| https://twitter.com/jcs3 |
The BBC's experiment with Mastodon is pathbreaking in English-language news -- a major organization setting up its own instance. They've really thought this through. Key language:
"We're using social.bbc as the domain, so you can be sure these accounts are genuinely from the BBC. And by linking to and from the BBC’s website, we have verified our identity on Mastodon."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2023-07-mastodon-distributed-decentralised-fediverse-activitypub
Welcome to:
@BBCRD
@BBC5Live @BBCRadio4
@BBCTaster
@Connected_Studio
@BBC_News_Labs
Earlier this week I wrote a post on why Bill C-18 undermines an independent press even as it purports to protect it.
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2022/11/independence-lost-why-bill-c-18-undermines-an-independent-press-even-as-it-purports-to-protect-it/
Nice to see the publisher of the @[email protected] has similar concerns.
https://twitter.com/globeandmail/status/1591386335096766470
The wording of Bill C-18 needs a rework to protect independent journalism https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-the-wording-of-bill-c-18-needs-a-rework-to-protect-independent/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/globeandmail/status/1591386335096766470
Last week, I appeared before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage as part of the last panel of witnesses on Bill C-18, the Online News Act. For the first time since the start of the pandemic I attended in person, which provided the opportunity to witness a scene that partly occurred off-camera. NDP MP Peter Julian started his questioning by citing with approval a Postmedia editorial, itself based on a Brian Lilley column. The editorial expressed support for Bill C-18, criticized Facebook, and took the Conservatives to task for not being more supportive of the proposed legislation. Seeing an NDP MP rely on a Lilley-inspired Postmedia editorial was strange enough, but adding to the weirdness was Liberal MP Lisa Hepfner scrambling to find the editorial on her phone and showing it around to caucus colleagues. While some might merely chalk this up to a common enemy - Facebook - I believe there is a bigger enemy at work, namely the loss of an independent press.
I'm not being facetious when I say it seems like this place could rewire a lot of people's broken brains.
(Possibly even mine).
One of the coolest periods for Twitter was when the API was robust and smartphone app design was taking off with small developers, and so you had all this cool experimentation in apps and UIs, that then made it back into the main platform itself. Then Twitter kneecapped the API and that all ended.
Mastodon offers the possibility of that fun experimentation again, and if it happens, it'll mean lots of fun app design, but also rapid improvements. Fingers crossed.
Dan Gillmor
Joshua Paul Smith
Michael Geist
Amanda Guinzburg
Aaron Ross Powell ☸️