sohyeon hwang

@s0hw@hci.social
118 Followers
174 Following
116 Posts
postdoc @ CITP princeton.
chronic online lurker :)
i study how people shape the governance of digital / platform technologies. you can find more about my research on my website. feel free to email or message me!
websitehttps://www.sohyeonhwang.com/
google scholar pub list...?https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ryouEjYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
sohyeon hwangJun 5
Michalis Famelis/ΦαμέληςJun 5

Seeing the Politics of Decentralized Social Media Protocols

https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.22962

by Tolu (@tolu), Sohyeon (@s0hw) et al.

Presented and discussed at #fediforum

Seeing the Politics of Decentralized Social Media Protocols

Calls to decentralize feed-based social media have been driven by concerns about the concentrated power of centralized platforms and their societal impact. In response, numerous decentralized social media protocols have emerged, each interpreting "decentralization" in different ways. We analyze four such protocols -- ActivityPub, AT Protocol, Nostr, and Farcaster -- to develop a novel conceptual framework for understanding how protocols operationalize decentralization. Drawing from protocol documentation, media coverage, and first-hand interviews with protocol developers and experts, we contextualize each protocol's approach within their respective socio-technical goals. Our framework highlights how control over key components is distributed differently across each protocol, shaping who holds power over what kinds of decisions. How components are arranged in relation to one another further impacts how component owners might offset each other's power in shaping social media. We argue that examining protocols as artifacts reveals how values shape infrastructure and power dynamics -- and that with a holistic framework as a guide, we can more effectively evaluate and design decentralized platforms aligned with the social and political futures we envision.

arXiv.org
Show threadsohyeon hwangJun 5
snagged Space I - join usssss
sohyeon hwangJun 5
if you're at #FediForum, @tolu and I are facilitating a session on the politics of protocols and designing with power in mind in about 5 minutes! we want to talk about our recent pre-print (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2505.22962v1) but it's mostly free-form, open discussion related to the topic
sohyeon hwangJun 3
PVs- DR. Artist Marcia XMay 31

New blog post
Also available on my content page
Thanks to @s0hw for the invite
https://subscribers.artistmarciax.com/governance-frictions/

#writer #blog #fedimeta

Governance Frictions

This post is also available on my free blog (Marcia's Post Its) The other day I was invited to participate in a workshop with other people in the Fediverse. I was invited by Sohyean H to participate, to which I am grateful to her. I won't name the other participants

Artist Marcia X
sohyeon hwangMay 22
Dan GoodinMay 21

Signal Messenger is warning that Recall, the AI tool rolling out in Windows 11 that will screenshot, index, and store everything a user does every three seconds, poses a risk to its users. Effective immediately, the Windows Desktop version will by default block the ability of Windows to screenshot the app. Of course, Microsoft provides no API to disable Recall from screenshotting specific apps, so Signal is getting creative. They are invoking a digital rights management API that blocks the screenshotting of copyrighted material.

https://signal.org/blog/signal-doesnt-recall/

By Default, Signal Doesn't Recall

Signal Desktop now includes support for a new “Screen security” setting that is designed to help prevent your own computer from capturing screenshots of your Signal chats on Windows. This setting is automatically enabled by default in Signal Desktop on Windows 11. If you’re wondering why we’re on...

Signal Messenger
sohyeon hwangMay 15
bye bye santa fe :’)
sohyeon hwangMay 7
FediForumMay 6

We are proud to announce the first-ever FediForum advisory board. We are very glad to have such an incredible group of committed and experienced Open Social Web pioneers and advocates come together to advise FediForum and help move the Open Social Web forward.

Check out https://fediforum.org/people

FediForum | People

FediForum
sohyeon hwangMay 7
FediForumMay 6

Mark your calendars: the next FediForum will take place Thu-Sat, June 5-7, 2025, online.

While we aren't quite ready yet to provide details, we thought you should know about the dates as soon as possible. We are planning to update the format and organizing team based on your feedback, but the unconference and demos that you all love will remain at the core of the event.

sohyeon hwangMay 6
WikiResearchMay 6

"Invitation to give feedback to Wikimedia Research Fund 2024-2025 proposals" until May 12 https://t.co/6WQZvjBaLQ
(13 proposals under review, with budgets ranging from $8,571 to $149,976 USD) https://t.co/BybD35imuf

via https://twitter.com/WikiResearch/status/1919770380224381438

Invitation to give feedback to Wikimedia Research Fund 2024-2025 proposals - Wiki-research-l - lists.wikimedia.org

Show threadsohyeon hwangMay 6
reminds me of something i read a few months ago - in moments like these, we have a narrow idea of what it means to "do the work," which can leave people feeling paralyzed about how to organize, push for change, and so on. but it's often just about doing the work in the ways you already know, in local communities you are a part of and can reach out to