Life Rafts for Everyone 🛟

IN THIS MISSIVE:

• Why I feel a sense of urgency about the policy changes at Meta
• Some solutions/ideas
• Suggested reading

Earlier this week, the owner of Meta set out a six point plan to disseminate disinformation and allow hate speech on Facebook and IG. Fact checkers will be made redundant. A deliberate alliance with T$&*!% will change the way these platforms look and feel, all under the cynical guise of protecting ‘free speech.’ Accounts that are AI generated are already populating the platforms. My concern is that disinformation will look like our friends and neighbours, people we trust. The years spent fostering community on Meta products will now be exploited. There are specific directives now appearing in Meta policy allowing hate speech directed at trans folks in particular.

'If they come for me in the morning, they will come for you in the night.'

—Angela Davis

Many of us have spent over a decade building community on Instagram and Facebook. Other creatives have formed personal brands with massive followings essential to their livelihood. (For the record I am the former not the latter). For some it will be impossible to leave right away, especially those who are activists on the platform. For them, leaving is essentially like going into hiding.

Staying or going is not some moral stance. Whatever we decide, we are not implicit in this policy simply because we continue to use Meta products.

Disinformation will filtrate the platform. It will no longer be safe for many of us who are already advocating & fending off hate in other places.

In a conversation with Joan_of_cats on IG, we were talking about how to confront this problem. Some of us rely on the internet for interpersonal connection. Others may feel they need to stay and combat the hatred. Still others refuse to be driven out of a place they have built.

None of our ‘content’ we share belongs to us on Meta products. We fill the product with our friendships, thoughts, ideas, art, and poetry. and in doing this we become the product. I knew this and still was willing to participate.

Disinformation will filtrate the platform. It will no longer be safe for many of us who are already advocating & fending off hate in other places. Arguing on the internet is pointless and potentially all consuming, especially when the bad actors aren’t even people anymore, but AI created ‘profiles’. We have seen the toll trolls have taken on Youtube creatives, and the riots incited by E.M.’s X.

I lack real life connections, and online kindred are vital. How to we protect what we have built? What will safe online community look like in the future?

We have lifeboats for everyone. They are small and weird—perhaps not what you are accustomed to, but they are here. Where will they take us? Together, somewhere better.

SOME THOUGHTS ON A WAY FORWARD

I will foster online community here if there is interest.

For the last half of the year I didn’t host much online. There wasn’t interest and I was struggling with lots of stuff.

I’m wondering if there is interest now? It is totally different than surfing with a Meta product, I get it. It requires showing up. Would people be interested in coming together to talk about these changes to the online landscape? A town hall meeting of outliers, witches and visionaries? If you are interested, comment below. This is what I can offer my community in this time of crisis, but I need to know if it is something you want. (Nota bene—I know there have been rumblings about fascism on the Substack platform, but for the time being I control everything in my corner here.)

I love Mastodon.

Mastodon is infinitely customisable and there is no algorithm. The platform is open source software that allows countless instances to talk to each other. Your instance hosts you, and there are loads based on shared interests or larger ones that are more general. It requires an active approach to social media, a love of tinkering, perhaps, instead of the passive mode we have been conditioned to use. I believe in the future mega-accounts will host their own instances—this arrangement is called Federation. You can follow hashtags there and quickly find a small cache of allies and compatriots. I can answer questions you have.

This is my profile on Mastodon.

Signal is a great alternative to WhatsApp (WhatsApp is also owned by Meta).

I am on Bluesky, though I fear it’s just another venture capitalist social experiment. So far, it is run by a group of women who are venture capitalists, but they want to do things differently. I’m skeptical, but interested.

Me on Bluesky

FURTHER (Essential) READING

This helpful piece in the Guardian with Nobel Peace Prize Winner Marisa Ressa on disinformation, dictatorship and the changes at Meta