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I hesitate to add to the atmosphere of dread, but Meta's increasingly unfettered acceleration of the kinds of messages that precede genocides is so alarming.
And—how to say this… Avoiding Meta platforms doesn't confer a get-out-of-atrocities-free card. This is why I'm so focused on the need to build broadly appealing, maximally accessible alternative platforms.
I understand, "It's good if the fediverse stays niche," but that's a solution for a tiny number of people.
"People should just think more critically about technology" is not a solution. "Normies just love their evil dopamine and dumb celebs, let them suffer" is not a solution.
"I don't believe people when they say it's unpleasant or confusing because it's not for me" is not a solution.
"But Threads!" is not a solution.
The window for making fedi a robust and substantial part of an alternative pluriverse of networks is not going to be open forever, I don't think.
I am hopeful about the changes at Mastodon. I think IFTAS is doing absolutely crucial work with very little support. I've come around on bridging, as wildly imperfect as it is, as a stop-loss and a way of keeping fedi more viable for more people who are willing to accept the (nebulous) trade-offs.
But also I love the federated model and I want it to be a real option for more people in more places, so it's discouraging to keep hitting "eh screw the normies" when the societal risks are so high.
I wouldn't have posted this knowing I wouldn't be around to look at replies but I have to get offline now for unexpected reasons, so any responses will be slow/in a few days.
The point was, "Niche alternatives will not prevent societal damage wrought by giant corporate platforms knowingly accelerating the worst things humans do to each other, and alt-network advocates better grapple with that *right now*." The rest is commentary.
@kissane I don't follow. Individual instances are niche. The fediverse, by definition, is not. Not that this fact necessarily helps much on its own!
@heydon Niche as in about a million people and shrinking vs. billions of people. If we want society-level effects, we have to be providing better options for the big groups as well. (Currently Bluesky is getting most of the Meta-leavers, and I wish fedi could offer its real benefits to more of them.)