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   Tom Coates (tomcoates@me.dm)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 13:21:50 JST Tom Coates

   I think it’s important to keep reminding ourselves of the reasons we want decentralized social media or a Fediverse or anything like it to win. It’s because if implemented properly it makes the world a better place. It protects free speech, but it also makes it possible for people to choose the level of moderation they care about, to be in a place that corresponds with their values, and to feel safe in it.

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     Tom Coates (tomcoates@me.dm)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 13:45:16 JST Tom Coates

     in reply to

     Here’s what I want you to remember though. This is not a fundamentally a conversation about technology, or protocols, or clients, or business models, or regulation - although all of those things will have a huge part in how these ideas play out.

     Evan Prodromou repeated this.
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     Tom Coates (tomcoates@me.dm)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 13:45:17 JST Tom Coates

     in reply to

     This vision of the world - where we’re not all jammed into one or other massive social network at the mercy of a billionaire who either cannot understand our lives or one who actively wants to destroy them but where we can all operate in one space, owned by no one or everyone, with people able to make meaningful choices about how much of it they want to be exposed to - is what I’m working for and believe in.

     Evan Prodromou repeated this.
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     Tom Coates (tomcoates@me.dm)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 13:45:18 JST Tom Coates

     in reply to

     And if we get that - if we get a range of interoperable providers of quality and scale offering different values and moderation strategies - then we’ve created a space where every day people get to choose if they want to be in a space full of Nazis or if they want to be in a space that celebrates the diversity of human beings in all their insane and beautiful difference. I know which one I’m going to choose:

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     Tom Coates (tomcoates@me.dm)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 13:45:19 JST Tom Coates

     in reply to

     And that’s why we need diversity in providers. We need providers who will stand up for LGBTQA+ rights, and will stand up for women’s right not to experience daily sexism and harassment. We need providers who will help young people and ban block Nazis and white supremacists and Islamophobes and anti-Semites.

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     Tom Coates (tomcoates@me.dm)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 13:45:20 JST Tom Coates

     in reply to

     But the goal is open, free public spaces with a space for everyone, where you’re free to communicate with whoever you like and only the people you want.

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     Tom Coates (tomcoates@me.dm)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 13:45:20 JST Tom Coates

     in reply to

     A truly public space, not owned by any one company, will have awful people in it, just like the world around us has a lot of truly awful people in it right now. Some of them, in my opinion, are just about to take over the United States. I don’t like them. I don’t want to hear their opinions on me or the people I love. I don’t want to be attacked by them on a daily basis. But an open, free public space will include them too.

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     Tom Coates (tomcoates@me.dm)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 13:45:21 JST Tom Coates

     in reply to

     It stops one player having absolute control over our public spaces. It stops one player’s rules becoming the only choice for billions of people. It stops people confusing one provider’s rules for the law. Is it perfect? No. There’s a ton of work to do to get to that point, to provide an experience that is good enough for people to use, while also providing all of the choice and freedom and safety that we need for our public spaces.

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     Tom Coates (tomcoates@me.dm)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Jan-2025 13:54:12 JST Tom Coates

     in reply to

     It’s a conversation about how we find a way for all human beings to be able to take part in a great public conversation, and take joy and create and organize and *feel safe while doing so*. In my opinion, everything else is just a means to an end and if we lose sight of that we are lost.