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

When referencing the democratic potentials of the fediverse, it's important to note that inspiration is not to be found in the competitive, bureaucratic electoralism of liberal democracy, but rather the horizontal consensus-based process of radical direct democracy.

The fedifam structure would facilitate a go-to democratic framework for attaining consensus between communities on moderation conundrums. At the moment, these regular crises tend to sprawl out in random threads, with the directly affected and indirect stakeholders perhaps able to chance upon them or not.

And what about intra-instance democracy, to redistribute agency within the community itself? This post - the second part of a rather long essay on the fedifam idea - sketches out a speculative scenario of "democracy as a protocol", baked into the software.

https://kolektiva.social/@ophiocephalic/110707707012210965

13/20

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

Critical to the understanding and acceptance of this model is the horizontal distribution of power. This is consistent with both the Zapatista and Rojava programs. Envision now a series of three concentric rings, with the individual instance as the smallest ring on the inside, the caracol the biggest on the outside.

The instance should have exactly as much agency as it does now (or perhaps in certain ways, even more). No capacity currently under the control of the instance is ceded to the outer rings of the fam and the caracol. Those rings are quite deliberately limited in their functionality, with the biggest being the most limited; their very purpose is to augment and devolve agency back in to the locality of the community.

This is the only chance for a construct of this nature to facilitate direct democracy and avoid hierarchical creep.

12/20

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

In this diagram, three groups of instances - Pan-African/Black liberation communities, radical queer communities, and anarchist communities - collectivize into fedfams, which in the Zapatista model are the equivalent of "communes". The three fedifams, which recognize each other as sufficiently ideologically aligned, then loosely form into a single caracol.

The purpose of the caracol is to comprise a trust treaty or "web of trust", which will ease the acceptance of new instances, that develop from within existing fams, into a broader federation. This would be useful or even necessary with a switch from exclusive blocklist-based moderation to inclusive allow-list federation. More on this later.

And more on the fedifam as a radical survival strategy: https://kolektiva.social/@ophiocephalic/110707704222855712

11/20

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

Others are taking on the possibility from similar angles. @zkat has suggested applying the organizational approach of the Zapatista Autonomous Municipalities. Their idea is laid out in this blog post.

https://runyourown.social/#beyond-local-and-public:-the-neighborhood

Further discussion on the concept occurs in this thread: https://toot.cat/@zkat/110810390507239555

The Commoner is running an essay series on the Zapatista system and stateless participatory democracy. The most recent entry provides a diagram of the Zapatista model. With this in mind, let's see if we can build on Kat's idea and envision it as a useful paradigm for the fediverse.

https://www.thecommoner.org.uk/zapatista-autonomy-and-stateless-participatory-democracy-part-two/

10/20

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

*Fediverse Communalism 2*

How could the communalization of the fediverse manifest tangibly? One idea that pops up over and over from different corners is the organization of instances into alliances. Here is a thread proposing the formation of the fedifam construct.

https://kolektiva.social/@ophiocephalic/110793531238090472

In brief: Instances allied into fedifams could share resources and mutually support each other in many ways, such as:

🐸 A common charter of moderation principles
🐸 Hosting infrastructure and setup support
🐸 A crowdfunding mechanism
🐸 An open-source administration platform
🐸 A commonwealth of blocklists or allow-lists
🐸 A framework for new instance initiatives from within the fedifam to spin up

9/20

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

OUT NOW!!!

After months of collaboration and discussions we are proud to present this beautiful zine reporting back on the sessions that took place at DPG West 2023. We hope this gives you an idea of what we experienced and provides some useful information.

https://sabotmedia.noblogs.org/zine-a-report-back-dual-power-west-gathering-2023/

#DualPower #DPGWest #BlackCatDistro #SabotMedia

It would be a mistake to interpret the current lull in interest, and the odd nature of the Threads launch, as reasons to relax. On the contrary, this is the perfect moment to act on the protective impulses that engendered the FediPact.

Moreover, the push towards centralization, surveillance and algorithmic harvesting by Facebook-linked authoritarians, which is meeting no resistance from those at the top of the development and administrative hierarchy, makes urgent action nothing less than a necessity for everyone of a marginalized or targeted identity, all true believers in FLOSS, and radicals of every stripe.

This is the time to convene, prefigure, and build a Free Fediverse.

8/20

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Prefiguration #DualPower #Fedifam #Communalism #FacebookFediverse #Zuckerverse #FacebookMafia

Meta will federate for the same reason that Google pays Mozilla tens of millions a year to keep Firefox alive. But that comparison only takes us so far, because in this case, it's more like Google dishing out the money only on the condition that Firefox disables ad-blocking and sends telemetry to Google.

So, we have multiple, recent and ongoing indicators. We have motives and strategies which fit a type. Every signal beams in the same direction, and there are none which contradict it. Meta is coming.

And the ActivityPub protocol and major fediverse development projects are firmly under the control of facilitators who are smoothing the way. This is a blog post by one of the primary Mastodon developers, with a proposal to add in backend hooks for the algorithmic surveillance and telemetry collection demanded by the Facebook Mafia.

https://renchap.com/blog/post/evolving_mastodon_trust_and_safety/

7/20

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Prefiguration #DualPower #Fedifam #FacebookFediverse #Zuckerverse #FacebookMafia #Openwashing

A recent paper by @Mer__edith , @davidthewid and Sarah Myers West discusses the openwashing ploy utilized by Meta and other tech giants, in which "AI" and other exploitative technologies are obfuscated by a thin veneer of democratization.

Paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4543807
Fedi thread: https://mastodon.world/@Mer__edith/110905980596068726

@pluralistic riffs further on the openwashing concept: https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/18/openwashing/#you-keep-using-that-word-i-do-not-think-it-means-what-you-think-it-means

Meta currently has a big problem with regulators - particularly in the EU - demanding more interoperability from their social media operations. ActivityPub federation with their throwaway Threads side-project buys them a low-cost, low-risk figleaf. Perhaps we can term this particular variant "interop-washing"?

6/20

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Prefiguration #DualPower #Fedifam #Communalism #FacebookFediverse #Zuckerverse #Openwashing

Now to the question of motives. This has also been called into question. Why, after an early July Threads launch with over 100 million "signups" (all of which carried over from existing Instagram accounts), would Meta care about our puny little nothing of a network?

According to one analytics firm, that usage number had dwindled to 576,000 by early August.

https://www.similarweb.com/blog/insights/social-media-news/threads-first-month/

Suddenly the fedi, with an estimated DAU of 1.8 million, doesn't seem so puny. But beyond any question of numbers, there is a crystal clear benefit to federation, one which would fit a well-worn pattern for the Zuckerberg entity - openwashing.

5/20

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Prefiguration #DualPower #Fedifam #Communalism #FacebookFediverse #Zuckerverse #Openwashing

At this link, you can read the transcript, or listen to an audio recording, of an early August meeting attended by the Stanford operatives, a co-author of the ActivityPub standard, and a prominent fediverse developer, as they discuss their plans to impose centralized algorithmic surveillance onto the network.

https://github.com/swicg/meetings/tree/main/2023-08-04

Here's more on one of the surveillance systems under consideration, a technology controlled by Microsoft, which detects and auto-reports both CSAM and political subversion: https://kolektiva.social/@ophiocephalic/110782738969976772

4/20

#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #Prefiguration #DualPower #Fedifam #Communalism #FacebookFediverse #Zuckerverse #PhotoDNA #FacebookMafia

The threat of absorption into the Zuckerberg surveillance entity is a menace, but also an opportunity. However, the prospect itself needs to be reviewed. Opinions are being voiced that Meta will not, in fact, federate at all.

Some of these claims are good-faith efforts to critically regard the well-established propensity of the corporation to lie through its teeth at every opportunity. While true, there are clear and ongoing indications that Meta has both the intention and the motive to proceed.

First, Meta has planted an engineer in the W3C ActivityPub working group. This may be a precursor to custom additions to the spec which could facilitate advertising and behavioral surveillance protocols.

https://thenewstack.io/threads-adopting-activitypub-makes-sense-but-wont-be-easy/ (pro-Meta propaganda)

2/20

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

*Fediverse Communalism 1*

For those interested in the prefiguration of dual power, there is a perfect opportunity right under our noses - the fediverse. Moreover, such praxis may not be so much of a choice, as a necessity. The forces of authoritarian and capitalist recuperation are coming for this network.

So far, it remains largely out of the control radius of corporations, government security services and the fascists poisoning every other online environment. But there are well-resourced elements both without and within working to change that.

Consider the contrast with major capitalist services. This recent story explains how the "U.S." government has attempted to extort a price from TikTok in exchange for allowing it continued operation in the country - its conversion into a domestic mass surveillance tool under the control of state security and military agencies.

https://gizmodo.com/tiktok-cfius-draft-agreement-shows-spying-requests-1850759715

1/20

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