Joshua Casey 😷 @JoshuaACasey@social.cleverlibre.org

This tutorial by DigitalOcean just dropped. Looks streamlined and the website is easier to navigate!

Thanks @kaasbaas for mentioning!

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-mastodon-on-ubuntu-20-04

Very good piece by @mmasnick https://www.techdirt.com/2022/12/19/i-speak-fluent-new-social-media-ceo-whos-in-over-their-head-let-me-translate-the-last-few-days-of-twitter-policy/ #twittermigration #twitterexodus #twitter #tech #technews #technology #journalist

The #videogame industry will be unpacking the fallout from the new Epic Games COPPA ruling for a long time - $520 million in fines and restrictions. The ruling is a CRITICAL read for all of us who work with in-game economies, voice and text comms, and account processing. Half of the ruling specifically cites Epic's #UXdesign decisions as causing harm. Let's all make sure we take a hard look at our platforms post-holiday and prevent this from happening elsewhere. #gamedev https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/12/fortnite-video-game-maker-epic-games-pay-more-half-billion-dollars-over-ftc-allegations

🚀 Attention all TikTokers, IG influencers, YouTubers, Twitch streamers, bloggers! We’re starting a new Creator’s Network and WE NEED YOU! Sign up now and shine a light on tech policy! https://airtable.com/shrsKPcwRhDdWvX4r

moral panics are generally aimed at marginalized people. the current assault on LGBT people and trans people is a good example.

but moral panics—where individuals are presented as unclear threats to a social order that must be preserved by exiling them—that's the preferred mode of social control on the right. but it has appeal beyond the right, which is what makes it really dangerous.

Should Elon step up and make Twitter decentralised and open source? He will not abide by the results of this poll.

There was once a dream of a decentralised web.

As recently as a decade ago we had a still very active blogosphere, connected via blogrolls and RSS. Specialised web forums were still mainstream and messenger apps could largely interoperate.

Centralised social media slowly ate that dream. It had plenty of positives, but it pulled more and more people away from the open web and into corporate walled gardens.

Some people kept the dream of decentralisation alive. And now you are here.

THREAD: December, the month of wrap-ups. We’re clinking glasses to our top 10 victories, and preparing to go big in 2023. 🥂
Here's the connector: You helped us fight for human digital rights that help people flourish, and defend against efforts to lock us into dystopia.

Another day, another "for the children" bill being pushed for the omnibus.

This time it's COPPA 2.0, which thoughtlessly extends a framework that makes sense for little kids, to teens as well.

That's a problem. Kids use a pretty small segment of the Internet. But teen use of online services overlaps largely with adults'. Congress should pass a comprehensive privacy law, not this last-ditch effort.

@TechFreedom explains: https://techfreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Letter_-COPPA-2.0-12.2022.pdf

Name 3 privacy tools that changed your life.

Help someone be more private online this holiday season.

If Musk "steps down" as Twitter CEO, per his latest bogus "poll", some things to remember:

1) He'll still be the owner, and the owner makes the rules the CEO carries out.

2) He lies incessantly. Nothing he says can be trusted, ever.

3) Big Journalism will breathlessly cover the charade as if it meant something, and will continue to support a man who loathes honest reporting and has contempt for genuine freedom of expression.

Advice for new folks: Complete your profile info -- at least your name, ideally some bio info and avatar -- before you import your contacts to start following people on here.

The notification a person gets when you follow them is the salient moment to be followed back. But I'm getting notifications of new followers where I just see a handle I don't recognize and the default elephant. I'm sure some of those are people I know and would follow back if I realized who they were.

Many are saying Mastodon reminds them of the early days of social media. It's true. My feed is filled with cat photos. Take away the capitalist profit-motivated algorithms and the cats emerge once again to lead us.