#fedifam — Public Fediverse posts

A better vision for a near-future fedi requires an exercise of both the technical and social imagination, and another thing that Meta's collaborators appear to find elusive: a moral center.

Instead of a regression into another Zuckerberg-controlled nightmare of hate speech, harassment, "brand engagement" and dehumanizing surveillance, we can push forward into an intentional federation based on consent and community, which centers the non-negotiable requirement of safety for everyone who otherwise has the most to lose from the betrayal of this online space of refuge and resistance.

7/7

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Instagram #Democracy #Community #Decentralization #Prefiguration #Fedifam #AllowList #IntentionalFederation

A note also on the gaslighting we face from Meta's colluders; the latest being the embarrassing spectacle of ActivityPub co-author Evan wagging around a "small fedi". @thenexusofprivacy has a good rebuttal to this cringe exhibitionism here: https://privacy.thenexus.today/the-annotated-case-for-a-big-fedi/

Evan has seen fit to misappropriate the "small fedi" idea, then build a blog post around warping it into a smear, with a long list of patronizing and fictional mischaracterizations. But what is truly small is the thinking that the fedi's future is surveillance, algorithmic ingestion, centralized servers too big to moderate, and huge psychotic corporations like Meta. In fact, that is social media's catastrophic past, the one we're all here to reject.

6/7

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Instagram #Democracy #Community #Decentralization #Prefiguration #Fedifam #AllowList #IntentionalFederation

An intentional federation would be a more decentralized one, as we could fully affirm a collective choice to keep instances small. That's not just an abstract idea; a more decentralized fedi would be a more democratic one: https://kolektiva.social/@ophiocephalic/110707707012210965

And it would also be a more community-centered one. Currently, the Mastodon network in particular is being driven by an approach which denies the prospect for a riotous polyculture of small and distinct communities in favor of a growth-oriented monoculture in which "servers are not... communities" ( https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/111628882009671820 ) and "it doesn't matter which one you use" ( https://www.theverge.com/23658648/mastodon-ceo-twitter-interview-elon-musk-twitter ), an outlook which Zuckerberg must find favorable.

5/7

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Instagram #Democracy #Community #Decentralization #Prefiguration #Fedifam #AllowList #IntentionalFederation

We accept and support new spinups by fellow travelers were are already in community with. The servers which entirely come in from the cold are mostly those belonging to the creatures of the dark-fedi, which cause many of the moderation problems for those of us on proportionately-sized instances (and most of the other problems are caused by the disproportionately-sized ones, who will be joining the Zuckerverse).

By assuming agency for who we choose to federate with, rather than existing in a state of constant reaction against those who would try and force us to federate with them, we can defend our federation both from the fascists, racists, transphobes and pedos of the defediverse, and from the horrifying and corruptive threat of the Zuckerberg entity, and its collaborator instances.

4/7

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Instagram #Democracy #Community #Decentralization #Prefiguration #Fedifam #AllowList #IntentionalFederation

Some worry that consent-based federation would lead to isolation, but this doesn't need to be true. For the end user, nothing at all would change; it would be just as easy or hard to join an instance as it is now, minus the funneling into a centralized, poorly-moderated vanilla flagship.

And what about new instance spinups? Their prospects could actually improve from the current status quo, if an allow-list fediverse was structured into instance alliances as described in the fedifam concept. New intra-fam spinups would automatically federate: https://kolektiva.social/@ophiocephalic/110793531238090472

Fedifams could then form trust-treaties with other fedifams, smoothing federation out from the fam into the broader fediverse in whatever manner of comfort or caution is preferred (such as limited or probationary federation): https://kolektiva.social/@ophiocephalic/110985194948458666

3/7

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Instagram #Democracy #Community #Decentralization #Prefiguration #Fedifam #AllowList #IntentionalFederation

While Authorized Fetch remains important to activate, it is clear that even it - which remember, provides better defense than that currently implemented on most of our home servers - is inadequate to the threats facing us as the Zuckerberg incursion progresses. If we're serious about protecting our communities and expressions from absorption into surveillance capitalism and the accelerating miseries of fascism, we need to talk about a stronger grade of defensive weaponry.

To this end, @are0h has fired a first volley: https://h-i.social/@are0h/111653850819592308 Every fedi community which serves as a refuge for those targeted and under siege should be thinking like this. True safety only awaits us in a transitive approach to defederation, and further on, in an intentional federation based on the allow-list.

2/7

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Instagram #Democracy #Community #Decentralization #Prefiguration #Fedifam #AuthorizedFetch #AllowList #IntentionalFederation

The Intentional Federation

We have recently been advocating the activation of a function which is present but usually off in Mastodon and other fedi services called Authorized Fetch. As we plead with the major development projects to take safety more seriously and make it a default, we have learned that Meta itself didn't think twice about it and has activated it in their own ActivityPub implementation against *us*.

We know this because of news that a fascist has devised a way to evade it and force federation with Threads. They promise to then turn their technique upon us and coerce unblockable federation with fascist and cryptospam instances: https://soapbox.pub/blog/threads-server-blocking/

1/7

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Instagram #Democracy #Community #Decentralization #Prefiguration #Fedifam #AuthorizedFetch #AllowList

Those of us interested in the prospect of fediverse communalization within the FediPact context should convene a broader conversation, inclusive of admins, developers and engaged community members - particularly those from marginalized or targeted backgrounds. And considering that there will be many who will want to bail out of the megaservers before they are absorbed into the Zuckerverse, the sooner a clearly defined alternative presents itself, the better.

Also, the Free Fediverse wiki continues to be updated. Among the offerings are links to:

🐸 FediPact and alternative fediverse development info
🐸 News articles and essays on Threads and the Zuckerberg takeover gambit
🐸 A ballooning selection of stories on Meta's many crimes against humanity

Feel free to hop on over to https://freefediverse.org

20/20 /end

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Prefiguration #DualPower #Fedifam #Communalism

So too, gender-based harassment has not only endured in the fediverse, it has been perpetuated by some of its most privileged participants, as observed in a recent controversy involving a stream of abuse perpetuated by a very visible megaserver admin. Who moderates the moderators?

Building a Free Fediverse comprises an opportunity to chart a course away from the predominating influence of amoral techbros who have no capacity for understanding these problems, and see the fedi primarily as an opportunity for financial investment. This piece reframes the "gatekeeping" smear aimed at FediPact advocates through a lens of envisioning the online community as a ZAD - a Zone To Defend.

https://kolektiva.social/@ophiocephalic/110680030293653277

19/20

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Prefiguration #DualPower #Fedifam #Communalism #Horizontalism #ZAD

Finally, the Free Fediverse must prioritize centering the concerns and perspectives of those from marginalized and targeted communities. This need is more acute than ever, as we arrive at a moment in which the short-term prospects for the continuity of "democracy" in countries such as the "USA" and Germany are very much in question.

These essays by @jdp23 on the history of Mastodon development makes clear the paradoxical nature of a project innovated by a vibrant community of trans and queer folk as a refuge from the fascistic tendencies of the major capitalist networks, which eventually stratified into a hierarchical, growth-oriented Twitter me-too controlled by a single person.

https://privacy.thenexus.today/mastodon-a-partial-history/

https://privacy.thenexus.today/here-queer-and-federated-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/

This analysis makes clear that the abject failure of Mastodon to provide a welcoming alternative to Black Twitter, as identified by @shengokai , was in fact inevitable.

https://techpolicy.press/the-whiteness-of-mastodon

18/20

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Prefiguration #DualPower #Fedifam #Communalism

Tech adaptations would be necessary in any case, especially considering that well-informed observers believe switching from blocklist-based moderation to allow-list-based federation is the only way to definitively disconnect from Meta and its collaborator instances. The communal structure would make this viable. Fedifams could federate allow-lists amongst themselves, and trust-treaty caracoles could pave the way for new instances which spin up from within fams to federate in the greater network.

It could also change the nature of the instance itself. Fedifam support for internal spinups would make it easier for instances to become the initiatives of communities rather than individuals, who currently must re-invent the wheel and take on the technical and moderation burdens entirely of their own accord. Community-activated servers would be naturally inclined to a more democratic internal culture. The problems of admin burnout and micro-tyranny could be significantly lessened. And allow-list federation would slam the door shut on interlopers scheming to fabricate moral panics.

The horizontal redistribution of agency, across community members, admins, and developers, would change the game and fulfill the democratic promise of the fediverse.

17/20

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Prefiguration #DualPower #Fedifam #Communalism #DirectDemocracy

Enabling, sustaining and coordinating more creative and forward-thinking tech development would be a necessity for the Free Fediverse. The ActivityPub protocol itself is in the process of being enclosed by Zuckerberg and his assets right now.

Fortunately there are alternative possibilities, not least among them the next-generation Spritely Goblins protocol of another AP co-author, @cwebber . More on Spritely Goblins here:

https://spritely.institute/goblins/

Supporting this effort, and combining the efforts of the numerous Masto forks into a definitive Free Fedi microblogging replacement, could be the way to build our ark and render our resolve tangible.

16/20

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Prefiguration #DualPower #Fedifam #Communalism #SpritelyGoblins

Meanwhile, more creative technological approaches remain obstructed or ignored. This proposal from @supakaity offers the enticing and empowering prospect of granular control of all search and visibility parameters for each post: https://blahaj.zone/notes/9ev0kge0aj

The fedifam construct could be extended to developer alliances as well. This would enable a shared, stable source for crowdfunding, and the coordination of efforts toward complimentary and interoperable results.

The person at the top of the Mastodon development hierarchy actually refers to himself as a "benevolent dictator for life" - but there's no such thing as a benevolent dictator. Dictators, of any nature, do not facilitate democratic outcomes. We didn't let Vladimir Lenin get away with that "benevolent dictatorship" shit and we shouldn't let John Mastodon do so either!

15/20

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Prefiguration #DualPower #Fedifam #Communalism #DirectDemocracy

The need for self-governance and the democratization of fedi culture is clearly indicated by the current democracy deficit of the status quo. The controversies resulting from the upcoming Mastodon feature upgrades tell the tale.

The initial and unilateral introduction of the upcoming search capability - rumored to have been a demand of Meta - took the form of a single all-or-nothing toggle which would actually have removed existing functionality for users who opted out. The sensibilities and consent concerns of fedi-folk from smaller instances and marginalized communities were only considered after an outcry.

Though a more amenable alternative was provided, there are still serious concerns about the performance toll of these new functionalities on small and self-hosted servers. They are now mainly being beta-tested on megaservers, which means negative impacts both technical and cultural may only become apparent when it's too late to reverse course.

14/20

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Prefiguration #DualPower #Fedifam #Communalism #DirectDemocracy