Notices by Zecharias Zelalem (zekuzelalem@dair-community.social), page 10

@rrb A way to run Mastodon as an onion service? That would be top. If someone could integrate that, we would be really going places.

Great to learn of a growing African presence on the fediverse. For the first time, I came across an Algeria themed 🇩🇿 instance, perhaps the first instance set up for and by an African community here (there could be others that I'm not aware of).

The instance is dz.social (Dz, short for the country's local name "Dzayer" and .dz is the country's internet domain code.

It's a start. Happy to see a Maghreb presence here. P.S Algerians are amazing people to befriend.

https://dz.social/about

When covering Ethiopia's civil war in 2021, we reported extensively on a siege which saw the Ethiopian government seal off Tigray, a region of 6 million from the outside world and cut off food, medical supplies, phone/internet for over a year...with the goal of flushing out rebel fighters based there. It led to scores of deaths from famine & treatable illnesses.

It's why reports of a siege on Gaza horrify me. A humanitarian siege guarantees industrial scale suffering.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/10/israel-opt-israel-must-lift-illegal-and-inhumane-blockade-on-gaza-as-power-plant-runs-out-of-fuel/

Just as you wouldn't expect a doctor's forum to be run by someone who never went to medical school, or a gardeners' club to be run by someone who has never pulled weeds before, I find it unacceptable that a platform for journalists, including many who left Twitter due to trolling, slander, death threats...would be run by someone who has never worked in our field. How would I be certain that someone would uphold journalism ethics and values if they haven't walked a mile in our shoes?

Coincidentally, a number of fediverse friends & I engaged in discussion a month ago about a journalism verification portal that was set up by the very same individual. I had expressed shock at how some of the most renowned journalists in the game, permitted him to become the authority figure for establishing our journalism credentials on Mastodon...even though none of us could verify his own. Imagine my shock to learn that this individual had since taken over the server.
https://journa.host/@zekuzelalem/111065323361408802

These concerns and more, are what convinced me to stay on Journa and not to consider "Newsie." Standards were upheld by actual journalists at Journa. I can't say the same for newsie, which as @fifilamoura and others pointed out, hosted the US based infamous climate change denying, far right extremist outlet known as Newsmax. At best, the individual took no precautions or was sloppy or worst, outlets like Newsmax are considered purveyors of journalism.

https://circumstances.run/@amtiskaw/110437393480951772

So Journa & Newsie, two of Mastodon's most prominent journalism servers and home to journalists from around the world seeking safer online havens...are overseen by Mr. Jeff's entity known as "Fourth Estate."

I can't find anything solid on this Fourth Estate, which claims to be a non profit focused on press related issues.

It has a Wikipedia page, citing dead links or Fourth Estate's own website for all of its questionable claims.

Again, red flags, red flags.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Estate_Public_Benefit_Corporation

I think you get the point. I'm now on the @DAIR instance, which was founded by someone I consider a sister to me, and a team renowned globally for their commitment to online safety and ensuring the harms caused by big tech/AI don't get shoved under the rug. With my transition away from Journa dot host, I feel much more reassured about my Mastodon use. They may not be journalists, but I'm acquainted with some of the team and can vouch as being 100% uncompromising when it comes to online harm.

But as a journalist, it would be immoral and extremely selfish for me to stay quiet after taking care of my personal needs, and not express my serious concerns and worry for the future of journalism safety on Mastodon, and for the friends and colleagues who remain connected to both instances.

I feel very uneasy at how things are looking like for the press. This is the last thing I expected to see happen on a platform that marketed itself as a safe escape in the midst of the #TwitterMigration.

Monitoring instances is no easy task. It requires commitment, finances and a dedicated team.

I can understand if the team overseeing Journa decided that after a year, other parties should shoulder the burden. On top of your day job, family etc...you're dealing with the daily demand to clean a platform that threatens to be swarmed by fascists, trolls and racists if abandoned for even a day. I imagine it can be rigorous.

But...journalists should have been notified.

Not notifying us was wrong.

Personally, I'm not willing to compromise. I lived and worked in a country where journalism results in life sentences. As a result, I spent years in exile, investigating war crimes and it came with maneuvering past cyber lynch mobs, daily death threats, and slander both online, offline and on regime propaganda TV.

Forgive me if I'm unwilling to gamble or risk anything. I can do without the uncertainty.

Lastly, considering that journalists are by nature people who question and dig away at anything screaming a lack of transparency, I'm surprised that only a few (if any?) journalists have sounded alarms or protested.

Journalists flocked to Mastodon last year, and a year later, there's barely a whimper as one man's silent takeover/ownership of journalism platforms and even a verification tool here has him establish a monopoly, despite none of you knowing anything about him.

You shock me!

FIN.

🧵 Hey all! This is a new account, I'm still Zecharias Zelalem, freelance journalist and aspiring OSINTer providing news and analysis on the Horn of Africa for a variety of international media outlets. For the past year or so, I posted via @zekuzelalem@journa.host, but I've transitioned away from that instance. I'll be posting from this account from now on. After recent changes on the journa dot host instance, I had no choice but to set up elsewhere. Hope to continue exchanges and friendships here.

When I left Twitter, I joined the Journa server primarily because it was run by journalists with verifiable credentials who were keen on creating a safe, clean space for journalists to interact free of the toxicity that was ubiquitous on Twitter. I'm still grateful to the likes of Evan Urquhart and Adam Davidson who administered the instance and never let us down in that regard. Journa was a refreshing change from what we had grown accustomed to, especially in the wake of the Musk takeover.

Last week, the Journa server was taken over by new management. None of us were notified, and I found out when server updates caused account to freeze for a few hours.

The instance has now been taken over by a "Jeff Brown" from Newsie. Now, I have no idea who he is and have no ill will towards him. But the individual is not a journalist. I couldn't find anything on him online that would suggest that he would be trustworthy enough to oversee management of Mastodon's largest journalism instances.