Privacy Bear

Why Federation is the Way to Go

Now, we all know that Facebook and Tumblr are just the biggest to throw their users under the bus: creating policies that shouldn't exist, silencing minority groups, not silencing hate speech, and showing the world that sex is gross. With all that, it's time we move to a better social network, and even better yet, move to one that not one person owns and controls. For this very reason, it's time to move to a federated network.

You may be asking, “What is a federated network, and why is it better?” Well, let me say this, you already use federated networks every day, you just don't know it. Federation is, in a nutshell, networks of different kinds being able to talk to each other. A good example is email: Yahoo sends to Gmail, sends to AOL, sends to Protonmail, sends to Outlook, etc. These networks all are part of a central server, but they can talk to each other. Phone networks are the same way. If anyone remembers, in the early 2000's, mobile phone services kept promoting free calling to other (and their own) networks after a certain time. Federation is not new, but it is a growing trend, and will, I believe, be how we keep the internet free and open.

With that very brief example, let's look at some alternatives for popular social networks.

Facebook Facebook is the largest social network ever, with over 1 billion active users a month. However, with the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and now the recent privacy policy changes, it is time for Facebook to drop like Myspace. There are many wannabe networks wanting to take that crown, but to me, the best choice is Friendica. Friendica is open source, federated, and has the closest look and feel to Facebook you will get. There are other sites that claim privacy, such as MeWe, but those platforms are not open source or federated. Friendica also interacts with other federated social networks; think Facebook talking to Twitter and vice versa. Friendica can do that with Mastodon.

Mastodon Speaking of Mastodon, this my go to choice for replacing Twitter. Twitter has a history of limiting free speech, and with all the anti-sex positivity going on, Twitter will be one of the next to implement it. Mastodon has many different specialties, which is calls instances, and there are definitely NSFW and sex-positive ones. Because Mastodon is federated and not owned/controlled by one person, these instances cannot be ruined like Twitter and Facebook. These instances are self-policing, and aren't ruled by one overall privacy policy. Mastodon is perfect for replacing Twitter, not just because of it's open source nature, but because it operates and looks very similar.

Instagram Next is Instagram. This is harder, because as of yet, there is no real replacement that is open source and federated. One very promising project is Pixelfed, which is close to fully releasing. The Pixelfed preview is very close to the IG interface and operations, but, again, because it's federated, it will be much more open and free.

There are other non-open source, non-federated services, but for now, Pixelfed is the best alternative that's not released yet.

Tumblr Tumblr....oh, how the mighty fall. Their anti-sex policy has made the site see a drastic fleeing to other sites. A great looking site with many of the same features and feel of Tumblr is Plume. Again, this is another open source, federated platform. Plume works in the same way as Tumblr: social blogging. It allows pictures, words, messaging, quotes, reblogging, but in a more accepting, non-anti-sex way. There are others, like Vero, but those don't have the open nature, or cost money. For this, Plume should be the choice for a Tumblr replacement.

What does it mean to leave behind these giants of social media to come to smaller platforms? It means you get to keep your information, you are in control the whole time, and there is no chance your adult blog will disappear because some executive decided it was bad.

Now, not all these sites interact with each other, but a lot of them do. That means you can post on Plume, and someone on Mastodon can interact with it, and someone from Friendica can interact with that. It's direct, it's self-policing, it creates a more positive environment, and fosters creativity. The big social networks can't do this, because they have to police everyone, and also look out for their money.

Hopefully you take a look at the other networks, and see that you can be more free, open, and self-responsible.

Thank you for reading, Privacy Bear