Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #alternativesocialmedia, aggregated by home.social.
Heute war Tag 2 des Seminars #AlternativeSozialeMedien und wir haben gemeinsam gebrainstormed was denn die Probleme der existierenden Sozialen Medien und Plattformen sind.
Eine ganz gute Zusammenfassung der Session ist auf diesen Folien https://cloud.uni-hamburg.de/s/FxMtP59EKDJpoSi
I am being just overwhelmed with amazing research on #alternativeSocialMedia during an #AoIR2026 panel right now. The work happening now is going to resonate for years.
Today was kickoff session of my seminar on #AlternativeSocialMedia at #UniversityHamburg. Course has 145 applications for 30 places 🤯.
Unscientific poll finds most students spent 2-3h daily with social media, basically none spent less than 1h. 3 platforms absolutely dominate (guess which).
We are going to work out problems, possible solutions (or at least alleviating these) in a better design, exploring alternatives and getting your feet wet in the Fediverse. And we are even going to have a guest lecture (thanks @Kudusch)!
Looking forward to the rest of the course!
We're back after a summer break! And what way to ring in fall than with a blog post about the latest in alternative social media research?
https://www.socialmediaalternatives.org/2026/09/26/bib-150.html
The post briefly discusses the latest 5 entries in the ASM bibliography, which itself reached a milestone: 150 academic sources focusing on alternative social media.
Looking for a privacy-first alternative to big tech? Check out JBS (Just Be Social)! 🌍✨
Built on transparency and digital well-being—no aggressive algorithms, tracking, or ads. While based in Europe, JBS warmly welcomes US users who want a clean, organic feed and real connections.
Come test it out and share your thoughts! 🚀
Learn more & join: https://justbsocial.eu/site/about
#JBS #JustBeSocial #PrivacyFirst #Fediverse #AlternativeSocialMedia
Tanz durch die Instanzen! - Digitaler Unabhängigkeitstag
Am 6. September, 16–18 Uhr lädt die AG Fediverse von @Digitalcourage zum digitalen Unabhängigkeitstag ein!
Wir zeigen euch drei Fediverse-Plattformen und erzählen, warum wir sie lieben. 🌐✨ Unser kleiner „Tanz durch die Instanzen“ soll euch zeigen: Das Fediverse ist bunt, vielfältig, offen und für alle da!
Im Anschluss ist Zeit fürs Fediverse-Parkett: Wir helfen euch, die passende Plattform zu finden und euren eigenen Account anzulegen – tanzt euch rein! 💫
📍 Teilnahme unter:
--> https://bbb.digitalcourage.de/rooms/ii0-ho4-jad-7bl/join
🆓 Offen für alle, keine Anmeldung nötig
Komm vorbei, bring Fragen mit und wechsel mit uns auf die gute Seite ;-) Wir freuen uns auf euch!
#Fediverse #DigitalerUnabhängigkeitstag #Digitalcourage #tanzdurchdieinstanzen #Datensouveränität #Netzpolitik #OpenSource #DezentralesInternet #AlternativeSocialMedia #diday
The latest blog post on the Alternative Social Media blog is about Guifi.net, mesh networks, and the role of "persistence" in activism against Big Tech:
https://www.socialmediaalternatives.org/2026/05/27/guifi.html
Zur Instanz: https://pixhub.social
#Fediverse #ActivityPub #Dezentralisierung #OpenWeb #SocialMedia #Web3 #Internet #DigitaleSouveränität #OpenSource #Protokolle #WebStandards #APIs #JSON #HTTP #SoftwareArchitektur #Mastodon #Pixelfed #PeerTube #Lemmy #Funkwhale #WriteFreely #Datenschutz #Digitalisierung #Netzpolitik #AlternativeSocialMedia #Community #Bloggen #TechBlog #DigitalTrends #Internetkultur
We are now on #twtxt
https://b0nfire.xyz/twtxt.txt
"a few years late, eh?"
It's at a friend's behest, and it doesn't cost me anything but a text file and a little care.
Smaller, incremental updates and planning posts will be made there, there's even a photo there that isn't here. 😲
wowzers! Check out twtxt: https://github.com/buckket/twtxt
#alternativesocialmedia #smallweb #indiewebsocial #indieweb
Wie viele Europäische Start-ups für eine Alternative zu den Big-Tech Plattformen wie Meta und TikTok gibt es bereits?
Mir fällt wedium ein. Lass mal sammeln. Mich interessiert, was sie anders machen wollen.
Tumblr has changed how interactions with posts work and people are PISSED.
https://www.tumblr.com/changes/811285635102130176/its-very-clear-that-you-all-have-strong-feelings
Basically, they've gone from a distinctive "everything is a chain and you see _all_ of the downstream activity from your post/reblog" approach to a Twitter/Bluesky/Mastodon-style "you reblog and the OP sees interactions (probably) or you quote-post and the OP sees nothing more".
Which… yeah, sure, great for Likes, because now you get to like _specific_ posts within the chain of half-a-dozen rather than having "you've liked one post in this chain therefore you liked the whole chain".
But it's DREADFUL for small creatives who get reblogged by a big account that adds a comment saying "You should check this out ☝" because that breaks the chain and the OP doesn't see future interactions including replies. Which is a bit shit on the "small creatives and niche fandoms" site 😐
(People can _choose_ to click the reply on the OP and reply directly… but that requires a change of behaviour, and how many users are ACTUALLY going to change behaviour like that?! 🙄)
I don't speak French, but I do speak "local, autonomous media that is not dominated by US big tech"
Our latest blogpost is "Blacksky: Exemplary Alternative Social Media":
https://www.socialmediaalternatives.org/2026/03/08/blacksky.html
A short note about #Blacksky as a social and technical achievement -- a fascinating form of alternative social media.
Sometimes, folks ask me why I've been advocating for #alternativeSocialMedia for over a decade now:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/technology/dhs-anti-ice-social-media.html
We just held another Alternative Social Media Reading Group meeting, this time discussing Hwang et al's fantastic paper, "Governing Together: Toward Infrastructure for Community-Run Social Media."
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.19653
Looking forward to adding this to our library!
Finally here, now reading: Move slowly and build bridges - Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the Struggle for Democratic Social Media by Robert W. Gehl @rwg
https://www.moveslowlybuildbridges.com/
#mastodon #fediverse #bookstodon #AlternativeSocialMedia #MoveSlowlyAndBuildBridges
The first post of 2026 on the Alternative Social Media Researchers Blog is live! It's by @jjsylvia and it presents a syllabus of a course in social media ethics. The course uses a classroom instance of Mastodon to work through ethical issues in digital media.
https://www.socialmediaalternatives.org/2026/01/12/teaching-mastodon.html
Replies to this post will appear as comments on the blog.
#Mastodon #pedagogy #alternativeSocialMedia
The first post of 2026 on the Alternative Social Media Researchers Blog is live! It's by @jjsylvia and it presents a syllabus of a course in social media ethics. The course uses a classroom instance of Mastodon to work through ethical issues in digital media.
https://www.socialmediaalternatives.org/2026/01/12/teaching-mastodon.html
Are you also teaching using Mastodon or other alternative social media? Reach out to us!
#DigitalPrivacy #Decentralization #Fediverse #ActivityPub #Mastodon #PeerTube #Matrix #Element #PrivacyForAll #YourDataYourRules #OpenSource #TechForGood #DeGoogle #DigitalFreedom #AlternativeSocialMedia #Web3 #FutureOfTech #Infographic #ComicStrip #TechEducation #DataSovereignty #SelfHosting #NoMoreBigTech #ProtectYourData #Security #CensorshipResistance #IndependentMedia #DecentralizedWeb #PrivacyTips #OnlineSafety #GrandpaApproved
@rra That presentation (co-authored with Roel) can now be found here:
https://robertwgehl.org/presentations/AOIR_ASM.html
and the 'script' is here:
Tomorrow I will present a paper co-authored with @rra, "What is 'alternative' about 'alternative social media'?"
If that title alone doesn't entice you, come for the shout-out to a really cool alternative social media system that began right here in #Brazil!
Then stick around for a 'Birds of a Feather' Alternative Social Media meetup!
https://www.conftool.org/aoir2025/index.php?page=browseSessions&form_session=642#paperID346
A new post up on the Alternative Social Media Researchers blog! This one is making a strong claim: PeerSon was the first alternative social media system.
https://www.socialmediaalternatives.org/2025/10/10/peerson.html
The post is based on a research collaboration between @rra and @rwg.
Hey! If you're new to the fediverse and curious about it, may I humbly suggest my new book, Move Slowly and Build Bridges?
https://moveslowlybuildbridges.com/
It offers a history of Mastodon and discusses the highs and lows of content moderation and governance on the fediverse. This is a complex space, but... it's *our* space. We can make it what we want.
There's a new Researcher Interview at the Alternative Social Media blog!
https://www.socialmediaalternatives.org/2025/10/02/tkacz.html
In this interview, Nate Tkacz talks with Blake Hallinan about a new paper, "Eventful migration: Rethinking social media migration with help from Elon Musk’s sink," which is about the movement away from Twitter towards Mastodon in late 2022/early 2023.
