On Mastodon…
The recent takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk, and the likely removal of content moderation with all that implies for increased toxic behaviour, has led me to reconsider my use of social media. I know I’m not alone in this either. Over the weekend I noticed quite a few of my friends quitting Twitter for Mastodon so I thought I’d give it a go.
Mastodon is a microblogging service with a similar look and functionality to Twitter but there are some big differences. For a start Mastodon is not run from a single website. It is a distributed network of servers around the world running open-source software; each server is called an ‘instance’. This means that it is not owned by a single individual or company and the different instances can have different moderation policies. Any person or organization capable of operating a server running the software, and willing to take on the legal issues, can federate to the overall network.
For another thing it is community led, with each instance run by volunteers. It is free of charge, has no advertising , so none of those annoying ‘promoted tweets’, nor any creepy algorithms trying to influence your behaviour, and above all does not exist to serve the ego of a billionaire owner with sociopathic tendencies.
Then there is the moderation policy. I joined the original server `mastodon.social’ (where I am the usual @telescoper) which has the following rules:
Hopefully this will deter those who spend all their time on Twitter sending abuse from joining Mastodon. This server is based in Germany, hence number 5. Although I think it was included for other reasons, it reminds me that defamation is a criminal offence in Germany, punishable by a prison sentence. A certain individual who has a habit of posting defamatory messages about me on Twitter should bear this in mind…
Anyway, I’ve only just got onto the platform and am still finding my way around. I only have a handful of followers, compared to the 7000+ I have on Twitter. For the time being I’m still on Twitter, but if it goes well then I intend to leave that to the trolls and bigots. I’m sick of spending so much time blocking objectionable people and seeing decent people abused.
P.S. One thing I think would be handy would be an API that allows me to publish these blog posts automatically on Mastodon like I do on Twitter, but I haven’t seen one yet…
Follow @telescoper
In the Dark 
October 31, 2022 at 11:56 am
Isn’t this more or less what you are looking for for autoposting: https://github.com/simonfrey/mastodon_wordpress_autopost
?
Disclaimer: I have not tried it as I have a) no blog and b) no Mastodon account 😀
October 31, 2022 at 1:08 pm
Not really as I use the free WordPress.com site rather than running wordpress on my own server.
October 31, 2022 at 1:16 pm
Oops, good I put in the disclaimer!
October 31, 2022 at 1:17 pm
It would work if I weren’t such a cheapskate!
October 31, 2022 at 4:36 pm
I have never been on Twitter or any alternative and I don’t intend to but I support free speech. Those who are offended are then free to reply or to turn the other cheek. Both are valuable exercises.
October 31, 2022 at 8:18 pm
There must be limits. Hate speech is not acceptable whatever the medium. Evil speech can be just as damaging as physical assault and it can kill. A quote you may know, “the tongue is full of deadly poison”. Free speech does not mean freedom to hurt.
October 31, 2022 at 8:28 pm
The only limit should be direct incitement of others to violence. Who is to determine what is hate speech? Quid custodiet ipsos custodes?
October 31, 2022 at 8:35 pm
It seems to me perfectly reasonable that an organisation or, in the case at hand, a social media site should set its own standards of acceptable behaviour. People who don’t like it can go somewhere else.
November 1, 2022 at 9:49 pm
While most people would be fine with a site setting politically neutral standards of civility, the problem occurs where that site is a near monopoly in its niche, combined with the rules being written or implemented in a politically one-sided fashion. Yes, people can “go elsewhere”, but when, not so long ago, people tried moving to Parler, as the main alternative to Twitter, the big tech companies such as Google and Apple acted in concert to take down Parler. Big tech companies are near monopolies, and they have a track record of acting in concert when deciding what content to take off the web. For these reasons, they should be regulated for political neutrality.
November 1, 2022 at 9:54 pm
The last I heard Parler was still going. It’s not politically neutral either, being used exclusively by the far right.
November 1, 2022 at 9:58 pm
Parler has indeed been reinstated, after a period when it was shut down, but the fact that such decisions are being made by monopoly companies like Google with no accountability or regulatory oversight is the problem.
November 1, 2022 at 9:54 pm
For example, since Twitter is a near monopoly in its niche, bans from Twitter should be for clear and explicit reasons (not just citing vague boilerplate), and should be subject to appeal to an independent and neutral arbiter.
November 1, 2022 at 10:03 pm
At least for the time being, Twitter does list clear and explicit reasons why accounts can be banned. People who don’t like the rules shouldn’t join the club.
November 1, 2022 at 10:10 pm
No, they are not clear and explicit, and, worse, they are often applied in a partisan manner with no proper explanation or proper right of appeal. From what you’ve quoted, Mastodon rules are similar in being open to partisan interpretation.
November 1, 2022 at 10:12 pm
Don’t join then.
November 1, 2022 at 10:16 pm
As I said, it matters when companies are near-enough monopolies that they effectively act as public square and public utilities. That would include Twitter, Amazon, Google web hosting, PayPal, etc. (I don’t care about Parler and Mastodon.)
November 1, 2022 at 10:25 pm
Nobody has to use Twitter (nor indeed any social media platform) nor Paypal nor Amazon nor Google web hosting. None of these has the same status as a public utility: they’re all private businesses. If you don’t like them, don’t use them.
November 1, 2022 at 10:30 pm
No-one has to use electricity or water companies. It’s possible to live off grid. And many people think that private companies can and should be regulated for the public good, especially where they play a central role in society (which the internet and internet-based commerce does these days) and especially where they are near monopolies.
October 31, 2022 at 8:31 pm
On-line bullying can lead to suicide. Not all violence is physical
October 31, 2022 at 9:07 pm
Online abuse typically comes out of disputes over matters concerning which people disagree and feel passionately. One side becomes personal. I take that as an admission of defeat but, if it drives someone else to consider suicide, that person is obviously so fragile as to be extremely ill-advised to go on social media.
We ought not to rejig society and one of our most basic freedoms around a very small number of persons whose identity we cannot know in advance. One person’s hate speech is another person’s free speech, and I have no confidence in the State to act as arbiter. States might be communist, fascist or anything in between.
October 31, 2022 at 9:09 pm
PS I disagree that “not all violence is physical”. Verbal abuse can be horrible, but it is not violence. That is to distort the meaning of words, something Orwell warned against.
October 31, 2022 at 9:25 pm
Peter: I agree that “a social media site should [be free to] set its own standards of acceptable behaviour. People who don’t like it can go somewhere else.” But I would campaign for it to lose any tax breaks it might have if it censors beyond the law according to the views of its senior management; and, depending on its monopolistic practices, if might be at risk of anti-trust suits.
November 6, 2022 at 10:03 pm
[…] Twit and don’t like the way Twitter is going anyway so I’ve decided that I will indeed move to Mastodon, which I quite like, and where you can find me here. I don’t have a huge Twitter following so […]
August 12, 2024 at 4:46 pm
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