Kelly EllisNov 21, 2022

@triplenadir @Edo_Secco @Gunther

How do I take down the account containing my likeness and tweets, created from the BirdsiteLive bridge?

I did NOT consent to having my tweets and photo posted elsewhere, and wasn’t even aware, until getting questions from people about which one is my “real” mastodon.

This isn’t okay to do without consent, and it is not ethical at all, despite claiming to be.

Show threadKelly EllisNov 21, 2022

@BirdsiteLIVE

Please see the above toot. This is not okay. I want this “copy” of me taken down.

Show threadKelly EllisNov 21, 2022

@BirdsiteLIVE it is also probably resulting in people tagging that account instead of mine and wondering why I’m not seeing the toots.

This is so messed up for so many reasons and was clearly not thought out with creator consent in mind. Very odd to me that you went out of your way to label this “ethical” when it is not.

Show threadBirdsiteLIVENov 21, 2022

@justkelly_ok it's called an "ethical bridge" in opposition to how unethically people did create bridges and mirrored accounts before that. You can find more informations about the current state of the project here: https://write.as/nicolas-constant/closing-the-official-bsl-instance

And as stated in the post, I don't host any instance currently, if you want to contact another instance admin, please follow this procedure: https://github.com/NicolasConstant/BirdsiteLive/wiki/How-to-contact-Instance-Owner

Closing the official BSL instance

While it was always planed (and disclosed as such since the beginning) I decided to close the official instance of BirdsiteLIVE a bit ear...

Nicolas Constant - DevBlog
Show threadKelly EllisNov 21, 2022
@BirdsiteLIVE Great so you’re just going to leave this tool out there knowing people don’t want it used to copy their likenesses and accounts, knowing that mods of other instances may not take it down, and may even abuse it? This is the account btw, it’s on your instance and still showing for some
Show threadKelly EllisNov 21, 2022
@BirdsiteLIVE I’m not interested in the history of how stuff was done before. “Slightly more ethical” != ethical.
This is really not okay. I have a stalker! Did you even consider risks to marginalized or targeted people?
Show threadKelly EllisNov 21, 2022
@BirdsiteLIVE at the very least, if you want it to be ethical, people should be able to opt out of their accounts being copied like this. Even bots like thread unrollers on twitter allow people to opt out.
Show threadKelly EllisNov 21, 2022
@BirdsiteLIVE actually, other similar tools are MORE ethical because they require the owner of the account to set up the mirror themselves and oauth to both.
Show threadBirdsiteLIVENov 21, 2022
@justkelly_ok that's not the tools I'm referring to: people created public accounts mirroring other accounts, posting in public mode feeding on Nitter RSS feeds.
That's the issue BSL addressed and helped to reduce, and stopped in some cases.
Show threadKelly EllisNov 21, 2022
@BirdsiteLIVE and I’m supposed to care because why? This is still very harmful and I just found out there are even more clones of my account that appear to others but don’t come up in search from this instance
Show threadKelly EllisNov 21, 2022

@BirdsiteLIVE So it’s not really feasible for people to monitor every instance where this might happen and contact the instance creator to get it taken down. I’ve had to rely on other people sending me screenshots of my “clones” that come up in search for them but not me.

Again: I have a stalker, and this is a really serious safety issue for me and others.

You don’t owe me anything and don’t have to care what I think but you can be considerate of people’s safety ffs.

Show threadBirdsiteLIVENov 21, 2022

@justkelly_ok look, I'm sorry you have a stalker (seriously), but in this case you need to switch your twitter account on protected mode.

If you're publishing publicly, everyone can access your data via a browser, any nitter instance, and any 3rd party twitter client app using the API like BSL. And any of your data can also be archived using web.archive.org. This isn't really a BSL related issue.

Also, if your account switch on protected mode, mirrors on every instances will remove all (...)

Show threadKelly Ellis

@BirdsiteLIVE no, I actually don’t need your unsolicited advice on how to handle my safety. It’s not about visibility of my tweets.

My tweets being publicly visible is a very different issue than the existence of multiple lookalike accounts that contain my tweets and likeness and appear to be run by me but are not, and the ability for a bad actor to exploit your tool to do harm.

It’s an impersonation issue.

Nov 21, 2022 at 10:49pmMastodon for iOS
Show threadKelly EllisNov 21, 2022
@BirdsiteLIVE on top of the potential for impersonation, it’s also the difficulty of being able to find or otherwise become aware of these accounts - which, again, all look like I run them in most contexts, despite the tiny “bot” tag on the profile. I’ve had friends ask which is my real one so clearly it’s not obvious.
Show threadKelly EllisNov 21, 2022
@BirdsiteLIVE it’s also a consent issue. When using Twitter I’ve consented to my tweets being on that platform. I understand that they can be publicized and reproduced. I have NOT consented to all of my content, including images of me, being wholesale replicated elsewhere. It shouldn’t really matter the reason, but privacy laws are one really good one.