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A reminder in the age of the Fediverse: if you're not the customer, you're still the product.
(slrpnk.net)
OP was taking about Tumblr, but I think it applies even more to the Fediverse: users need to develop an ethos of paying to support the sites they use. Otherwise advertisers pay the bills and call the shots.
@stabby_cicada I think digital public space is as important as physical public space. A lot of this communication space is well provided by private people and companies, but to ensure freedom nation states must also invest in it. Just like physical public space, it is a common good, a res-publica.
i mean there is many good arguements as to why digital public spaces should not be run by governments. But if they are not government run but funded, then that creates a new can of worms. It is best the governments ensure the freedom of digital public spaces and that these are run in a federated way, based on volunteer and non profit activities.
@tryptaminev Why? It would not take away anything from volunteer infrastructure, but would add safety options.
Volunteer servers need users to trust their admins with no grounds for that, but the fact that they "want to run a community", which also implies that they have personal politics and power over you. Fedi should not be only for existing communities. Also, there's financial stability as noted above.
And there are some grounds to trust your democratic representatives, aren't there.
Given that the democratic representatives in my country are trying to implement authoritarian surveillance since decades and try time and time again, despite being slammed by the constitutional court, no i dont trust them.
They dont care for and dont understand the meaning of these spaces and the necessary rules.
Of course you are right that private entities are not free from it either. That is where federation seems to be the best way to adress it.
US and EU are both racing to implement an array of anti-freedom, authoritarian internet bills. What stable nation-state are you willing to fully entrust indefinitely with regulation of what you do online?
I do think the transmission infrastructure of the internet should be publicly funded and owned, but not what happens on the wires.