+ +

Liberation Technology and the Arab Spring: From Utopia to Atopia and Beyond
+ Ulises A. Mejias, SUNY Oswego +

+ —
+ First published in The Fibreculture Journal, Issue 20, 2012
+ +

Abstract: While the tendency in the West to refer to the Arab Spring movements as ‘Twitter Revolutions’ has passed, a liberal discourse of ‘liberation technology’ (information and communication technologies that empower grassroots movements) continues to influence our ideas about networked participation. Unfortunately, this utopian discourse tends to circumvent any discussion of the capitalist market structure in which these tools operate. In this paper, I suggest that liberation technologies may in fact increase opportunities for political participation, but that they simultaneously create certain kinds of inequalities. I end by proposing a theoretical framework for locating alternative practices of participation and liberation.

—1—
+ After some initial fascination with the concept, there now appears to be more skepticism than support for the idea that tools like Twitter and Facebook are single-handedly responsible for igniting the Arab Spring movements. As we witness the immense effort and human cost that has gone into uprisings in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Western Sahara and Yemen, we recognise that it takes much more than a social media platform to organise and sustain a grassroots protest movement. And yet, the neoliberal discourse behind the trope of a “Twitter Revolution” (a revolution enabled by “liberation technologies” which empower oppressed groups) continues to function — especially in Western media and academia — as a utopian discourse that conceals the role of communicative capitalism in undermining democracy. The meme of the Twitter Revolution may have come and gone, but the ideology that gave rise to it continues to colour our ideas about participation and democracy.

—2—
+ What follows are some observations about the manner in which discourses around liberation technology are used to imagine a utopian model of activism in which digitally networked communities are capable of changing their political realities through mediated participation facilitated by corporations. Specifically, I want to do three things: 1) to examine how the utopian discourse of liberation technology circumvents any discussion of the market structure of digital information and communication technologies; 2) to explore how this utopian discourse normalises the role of digital networks as platforms that increase participation while simultaneously increasing inequality, and 3) to propose responses to the utopian discourse of liberation technology that provide alternative imaginings of social participation. I should clarify that my objective is not to provide a detailed account of the unfolding of the Arab Spring movements or their continuing repercussions; rather, my goal is to describe how the assumptions behind the rhetoric of liberation technology correlate to the practice of civic disobedience, and to delineate a theoretical framework for understanding the contrast between the two. Hence, I do not believe my argument is limited to a North African or Middle Eastern context. Events since the Arab Spring such as the England riots in August of 2011, or the emergence of the Occupy movement in September (which happened after this text was originally submitted for publication, and are therefore not discussed in detail) serve to extend the validity and application of my argument.

—3—
+ It would be adequate to begin by expanding the constrictive parameters set forth by the concept of utopia. Here, I will take a page from McKenzie Wark (2007) and augment this idea with the concepts of heterotopia and atopia. While a utopia is a nowhere that exists in a theoretical realm, a heterotopia is an actual but different space, an elsewhere where exceptional conditions from those that usually apply exist. Thus, while a utopia can only exist in the imagination, a heterotopia is an “island” (such as a school, a prison, a stadium or a hospital) where people are allowed — or forced — to follow different social rules. Lastly, an atopia is similarly an alternative site with different social norms, except that in this case, the site can be located anywhere or everywhere; it is borderless. In the remainder of this paper, I will be sometimes alluding to how the discourses of digital networks, participatory media, and mobilisation inscribe social participation in the different topological planes of utopia, heterotopia and atopia. Although these concepts are not central to my argument per se, they will help me frame a critique of liberation technology.

—4—
+ There is, indeed, much utopianism around the discourse of social media and recent protest movements. Even before the so-called Twitter Revolution, we can point to a growing trend, particularly within mainstream and even alternative journalism, that suggested that protest movements all over the world were transformed by participatory media (examples include statements about the revolutionary impact of cell phones in the Philippines, YouTube in Iran, Facebook in Moldova, and so on). I am choosing to collect this particular brand of techno-utopianism under the rubric of “liberation technology,” not because this is a term that is readily recognisable in popular or academic discourses, but because of its rich semiotic meaning. One noticeable place where a definition of liberation technology is attempted is the Web site for the Program on Liberation Technology at Stanford University. There, we are informed that the goal of the program is to research ‘how information technology can be used to defend human rights, improve governance, empower the poor, promote economic development, and pursue a variety of other social goods’ (‘Program on Liberation Technology’).

—5—
+ These are worthy goals. But my first encounter with the term “liberation technology” made me think of a similarly sounding concept, and even now, typing those words in Wikipedia will cause the search algorithm to ask: ‘Did you mean liberation theology?’ At first glance, perhaps both movements share a certain ethos and idealism. But my critique of liberation technology centers on the fact that, whereas liberation theology sought to lend legitimacy to the struggle of the oppressed by questioning the hierarchical structure of the Catholic church from within, and suggesting that the church itself could be the source of injustice, liberation technology does not seem very interested in questioning the roles and structures of the institutions that own and control social media networks. Instead, liberation technology seems to posit a worldview whereby technologies that emerge in the context of capitalism (precisely at places like Stanford) can be used by those wishing to challenge capitalism itself.

—6—
+ As the history of global unrest intersects with the emerging affordances of information and communication technologies (ICT), no one can deny that these can — often in unforeseen ways — aid in the defence of human rights, improve governance, empower the poor, and so on. But that is not the point. The point is that while presenting these technologies as nothing less than the agents of liberation, a critique of the capitalist institutions and superstructures in which these technologies operate is obscured, and this critique is necessary for understanding the relationship between capitalism and ICT, as well as for opening up new frontiers of liberation.

—7—
+ It has already been convincingly argued that neoliberalism would not have been possible without ICT (cf. Robert Neubauer, 2011), to the extent that these technologies facilitated transnational flexible production and unrestricted capital flows, causing the erosion of organised labour and the promotion of an unregulated, privatised “free” market as the solution to all of society’s ills. But here I am more interested in the link between capitalism and communication as an act of participation in society. Jodi Dean’s concept of communicative capitalism is particularly relevant, since she defines it as ‘the materialisation of ideas of inclusion and participation in information, entertainment, and communication technologies in ways that capture resistance and intensify global capitalism’ (2009: 2). In communicative capitalism, everyone has the tools and opportunities to express an opinion. “Participation” in society is therefore identified first and foremost as the ability to communicate, to express one’s opinion, in particular about the — mostly commercial — choices that give individuals their identity. However, the overabundance of communication in a marketplace in which all statements compete for visibility results in an environment where political change becomes difficult (if all options are equally valid, how can one option be declared superior?). Thus, the more we communicate (through our participation in digital networks, for instance), the more resistance is obstructed, and the more the ideology of capitalism is reinforced. Communicative capitalism — to paraphrase Gilles Deleuze — doesn’t stop people from expressing themselves, but forces them to express themselves continuously (1997: 129).

—8—
+ Encouraging compulsive and continuous expression has turned out to be a profitable business model, as evidenced by the growth of the social media industry. Facebook, launched only in 2004, was adding on average 250,000 new members a day by 2007. Currently, it has over 845 million members (‘Facebook Company Info’), who store ‘more than 100 petabytes (100 quadrillion bytes) of photos and videos’ in the company’s servers (‘Facebook Infrastructure’). According to industry reports, the social networking market as a whole grew 87% from February 2006 to February 2007 (Britton and McGonegal, 2007: 80). Currently, the world spends over 110 billion minutes a month on social networks and blog sites, which equates to 22% of all time spent online (Nielsen Wire, 2010). Social media is driven by advertisements targeted to users based on the demographic data they provide, and the amount spent on advertising in social network services was $1.4 billion in 2008, with companies spending $305 and $850 million dollars to advertise their products on Facebook and MySpace, respectively (Eskelsen, Marcus and Ferree, 2009: 102-103). While the launch of new social media companies gives the impression of a competitive market, merger and acquisition trends suggest a move towards conglomeration that mirrors that of (and intersects with) traditional broadcast media. In a notable example, MySpace (which currently has over 185 million members) was acquired for US$580 million in 2005 by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, one of the eight companies that dominate the global media market (although it was later sold again, once it lost its market share to Facebook).

—9—
+ In essence, communicative capitalism means that communication and social exchange take place not just in any environment, but in a privatised one. The neoliberal impulse to subsume all social communication and participation to market forces can only be achieved if the network is made the dominant episteme or model for organising social realities. This is accomplished by the application of what I call a nodocentric filter to social formations, which renders all human interaction in terms of network dynamics (not just any network, but a digital network with a profit-driven infrastructure). Under a nodocentric view, the goal is to assign to everything its place in the network. Nodocentrism is an epistemic stance where the distance between a node and something outside the network is, for all practical purposes, infinite (Mejias, 2010). Thus, to be anything other than a node is to be invisible, non-existent. The technologies of communicative capitalism are applied towards the creation of a pervasive or ubiquitous computing environment in which every thing and every utterance must be integrated or assimilated as a node in a digital network.

—10—
+ As a way to illustrate the concept of nodocentrism in broader terms, consider the example of search engine results, and how they point to documents, sites or objects that have been indexed in a database. What has not been indexed is not listed as a result, and it might as well not even exist in the universe of knowable things as far as the search engine is concerned. Nodocentrism is also at work in the creation of friend lists like the ones used in social networking programs. These lists are nodocentric because they depict a social network comprised of individuals available (or potentially available) to interact with, but they render invisible the individuals who are not on the list because they do not use the same program, or because they do not have an account with that service. The algorithms of digital networks operationalise decisions about what is included or not included on the list. I am not suggesting that nodocentrism provides a deficient or false image of the world; I am simply pointing out how it embodies a politics of network inclusion and exclusion.

—11—
+ Consider the example of social movements like the Arab Spring. The discourse of liberation technology presents these movements as the work of “wired” activists, although this portrayal excludes the work and participation of activists who are not computer literate, or simply not social media users. Social change is thus imagined as an outcome of information flows within a network, and activists are portrayed as nodes transmitting dissent to other nodes. In order for liberation to happen, everyone must be connected to the same digital networks. Change and resistance are conceived in nodocentric terms.

—12—
+ But privileging a networked view of activism in this way can also serve to obstruct any real critique of social media technologies, and to justify their use without the need to question their terms of use. The discourse of liberation technology accomplishes this by providing two different — although interdependent — versions of the affordances of these technologies: one for the homeland territory, and one for abroad. While communicative capitalism provides citizens at home no real opportunities for resistance (the majority are too occupied compulsively communicating), liberation technology presents a liberal and utopian narrative of the emancipating and empowering potential of technology in places not entirely corrupted by capitalism. In other words, change, while impossible “here,” is realised through liberation technology “over there,” in a heterotopian elsewhere (that in the case of the Arab Spring includes the Middle East and parts of Africa). This is a valuable manoeuvre for liberal sensitivities, because it redeems the technologies of communicative capitalism. Activists “over there” are using these tools not just to talk about commercial choices, but about things that really matter: the overthrow of injustice, the plight of the poor, etc. Liberation technology thus functions as a form of self-focused empathy in which an Other is imagined who is nothing more than a projection that validates our own desires, a user of the same technologies we are using — a user who applies these tools not for the frivolous ends of consumerism, but for the betterment of the world.

—13—
+ This would seem to imply that the discourse of liberation technology can only serve to arrest social change at home. If that were strictly the case, it would be difficult to account for the Wisconsin protests in early 2011, the emergence of the Occupy movements, or for that matter, any subsequent act of protest in the West that uses technology to mobilise people. The fact that these events continue to germinate and spread seems to demonstrate that it is only a matter of time before social movements influence each other in this age of global media, thus making it possible for liberation technologies to fulfil their true potential wherever the social and economic conditions that fuel social unrest are present, even at home.

—14—
What is interesting, however, is that coverage of post Arab Spring movements in the West has not really revolved around protesters’ use of social media, or it has only minimally. Participatory media being used at home for organising protests is apparently not that newsworthy, since it lacks the sensationalist and media-friendly orientalism of the Twitter Revolution stories. And as the use of participatory media in social movements has become normalised and generalised, there seems to be continued support for the belief that these corporate products have fundamentally shifted the balance of power between producers and consumers, and therefore between the owners of the means of production and the audience.

—15—
+ However, I would propose that the discourse of liberation technology conceals, in fact, how production on the new platform continues to exhibit a power imbalance. In theory, the internet (the über liberation technology in the liberal worldview) brought about the end of communication monopolies with their one-to-many models of dissemination; now, in the age of user-generated content, we have communication that is many-to-many. Access to the tools of production and the channels of distribution has been greatly democratised — the theory goes — and monopolies have been replaced by a free market with perfect competition. Everyone has the opportunity to create content, and everyone has the opportunity to engage that content. While the equation of this continuous communication cycle with civic participation is precisely what the concept of communicative capitalism seeks to critique, we need to also question the utopian narrative that describes a seamless evolution from monopolies (one-to-many) to more democratised circuits of communication (many-to-many). Has the empowering of more voices fundamentally altered the market structure of participation?

—16—
+ To answer that question, we need perhaps to take a brief detour through the Hitler Finds Out meme. This phenomenon refers to a series of parody videos on YouTube that began to appear circa 2006 in reaction to a sequence from the German film Downfall (2004), which depicts the last days of Hitler towards the end of World War II. Users took a three minute clip from the film in which Hitler learns he is losing the war, and while leaving the original German soundtrack intact, provided new subtitles to make it appear as if the Führer is ranting about something else (like being kicked out of Xbox Live, the subprime mortgage crisis, the cancellation of the TV show Ugly Betty, and so on). But when the company that produced the film began to receive complaints that the parodies were trivialising the war and the holocaust, they decided to pull the clips from YouTube, claiming that the videos constituted a violation of copyright. The creators of the parodies felt their Fair Use rights were violated, and responded by creating more videos. One of them, in which Hitler rants against the videos being removed from YouTube, contains an interesting moment. When a Nazi general suggests to Hitler that they simply upload the videos to another video hosting service, like DailyMotion or Vimeo, Hitler angrily responds that nobody uses those services, and that ‘YouTube is the de facto standard’ (Green, 2010).

—17—
+ The point of this anecdote is to highlight the fact that when people have a video they want seen by the largest audience, they will most likely use YouTube (even if it is a video critiquing YouTube). And when people want to join a social networking site, they will join Facebook. And when they want to participate in a micro-blogging community, they will choose Twitter. There are alternatives for each of these services in the marketplace, but the fact that these networks host the most users renders the competitors almost useless. Most individuals will not willingly opt to use a service with a lesser share of the market.

—18—
+ This brings us to an important realisation about the market structure of social media: one-to-many is not giving way to many-to-many without first going through many-to-one. In other words, in this age where everyone can be producer and not just a consumer, the communication monopoly has merely been replaced by the monopsony (in economic terms, a monopoly is a market structure characterised by the presence of a single seller, whereas a monopsony is characterised by the presence of a single buyer). We — the sellers — are legion, but the buyers of what we produce are few. What we sell is not a product assembled in a factory, but “content” generated through social interactions which we hand over to the only buyer in town, the Facebook’s and Google’s of the world.

—19—
+ That monopsony has become the dominant market structure of the Web is not accidental. The architectures of participation of social media are based on a model where profit margins are maximised the more users join the network (which is why access is free or extremely low cost), and the more demographic data those users provide so that advertising can be targeted at them. As the saying goes: if you are not paying for it, you are not the customer, you are the product being sold. Access to “free” social media services exist only because companies have figured out a way to monetize our participation.

—20—
+ My argument is that this exchange is not fair for a variety of reasons, and that while digital networks increase opportunities for participation, they simultaneously increase inequality. In other words, the technologies of communicative capitalism embody practices of social participation and inclusion, but as Dean (2009) suggests, they also perpetuate the ideology of capitalism and obstruct any resistance to it. The way in which they do so — the way in which they create inequality while increasing participation — is through strategies that include the commodification of social labour (bringing activities we used to perform outside the market into the market), the privatisation of social spaces (eradicating public spaces and replacing them with “enhanced” private spaces), and the surveillance of dissenters (through new methods of warrantless wiretapping and social network analysis).

—21—
+ In order to provide a clear picture of the impact of this inequality, we must consider not only arguments that show the immediate benefits of a particular technology, but broader arguments that contrast the increase of access and participation with more comprehensive societal indicators. For instance, a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey from July of 2010 (Smith, 2010) indicated that cell phone ownership in the United States was higher among Latinos and African Americans (87%) than among Whites (80%). This would seem to suggest some progress in terms of inclusion, and perhaps even economic opportunity. However, when we contrast this data with the fact that the median wealth of African Americans has decreased 77% since 2007 (‘Harper’s Index,’ 2010), it becomes apparent that access to certain technologies does not, by itself, translate into more equality. It might be helpful to speak of the inequality generated thorough participation via digital networks in the manner that Andre Gunder Frank (1967) spoke of underdevelopment: not as the result of being excluded from the economic systems of capitalism, but precisely as the result of being included in them.

—22—
+ That digital networks increase participation while increasing inequality is also evident in the case of the Arab Spring. While we have seen a diminishing in the compulsion to brand these acts of protest as Twitter Revolutions (as if corporate products, not people, deserve the credit), the discourse of liberation technology nonetheless implies that social media is partly responsible for igniting the uprisings — and in cases like Egypt, for their success. That these tools can and should be used for getting more people to participate in democratic movements is not what I am arguing against. Rather, I am interested in the larger consequences and implications for democracy of employing such tools, and I am proposing (along with people like Evgeny Morozov, 2011) that the use of social media by activists increases opportunities for participation and action, but it also makes it easier for governments and corporations to operate a repressive panopticon.

—23—
+ According to a report by the OpenNet Initiative, around 20 million users in the Middle East and North Africa have already experienced the blocking of online political content carried out with the help of Western technologies (Norman and York, 2010). To the extent that grassroots movements all over the world continue to rely on corporate liberation technologies to organise and mobilise, we can expect inequality (through participation) to take various forms.

—24—
+ First, there is the loss of privacy through surveillance. States can monitor activity within online social networks to identify dissenters and learn of (and obstruct) their plans. This is accomplished through deep-packet surveillance, filtering and blocking technologies, provided to repressive regimes like Iran, China, Burma and Egypt by companies like Cisco, Motorola, Boeing, Alcatel-Lucent, McAfee, Netsweeper, and Websense (York, 2011; Mayton, 2011). Recently, a group of Chinese citizens even filed a lawsuit against Cisco, claiming that the technology that allowed the government to set up the Great Firewall of China led to their arrest and torture (Abbott, 2011). That the US government pays lip service to the importance of a Free Internet (MacKinnon, 2011) and finances circumvention technologies (Glanz and Markoff, 2011) while supporting these companies through tax breaks and lax regulation is an unfortunate contradiction.

—25—
+ Second, inequality through participation can also be produced through the use of PSYOPs and propaganda. The US Army, for instance, is developing artificial intelligence agents that would populate social networking platforms and dispense pro-American propaganda (Fielding and Cobain, 2011). Dozens of these ‘sock puppets’ could be supervised by a single person, and their profiles and conduct would be indistinguishable from that of a real human being. A low-budget version of this strategy has already been put into action by the Syrian government, who apparently released an army of Twitter spambots to spread pro-regime opinions (York, 2011).

—26—
+ Loss of freedom of speech is another example of inequality through participation. Companies, unlike states, are not obliged to guarantee any human rights, and their Terms of Use give them carte blanche to curtail the speech of certain users. For instance, Facebook (one assumes under the direction of the British authorities) recently removed pages and accounts of various protesters belonging to the group UK Uncut just before the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton (Malik, 2011). UK Uncut is not a violent terrorist organisation, but a group that opposes cuts to public services and demands that companies like Vodafone pay their share of taxes.

—27—
+ Suspension of service is another issue to consider. States (in collaboration with corporations) can simply “switch off” internet and mobile phone services for whole regions, in order to terminate access to the resources activists have been relying on. Vodafone, for instance, complied with the Egyptian government’s directive to end cell phone service during the Revolution of 25 January (Shenker, 2011).

—28—
+ Inequality though participation will also be evident in new technologies that will facilitate the remote control of mobile devices without the user’s consent. Modern cell phones have, for some time, provided the authorities with the ability to use them as wiretapping devices without their owner’s knowledge, even when the power is off (McCullagh and Broache, 2006). And they can also be used to track individuals and report their locations. An indication of what else we can expect in the future is a patent, filed by Apple, that allows for authorities to remotely disable a phone’s camera (Mack, 2011). While this is intended to prevent illegal recording at concerts, museums, etc., we can imagine how effective it would be at protests.

—29—
+ The last example of inequality through participation I will briefly discuss is crowd-sourced identification. One reason why authorities may want, in fact, not to remotely disable phone cameras is because they can aid in the identification of activists. At the Vancouver riots of June 2011 (which had nothing to do with correcting social injustices, and everything to do with sports hooliganism), Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr users were enlisted in a crowd-sourcing attempt to identify miscreants using digital photos and videos posted by onlookers (Wong, 2011). Similar practices were employed by the Iranian government during the post-election riots of 2009. Websites like http://gerdab.ir were setup to allow regime sympathisers to identify protesters and report them to the authorities (Tehrani, 2009).

—30—
+ All of the practices described above confirm Morozov’s observation that social media can be used by both sides, not just the side we agree with, and that the sacrifices in privacy may not be worth the gains (2009). Which perhaps explains why, at least in the Gulf Countries, Facebook usage seems to be diminishing (Khatri, 2011). But as regimes — repressive as well as democratic — learn how to use social media to influence the popularity of certain viewpoints, monitor communication, and detect threats, it seems as if dissent will become possible only in the excluded, non-surveilled spaces of what is outside the network, away from the participation templates of the monopsony. It is to this possibility that I want to turn next.

—31—
+ A typical drawing of a network depicts a series of nodes connected by lines, representing the links. As a mental exercise, I want to call attention to the space between the nodes. This space surrounding the nodes is not blank, and we can even give it a name: the paranodal. Because of nodocentrism we tend to see only the nodes in a network, but the space between nodes is not empty, it is inhabited by multitudes of paranodes that simply do not conform to the organising logic of the network, and cannot be seen through the algorithms of the network. The paranodal is not a utopia — it is not nowhere, but somewhere (beyond the nodes). It is not a heterotopia, since it is not outside the network but within it as well. The paranodal is an atopia, because it constitutes a difference that is everywhere.

—32—
+ Broken Web links pointing to pages that no longer exist, or cached versions of pages no longer active are paranodal, because they represent phantom nodes. Signal obstructers such as RFID (Radio-frequency identification) blockers that prevent network devices from being found are examples of technologies that create paranodality. Public spaces without surveillance cameras are paranodal spaces. Pirate radio operators are paranodal, because they function without network registration. Any kind of space where signal reception cannot be established is paranodal. Digital viruses and parasites that obstruct the operations of a network are also examples of paranodal technologies. Obsolete technology is paranodal, because its usage is no longer required to operate the network. Digital noise and glitches are paranodal, because they interfere with the flow of data in the network. Paranodality is a lost information packet in the internet. Populations in a dataset that are excluded or discriminated against by an algorithm become paranodal. Punk or rouge nodes — nodes who belong to a network only in order to destroy it — are paranodal. The activist who does not use liberation technologies is also an example of a paranode. This does not mean that paranodes are completely off the grid and outside all networks; for instance, someone not on Facebook might still be on email, which means she is a paranode in relation to the former but a participant in relation to the latter. Thus, the concept of the paranodal can help us describe network exclusions as well as allegiances.

—33—
+ The reason paranodes are important in our discussion of liberation technology, monopsonies, and protest movements is because these peripheries represent the only sites from which to disidentify from the network. The paranodal, to paraphrase Jacques Rancière, is the part of those who have no part (1999), and it is the means by which things that are not nodes can claim difference from the network as a whole, refusing to identify with it.

—34—
+ While the study of resistance movements as networks continues and will continue to be useful, a framework for opposing the nodocentric ordering of these movements into privatised templates for participation is necessary. As activists continue to demonstrate to liberation technologists, the struggle must go on after the internet and other digital networks are shut off — if the fight can’t continue without Facebook and Twitter, then it is doomed. This means that the struggle is in part against those who own and control the privatised networks of participation (and can thus switch them off). Consequently, we have to turn to the paranodal for the emergence of corresponding models of activism. Since the peripheries represent the only sites from which to unthink the network, it is in the paranodal where new strategies will emerge: strategies of obstruction, interference, and disassembly of privatised networks; strategies of leaking information or circulating misinformation in networks; and strategies of intensification: transforming action that begins in one kind of network into resistance and engagement with alternative forms of networks.

—35—
+ As we realise that many-to-many communication is becoming impossible without a for-profit many-to-one infrastructure, we must abandon the utopian fantasy that liberation technology, as currently envisioned, can increase democratic participation. Participation managed by monopsony can only increase inequality. In response, paranodality must provide an atopian way to challenge the network by serving as a method for thinking and acting outside the monopsony. As networks have become not just metaphors for describing sociality, but templates that organise and shape social realities, we must question our investment in corporate technologies as the agents of liberation.

+
+

Biographical Note

Ulises A. Mejias is assistant professor in the Communication Studies Department at SUNY Oswego. His research interests include network studies, critical theory, philosophy and social studies of technology, and political economy of new media. His book on critical network theory is scheduled for publication in 2012 by University of Minnesota Press. For more information, see http://ulisesmejias.com

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References

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+ +

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+ +

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+ +

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+ +

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+ +

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+ +

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+ +

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+ +

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+ +

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+ +

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+ +

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+ +

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+ +

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———. 'This Week in Internet Censorship', Electronic Frontier Foundation, 15 June (2011)

Relying on self-hosting and at the same time managing it

+ +

We started the special issue 8 by building a small network, a place to communicate, to experiment, to try and to fail. We were introduced to different protocols, and we explored new ways of communicating online. What struck me the most was this small community that we made around these tools and experiments. While we all got through the experience in the different timings, we faced our problems simultaneously. I can now understand how the bugs that we came across made this feeling of being connected even stronger. The feeling of being constantly questioning ourselves and not taking anything for granted.

+ +

We all stepped down from our comfort zone. Nowadays we feel like we belong online, we bond through platforms, and we use them without even thinking what is behind them, physically, politically, etc.

+ +

I decided to focus my research exactly on the questions that I had along the project probably as a way to understand them, or at least to try, more than actually answering them. Who are the communities that rely on non “mainstream” social media? What was their main reason to move, to gather in different places, how are they ruling themselves, and what boundaries had to be set?

+ +

What kind of communities are present on Mastodon, and what brought them there?

+ +

I focused my research on Mastodon. A self-hosted online social media, that allows anyone to host their own server and to be a small node in the network. Mastodon is separately operated and divided into different instances but also federated while it can communicate between all these nodes. It seemed the perfect case studie to collect data across the fediverse, hosting different communities with diversified goals.

+ +

One can see Mastodon has a place for internet refugees, and I guess I could agree. I started this experience with the idea that it was the perfect safe space, where people were here for a greater good, being marginalized groups that found it as a safe place, or free open source enthusiasts that gathered in an instance to talk about their own concerns. But I guess that it was not only it.

+ +

In articles like “Tired of Twitter? Join Me on Mastodon”, published in the well known Wired Magazine on 19th of August 2018, we can see that Mastodon is compared to a child of Twitter, a platform where you micro-blog by tooting, republish posts them as “boosts” and you may also favorite status. I can understand that the author has the same opinion as I did when I first started this journey, he states “Here’s what I think you’ll find: Mastodon users are nice people.”[^1]. I guess that you might wonder if what I think about these users is still the same or not but the kind of people present there I do not feel entitled to judge for myself.

+ +

One year earlier and almost at the same time of the year on the 18th of August 2017, Ethan Zuckerman, an American media scholar, blogger, and Internet activist also wrote about Mastodon. His article is focused on why this platform is so big in Japan, and what made it bloom. He started by comparing Twitter with the decentralized platform in their core but not only. He talks about what might not be so widely spread when joining this social media, his main point might be illustrated in this paragraph: “In Japan, there’s a distinction between 児童ポルノ – child pornography – and ロリコン – “lolicon”, short for “Lolita complex”. Child pornography is illegal in Japan and seeking it out would be deeply socially unacceptable. Lolicon, which includes animated cartoons and 2D drawings of young men and women in a way that is undeniably sexualized, sometimes through explicit depictions of sexual acts, is legal, widespread and significantly accepted.”[^2]. The author does not take one side to the story, he displays in a very efficient way that Mastodon’s growth is inevitably seen closely with this controversial spread of content and that a lot of parties might be disappointed by this fact, while remembering that “it’s worth remembering that controversial content has long been a driver of innovations in communications technology”.

+ +

Drawing lines over what one can and cannot do

+ +

Firstly I’ve started by gathering different codes of conduct in different instances and trying to understand patterns on what were the lines drawn by different nodes in the network. Giving an example, in the instance “gravitas.cafe”, that self labels it as a “Luxury Fully Automated Gay Space Communism”, and where there is the need of having an invite to sign up as a user to this server, in their about more page sets these terms for the users:

+ +

“We have a zero tolerance policy for anyone breaking any of these rules, and they will result in an immediate suspension from this instance. — Do not participate in, engage in, or boost any form of harassment of other users in the fediverse. — Hate speech and bigotry are not tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, racism, and ableism. — NSFW posts are allowed but must be behind a Content Warning and flagged as sensitive. — Do not follow any of our users with a follow bot. Users please report any follow bots that follow you.”

+ +

What I find really interesting about Mastodon is its ability to adapt to different communities. Take for an example Switter, which is sex work-friendly social space, where anyone can join this node. You can, later on, have a look here on their code of conduct (https://assemblyfour.com/switter/code_of_conduct). While gathering all these codes of conduct, I understood that I was mainly focusing on what the instance admins wanted them to be. But is this really how they are ruled? And are people complying with all these sets of rules, restrictions and care within each other? I thought I had to create a space for people to share their experience on Mastodon, a place for the users that are the main core of a social platform to talk for themselves.

+ +

Asking the users!

+ +

I would like to state that all the instances that I chose as case studies were either because of their online reputation, just as Switter, or because they had the highest relation between active users and toots posted. I had also the concern of choosing instances that in joinmastodon page (https://joinmastodon.org/) belonged to different identities, some of them LGBT, sysadmin, furry, adult content creator, etc.
I made this post:

+ +

“Hey all! I am researching on the topic of federation and more focused on Mastodon. I would really appreciate if you could answer to this question:
— What made you move to Mastodon?
Thank you so much for all the help you can give me,
love, Pedro”

+ +

+ +

To give you a better understanding on how I got the replies that I have, I wanted to get the biggest amount of answers in the smallest timeframe as possible, for that I have created approximately 50 accounts in different instances. All of them had the same user name “pedrosaclout” and the display name was “PÉ”. I also added the same profile picture to all of them. It is interesting that I felt the need to be seen as a real user, I did not want people to think in me as a bot, or a spammer if you might. I also chose the name PÉ because I thought that it was in some sort of way friendlier. I felt I was entering someones private space, their small instances where people “know” each other and I did not want to be a burden for them, I guess this already talks a lot about how I see the platform.

+ +

My methodology made me also questions on the topic of federation. Why did I create 50 plus accounts in a federated social platform? The answer is pretty straight forward: it had to be done like this to be faster. I wanted to talk with communities with different goals, I wanted to achieve this in a small timeframe and I guess this was the only way possible. Now that I think about it I can also understand that people probably saw me has part of their node once they could see that I actually had an account there and not in any other place, I was there for them. The federation also did its job, I got answers in certain accounts from users in different instances and that was also great to accomplish!

+ +

I am very thankful to everyone who contributed with their comments to my research, I got a lot of great answers and that made me rethink about Mastodon furthermore. While creating accounts in all these instances, I obviously was more successful in some compared to others. It might have because people did not engage so quickly with my toot and it got lost within the timeline, or it might also be because some of them are just too crowded and the speed of toots refreshing is just too fast for you to read a big text! Different instances had clearly different reasons from why they were actually there and that was an interesting result.

+ +

For example, in “linuxrock.online”, an instance that describes itself as “A Community-driven instance for people who love Linux. This instance is dedicated to all things Linux and technologies related to it.”, I got this answer from `@OpenComputeDesign` — `@pedrosaclout` It was totally Linux rocks. I’m not way interested in social media, but, when I saw Linux rocks, I knew I had to join. It is nice to have a place to ask questions and talk about cool Linux stuff. I’ve never been on any other social media. I hope this answers your question."[].

+ +

While this, at the same time I could be on “queer.party”, a node that claims itself as being “A silly instance of Mastodon for queer folk and non-queer folk alike.” gathering answers like this one from `@anonny125` — “`@pedrosaclout` After shuffling between social media platforms for a while and getting fed up with each one for making Poor Moderation Decisions, I really appreciate Mastodon (and the fediverse as a whole) for its nature as a bunch of small, completely independent communities because moderation can be much closer to the ground, and I haven’t tried it yet but if I don’t like the look of things where I am it doesn’t seem hard to just kind of pick all my stuff up and set it down somewhere else.”[].

How can a platform be so rich in its range of users and communities, and how would it be if there was no autonomy given to each admin.

How would you rule such different environments within the same sphere if you didn’t give the right of creating a code of conduct to whoever had the idea to host a server as a place for people to meet people alike?

+ +

+ +

Comparing the experience
on Twitter

+ +

Simultaneously, and just as an exercise I asked the same question on Twitter. I felt like I needed to understand if there would be any kind of interaction. I am a nobody in Twitter, just like I am in every account that I have made, 0 followers, 0 following, this is important because it made it possible to compare in a more straight forward way the difference between both. It ended in a completely different way (https://twitter.com/pedrosaclout/status/1107397057403412480), I had 592 Impressions, 3 engagements, and not one only answer.

+ +

[1] NYSTEDT, Brendan. Tired of Twitter? Join Me on Mastodon, WIRED magazine, https://www.wired.com/story/join-mastodon-twitter-alternative/, 19 August 2018 ,seen on (22 March 2019, 16:54).

[2] ZUCKERMAN, Ethan. Mastodon is big in Japan. The reason why is… uncomfortable, http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2017/08/18/mastodon-is-big-in-japan-the-reason-why-is-uncomfortable/, 18 August 2017, seen on (22 March 2019, 17:22).

+ + +

https://todon.nl/

+ +

Todon.nl characterizes itself as a "leftist Mastodon instance for progressives, socialists, anarchists, activists, environmentalists, vegans, anti-racists, anti-fascists, anti-capitalists, pirates, LGBTQIA+, human rights activists, etc."
Also in their "about more" page you can read that they do not accept (among other things): racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, ableism and other forms of discrimination, harassment, trolling, hate speech, (sexual) abuse of minors and adults (also not virtual), glorification of violence, militarism, nationalism and right-wing populism, right-wing and religious extremism, Stalinists, Maoists, 'ancaps', (right-wing) conspiracy 'theories', hoaxes, and of course no spam and other forms of advertisement.

+ READ MORE!

+ +

steven

+ +

Username: @steven

+ +

@pedrosaclout I'd originally heard about it from someone in my co-op. I never understood Twitter, but I was interested in the concept so I joined the main instance. I didn't stick around for the same reason I never joined Twitter - I just don't get it.
But the "social network" I stayed in was Reddit. Reddit has all sorts of controversies over their moderation policy, and they close-sourced the software. I looked up Reddit alternatives, and they were pretty much all white supremacist Nazi bullshit. Then I saw someone recommend Mastodon, so I figured I'd try it out again, but take some time to find an instance where I'll feel at home. I've only been here for a few days, but it looks like I'm staying, this is a good community.

+ +

musicmatze

+ +

Username: @musicmatze@mastodon.technology

+ +

@pedrosaclout @jeroenpraat because it is at least federated. I would prefer distributed, but if federation is the best we can get right now, I'll go with it.

+ +

odo

+ +

Username: @mmorpg.social

+ +

@pedrosaclout
Non corporate

+ +

Nemoudeis

+ +

Username: @nemoudeis

+ +

@pedrosaclout
I was tired of ads, non-chronological timelines and nazis.

+ +

PÉ

+ +

Username: @pedrosaclout

+ +

@nemoudeis Thank you so much!

+ +

Souvlaki Station 🍢🛰

+ +

Username: @anarchiv

+ +

@pedrosaclout the fact that, as a general tendency, non-profit federated social media engages people to be kinder to each other.

+ +

Mike Flugennock

+ +

Username: @flugennock

+ +

@pedrosaclout What made me move to Mastodon?
One word: TWITTER.
I was sent to the Twitter Time-Out Corner four times last year for talking mean to Blue Checkmarks, and got my Russian Influence Threat Email from Twitter a little over a year ago.

+ +

Bells Craig

+ +

Username: @bells

+ +

@pedrosaclout
1 want my info private
2 want ethic rules for people to agree to
3 public stream on fb wasn't working
4 open-source
5 privacy
6 control

+ +

Maritrini

+ +

Username: @thoughtcrime

+ +

@Bells
Exact same list for me, though add federation & decentralization being good for the internet on the second place
@pedrosaclout

+ +

Cap_Of_Gum

+ +

Username: @gumcap

+ +

@pedrosaclout
I had been avoiding all social platforms like the plague, waiting for an alternative that was run by people, not corporations.
I created a reddit account because I felt I needed to get in touch with more people on the left, despite the problems of that platform. Then later I heard about mastodon, and joined in here.

+ +

Witziege

+ +

Username: @witziege@machteburch.social

+ +

@pedrosaclout decentralized and free software :)

+ +

Rachel Wil Sha Singh

+ +

Username: @rejcx@mastodon.at

+ +

@pedrosaclout Twitter Nazis and a desire to own my own data.

+ +

Maritrini

+ +

Username: @thoughtcrime

+ +

@pedrosaclout
Can I ask, what is your research about? Like, details (Im curious hehe)

+ +

PÉ

+ +

Username: @pedrosaclout

+ +

@thoughtcrime I am focusing at the moment on what kind of communities do we have on mastodon, what brought them here and how do they rule themselves. I started speaking with some admins but understood that a social media is all about users and I did not want to lose that!

+ +

https://meow.social/

+ +

This instance is focused around the furry community, and is open to anyone interested in it. It was created by @Tiwy57 originally for a small group of furry friends, but thought it might as well be open to all fluffies and scalies ! +

READ MORE!

+ +

Nunatak

+ +

Username: @IceWolf

+ +

@pedro I, for one, didn't really move to Mastodon – it's the first (and so far only) social network I've joined. (Unless you count Stack Overflow.)
But I like the feeling of a smaller community; I generally completely ignore the federated timeline.

+ +

Pixelated_Prophecies

+ +

Username: @Pixelated_Prophecies

+ +

@pedro im still on twitter so idk if i technically "moved", but the main appeal of mastodon for me is privacy/lack of tracking for personalized ads. also, the smaller community is nice bc you can get to know people better

+ +

https://queer.party/

+ +

Queer.party is as you can read in their about page, a silly instance of Mastodon for queer folk and non-queer folk alike.
+ They also leave the small note for their users:
+ "For folks coming from Tumblr; NSFW content is allowed here, but you must tag your posts as NSFW, and provide a clear content warning for them! NSFW profile pictures or banners, or explicit usernames/display names are not allowed. Please keep it friendly!" +

READ MORE!

+ +

Nonny

+ +

Username: @anonny125

+ +

@pedrosaclout After shuffling between social media platforms for a while and getting fed up with each one for making Poor Moderation Decisions, I really appreciate Mastodon (and the fediverse as a whole) for its nature as a bunch of small, completely independent communities because moderation can be much closer to the ground, and I haven't tried it yet but if I don't like the look of things where I am it doesn't seem hard to just kind of pick all my stuff up and set it down somewhere else.

+ +

https://scholar.social/

+ +

"Scholar Social is a microblogging platform for researchers, grad students, librarians, archivists, undergrads, academically inclined high schoolers, educators of all levels, journal editors, research assistants, professors, administrators—anyone involved in academia who is willing to engage with others respectfully.
We strive to be a safe space for queer people and other minorities in academia, recognizing that there can only be academic freedom where the existence and validity of interlocutors' identities is taken as axiomatic. +

READ MORE!

+ + +

+ +

Holly

+ +

Username: @Holly

+ +

@pedrosaclout Because I'm always going to geek out about how people communicate online, and I'm also a sucker for diy stuff - and this seemed worth exploring. I miss early versions of other social media where I wasn't trying to be all versions of my self at once.

+ +

MutoShack🌽

+ +

Username: @MutoShack@functional.cafe

+ +

@pedrosaclout
I got news that my GNU Social admin would be stepping down, so I made an account here on the #Funcafe just in case he couldn't find a replacement.
Don't worry though, he eventually got someone to host & maintain the instance (loadaverage.org)
I stayed because I deleted my account on the other place and didn't care enough to make it again.

+ +

Cyborgneticz

+ +

Username: @Cyborgneticz

+ +

@pedrosaclout I heard about it, and was really interested in what this new social media is.

+ +

amz3

+ +

Username: @amz3

+ +

@pedrosaclout I believe the future is peer to peer that's why I joined the federation.

+ +

PÉ

+ +

Username: @pedrosaclout

+ +

@amz3 Thank you so much!

+ +

Rusty

+ +

Username: @rusty

+ +

@pedrosaclout I myself wanted to get away from centralized "wall gardens" where user control is severely limited. Even though I haven't done it yet, the option of hosting my own server on Mastodon is attractive. Can you tell me a little more about your research project?

+ +

Val

+ +

Username: @val

+ +

@pedrosaclout Originally because some peers were talking about it & it sounded interesting. I spent a long time figuring out which instance to join. I ended up making my first account on another instance to connect with friends. I later learned about more focused instances like this one and made an account here for more academic-related things. People here are super welcoming and supportive of one another (even though you initially barely know them!); I'm most active on this instance nowadays.

+ +

João Pinheiro

+ +

Username: @pinheiro

+ +

@pedrosaclout
Well, I closed down all my social networks because I was really fed up of so much publicity, my data being exploited, lack off privacy and I had to really put a stop to using services that deliberately steal my "stuff" and says it's theirs! And I don't want to be told what I should like by anyone hidden behind stupid algorithms. And I didn't want to go on supporting big enterprises that exploit you and don't offer anything in return.

+ +

João Pinheiro

+ +

Username: @pinheiro

+ +

@pedrosaclout
Why Mastodon then? I love open source. It's federated. It has people behind the rules. There's no publicity. You choose what you want to see. There are no stupid algorithms. There are so many options for you to join. It's humane. There are real people checking things. You can have privacy because your data isn't being exploited. And I like to be connected with other people who have similar points of view on things and with others whose points of view are different too.

+ +

booklord

+ +

Username: @tootbrute

+ +

@pedrosaclout i was being harassed by a coworker on Twitter... The post privacy options, and CW feature really neat too. I believe in free software too

+ +

https://eletusk.club/

+ +

This is an instance where all the "about" page is written in japanese, this text is an excerpt from their page and was translated to English: + There are usually a lot of chats at the "local timeline". If you come for the first time, you may be not fell too entertained, but most people here are acquainted in this instance, so it would be nice if you could join us. +

READ MORE!

+ +

ユウ

+ +

Username: @lowee_blanc

+ +

@pedrosaclout
I can't write English well,sorry.
This is my answer.
"The Mustdon has many groups.We can choose their groups for us likes.
So I want to interact with more TVgame players than twitter."

+ +

https://abdl.link/

+ +

They present their page as a Mastodon instance for ABDLs run by ABDLs 🍼.
ABDL — ("adult baby diaper lover". A sexual fetish involving adults acting like babies and/or wearing diapers.)
They're anti-troll, anti-abuse and pro-quirk. Unlike Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr we won't randomly suspend you just for being ABDL.
Under 18s are not permitted to sign up to this instance.
Media or content involving people under 18 (even if legal) is prohibited.
Posting, boosting or linking to any content that is illegal in the UK, Netherlands or Germany is prohibited. +

READ MORE!

+ + +

+ +

BabyDavid

+ +

Username: @BabyDavid

+ +

@pedrosaclout tumblr adult content ban

+ +

Puzzle702

+ +

Username: @Puzzle702

+ +

@pedrosaclout
Same here. Tumblr banned adult content.

+ +

https://mastodon.starrevolution.org/

+ +

Their description is as straight forward as it could be: tl;dr= no fascists, no bullying, no doing fucked up shit. You know what that means. Otherwise a lot of us are socialists, leftists etc. Dont bully people either. Or start witch hunts. You can have bots as long as administration clears them first The site is available on TOR! https://www.starrev3tah2dnhj.onion Note: letsencrypt won't sign a .onion domain cert so you will have to make a security exception as it uses the same main domain. +

READ MORE!

+ +

hay

+ +

Username: @hay

+ +

@pedrosaclout I was very disillusioned by corporate alternatives like Twitter and was huge into free software at the time.
Over time I have come to appreciate other aspects of it, but especially the people that are here.

+ +

https://mastodon.technology/

+ +

This Mastodon instance is for people interested in technology. Discussions aren't limited to technology, because tech folks shouldn't be limited to technology either!
We adhere to an adapted version of the TootCat Code of Conduct and follow the Toot Café list of blocked instances. Ash is the admin and is supported by Fuzzface, Brian!, and Daniel Glus as moderators. +

READ MORE!

+ +

weberc2☕

+ +

Username: @weberc2

+ +

@pedrosaclout Twitter’s creepy and opaque policing of political speech and its adverts. Mastodon seemed like an alternative with inherently stronger speech protections.

+ +

https://quey.org/

+ +

Quey.org is a generalistic and moderated Mastodon instance for people of all colours and sizes. As a general instance, we are not centered on a specific theme, or a specific language. Everyone is welcome as long as you follow the few rules we have.
NSFW content is allowed if this is posted with a Content Warning.
This instance is lightly moderated in general, common sense applied. +

READ MORE!

+ +

Inditoot

+ +

Username: @inditoot@inditoot.com

+ +

@pedrosaclout To abuse gargron every single day 🤣🤣🤣
@snder why you joined?😁

+ +

ѕη∂єя✨

+ +

Username: @snder

+ +

@inditoot
Well, I was always on Facebook but I was never a big fan of the company and I tried many times to start my own social network but it never came of the ground.
The day after I finally deleted my FB account I was searching for some alternative and I found Mastodon! And from that day I started my first Mastodon server :)

+ +

Inditoot

+ +

Username: @inditoot@inditoot.com

+ +

@snder I also started as an admin never used mastodon earlier.I used masto host in start but it was expensive so i self hosted it with a help of person. it was hard though than i met snder "Savior of Server" 😁 and learn alot of things.

+ +

ѕη∂єя✨

+ +

Username: @snder

+ +

@inditoot Nice! Funny how we immediately started as admins..
Luckily I never used masto host, I like to know how things work and have it under my own control. Ofcourse there are downsides to that but in time everyone can learn and these days I can dream the setup of Mastodon, without compiling time it takes me about 5 min to setup an instace 😂

+ +

Inditoot

+ +

Username: @inditoot@inditoot.com

+ +

@snder 🤣🤣 Masto Host service is awesome but at same time quite expensive although peace of mind comes with a price tag. Today I am going to Setup PGbouncer hope i dont fuck up something

+ +

noorul

+ +

Username: @noorul

+ +

@pedrosaclout interesting.
A few of my reason.
Its foss. Ad free, my own instance, anti capitalist

+ +

https://bsd.network/

+ +

bsd.network has the intention that this service is used for personal enjoyment and respectful, friendly interaction. you can also read: "To that end, we hope to foster a welcoming and inclusive environment." +

READ MORE!

+ +

Solène

+ +

Username: @solene

+ +

@pedrosaclout hi
This is the first social network I use, because source code is open, anyone can host their instance and so I don't feel bad about my data usage without my consent.
This also let me get in touch with people I'd never reach like book authors, or people to get in touch with me in a less formal way than a mail, and without having to become 'friends'.
I'm a FOSS contributor and it's a nice way to share with the community. I also like the instance feed feature.

+ +

https://freeradical.zone/

+ +

They describe it has being their social media haven. It's where they talk in an inviting, respectful setting where we can set their own boundaries. They finish their description by stating that they'd love for new users to join them! +

READ MORE!

+ +

Shekhinah

+ +

Username: @CharredStencil

+ +

@pedrosaclout It has good user-initiated censorship (I can block people), there's no ads, because there's no ads there's no agenda in what info is presented to me, and finally because my instance admin is friendly to Tor users.

+ +

Tek®

+ +

Username: @tek

+ +

@CharredStencil @pedrosaclout I am? I didn’t do anything special to support it. Sweet!

+ +

Shekhinah

+ +

Username: @CharredStencil

+ +

@tek @pedrosaclout Yeah! Well, a lot of the big conglomerate websites block Tor, so doing nothing special is the equivalent of rolling out a red carpet

+ +

ya boi, S. Cam Likely

+ +

Username: @thraeryn@thraeryn.net

+ +

@pedrosaclout
I wanted
✅ to move away from centralized sites
✅ who could censor me for any reason
✅ and didn't allow adult content
✅ so I could set my own, more lenient strictures on content
✅ and offer the same leniency to others

+ +

Tek®

+ +

Username: @tek

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout I wanted to be somewhere that I could choose the level of conversation around me. Mastodon has free-for-all instances and also ones that are very highly moderated. The end users get to choose what they want, rather than having to hope that a corporation comes around to their point of view.

+ +

Jon Yoder

+ +

Username: @JonYoder@mastodon.technology

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout Came for the privacy. Stayed because of the culture.

+ +

https://linuxrocks.online/

+ +

Linux Community Group is a community-driven instance for people who love Linux, dedicated to all Linux things and technologies related to it.
+ They also declare some rules for the instance such as,
While we do enjoy the off-topic conversation, the main voice should be around Linux and technologies. +
When you post something offensive, it shows up in the Local feed. Since this instance is dedicated to Linux and a Collaboration of technologies we do not tolerate obscene behavior. While we oppose the idea of censorship, we also do not want a toxic area for our users. +

READ MORE!

+ +

Mr. Matt :debian: :linux:

+ +

Username: @matt

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout I really like the community aspect of Mastodon (especially focused instances like linuxrocks.online or bsd.network). Being completely free software helps too.

+ +

Vernon VonHinkelschmidt

+ +

Username: @bilbobaggins30

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout
Privacy. I do not consent to the sale of my data, but I want to interact with people.

+ +

OpenComputeDesign

+ +

Username: @OpenComputeDesign

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout It was totally linux rocks. I'm not way interested in social media, but, when I saw linux rocks, I new I had to join. It is nice to have a place to ask questions and talk about cool linux stuff. I've never been on any other social media. I hope this answers you question.

+ +

Hund

+ +

Username: @hund

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout The people and the sense of community. And obviously the ethical side of it. :)

+ +

NixiИ

+ +

Username: @nergal

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout
I dropped Twitter about 4 years ago. Same with Facebook.
Dropped Twitter because of an apparent pyramid system where some celebrity drops a line that hooks everyone baited by it. Celebrity does not even interact. A continuous stream.
Facebook, lack of control over transmissions. Then there is the information overload.

+ +

DashEquals

+ +

Username: @DashEquals

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout I first found Mastodon when I was on Twitter and saw someone complaining about the platform. I checked it out and it was waaaay too hard for me to understand. I found it again a few days later from a link on Tildes (Reddit alternative), checked it out, and was hooked.
Since then I've deleted Snapchat and moved off Instagram. I prefer the true conversations on Mastodon to the shallowness of other networks.

+ +

https://mastodont.cat/

+ +

Mastodont.cat is a Catalan instance in Mastodon, that states that is for the community of Catalan language and culture throughout the internet.
It is also interesting to see these bullet points that they have set:
Mastodon is made of humans and not of algorithms nor of the interests of corporations.
Mastodon is for humans, rather than advertisers and collectors of data. +

READ MORE!

+ +

spla

+ +

Username: @spla

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout Hello, I was tired of Twitter toxicity and ego’s fights but at the same time out of curiosity about “what is quitter”.
By the way, do you noticed that this server is related to Catalan people and culture?

+ +

spla

+ +

Username: @spla

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout I was running a GNU Social server (quitter is the interface) for about one year and after that started running this Mastodon server, which is almost two years old.

+ +

PÉ

+ +

Username: @pedrosaclout

+ +

+ @spla It is also interesting to know all these insights for what brought people here, for how long they are running their servers, etc.. Hope I will get more users and admins like you! Thank you once again!

+ +

https://qoto.org/

+ +

The QOTO instance is a Mastodon instance for scholars in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and all yearning to learn.
+ They also claim being a free speech space whodoes not silence or block any instances. + "We are a free speech, no censorship zone. Feel free to talk about whatever you want, say whatever you want, as long as it is legal you wont ever get banned from the server. With that said we do have a few rules: No spam, and no using multiple accounts to circumvent personal bans."
+
They finish their description by leaving clear that they will never advertise on QOTO or sell users information to third-parties. +

READ MORE!

+ +

ｐｅｎｔｉｕｍ　ｍａｔｈ

+ +

Username: @mngrif

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout I'm a Google Plus refugee, and came here instead of completely giving up on social media, but only because a very good friend runs this instance. I wouldn't be willing to run my own instance, despite having the skills. Social media is becoming more of a problem than a help or an emotional outlet.

+ +

https://mastodon.host/

+ +

Mastodon.host is a general, fast, stable and open instance. This instance is lightly moderated in general, common sense applied. They set these as some of the rules:
Don't advertise or spam. Mastodon.host is a place for people to connect to other people. It is not for advertisers, spammers, etc. Do not post spammy content. Do not include spammy content in your profiles. Do not use our direct messaging system to send spammy content or links to other users. We delete spam accounts as soon as we see them.
Do not post or share any illegal stuff, advertisements, harassment, discrimination, xenophobia.
Do not post anything that is illegal in Europe or the USA. Lolicons, for example, may be illegal. So please don't share that kind of thing here.
Your avatar must be appropriate for a general audience. Your avatar is an image that represents you and appears next to messages (toots) that you send. You are welcome to upload a custom avatar image. But please, make sure your avatar image is a one that people will feel comfortable having on their computer screens while children are looking over their shoulders. So no erotic or gory avatars, please. Also, do not boost content from accounts of those who have erotic or gory avatars, as that would cause those avatars to display on our local timeline.
Please tag your content appropriately
If you post content that is not safe for work, tag it with #NSFW, and with any other hashtags that are appropriate. This will help people to use our filter feature to filter out content they don't want to see. +

READ MORE!

+ + +

https://mastodon.gamedev.place/

+ +

This is an instance for discussions about game development and related fields, and/or by game developers and related professions. +

READ MORE!

+ +

Jess Birch

+ +

Username: @shivoa

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout While this instance is much smaller than the circle that is GameDev Twitter, there is also a far higher signal to noise ratio (eg in replies to posts).
I use Twitter more for political engagement while this instance feels like a platform for microblogging about games (and if I wanted to talk [non-gamedev] politics I would do so on a different instance - an example of how Masto promotes a different usage pattern).

+ +

Chromedays

+ +

Username: @chromedays

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout Better performance, better UI, more generous word count limit, I mean... everything is better to be honest.
(Of course I'm comparing it to twitter... :P)

+ +

https://hotwife.social/

+ +

"Hotwife.social is a Mastodon instance focused on NSFW discussion and file-sharing revolving around the cuckold/hotwife lifestyle. We are not a regionally restricted community, and welcome everyone from any location..." +

READ MORE!

+ +

MyThaiHotwife

+ +

Username: @MyThaiHotwife

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout Death of Tumblr, lol

+ +

https://hostux.social/

+ +

This instance is not focused on any theme or subject, feel free to talk about whatever you want. Although the main language is french, we accept every single language and country.
We're connected to the whole OStatus/ActivityPub fediverse and we do not block any foreign instance nor user.
We do have rules, but the goal is to have responsible users. So far we haven't had any issue with moderation. +

READ MORE!

+ + +

+ +

MC Read

+ +

Username: @mcread@noagendasocial.com

+ +

@pedrosaclout No centralized point of failure.

+ +

lertsenem

+ +

Username: @lertsenem@mastodon.lertsenem.com

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout The love for decentralisation and the resilience and community-level of control it naturally allows.
I also love how it puts up front the trust-based relationship you need to have with your admins, which is not-so-explicit when dealing with big web companies.

+ +

zlg

+ +

Username: @zlg@social.zlg.space

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout Are you studying just Mastodon, or the Fediverse in its entirety? + +

https://mastodon.social/

+ +

"Invite-only server run by the main developers of the project It is not focused on any particular niche interest - everyone is welcome as long as you follow our code of conduct!" +

READ MORE!

+ +

Daniel Kochmański

+ +

Username: @jackdaniel@mastodon.social

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout To put it in a few words: while I find Twitter giving me better UX and wider influence I'm was more concerned with using centralized data-mining for-profity company with roots in USA. That's why I've switched to something non-profit which adheres to FLOSS principles.

+ +

Culiluz 🇸🇪

+ +

Username: @XanaAsturiana@mastodon.social

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout here i'm happy.

+ +

Username: @liofilizado_@hostux.social

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout hola Pedro!

+ +

David

+ +

Username: @david

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout I chuckled when I read what you wrote, in an email/letter style (closing and signature). 🙂
I haven't moved to Mastodon. It is just another platform I looked at from its infancy, and chose to create an account. I still very much prefer Twitter.

+ +

Culiluz 🇸🇪

+ +

Username: @XanaAsturiana@mastodon.social

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout if you speak spanish, there are a great spanish comunity.
They are some crazy, but they aren't dangerous

+ +

PÉ

+ +

Username: @pedrosaclout

+ +

+ @XanaAsturiana I am actually portuguese, but thank you for your care! Would you recommend me any instance?

+ +

Culiluz 🇸🇪

+ +

Username: @XanaAsturiana@mastodon.social

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout i don't know others instances. Quey has great emoji. The admi. of Social is the CREATOR of Mastodon and there are a lot of people.
The instance is not very important because all are federated

+ +

https://post.lurk.org/

+ +

"Post.lurk.org, an instance for discussions around cultural freedom, experimental, new media art, net and computational culture, and things like that. This is part of a family of services that include mailing lists, group chat, and XMPP." +

READ MORE!

+ +

entreprecariat

+ +

Username: @entreprecariat

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout twitter-tedium, curiosity, elective affinites with some Mastodo ppl

+ +

dywen

+ +

Username: @wendy

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout it's all about 'I agree' TOS.

+ +

fragment scenario

+ +

Username: @fragmentscenario@todon.nl

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout
boykott of corporate social media in the first place.

+ +

Charles ☭ Hutchins

+ +

Username: @celesteh@mastodon.social

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout Twitter elected trump

+ +

𝓻𝓻𝓪

+ +

Username: @rra

+ +

+ @pedrosaclout as a software curious person I couldn't resist

+ +

Taking advantage from Mastodon API, this code iterates through different instances within a dictionary, matches them with an access key and gathers the answers to a predetermined toot identified by its ID. Later on, writes on a text file the date on when the information was collected and transcribes the text to HTML, making it easier to use in the online publication. +

https://git.xpub.nl/pedrosaclout/answers_mastodon_api

+ + +

This code iterates through different instances within a dictionary and matches them with an access key. Later on, still relying on the Mastodon API python library, it is able to find private descendants to the toot, which means, it is able to separate and identify the answers that were sent as a private message. After, it writes on a text file the date on when the data was collected and transcribes the text gathered to HTML, making it easier to use within the online publication. +

https://git.xpub.nl/pedrosaclout/dms_mastodon_api

+ +

The code works with two different processes that do not run in parallel. Firstly, relying on the Mastodon API python library, we gather the peers of the instance where our account is registered. After this, we store them in a dictionary. Finally, we iterate through them. In this script the idea is to scrape in an effective way the /about page of an instance where they have their description and in some cases, their code of conduct, for this, with Selenium while opening a Firefox window for each iteration we save the image and description of the instance where we are in and close it right after. All the images are stored in a folder and the information scraped is stored in a txt file. +

https://git.xpub.nl/pedrosaclout/scrape_peers_mastodon_ai

+ +

Working with the same method as the script to scrape the /about page of an instance, in this script the idea is to scrape in an effective way the /about/more page of an instance. Most of the times, here is the place where admins write more extensive rules, codes of conduct and also descriptions of requirements necessary to belong to the instance. +

https://git.xpub.nl/pedrosaclout/scrape_about_more_peers_mastodon

+ +

This was the first script with which I started scraping instances. Before being introduced to the powerful mastodon python library I built a script with Selenium that would go to https://instances.social, and iterate through the "h2" of a determined table where a list of instances was displayed. Selenium would open a new Firefox tab for each iteration, save from the new tab the image and description of the instance and close it right after. All the images are stored in a folder and the information scraped is stored in a txt file. This wasn't the perfect method, because an instance has to register to be part of this list, making this process biased. +

https://git.xpub.nl/pedrosaclout/instance_scrape

+ +

1993-1996	Mayor of Nanhai City
1996-2003	Secretary of Municipal Party Committee

Category Network Navigator (CNN)

Index of/ The Network We (de)Served

The Network We (de)Served, (XPUB Special Issue #08) + Thursday, 04 April 2019 at Varia

Index of/ The Network We (de)Served

The Network We (de)Served, (XPUB Special Issue #08) + Thursday, 04 April 2019 at Varia

Index of/ The Network We (de)Served

The Network We (de)Served

Artemis

Paloma

Biyi

SIMON

TANCRE

PEDRO

Bo

RITA

The Network We (de)Served, (XPUB Special Issue #08) + Thursday, 04 April 2019 at Varia

Index of/ The Network We (de)Served

The Seven Bridges of Königsberg

Quipu

Topology

Unraveling knots

1867

Klein worms

Knotworks

Mathematical knots

Network of possibilities

Network topology

Chemtrail conspiracy theory

Contingency

Contrails

Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ)

Beyond the Internet and All Control Diagrams + Simone Browne and Zach Blas, January 24, 2017

Biotopology 1972 + Warren Brodey

SOFTWARE + R. Buckminster Fuller

Abstraction

Abstraction layers

Autonomy

Cybernetic Guerilla WarfarePaul Ryan

From Networks to Knotworks

Liberation Technology and the Arab Spring: From Utopia to Atopia and Beyond + Ulises A. Mejias, SUNY Oswego +

Biographical Note

References

Knotboard

Node

Nodocentrism

Paranodal

The AEther

Tait conjectures

Klein bottle

Knots

Knot Theory

Unknot

Dependencies

Ethernet

Graphology

GPS

Paranodal activity

Beyond the Internet and All Control Diagrams + Simone Browne and Zach Blas

Biotopology 1972 + Warren Brodey

Cybernetic Guerilla Warfare + Paul Ryan

Liberation Technology and the Arab Spring: From Utopia to Atopia and Beyond + Ulises A. Mejias

SOFTWARE + R. Buckmister Fuller

The Psychotopology of Everyday Life + Hakim Bey

Theory of the Dérive + Guy Debord

Truckstops on the Information Superhighway: Ant Farm, SRI, and the Cloud + Tung-Hui Hu

The Psychotopology of Everyday Life + Hakim Bey

Theory of the Dérive + Guy Debord

Truckstops on the Information Superhighway: Ant Farm, SRI, and the Cloud + Tung-Hui Hu, Assistant Professor, English, University of Michigan

Maps

Map/territory

Taking a line for a walk

Bertelsmann

How to Archive Disintegrated Network?

Borges

Excerpts from The Garden of Forking Paths

Borges Bookstore

Decentralized Annotation Tool

Butterfly Specimen

The Four Classics

Classmates

The Network We (de)Served, (XPUB Special Issue #08)
+ Thursday, 04 April 2019 at Varia

The Network We (de)Served, (XPUB Special Issue #08)
+ Thursday, 04 April 2019 at Varia

The Network We (de)Served, (XPUB Special Issue #08)
+ Thursday, 04 April 2019 at Varia

Beyond the Internet and All Control Diagrams
+ Simone Browne and Zach Blas, January 24, 2017

Biotopology 1972
+ Warren Brodey

SOFTWARE
+ R. Buckminster Fuller

Cybernetic Guerilla Warfare
Paul Ryan

Liberation Technology and the Arab Spring: From Utopia to Atopia and Beyond
+ Ulises A. Mejias, SUNY Oswego +

Beyond the Internet and All Control Diagrams
+ Simone Browne and Zach Blas

Biotopology 1972
+ Warren Brodey

Cybernetic Guerilla Warfare
+ Paul Ryan

Liberation Technology and the Arab Spring: From Utopia to Atopia and Beyond
+ Ulises A. Mejias

SOFTWARE
+ R. Buckmister Fuller

The Psychotopology of Everyday Life
+ Hakim Bey

Theory of the Dérive
+ Guy Debord

Truckstops on the Information Superhighway: Ant Farm, SRI, and the Cloud
+ Tung-Hui Hu

The Psychotopology of Everyday Life
+ Hakim Bey

Theory of the Dérive
+ Guy Debord

Truckstops on the Information Superhighway: Ant Farm, SRI, and the Cloud
+ Tung-Hui Hu, Assistant Professor, English, University of Michigan

Who is this guy?
+ What is this text labyrinth?