EU politicians are still paying money to this guy, to use the social medium he controls, where his algorithm decides which voters they reach or do not reach.
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We're continuing investigation to the performance issues, you can follow and react here: https://lemmy.world/c/friendicaworld
Jan Johannesson
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Tofm2 π«π· πΊπ¦ πͺπΊ
in reply to Randahl Fink • •like this
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Marcel Abraas
in reply to Tofm2 π«π· πΊπ¦ πͺπΊ • • •Tofu Golem
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Tofm2 π«π· πΊπ¦ πͺπΊ likes this.
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Randahl Fink
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Tofm2 π«π· πΊπ¦ πͺπΊ likes this.
Tofu Golem
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •See other response.
Mastodon needs big changes in moderation to attract certain major minority groups to seriously compete with Bluesky.
But your observation is noted.
8Petros [$ rm -rv /capitalism/*]
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Mastodon is a software, not an instance. If you want hardcoded platform-wide moderation, you wili get another Bluesky, thank you very much.
If you don't like Mastodon (as I don't), you have a plethora of platforms, including my favourite #Friendica and some novelties like #bonfire or #ghost.
But fediverse and centralised moderation won't go together.
Tofu Golem
in reply to 8Petros [$ rm -rv /capitalism/*] • • •That is exactly why so many minority users left Mastodon for Bluesky.
Randahl Fink
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •@tofugolem While I think that is a welcome and sound ambition, if we look isolated on what creates growth in the social media space, I think Mastodon primarily needs more visibility.
Most people I ask her in Denmark have never even heard of Mastodon β and our population is very online.
I want to contribute to this, so it is my ambition to make a video about the need for and importance of Mastodon.
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Chao-c'
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Tofm2 π«π· πΊπ¦ πͺπΊ
in reply to Randahl Fink • •Mastodon Migration
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •If only there were a solid decentralized non-US public social media platform.
Glowing Cat of the Nuclear Wastelands likes this.
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Tofu Golem
in reply to Mastodon Migration • • •@mastodonmigration
Mastodon is not likely to pick up steam without big changes to moderation. Bluesky pretty much took the wind that should've been in Mastodon's sails.
And further, I really want a competitor to YouTube. YouTube is super fascist-friendly, and I am getting sick of it.
Schmaker
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •It's not #Mastodon, it's #Fediverse and we will never get further unless we finally figure this out.
Imagine you couldn't send e-mail from @gmail.com to @yahoo.com .. why do we tolerate this in social networks and walled messengers?
It does not mean we do have to win or something. All we need to be is viable alternative for people, who figured out someone is puppeting them...
Glowing Cat of the Nuclear Wastelands likes this.
Tofu Golem
in reply to Schmaker • • •@schmaker @mastodonmigration
Those moderation changes need to happen to promote wider adoption. It is holding the platform back.
I remember earlier days of this platform when there were more minorities around. I remember their complaints before they left.
mekka okereke reshared this.
Schmaker
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Not sure how English part of Fedi acts like, but local (Czech) part is definitely moderated well
And here comes the biggest benefit - you do not like moderation of your instance? Do your own! π
Tofu Golem
in reply to Schmaker • • •@schmaker @mastodonmigration
That solution was not good enough for people in certain marginalized groups.
Telling them to βgo find a better instanceβ when they were being abused led to a large number of them fleeing Mastodon for Bluesky.
Jackie ππ³οΈβ§οΈβ reshared this.
Frank Heijkamp
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •@schmaker @mastodonmigration @randahl
Lillian Violet
in reply to Frank Heijkamp • • •@alterelefant It doesnt matter as moderation is reactive and hosts easy to spin up (and the biggest instances being open registration). A lot of the harrasment is invisible to other people as well, like happening in DMs or being moderated before you see it. But it doesn't really matter that much that things are moderated if you already received and saw the harassment. And defederation is also not an option because that's basically suggesting segregation as a solution.
Mastodon.social is known as a big source of harassment, but other instances are as well, but blocklists are also reactive and don't contain newly spun up harassment instances. (Who often also block everyone but their target just so only the target can see and report them).
So yes better moderation and moderation tools are needed, especially from the flagship instance. And trust us we have suggested concrete steps to them, they have all been systemically ignored.
@tofugolem @schmaker @mastodonmigration @randahl
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Schmaker
in reply to Lillian Violet • • •Lillian Violet
in reply to Schmaker • • •Not a guy first of all. But what I'm trying to say is that open sign ups are a first issue we could close, or at the very least filter out people with obviously ill intended names like heilhitler1488 (real example).
We could have a slow federation system in which new instances are vetted by moderators first before being allowed to do certain actions or show up on most people's feeds.
We could do with more proactive moderation from the big instances in general, it can take days for them to respond to issues, and usually at least a couple of hours when most of the damage is already done.
People have hacked shared blocklists onto mastodon but there still isn't an easy central way to do it supported by mastodon.social et al. either.
There's more than that, but concretely that's part of what people are asking for, you are free to just look up things like "moderation, racism, mastodon" for instance to kearn more.
Martin Vermeer FCD reshared this.
Schmaker
in reply to Lillian Violet • • •Sorry, not intentional, language barrier issue
Even though I get your point I also do think this is propably not what most people would ever want. I would not for sure.
Everything you noticed is possible doing your own instance though. Also - for example I'm posting from friendica and if my instance would have been open, it's easy for me to ban these nicknames for registration. Also, there is possibility to hide posts containing some word or hashtag. Way much more than any commercial soc-net allows...
Not sure how Mastodon handles this.
Frank Heijkamp
in reply to Lillian Violet • • •@GLaDTheresCake That is indeed how moderation works.
When a racist or other type of unacceptable comment is posted one is able to do something about it. Remove the comment and reprimand or block the sender.
An instance that is clearly a hotbed of hate spreading individuals will indeed be de-federate. That is very effective to block the reach of those comments.
This is how the #fediverse works and how things work on any other online platform.
@tofugolem @schmaker @mastodonmigration @randahl
Lillian Violet
in reply to Frank Heijkamp • • •Frank Heijkamp
in reply to Lillian Violet • • •Tofu Golem
in reply to Frank Heijkamp • • •@alterelefant @GLaDTheresCake @schmaker @mastodonmigration
That's the problem.
When they ran into abusive bigots, people dismissively told them to block them themselves or find another instance. They explained why this wasn't enough and were ignored, so they left.
Frank Heijkamp
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •@tofugolem How is this different to lets say Bsky? I try to understand what Bsky does different?
@GLaDTheresCake @schmaker @mastodonmigration @randahl
Randahl Fink
in reply to Frank Heijkamp • • •@alterelefant the onboarding experience is simpler on Bluesky. All friction affects market share.
@tofugolem @GLaDTheresCake @schmaker @mastodonmigration
Mastodon Migration
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •@alterelefant @tofugolem @GLaDTheresCake @schmaker
Certainly true.
Frank Heijkamp
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •The main question here is, does bsky handle abuse like bullying and racism differently? Is it better, the same or worse?
People complain about moderation on #mastodon, I ask which instance the complaints are about. Without this exact information it is not possible to pinpoint the root cause of the problem.
Onboarding on bsky is easier because it's not federated. There is only one bsky. Where #mastodon has thousands of instances.
@tofugolem @GLaDTheresCake @schmaker @mastodonmigration
Randahl Fink
in reply to Frank Heijkamp • • •@alterelefant while I love that Mastodon is federated, I hope we get to a point where the main mastodon.social server acts like a direct competitor to Bluesky, where people can plug-and-play their way into Mastodon with 0 friction.
Requiring people to pick an app and a server should not be done up front. Get them onboard in the most frictionless way possible β they can always switch to a different app or a different server down the road.
@tofugolem @GLaDTheresCake @schmaker @mastodonmigration
Frank Heijkamp
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •@tofugolem @GLaDTheresCake @schmaker @mastodonmigration
Tofu Golem
in reply to Frank Heijkamp • • •@alterelefant @GLaDTheresCake @schmaker @mastodonmigration
The details are a bit fuzzy at this point for me. I'm trying to recall things from a while ago, and I've had a lot going on in my life.
But if MODERATORS are telling people in marginalized groups to take care of bigots themselves, they could be doing more to protect marginalized groups from abuse.
Frank Heijkamp
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •@GLaDTheresCake @schmaker @mastodonmigration @randahl
Tofu Golem
in reply to Frank Heijkamp • • •@alterelefant @schmaker @mastodonmigration
Doesn't matter. They left because people kept saying βJust block them yourselfβ or βfind another instance.β
They did. At Bluesky, where their concerns were not so flippantly dismissed.
Frank Heijkamp
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •@schmaker @mastodonmigration @randahl
Tofu Golem
in reply to Frank Heijkamp • • •@alterelefant @schmaker @mastodonmigration
I do not remember. The yelling about this was long ago.
I stayed because I do not like advertising-based business models for social media otherwise, I would have left with them.
Martin Vermeer FCD reshared this.
Mastodon Migration
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •One of the issues has to do with dogpiling using "followers only" reply controls as explained in the thread below with @scottjenson and @mekkaokereke
Not sure if any progress has been made on this. Perhaps now that there are some new folks at Mastodon GmbH, they will take another look at it.
cc: @Mastodon
mastodon.online/@mastodonmigraβ¦
Mastodon Migration
2025-10-07 04:43:35
Scott Jenson
in reply to Mastodon Migration • • •@mastodonmigration Happy to discuss this further. One of the issues with problems like this is making sure the cure isn't worse than the disease. I'm *not* a moderation expert but I'm happy to discuss this with the team.
Are there specific things that could prevent this type of behavior? I'm going to assume making it "Followers only" makes it harder for moderators to see it?
Frank Heijkamp
in reply to Scott Jenson • • •@scottjenson That is indeed the main topic, how to balance things. When a cure becomes a greater problem than the initial problem than that is obviously no good.
Scanning content before posting is very controversial because that would censor people. Moderation will always be a reactive thing.
Abuse of "followers only" for dogpiling is something I don't know enough about. Does this create a lot of limitations for moderators to actually see the content?
@mastodonmigration
Scott Jenson
in reply to Frank Heijkamp • • •@alterelefant @mastodonmigration Moderation appears to have multiple goals:
* Prevent the abuse (preemptive)
* Correct the abuser (reactive)
Given the desire for privacy (as a first principle) would it be OK for this to be reactively fixed, e.g. the post is sent to moderators. If not, what else would be helpful?
Mastodon Migration
in reply to Scott Jenson • • •@scottjenson @alterelefant
This 'followers-only dogpiling' issue has been around for a long time. It is a major reason given for why some people, particularly Black people, have abandoned Mastodon. It seems like something that would benefit from soliciting user input first. This would have the advantage of really defining the mechanism of abuse, raising awareness that it is an issue the Mastodon cares about, and achieving buy-in to proposed resolutions.
cc: @mekkaokereke
Mastodon Migration
in reply to Mastodon Migration • • •@scottjenson @alterelefant @mekkaokereke
The first thing that is needed is to acknowledge that this is a systems problem. There seems to a mode of reply that can be exploited to harass people, without it being visible to the larger community.
As such, it is not just a moderation problem. Rather, it is something that may need to be addressed more systematically.
Again, what really needs to happen is to clearly define the issue, and understand how it is being used to isolate and attack users.
Frank Heijkamp
in reply to Mastodon Migration • • •@mastodonmigration This is a very valuable insight and one that will help to understand the underlaying problem.
Much more constructive than complaining about people who left a long time ago. This won't be solved by 'anecdotal evidence' and claims that don't contain any metrics.
Let's put in measures that will make #mastodon the safe place that we want it to be. #workInProgress
@scottjenson @mekkaokereke
Mastodon Migration
in reply to Scott Jenson • • •@scottjenson
Not super conversant with the matter, but what has been suggested is to make "followers only" really followers only. That is, to not present the post to all @ mentioned people plus the followers.
However, really think those who have been subjected to this need to weigh in and any solution should come from a real comprehensive understanding of the mechanism of abuse and a real engineering process, as Mastodon has so expertly done in other areas.
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Boba
in reply to Scott Jenson • • •Scott Jenson
in reply to Boba • • •John Wilson
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •@tofugolem @alterelefant @schmaker @mastodonmigration at the time the join mastodon page had a list of servers to join. That list was not moderated. It was taken randomly from a whole list of fediverse servers.
Some of those instances were very lightly moderated. Not in terms of server content, but in terms of βhow up to date is your nazi server blocklist.β
John Wilson
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •@tofugolem @alterelefant @schmaker @mastodonmigration
a black person would post something, see terrible racial slurs, it was coming from a nazi server, they would complain. Then their thousands of followers would say βwhat racial slurs? I donβt see themβ because the followers servers were not federated with the Nazis.
Imagine dozens of people saying βsend me linksβ, and even if you send links, the links are to a server that is banned so no one demanding the links ever sees them
Jeff Turner β΅
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Tofu Golem
in reply to Jeff Turner β΅ • • •@jetsoft @schmaker @mastodonmigration
They didn't come back, so obviously they found a better, safer space over there.
Over here, people kept telling them they were overreacting, that they should just find another instance or block people themselves. Bluesky takes a more active role in shutting down abusive bigots.
Schmaker
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •If abusive biggot is not moderated, then it's good reason to change instance, that's for sure.
Not sure how picking Bsky is better for them as I do not expect much better moderation there, but I may be wrong
Tofu Golem
in reply to Schmaker • • •They found better moderation at Bluesky. That is why they never came back.
Emilio ΚΜ‘Μ’Μ‘ΚΜ ΝΝΝ‘ΚΜ²Μ ΚΜ’Μ‘Μ’
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •kravietz π¦
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •@tofugolem
I can explain, in part. Tons of bot accounts are registered on all social media, be it BlueSky or Fedi, using disposable Gmail or Outlook accounts. There are IP and reputation databases that capture those used for spam (e.g. IPQS). API usage costs money (and not pennies).
A very trivial yet unfortunately efficient barrier to dropping say 80% of bot accounts before they even get onto Fediverse, which would mean only the remaining 20% would require manual attention of moderators.
Right now, as I understand, a human moderator on Mastodon instance A will ban
lizae8r2q7@outlook.comand then another human on Pleroma instance B will do the same thing because they know nothing about that email and can’t each of them afford checking it at IPQS. Repeat 42’000 times for all Fedi instances🤷Technically, that’s solved for
... Show more...@tofugolem
I can explain, in part. Tons of bot accounts are registered on all social media, be it BlueSky or Fedi, using disposable Gmail or Outlook accounts. There are IP and reputation databases that capture those used for spam (e.g. IPQS). API usage costs money (and not pennies).
A very trivial yet unfortunately efficient barrier to dropping say 80% of bot accounts before they even get onto Fediverse, which would mean only the remaining 20% would require manual attention of moderators.
Right now, as I understand, a human moderator on Mastodon instance A will ban
lizae8r2q7@outlook.comand then another human on Pleroma instance B will do the same thing because they know nothing about that email and canβt each of them afford checking it at IPQS. Repeat 42β000 times for all Fedi instancesπ€·Technically, thatβs solved for ~20 years using DNSBL and Rspamd for email or IPQS for web. Fediverse world just doesnβt use it.
And I can guarantee Bluesky uses IPQS because for them its cost is peanuts π€·
@schmaker @mastodonmigration @randahl @jetsoft
Frank Heijkamp
in reply to kravietz π¦ • • •@kravietz Interesting insights.
That explains the onboarding process. For bots it's easier to onboard a #mastodon instance than it is to onboard #bsky. Check.
Regarding the actual moderation process. What does bsky do differently? Do they apply censorship before a post is shown by proactively searching for keywords that match a certain list or some weighted pattern matching that takes the age and reputation of an account into account?
@jetsoft @mastodonmigration @randahl @tofugolem @schmaker
Frank Heijkamp
in reply to Frank Heijkamp • • •@kravietz
Is there a difference in reactive moderation? What does it take to get an account blocked or reduced in capabilities on bsky compared to the average #mastodon instance? If it is even possible to formulate a definition of the average instance? How big are the differences in moderation between individual instances?
@jetsoft @mastodonmigration @randahl @tofugolem @schmaker
kravietz π¦
in reply to Frank Heijkamp • • •@alterelefant
Unfortunately I canβt answer any of the subsequent questions as I only use Bsky casually π but definitely interested too.
@jetsoft @mastodonmigration @randahl @tofugolem @schmaker
Frank Heijkamp
in reply to kravietz π¦ • • •@kravietz It would be interesting to know to what extent bsky is effective in catching racist or bigotry posts at an early stage? Do they have mechanisms in place that 'soft' censor posts? How high is the false positive rate and what intervention is needed to get a post to show up. What false negative rate are we looking at and how does reactive moderation affect future catchment of unwanted posts?
Any reliable information is welcome.
@jetsoft @mastodonmigration @randahl @tofugolem @schmaker
Π¨ΡΡΠΎ
in reply to kravietz π¦ • • •@kravietz π¦ where exactly and how does it solve the problem? Doesn't Bluesky also have federation with multiple and arbitrary entrypoints (I think they call these PDS) so you also can join with your own server? It is just running your own instances for BS seems not very popular.
@Schmaker @Mastodon Migration @Randahl Fink @Tofu Golem @Jeff Turner β΅
Tofu Golem
in reply to kravietz π¦ • • •I am NOT going to pretend to understand that, especially not at this hour.
Jeff Turner β΅
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Tofu Golem
in reply to Jeff Turner β΅ • • •I always forget that bringing this topic up causes a huge discussion, but it does need to be said.
mekka okereke
in reply to Schmaker • • •@schmaker @mastodonmigration @tofugolem
"If you don't like it, do your own!" is a very Mastodon statement, and is why people don't choose Mastodon or the Fediverse.π€·πΏββοΈ
If I go to buy a car, and I tell the salesman, "Hmm, I wish it had more trunk space." The salesman might say, "Sure! Hold on one minute!" and go to the back room, and come back with some sheet metal, some cans of paint, an airbrush, an arc welder, and a grinder. With a big grin he says, "If you don't like the trunk, you can build your own! Modify your car! It's allowed!"
No.
I'm not modifying my car. I don't want to be an automotive engineer. I just want to drive to work and back.
Rather than start welding, I will just go to another manufacturer, and buy a car that is similar but with more trunk space.
This post is about moderation and safety on Mastodon.
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Schmaker
in reply to mekka okereke • • •Let's wrap it other way - user is choosing from two ways of soc-neting at this moment:
1. Here you have commercial soc-net. We will sell your data, check your bedroom and wrap ad shit around your face with zero-to-none moderation. And you have nowhere else to go! Enjoy!
2. Here you have free soc-net without any ads being run and funded by volunteers. And if you do not like how we manage it, you can either choose other one or make your own. Welcome abroad.
I'd definitely go for 2 π
And actually - buying a car lately somewhat matches the case 1: "You want a car that's not sniffing on you? GTFO our dealerships! Every single one!" π
webhatπ#39c3
in reply to Schmaker • • •@schmaker telling a person who is constantly the target of trolls to leave, that's a great way to earn a block
cc: @mastodonmigration @mekkaokereke @randahl @tofugolem
Tofu Golem
in reply to Schmaker • • •@schmaker @mastodonmigration @mekkaokereke
They did exactly what you suggest. They left Mastodon for Bluesky. This is why Mastodon stopped growing and Bluesky started growing more rapidly.
Moderation matters.
If moderation falls below a certain threshold, the result is always Nazis and pedophiles. Just look at 4Chan or Twitter.
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Hamish The PolarBear
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •ikuturso
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Tofu Golem
in reply to ikuturso • • •Many people from marginalized groups left here for Bluesky because whatever its warts, it was a less abusive environment for people from certain marginalized groups.
ikuturso
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Tofu Golem
in reply to ikuturso • • •If they still have not come back here, then either we are still worse than Bluesky, or there is another place they can go to in order to feel safe.
ikuturso
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •RE: fuckaas.space/@fuckfetish/1156β¦
@tofugolem @schmaker @mastodonmigration @mekkaokereke @randahl well I have certainly seen some of them come back here. I doubt either one of us can really quantify it but if they left Bluesky I don't think you can interpret that as meaning this place is worse.
BTW it seems like we're also in the midst of another Bluesky controversy caused by their trust & safety guy's alleged behavior towards a woman whose husband was detained by ICE.
FKFTSH
2025-12-07 21:44:21
Tofu Golem
in reply to ikuturso • • •I'm not seeing anywhere near as many African-Americans on this platform as I did before the exodus, so either this place is still worse than Bluesky, or else there is another platform they fled to.
ikuturso
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Stephen J. Anderson
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Randahl Fink
in reply to ikuturso • • •this source says 3.5 million DAU on Bluesky according to Forbes.
backlinko.com/bluesky-statistiβ¦
@tofugolem @schmaker @mastodonmigration @mekkaokereke
Bluesky Statistics: How Many People Use Bluesky? (2025)
Backlinko Team (Backlinko)ikuturso
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •That says daily although it is a lot higher number for daily than the stats I'm using (currently 1.32M) which you can find here: bskycharts.edavis.dev/edavis.dβ¦
@tofugolem @schmaker @mastodonmigration @mekkaokereke
bsky users total (Munin :: edavis.dev :: bskycharts.edavis.dev :: bsky users total)
bskycharts.edavis.devthe esoteric programmer
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Mastodon Migration
in reply to the esoteric programmer • • •Don't agree with this. Implementation of quote posting was a great example of how Mastodon took a feature with potential vectors for abuse and did an excellent job of soliciting user input and in the end building a capability with excellent trust and safety protections.
It is really hard to get everything right, and Mastodon has shown a careful approach to rolling out new capabilities IMO.
1/
Mastodon Migration
in reply to Mastodon Migration • • •@esoteric_programmer @tofugolem @schmaker @mekkaokereke
It is really hard to address every potential exploit, and the issue under discussion here is a case in point. "Followers only" is an important posting mode that in many ways distinguishes Mastodon from other systems that do not provide such quasi-private posting options. However, it can be exploited. So, what can we do about it? It's a systems engineering question. Same as how to do QPs safely?
2/2
the esoteric programmer
in reply to Mastodon Migration • • •Tofu Golem
in reply to Mastodon Migration • • •People in marginalized groups were being abused, and moderators dismissed their concerns. They were told "find a different instance" or "just block them" putting the onus on the victims instead of the abusers. This is why they left for Bluesky.
webhatπ#39c3 reshared this.
the esoteric programmer
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •mekka okereke
in reply to Schmaker • • •Of course you would choose 2. Which is why you're here.
But I'm staying because there's a better option:
3) Make Fediverse better, so that everyone doesn't have to roll their own, when millions of people want exactly the same thing. That's silly and inefficient. Just make a model of car that people want.
That's what we're doing.
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Tofu Golem
in reply to mekka okereke • • •I very much appreciate your presence, although I dearly miss certain African-American techy types. Some of them had a sophisticated understanding of moderating systems and policies, as well as the effects both had on marginalized people. I felt like I was learning from reading their posts.
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Tofu Golem
in reply to mekka okereke • • •I think a lot of people do not understand that for people in certain marginalized groups, things can get very ugly very quickly, and it should not be up to the victims to fix the problem.
Glowing Cat of the Nuclear Wastelands likes this.
Schmaker
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •No need to go this far, that point is almost reached even on YouTube
That's my point. Nobody will win when we make this a walled garden. Here in Fedi people stand up for the marginalized, moderators moderate and defederating works quite well.
I do think we agree with each other after all, there is only a different approach we would choose for similar result.
Maybe English talking part of the Fediverse is harder to moderate or lacks the will, but against stuff like racism, homophobia, Czech part of Fedi does excellent job
Looking for explanationsβ¦
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •@tofugolem @mekkaokereke @schmaker @mastodonmigration
I have never had any issues with moderationβ¦ probably because Iβm a white woman.
But I also remember people being very critical of requests for alt txt & CWs.
It seems that some users want all freedom & no responsibility.
Using the fediverse requires more thought & effort than elsewhere, about who we follow, how we find them & how we avoid stuff that we donβt want to see. But in return, weβre not deluged with ads & stupid suggestions & other rubbish.
OTOH, if people of some minority groups find that this doesnβt work for them without a disproportionate amount of effort on their part, then we need to do better.
mekka okereke
in reply to Looking for explanationsβ¦ • • •Requests for CW are usually nonsense from white people. I ignore almost all of them.
Because Content Warning is the wrong word. And because the whole Fediverse system of making the poster responsible for all of the personal tastes of the reader is silly.
If I post "Sigh... Got pulled over on the way to work, again. Driving while Black, episode 3,989." then some Mastodon clown will say, "Can you CW posts about racism? That disturbs me! Also, put a 'US politics' label around it. Racism like that is a US problem, and we don't have racism here in my idyllic European mountain town!"π€‘
No.
I'm not going to CW every post about my Black life.
Fact 1: Most white folk online don't care about what happens to Black people.
Fact 2: Many Black people experience microaggressions constantly.
This winds up with the Mastodon experience for Black people being constantly annoyed by strangers about why you should content warning everything.
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mekka okereke
in reply to mekka okereke • • •"Using the Fediverse requires more effort." Is a choice, and not one that I agree with.
It only requires more effort because the UX for Mastodon has some huge gaps. It doesn't have to have those gaps. It can improve. It is improving. And it doesn't require VC money, dark patterns, or algorithmic feeds to do it. It requires UX expertise, and focus.
I will keep stanning Inkscape until someone stops me! That's what it looks like when an open source project puts as much thought and effort into developing UX expertise as it does into code expertise.
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Looking for explanationsβ¦
in reply to mekka okereke • • •@mekkaokereke @tofugolem @schmaker @mastodonmigration
Iβm afraid I donβt understand enough about the technical issues to engage with this.
Twitter made things easy, but it was all about promoting outrage which increases βengagementβ, except for those being targeted or triggered.
When I came here, I had to choose to do more to find my people & stay engaged with them, without sealing myself off in a bubble. But I didnβt cop much in the way of abuse, criticism etc. And Iβm guessing thereβs many others like me who simply donβt know what some other people have to deal with all of the time.
mekka okereke
in reply to Looking for explanationsβ¦ • • •@Susan60 @tofugolem @schmaker @mastodonmigration
"Twitter was all about promoting outrage" is what someone that doesn't know enough Black people says. π€·πΏββοΈ
Again, outrage and shock doesn't drive the most engagement. If it did, Twitter would have more revenue than YouTube, 4Chan would have more revenue than TikTok.
Most social media engagement comes from viral content. The viral content that performs the best *by far* is comedy and fun stuff. Jokes and dances.
People still think Twitter was all about outrage, for many reasons, but here are two big ones:
1) Twitter's owners refused to block Trump, no matter what he said
2) Twitter was the only place that a rich racist white person could say an obvious lie, and get called out by a poor Black woman.
At peak, 1 in 5 monthly active Twitter users was Black. Twitter engagement would have gone *up* if they banned the nazis and added safety features for Black women.
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Looking for explanationsβ¦
in reply to mekka okereke • • •@mekkaokereke @tofugolem @schmaker @mastodonmigration
That is an excellent example of people wanting everyone to use CWs to make their online experience pleasant (& awfully bland) for them, while suppressing the needs of anyone to be able to rant about their experience of life. It reeks of privilege.
I think the CW issue has largely disappeared because people are using hashtags & filters instead. And I must admit that I’m less likely to bother opening something with a CW when they occasionally appear.
Whatever system is used, it prompts people to think about others.
I try to hashtag discussions of US politics, because as a
... Show more...@mekkaokereke @tofugolem @schmaker @mastodonmigration
That is an excellent example of people wanting everyone to use CWs to make their online experience pleasant (& awfully bland) for them, while suppressing the needs of anyone to be able to rant about their experience of life. It reeks of privilege.
I think the CW issue has largely disappeared because people are using hashtags & filters instead. And I must admit that Iβm less likely to bother opening something with a CW when they occasionally appear.
Whatever system is used, it prompts people to think about others.
I try to hashtag discussions of US politics, because as an Australian, I fully appreciate that not everyone who follows me, particularly Australians, wants their feed dominated by the often idiotic antics of politicians in that country.
And I hashtag stuff about neurodivergence, because while everyone could benefit from learning more about it, not everyone is as interested as me.
And stuff that might really trigger some people.
And alt txt? Why not make the whole thing nicer for people with visibility issues? My app will do it for me, although I always check for accuracy & to reduce the overly saccharine tone that has become the norm. And doing this, or writing my own, often makes me more appreciative of the image.
mekka okereke
in reply to Looking for explanationsβ¦ • • •@Susan60 @tofugolem @schmaker @mastodonmigration
Once I point this out, you won't be able to unsee it: People from all over the world use social media, but most of the people that complain about "put CWs around your US politics posts! No one wants to see that!" are from The UK, EU, Australia and New Zealand, or other "predominantly white, but not the US" places. This is the same trend as "We don't want to hear about you Yanks!" that was on Twitter.
Lots of interesting theories as to why this is.
mekka okereke
in reply to mekka okereke • • •@Susan60 @tofugolem @schmaker @mastodonmigration
Missing alt-text is again, the fault of bad UX. There are so many features that can make it lower friction to add good alt text, and none of them have been implemented.
* If I post an image that I posted before, and I previously posted it with alt-text, the box should auto-populate with the previous alt-text so that I can make edits to it.
* If I post an image that someone else has posted before, same thing.
* If someone posts an image without alt-text, and I reply to that post with the same image posted again, but with alt-text, it should be possible for the original poster to just read it and be like "Yeah sure!" and click "OK" and have the alt-text provided by me apply to their image.
Etc
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Randahl Fink
in reply to mekka okereke • • •@mekkaokereke word! The alt text experience deserves improvement.
Currently I may post 30 posts in a day, and then someone who follows me for this content will complain why I do not add alt text 100 percent of the time.
It is like bringing free cake to the party and then someone complaining the cake has no frosting.
If someone posts an image of a red house in a forest, they should not waste time describing that β an AI system should.
@Susan60 @tofugolem @schmaker @mastodonmigration
Panic at the Trishco ποΈ
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •So use the Ice Cubes app. It has that capability.
Looking for explanationsβ¦
in reply to Panic at the Trishco ποΈ • • •@topofmyvoice @mekkaokereke @tofugolem @schmaker @mastodonmigration
It does. Not as good as it used to be. Trying too hard to comment on ambience etc, but pretty good on basic content.
Tofu Golem
in reply to mekka okereke • • •@mekkaokereke @Susan60 @schmaker @mastodonmigration
I try to be really rigorous about alt-text. The way I see it, I am doing it to be accommodating to people with certain disabilities.
However, I will confess that I do not bother doing this on platforms where it is not the norm, so I appreciate the occasional badgering about this topic.
Matthew Malthouse
in reply to mekka okereke • • •If an image has exif data field 'Image Description' populated use its content to autofill the alt text.
Looking for explanationsβ¦
in reply to mekka okereke • • •@mekkaokereke @tofugolem @schmaker @mastodonmigration
I donβt filter at all, but donβt follow back if all someone writes about is their national politics.
Iβm a political animal, but I am interested in other things as well.
As for the US thing, there are simply a lot of you! And your politics is feral atm, so it can get a bit overwhelming. (Obviously itβs much worse for those in the USβ¦π©)
I do write a lot about neurodivergence. If people arenβt interested and they unfollow or block me as a result, so be it.
I do get upset if that happens because of a misunderstanding. Usually that is the result of incorrect assumptions & judgements. Most autistic people experience that, some more than others due to their tone/manner, which is misunderstood.
Tofu Golem
in reply to Looking for explanationsβ¦ • • •@Susan60 @mekkaokereke @schmaker @mastodonmigration
Here's the thing you might want to keep in mind: if someone from my country says they don't want to talk about politics, it means they do want to talk about politics, but only with people expressing views from the far far far far right.
In case you wonder why Americans bristle when you complain about politics.
And I don't mind hearing about politics from other countries. I shouldn't be so myopic that I only follow local politics.
Looking for explanationsβ¦
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •@tofugolem @Susan60 @mekkaokereke @schmaker @mastodonmigration
US politics is everywhere I look, but I donβt bump into many from the centre right, let alone far right.
I see a bit of Canadian & US pol on here, & some European, & NZ. I find it all interesting.
But some simply arenβt interested in politics (π€―)or just want to limit their intake because so much of it is scary & depressing. (That I understand.)
Tofu Golem
in reply to Looking for explanationsβ¦ • • •@Susan60 @mekkaokereke @schmaker @mastodonmigration
If you live in an authoritarian system, there is a reason to not pay attention.
But if you live somewhere in which voting occurs, you really should try to pay attention. A lot of what is happening in the USA right now is happening because people were too busy to read a fucking newspaper.
Looking for explanationsβ¦
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Oh I agree entirely. Itβs one of the reasons I like the fact that voting is compulsory here. That and the democracy sausage make people take at least some notice.
Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Looking for explanationsβ¦ • • •Tofu Golem
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •People who do not want to read about US politics are not a marginalized group being abused by a majority. Not comparable.
Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Tofu Golem
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •I get that I should probably put a #politics tag in my posts, but given that my country has descended into all-out fascism, I have enough on my plate to bother with things like that.
mekka okereke
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •@me @tofugolem
Your request to not want to see US politics, or any topic, is fair. Especially given your view that it is your responsibility to filter, not others' responsibility to not talk about it.
Many people are so opposed to LLM based systems, that they've given up on regular statistical based regression filters. 🤷🏿♂️
You should be able to list topics that you don't want to hear about, and your client should score posts, and hide things that you don't want to see. You can do this without transformers.
Alternatively, BlueSky has composable moderation. Some human can read posts and tag as "US politics." Then you can subscribe to that filter, to not see it. Low effort for posters, good result for readers.
Telling people to add hash tags to everything is silly. It only makes sense from the position of someone in the
... Show more...@me @tofugolem
Your request to not want to see US politics, or any topic, is fair. Especially given your view that it is your responsibility to filter, not others' responsibility to not talk about it.
Many people are so opposed to LLM based systems, that they've given up on regular statistical based regression filters. π€·πΏββοΈ
You should be able to list topics that you don't want to hear about, and your client should score posts, and hide things that you don't want to see. You can do this without transformers.
Alternatively, BlueSky has composable moderation. Some human can read posts and tag as "US politics." Then you can subscribe to that filter, to not see it. Low effort for posters, good result for readers.
Telling people to add hash tags to everything is silly. It only makes sense from the position of someone in the default category, because they don't really think that they'll have to adorn everything they write with:
#white #male #whiteman #man #cis #dude #bro #ablebodied #whitepeople #pinkskinned #majority #justaguy #guy #caucasian #presumeddefault #stuffjustworksforme #benefitofthedoubt #thoughtoffirst
They presume themselves to be the default, and hash tags are for everyone else that deviates from their view of the world with them at the center.
Looking for explanationsβ¦
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •@tofugolem @me @schmaker @mastodonmigration @mekkaokereke
Of course not. Iβm simply doing them a courtesy.
Looking for explanationsβ¦
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •@me @schmaker @mastodonmigration @mekkaokereke @tofugolem
Iβve not bothered with filters, but someone I know has & has asked all they follow to use hashtags.
I do use follow requests & donβt follow back if their profile says too little about their interests or is only US pol.
Itβs not about βlikingβ people or punishing them etc for me. Itβs about curating a feed that is sufficiently varied & interesting, which is obviously highly subjective.
Iβd like to see more racial & cultural diversity because diversity of all sorts interests me & always has.
Tofu Golem
in reply to mekka okereke • • •@mekkaokereke @Susan60 @schmaker @mastodonmigration
Content warnings are only valid if they might trigger someone who has suffered trauma, and I confess I need to get better about that.
I do not give a fuck about people who complain about CW for politics or meat consumption, but I should be more diligent about rape, child molestation, and the like. Those requests for CW are perfectly reasonable in my opinion.
Callisto
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Looking for explanationsβ¦
in reply to Callisto • • •@callisto @tofugolem @mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io @mastodonmigration @mekkaokereke@mastodon.cloud
The thing is, weβre not actually in a position to judge what other people find traumatic. OTOH, we canβt spend all of our time worrying about what might or might not trigger everyone out there. And those of us with the most privilege clearly have the least right to get too precious about it.
I tag the most obvious triggers, but also topics/interests. If someone is offended or upset by a mention or photo of something that most would find innocuous and blocks me as a result, thatβs fine.
Tofu Golem
in reply to Looking for explanationsβ¦ • • •Maybe, but I can assume that rape and child molestation are traumatic for victims. I should do better about filtering those two things at least. I'm sure there are other super obvious things that I could do better on.
Lars Hansson
in reply to mekka okereke • • •Tofu Golem
in reply to Lars Hansson • • •@romabysen @mekkaokereke @schmaker @mastodonmigration
I am here instead of Bluesky because I am extremely suspicious of their business model, but I am not going to begrudge people from marginalized groups if they want to go where they are abused less.
And it is my personal opinion that most of the coding for social media is done by having angry weasels fight each other while standing on a keyboard, then shoving the resulting mess through a compiler.
Randahl Fink
in reply to Lars Hansson • • •@romabysen Ivory for Mastodon on Mac makes Bluesky on Mac look like a kid's toy. @ivory
@mekkaokereke @schmaker @mastodonmigration @tofugolem
Morgan β§οΈ
in reply to mekka okereke • • •Arkadiusz Wieczorek
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Tofu Golem
in reply to Arkadiusz Wieczorek • • •I have not done any comparable to YouTube yet. Any suggestions?
Arkadiusz Wieczorek
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Tofu Golem
in reply to Arkadiusz Wieczorek • • •Would rather an entirely different platform. YouTube is a Nazi safe-space with multiple βpipelinesβ designed to herd people into fascism.
Arkadiusz Wieczorek
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •@tofugolem well, each platform has deviations
@mastodonmigration @randahl
Tofu Golem
in reply to Arkadiusz Wieczorek • • •Nazis are a bit more than a βdeviation.β
Arkadiusz Wieczorek
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •ChookMother π¦πΊπ¦
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Tofu Golem
in reply to ChookMother π¦πΊπ¦ • • •@anne_twain
Look up "Skinner box" sometime.
The likes and shares on a social media platform are a randomized reward schedule that can seriously addict people. And personally, I have noticed that if I use social media too much, my attention span gets shorter.
Maybe kids are better off staying away entirely unless major changes are made.
But without the addicting elements, they probably would not be as interested. π
ChookMother π¦πΊπ¦
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Tofu Golem
in reply to ChookMother π¦πΊπ¦ • • •ChookMother π¦πΊπ¦
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •GhostOnTheHalfShell
in reply to ChookMother π¦πΊπ¦ • • •I wonder where they could find one
Sweet Home Alaberta π¨π¦ πΊπ¦ π³οΈβπ π³οΈββ§οΈ π²π½
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •reshared this
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CockneyLaurie
in reply to Sweet Home Alaberta π¨π¦ πΊπ¦ π³οΈβπ π³οΈββ§οΈ π²π½ • • •Isn't that called Divide and Conquer?
So multiple Armies across Europe spending multiple fund duplicating incompatible systems/standards at increased cost
Multiple competing tax rates encouraging the super rich to move to a cheaper one and defeat the idea of taxing the rich so in the end the rich end up paying lower tax rates than the poor or middle class that CANNOT move countries
AnnieBuddy
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •I still see Teslas and instantly think their drivers are nazis.
If youβre still driving one, if youβre still on X, you are.
Tofm2 π«π· πΊπ¦ πͺπΊ likes this.
Distante
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •European alternatives for digital products: european-alternatives.eu/
Let's take small steps in the right direction.
Support independent journalism in your countries, vote in elections, have the courage to speak out against populists/radicals.
The EU should reject software from large corporations and look to companies from the EU or FOSS. We can see how, in unstable situations, all these corporations can threaten the entire union, and that is dangerous
European Alternatives
European AlternativesTofm2 π«π· πΊπ¦ πͺπΊ likes this.
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8Petros [$ rm -rv /capitalism/*]
in reply to Distante • • •Those who need it, will not understand the difference.
Tofm2 π«π· πΊπ¦ πͺπΊ
in reply to Randahl Fink • •Kim Spence-Jones π¬π§π· likes this.
8Petros [$ rm -rv /capitalism/*]
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Joost De Cock
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Paging @EUCommission
It would be really nice if somebody there could set aside their personal career goals for a moment and speak some truth to power about how messed up this is.
@randahl
Leeloo
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Fardels Bear
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Toni Aittoniemi
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •@randahl@mastodon.socia Only the neoliberal religion explains this. It doesnβt make any sense otherwise.
And tbh. This monopoly shit ainβt even neoliberal anymore, just plain technofeudal.
oneloop
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Chris Brooking
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •katzenjens
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •WvOostveen
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Denys
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •A Catalyst
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Plsik (born in 320 ppm) π¨πΏπΊπ¦π΅πΈ
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Waidler
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Π¨ΡΡΠΎ
in reply to Waidler • • •@Waidler No, not yet.
@Randahl Fink
Randahl Fink
in reply to Π¨ΡΡΠΎ • • •Because then Medvedev could not be on X?
@waidler
Graeme π΄σ §σ ’σ ³σ £σ ΄σ Ώ
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Jerked Gherkins
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •GJ Groothedde πͺπΊ
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •One simple law Iβd like the EU to pass:
No politician (elected or standing for election), no government department, and no company support channel may use any third-party platform that requires people to agree to terms of service to be able to read publications or messages.
That would eliminate all political and most corporate uses of X, Facebook, Instagram, and so on.
Want to run a web site? A Mastodon instance? Fine. Want to pay someone to host it for you? Fine, as long as anyone can access it without any tracking or anything that would require consent under the GDPR or equivalent, of if they are outsourced administration but you have complete control and ownership of the platform.
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Randahl Fink
in reply to David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*) • • •it is an interesting thought. And I agree something needs to be done to move politicians out of the commercial vice.
However, this particular suggestion would probably not be possible, because people move in and out of politics. So a non-politician may get to a million followers on X or Facebook, then start a party, and then lose this social media platform.
No politician will ever vote for legislation like that.
Distante
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •@david_chisnall Plus, we must take into account that populists and radicals will simply ignore the requirements and publish content where they can spread propaganda. This will put honest politicians at a disadvantage.
In addition, a large number of people βdo not follow politicsβ and only see random posts in their feed that someone shares. If there are fewer posts from good people, this will also have a negative impact
David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)
in reply to Distante • • •Alternatively: If a site is never used for legitimate communication then it's really easy to see that propaganda is propaganda.
N0tSure
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Rynach
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Matv1
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Before these two posts together, any european leader still using X could have been considered merely careless oportunists.
How do you regard elected officials still using X after this?
C. Hackman
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Paul Sutton (zleap)
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •SellaTheChemist
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Tom DB π¦£
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •I still cannot understand why moderate people stay on his platform. I canβt even understand why EU politicians are on his platform. If every EU politician leaves that platform he loses all his leverage and has no more power over them.
And saying you stay because you want to know what he says keeps legitimizing his opinion. Just leave. It really really really is that simple.
Randahl Fink
in reply to Tom DB 𦣠• • •Tom DB π¦£
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Christian Gudrian
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Skookumchick
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Tofu Golem
Unknown parent • • •Bullying people because they are new to a group is NOT comparable to being part of a marginalized and brutalized population.
andybrwn
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Thierry Van Kerm
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •And each of the 50 US states would also be be off on their own π
Boycott!
Thierry Van Kerm
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Tofu Golem
Unknown parent • • •@Minimac @mastodonmigration @esoteric_programmer @schmaker @mekkaokereke
I am here because I am inherently suspicious of the business model of Bluesky. I think any amount of advertising money means it will ultimately be some kind of threat to democracy.
Although I do appreciate the whole decentralized thing.
Entikan
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •mekka okereke
Unknown parent • • •@Minimac @tofugolem @laguiri @schmaker @mastodonmigration
Emilio, try this out: instead of framing things in terms of the negatives of BlueSky, name it in terms of the positives of Mastodon.
And don't just reframe a negative as a positive, as in "I like Mastodon because it doesn't have Ads like other social media." That's still a comparative negative. Frame it just in terms of the positives of Mastodon.
I find that much more constructive.
Tofu Golem
in reply to mekka okereke • • •@mekkaokereke @Minimac @laguiri @schmaker @mastodonmigration
I'm a salty bastard, and I'm gonna be negative. Those ads on other social media platforms make those platforms an inherent threat to democracy (e.g. the Cambridge Analytica thing).
Sorry for being a curmudgeon.
Sorry for interjecting, I'm just really surly about the things that have been done to manipulate the general population.
mekka okereke
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •@tofugolem @Minimac @laguiri @schmaker @mastodonmigration
Cambridge Analytics is not nearly as effective as people pretend that it is.
The percent of white voters that choose the fashy option has not changed before, during, or after Cambridge Analytica era. 🤷🏿♂️
And Black US voters were targeted by Cambridge Analytica *the most* and it had *the least* impact on their voting patterns.
hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/1
... Show more...@tofugolem @Minimac @laguiri @schmaker @mastodonmigration
Cambridge Analytics is not nearly as effective as people pretend that it is.
The percent of white voters that choose the fashy option has not changed before, during, or after Cambridge Analytica era. π€·πΏββοΈ
And Black US voters were targeted by Cambridge Analytica *the most* and it had *the least* impact on their voting patterns.
hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/114β¦
The things that have a much greater impact on voting patterns, are national newspapers and TV, and the framing of stories.
And the biggest counter to political interference in the US was... Black users online. We uncovered the disinfo networks before everyone else, for reasons I s covered before that are obvious once you see them.
mekka okereke
2025-03-14 00:23:26
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Tofu Golem
in reply to mekka okereke • • •@mekkaokereke @Minimac @laguiri @schmaker @mastodonmigration
The point is that this form of influence is POSSIBLE, which I do not think we should tolerate.
And it is unfair to use African-American voters as an example. They are a lot less, erm, stupid about political influence than white people.
mekka okereke
in reply to mekka okereke • • •@tofugolem @Minimac @laguiri @schmaker @mastodonmigration
Why having more Black folk on your social media platform is so effective at protecting you against foreign disinformation campaigns.
hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/111β¦
mekka okereke :verified: (@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)
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Mastodon Migration
in reply to mekka okereke • • •Fascinating
Mark Harris
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •@tofugolem
The thing that was bad about Cambridge Analytica was that Zuck gave out the data. I don't recall any evidence that it had a significant effect on the election. Doesn't mean they didn't try, of course...
@mekkaokereke @Minimac @laguiri @schmaker @mastodonmigration @randahl
Chris L
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •Tofu Golem
in reply to Mark Harris • • •@nzlemming @mekkaokereke @Minimac @laguiri @schmaker @mastodonmigration
I imagine that it would be hard to say how much or how little effect they had.
But people forget that Cambridge Analytica got in trouble because of which data they used. What they did with the data is exactly what those platforms exist to facilitate. They just did it with a political candidate instead of graphics cards or laundry detergent.
Mark Harris
in reply to Tofu Golem • • •@tofugolem
Not denying that they shouldn't have had the data - that's on Zuck - but it wasn't the earthshaking event that people make it out to be, not even on Facebook.
@mekkaokereke @Minimac @laguiri @schmaker @mastodonmigration @randahl
The Penguin of Evil
in reply to Randahl Fink • • •Emilio ΚΜ‘Μ’Μ‘ΚΜ ΝΝΝ‘ΚΜ²Μ ΚΜ’Μ‘Μ’
in reply to Mark Harris • • •Tofm2 π«π· πΊπ¦ πͺπΊ
in reply to Randahl Fink • •loops.video/v/cue8bby37G
n816
2025-12-08 11:16:40
Tofu Golem
in reply to Mark Harris • • •@nzlemming @mekkaokereke @Minimac @laguiri @schmaker @mastodonmigration
A lot of people seem to think that what they did with the data was the issue.
What they did with the data is what that platform exists to facilitate.