The Nexus of Discussions

Probably the best way to approximate it is to compare the number of new users with previous days. The two (very imperfect!) sources I use for statistics are https://fediverse.observer/dailystats (which also lets you get daily statistics for each software platform) and https://fedidb.org/ But, the data is messy. @pockets @MichaelimOdenwald @mastodonmigration

Agreed. But also, is there anything at all in what Meta's said that gives any reason to believe there will be less censorship of Palestinian voices? @raph @eff

I am hopeful about the changes at Mastodon. I think IFTAS is doing absolutely crucial work with very little support. I've come around on bridging, as wildly imperfect as it is, as a stop-loss and a way of keeping fedi more viable for more people who are willing to accept the (nebulous) trade-offs.But also I love the federated model and I want it to be a real option for more people in more places, so it's discouraging to keep hitting "eh screw the normies" when the societal risks are so high.

Yeah …https://infosec.exchange/@thenexusofprivacy/113867969234998558 . scott@carfree.city @inquiline

Many thanks to our collaborators at r/feminism, and to co-authors @sarahgilbert, Marianne Reddan, and Tyler Simko.Sarah and I have written further about behavioral science and rights of assembly and association in this post:https://citizensandtech.org/2024/10/assembly-and-association/

@GuyDudeman no need to imagine, you can read the article and see what experts actually have to say!

Shira Ovide has an article on this in the Washington Post today, quoting Northeastern University professor David Choffnes (who studies this stuff)."While he won’t completely rule out the possibility, Choffnes says “the odds are slim” that an uncanny ad you see comes from your device microphones listening to what you’ve said."https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/01/07/phone-listening-target-ads-iphone-siri/@inquiline @fivetonsflax

@FediPact yes, this latest news just once again highlights how important #FediPact is!

@feoh thanks, glad you like it!

I intend to fully defederate Threads.net from Cyberplace.social in two weeks, so 23rd January 2025, unless they clarify their moderation policies. People are welcome to migrate their account in advance to avoid losing their followers from Threads.The reason being I cannot accept terms of service enforcement which specifically targets minority groups.Meta's new documentation has overlaps with Kiwi Farms. It is not okay.

Agreed that Meta's changes are troubling and concerning. So I would strongly urge you and any instance admin exposing their users to the harassment there to reconsider their alignment with Threads and defederate now . That's expecially for you and mastodon.social. Think about the message that you're sending: "Instead of proactively protecting people on this instance, we'll wait for you to be harassed and then take action on individual harassers. And, we'll make that the default for new Mastodon users!"There's a huge opportunity for Mastodon here if you take a courageous position. So please do!@Gargron

@erlend congrats!

@jerry good call.

@alshafei very exciting ! many thanks to you and everybody else involved in charting this path forward

Hate is a continuum of horrible things. Once a group of people is dehumanized, perpetrators of hate will do things that range from "well, that person just doesn't _belong_ here" to the most horrible crimes imaginable.Platforms that foster hate-bait loops will lead to such dehumanization not only taking place, but being amplified and shared and reposted. (Musk is also organizing his own hate campaigns every day.)That has real-world consequences, whether anyone observes them or not.

The "Free our Feeds" announcement is very much along the lines of the NPIC appointing itself architect of the future of decentralized social media."The Social Web Foundation convenes the network of platforms connected via ActivityPub. SWF's executive director is involved in the #FreeOurFeeds campaign as a custodian and you can read more about in her blog post"@ophiocephalic

A great reading list on Xiaohongshu (the real name for RedNote) was shared earlier by Dr Qian Huang, have a look! https://qianxeniahuang.super.site/resources/xiaohongshu-literatureShe also made the appeal to refer to and share the spotlight with those researchers who have acquired expertise on this platform for the past 11 years, so it's also a good referral list in case anyone gets media requests for comments! https://bsky.app/profile/qianhuang.bsky.social/post/3lfsaeja7bc23

@fediversereport really excellent analysis!

Pixelfed's rapid growth is very exciting. Still, until you have a mod team -- and the underlying software supports mod dashboards and roles -- please consider switching to invite-only registration (and encourage or even require other instances listed on pixelfed.org to do the same). The opportunity isn't going to go away: Meta and Instagram aren't going to get any less evil, so people who are interested now will still be interested one you've got the team and softrware in place. In fact many other social networks have successfully used invite-only phases to build pent-up demand. But a moderation disaster (which is increasingly likely as things grow without the proper tools and teams in place) could permanently damage Pixelfed's reputation in a way that's very hard to recover from. And, until there's good moderation support in the software, you're putting both the people who sign up and the people who are hosting instances at risk.@dansup

Congrats ... and timely too!And yes, good article @Sarahp @julian