Decentralizing Social Media

[Smith1776]

I hate to start one of those threads where someone just posts a link to an article and then just unceremoniously leaves. However, this article written by Ross Ulbricht (yes, from prison) is VERY interesting.


https://rossulbricht.medium.com/decentr ... 47dcfd4f99


Ross proposes a solution to the problem of centralization in the social media space. Centralization has led to large technology giants possessing all of our data and has greatly threatened our privacy. The solution he proposes is a technical one and not a legislative one. Naturally, encryption plays a central role as individuals have 100% control over their data and where it is stored. Social media companies would do nothing more than provide the "business logic" for the parsing and display of that information. Only individuals with access to the correct cryptographic key would be able to see your social media content.

It is amazing to me that Ross is able to write rather brilliant papers on computer science and technology when he literally has no access to computers or the internet. I suppose he has lots of free time though. If freed he could be a great asset to society.

[Maddy]

Naturally, encryption plays a central role as individuals have 100% control over their data and where it is stored.

As does discretion. It's amazing how many people take every possible opportunity to broadcast to the world the most intimate details of their personal and financial lives.

[Kriegsspiel]

I chuckle a bit when I hear people (Tim Pool, mostly) talk about how nice a decentralized social media would be, where you can post stuff on your own timeline and other people could see it if they want. I'm thinking... yea, you dumb fucks, that was the internet back when we were kids! You can do that now if you want! RSS feeds function the same as twit feeds, except there's no character limit and they can't censor you or monitor you in any way.

[dualstow]

I haven’t read the article yet- I will.
There’s Mastodon and Diaspora but no one’s on those.