The notes and accounts from the FediForum in late September suggest that some of "the people who move the fediverse forward", as the conference promotes itself as platforming, are also acutely interested in moving forward the agenda of Meta.
The forum's notes tell the tale. Though a number of topics, including many of genuine benefit, were touched upon, digging through the sessions turns up a path of breadcrumbs that leads straight back to Palo Alto.
https://fediforum.org/2023-09/
#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #FediForum ...and no more
1/8
Among the schemes discussed to move the Zuckerverse - sorry, Fediverse - forward:
- Monetization of fediverse interactions: https://fediforum.org/2023-09/session/4-a/
- Crypto functionality: https://fediforum.org/2023-09/session/3-d/
- Location tracking: https://fediforum.org/2023-09/session/4-c/
- Individual reputation scoring: https://fediforum.org/2023-09/session/1-d/
- Contact book ingestion: https://fediforum.org/2023-09/session/2-d/
- For-profit revenue models: https://fediforum.org/2023-09/session/5-c/
- Facebook feature incorporation: https://fediforum.org/2023-09/session/4-h/
#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #FediForum ...and no more
2/8
Inspiringly, the forum also paused for a moment of self-reflection, in a session essentially grappling with the question, "Why did we only invite white people to the workshop we organized?" https://fediforum.org/2023-09/session/3-c/
Again, the list above is selective, but piecing the mosaic together reveals a picture for a proposed future-fedi that looks a whole lot like something Mark Zuckerberg could work with.
But the central figure, of course, is the surveillance - and this part of the puzzle is already under construction.
#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #FediForum ...and no more
3/8
The FediForum dedicated no less than four sessions in support of a plan by the IFTAS thinktank for a realtime centralized "AI" surveillance system for the fediverse.
https://fediforum.org/2023-09/session/1-c/
https://fediforum.org/2023-09/session/3-b/
https://fediforum.org/2023-09/session/5-f/
https://fediforum.org/2023-09/session/5-a/
The last of these pages includes a link to the slideshow overview of the scheme: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1aylGPd3-rARHDvGs7GOvJmVHWWQ3nz_MMtggyIV0GsE
Also provided is a link to a proposal paper for a blocklist component, which they call CARIAD: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hmGNHqifYGRwk1qsWUaCI-VDHw3yMvjVoy-c_8K4e9c/edit
#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #FediForum #IFTAS #CARIAD ...and no more
4/8
The centralization scheme is being developed in partnership with an entity called Thorn - a for-profit "AI" surveillance privateer which pretends to be a "for the children" NGO. Thorn is hot news lately due to its blatantly corrupt involvement in the EU Chat Control plot, which would destroy the free internet and online privacy in Europe but create a huge business opportunity for Thorn.
https://balkaninsight.com/2023/09/25/who-benefits-inside-the-eus-fight-over-scanning-for-child-sex-content/
https://euobserver.com/digital/157507
Thorn is also notorious for its mascot, a washed-up celebrity rape-apologist who resigned in disgrace several weeks ago:
https://www.thecut.com/article/ashton-kutcher-thorn-spotlight-rekognition-surveillance.html
https://www.ftm.eu/articles/ashton-kutchers-non-profit-start-up-makes-millions-from-fighting-child-abuse-online
#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #FediForum #IFTAS #CARIAD #Thorn #ChatControl ...and no more
5/8
The blocklist system IFTAS proposes is called CARIAD - "Consensus Aggregated Retractable IFTAS Allowlist Denylist".
CARIAD's blocking data will be aggregated from two sources. The first is the Facebook Mafia spider-holed at Stanford, which fabricated the CSAM-scare influence operation that roiled the fedi a few months ago. More on them here: https://kolektiva.social/@ophiocephalic/110772380949893619
The second is "an aggregation of at least ten of the largest ActivityPub service providers"; this would seem to be a sugar pill to win over Mastodon gGmbH and a few other megaservers.
The system itself is somewhat similar to that proposed in the Nivenly FSEP plan which has proven so controversial over the last couple of months; except that, instead of centralizing blocklist control with WelshPixie, CARIAD centralizes control with Meta-linked authoritarian techbros.
More on FSEP : https://kolektiva.social/@ophiocephalic/111076671601782831
#FreeFediverse #FediPact #DefederateMeta #Meta #Facebook #Threads #FediForum #IFTAS #CARIAD ...and no more
6/8
@ophiocephalic David is a, pretty clear racist (he was far happier to offer the benefit of the doubt to apparent U.S.-based instances), who appears to have done that deliberately to shill his preferred scanning solution.
He also tried to make it out as if instances weren't removing "obvious child abuse", then started talking about dubious things like "pictures of the room" in the same breath (basically, he wants to get the point across that the only way to "deal with the problem" is to rely on an opaque filter list curated by a conservative NGO who promises to play nice). His arguments are self-serving. There is a lot wrong with him, honestly, and I'm not gonna go into all of it here. More recently, they've stopped relying on the "report", for talking about historic events on the fedi, and relied more on "hearsay".
https://qoto.org/@olives/111191543236620885 He also, frequently, runs into some of the same problems I describe here. But, his focus is somewhat different. Basically, he starts talking about one thing, then in the same breath, he starts talking about other things, tries to conflate things, then weakly denies doing so, before doing it again. He is a very slippery person.
@olives
Yes, the CSAM issue is being exploited. That's not to say there isn't one, there is. The problem with the Stanford "report" is that it reported on the status quo, in a manner which manufactured it into a sudden, urgent panic. There is a problem, mostly confined to the dark-fedi and a poorly moderated mega-instance. That doesn't mean we should suddenly cancel all critical thinking and accept third-party algorithmic surveillance on the fedi
@ophiocephalic To quote myself: "I still wouldn't want to burn down the Internet / sites, because of unwanted bad actors"
https://qoto.org/@olives/111440906410871858
I think that just because a bad actor might misuse a service, it isn't proportionate to violate the rights of the other people on the service. Content scanning (or this great big centralized apparatus) is kind of like that.
It is also kind of concerning that you have these people from FB and what-not who have little to do with the fedi parachuting themselves in to tell people what to do.
@ophiocephalic Have you also noticed how he sits there, waits until one particular site appears to have moderation issues (and gets restricted by plenty), then "happens to do a scan" and really tries to sell that as a "fedi issue"? He could have done this at *any time* before or after.
What's reported is also not neutrally presented (i.e. all the data points) but to advance his arguments. Normally, you'd expect something like in this month, in that month, in so and so month.