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Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

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Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#1

Post by vkb »

There have been many, many posts about how toxic advertising and Facebook are (I've written many myself[1][2][3]) for our internet ecosystem today.

What projects or companies are you working on to combat filter bubbles, walled gardens, emotional manipulation, and the like, and how can the HN community help you in your goals?

[1]http://veekaybee.github.io/facebook-is-collecting-this/ [2]http://veekaybee.github.io/content-is-dead/ [3] http://veekaybee.github.io/who-is-doing-this-to-my-internet/

Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#4

Post by turblety »

The UK government is working on it's own Internet [1]. It's going to really take off and be the next big thing!! No encryption too, so it's nice and safe from all those terrorists. Can't wait!!

[1] http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/new...

Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#5

Post by trendia »

turblety wrote: post #4

The UK government is working on it's own Internet [1]. It's going to really take off and be the next big thing!! No encryption too, so it's nice and safe from all those terrorists. Can't wait!! [1] http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/new...

That's really cool! Does that mean that my bank records will be sent in plaintext over those series of tubes?

Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#7

Post by gobengo »

* W3C Social Web Working Group - https://www.w3.org/wiki/Socialwg

* ActivityStreams 2.0 - https://www.w3.org/TR/activitystreams-core/

* ActivityPub - https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/

* https://distbin.com - My implementation of the above. Who wants to federate?

Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#8

Post by danso »

trendia wrote: post #5
turblety wrote: post #4

The UK government is working on it's own Internet [1]. It's going to really take off and be the next big thing!! No encryption too, so it's nice and safe from all those terrorists. Can't wait!! [1] http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/new...

That's really cool! Does that mean that my bank records will be sent in plaintext over those series of tubes?

Brings to mind the series of tubes that powered the information system in 1984's Oceania, and how antiquated the mindset that envisioned that system, with its memory holes that could eradicate past information forever.

That said, even if today's distributed system prevents a gatekeeper from having sole veto on information, today's filter bubbles and chaos of viral disinformation campaigns can be such a barrier against truth that perhaps they can be considered, for all practical purposes, a type of modern day memory hole.

Re: Ask HN: What are we doing about Facebook, Google, and the closed internet?

#9

Post by Arathorn »

Building matrix.org as a decentralised & e2e encrypted comms alternative.

The filter bubble problem is particularly relevant for us because it's critical for an open network to let users filter out abusive content (whether that's spam, stuff they find offensive, or just a topic they don't care about)... but doing that in a way which doesn't result in creating a profiling db or creating bubbles and echo chambers. The problem is one of letting users curate their own filters (including blending in others' filters), whilst keeping the data as privacy protecting as possible. It's a fun problem, but on our medium-term radar.

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