Dispatches from the Fediverse

Dispatches from the Fediverse

From From Embers

[podcast link might not show up if you have an adblocker on in your web browser - ANews]

Our fediverse correspondent Lenny returns to discuss the FBI seizure of the servers of Kolektiva.social, the largest anarchist instance on Mastodon. We also talk about the continuing discrediting of big tech companies such as Twitter, Meta and Reddit, and what that might mean for people working to build an open-source, decentralized alternative to corporate social media platforms.

LINKS

Kolektiva.social Security Alert (Statement on seizure)

From Embers - Social Networks, Online Life and The Fediverse

From Embers - New Communication Infrastructure For Anarchists

F-91W Distro - Mastodon OPSEC guide

F-91W Distro - An anarchist introduction to federated social media


CrimethInc - Doxxing Prevention and Aftercare Guide

Anti-Hate.ca Story on Poast Leak

Reddit alternatives LemmyKbin

With music from Deep Sixed


There are 8 Comments

This is soooo obvious that one of the most basic criteria for anonymity with forums and blogs, the platforms gotta be Javascript-independent. That's at least the oldest, most infamous data leak scheme. So why are fucking Web 2.0 platforms like Mastodon't were favored by radicals and anarchists? Let's just stick to Fedbook and Birdchan while you're at it.

Not only Mastodon't ain't that much more secure than corporate platforms, but the interface is bulky, takes a lot of RAM and the structure of the network is a mess... I'm no web admin but WHY haven't we got instead forums using more straightforward, old-school, lighter and less tricky designs that don't require as much snitch code like Hackernews, Raddle and this site?

You technophile anarchists are naive and pathetic, deluding yourselves that you can somehow protect yourselves with the right kind of encryption, web platforms, or whatever, when all the critical infrastructure of the internet everywhere in the world - and in space - is under the direct control of governments and their corporate allies.

I am just starting to think about these things. EVen though I am an avowed anarchist and outsider artist, I have watched my life get subsumed, alongside many other comrades, in the corporate social media-verse. I have been excited to find the so-called fediverse, but I am wondering what thoughts the two critial commenters above have about communication methods? Where I live, anyway, most of the things we used to communicate before are Gone, because of everything from gentrification to the rising cost of the post to teh dissappearence of landlines, new laws criminalising any kind of postering or stickering to staggering new heights and the dissappearance and even monetization of bulletein boards ... I am thinking about ways of going back to analog communication since that seems an advatnage now that the world is so digitally focused. But I am also really interested in digital alternatives. I also feel woefully ignorant of how things like javascript work ... I am not a techie by any stretch of the imagination. Would you be willing to give your thoughts on some alternatives? (Sorry for the typos, my computer is kinda fucked up)

Makhno's just being your usual fatalistic edgelord for whom just using a computer means handing over all your life to the NSA... so then "anywaaays, let's just put your whole life on Fedbook and fuck it". There are a few nuances to make. While there's some truths to the claim that anarcho-techies got some rather naive assessments about online anonymity, there ARE ways to blur your tracks and trump cyber-profiling, and as for encryption, it appears to be more a matter

Even if, say, the Feds indeed got all the keys to Tor so they can trace everything at the source, you still can protect yourself by the usual means like being careful about all the metadata you're putting out, your writing style and getting to know better whoever's the admin of the instances or sites you're visiting. And so on. It's just.. don't trust everything and everyone just because of their claims of being radical comrades. Even if true, there's usually things they aren't doing right.

But I'm no actual hacker elite! So maybe hacker elite Makhno can better *inform* us...

i note you have no reply to the claim that 'all the critical infrastructure of the internet everywhere in the world - and in space - is under the direct control of governments and their corporate allies.'

you fediverse ppl are basically just putting a black flag next to your local freeway and shouting 'this is an anarchist freeway now! for freedom!' it's the worst cope ever.

So basically anarchos postering on walls, utility poles, park benches, mail drop boxes, etc are "coping", as all these things are one way or another provided by the state. Also coz you use their infrastructure you're exposing them and all the potential readers to state surveillance! So why instead don't you just post insurrecto texts on Facebook under your legal name with personal picture!?

I see now what kind of galaxy brain you're posting that from.

This was my reminder to change my mastodon password. The FBI will never steal my sick tweets!

My knowledge of hacking, encryption, etc is non-existent, but perhaps quat can learn something useful from this web site run by anarchist and convicted cyber criminal Jeremy Hammond:

https://hackthissite.org

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