Hulk smash Musk and Zuck! Actor Mark Ruffalo and non-billionaire pals back network tech underpinning Bluesky
- Reference: 1736839449
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/01/14/free_our_feeds_decentralized_social_media/
- Source link:
"We are former Twitter users who cherished the platform and the communities we built there over the years," wrote the nine “custodians” of the collective, called [1]Free Our Feeds . "However, we’ve also seen the quality of our feeds decline as one person took over what we had believed to be a global public square, using it for his own political and business objectives."
That’s a reference to Elon Musk, who [2]acquired Twitter in October 2022, renamed it X, and turned the social network into his personal amplification platform. The Free Our Feeds site also mentions Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of the Meta social media portfolio (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads), whom they accused of "going full Musk last week" with [3]his decision to dial back on fact checking and loosening of moderation rules.
It's time to decentralize the internet, again: What was distributed is now centralized by Google, Facebook, etc [4]READ MORE
Free Our Feeds intends to launch a public interest foundation to support the [5]Authenticated Transfer Protocol , the decentralized networking technology that underpins the Bluesky social network, which rivals X and Threads.
The protocol aims to make it hard for a single entity to control content that users of a social network can see, by breaking down social services [6]into three components : Personal Data Servers (PDS), which store account data including people's posts; Relays, which gather and transmit that data; and App Views, which organize this data so it can be viewed in apps.
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Operators of App Views can choose what content to index, effectively filtering or moderating the content distributed by Relays from PDS. Multiple App Views can exist in a network, so if you don't like how one app works, look for or build an alternative.
[8]
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The workings of those components are explained in a [10]paper penned by academics and Bluesky folk, titled: "Bluesky and the AT Protocol: Usable Decentralized Social Media."
[11]
Diagram from Kleppmann et al on the architecture AT Protocol-based networks, with Bluesky as an example .. Click to enlarge
The document points out that Bluesky is a Twitter-like app that runs atop the AT Protocol – but that the protocol could be adapted to run other social services that allow persistent access to content as well as online identities. Users could therefore participate in multiple communities of different sorts – a blog, a forum, and a book review site – with the same handle and the same dataset recording their activities. Users could also choose and switch between any provider of a PDS, Relay, or App Views.
As mentioned above, in theory that means that if you sign up to a provider of a social service powered by AT Protocol and decide you don’t like indexing decisions taken by the operator of an App View service, you could switch to another without any disruption or data loss – and enjoy a different view in another app that suits your preferences.
Anyone who cares to can run a PDS, Relay, or App View service. And as the paper explains: “If Bluesky Social PBC goes out of business or loses users’ trust, other providers can step in to provide an equivalent service using the same dataset and the same protocols.”
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All of which sounds great, save for two snags: Relays are a big workload, and only Bluesky runs a relay today.
Free Our Feeds therefore plans to build a second [13]Relay because the existence of one not operated by Bluesky is essential if the notion of decentralization is to mean anything.
Finally, the group plans to fund developers so they'll build more applications on top of the AT Protocol.
[14]
The org’s initial ask is [15]$4 million , currently sought with a GoFundMe. Those funds are flagged as necessary "to create the foundation and get critical infrastructure up and running so that we’re not dependent on billionaires."
[16]Bluesky keeps growing, and so do its problems
[17]Bluesky too opaque about user figures for Euro watchdogs
[18]Study suggests X turned right just in time for election season
[19]We talk to W3C board vice-chair Robin Berjon about the InterPlanetary File System
Free Our Feeds is overseen by these nine: Nabiha Syed, executive director at Mozilla Foundation; Robin Berjon, independent technologist; Mark Surman, president at Mozilla Foundation; Mallory Knodel, executive director at Social Web Foundation; Eli Pariser, co-founder of Avaaz; Phil Beaudoin, entrepreneur; Marc Faddoul, co-founder of AI Forensics; Deepti Doshi, co-director at New_ Public; and Sherif Elsayed-Ali, executive director at Future of Technology Institute.
And the group arrives with endorsements from a set of celebrities, academics, entrepreneurs, politicians, journalists, and activists, including Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Harvard Business School Professor Emerita Shoshana Zuboff, Incredible Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo, and activist and author Cory Doctorow.
Free Our Feeds says that while it has been in contact with Bluesky, which supports its aim to expand the AT Protocol ecosystem, the organization is independent from Bluesky.
"Bluesky is built on values we share, by people we admire," the group wrote. "However, founders are not companies. They will come under the same pressure all businesses face to maximize return to their investors – and, as we have seen, their leadership can change in the long term. To make the vision we share with Bluesky a reality, there needs to be alternative options for users to choose from in the first place backed up by independent infrastructure."
The foundation, which plans to launch by the end of 2025, doesn't yet have a name. Until then, donated funds will be administered by Development Gateway, a US-based 501(c)(3). At the time this story was filed, more than $11,000 had been pledged.
Coincidentally on Monday, Eugen Rochko, founder of the Mastodon decentralized social media ecosystem based on the [20]ActivityPub protocol that AT Protocol’s authors believe they have surpassed, [21]announced plans to form a new non-profit organization to "[affirm] the intent that Mastodon should not be owned or controlled by a single individual." ®
Get our [22]Tech Resources
[1] https://freeourfeeds.com/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/31/elon_musk_chief_twit_acts/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/07/meta_eliminate_fact_check/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/11/decentralized_internet/
[5] https://atproto.com/
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT_Protocol#Design
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z4ZD2R54Ytz0ztFCF7XmEQAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z4ZD2R54Ytz0ztFCF7XmEQAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z4ZD2R54Ytz0ztFCF7XmEQAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.03239
[11] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/01/14/screenshot_diagram_at_protocol.png
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z4ZD2R54Ytz0ztFCF7XmEQAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://atproto.com/guides/glossary#relay
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z4ZD2R54Ytz0ztFCF7XmEQAAABM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-free-social-media-from-billionaires
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/02/bluesky_growing_problems/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/26/bluesky_eu_regulation/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/20/x_marks_the_spot_for/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/15/interview_robin_berjon_ipfs/
[20] https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/
[21] https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/01/the-people-should-own-the-town-square/
[22] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Where's the 'Just giving page...'
The irony is that these guys have managed to pull in 30M $... I would like to see what cars they drive and they houses they live in within the next 2 years and whether or not their attitudes are still as altruistic.
There is no such thing as a free meal in western society.
Re: The irony is that these guys have managed to pull in 30M $...
It's just a grift right?
Every accusation a confession. Everyone you know is a money grabbing shit so you assume everyone everywhere is a money grabbing shit.
What you actually need is a better social cirlce.
Re: Where's the 'Just giving page...'
High up on the list of things I have never wanted is a status symbol car. Likewise maintaining a whole 50 room mansion seems a bit pointless when I doubt my family would actually use ten. Your expectations of what others would do with more money than sense says more about you than anyone else.
It's an admirable cause
Personally, I hope it grows into something worthwhile, at least for those that crave a useful social media.
There's some serious points being raised with this approach, using my own experience over the last few years, it has seen me dial back use and consumption of social media.
Examples:
LinkedIn - Has become Facebook
Facebook - Rarely see anything on there apart from repeated suggested posts, basically asking me to train their algorithm to sling ads, not show me content from friends on the other side of the planet.
Instagram - Sort of occasionally see things from people I know.
Xitter - Gave up on that some time ago, so couldn't comment.
Maybe it's an age thing for me, but Social Media has had it's heyday and no longer provides sufficient accurate and relevant content to keep me engaged.
Re: It's an admirable cause
I have been dialing back my own use and I think that it has worked out for me.
The problem I have with these and any new social media platform is that there are too many bots!
How can people have a fair discussion when someone who wants to push an agenda, can just spend and spend on bots?
Nobody's mentioning the Mastodon in the room
It already does all of this. It's a real decentralised protocol which is in use now, not a protocol that one day would like to grow up and become decentralised.
Just spend a fraction of the money making a UI which looks exactly like Twitter (like BlueSky has) and everyone would flock to it.
Re: Nobody's mentioning the Mastodon in the room
Bluesky had a burst of publicity and gained a few million new users in a short while, but the growth curve seems to have levelled off. The UI not quite enough to maintain the flocking.
Re: Nobody's mentioning the Mastodon in the room
Did you read the article?
Re: Nobody's mentioning the Mastodon in the room
Mastodon is mentioned only in passing, and nowhere does the (fine) article provide any counterpoint to the AT press release.
To reiterate: Mastodon/ActivityPub does all this already; but Free Our Feeds is apparently suffering from NIH.
Re: Nobody's mentioning the Mastodon in the room
Yes, the final paragraph out of all of them was about Mastodon.
That still doesn't change the fact that the allegedly already-decentralised ATProtocol is getting more money thrown at it to make it really decentralised this time even though Mastodon is already decentralised. Also it's often said that Mastodon isn't as popular as BlueSky because choosing an instance is too complicated for the average person, yet if BlueSky really does become decentralised it will have exactly the same problem.
So why not just spend a fraction of that money to make Mastodon's UI more familiar and build on the initial work that's already been done to make it easier to choose an instance?
Re: Nobody's mentioning the Mastodon in the room
"Just spend a fraction of the money making a UI which looks exactly like Twitter (like BlueSky has) and everyone would flock to it."
No, they wouldn't and we have seen that they don't. Echo chamber are not interesting, regardless of your political bias.. What's the point of reading stuff to which you already know the response..
If the goal is to read actual articles or having decent public debates, interviews etc, then Social media is the wrong place to start with.
Re: Nobody's mentioning the Mastodon in the room
"Echo chamber are not interesting, regardless of your political bias.. What's the point of reading stuff to which you already know the response..
If the goal is to read actual articles or having decent public debates, interviews etc, then Social media is the wrong place to start with."
Am on mastodon, it's not an echo chamber unless you make it one for yourself & it's a nice friendly place to chat, catch up with things you are interested in and be well social in may ways. For modern social media it's pretty damn social really.
However if you are just looking for an argument that's another room, this is abuse*..
*obligatory python**
**not that one
...as one person took over what we had believed to be a global public square...
There's a key word here being used that underpins everything.
Public.
The assumption that the platform is public is only reinforced by the fact that members of the public can use it. This does not mean that the platform itself is public.
Twitter X is a company, not a public platform. His Muskiness can do whatever he likes with it. And this is what everyone has woken up to.
Re: ...as one person took over what we had believed to be a global public square...
That has always been the case on all the platforms. Musk didn't change anything..
50 million Ned Flanders all being REALLY nice to each other (or else!) on Bluesky will never break out or make culture. When it comes to internet content people choose the junk food -- the insults, the hate, the drama -- every time. And X, Tiktok, and Instagram will still have a monopoly on "can you believe they're saying this???" type stuff that actually breaks through and grabs eyeballs.
Nah
It's not about homogenization of liberal /safe/ gentle attitudes and personalities. It's about not having extremists pushed to the forefront as part of a 'disrupt' hunger-game.
Re: Nah
"It's about not having extremists pushed to the forefront as part of a 'disrupt' hunger-game."
First you have to define "extremist" and then you will realise that it is subjective.. You will always have an "extremist" at the forefront...
It could be a fully left wing site but you can be sure that hard core extremist leftist will be at the forefront. Extremism does not have a political bias, it's just extremism.
Love it when rich folks ask for hand outs
Nabiha Syed net worth - $1.29 million
Mark Surman net worth $5 million
Jimmy Wales net worth ~$500 million
Shoshana Zubof net worth $5 million
Mark Ruffalo net worth of $35 million
That's not all the names and they still have about $547M between them. Don't think you need my money dig deep for the cause y'all.
Where's the 'Just giving page...'
I think the one thing we've all learned over the last decade is private ownership of media generally is uncomfortable. But private ownership of global scale media is fucking terrifying.
Time to stamp out these pricks.
How do I contribute?