The arc of reality may bend slowly, but bends toward biting back.

What most people think of as @bsky.app is just the tip of the @atprotocol.dev iceberg -- and this iceberg is growing -- from the top and bottom!

Very nice explanation of why @bsky.app and @atprotocol.dev really matter, by @danabra.mov.

We're excited to share the new Graze! Completely redesigned look, same powerful tooling. Check it out at graze.social ✨

Looking forward to the Global Free Speech Summit on October 3-4 in Nashville, with an impressive slate of speakers. Here are some thoughts going in, as I hope for added insights at the Summit. Thanks to @futurefreespeech.org and @mchangama.bsky.social. #FreeSpeechSummit2025

Happy to see renewed attention to the innovative ideas of #FairPay revenue strategies in this thread by @kissane.bsky.social & @bmann.ca (with some comments added by me).

Blueskyism: Nate Silver's argument (pro AND con) about the “vibe” of Bluesky as a "wokeist" “lib Twitter” misses the really important potential of Bluesky/ATproto's intrinsic ability to “Free Our Feeds” to let every user to filter for their own vibe - now in just early stages of emergence.🧵

Bluesky has been critical to Democracy Docket's growth and reach. Nate Silver is an idiot.

Unfortunately, Bluesky is unavailable in Mississippi right now, due to a new state law that requires age verification for all users. While intended for child safety, we think this law poses broader challenges & creates significant barriers that limit free speech & harm smaller platforms like ours.

Thoughts for discussion at 2nd day of #protocolsforpublishers, as perhaps the one thinking about these directions longest (for what it's worth) - some links 🧵: - Directions for protocols - Directions for publishers - Big picture dynamics of online discourse - Biz models for AI info agent services

Nice summary of exciting gathering at the cusp of our still-possible future, via @werd.io

Right on what is wrong and how to fix it! Must read. Via @rhodesben.bsky.social

Some observations on the agreement Brown struck with the administration. It is nine pages if anyone wants to read it. www.brown.edu/sites/defaul... This are some things that jumped out to me as an alum and a lawyer. It's not a complete overview. 1/

Very interesting reframing (and my comment suggests there may be market pricing mechanisms to drive toward capability-based pricing).

Insightful take on important governance issues...

Thx Richard .. love your idea of "filtering for serendipity"!!

Busy Times! @techpolicypress.bsky.social - increasingly essential reading, increasing energy in "issues & ideas at intersection of tech & democracy." This blog post ties my latest to others: @urbanz.bsky.social & @josemarichal.bsky.social (+ @robin.berjon.com) ucm.teleshuttle.com/2025/07/tech...

Humanity now faces a fateful choice: Will AI help us think & work better, or make things worse, perhaps irreversibly? Will our tools support us, or their builders—manipulating & exploiting us & our data? As I explain in @techpolicypress.bsky.social the key question is “Who does it serve?”

Great thread by @katestarbird.bsky.social explains the problem— AND an essential urgent step toward solution is to #FreeOurFeeds with #middleware to rebuild communities and how they mediate our sensemaking, as my comment explains.

How to Reclaim Social Media from Big Tech: Middleware, an idea whose time has come. Now in @frankfukuyama.bsky.social's Persuasion Community - by @noupside.bsky.social and me. #FreeOurFeeds The conclusion and some key ideas in this thread... 🧵 1/10 www.persuasion.community/p/how-to-rec...

Yes! @freeourfeeds.com, @robin.berjon.com, @rudyfraser.com's @moderation.blacksky.app. This is why I argue for Three Pillars: Individual Agency, Social Mediation Ecosystem (= Communities), and Reputation. www.techpolicy.press/three-pillar...

AI is often thought of as a black box -- no way to know what's going on inside. That's changing in eye-opening ways. Researchers are finding "beliefs" models are forming as they converse, and how those beliefs correlate to what the models say and how they say it. www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

🚨 CCCR has a new survey report out today! 🚨 "100 Days Under Trump: Public Reactions to Attacks on American Governance & Institutions" The report draws on our Apr/May YouGov panel survey of US adults, following our Oct 2024 survey w/ recontacts + a sample refresh. 1/ cccr.wisc.edu/wp-content/u...

Nice work on non-zero-sum games as how humans as social creatures solve problems in win-win ways, with a dialectic of collective intelligence - from @nonzerosumjames.bsky.social at nonzerosum.games. Good interchange on my comments. People should be trained to focus much more on this way of thinking!

New tech can make more complex, organic feedback in business a reality—a win-win for both buyers and sellers. This is an interesting idea for how that could work.

Beyond Bluesky: These are the apps building social experiences on the AT Protocol techcrunch.com/2025/...

Bluesky backlash misses the point techcrunch.com/2025/...

Gentle reminder: Authoritarians regularly kill off oligarchs who seem to be getting too much power.

I bring you a tiny bit of good news — courts are finally reining in Big Tech in significant ways. We could actually be on the cusp of a totally transformed tech landscape - after 30 years of total lack of constraints. My latest for @nytopinion.nytimes.com (gift link)

The “free speech absolutist” demands you run paid ads next to Catturd’s rants or he and Linda will sue and he’ll have his govt friends investigate you. Some of the companies that have chosen to comply rather than say fk off are Verizon, LEGO, Amzn, RL, & Pinterest. www.wsj.com/business/med...

Timely from @michellegoldberg.bsky.social @nytimes.com (see my comment). Why don't leaders keep protests smarter & more disciplined? This is Trump’s Reichstag Fire! Don’t play into authoritarian hands, giving pretext to suspend rule of law. Don’t feed “alien invasion” scare waving foreign flags!

National guard policing a popular and heated protest? Does no one remember Kent State? …But then, the Nazis had their Reichstag Fire…

Given that "social media" isn't social any more (with me thinking of "social" as "friends and family"), it's more infotain/entertain -- and the increasing interactivity overlap with general search morphing into genAI (e.g., Gemini).....

The Brutish are coming! The Brutish are coming! The Brutish are here! Urgent alarm by Steven Levitsky, @lucanway.bsky.social, @dziblatt.bsky.social.

Another challenge for Bsky.app - but see my comment... (Patience! A full-function open net will not be built in a day -- and not all of it will always be open! @atprotocol.dev and @freeourfeeds.com are still our best current hope.)

Former AG Barr: "This isn’t a case in which a company has gotten power over the production of vacuum cleaners. Google’s dominance allows it to operate as a gateway to the internet, the digital world through which Americans engage in almost all interactions."

America: “Be Not Afraid” Will we be open to life? or live closed off in fear? www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/o...

Oh, hell yes. Tesla Takedown protest organizers tell Congress the obvious: without Section 230, current political organizing would be dead. For Democrats, undermining 230 protection right now would be a self-own for the ages and truly catastrophic. thehill.com/policy/techn...

Former Facebook executive Sarah Wynn-Williams told a US Senate subcommittee on Wednesday that the tech giant undermined its self-proclaimed free speech values and put US national security at risk by vigorously pursuing business opportunities in China. Full transcript @viacristiano.bsky.social:

Nice intro to the full middleware report (that I too coauthored). Also consider that @bsky.app and efforts like @freeourfeeds.com to build it into a fully open ecosystem is another promising path. #FreeOurFeeds

Enshittified tech media are eating our brains. #FreeOurFeeds can help.

Insightful warning on why the fusion of social media and AI presents dire threats.

Thought-provoking compendium. Great promise if we shift direction to serve people & communities, rather than tool builders - dire threat if not. Very pleased my comments are in such good company. (Some on p. 6 of full report, more on p. 112. Also on p. 5 of Exec Summary.) via @lrainie.bsky.social.

Come to America, students of the world, and learn about our great democratic traditions and commitment to free speech! But be careful — with a technology that would make Orwell blush, Little Marco will be watching your every word.

We're just $368 shy of the $100,000 mark for #FreeOurFeeds! Who can help us get there?

" #FreeOurFeeds plans to raise $30m (£23m) over the next three years to support an open social media ecosystem powered by the AT Protocol, the decentralized network powering Bluesky." www.bbc.com/news/article...

Social media evolving to better serve us, democracy. Great panel discussion now online - see🧵. Best, deepest current insights. Features @noupside.bsky.social @seanmartinmcdonald.bsky.social @samlai.bsky.social Prithvi Iyer (@techpolicypress.bsky.social) via @knightgtown.bsky.social. #FreeOurFeeds!