To get feedback! I often send out drafts to newsletter subscribers and post them on Mastodon and in the !thenexusofprivacy@lemmy.blahaj.zone community … I got a lot of good feedback on this one which is incorporated in the revised version.

Thanks! Here’s how it looks:

Great example of how there isn’t any one right answer here, it’s different for different instances. Can I quote this in the “What will instances do? Opinions differ!” section of https://privacy.thenexus.today/should-the-fediverse-welcome-surveillance-capitalism ?

Agreed that there isn’t one particular model that’s right or wrong for everybody, and that a split is likely – a region like today’s fedi and that welcomes Threads, and a more safety-focused region (with more blocking, a more consent-based federation).

There have been other waves, it’s just that once they get shut down everybody loses interest and moves on. The PR for the one of the changes Mastodon just made was implemented in May 2023 after the Doge spam wave. And here’s a June 2019 post talking about exactly the same kind of attack: “The problem we are experiencing is the spammer signing up on random open instances and sending spam remotely.”

A very good idea! https://startrek.website/ took this approach, it’d be intersting to check in with them to see what they learned.

I had shared the draft version here a few weeks ago, and this incorporates some of the feedback – including “This goes against everything the Fediverse stands for” 😎

It’s true, but the time pressure is likely to be used to try to get a weak “compromise” bill through.

Yep. But, even though I didn’t suggest it, I didn’t explicitly say that it didn’t mean global blocklists. So I clarified it, and added a footnote with more detial.

As Instance-level federation decisions reflect norms, policies, interpretations, and (sometimes) strategy discusses, opinions differ on the definition of “bad actor.” So the best approach is probably going to present the admin of a new instance with a range of recommendations to choose between based on their preference. Software platforms should provide an initial vetted list (along with enough information for a new admin to do something sensible), and hosting companies and third-party recommenders should also be able provide alternatives.

Yes, at least on Lemmy. It’s the icon with two boxes.

No, as the article says at the very beginning, it’s that I think a big reason that fediverse isn’t growing is its failure to deal with safety.

Nonsense. Instance blocklists are used across the fediverse today. They’re certainly not a perfect solution but they have the advantage of actually existing. See Blocklists in the fediverse for a lot more discussion.

Fediblockhole does something along those lines for on Mastodon … not sure if there’s an equivlaent in the Lemmy world.

Politico is known for its bias, but I’d say this is a fairly accurate article – Alfred is an outstanding reporter. But you’re certainly right, this is an issue that cuts across party lines.

They don’t, at least not from your instance.

I can’t speak for others but yes, I want a fediverse that doesn’t have white supremacists and fascists.

Indeed, the entire point is that instances should decide for themselves – I say it multiple times in the article and I say it in the excerpt. If they think that you federating with Meta puts them at risk, then they should defederate. And yes, it says more about the instances making the decisions than it does about Meta – Meta’s hosting hate groups and white supremacists whether or not people defederate or transitively defederate.

It’s good feedback, thanks – I thought I had enough of explanation in the article but maybe I should put in more. Blocking Threads keeps Threads userws from being able to directly interact with you, but it doesn’t prevent indirect interactions: people on servers following quoting or replying to Threads posts, causing toxicity on your feeds (often called “second-hand smoke”); hate groups on Threads encouragiingtheir followers in the fediverse to harass people; and for people who have stalkers or are being targeted by hate groups Threads, replies to your posts by people who have followers on Threads going there and revealing information.

And complement the FediBlock tag with FediBacon! It’s got success written all over it!

Very much agreed that part of the problem relates to scale – and, great analogy! It’s an interesting thought experiment: if each school had an Lemmy instance, how would they work together to host communities and make it easy for people (in all the schools) to find the communities they’re interested in? If they each had a Mastodon instance, how would they share blocklists? And so on.

And great point about the different dynamics between large instances and smaller / more focused instances. There’s always a question of which communities an instance sees itself as in service to – and similarly there’s always a question of which instances and communities the team developing the software is in service to.