A newsletter about #privacy, #technology, #policy, #strategy, and #justice.
Posts by @jdp23.
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For those of you in the region: I'm pleased to share an upcoming panel on Technological Determinism.
Join us for a rigorous evening of discussion with a view to how we might gain more understanding - and more say - as to the reach and influence new technologies have over our autonomy, dignity, communities and cultures.
https://criticalsignals.nz/programme/inevitabilism-panel/
(panelists tbc)
Do people from Meta participate in these discussions about the direction of ActivityPub and the Fediverse? Do people whose orgs are funded by Meta participate in these discussions? Do we approach these discussions with a goal of accommodating Meta, or do we reject Meta?
Does the former CTO of Truth Social (who's an ActivityPUb developer) participate in these discussions?
Is it important to make the environment inclusive and equitable enough that Black and Indigenous people participate in these discussions and their views are listened to? What about disabled people? Trans, queer, and non-binary people? If it is important, how to start moving in that direction?
Do ActivityPub developers adopt fascists' talking points?
And so on and so on and so on ...
These discussions are all inherently political.
Mastodon says it doesn’t ‘have the means’ to comply with age verification laws
Oh dear. In my article I had mentioned that the Fediverse's strategy of flying under the raadar has mostly worked out so far, but going forward it'll depend on how aggressive the regulators get. Saying "we can't comply with your laws" is a good way to get regulators to be more aggressive!
More positively, though, great reporting from @Sarahp on TechCrunch.
🚨 Mastodon Support Scam 🚨
It looks like there's another wave of fake Mastodon support accounts asking you to verify your account.
Do NOT click on any links in these posts. Please report them to your server admin as soon as possible.
Please boost so that as many people can be aware of this as possible. Thank you! 💙 ☁️
#FediAdmin #MastoAdmin #MastodonSupport #Scam #Moderation #Report #Mastodon
And a companion piece: Can we please stop arguing about whether Bluesky is decentralized?
https://privacy.thenexus.today/can-we-please-stop-arguing-about-whether-bluesky-is-decentralized/
"People who saw Bluesky as centralized nine months ago still see Bluesky as centralized. People who saw Bluesky as decentralized (or decentralizing) nine months ago still see Bluesky as decentralized (or decentralizing). Nobody's changing their minds in response to new information. It's basically the same discussions rehashed again and again.
One thing that's been really striking to me in this latest iteration of this interminable discourse is that so many people in the Fediverse present the fact that 99.99% of Bluesky users are still using infrastructrure run by Bluesky PBC as if it's a gotcha that people advocating for Bluesky and the ATmosphere aren't aware of.
No, actually, ATmosphere developers I talk to are very very aware of these limitations. They just prefer to invest their time and energy in working to improve the situation rather than arguing about the semantics of "decentralization."
That sure seems like a good approach to me.
So can we please stop arguing about this already?"
Mississippi, Bluesky, Blacksky, the ATmosphere, Mastodon, and the Fediverse
New on The Nexus of Privacy!
As well as a summary of the situation (both in the ATmosphere and the Fediverse) and links to a bunch of interesting discussions, there's also a discussion of just why age verification laws are so bad.
A Demonstrator’s Guide to Operational Security
Fighting Back, Staying Free
How do police and federal agents identify and target those who participate in demonstrations? What countermeasures can we take to hinder this kind of repression? In this anonymously submitted text, one affinity group explores how they address these questions.
Once upon a time, only those who intended to engage in high-risk confrontational protest activity had to concern themselves with surveillance and security. Today, surveillance and policing are becoming much more invasive and arbitrary. Even if you never violate any law, the state may nonetheless seek to make an example of you. Everyone who might participate in a demonstration at some point should familiarize themselves with the security protocols that radicals have developed over the years.
And a companion piece: Can we please stop arguing about whether Bluesky is decentralized?
https://privacy.thenexus.today/can-we-please-stop-arguing-about-whether-bluesky-is-decentralized/
"People who saw Bluesky as centralized nine months ago still see Bluesky as centralized. People who saw Bluesky as decentralized (or decentralizing) nine months ago still see Bluesky as decentralized (or decentralizing). Nobody's changing their minds in response to new information. It's basically the same discussions rehashed again and again.
One thing that's been really striking to me in this latest iteration of this interminable discourse is that so many people in the Fediverse present the fact that 99.99% of Bluesky users are still using infrastructrure run by Bluesky PBC as if it's a gotcha that people advocating for Bluesky and the ATmosphere aren't aware of.
No, actually, ATmosphere developers I talk to are very very aware of these limitations. They just prefer to invest their time and energy in working to improve the situation rather than arguing about the semantics of "decentralization."
That sure seems like a good approach to me.
So can we please stop arguing about this already?"
Mississippi, Bluesky, Blacksky, the ATmosphere, Mastodon, and the Fediverse
New on The Nexus of Privacy!
As well as a summary of the situation (both in the ATmosphere and the Fediverse) and links to a bunch of interesting discussions, there's also a discussion of just why age verification laws are so bad.
The 2025 Fediverse Needs Assessment is Open: Have Your Say
Every year, IFTAS asks the people who keep our communities safe to tell us what they need.The Fediverse Needs Assessment gathers input from moderators, administrators, and community managers across the decentralised social web and beyond.
Whether you run a Mastodon, Pixelfed, Lemmy or Peertube instance, a Nostr relay, a Bluesky community, Matrix or Discord rooms, your experience matters. Any platform, any protocol. Single user service or a million person community. Doesn’t matter. We focus […]
https://about.iftas.org/2025/08/11/the-2025-fediverse-needs-assessment-is-open-have-your-say/
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