@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

o_simardcasanova

@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social

Economist, Statistician, Writer

I write en 🇫🇷 and in 🇺🇸 on:
· Economics & Environment
· Critical Thinking
· United States
· Content Creation
· Transportation & Cities
· Statistics & Data
And more!

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

agiletortoise, to random
@agiletortoise@mastodon.social avatar

Interesting Safari fun fact I just discovered: If you name a bookmark folder with only an emoji and no text, the Bookmark Bar will hide the folder icon beside it, making for nice compact drop-down menus.

Now, if there was just a way for me to use SF Symbols.

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@agiletortoise OMG YES. Thanks for the tip, I love it.

o_simardcasanova, to bluesky French
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

Je ne savais pas que avait jusqu’ici explicitement interdit aux chefs d’État de se créer un compte.

Maintenant que les outils de modération de la plateforme sont en place, l’interdiction vient d’être levée.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/13/24129357/bluesky-heads-of-state-ban-lifted-twitter-alternative

o_simardcasanova, to twitter French
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

I just deactivated, probably for good, my French-speaking account.

I’m ready to build the next phase of my online activity on , and .

Onwards!

o_simardcasanova, to random
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

I’m increasingly convinced that defederation of Threads will backfires against the instances that defederate.

There is a vocal, but small, minority of users who have very strict opinions on Threads, the Fediverse and Mastodon. But they’re a minority.

The more Threads will federate, the more users who aren’t part of this minority but have to live with the consequences of its demands will ask for a different direction.
https://social.coop/@jsit/112207362680439053

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

Defederation is a moderation tool. In my opinion, using it preemptively is a clear abuse of why it was build in the first place.

The fact defederation of Threads creates confusion among users is a clear illustration of this abuse. Moderation is here to protect, not to confuse.

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@stefan This catastrophic moderation is unrelated to the Fediverse. How many unmoderated hateful posts have been federated exactly?

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@stefan Hence why using defederation in this case is a clear abuse of the feature.

I could use the exact same logic to ask for the defederation of any server that do not moderate reply guys and other toxic extremists well. These people also display well documented harmful behavior, and contribute to make Mastodon a hostile place, especially for Black users. And yet, I’ve never seen a single person asking for this. Why?

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@stefan A moderation policy based on such gross double standards is by definition a really bad moderation policy. It’s quite literally exactly what Elon Musk has been doing since he took over Twitter.

Albeit obviously not comparable in intensity, in the case of defederating with Threads, it hurts users who are on an instance that decided to defederate but who disagree with the decision.

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@stefan There’s also a documented history of instances getting blocked by other instances due to personal vendetta and some form of performative activism. Application of existing rules is also widely deficient. And don’t even get me started on CSAM, which is also poorly moderated on many Mastodon instances.

The moderation on Meta’s platforms is bad, but it’s wishful thinking to believe that moderation on Mastodon is vastly better.

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@stefan Also, I think it’s fallacious to compare Threads with Gab or Truth Social. Threads’ moderation issues is the result of very different circumstances and forces compared to platforms that are clearly stating they’re far right.

Also, neither Gab or TS provide any value whatsoever. But Threads hosts POTUS, many elected officials, many media and many journalists. Cutting Mastodon users from these accounts is a real issue.

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@stefan I don’t think it’s necessarily a double standard to have different rules for different situations. Moderation is really hard to do well.

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@stefan I don’t think Meta will ever have any decent moderation. Considering the size of their platform, it would cost them a lot of money to properly moderate. They probably have the money, but as far as I know, they are not interested in this kind of investment.

To me, the question is instead wether Threads is acceptable in its current form. Because it will probably is its "definitive" form.

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@stefan It’s not a simple question, and I think defederation removes all the complexities and nuances that should be more explicitly discussed.

There is another, wildly unanswered question, about moderation on decentralized platforms. Research is ongoing, and it will probably take years to create the tools we need.

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@stefan It’s not directly related, but I think Bluesky is a real threat to both Meta, and Mastodon.

Its stackable moderation is a powerful approach, that answers many of these issues. Meta would have to go through a massive cultural change to accept something similar. Mastodon is more likely to implement something similar, but the limited resources of the ecosystem mean it will probably take years to implement it.

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@stefan My overall position is probably that moderation on decentralized platforms should be taken a lot more carefully. Grand statements about Threads being a danger, or Mastodon moderation being fundamentally superior, are dangerous.

My ultimate goal is to put end users in control. Which Bluesky does really well. And Mastodon, it really depends on your instance.

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@stefan I don’t have any reason to suspect Meta isn’t trying. This is why Threads is different from Gab or Truth Social.

At the end, weighting the pros and the cons is a matter of individual preferences. Hence why I think it is deeply misguided to act at the instance level. Simplifying the UI to block domains at the individual user is something I think would add a lot of value.

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@stefan This is what I meant: they do have some form of moderation, it's not a free-for-all. But the money they put in is far from being enough. And I don't see them putting enough money today, tomorrow or ever for that matter.

hello, to threads
@hello@social.wedistribute.org avatar

In response to @potus enabling federation via #Threads the other day, a number of people asked: why can't the White House self-host their own Mastodon server?

Our writer @deadsuperhero dives in with some thoughts on the current hurdles

https://wedistribute.org/2024/04/us-government-hosted-fediverse/

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@weddige @hello @deadsuperhero There is also an instance hosted by the French government: https://social.numerique.gouv.fr

o_simardcasanova, to bluesky
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

I find all kind of disinformation harmful.

But when it comes to , it's especially infuriating that Bluesky is often presented as the platform of "Jack Dorsey".

It is not. From day one, Bluesky has been led by Jay Graber, one of the very few women in a position of power in tech.

On top of being inherently harmful, this disinformation on Bluesky is also fundamentally sexist. Once again, it attributes the work of a talented woman to a (mediocre, in my opinion) man.

o_simardcasanova, to meta
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

Another horrendous decision by about : they will test paying users for posts based on their "performance".

This creates a strong incentive to publish low quality content. This is exactly what happened on when the platform introduced its revenue sharing system: since then, the platform has been overwhelmed by grifters who publish the most horrendous posts to go viral.

Another sign that Meta is completely out of its depth when it comes to Threads.

https://www.threads.net/@mattnavarra/post/C5T0IVFo9I9

HilliTech, to random
@HilliTech@techhub.social avatar

I'm starting to think people that claim to like the fediverse dont understand the point. We want to be able to follow Threads accounts here without having to have a Threads account. That's the whole point.

No single entity is in control of social media. That's the glory of federation.

Blocking major companies from the fediverse will be the death of the concept. Don't silo yourselves in fits of hate and segregation or you're no better than the things you claim to protest.
https://techhub.social/@HilliTech/112207853697301125

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@joshwayne @Jonathanglick @AAKL It’s probably part of the strategy. In my opinion, an important reason why they do this is to come clean in front of regulators, the EU in particular.

I’m not saying that as a criticism. Corporations have no souls, they just respond to their environment. In this case, the regulatory environment seems to work exactly as expected.

o_simardcasanova, to random French
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

Le président des États-Unis est sur le Fediverse.

Je répète, le président des États-Unis est sur le Fediverse.

🤯

@potus

o_simardcasanova, to random
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

The sad story of reminds me of an anecdote I experienced when I published my COVID-19 dashboard for my home region of Lorraine in northeastern France (the dashboard is still online: https://covid.aleryon.science).

A stranger vehemently attacked me because I dared to publish a free dashboard, based on open data, during a pandemic, that I created with instead of Grafana - a technology I only know by name.

Truly unhinged.
https://mas.to/@swelljoe/112186147758379670

o_simardcasanova, to bluesky
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

Ozone, 's tool for providing moderation services to the community, is surprisingly "simple" to install.

Not everyone can install it. But all you need is a Docker-enabled server.

By comparison, installing a instance is a lot more complicated.

https://github.com/bluesky-social/ozone/blob/main/HOSTING.md

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@zleap @aral To be fair to Mastodon, Ozone is a much smaller service.

Mastodon is a full-fledge social network app, with a lot of underlying services and moving parts. In comparison, Ozone is "only" a moderation service.

J12t, to bluesky
@J12t@social.coop avatar

On the question of “What’s the plan to make money?”, CEO Jay Graeber says:

“We’ve been building marketplaces within the app, essentially. So, we’ve got information marketplaces, moderation marketplaces..”

How can that produce enough revenue to make the VCs happy? Just what kind of information marketplaces might she be thinking of that can produce those results?

https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/25/24108872/bluesky-ceo-graber-federation-social-media-decoder-interview

o_simardcasanova,
@o_simardcasanova@mastodon.social avatar

@J12t It’s worth exploring other business models.

The two current ones are completely broken: you either sell or exploit users’ data (as legacy social media do), or you rely on donations but then you don’t have enough resources to scale (as repeatedly shown by Mastodon).

I’m not saying Bluesky will be profitable. Nobody knows. But exploring a third way that generates enough money while avoid mining personal data is interesting.

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