12mo ago

Strategies for the free fediverses

https://privacy.thenexus.today/strategies-for-the-free-fediverses/

The fediverse is evolving into different regions

"Meta's fediverses", federating with Meta to allow communications, potentially using services from Meta such as automated moderation or ad targeting, and potentially harvesting data on Meta's behalf.

"free fediverses" that reject Meta – and surveillance capitalism more generally

The free fediverses have a lot of advantages over Meta and Meta's fediverses, some of which will be very hard to counter, and clearly have enough critical mass that they'll be just fine.

Here's a set of strategies for the free fediverses to provide a viable alternative to surveillance capitalism. They build on the strengths of today's fediverse at its best – including natural advantages the free fediverses have that Threads and Meta's fediverses will having a very hard time countering – but also are hopefully candid about weaknesses that need to be addressed. It's a long list, so I'll be spreading out over multiple posts; this post currently goes into detail on the first two.

Opposition to Meta and surveillance capitalism is an appealing position. Highlight it!

Focus on consent (including consent-based federation), privacy, and safety

Emphasize "networked communities"

Support concentric federations of instances and communities

Consider "transitively defederating" Meta's fediverses (as well as defederating Threads)

Consider working with people and instances in Meta's fediverses (and Bluesky, Dreamwidth, and other social networks) whose goals and values align with the free fediverses'

Build a sustainable ecosystem

Prepare for Meta's (and their allies') attempts to paint the free fediverses in a bad light

Reduce the dependency on Mastodon

Prioritize accessibility, which is a huge opportunity

Commit to anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-colonial, and pro-LGBTQIA2S+ principles, policies, practices, and norms for the free fediverses

Organize!

fediverse #freefediverse #threads @fediverse @fediversenews

9 comments

@thenexusofprivacy @fediverse @fediversenews Simply blocking Threads won't actually accomplish anything, except leave people stuck on Threads. If we want to actually help people, we need to take active actions beyond boycotts. We need to bleed users off of Threads, and we cannot do that if we block them outright.
https://peakd.com/mastodon/@crell/tangled-threads
- @Crell
  no cooperating with north korea

The free fediverses should focus on consent (including consent-based federation), privacy, and safety
https://privacy.thenexus.today/free-fediverses-and-consent/
(Part 2 of "Strategies for the free fediverses")
fediverse #mastodon #fedipact @fediversenews
- The free fediverses should emphasize networked communities
  https://privacy.thenexus.today/the-free-fediverses-should-emphasize-networked-communities/
  Here's how @lrhodes describes the Networked Communities view:
  "instances are valuable for the relations and interactions they facilitate locally AND for their ability to connect you to other parts of the network."
  By contrast, @evanprodromou notes that "Big Fedi" advocates typically see instances as typically see the instance as "mostly a dumb pipe." But The Networked Communities view aligns much better with the free fediverses' values – as does the "Social Archipelago" view @noracodes sketches in The Fediverse is Already Dead. Not only that, it's good strategy!
  @fediversenews #fediverse #threads #fedipact
  
  The free fediverses should support concentric federations of instances
  Part 4 of Strategies for the Free Fediverses
  https://privacy.thenexus.today/the-free-fediverses-should-support-concentric-federations-of-instances/
  Here's how @zkat describes caracoles: "you essentially ask to join concentric federations of instances ... with smaller caracoles able to vote to federate with entire other caracoles."
  And @ophiocephalic's "fedifams" are a similar idea: "Communities could align into fedifams based on whatever conditions of identity, philosophy or interest are relevant to them. Instances allied into fedifams could share resources and mutually support each other in many way"
  The idea's a natural match for community-focused, anti-surveillance capitalism free fediverses, fits in well with the Networked Communities model discussed in part 3, and helps address scalability of consent-based federation discussed in Part 2.
  https://privacy.thenexus.today/the-free-fediverses-should-support-concentric-federations-of-instances/
  fediverse #fedipact #threads @fediversenews @fediverse

9 comments