A faux "Eternal September" turns into flatnesshttps://privacy.thenexus.today/flatness/The next installment of Mastodon, two years laterContents:It's not "just like email"Usability and gatekeeping weren't the only challenges newcomers facedThe first complicated high-stakes decision is even before you sign upWhy not help people choose an instance that's a good fit?But no#mastodon #fediverse

@thenexusofprivacy Thanks for featuring our work.It's a very exciting time for decentralised social tech!

I for one welcome Bluesky, the ATmosphere, BTS ARMY, and millions of Brazilians to the fediverses! (UPDATED)https://privacy.thenexus.today/bluesky-atmosphere-fediverse/With another surge to #bluesky in progress, here's an updated version of an article I wrote last month. I now go into a bit more detail about how Blluesky's starter packs, custom feeds, and moderation services help newcomers, using #Blacksky as an example. It's a different approach to community than fedi's instances, and potentially very complimentary.Also I moved the lengthy terminology section to an Appendix. it turns out that's not everybody finds it the most interesting aspect of the situation, who could have predicted?#fediverse @fediversenews

Online Safety and the “Great Decentralization” – The Perils and Promises of Federated Social MediaBy @samlai.bsky.social and @yoyoel https://www.techpolicy.press/online-safety-and-the-great-decentralization-the-perils-and-promises-of-federated-social-media/On Bluesky, Lai summarizes their recommendations:Here’s how we fix it: (1) Larger platforms can fund tool development efforts and share info on their moderation decisions (2) A multi stakeholder structured hub curating pooled data to identify threat actors (3) Tool builders can create platforms for mods to share information with each otherhttps://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ybj3ulqmitcqt4iqueoadgb5/post/3l6pydaskjv2m#fediverse #safety #TrustAndSafety

@thenexusofprivacy worth noting: privacy doesn't necessarily equal safety — the first paragraph makes them look equivalent there

@thisismissem @thenexusofprivacy @fediversenews I think it should be safety first, because we have some catching up to do. Once that's at an acceptable level, usability next, then outreach.

A huge victory for Max Schrems, @noybeu , and privacy!"The European Union’s top court said Friday that social media company Meta can’t use public information about a user’s sexual orientation obtained outside its platforms for personalized advertising under the bloc’s strict data privacy rules. "https://apnews.com/article/facebook-meta-schrems-privacy-80fd4e6c59f48a3b583d6665af3ede86#privacy #lgbtqia #lgbtq

9 things the Social Web Foundation could do to prioritize safety (if they decide they want to)https://privacy.thenexus.today/swf-safety/Here's the list:Commit to spending at least X% on safetySupport diverse participation on the W3C standards group's Trust and Safety task forceFocus on consent-based tools and infrastructureWork with people who are targets of harassment to develop tools for collaborative defenseSupport threat modeling workDevelop automated tools to help moderatorsDo any AI-related work in partnership with AI researchers who take an anti-oppressive, ethics-and-safety-first approachPartner with IFTASWill they? Time will tell!#fediverse #safety #swf

@[email protected] @[email protected] it sounds a lot like the Vouch system I've read about before... which iirc is an indie web thing.