Looking forward to end-to-end encryption in Mastodon if for no other reason the "aha! Mastodon's DMs are not really private" semi-bogus statement will finally be over.

Yes, it's true. Yes, it's a legitimate concern.

But:

1. Other sites and services (Twitter, FB, etc.) *also* have unencrypted DMs.
2. Mastodon devs are working on it.
3. Relatedly: Even email is not encrypted.

You have to trust your admins *everywhere*. (And prefer using end-to-end encryption whenever possible.)

@garrett I think it’s less that it isn’t encrypted - it is that it is easy to open up a n existing closed discussion

@garrett @Migueldeicaza Another issue is that you have to trust more than one admin. Maybe the server you're sending the message from to be completely secure and its admin to never disclose messages to anyone else even under threat of violence, but the recipient's server might not be as good. Even after Mastodon implements encrypted DMs, not all servers in the fediverse will support it, so I imagine the encryption will remain optional.

@f00fc7c8 @Migueldeicaza Yep.

You have to trust multiple admins who work at the same social network too. (Twitter has more than one, and so does Facebook.) And you have to trust multiple admins on each email server too.

People think big sites like Facebook are immune from this, but they've had employees reading people's DMs so many times that we know about (and surely more than we know):

forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/20

And Musk's "Twitter Files" are in the same direction.

Follow

@garrett @f00fc7c8 @Migueldeicaza

Elon Musk has done humanity a great service by buying up Twitter and exposing the systematic and criminal manipulation it operates.

Twitter has censored reputable doctors in favor of corrupt institutions that have enforced a narrative and measures without scientific evidence.

It was already clear what was happening with the Lancet-gate and the rest, but it is good that the involvement of social networks has been confirmed.

Here there is even a study on the suppression of dissent on Covid19:

doi.org/10.1007/s11024-022-094

Censorship and Suppression of Covid-19 Heterodoxy: Tactics and Counter-Tactics - Minerva

The emergence of COVID-19 has led to numerous controversies over COVID-related knowledge and policy. To counter the perceived threat from doctors and scientists who challenge the official position of governmental and intergovernmental health authorities, some supporters of this orthodoxy have moved to censor those who promote dissenting views. The aim of the present study is to explore the experiences and responses of highly accomplished doctors and research scientists from different countries who have been targets of suppression and/or censorship following their publications and statements in relation to COVID-19 that challenge official views. Our findings point to the central role played by media organizations, and especially by information technology companies, in attempting to stifle debate over COVID-19 policy and measures. In the effort to silence alternative voices, widespread use was made not only of censorship, but of tactics of suppression that damaged the reputations and careers of dissenting doctors and scientists, regardless of their academic or medical status and regardless of their stature prior to expressing a contrary position. In place of open and fair discussion, censorship and suppression of scientific dissent has deleterious and far-reaching implications for medicine, science, and public health.

doi.org
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