Matrix, eurosky.social, mastodon, Public Nodes all in the room at the European Commission discussing EU’s future of social media

My @re-publica.com talk is available now (it’s in German but you can turn on english subtitles). It’s making a case for running parts of the #ATProto stack as public infrastructure and shows where we can build bridges to the #fediverse - plus I’m showing people the variety of the ecosystem.

15,000 of us 😊🥳

The “social media” platforms we demonize today are actually multiple suspects. danah boyd (@zephoria.bsky.social) and Ben Werdmuller (@werd.io) have unpacked the term in ways that could have major benefits for both the child safety debate, and the case for democratic representation online. 1/6

New from me, on the decision by the @ec.europa.eu to not extend the DMA interoperability requirements to social media, and how this closes off a pathway for mass adoption of open social networks. connectedplaces.online/reports/fr16...

On the occasion of Europe Day - I've got updated language statistics of @eurosky.social users 🙂 🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺

14k and rising 🚀

MAGA has picked up on @eurosky.social - we must be doing something right 😂

Very excited to read this book, written by (among others) dear friends @natematias.bsky.social and @elleryrb.bsky.social

"The State Department is excluding tech researchers from the United States because of their constitutionally protected work, and this newly disclosed memo only underscores the unbounded scope and unconstitutionality of the policy" -- @carriedecell.bsky.social knightcolumbia.org/content/knig...

This is a huge opportunity for both actually social media and higher quality media to step in and extinguish the incumbents. Cc @sebastian.eurosky.social.

This wild document is the basis for the State Department's decision to cancel the visas and green cards of tech researchers who study the social media platforms and of tech regulators who enforce privacy and transparency laws. Disclosed to us last night in @thecoalition.bsky.social v. Rubio.

Please join this webinar on Moving from Harmful Platforms to Social Technologies, discussing how digital public goods and other open-source solutions can support the scaling of a more transparent, interoperable, and accountable social technology landscape. 📝 Register Here zoom.us/webinar/regi...

As we watch someone (Iran?) repeatedly DDOS open social networks over the past few days, I'm reminded to share my recent #AtmosphereConf talk, on the many ways authoritarian state actors can attack open social infra and publics, and some ideas about resilience: www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3Ac...

Over 450 people and 10% of our target. Thank you so much to each and every one. With that amount we can already start on the first components for a fully independent app.

Fun milestone today - first time that @eurosky.social has more users than followers. May that gap grow much much larger. Cc @nicolashenin.net conversation we were having a few weeks ago :)

Mastodon.social is being DDoS right now. That's bad. It was bad when Bluesky was DDoSed. It's bad when open social platforms are attacked. status.mastodon.social

I try to read everything @daphnek.bsky.social writes on privacy and FoE; this looks like a good ‘un.

We’re fundraising to build everything we need to operate without Bluesky. Our €100,000 target will accelerate our goal of building a European app backend (Appview) and a microblogging app. Since last night over 282 of you contributed more than €5,000. Let's do this! fund.eurosky.tech

Yesterday Bluesky went down. @eurosky.social servers worked but we couldn't communicate as we don't have an app. Our next step is to build everything we need to operate without Bluesky. We're raising €100,000 to build a European app backend supporting 100k+ users. Let's do this fund.eurosky.tech

I attribute today's surge in @sifa.id signups to @eurosky.social, welcome everyone! 👋

Newsrooms should not block the Internet Archive. Any public service publisher should not block the Internet Archive. If anything, we should all be directly supporting the Internet Archive.

I managed to capture it on a short video but wasn’t able to post it yesterday (you all know why). Congratulations 🎉 & Thanks for your hard work 💐🙏 @eurosky.social @sebastian.eurosky.social @sherif.eurosky.social @robin.berjon.com @ivansigal.eurosky.social @thisismissem.social @baileytownsend.dev

So Bluesky was broken but the Atmosphere wasn’t. A little tour of the Atmosphere when everything here was blank. With timestamps 🐶

We can literally contribute to Blacksky, Eurosky etc to decentralize further. If you care about decentralization, donate, move your account to a non-bluesky PDS, and use apps other than Bluesky. The ecosystem isn't perfect, but we don't have to settle for complaining. We can do something about it!

* a big DDOS attack would have taken others down too, but that's only one reason we need separate and multiple infrastructures.

Eurosky was up as were other parts of the Atmosphere. But Bluesky was down and that's still how most of us communicate. Today highlights why we need totally independent infrastructure and fast.

Today we’re releasing Portal - a new interface for your account and what we hope will become a new home for your on the web. This is is just the start, we’ll be adding features and integrations over the coming months. Check it out and let us know what you think. portal.eurosky.tech

What a day! Did we mention that today was the day we removed invites from Eurosky accounts? Anyone can create an account straight away.

Really nice @atproto.london tonight, was great to hear from @ivansigal.eurosky.social about the forthcoming @eurosky.social portal and had some fantastic conversations with folks about their projects!

"The series aims to re-emphasise the importance of knowledge sharing among people, as has been done for decades: communal exchange of information and expertise based on years of lived experiences, informed by local realities, and motivated by the need to feel connected with one another."

For a long time, I've been looking for a graphic that visually communicates what open protocol-based social media is all about. Finally, it struck me: it's not a graphic, but an animation that we need. And I created one. Check it out at the top of connect.fediforum.org and tell me what you think.

Oh no! therecord.media/russia-crack...

Writing about attested.network, an open spec for decentralized proof of payments on ATProtocol. It builds on what we learned making atprotofans.com. Draft is up and feedback is welcome.

Orban out!!! Finally some good political news. When JD arrives, you know you’ve already lost. Keep up the good work JD!

Did "hate" go up on X/Twitter after they changed their content moderation rules post-Musk? What is "hate" anyway, and what data do we actually have? I've got all the charts and analysis I know you crave! New by me for @techpolicypress.bsky.social www.techpolicy.press/what-are-the...

Two papers came out last week that suggest classical asymmetric cryptography might indeed be broken by quantum computers in just a few years. That means we need to ship post-quantum crypto now, with the tools we have: ML-KEM and ML-DSA. I didn't think PQ auth was so urgent until recently.

Exactly what we found with @globalvoices.org Civic Media Observatory! Excited to see this. globalvoices.org/special/obse...

A new report from the Project Liberty Institute, Social Web Foundation, Public AI, & @modalfoundation.eurosky.social stresses the importance of continued dialogue to create shared problem definitions, priorities, and identify next steps across research, standards development, and gov communities.

New work! Asking who controls the infrastructure of our social lives online—and what happens as AI agents mediate Co-authored with @mallory.techpolicy.social.ap.brid.gy @thelastjosh.bsky.social sh.bsky.social Sarah Nicole and Jessica Theodule @projectliberty.io www.projectliberty.io/news/ai-agen...

New website is up! eurosky.tech Englishs only atm. German, French, Dutch, Polish, Spanish and Italian coming soon!

My takeaway from Atmosphere: it needs to be WAY easier for builders to get paid So I built at.fund at.fund detects the tools you use, and tells you how to fund the builders who make those tools. And if you're a builder, it takes seconds to add records to that tell your users how to fund you 👍

Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed a cable this week directing embassies and consulates to launch campaigns countering foreign propaganda, and specifically endorsed X as a tool for the effort. @klonick.bsky.social explores the consequences of the government using social media for statecraft.

Really proud to collaborate with these people, and help point towards positive-sum cooperative competition in open social

More than a PDS. More in the coming weeks.

Finally done. I was able to talk with @pfrazee.com, as well as a handful of other folks with insight on the situation. #atmosphereconf trezy.com/blog/the-mar...

Today, the Archive published a Disappearing Data Chronology--a timeline tracking changes in access to federal information under Trump, including major data losses and restorations, legal challenges to information takedowns, and threats to archival collections. nsarchive.gwu.edu/special-exhi...

Germ x Blacksky x Eurosky x Bluesky #AtmosphereConf ❤️ @germnetwork.com, @blackskyweb.xyz, @eurosky.social, @bsky.app

if you're using something for free... IT CAN GO AWAY. the operator might be struggling, or not even interested really. and if you're running free infra, add a payment tier! make co-ops, run community infra together. but learn from the past: magical thinking does not make a healthy atmosphere.

🚨 the ecosystem is delicate #atmosphereconf there's a LOT of enthusiasm + talent, but: - no magical investor monies - grant options are THIN - many first time founders - many don't want investment - few other options - scary macro env it's a collective challenge we can just pay for things?