 "Chris, you're too optimistic about the Fediverse," some people tell me. No, no, no! I was too optimistic about Twitter and Web 2.0. I put so much of my life into that -- and I watched it crash and burn. Now with the Fediverse, I'm being practical and relentless. I have clear goals in mind, and how to get from Point "A" to Point "B". 9 comments
If you want to destroy Big Social, you have to popularize features, functions, and ideas that challenge their reason to exist. Big Social exists for privatization and centralization of your data! What they aim for is no less than ownership of your LIFE! They have been practical and relentless in their pursuit. We likewise need to be practical and relentless in attacking their reason to exist. Neither Twitter, Meta, nor TikTok can compete with the Fediverse on its core featureset. They won't de-centralize. They can't de-centralize. If they were to de-centralize, they would no longer be Big Social. Some people quite reasonably ask, "But what if Twitter actually integrates ActivityPub?" Fine -- that would mean they're no longer Twitter as we know it. Essentially, Twitter would no longer be Twitter. Which is what I want. Do I believe that giant corporations (like Google) will attempt to compromise the Fediverse? Sure, I have an almost certain expectation that they'll try. But the other side of the coin: when they try to compromise the Fediverse, we compromise them! For example, if they start an instance, that means they're compromising their walled gardens. Good ☺️ The thing about being practical and relentless: each time Silicon Valley deviates from de-centralization, we need to change the terms. They're creating accounts on the Fediverse? Okay, make the conditions such that they must host an instance. Now they're hosting their own instance? Defederate if they're disrespectful of community norms. They're blocking big volunteer-run instances for skeezy reasons? Start small single-user instances. You know, as much as I like the Fediverse and I cheer it on -- I don't even see it as the end game. For me, the end game is P2P tech that doesn't even require the web. Ideally, there would be self-sovereign, nomadic identity. Connections would be double opt-in. I should be able to communicate even if the entire Internet goes down, and I'm forced to connect via Bluetooth or sneakernet. That's my ideal social media -- but we're not close to being there yet.  |
Gregory's Server
Specifically, one thing that attracts me to the Fediverse is that it attacks Twitter existentially.
This isn't a matter of Twitter copying Clubhouse, and putting it into their platform.
Twitter can't do that with the Fediverse's main feature (de-centralized federation) because that would destroy their reason to exist.
And to be sure, Twitter's reason to exist is to centralize and privatize the public square.
Twitter can neither duplicate nor join the Fediverse.