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1. Embed this notice
   Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Tuesday, 02-Jun-2026 11:11:34 JST Evan Prodromou

   @vargasgirls You *don't* have to have accounts on all the other platforms. It works more like email -- you can post from findout.media, and I can receive it on cosocial.ca, and it goes from your server to my server.

   If you don't want other people to read your stuff, post "Followers Only" instead.

2. Embed this notice
   Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 08-May-2026 07:19:39 JST Evan Prodromou

   in reply to

   @johnefrancis So, I checked your data; about 261 posts from tags that you follow to cosocial.ca's inbox in the last 24 hours. I'm not seeing any errors. Some of them may be getting hidden by Mastodon; if you get something boosted to you multiple times, it will only show it to you once.

3. Embed this notice
   Greg Slepak (taoeffect@crib.social)'s status on Saturday, 25-Apr-2026 07:24:00 JST Greg Slepak

   Interesting thread. Had an LLM summarize it for me:

   This conversation is a deep-dive "tinfoil" analysis (as the lead participant calls it) regarding the perceived centralization and "capture" of the Fediverse by government-linked organizations. The participants, largely from the "Free Speech Extremist" (FSE) wing of the Fediverse, argue that a network of non-profits is working to destroy the decentralized nature of the platform.

   Here are the top insightful points, including the offensive and controversial commentary:

   1. The "Glowie Hydra" Theory

   The central premise is that organizations like IFTAS (Independent Federated Trust and Safety), Newsmast, the Social Web Foundation, and FediMod are effectively the same entity. The users refer to these as "glowies" (a slang term for undercover government agents or intelligence plants). They argue these groups use a "sockpuppet" strategy—spinning up multiple 501(c)(3) organizations to create a false sense of consensus for centralization.

   2. Funding and "Manufacturing Consent"

   Participants claim these organizations are funded by "Malthusian nihilist cabals" and government entities like USAID, the Ford Foundation, and the German government.

   • Insight: They argue that IFTAS uses biased "needs assessment" surveys to manufacture consent. The surveys allegedly ask leading questions (e.g., "Do you suffer mental health problems from unmoderated content?") to justify the implementation of automated, centralized blocklists.
   • The "Individual Eleven": The conversation identifies eleven specific instances (including hachyderm.io, cosocial.ca, and social.coop) as "astroturfed" projects designed to steer the Fediverse toward corporate-friendly governance.

   3. CSAM as a "Wedge" Issue

   A major point of contention is the use of CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) detection as a pretext for surveillance.

   • Insight: The users suggest that IFTAS and the Social Web Foundation are pushing for mandatory attachment scanning (like Microsoft’s PhotoDNA). They argue that while no one wants to host illegal content, the requirement to use centralized scanning tools is a "wedge" designed to eliminate server admin autonomy and introduce backdoors.
   • Offensive Point: One user notes that pedophiles ("nonces") seemed to disappear from the network exactly when USAID funding for detection tools dried up, implying a cynical connection between the "problem" and the "solution."

   4. The German Government’s "Hydra" Perspective

   The conversation references a German government PDF that reportedly describes the Fediverse as "The Hydra on the Web."

   • Insight: The participants claim the German government is frustrated because they cannot use laws like NetzDG to easily take down decentralized PeerTube or Mastodon instances. This has led to a shift in strategy: instead of direct legal action, they are allegedly funding "Trust and Safety" orgs to regulate the network from the inside.

   5. Data Scraping and Social Mapping

   The user p@fsebugoutzone.org provides evidence that Newsmast is scraping the Fediverse not just for posts, but to map "follower/following" relationships.

   • Insight: They view this as an OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) tool disguised as a social utility. By mapping who talks to whom, these organizations can identify and isolate "extremist" nodes more effectively.

   6. The "In-Group" vs. "Out-Group" Dynamics

   The participants discuss how figures like Evan Prodromou and Jon Pincus react to criticism.

   • Insight: When technical or privacy-related holes are poked in their proposals (like the PhotoDNA FEP), these leaders are accused of retreating to "hugboxes," claiming personal harassment, and attempting to get their critics banned from platforms like Codeberg. This is described as "identi-Moonie" behavior—prioritizing identity and optics over technical merit.

   @p @lainbot @whereverbot
   
   RT: https://fsebugoutzone.org/objects/ad4d151b-a6a1-4694-94dd-f4e60461e7f7

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   Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Friday, 24-Apr-2026 07:46:59 JST Evan Prodromou

   in reply to

   @jaz @fediversereport @laurenshof regardless, the question was about network resilience. cosocial.ca stayed up when mastodon.social went down, not because we're an independent cooperative in a remote country, with bylaws and a privacy statement, but because our server doesn't depend on mastodon.social to run.

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   pistolero (p@fsebugoutzone.org)'s status on Thursday, 16-Apr-2026 07:36:03 JST pistolero

   in reply to
   @phnt @Zergling_man @evan @silverpill
   > Dude has the same reek that the Newsmast Foundation has.
   
   IT TURNS OUT:
   
   cosocial.ca was one of the instances behind the "Fediverse Governance" paper, https://github.com/fediverse-governance/fediverse-governance.github.io , co-authored by "Erin Kissane and Darius Kazemi with the support of the Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund ( August 20, 2024 )" (The Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund is responsible for funding browsers—which should be a capital offense based on the direction browsers have taken in the past 20 years—and describes Free Software as having achieved a "pyrrhic victory", https://infrastructureinsights.fund/projects/what-comes-after-foss/ .)
   
   Erin Kissane ( @kissane ) is an IFTAS advisor: https://about.iftas.org/advisory/ .
   
   Also an IFTAS advisor: Tim Chambers ( @tchambers ), who sold indieweb.social to the Newsmast Foundation, https://www.timothychambers.net/2025/03/27/the-next-stage-for-indiewebsocial.html .
   
   Dear The Entire Fediverse: I am never wrong. As I mentioned in https://blog.freespeechextremist.com/blog/fse-vs-fbi.html :
   
   > I AM A GODDAMN GENIUS and EVERYONE THAT HAS EVER TOLD ME THAT I AM WRONG IS A RETARDED COPROPHILIAC.
   
   Thank you. That is all.
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   Evan Prodromou (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Wednesday, 15-Apr-2026 06:24:14 JST Evan Prodromou

   @jaz @benpate I don't understand who you are talking about. IFTAS, SWF, cosocial.ca, Emissary, toot.wales, Mastodon? Also using technology from that company, or preserving privacy from that company?

   I think users should use E2EE messaging for as many conversations as they can. Using encryption technology that is open source, reviewed by security pros, and based on open standards is the best.