Gregory's ServerJust as you wouldn't expect a doctor's forum to be run by someone who never went to medical school, or a gardeners' club to be run by someone who has never pulled weeds before, I find it unacceptable that a platform for journalists, including many who left Twitter due to trolling, slander, death threats...would be run by someone who has never worked in our field. How would I be certain that someone would uphold journalism ethics and values if they haven't walked a mile in our shoes?
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11 comments
I think you get the point. I'm now on the @DAIR instance, which was founded by someone I consider a sister to me, and a team renowned globally for their commitment to online safety and ensuring the harms caused by big tech/AI don't get shoved under the rug. With my transition away from Journa dot host, I feel much more reassured about my Mastodon use. They may not be journalists, but I'm acquainted with some of the team and can vouch as being 100% uncompromising when it comes to online harm.  @ZekuZelalem @DAIR I love noticing that accounts I follow have seamlessly moved and that I'm still following them. Whatever the reasons. You found something that works better for you and off you go. This is the killer app of Mastodon. But as a journalist, it would be immoral and extremely selfish for me to stay quiet after taking care of my personal needs, and not express my serious concerns and worry for the future of journalism safety on Mastodon, and for the friends and colleagues who remain connected to both instances. I feel very uneasy at how things are looking like for the press. This is the last thing I expected to see happen on a platform that marketed itself as a safe escape in the midst of the #TwitterMigration. @ZekuZelalem I was happy to see your post from your new location -- my follow converted automatically. Clicking on your old account, it comes up as both greyed-out, and announcing you've moved to your new location (as well as providing a button to pull up the new address). I'm pretty darned impressed with that level of migration management built in. Monitoring instances is no easy task. It requires commitment, finances and a dedicated team. I can understand if the team overseeing Journa decided that after a year, other parties should shoulder the burden. On top of your day job, family etc...you're dealing with the daily demand to clean a platform that threatens to be swarmed by fascists, trolls and racists if abandoned for even a day. I imagine it can be rigorous. But...journalists should have been notified. Not notifying us was wrong. Personally, I'm not willing to compromise. I lived and worked in a country where journalism results in life sentences. As a result, I spent years in exile, investigating war crimes and it came with maneuvering past cyber lynch mobs, daily death threats, and slander both online, offline and on regime propaganda TV. Forgive me if I'm unwilling to gamble or risk anything. I can do without the uncertainty. Lastly, considering that journalists are by nature people who question and dig away at anything screaming a lack of transparency, I'm surprised that only a few (if any?) journalists have sounded alarms or protested. Journalists flocked to Mastodon last year, and a year later, there's barely a whimper as one man's silent takeover/ownership of journalism platforms and even a verification tool here has him establish a monopoly, despite none of you knowing anything about him. You shock me! FIN. |
Coincidentally, a number of fediverse friends & I engaged in discussion a month ago about a journalism verification portal that was set up by the very same individual. I had expressed shock at how some of the most renowned journalists in the game, permitted him to become the authority figure for establishing our journalism credentials on Mastodon...even though none of us could verify his own. Imagine my shock to learn that this individual had since taken over the server.
https://journa.host/@zekuzelalem/111065323361408802
Coincidentally, a number of fediverse friends & I engaged in discussion a month ago about a journalism verification portal that was set up by the very same individual. I had expressed shock at how some of the most renowned journalists in the game, permitted him to become the authority figure for establishing our journalism credentials on Mastodon...even though none of us could verify his own. Imagine my shock to learn that this individual had since taken over the server.
https://journa.host/@zekuzelalem/11106