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Twitter's anti-Mastodon filter evasion

infosec.exchange

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Re: Twitter's anti-Mastodon filter evasion

#51

Post by smcn »

codeflo wrote: post #39

I'm exactly in the target demographic that desperately wants a a return to the old, decentralized, protocol-based internet. We need working alternatives to Twitter to prevent a single mentally unstable billionaire from having this kind of power. But everything about Mastodon seems badly designed and engineered. The focus on "servers" seems technologically anachronistic, but worse, fragments the community and creates…

I agree with some of what you wrote, especially regarding selfhosting. I personally would like to see the ability to follow and post to local timelines, to ensure that you're able to be part of communities in a decentralised way.

However.

> you're basically required to trust your online identity and private message secrecy to an anonymous activist admin with a kitty avatar.

Is this worse than trusting Twitter, Facebook, or TikTok? Those companies are actively looking to exploit you for profit. Whereas strawman kitty avatar can't do anything. Especially are there are no private messages on Mastodon.

Re: Twitter's anti-Mastodon filter evasion

#52

Post by dom96 »

Geee wrote: post #29
paulgb wrote: post #10

The pivot from “I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law”[1] to “I get to use censorship to kneecap a competitor because it’s my site now” was almost comically quick. [1] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1519036983137509376

Quoted post unavailable.

> Also, there are doxxing laws. Airplanes are public data, so this is a gray area. I think if the public data is specific enough to pinpoint individuals, it should revert to being private. Same is usually applied to other types of public data.

Then you should fight with the government to make this data private instead of banning those who are simply reposting that public data.

FWIW I think if you own a private jet then the world deserves to know where you fly it.

Re: Twitter's anti-Mastodon filter evasion

#53

Post by [deleted] »

smcn wrote: post #51
codeflo wrote: post #39

I'm exactly in the target demographic that desperately wants a a return to the old, decentralized, protocol-based internet. We need working alternatives to Twitter to prevent a single mentally unstable billionaire from having this kind of power. But everything about Mastodon seems badly designed and engineered. The focus on "servers" seems technologically anachronistic, but worse, fragments the community and creates…

I agree with some of what you wrote, especially regarding selfhosting. I personally would like to see the ability to follow and post to local timelines, to ensure that you're able to be part of communities in a decentralised way. However. > you're basically required to trust your online identity and private message secrecy to an anonymous activist admin with a kitty avatar. Is this worse than trusting Twitter, Facebo…

[deleted]

Re: Twitter's anti-Mastodon filter evasion

#55

Post by vidarh »

waihtis wrote: post #28

Quoted post unavailable.

You could use the same arguments against the web.

It's bullshit fearmongering that uses the existence of a couple of heavily blocked instances to smear the thousands who have nothing to do with them other than using the same software.

Re: Twitter's anti-Mastodon filter evasion

#56

Post by aaa_aaa »

codeflo wrote: post #39

I'm exactly in the target demographic that desperately wants a a return to the old, decentralized, protocol-based internet. We need working alternatives to Twitter to prevent a single mentally unstable billionaire from having this kind of power. But everything about Mastodon seems badly designed and engineered. The focus on "servers" seems technologically anachronistic, but worse, fragments the community and creates…

I dont think it feels threatened. Most migrated Mastodon users dislike Musk and they deliberately rub him the wrong way.

Re: Twitter's anti-Mastodon filter evasion

#57

Post by jl6 »

paulgb wrote: post #10

The pivot from “I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law”[1] to “I get to use censorship to kneecap a competitor because it’s my site now” was almost comically quick. [1] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1519036983137509376

Comedy is now legal on Twitter.

Re: Twitter's anti-Mastodon filter evasion

#58

Post by 0ct4via »

lrgart wrote: post #35
masklinn wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, just as likely, mastodon users are elon critics and thus hurt his feelings, which is a bannable offense. Thus mastodon cross-posting and reposting is a proxy for bannable offenses, and therefore a bannable offense.

Quoted post unavailable.

No post body was provided.

Re: Twitter's anti-Mastodon filter evasion

#59

Post by _djo_ »

nemo44x wrote: post #42
ajb wrote: post #24

Every news outlet, and perhaps journalist associations such as the NUJ, should set up their own mastodon instance now and advertise that that's how to avoid Musk's blocks. There's no need for them to take this lying down.

And they’ll just be reporting news to each other leaving a massive vacuum on Twitter for others to quickly fill. Most people don’t really care about this story. They’re just users looking for news, opinions, trending topics, etc. if you don’t follow these types of accounts then you haven’t noticed much change on Twitter. Honestly if anything I’ve noticed Twitter is probably a bit more fun and interesting now.

People are on Twitter because of accounts like that, across the spectrum. It was the one place where you could find everyone, including politicians, organisations, journalists, experts, and random people with cool interests, and interact on a more or less equal basis.

When enough of those leave it'll just become Truth Social or Parler. You might personally find that more fun and interesting, depending on your political background, but it'll never sustain the same user base.

Re: Twitter's anti-Mastodon filter evasion

#60

Post by robtaylor »

ajb wrote: post #24

Every news outlet, and perhaps journalist associations such as the NUJ, should set up their own mastodon instance now and advertise that that's how to avoid Musk's blocks. There's no need for them to take this lying down.

Hilarious you see the NUJ as competent enough for that. In my view the NUJ, NCTJ etc are (sadly) not the answer for the challenges of media in 2022 and beyond - it could be argued they are not fit for purpose.
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