this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2023
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Fediverse

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[–] SGG@lemmy.world 156 points 1 year ago (32 children)

I hope other governments, small and large, start doing this.

[–] laurens@kbin.social 126 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Germany (social.bund.de) and the EU (social.network.europa.eu) already have it. I think it's very likely that other governments, especially european ones, will start to do this.

With the internet being so dominated by american voices, I dont think a lot of people have fully appreciated the sentiment change in the higher levels of european governments. Sovereign control over their digital spaces is something that is actually mattering on the level of nation states. Its a way of thinking that is kind of new to most people, as we rarely think about the sovereign powers of nation states, and even less so in the context of the internet. But now were starting to do that again, and it actually matters.

[–] maegul@lemmy.ml 55 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

With the internet being so dominated by american voices, I dont think a lot of people have fully appreciated the sentiment change in the higher levels of european governments.

Absolutely. I was on an instance, run by North Americans, that had blocked European Govt instances because they didn’t trust government agencies spying on them etc. Some German users picked up on this and voiced a lot of frustration over it. There was a clear cultural divide. Even more ironic, I think it was the German department of privacy or something to that effect.

Nonetheless, it was quite interesting to see a tension between the small hacker aspect of the fediverse and the “this is the new internet” aspect and how much the US dominated perspective probably completely missed the mark.

EDIT: European Govt from “European” to clarify I was referring to government run instances.

[–] fediverse_report@lemmy.ml 33 points 1 year ago (8 children)

ha yeah I remember that, that was fun.

To riff on this a little bit further: its also visible in how little attention in the gazillion conversations about Threads is paid to the fact that the entirety of the EU cannot even access it yet due to the new DMA and DSA.

Or one of the articles I wrote that got relatively low traction, that was specificially about how all of the Nordic countries got an official recommendation to use ActivityPub for their governmental communications. I dont mind that some articles get less traction than others, but it does stand out when you consider how impactful such things are for the long term structure of the fediverse. Lots of EU governments are now talking about needing sovereign public digital spaces, and are actively looking how ActivityPub can help with that. And that matters way more than whatever Elons latest shenanigans are.

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[–] SJ_Zero@lemmy.fbxl.net 120 points 1 year ago (6 children)

They've done a lot of stupid things lately, but this isn't one of them.

Governments should be using open platforms and open source software.

[–] Koffiato@lemmy.ml 38 points 1 year ago

Absolutely! Using open source software is much cheaper, as well. Hiring developers to work on open source software/OSs would cost less than buying software annually. Governments pay stupid amounts of money for easily replaceable software.

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[–] garretble@lemmy.world 106 points 1 year ago (16 children)

This is great.

I really wish more news sites set up their own instances. At the start I realize they wouldn’t be getting as many eyeballs, but it seems to make a lot of sense to have a @news@cnn.social or something. Then Wolf could have @Wolf.Blitzer@cnn.social.

Instant “verification” that way, too.

But we’ll see.

[–] 2bR02b@lemmy.one 33 points 1 year ago

Given how the fediverse is kinda like e-mail, this feels like a natural next step.

[–] CodeMonkeyDance@lemmy.world 33 points 1 year ago

Wow. Decentralization as a whole will be a game changer for all corners of media, science etc.

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[–] blue_zephyr@lemmy.world 94 points 1 year ago (3 children)

That's actually hilarious because the coalition of ruling parties of the Netherlands was so unstable that it fell apart today.

[–] smashboy@kbin.social 80 points 1 year ago

Oh dang, our government has fallen and I first read about it on Lemmy. It’s official, this is my social medium now.

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[–] Nerrad@lemmy.world 89 points 1 year ago

Its super important that Government info NOT be hidden behind paywalls, forced log-ins or even CloudFlare puzzles. People need to be able to freely click through to the official information.

[–] experbia@kbin.social 79 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is great. This is how it always should have been.

Organization of any kind needs a Twitter page or subreddit? No, they need their own official, self-controlled Mastodon instance anyone can see and listen to and interact with, even without accounts on that specific instance. They need their own kbin or Lemmy instance to make and administer their community on and have control over, everyone can still participate even without signing up for accounts on that specific instance.

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 32 points 1 year ago (5 children)

You don’t see governments or companies using gmail, now do you. Well, small unprofessional companies do, but everyone else has a domain, website, mail server and all the usual internet infrastructure in place. Why should companies and governments use TweetBook or Snapstargram for official communication when they can host their own instance. For the time being, the problem has been that large majority of the people are using these unstable platforms, so companies decided to follow.

[–] master5o1@lemmy.nz 39 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Eh, lots of companies use gmail it's just masked by being their own domain and part of g suite.

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[–] Boiglenoight@lemmy.world 66 points 1 year ago

Excellent use case.

[–] Toldry@lemmy.world 61 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not many governments would have enough tech-savy people to even think of opening a Mastadon instance. Kudos NL and Germany!

[–] grissee@lemm.ee 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

a lot of government has one, they're just not paid enough

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[–] Rooty@lemmy.world 54 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The fact that a state government used a commercial service to inform the public is absurd, and this was bound to happen eventually.

[–] Doodoocaca@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Why is it absurd? The best way to reach people is on the platforms they use. People are not going to install some government app or use a special website to see those kinds of messages.

[–] Koen967@feddit.nl 20 points 1 year ago

It is absurd in the way that the previous NL-ALERT I received had a link to Twitter for more information that I couldn't open, since I don't have a Twitter account. When Musk decides to do something crazy with his platform it could have a direct impact on the communication between the government and the people. It is safer to use a self hosted platform so you can always reach the masses when it is needed.

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[–] karrbs@kbin.social 51 points 1 year ago

This actually makes a lot of sense and I am surprised that there isn't a lot of government already doing it. That and celebrities. It's basically instant verification.

[–] Redonkulation@lemmy.world 48 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is really fascinating to me. It would be interesting to see each country set up their own Mastodon/Lemmy/Kbin/other federated systems and have those instances constantly talk to each other. Like others have commented, It seems like a great way to keep the communication style and interaction of twitter/facebook, while also protecting the validity of the information through private instances. Really smart decision.

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[–] cerevant@lemmy.world 48 points 1 year ago

This is the way. Government, Businesses, Celebrities and News organizations should be hosting their own social media presence. They shouldn’t be beholden to corporate interests to regulate their communications. This also breaks the cycle of exclusive content that causes lock-in. Wins for everyone.

[–] 001100010010@lemmy.dbzer0.com 48 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Imagine a world where every government has its own instance.

"Breaking News: North Korea has defederated from the United States, as well as hundreds of other countries."

[–] zuhayr@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago (5 children)

"The Russian federation defederated Ukraine."

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[–] Metal_Zealot@lemmy.world 43 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

in the future:

"Ireland.ir and Scot.land has defederated from the England.UK.gov. The Prime minister will be addressing his Instance shortly"

[–] mintiefresh@lemmy.ca 41 points 1 year ago

Exciting to see this happening. More governments should do this.

[–] seaneoo@lemm.ee 35 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Incredible! Are they the first government entity to do so?

[–] ghariksforge@lemmy.world 61 points 1 year ago (2 children)

No, EU and Germany have been in Mastodon for months.

[–] Aux@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

On Mastodon or their own instances?

[–] ColonelPanic@lemmy.ml 47 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] TheSaneWriter@lemm.ee 30 points 1 year ago

That's really cool. This is a good use-case example of Mastadon, the government can run its own official instance for announcements and information without impacting other instances

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[–] jalda@sopuli.xyz 52 points 1 year ago

The EU started their own instance when Musk bought Twitter

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[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lol that’s awesome! I didn’t think governments would start doing that so quickly.

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[–] 77slevin@sopuli.xyz 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Didn't the EU do the same shortly after Space Karen bought Twitter? I believe I saw an article around the time I started my Mastodon account.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 22 points 1 year ago

https://social.network.europa.eu/

https://tube.network.europa.eu/

Took about two weeks from Musk's announcement for those instances to show up.

[–] Epicurus0319@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Good, other governments should be doing this. (But even if they use threads instead, mastodon users’ll see their updates anyway if mastodon feds with it)

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[–] arc@lemm.ee 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

All governments, large NGOs, and news orgs should do this. Maybe there should be a "mastodon in a box" which is a simplified containerized version of the service which makes it easy to set up and secure.

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