[Discussioni] Fwd: A new challenger to Twitter's walled garden: Mastodon

Ven 16 Giu 2017 13:11:26 CEST

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Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2017 18:27:31 -0400
From: "Georgia Young, FSF" <info at fsf.org>
Subject: A new challenger to Twitter's walled garden: Mastodon

Dear Free Software Supporter,

When it comes to social microblogging, Twitter is the 800-pound
gorilla. But a new free, federated option is here.

With [313 million active users each month][0], lots of people,
organizations, and bots communicate in 140 characters or less on
Twitter. While the Free Software Foundation [does use
Twitter][1], the platform is saddled with ethical pitfalls like
[nonfree JavaScript and privacy threats][2]. We encourage using
[decentralized][3] microblogging options, like [GNU social][4] or
[pump.io][5].

[0]:https://about.twitter.com/company
[1]:https://twitter.com/fsf
[2]:https://www.fsf.org/twitter
[3]:https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/decentralization-federation
[4]:https://gnu.io/social/try/
[5]:http://pump.io/

Another program speaking the same protocol as GNU social made a huge
splash this spring. It's called [Mastodon][6], and its growing
popularity was in part spurred by positive posts about it by Twitter
users with large numbers of followers, like tech writer [Sarah
Jeong][7]. That momentum is still strong.

[6]:https://mastodon.social/about
[7]:https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/mastodon-is-like-twitter-without-nazis-so-why-are-we-not-using-it

Free software advocates can get excited about Mastodon because
widespread adoption of federated, decentralized free software for
social networking allows more people to break free of [walled
gardens][8] like Twitter and Facebook and avoid using nonfree
JavaScript without having to give up on connecting and conversing with
friends on the Web. Federation lets people talk to each other from
different sites, and decentralization lets many people do this without
everyone depending on one giant server that is a single point of
failure. You can even self-host a Mastodon (or GNU social) instance
for your friends or anybody who chooses to join. All instances of a
program like Mastodon use the same protocol--so if I'm
fsf at status.fsf.org and you're libregnuser at mastodon.fr, we can follow
each other's accounts and communicate, even though our accounts aren't
registered to the same domain. You can't do that with Twitter.

[8]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_platform

Decentralization and federation are on the [FSF's High Priority
Projects][9] list because a decentralized Web built on free software
can be more secure, more respectful of your privacy, and
community-built and shared. Centralized servers might seem like a good
option at first, but they tend to eventually abuse their users'
freedoms (if they don't right away). These platforms require the use
of nonfree software, they don't distribute the software they use, and
they are poor platforms for activist communication because single gatekeepers
control and filter everything. For example, Twitter has adopted various rules that
restrict Twitter clients and apps in order to prioritize the needs of
advertisers over individual users. Twitter has also become notorious
for abusive behavior by some of its users—free software for social
networking sometimes takes a more stringent stance toward community
standards (Mastodon, for one), though [more work does need to be done
to address these problems for decentralized systems][10].

[9]:https://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority-projects/
[10]:https://dustycloud.org/blog/possible-distributed-anti-abuse/

The Web's governing body, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is
taking interest in this, as well. Its [Social Web Working
Group][11] has spent the last three years working to "develop
standards to make it easier to build and integrate social
applications with the Open Web Platform." Earlier this month, a
decentralized social networking protocol that has been developed
by the Social Web Working Group, [ActivityPub][12], advanced to
[W3C Candidate Recommendation][13] status, meaning that its
significant features are mostly set, and the protocol is open to
feedback from those who would implement it. GNU MediaGoblin
developer Christopher Webber is a member of the Working Group and
has [discussed ActivityPub on his blog][14]. The FSF is hopeful
that this will build on current momentum and enable more exciting
developments in this area in the future.

[11]: https://www.w3.org/Social/WG
[12]: https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/#social-web-working-group
[13]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web_Consortium#Specification_maturation
[14]: https://mediagoblin.org/news/tpac-2016-and-review-activitypub.html

## Join the federation!

Want to encourage decentralized, federated social interaction on
the Web? Start participating!

* Create your own account on a [GNU social][15] or [Mastodon][16]
  server. (Don't forget to [follow the FSF][17]!)

[15]:https://gnu.io/social/try/servers.html
[16]:https://instances.mastodon.xyz/list
[17]:https://status.fsf.org/fsf

* Set up your own instance of [GNU social][18] or other social
  microblogging site. This may be challenging, but it's rewarding
  and helps move the world toward true decentralization.

[18]:https://karp.id.au/social/en/admin/

Happy Hacking,

Georgia Young
Program Manager

- -- 
* Follow us at <https://status.fsf.org/fsf>. 
* Subscribe to our RSS feeds at <https://fsf.org/blogs/RSS>.
* Join us as an associate member at <https://www.fsf.org/jf>.

Sent from the Free Software Foundation,

51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor
Boston, Massachusetts 02110-1335
UNITED STATES
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