blaine
The rumours about WhatsApp/Matrix federation are very promising, but the suggestion that legal contracts will need signing to federate is worrying. We've done this before, with the traditional telephone network, and we got a cartel.
The first version of Twitter was illegal (or, at least, against telco rules – what's the difference?) because it wasn't "approved" by the telcos. We were only able to launch publicly because of an expensive certification process that skirted the truth.
blaine
Email and ActivityPub, by contrast, don't need any certification or lawyers etc for federation. Even though Google et al are working hard to enclose the Email commons by rejecting the bulk of non-cartel sourced email, it's a miracle it ever worked.
I can 100% see the benefit of having a semi-closed network, because spam and abuse are very real issues, and having a small group of people gatekeep makes the problem a lot easier to deal with. But it also shuts down innovation and competition.
blaine
Finding the balance is tricky, and I don't envy those tasked with doing it. I just hope that in 2024, the legislators are pushing back – hard – against established capital interests, because the incumbent operators have comprehensively shown that they're not on the public's side in this, just as the incumbents that they "disrupted" were exploitative pseudo-monopolies before them.
What's the opposite of enshittification? Can we have a little of that, for a change, as a treat?
irenes
@blaine the opposite of enshittification is civic engagement. people need to care about the DETAILS of public infrastructure, and genuinely get involved rather than leaving it up to elected and appointed officials.
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