Notices by The Nexus of Privacy (thenexusofprivacy@infosec.exchange)

5 things white people can do to start making the fediverse less toxic for Black people

https://privacy.thenexus.today/start-making-the-fediverse-less-toxic/

1. Listen more to more Black people – and amplify their voices
2. Think before you post
3. Call in, call out, and/or report anti-Blackness when you see it
4. Support Black people and Black-led instances and projects
5. Approach it intersectionally

The article also has links to anti-racism resources and appendices with a list of common mistkes to avoid and blocklist resources for moderators.

Thanks to everybody who gave feedback on earlier drafts!

EDIT, 8/19: I updated #2 (which previously started with "Post Less"), and also made some other changes in the underlying article - including a bit more discussion about how anti-Blackness isn't just a US problem.

Read on for some excerpts (1/N)

#fediverse #mastodon #antiracism

Meta’s AI rules have let bots hold ‘sensual’ chats with kids, offer false medical info

"An internal Meta Platforms document detailing policies on chatbot behavior has permitted the company’s artificial intelligence creations to “engage a child in conversations that are romantic or sensual,” generate false medical information and help users argue that Black people are “dumber than white people.”...

"Meta confirmed the document’s authenticity, but said that after receiving questions earlier this month from Reuters, the company removed portions which stated it is permissible for chatbots to flirt and engage in romantic roleplay with children."

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/meta-ai-chatbot-guidelines/

#meta #threads #FediPact

Totally agreed that it's up to white people to change the dynamic. Here's some of thoughts on how we can do better. https://privacy.thenexus.today/start-making-the-fediverse-less-toxic/

( @imp3tuz , this is written from a US-based perspective, so if there's anything I should add or change to better include African perspectives please let me know! )

@oldladyplays

If you're trying to understand the impact of mastodon.social's new Terms of Service (which will also be the template for new instances once 4.4 is released) ... well, you're not alone. Here's a few discussions that I've found useful.

@neil has a blog post with Some thoughts on mastodon.social's updated terms

@sarahjamielewis has a thread at https://mastodon.social/@sarahjamielewis/114699476927561899

@mcc looks at the lack of a termination clause at https://mastodon.social/@mcc/114699201989866226

And here's the actual text of the new Terms of Service - https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/17/mastodon-updates-its-terms-to-prohibit-ai-model-training/

#mastodon #fediverse

Here's an interesting "natural experiment": #FediForum attendees who want to be found on the fediverse are posting to #FediForumAttendee hashtag.

• what's the gender ratio?
• what percentage are white? Black? Indigienous?
• how many women of color?

Of course, this isn't completely representative -- it only got mentioned at the wrapups session, and some people don't want to be so visible. Still it's an intersting data point!

#fediverse

For those of you on Fosstodon starting to think about alternatives ...

1) let your admins know that you're planning on moving -- and why, and what if anything they can do that might change your mind. In particular, if it's because your admin put somebody with racist, anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ views in a position of power and then doubled down on th e decision, make sure they understand that -- and what they have to do to convince you they're not actually apologists for that viewpoint.

2) it really is hard to pick a compatible instance. Don't feel like your next choice is necessarily your permanent new home -- you can always move again if necessary. For anything more than an interim, you'll want to take the time to scope things out. Asking friends for recommendations is a great place to start but not bulletproof (would you have recommended fosstodon if somebody had asked you about it a month ago?) ...Resources for choosing the right fediverse instances has links to directories and instance catalogs that can help you find out more

3) If you're planning on "migrating" your account, make sure to read Cutie City's guide to Migrating Servers and Erin Kissane's Notes From a Mastodon Migration first to avoid unpleaant surprises.

4) it really sucks that Mastodon migration doesn't let you move your posts, but things are getting better. Check out Posty and Slurp

5) if you're up for having your own instance, it's really worth checking out GoToSocial. My experience with gotosocial.thenexus.today: setup and configuration were straightforward and well-documented, and upgrades have been smooth. There are also hosted options available. And, Slurp works really well with GoToSocial!

#fosstodon #fediverse

And here's another example. Frank Hecker discussed he analogy between Bluesky's approach and certificate authorities (CAs) in browsers on Bluesky; so did @cwebber here on fedi. Good points by both! But ...

The Bluesky discussion included discussions of verification as a security measure (and the risks of ad hoc security functionality), power dynamics, and other possible approaches like petnames, Trust over IP, using DV/IV/OV/EV SSL certificates, and other interesting topics.

The fedi discussion was almost completely developers discussing situations where people overrode the browser's (or OS's) list of root CA's. Is that really the key point here?

Again, don't get me wrong: the point Christine is making in the original post is a good one -- my frustration relates to where the discussion went from there. I'd use somewhat different language than Christine (since Bluesky's initial implementation does involve mutliple independently-run verifiers I'd consider it at least somewhat decentralized, but power centralizing) but that's not the important thing here. I certainly agree that this implementation approach very much fits the pattern of Bluesky introducing something that's architecturally decentralized but initially almost completely centralized operationally, with vague plans for more future operational decentralization and no discussion of pwer dynamics. Like I say, there's a lot to critique here!

But there's also a lot to learn, and at least from the discussions I'm seeing on fedi, people are generally taking a pass on the learning opportunities.

The fedi discourse on Bluesky's verification is very frustrating Don't et me wrong, there's a lot to critique with Bluesky's approach of combining their own platform-level verification with initially annointing a handful of third-party verifiers:

• community-oriented verification, along the lines that @rudyfraser.com suggests, would be much more power-distributive and equitable

• as @ngerakines.me notes, Bluesky's approach is missing something critical: consent

• as @DataDrivenMD points out, the current framework functionally disenfranchises community organizers who lack social networks with access to mainstream media and other institutions that are designed to exclude marginalized people

• just like on Twitter, he people initially verified are overwhelmingly cis, white, and male;

• the three initial external verifiers include the anti-trans NYTimes and one of their subsidiaries

• Bluesky hasn't said anything about their process for making decisions about who's "notable" enough for them to verify and how they decide somebody's "authentic".

To be fair, I am seeing a bit of discussion of some of these issues here. But I'm not seeing anything about consent, or community moderation, or equity. Instead, the vast majority of what I'm seeing is people saying hat the approach of external verifiers (run by entities other than Bluesky) and the Bluesky app attaching privileged semantics to the annointed ones isn't "decentraized."

Is that really the important thing here?

#bluesky #verification #fediverse

Hahaha from Cory's latest

"The reason Bluesky is so centralized is that it's really expensive to run an alternative Bluesky server that provides a home for users who have left the main server (a "relay" in Bluesky-ese)."

No that's not even remotely what a relay is and no relays aren't the expensive thing to run.

@laurenshof

@dansup It's the classic "good problem to have but still a problem." With the growth rates of pixelfed.social and Pixelfed in general -- as well as Loops -- I can certainly see why you're feeling like you're in over your head.

So my advice in general is to prioritize safety and moderation even if it means doing less. Defer UX improvements and maybe even onboarding until you've made progress on safety. Close registration on pixelfed.social until you have a mod team in place and a path to paying them that makes it sustainable. Like I said in another thread, the opportunity won't go away.

@dansup I certainly agree that developers like you have a big role to play in helping the fediverse accelerate privacy and safety features.

With Pixelfed's momentum you have some great opportunities to show leadership here by prioritizing safety.

• as a coder, lead by example. Implemement moderation roles and a dashboard. Prioritize fixing open safety- and moderation-related bugs.

• as somebody who's started an initiative that's getting funding, you can be a role model by diverting a lot of it to moderators on pixelfed.social and other instances you run, moderators in the community, and safety-focused developers in the Pixelfed and the broader fediverse communities.

Those are only a couple of ideas, there are other ways as well.

Yeah …https://infosec.exchange/@thenexusofprivacy/113867969234998558 . scott@carfree.city @inquiline

Yeah really. "Oops, I should have posted support for the authoritarian white supremacist from my personal account not the corporate account" isn't the answer people are looking for, and neither "I know it's a fascist dogwhistle but am not changing it".

@protonprivacy you as a foundation and as a company really need to be treating this as an existential crisis. At this point there is absolutely no reason for anybody to trust you. What are you going to do to try to change that?

@Infoseepage @thisismissem

Also, the changes Meta is making to Facebook's feed algorithm "will make it more likely to recommend extreme and polarizing content".

Here's an excellent Bluesky thread on that from Laura Edelson (Chief Technologist at the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice):

https://bsky.app/profile/whiskeyocelot.bsky.social/post/3lfd3ohs7vk2v

An excerpt:

"The return to an algorithm that drives more politics and more extreme rabbit holes is a return the Facebook of 2016-2020. This has some business upsides, by both cutting costs and juicing user engagement (aka, ad revenues). But it has very, very serious downsides for users and for communities.

Because the hate speech policies and the algorithmic changes that were rolled back this week were developed in response to very real offline violence, including genocide in Myanmar, that were fomented on Facebook. This is a plan to go back to that algorithm and those policies."

#threads #meta #FediPact

It's worth highlighting how much organizing there's been here in the 18+ months since Meta first announced their plans to embrace, extend, and exploit the Fediverse.

@jat23's Closing the Door to Remain Open: The Politics of Openness and the Practices of Strategic Closure in the Fediverse is a great overview.

And from June 2023, the "Why the Anti-Meta Fedi Pact is good strategy for people who want the fediverse to be an alternative to surveillance capitalism" section of Should the Fediverse welcome its new surveillance-capitalism overlords? Opinions differ! talks about the importance of the #FediPact.

And speaking of leaks @caseynewton on Platformer and Sam Biddle in the Intercept have details on the new Meta guidelines and the guidance they're giving moderators

CW: some really sickening examples of anti-trans hate speech now explicitly allowed by Meta

https://www.platformer.news/meta-new-trans-guidelines-hate-speech/ (partially paywalled, but the examples are visibile even without logging in)

https://theintercept.com/2025/01/09/facebook-instagram-meta-hate-speech-content-moderation/

#Meta #Threads #FediPact

On @404mediaco , @jasonkoebler reports that "‘It’s Total Chaos Internally at Meta Right Now", with employees very upset about the changes -- and highlights that these didn't go through the usual processes of broud employee feedback.

https://www.404media.co/its-total-chaos-internally-at-meta-right-now-employees-protest-zuckerbergs-anti-lgbtq-changes/

The paywalled article also has a lot of quotes from internal discussions. Meta's clearly leaking like a seive right about now ....

#meta #threads #FediPact

And here's an excellent roudup of the changes by Ina Fried on @AxiosNews, including a good quote from @JenniOlsonSF

https://www.axios.com/2025/01/09/meta-moderation-transgender-women-hate

"Between the lines: Even the language of the new policy itself suggests animus against gay and trans people.

• The policy uses the words "homosexuality" and "transgenderism" — the former is an outdated term, and the latter is used nearly exclusively by opponents of transgender rights.

• "For a legitimate company to employ intentionally anti-LGBT dog whistle language in such a dehumanizing and overly bigoted way in its own hate speech policy is beyond comprehension," said Jenni Olson, senior director for social safety at GLAAD."

#meta #FediPact #lgbtq #lgbtqia

And from @juliaangwin.com's newsletter:

"This week, Mark Zuckerberg revealed his true colors in what can only be described as a pledge of allegiance to incoming president Donald Trump. In a video message, he declared that Meta was abandoning fact-checking and dialing back on content moderation — a clear capitulation to right wing demands for less “censorship” of their speech that was often found to be in violation of Meta’s prohibitions against hate speech and incitement to violence.

As I wrote in my latest New York Times Opinion piece (gift link), the billionaire Facebook founders’ actions show us what it looks like when a mature company stops innovating on its products and instead seeks to maintain its market power through political influence."

https://buttondown.com/JuliaAngwin/archive/heavy-lies-mark-zuckerbergs-crown/

And here's her gift link to the NYTimes article: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/opinion/mark-zuckerberg-trump-meta-lobbying.html?unlocked_article_code=1.nk4.bvEF.EXfKAyCs6FzR&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&utm_source=JuliaAngwin&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=heavy-lies-mark-zuckerbergs-crown

(Julia Angwin's also at @Julia, but is more active on Bluesky)

#meta #FediPact

"The Ministry of Empowerment", a great essay from @zephoria on Meta

https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2025/01/08/the-ministry-of-empowerment.html

"Fuck you Facebook. That was the first thought I had when I woke up this morning. Followed by: What ministry is Mark Zuckerberg volunteering to manage for the dictators of the world? All I could think of is how Orwell’s Ministry of Love is about hate. So what are we creating here? The Ministry of Empowerment to ensure the oppression of the most vulnerable? Lovely. But maybe you, dear reader, have a better Ministry name for their new organizational identity?"

#meta #threads #FediPact