[Air-L] Migration to Mastodon

Robert W Gehl lists at robertwgehl.org
Thu Nov 10 02:48:20 PST 2022 

Hi, Emma --

One of the major critiques of the development of ActivityPub (the 
protocol underlying Mastodon, Pixelfed, PeerTube, etc) is that the 
developers did not pay enough attention to security and privacy 
questions. Those concerns were bracketed off. For example, in terms of 
connections between servers, the developers assumed that other projects, 
like SSL, would solve any security issues. Encryption in general was 
bracketed off as out of scope for the ActivityPub project. (To be fair, 
they had a lot on their plates).

So, as a result, there are some definite privacy issues. DMs between two 
members are not end-to-end encrypted. An instance admin has a great deal 
of insight into the network, from member profiles to who is talking to whom.

There are people working on solutions to these problems. Indeed, one of 
the key developers, Christine Lemmer-Webber, recognized the problem of 
encrypting DMs back in 2017: 
https://github.com/w3c/activitypub/issues/225 and has proposed some 
solutions in the time since.

But currently, DMs are not encrypted.

The key issue, as always, is trust. Admins have to foster trust among 
their members by being good actors. But we also know from hard 
experience that admins can break trust. So, Emma, your questions are BIG 
ones and need to be pressed.

Note that much of what I am saying is true of the corporate model, 
however. Twitter doesn't encrypt DMs. Yes, FB might have end-to-end 
encryption -- but of course, you have to trust that they haven't been 
compelled by a powerful state to have a backdoor. (And this is a company 
that holds a patent on an automated system to turn user data over to law 
enforcement).

- Rob


On 11/9/22 21:13, Dr. Emma Briant via Air-L wrote:
> I’ll be honest, I’m a little worried about the privacy and security issue
> of using these services. I did see Wolfie Christl (who I trust) share two
> such sites and say he trusts the people behind them (
> https://mastodon.social/@wchr/109299350293033545), but he also doesn’t seem
> to have used them himself as his Mastodon follower count doesn’t seem high
> like his Twitter. May I ask the community here whether anyone has concerns?
> Many thanks,
> Emma
>
> On Wed, 9 Nov 2022 at 16:07, Sarah Ann Oates via Air-L <
> air-l at listserv.aoir.org> wrote:
>
>> This app to help migrate from Twitter to Mastodon was recommended by a
>> colleague today; I have yet to try it but looks promising:
>>
>> https://pruvisto.org/debirdify/
>>
>> Sarah
>>
>>
>> Sarah Oates
>> Pronoun: she/her
>>
>> Professor and Senior Scholar
>> Philip Merrill College of Journalism
>> Distinguished Scholar-Teacher
>> University of Maryland
>> College Park, MD 20742
>> Email: soates at umd.edu
>> Phone: 301 455 2332
>> www.media-politics.com
>> Twitter: @media_politics
>>
>> *Support the UMD Student Crisis Fund
>> <https://giving.umd.edu/giving/showPage.php?name=crisis-funding> today. *
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 8, 2022 at 10:22 AM Steph Kent via Air-L <
>> air-l at listserv.aoir.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Following the Twitter|Mastodon threads with critical interest. I
>> appreciate
>>> the invitation from Michael Ruigrok to  members of this group to bring
>> your
>>> sophisticated knowledge and experience to the improvement of federated,
>>> communal social networks. I'm always interested in access, thinking about
>>> outlier groups such as the Deaf, for whom text is frequently not a
>>> sufficient accommodation (despite the convenience of this belief for
>>> h/Hearing people). *That said, Deaf academics on Twitter are formidable!
>>>
>>> I'm glad of the resources from Meryl, Joly and Fred Fuchs too, as I'm at
>>> the edge of my learning curve learning how to navigate Mastodon.
>>>
>>> Wanted to share this political, antiracist perspective from Tim Wise, who
>>> argues that it's mainly white liberals who are concerned with 'fleeing'
>> the
>>> new Twitter
>>> <
>>>
>> https://timjwise.medium.com/fleeing-twitter-the-twexodus-is-about-white-liberal-fragility-3631cb2ac317
>>>> ,
>>> suggesting this is evidence of the pervasiveness of white fragility --
>> even
>>> among progressives.
>>>
>>> best regards,
>>> steph
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Nov 8, 2022 at 1:30 AM Fred Fuchs via Air-L <
>>> air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Here's a TechRadar article on Mastodon.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>> https://www.techradar.com/news/mastodon-is-a-great-twitter-alternative-but-it-needs-to-be-easier-to-sign-up
>>>> Fred
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>> Fred Fuchs - Founder, CEO, & Producer
>>>> FireSabre Consulting LLC
>>>>
>>>> ---
>>>>
>>>> On 11/7/2022 8:26 AM, Fred Fuchs wrote:
>>>>> On 11/7/2022 6:51 AM, Richard Forno via Air-L wrote:
>>>>>> I have a hard time *relying* on a communications platform
>>>>>> run by a company now fully engaged in the proverbial
>>>>>> "move fast, break things" mentality based on whatever
>>>>>> singular whims or rage cycle its owner is in at the time
>>>>>> a decision is made.   To wit:  They are now asking people
>>>>>> just fired to come back, b/c nobody knew they were
>>>>>> integral to the features Musk wanted to develop.  (Were
>>>>>> it me, I'd say sure, but double my salary.)
>>>>> Sadly this is not uncommon during "regime changes" at
>>>>> Internet tech companies. The new leadership fires far more
>>>>> people than they should've, and then often has to hire
>>>>> some or even many back at a significant salary increase.
>>>>>
>>>>> On top of that, some of those with good employment
>>>>> prospects may decide to seek better opportunities. So
>>>>> their possibly irreplaceable tech and business practices
>>>>> knowledge is lost forever.
>>>>>
>>>>> Fred
>>>>>
>>>>> ---
>>>>>
>>>>> On 11/7/2022 6:51 AM, Richard Forno via Air-L wrote:
>>>>>> It's not Musk's views per se that's driven me from
>>>>>> Twitter, but that's a major reason, sure.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I have a hard time *relying* on a communications platform
>>>>>> run by a company now fully engaged in the proverbial
>>>>>> "move fast, break things" mentality based on whatever
>>>>>> singular whims or rage cycle its owner is in at the time
>>>>>> a decision is made.   To wit:  They are now asking people
>>>>>> just fired to come back, b/c nobody knew they were
>>>>>> integral to the features Musk wanted to develop. (Were it
>>>>>> me, I'd say sure, but double my salary.)   He's also
>>>>>> reversed other polices and views that he preached -- he
>>>>>> was against permabans until Kathy Gifford parodied him
>>>>>> over the weekend, so she's banned.  He's also said other
>>>>>> people not 'clearly identifying' as parody accounts would
>>>>>> be perma-banned. That's a far cry from his views about
>>>>>> how the company handled other perma-bans in recent
>>>>>> years.  The entire company -- and platform -- now feels
>>>>>> rather unstable in many ways, and I feel sorry for the
>>>>>> many serfs still there who will endure such chaos ....
>>>>>> and it's only been a week!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Heck, if I wanted to interact on a platform conducting a
>>>>>> perpetual beta test[1], I'd use something from Google.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -- rick
>>>>>>
>>>>>> [1] either technical or managerial
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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