.

    Upcoming books (permalink)

    • “The Reverse-Centaur’s Guide to AI,” a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2026 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621568/thereversecentaursguidetolifeafterai/)
    • “Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It” (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026

    • “The Post-American Internet,” a geopolitical sequel of sorts to Enshittification, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2027

    • “Unauthorized Bread”: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, April 20, 2027

    • “The Memex Method,” Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2027



    Colophon (permalink)

    Today’s top sources:

    Currently writing: “The Post-American Internet,” a sequel to “Enshittification,” about the better world the rest of us get to have now that Trump has torched America. Third draft completed. Submitted to editor.

    • “The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to AI,” a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux about being an effective AI critic. LEGAL REVIEW AND COPYEDIT COMPLETE.
    • “The Post-American Internet,” a short book about internet policy in the age of Trumpism. PLANNING.

    • A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING


    This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

    Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.


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    When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla” -Joey “Accordion Guy” DeVilla

    READ CAREFULLY: By reading this, you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies (“BOGUS AGREEMENTS”) that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer.

    ISSN: 3066-764X

  • Publishers Seek $19.5 Million and Domain Takedown Order Against Anna’s Archive

    Publishers Seek $19.5 Million and Domain Takedown Order Against Anna’s Archive

    In March, a coalition of thirteen major publishers, including Penguin Random House, Elsevier, and HarperCollins, filed a fresh lawsuit against Anna’s Archive.

    The publishers allege the shadow library is facilitating “staggering” levels of piracy, including the use of their books as training material for AI models.

    This lawsuit follows on the heels of a case various music companies filed against the site a few months earlier. They sprung into action when Anna’s Archive said it would publish material from a Spotify scrape it had obtained earlier.

    As a result of the legal pressure and an injunction released in favor of the music companies, Anna’s Archive lost several domain names. Faced with a U.S. court order, the site eventually moved to .GL, .PK, and .GD domains, which remain active today.

    The music companies won a massive $322 million default judgment against Anna’s Archive in April. However, while the site reportedly removed the Spotify files that triggered the music case, it continued to offer many millions of books.

    The Publishers Seek $19.5 Million Judgment

    The books are still being pirated, and widely used as AI training material, so the publishers now seek their own default judgment. This includes a broad permanent injunction targeting the surviving domains.

    After Anna’s Archive failed to respond in court, the publishers now ask for the maximum $150,000 per work in statutory damages for 130 works, which adds up to a total of $19,500,000. That’s $1.5 million for each of the thirteen plaintiff publishers.

    $19.5 Million

    19million

    The financial compensation is little more than a footnote, as the site’s operators remain unknown and unlikely to pay anything. The permanent injunction the publishers request is more important, as that could help to take Anna’s Archive’s domains offline.

    The music companies already obtained a similar injunction in their case, but that is no longer as effective, since Anna’s Archive stopped actively offering the Spotify files through its website. The books, however, remain available.

    Injunction Targets More Than 20 Intermediaries

    The publishers ask the court to issue an injunction targeting Anna’s Archive and all domain registries, registrars, hosts, and internet service providers connected to the three remaining domains. The order would prevent the transfer of the domains to anyone other than the publishers or the music companies.

    The proposed injunction names more than twenty specific companies, including familiar names from the music lawsuit such as Cloudflare, Public Interest Registry, Tucows, Njalla, the Switch Foundation, The Swedish Internet Foundation, and the National Internet Exchange of India.

    The list also adds new entities that are linked to the surviving domains: TELE Greenland/Tusass for .gl, PKNIC for .pk, and Grenada’s National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission for .gd. Several hosting and registrar companies are also mentioned, including DDOS-Guard, IQWeb FZ-LLC, Hosting Concepts B.V., OwnRegistrar, Neterra, Webglobe, and CentralNic Registry.

    The intermediaries

    nmaes

    The order would require these parties to permanently disable the domains and authoritative nameservers, cease all hosting services, preserve identifying evidence, and “refrain from frustrating” the judgment.

    Will It Work?

    Without a formal defense from Anna’s Archive, the chances are high that the publishers will win this legal battle. However, whether they will get the desired result is a different matter.

    Even if the permanent injunction is granted, it depends on whether they are intermediaries who will fall under the U.S. jurisdiction, or whether they will comply voluntarily.

    The permanent injunction obtained by the music companies, which also targeted the .GL, .PK, and .GD domains, hasn’t reached the desired result yet. Whether a new order targeting more intermediaries will fare any better has yet to be seen.

    A copy of the publishers’ memorandum of law supporting the motion for default judgment is available here (pdf). The proposed default judgment can be found here (pdf).

    From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

  • More credulous nonsense about acupuncture, this time from National Geographic

    PNAS recently published credulous nonsense about acupuncture so bad that I thought it couldn’t be topped. “Hold my beer!” cried National Geographic, as it proceeded to top PNAS.

    The post More credulous nonsense about acupuncture, this time from National Geographic first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

  • Human Emotion is More Than Mental Health

    Human Emotion is More Than Mental Health

    However we see the world, and whatever our experiences have been, most of us are trying to do something quite straightforward when it comes to our emotions. We are trying to make sense of them in a way that is helpful, especially when those feelings become difficult, overwhelming, or painful. We are trying to find some meaning in our distress, and some way of responding that helps.

    After over 40 years working in different services, I have met many people. I have heard many beliefs and perspectives about emotional distress. I have been inspired, but also concerned, and alarmed. I have listened to many people who are certain that they are right, but I have yet to find certainty that holds across every person, every culture, and every life.

    I remain curious in the world of human emotion, and if we are considering what it means to be mad in the UK, or anywhere in the world, then it feels important to step back a little from referring to our emotions as our mental health. So, I tried to look beyond any single framework, and to consider what it means to be human.

    I have explored:

    • Our history as a species
    • Our biology
    • Our cultures and belief systems
    • And the many different ways human beings have tried to understand themselves

    We, human beings, have been here for a very long time. And, across hundreds of thousands of years we have always had the capacity to feel, to think, to imagine, and to connect. With these facets of humanity bringing with them challenge and distress at times for us all.

    Modern neuroscience suggests that these are not new developments. Work in affective neuroscience, particularly by Jaak Panksepp, points to emotional systems that are deeply rooted in the brain and shared across mammalian life (Panksepp, 1998; Panksepp and Biven, 2012; Montag and Panksepp, 2017).

    Systems linked to:

    • fear
    • care
    • play
    • seeking and curiosity

    In that sense, the capacity to feel is not something we have recently developed. It is part of what it has always meant to be alive. There have been many explanations, theories and beliefs over the whole of our long history, with mental health being a relatively new perspective.

    The systems that shape our emotional lives sit within biology that is anything but new.

    We carry with us processes that have been shaped over vast periods of time, all built around survival and belonging.

    At their core there appears to be some very simple human needs:

    • the need to feel safe
    • the need to feel connected
    • the need to respond to threat when it appears

    Like many other animals, we are equipped with systems designed to detect danger and react quickly. So when we feel anxious, overwhelmed, shut down, or alone, something important is happening.

    Very often, our bodies are doing exactly what they were designed to do. They are not failing. They are not broken. They are responding. The way that our bodies feel in these moments is incredibly uncomfortable, however they are our safety mechanisms kicking in (Porges, 2011; Damasio, 1999).

    There is something else that seems to have remained constant. Something that did not surprise me, yet had perhaps been hiding in plain sight.

    Human beings need each other.

    Long-term studies, including the Harvard Study of Adult Development, have shown that the quality of our relationships is one of the strongest predictors of health and wellbeing over time (Waldinger and Schulz, 2023).

    Research into loneliness tells a similar story. Disconnection is not just uncomfortable, it has measurable effects on our bodies, with risks comparable to well-known factors such as smoking (Holt-Lunstad, Smith and Layton, 2010; Holt-Lunstad, 2018; Cacioppo and Cacioppo, 2014).

    Richard Bentall and others have also pointed towards something that many people recognise instinctively. That, across different forms of therapy, or treatments, it is often the quality of the relationship that matters most. In particular how the recipient of care feels about the caregiver, and the degree of safety and connection they feel (Bentall, 2003; Norcross and Lambert, 2018).

    And neuroscience is beginning to describe processes such as co-regulation, where we quite literally affect each other’s sense of safety through our presence, our tone, and our interactions (Porges, 2011).

    All of this points towards something simple, but easy to overlook.

    Safety is not just something we create inside ourselves. It is something we experience with each other. How people are seen, react and respond is affected by these human factors.

    Reflecting on my time working within the NHS, these were issues that were so often overlooked or dismissed. The predominant medical view didn’t consider these human factors relevant or scientific.

    These aspects of being human are not new of course. What has changed is how we make sense of them. Across time and across cultures, people have understood emotional experience in very different ways.

    Some have looked to the body, thinking in terms of balance and imbalance. Some have looked to meaning, belief, politics, and morality.

    Many indigenous cultures continue to understand emotional life as inseparable from relationships, to family, to community, to land, and to story.

    Whatever the perspective or belief, it is common that there will be people for whom they make sense and are reported to be helpful, and others who react very differently. With the reasons for this being as complex and unique as the people involved.

    There has never been just one explanation. Because human experience is not simple, it never has been, and never will be. We are incredible, multi-faceted, creative, spiritual, thoughtful and emotional beings.

    When I explored how we understand our distress, I saw that the language of ‘mental health’ is relatively very recent.

    It has created a way of talking about distress. It has given an explanation for emotional suffering, one that explains difference, and that potentially masks its origins. It has, in many contexts, become the domain of experts, and whilst helpful for some, for others can feel diminishing.

    ‘Mental health’ definitely reflects a particular way of seeing human emotion. One that often locates distress within individuals. One that looks to classify, measure, and diagnose. One that has developed alongside medical models and systems of treatment, particularly in Western cultures.

    This way of seeing can be helpful for some. But potentially denies the breadth and wisdom of other cultures and beliefs, often those that have been understood and developed for thousands of years.

    It can lead us to view people as individuals whose systems are malfunctioning, rather than as human beings responding to their lives, their relationships, and their environments.

    In recent years, science itself has started to widen the picture. There is increasing recognition of:

    • the role of the body in shaping how we feel
    • the importance of relationships and environment
    • the interaction between biology, experience, and meaning
    • the impact of trauma and adversity across a lifetime (Felitti et al., 1998; van der Kolk, 2014)

    Neuroscientific perspectives have also emphasised how feelings are deeply intertwined with bodily processes and awareness (Damasio, 1999; Craig, 2009).

    Even where there is debate about specific theories, there is broad agreement on something important. That our nervous systems play a central role in how we experience safety and threat, and that our ability to regulate how we feel is closely connected to our bodies and to the people around us (Porges, 2011).

    This does not make mental health models wrong. But it does suggest that science may now be rediscovering ideas that human beings have been working with for a very long time.

    If our capacity to feel and to think has remained broadly consistent across our history, then it raises an important question. Have we mistaken our current descriptions for the full picture?

    People with the same depth of emotional and intellectual capacity as anyone alive today existed long before our modern frameworks. For example, James Doty, in his work at Stanford University, described how brain research today is revealing ideas that many ancient cultures had already understood centuries ago (Doty, 2016).

    Across time, human beings have always been doing something similar. Trying to make sense of their experiences. Trying to create safety and connection. Trying to understand difference.

    It appears that we have always needed to make sense of distress, but different times and situations have required different answers. As we have also seen through time, there are, and have always been, different motivations for the sense that we make. With the sense we make used to justify inequality, power, financial gain and harm, directly and indirectly (Johnstone and Boyle, 2018).

    Learning from our history, from the wide range of perspectives and possibilities that exist and have existed, can liberate us from the need for an answer, towards the acceptance and respect for difference and diversity.

    When we rely on a single way of understanding human experience, we narrow what is possible.

    But when we recognise that:

    • our biology is ancient and complex
    • our need for safety and connection has not changed
    • our interpretations are shaped by culture and continue to evolve

    Something shifts. We are no longer confined to one explanation. We have choices.

    I have witnessed the conflict that occurs when people’s ideas are challenged, belittled, or denied. I have seen the lines of division drawn and people fighting hard to be heard, respected, and to be right. So, rather than rejecting the idea of ‘mental health’, we can place it amongst the many other beliefs and possibilities.

    In doing so it is about recognising that mental health is one way of understanding human emotion among many. It is a way that is the product of our time and place. It makes sense to many, and for others it can be limiting or harmful.

    Yet, what we are discovering, or re-discovering is that human beings are more complex, more capable, and more deeply rooted than any single framework can fully describe.

    My journey so far has reinforced and made sense of my experiences of the people I have met along the way. It has led me to celebrate uncertainty, and to embrace possibilities.

    I don’t know how everyone feels. I don’t have a way of making sense of the emotional worlds of the 8 billion people on earth today. It would be a bit crazy to think that anyone could. Which is why my discomfort with the term mental health makes more sense to me now. As I have met people who think that they do, and that they can. People willing to ignore the views and wishes of others in their certainty.

    I have realised that the task is not to find a final answer, but to move beyond mental health as the term for human emotion, and to remember that;

    • The capacity to feel, to think, to connect, and to make meaning has always been part of being human.
    • Human beings’ emotional worlds are vast, multifaceted and ever changing, whilst at their core there has always been a need for safety and connection.
    • As we move forward, there is value in more humility and curiosity.
    • It is often certainty that has caused the most difficulty, not just in how we understand ourselves, but in how we treat each other.

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    Mad in the UK hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

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