Mastodawn

Evan Prodromou Sep 24, 2024

Launch of Social Web Foundation

Leaders of the open social networking movement have formed the Social Web Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to making connections between social platforms with the open standard protocol ActivityPub.

The “social web”, also called the “Fediverse”, is a network of independent social platforms connected with the open standard protocol ActivityPub. Users on any platform can follow their friends, family, influencers, or brands on any other participating […]

https://socialwebfoundation.org/2024/09/24/launch/

Launch of Social Web Foundation

Social Web Foundation

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Adam Lein Sep 24, 2024

@evanprodromou @ohmallory
The DM thing here (https://socialwebfoundation.org/program-protocol-e2ee/) sounds like a bad idea. We already have a standard protocol for that; email... upgrade e2ee standard for that first. Plus, don't most Social Web servers already send emails to users for things like password resets and notifications? Why complicate things with double messaging systems? Public and private should be completely separate: https://bookofadamz.com/the-fediverse-should-avoid-bundling-private-messages-completely-and-implement-this-instead/

End-to-end Encryption (E2EE) over ActivityPub

Encrypted direct messages supply the confidence that people need to connect with family, friends and colleagues privately over a social network. As part of the Summer of Protocols 2024, we explore …

Social Web Foundation

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James M.

@Adam by that logic, why should we have text messengers at all, if we already have email? There are different protocols and tools for different purposes and personal styles, even if those purposes overlap. All should use e2ee.

The problem is that people here already have expectations of privacy when they send DMs, just like in other tools that provide messaging. And they should! Encryption is well-established technology and should be baked into any new protocol. Email is something of an anomaly in that it's not encrypted. I would love to see e2ee in email too, and there have been multiple efforts to add it, but that's no reason to delay adding e2ee to other protocols and tools.

I think the lack of e2ee in AP is a major weakness and is multiple privacy disasters waiting to happen. I am thrilled that the AP folks have decided to add e2ee to messaging, including group messaging. I have advocated for it for a while.

@evanprodromou @ohmallory

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Adam Lein Sep 24, 2024

@jamesmarshall @evanprodromou @ohmallory "why should we have text messengers at all, if we already have email?" - Exactly! The only reason I can think of is so that corporations who create a proprietary new messaging protocol can enslave and abuse a large portion of the population. It's the "enshittification" business model which doesn't work when the protocol is open.