The U.S. government needs to leave Twitter and state that privately owned social media is unreliable, prone to corruption and full of misinformation. It should open its own instance in the Fediverse and tell citizens they can find reliable information there.
"The U.S. government... should open its own instance in the Fediverse and tell citizens they can find reliable information there."
FWIW @StillIRise1963 many of digital activists, myself included, lobbied for this back in 2008. neither the Obama admin nor Congress wanted to put money into it... and they had control of both the House and Senate.
Neither the government nor [most] elected officials will go anywhere that The Way hasn't been prepared for them. Nevermind they'll move from one CEO they excoriate in congressional hearings to another CEO they excoriate in congressional hearings.
The idea that people will come to them rather than the other way around is anathema. Nevermind they shouldn't be forcing citizens to give.up their privacy for gov't announcements
@StillIRise1963 Agree completely. Other governments, public services and NGOs should also look to alternatives to Twitter and Meta’s services. These public services should look to rely upon the open source or non-profit products (similar to those that powered the early internet) rather than looking to services being run by profit-driven corporations. Only then can the monolith tech companies with a disproportionate amount of power and influence be brought into line.
@StillIRise1963 I want to see the National Weather Service (my favorite “National X”) on mastodon, really every kind of notification the US government produces.
It's also really annoying that in some countries state-owned media - including the BBC in the UK, which is not allowed to advertise or recommend commercial products or services - still frequently publicise commercial social media - "Follow us on Twitter", etc - instead of non-commercial services like Mastodon.
@GeofCox@StillIRise1963 when I worked at Swedish public radio we were specifically not allowed to do that, because it's benefiting a commercial company.
@StillIRise1963@lisamelton I agree, the true strength of the Fediverse is that you can own your own instance and not have to rely on some other company. German television networks are already doing this.
@beeftacos@tizan@StillIRise1963
To be frank, I'm far more surprised that anyone thinks social media is the best place to get news. It's actually the best way to not know anything (speaking from personal experience). You want news? Watch the news. Turn on a radio. Buy a newspaper.
@StillIRise1963 Absolutely. In general the post office should provide connectivity services. The world is moving from paper to electrons and they should be allowed to also.
@StillIRise1963 each government at federal, state, and municipal should be running their own instance. News outlets should be running their own instances. Large membership organizations (ACLU, Sierra Club, Elks Lodge, Rotary Club, NRA, DSA, Catholic League, NARAL, whatever) should offer their own instances. Let's have some competition & best practices will be chosen by the user.
No need to have all of the internet homogenous, as if users' attention were a commodity ... oh, that's what happening
Good idea. Germany has done just that. The "bund.social" instance, administered by the federal privacy watchdog, hosts departments' and agencies' presences on mastodon.
cc @darkuncle
EDIT: Got the name of the instance wrong. It's "social.bund.de". I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
@robertnorlyn@StillIRise1963 In principle I agree. But not everyone has the knowledge and/or means so it is up to tech people like us to lend a hand. Unfortunately, people have yet to take me up on my offer.
Many small instances in the #fediverse make it less easy for #bigmoney to conquer. This is why we must encourage people to want to learn and want to do this. In the #bigpicture, this is a fight for digital freedom.
@robertnorlyn@ablackcatstail@StillIRise1963
I heard somewhere that every Canadian citizen has a government-issued email address, provided via the Canadian post office. (Can ant Canadians confirm or refute?)
Comcast and Century Link would oppose doing that in the USA, but I think it's worth working for.
@robertnorlyn@ablackcatstail@StillIRise1963
My (politically purple) town did provide high-speed (for its time) internet as a utility, for about 15 years. As a result, Comcast here had actual competition, and provided excellent service at good prices.
After much advertising (and lobbying) from Comcast et al., and with conservatives ascendant, the city council voted to sell the service to a local ISP... which, 4 or 5 years later, was purchased by Century Link.
@mmlvx
Most US states have laws prohibiting local govts from running their own ISPs. Several years ago Colorado repealed them, and a number of communities have jumped in to run their own. The town I live in was one such. It took a referendum, and Comcast/Xfinity and several other industry biggies lobbied hard against it of course. $8million hard, in fact, vs. a couple hundred thou in favor.
/1
@mmlvx@robertnorlyn@ablackcatstail@StillIRise1963
For about 2 1/2 years now I’ve enjoyed Comcast- free internet, tv, and phone service run as a city utility. It took about 2 years to roll it out once the votes were counted (I forget the margin but it was huge) and now neighboring towns are copying our model. It’s not perfect, but it’s not Comcast either.
/2
@qurlyjoe@robertnorlyn@ablackcatstail@StillIRise1963
Yeah, those anti-public-ownership laws are infuriating. So much for "home rule" and "local rights". Texas passed some shit laws like that, preventing towns and counties from having a local mask mandates -- and now, preventing local labor safety laws, like water breaks for construction workers.
@dpp
I suspect part of it is there’s a lot going on besides just internet connectivity. You’ve got TV service and all the convoluted negotiations with all of those providers, and telephony for people who want a land line. A lot of rural areas don’t have good cell coverage. On our system internet and phone service is 10-10, TV is maybe 8-10. Lots of intermittent droppage, & I can’t drop Fox News afaik.
@StillIRise1963
That should be the case for all governments and public services. To be at the mercy of a fickle billionaire prone to throwing tantrums just isn't sustainable.
@StillIRise1963 this would be great but it’s wishful thinking. The federal government has tight regulations and it’s highly doubtful they want to manage their own security and instance for a platform that isn’t widely used by the average American. They want to offload the ownership, work, and risk, but exert influence.
@StillIRise1963 Working for the fed gov is a different ballgame. Lots of red tape and considerations to deal with. I know someone who did web dev and they scrutinize everything, down to the packages and versions that are installed as part of an application. So the security alone is a challenge, maybe more so in the fedi where anyone can create an instance and imitate them, creating confusion.
@StillIRise1963 I agree. Truth, evidence and civility are the victims of corporate greed. This corrosive feature of human commerce is destroying democracy as journalism’s values (and its alter ego’s, privately-owned social media) have switched to stoking viewership for ad revenues and stock value by permitting hatred, lies, baseless conspiracy theories and violent speech. Mastodon seems to me to be a far saner environment for civil discourse - and democracy - to thrive.
@StillIRise1963 relying on the state to inform you through social media will just reinforce the state's monopoly over information. the state does and will lie to you, official organizations are no good for information
@StillIRise1963 you ask the state to monopolize information on some social media in which they are not present. do not rely on the state for information. this is not nonsense, this is reality
@StillIRise1963 it soukd happen but it’s more likely to start at the city or county level first, as a sort of trst case, before the fed invests in the infrastructure.
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