The Nexus of Privacy @infosec.exchange A newsletter about #privacy, #technology, #policy, #strategy, and #justice.
Currently at @nexusofprivacy, but looking for a new home and so checking out infosec.exchange
@MrJameGumb yeah I thought @Diplomjodler3 nailed it with "monetize my ass". Then again people have been trying to commercialize the fediverse even before the term got invented -- StatusNet got initial venture funding back in 2009 or so back when it was still the identifverse. So it's a long-standing tension in fedi as a whole.
Mostly though I'm just entertained that people think that it's self-promotion on my part 😂
@LiterallyLMAO I don't think so. But why do you think this is self-promotion? I've got nothing to do with the project, and it's news about the fediverse so it's on-topic for this community.
If you'e been wondering how to monetize your fediverse posting ... https://sub.club has good news for you!
If you'e been wondering how to monetize your fediverse posting ... https://sub.club has good news for you!
> > > "If you post quality content and you've developed a loyal audience, you should be able to ask your most passionate followers to support you with a premium subscription. > > > > That's a promise not available on the Fediverse ...until now." > >
@dimillian has a short threa announcing availabiilty in @IceCubesApp and sub.club advisor @quillmatiq has more info here.
sub.club's a project of The BLVD, Inc, the makers of @mammoth. I know there was a lot of skepticism when Marc Benioff, Mozilla, Long Ventures et al, funded Mammoth ... with so many good apps out there, how are they expecting to get VC-level returns on their investment? But if sub.club can tap into the creator economy, there's clearly money to be made!
@olives Very true. And it won't make kids safer. @bad_internet_bills
Microsoft endorses anti-LGBTQ online "child safety" bill KOSA night before Big Tech hearing (US Politics)
Microsoft endorses anti-LGBTQ online "child safety" bill KOSA night before Big Tech hearing (US Politics)
Worth noting: Microsoft owns LinkedIn, which wouldn't be particularly affected by KOSA.
There's a hearing on Wednesday, and potentially a Senate vote soon, so if you're in the US now's a good time to contact your Senators. https://stopkosa.com and EFF's page make it easy!
Instances in the free fediverses should consider "transitive defederation" from instances that federate with Meta
https://privacy.thenexus.today/consider-transitively-defederatiion/
Part 7 of Strategies for the free fediverses
Transitive defederation -- defederating from instances that federate with Threads as well as defederating from Threads -- isn't likely to be an all-or-nothing thing in the free fediverses. Tradeoffs are different for different people and instances. This is one of the strengths of the fediverse, so however much transitive defederation there winds up being, I see it as overall as a positive thing -- although also messy and complicated.
So the recommendation here is for instances to *consider* #TransitiveDefederation: discuss, and decide what to do. I've also got some thoughts on how to have the discussion -- and the strategic aspects.
https://privacy.thenexus.today/consider-transitively-defederatiion/
The free fediverses should work together with people and instances in Meta's fediverses and on Bluesky whose goals and values align with the free fediverse
https://privacy.thenexus.today/work-together-with-metas-fediverses-and-bluesky/
Part 6 of Strategies for the free fediverses
Many of the Meta advocates I've talked to share the free fediverses' long-term goal of building a sustainable alternative to surveillance capitalism -- and the same is true for people on Bluesky. So there are likely to be situations where some of the people and instances in Meta's fediverses and Bluesky wind up as situational allies to the free fediverses.
A few areas where collaboration could be very useful:
- A key principle of organizing is meeting people where they are.
- Moderation on decentralized networks is a shared challenge.
- Bringing concepts similar to Bluesky's custom feeds to the fediverses, and more generally focusing on human-focused and liberatory (as opposed to oppressive) uses of algorithms in decentralized social networks designed from the margins.
- Meta's fediverses, Bluesky, and the free fediverses are all vulnerable to disinformation.
https://privacy.thenexus.today/work-together-with-metas-fediverses-and-bluesky/
The free fediverses should make it easier to move between (and create) instances
Part 5 of Strategies for the Free Fediverse
https://privacy.thenexus.today/make-it-easier-to-move-to-instances-in-the-free-fediverses/
There's likely to be a lot of moving between instances as people and instances sort themselves out into the free fediverses and Meta's fediverses -- and today, moving accounts on the fediverse today. There are lots of straightforward ways to improve it, many of which don't even require improvements to the software. And there are also opportunities to make creating, customizing, and connecting instances easier.
What fediverse apps and software, support quote posts today?
What fediverse apps and software, support quote posts today?
Here's a great thread by @polotek about quoted posts.
https://social.polotek.net/@polotek/111699960916060256
What fediverse software platforms or apps supports quoted posts today (sometimes implemented as a link, a screenshot, or a reply)?
The free fediverses should support concentric federations of instances
Part 4 of Strategies for the Free Fediverses
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.
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!
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")
Strategies for the free fediverses
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
FISA Section 702 Reauthorization: House GOP leadership pulls dueling FISA bills amid backlash!
FISA Section 702 Reauthorization: House GOP leadership pulls dueling FISA bills amid backlash!
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/11/politics/house-gop-leadership-pulls-dueling-fisa-bills/index.html
Instead, a four-month extension is attached to the NDAA -- unless it gets removed. Dozens of civil rights and racial justice groups oppose extending FISA in the NDAA.
If you agree, call your Senators TODAY and with a simple ask: "DO NOT put 702 in the NDAA."
House Judiciary Committee advances FISA Section 702 bill with warrant requirements, 35-2
House Judiciary Committee advances FISA Section 702 bill with warrant requirements, 35-2
Sen. Ron Wyden says "This is great news for anyone who cares about protecting their privacy from government overreach."
So far the only coverage is @tonya\_riley's paywalled Bloomberg News article
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/house-panel-oks-bill-to-renew-rein-in-electronic-surveillance
The bill is H.R. 6570, the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act, sponsored by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ). It has a lot of similarities to the bipartisan Government Surveillance Reform Act (where Wyden and Sen. Mike Lee are the Senate sponsors). But there are other bills potentially moving forward as well.... (1/3)
College Board shares SAT Scores with Facebook, TikTok, and others
College Board shares SAT Scores with Facebook, TikTok, and others
https://gizmodo.com/sat-college-board-tells-facebook-tiktok-your-scores-gpa-1850768077
"Gizmodo observed the College Board’s website sharing data with Facebook and TikTok when a user fills in information about their GPA and SAT scores. When this reporter used the College Board’s search filtering tools to find colleges that might accept a student with a C+ grade-point average and a SAT score of 420 out of 1600, the site let the social media companies know. Whether a student is acing their tests or struggling, Facebook and TikTok get the details.
The College Board shares this data via “pixels,” invisible tracking technology used to facilitate targeted advertising on platforms such as Facebook and TikTok. The data is shared along with unique user IDs to identify the students, along with other information about how you use the College Board’s site. Tok, and a variety of companies."
@daveley Great question. A rew reasons:
- mastodon.social's so big that the Local and Federated timelines aren't very useful.
- smaller instances (even if they're not special-interest focused) are more likely to have a good community.
- many other instances have "silenced" mastodon.social (because of its long history of moderation issues -- or just because of the volume), so people on other instances are less likely to connect with you.
All that being said, I wasn't trying to say that mastodon.social was terrible - it's the advice that's horrible. It's just that for most people it's not the best place to start.
How to choose the right Mastodon instance
How to choose the right Mastodon instance
https://privacy.thenexus.today/choosing-a-mastodon-instance/
An excerpt:
...
One of the challenges for newcomers to Mastodon is that you're faced with a major decision you face when signing up: what server (aka "instance") to choose? Different instances have different focuses: are geographically focused (sfba.social), identity-based (tech.lgbt), interest-based (mastodon.art), professional (infosec.exchange), a group of friends (friend.camp), or even lipogrammatic (oulipo.social, which doesn't allow the letter 'e' in posts). Others are "general purpose", without a specific focus – like mastodon.social, mastodon.ai, and hachyderm.io. The choice isn't irrevocable – you can migrate your account to another instance and keep the list of who you're following and who's following you – but it's still daunting.
Newcomers are often told that it doesn't matter what instance you're on, or encouraged to join mastodon.social (the "flagship" instance, which is the default for mobile apps and spreadmastodon.com). This is really horrible advice, because what instance you're on has a big effect on your experience – and for most people, mastodon.social is not a good place to start.
...
[This is an an updated version of the post I originally did last November. I've tried to double-check that the links all still work, please let me know if I missed any!]
@[email protected] @[email protected] #TwitterMigration #Mastodon
@sibrosan Thanks for the explanation!
@sibrosan The server rules on your server explicitly prohibit transphobia.
So why do you see enforcing the rules by not federating with another server that's got a long history of transphobia as "bias"?
@sibrosan Like I say, opinions differ.
Why do you think so many trans and queer people -- who are very likely to be directly impacted by transgressions of the rules -- come to a different conclusion and advocate preemptively blocking?
See the "We're here, we're queer" section of https://privacy.thenexus.today/should-the-fediverse-welcome-surveillance-capitalism/#were-here-were-queer for more on that perspective.
@sibrosan Or, if an instance that's about to launch has a long history of discrimination, hate, violance, abuse, and contributions to genocide, you can announce your intention to defederate from them even before they launch.
Like I said in the post, opinions differ!
@Chimaera We can't stop Meta from doing what they want with the millions of Insta accounts, and we can't stop instances who want to work with Meta from working with Meta. We can however have a Meta-free region of the fediverse, and it's very likely to be better in a lot of ways than the Meta-friendly region.
Thanks @darnell , glad you like the analysis! I also think it's an opportunity as well as a threat, and I agree that right now it looks like most large instances won't block, and most of all I agree that we'll have to wait and see what happens!
@fancysandwiches when Darnell and I discussed this before he pointed to some things they've said that certainly might imply that -- although also might not (which is back to the wait and see). It's certainly true that somebody like Oprah would have an IT department capable of running it and would see the advantages of being able to do that. But we don't really know,
all they've said is "decentralized".
"Should the Fediverse welcome its new surveillance-capitalism overlords? Opinions differ!" ⬆️
has links to perspectives from @vantablack @Seirdy @fancysandwiches @alice @viennawriter @oblomov @mcp @fosstodon @darnell @PoliticaConC @tchambers @deadsuperhero @ianbetteridge @dangillmor @smallpatatas @gcrkrause and more ... like I say, opinions differ, but no matter where you are on it, I appreciate the time everybody's put into articulating their positions.
Thanks also @cendawanita @jo @edendestroyer @ophiocephalic @oliphant @admin1 and @damon for the feedback and discussions!
BTW in the last section when I'm discussing Mastodon's moderation issues, one of the things I mention is the lack of an ability to control who can reply to tweets ... so apologies in advance if this generates a bunch of notifications! I left the acknowedgments out of the main post to try to limit the damage, we'll see how well it works.
https://infosec.exchange/@thenexusofprivacy/110594384248698967
Should the Fediverse welcome its new surveillance-capitalism overlords? Opinions differ!
Should the Fediverse welcome its new surveillance-capitalism overlords? Opinions differ!
https://privacy.thenexus.today/should-the-fediverse-welcome-surveillance-capitalism/
Contents:
\- Two views of the fediverse \- The case for "Trust but verify" \- Wait a second. Why should anybody trust Facebook, Instagram, or Meta? \- Why the Anti-Meta FediPact is good strategy \- We're here, we're queer, fuck Facebook \- A few words about digital colonialism \- Now's a good time for instance admins to discuss with their communities \- In chaos there is opportunity!
@[email protected] @[email protected] #fediverse #Meta #FediPact
Don't tell people "it's easy", and seven more things Kbin, Lemmy, and the fediverse can learn from Mastodon (UPDATED)
Don't tell people "it's easy", and seven more things Kbin, Lemmy, and the fediverse can learn from Mastodon (UPDATED)
https://privacy.thenexus.today/kbin-lemmy-fediverse-learnings-from-mastodon/
This adds several new sections to the previous version -- including an update on what's happened since then. Here's the new table of contents:
I'm flashing!!!!! But first, some background
- Don't tell people "it's easy"
- Improve the "getting-started experience"
- Keep scalability and sustainability in mind
- Prioritize accessibility
- Get ready for trolls, hate speech, harassment, spam, porn, and disinformation
- Invest in moderation tools
- Experiment to find what approaches are a good fit for the current state of the software
- Values matter
This is a great opportunity – and it won't be the last great opportunity Ten days later ... A few more thoughts on moderation
@ozoned cool, thanks very much! It's now at the start of the "don't tell people it's easy" section -- https://privacy.thenexus.today/kbin-lemmy-fediverse-learnings-from-mastodon/#its-not-easy
@ozoned exactly! I'm working on a revision, can I add this as a quote to the "Don't tell peole it's easy" section? You say it better than I did!
Don't tell people "it's easy", and six more things KBin, Lemmy, and the fediverse can learn from Mastodon
Don't tell people "it's easy", and six more things KBin, Lemmy, and the fediverse can learn from Mastodon
https://privacy.thenexus.today/kbin-lemmy-fediverse-learnings-from-mastodon/
Reddit's strategy of antagonizing app writters, moderators, and millions of redditors is good news for reddit alternatives like KBin and Lemmy. And not just them! The fediverse has always grown in waves and we're at the start of one.
Previous waves have led to innovation but also major challenges and limited growth. It's worth looking at what tactics worked well in the past, to use them again or adapt them and build on them. It's also valuable to look at what went wrong or didn't work out as well in the past, to see if there are ways to do better.
Here's the current table of contents:
\* I'm flashing!!!!! \* But first, some background
- Don't tell people "it's easy"
- Improve the "getting-started experience"
- Keep scalability and sustainability in mind
- Prioritize accessibility
- Get ready for trolls, hate speech, harassment, spam, porn, and disinformation
- Invest in moderation tools
- Values matter
\* This is a great opportunity – and it won't be the last great opportunity
https://privacy.thenexus.today/kbin-lemmy-fediverse-learnings-from-mastodon/
Thanks to everybody for the great feedback on the draft version of the post!
\#kbin #lemmy #fediverse @fediversenews @[email protected] @[email protected]