#Mozilla setting up shop on #Mastodon and trying to "reinvent content moderation".
"It’s a social network that doesn’t try to be neutral and isn’t attempting to preserve free speech. It’s trying to make the internet a nicer place to be."
I’m on vacation so I’m not going to prioritize explaining why in great detail, but #Mozilla has a shit track record when it comes to moderation and protecting vulnerable groups. Over my 4+ years there as an employee I was: proselytized to non-consensually, subject to anti-marriage equality propaganda, was told by a fellow employee who was subsequently promoted “my kind didn’t belong there”, and received death threats when I advocated for a code of conduct.
While I was there Mozilla launched a publication that invited Gamergate to share their side of the story.
Mozilla has always been behind the curve wrt inclusive community building. It’s possible they’ve come along way since. But Mitchell Baker is still at the head of the organization and IME, she’s one of the biggest blockers to progress.
This piece going around about Mozilla’s Fediverse instance and how they want to make the internet nice is a puff piece. There’s so real substance to it. Mozilla likes to make promises it has trouble following through on.
"It’s a social network that doesn’t try to be neutral and isn’t attempting to preserve free speech. It’s trying to make the internet a nicer place to be."
"Mozilla’s content policies also make clear that the platform will err on the side of protecting people who need to be protected..."
I am conflicted by @mozilla content policies announcement. I appreciate that a lot of thought went into it, but I think they could be used to eliminate a lot of necessary social tension.
An example is their violent content policy: “Users may not share content that depicts abuse of humans or animals, or that includes excessively gory or violent imagery that…can disturb other users.“
I am a lifelong #vegetarian and I’ve been #vegan for 20 years. Photos of meat/dead animals disturb me. Am I to assume then that sharing this content will be banned in that instance? And if not, why not?
Also, nothing on who will be #moderating content. Is it volunteers, #Mozilla staff, external contractors??
Mozilla’s decision to outsource moderation of their Mastodon instance, thereby excluding workers from benefits and rights matter because @mozilla is a San Francisco-based #nonprofit. Their HQ is just three short blocks from me.
Poverty has exploded in San Francisco in the past few years. 1 in 9 children now live in poverty according to the 2023 Joint Venture Silicon Valley Index.
Content #moderation would be a great entry into the tech world and even more so if it was coupled with a fair wage and good benefits which, I reiterate, #Mozilla can and does offer to its workers.
I hope that @stevetex and his team can reconsider and bring moderation fully in-house, based in San Francisco and Bay Area where possible.
Exciting, @mozilla is now also launching their own instance! 👏 Currently as a private beta with a waiting list. Together with @medium, @Flipboard and @Vivaldi, that's quite a group of tech companies that believe in the future of #Mastodon and the #Fediverse. Hopefully this commitment will pay off in the long run and not be stopped by the hype around #Bluesky. #Mozilla#SocialMedia
Note: I re-posted this video today in support of @social continuing to explore the fediverse and trying to be a champion of how a responsible organization should approach social media. Good on team #mozilla and #firefox. :firefox:
While I agree with the @fsf warning about the emblematic value of the decision by #Google to pull support for #JpegXL from #Chrome, their article <https://u.fsf.org/3z8> is as empty as could be, especially considering that #GNU#IceCat doesn't support JPEG XL either (being based on a #Firefox branch that doesn't build #JXL support in.) You want to show that #FLOSS can do without? Do it by actually supporting what you complain Google is failing to.
We are excited to announce that Fakespot will be joining the Mozilla family. Together we will expand Fakespot’s capabilities and continue to innovate new ways to create a better online shopping experience for people, one where they can feel safe and confident they are purchasing the best, most trustworthy products. Firefox is committed to making people’s lives better online and we know Fakespot’s expertise will help us deliver an even better ecommerce experience. https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/fakespot-joins-mozilla-firefox-shopping-announcement/
Anyone knows if there’s a #firefox extension that allows you to add some sort of black square overlay on any video to hide parts you don’t wish to see (ads, on-screen chats etc.)?
@asahi95 Even tho I understand your issues with the "recent" decisions from #mozilla, for me #vivaldi isn't really an alternative. In general my dislike of all those chrome skins is still bigger than that of #firefox.
「 Most of us, if we found ourselves trudging up 21 flights of stairs, would just get pissed off and leave it there. But Hoare decided to do something about it. He opened his laptop and began designing a new computer language, one that he hoped would make it possible to write small, fast code without memory bugs. He named it Rust, after a group of remarkably hardy fungi that are, he says, “over-engineered for survival.” 」
— @techreview
⎧ In 2009, Mozilla decided to officially sponsor Rust. The language would be open source, and accountable only to the people making it, but Mozilla was willing to bootstrap it by paying engineers. A Rust group took over a conference room at the company; Dave Herman, cofounder of Mozilla Research, dubbed it “the nerd cave” and posted a sign outside the door. Over the next 10 years, Mozilla employed over a dozen engineers to work on Rust full time, Hoare estimates ⎭ #Rust #Mozilla