I’ve been asked on TV hits and interviews lately to explain why decentralized social media is better, especially re: Mastodon.
How would you explain the benefits of a platform like Mastodon and the fediverse to someone in just a few sentences? How would you make the argument that platforms like Mastodon allow for more free expression than big tech controlled apps?
Would love to hear people’s thoughts! Trying to make my arguments most effective
It's organized at its root level around what I want to see. That's the part nobody seems to get.
don't appeal to high mindedness
sell it
- no ads
- choose a server that fits your style, no one-size-fits-all straightjacket
- zero privacy defilement
- immunity to some racist edgelord techbro coming in, buying the thing, and turning it into bigot and ignorance paradise
@taylorlorenz
What each user sees on the Fediverse is up to them. No billionaire can force their views into your feed, because your feed is opt-in. Likewise, they can't stop you from seeing what you want to see. If your instance blocks things you want to see, you can switch to another instance; there are many.
@taylorlorenz Because people here have to put energy into interacting with each other. And that makes us happy.
@taylorlorenz For me it's simple: people are nicer, people are smarter. IDK why, maybe 'cuz there's no algorithm amplifying the most outrageous hot takes, and no billionaire owners shoving their agenda down our throats. IMHO "free expression" means different things to different people. You can spout Nazi garbage on Mastodon if you want, but you probably won't get a wide audience. But if you have a reasonable comment to contribute to a conversation, there's a good chance you'll get heard here.
@taylorlorenz You can meaningfully have a say in content moderation policies.
Reporting bad actors usually leads to a more pro-social outcome.
I think there are many but that feels important.
@taylorlorenz Curious what finally won you over?
For me, it was an opportunity to reboot my relationship with social media in general, approaching it fresh, but having nearly 20 years of knowledge about all the ways it can go wrong.
I don't talk about decentralization. I just focus on my feed showing me only what I choose to follow, and enjoying the interesting people I've met here since 2022.
Do you trust big tech controlled apps then let them divide into their respective camps
@taylorlorenz No ads. I think that's a highly convincing argument for many people & it's directly tied to decentralization: The fediverse is basically social media before algorithms & thanks to decentralization, if anyone wanted to add any kind of algorithmic reach functionality, everyone else would be free to ignore it - and without an algo, there's no business case for advertising in the 'verse.
Ok. An Instagram influencer was complaining about the awful comments she keeps getting and that make her want to stop. I told her it's partly because of the platform. Meta loves drama, it makes people to consume more time there. So they do not have reasons to stop bad behaviour.
On Mastodon people do not harrass others, at least on the Finnish bubble I'm in. If they would, they would be kicked out.
In Finnish school the kids that are being heavely bullied need to changed the school. Here it's the opposite. The bulliers need to find a new instance for themselves and that may be difficult.
My decision to switch was based on the motivations of the people running it. Commercial social media is motivated by commercial priorities. The point of the fediverse is connection for connection's sake.
@taylorlorenz You formulate your own algorithm using hash tags. Nothing is suggested to you. There are no ads. Thus, on your feed, you see only what you want to see and connect only with the people and businesses you want to be connected with. Yet, you can still scroll and snoop around the entire space if you want to.
@taylorlorenz How would you? When your bluesky is 1000% more active
@taylorlorenz
(Part 1)
because believe it or not, groups of people need some isolation from each other. People are angry and want to kill each other because they were all put into the same social forum on facebook, twitter etc. There are simply incompatible world views that if forced to co-exist, people literally they want to kill each other. Also don’t forget what Facebook did in Burma (different topic).
@taylorlorenz It's like the public radio of social networks, user supported social network.
@taylorlorenz No ads
No algorithms
Just people talking to each other
@taylorlorenz as others have said, you control who you see posts from. You only see things that the accounts you follow post or boost.
And zero Nazi tolerance
@taylorlorenz no algorithm: sequential timeline that updates when there are actually new posts. I can check in and know when I am 'caught up' and can go back to life.
@taylorlorenz
You pick your mods. You pick your rules. You pick your community.
@taylorlorenz Number one for me is, 'You are not making some rich **** even richer.' Secondly, you have better, more meaningful conversations.
@taylorlorenz You control what you see in your feed and you control what you post. No propaganda, censorship, games, surveillance or trolls. How is that not better in every way?
@taylorlorenz Monopolies are bad and there's no reason why "posts" need to be owned by a monopoly. Fediverse is good for the same reason why email is good.
@taylorlorenz
Its nice Twitter.
No adverts or algorithm.
No one owns it.
It's like lots of mini Twitters that can talk to each other.
Each mini Twitter has its own rules and interests.
You should join the one that best suits you.
The most concise way I describe the difference between commercial algorithm based platforms versus the fediverse.
In the former, you are presented with the illusion of a town square, it propagates content based on spectacle and “engagement”
In the latter, people are the algorithm as members of distinct communities, moderated by real people.
To answer this, we should first understand why people don’t think it makes sense. Someone I know that dislikes big business, and uses X said: “I struggle to understand the basics of a decentralized social network, it seems oxymoronic except for extreme nerds”.
Take that as you will, but hopefully it is useful feedback.
@taylorlorenz we are in control- not the algorithms.
Other platforms thrive on conflict. Mastodon does not because people do not like it and it’s people who drive Mastodon timelines, not algorithms.
@taylorlorenz
- Community-driven, not profit-driven
- chose instance with rules that suit you
- follow many other services/websites from the one account (Pixelfed, Lemmy, etc.)
@taylorlorenz I compare it to email, with how people or organizations control their own servers. Then ask what they think email would be like if one company controlled all of it. And how much they would charge.
On decentralized social media (like Mastodon) there's no Algorithm making sure you see the optimal toxic engagement bait.
All you get for posts is do people like it recently?
Its like the good old days before big tech had their Algorithms dialed in to make you as addicted as possible.
No ads, no algorithm, admins who care (if you pick the right instance), a sense of community and control. You have it here, rather than the billionaires
@taylorlorenz By proving to them that crowdsourcing can still beat AI-fluff, perhaps? And you're well on your way 👾
@taylorlorenz It *starts* with community (does not seek unsustainable growth, by default). Because hosts depend on the community to fund it, it can’t grow so big as to be exploited (limits to growth are useful to sustain meaningful community connections).
While it can be used for commercial purposes, the control rests with people, not corporations. In that sense it's true social media, rather than a profit-making enterprise disguised as something else.
@taylorlorenz At the risk of quoting a monstrous human being, "Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…"
@taylorlorenz
This post right here:
https://mastodon.social/deck/@AlSweigart/116019045298109492
Because Mastodon is lots of severable, community-edited, non-profits linked up.
@taylorlorenz let us know how we can help - we think a lot of people are pretty tired of having their data mined, conversations sold, and commercial companies injecting inauthentic content into their timelines. Maybe that’s just us? Happy to have a chat if it would be useful.
@taylorlorenz You own your timeline. Like early days when social media worked.
@taylorlorenz Real quick off the top of my head I usually say the Fediverse is not controlled by Billionaires, can't be bought/sold or controlled, isn't filled with ads, doesn't track you or try to sell your information, isn't filled with Nazis (they are on their own servers and I never see them because they are blocked) and there's not an algorithm trying to feed me crap I don't want to see.
@taylorlorenz well, I think that isn't about the quality of the free speech (there are tons of instanced banned from main federation networks) but the difficulty to apply censorship, of course, instance admins are individually more vulnerable by State or corporate pressure than the owner of csam dot com/x , but there are too many of them making it more resilient
@taylorlorenz someone with a profit motive is not incentivized to hijack your brain. I engage with things on Mastodon/fediverse in a much more controlled, healthier, self-driven way than I ever did on Twitter, Instagram, etc.
@taylorlorenz
Your choice and control. Nobody is trying to manipulate you or make you buy something. You can just hang out with the others.
@taylorlorenz Maybe frame it as similar to solar power?
Imagine a community solar grid as the Fediverse. So if the electric grid (corporate social media) goes down or gets enshitttifed by Nazis, you are protected from that since your instance runs on community grid without an owner and the rules are set by that community, so you can kick out bad actors.
Also, similar to social media, the solar communities can be connected together and share energy (information) and if one community goes down or turns bad (becomes a nazi bar) you can disconnect it easily and preserve your community.
Just thinking out loud…
@taylorlorenz
- Top of my list: it's not profit driven. That changes the entire incentive structure of everything.
- It's my data and I can move it elsewhere freely if I don't like my server.
- No algorithm burying my voice.
- It generally just self-selects a different userbase. Less performativity, less clout chasing, less drama. We aren't sexy or popular, and that attracts different kinds of folks.
- If I don't like how it works, I can (and have!) changed how it works.
@taylorlorenz It allows users in countries with heavy censorship/oppression to network with people outside their country and to discuss topics freely by allowing Tor users to access the network, which is unlike X or Bluesky
@taylorlorenz WRT freedom of expression: Government of the people by the people for the people, not government of the people by oligarchs for oligarchs.
Mastodon is only part of the Fediverse in the same way Gmail is part of email, not the totality of it. Alternatives exist: Tusky, Megalodon, Phanphy etc.
@taylorlorenz Use simple examples:
What if an instance admin dislikes you?
-> Fediverse: Get banned from one instance; change instance; reconnect to your friends.
-> X: Get banned from X; be lost.
What if the owner of a server wants to spread their world view or influence elections?
-> Instagram: Algorithm changed; Propaganda gets boosted; noone sees other opinions
-> Mastodon: People curate their timelines and decide what they see
@taylorlorenz We're like a global NPR : each instance (thousands. of all sizes) is its own local radio station producing or relaying all kinds of content (local, national, global content), with free access to any other station's content through a voluntary federation. No ads, no corporations, no skeezy Nazi screwing with your feed to force a disruptive fascist content down your throat when you just want to tune into the ant station or climate change or German elections or jokes or cats or get live updates on the ground from Minneapolis. We exist beholden to no one man or corporation. And there's still a refreshing earnestness here. The meanness of X is not our vibe.
@taylorlorenz decentralized = no single entity will control the entire network.
No oligarchy control, almost impossible to shutdown, hard to manipulate via algorithm tweaks or short: real people interact, not corporate puppets
@taylorlorenz imagine picking and choosing what to read rather than having if rammed down your throat with 'suggested content ' that you can't avoid, where you are the algorithm.
@taylorlorenz Nothing new really--just that we make the algorithm with boosting often and following widely. The effort I spend in getting into streams of content is worth the satisfaction of enriching multiple aspects of my life. Knowing that a billionaire cannot ensh*ttify this is also a big plus because the present-day game plan seems to be billionaire + media outlet = ashes.
@taylorlorenz easy. I can explore whatever shows up on my feed without worrying about it showing up in my ad portfolio. It took time for this is sink in. My curiosity or lack of ability to understand what a link is before a click it no longer punishes me by assuming that I am now into whatever that was. It's like getting out of an abusive relationship when they question everything I do.
@taylorlorenz We’re not force fed an oligarchs’ interests.
@taylorlorenz Basically, "having a small Twitter or Facebook". Most of these do not have ads, manipulative algorithms, or hidden agendas.
Like a any web application, tech savvy people are in charge of hosting it, but its easier nowadays.
Being decentralized like a spider web, you can still interact with people from other Mastodon servers, or even people from Threads. That's "The Fediverse".
Some may focus on particular interests or groups, making it easier to interact with other people.
An oligarch with extreme views cannot buy the whole thing and turn it into a data mining, propaganda shit show. See X.
With Mastodon if someone turns an instance into something you do not approve of, you can move your entire acct to a new instance w/out losing followers.
Mastodon is the anti-influence platform
On the social web we are
- free from the influence of megalomaniacs or any one person
- free from the influence of VCs and profit motivations
- free from the influence of algorithmic manipulation
Plus as a bonus, you can follow a friend's "Instagram" from your "Twitter" account ✨
@taylorlorenz It's by and about the people.
the magic of this place is that it gives the people all the power over what info, ideas and art gets attention. not governments or billionaire owners of media or corporate platforms. (not sure they'd want to hear that)
the problems with social media come down to the algos, not social media itself. that's what we're proving. the algos push a tabloid culture cause they know we'll pay attention to junk, even if we'd never share it. so they push the junk and our culture dets debased.
It’s like having a neighborhood as well as the global connection, and the health of the neighborhood depends on you and the neighbors.
@taylorlorenz
It might be useful to reference the recent news on censorship on TikTok and BlueSky and Threads and Instagram.
I like my instance's rules, but if they ever change, I can keep my name and followers and just switch instances to one where I can continue as I have been. I don't have to worry about who owns the gated garden I'm allowed to interact in or how they feel about our demented dictator's whims from minute to minute.
It's more stable. It's also more international. I know what other people think around the world.
@taylorlorenz no elon , no zuck by technical design?
@taylorlorenz 1 - There is no "algorithm" - you see posts from those you follow, unless you choose to explore.
2 - Your platform of choice does not make money by selling your personal information.
@taylorlorenz It is all about choice. As a reader, I see only what the people I follow post, plus what they boost. Not what some marketing algorithm thinks I should see. As a writer, it is about being assured that my followers have a chance to see my posts. No guarantees, but I’m not paying to be seen.
@taylorlorenz There's no central entity that can control what you see, when. And even if a single instance tried to do that, its users could just migrate to another instance.
@taylorlorenz It's like the difference between a town and a shopping mall.
@taylorlorenz You have a global reach and audience through federation, but you're still moderated by your local, familiar community - which you yourself have a complete freedom to choose on your own, not some faceless machine algorithm or billionaire whims.
@taylorlorenz you control your own timeline with no ads and no algorithm
@taylorlorenz no one can buy the whole network and trash it
@taylorlorenz No single person can break Mastodon, the way Elon was able to break Twitter. No change can be made by fiat, everything requires community buy in.
@taylorlorenz there's no algorithm, so you get to see what your friends post without having your attention attacked. They don't arbitrarily change the platform to boost engagement time. There's no ads.
@taylorlorenz No algorithm, no advertising. Completely customizable content.
