Inside Kolektiva, the social media platform built by anarchists and activists

Inside Kolektiva, the social media platform built by anarchists and activists

In August, Facebook purged a number of anarchist news organizations and left-wing activists from the site under the guise of a larger ban targeting far-right extremists and QAnon conspiracy theorists. Following the ban, a group of anarchists created their own social media server called Kolektiva Social on Mastodon, a decentralized, non-corporate social media alternative. The server, dubbed an 'instance' in Mastodon-speak, has since amassed over 2,100 users and continues to grow from an influx of left-leaning activists who feel they are targeted by larger social media platforms. Just last month, without warning or explanation, Instagram disabled the account of the Pacific NorthWest Youth Liberation Front, a decentralized network of youth collectives committed to taking direct action toward 'total liberation.' In response, the group encouraged people to find them on Kolektiva Social and on their blog.

Anarchist filmmaker and Kolektiva Social collective member Franklin Lopez tells Mic, “Folks saw a need for a social media platform that was not rife with censorship, shadow banning, and data tracking [...] This would be a platform that belongs to us, that is ad free, where we don't track users’ habits or keep any of their data except for what they publish themselves.” So far, the server’s discourse is productive and the environment is friendly.

Mastodon, home to over 3 million accounts and growing, borrows from Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook by allowing for 500-word character limits in an interface reminiscent of Twitter, while each community moderates its own content. The platform was founded by German developer Eugen Rochko in 2017 with funds from crowdfunding site Patreon. It is attractive for anarchists partially because it mirrors the type of decentralized, non-hierarchical society they hope to build. Each instance within Mastodon acts as its own community, and disparate instances can link up and share content, or 'federate,' with each other.

Zooming out, Mastodon is part of the larger 'Fediverse' through Activity Pub, a decentralized network of social media platforms that can all interact with one another. Imagine if Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook users could communicate without creating an account on each platform. Welcome to the Fediverse.

Lopez explains, “The idea of federations is one that has been embraced by anarchists for many decades, most notably during the Spanish Civil War.” (During the Spanish Civil War, millions of people organized their lives in a bottom-up fashion through federations without a centralized state.) “The fact that we can run our own Mastodon server and never be kicked out, like what recently happened to [anarchist news site] It's Going Down and others on Facebook, and still be part of this larger constellation of Mastodon servers, or Fediverse, is a very anarchist vision of what the world should look like. Small self-governing communities or affinity groups, united but decentralized.”

Another perk may be that, unlike Facebook, Mastodon does not have a centralized Law Enforcement Response Team (LERT) as the platform isn’t owned by any particular company or individual. In 2019, police requested data from 164,782 Facebook accounts, and the company complied in 88% of cases. Mastodon as a whole can’t comply by design: “This decentralized nature does mean that, for example, US law enforcement does not have total reach like it does with US tech companies,” founding developer Rochko tells Mic.

Kodiak Couch, an anarchist organizing with Slay the System, an agitprop collective creating content on Leftbook (Facebook for leftists), first joined Mastodon in 2018. Couch tells Mic they joined because, “It had been presumed that Facebook would inevitably censor, restrict, and collaborate with federal agencies progressively as it is doing now [...] Corporate platforms hinder this ability to freely associate, for they turn us into marketing research commodities, and purposefully stoke division.” Slay the System joined Kolektiva Social after Facebook decided to boot anarchists from its platform.

For a time, Mastodon was billed as “Twitter without Nazis,” a haven for the left. But this changed in 2019, when social media network Gab created a Mastodon server and its white supremecist users followed. As tech companies attempt to address the spread of far-right mass disinformation campaigns that lead to real-world violence, groups like Qanon may increasingly migrate toward Mastodon. Last month, YouTube announced new moderation policies that outline the removal of content that targets or harasses people based on conspiracy theories.

The far-right’s migration is an unfortunate side-effect of Mastodon’s decentralized model. Anyone with the source code can start a server, Rochko tells Mic. But there are ways to limit their reach. Rochko says he has seen moderators boot QAnon conspiracy theorists off Mastodon servers. The servers he operates, for example, don't tolerate dangerous misinformation, and he says he has a high confidence in servers advertised on the Join Mastodon introductory page. But, Rochko adds, “I'm aware that there are servers out there that are full of them.” Mastodon’s hostility toward those groups might make other social media alternatives, like privately owned Parler, known as a 'Twitter clone for conservatives,' more attractive to the far-right. Following last week’s election results, Parler has become the most downloaded app in the App Store and in Google’s app marketplace, amassing one million users over the past few days.

While de-platforming far-right movements and their fundraisers can hinder their organizing, some argue that addressing power imbalances at their roots are necessary for squelching hateful conspiracies. Cory Doctorow, in his book How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism, asks “What if the trauma of living through real conspiracies all around us — conspiracies among wealthy people, their lobbyists, and lawmakers to bury inconvenient facts and evidence of wrongdoing (these conspiracies are commonly known as “corruption”) — is making people vulnerable to conspiracy theories?”

Social media alternatives like Mastodon promote a world without a reliance on people in power, which, of course, makes powerful people less powerful. If conspiracy theories and supremacist rhetoric are a manifestation of systemic power imbalances, then social media alternatives that prioritize people over profit — while also moderating for supremacist rhetoric as much as possible — should lead society into a more liberatory direction.

Lopez remembers how the internet was originally managed by its own users in this way. “Indymedia, launched in 1999 by anarchists, revolutionized things people now take for granted, like blogging, photo sharing, and audio and video streaming, all in a worldwide decentralized network of Independent Media Centers (IMC's),” he says. But then, as well-funded capitalists monopolized social media, independent platforms suffered.

Sometimes progress means addressing what went wrong in the past. “I think it's time to once again embrace that saying from the 90s,” Lopez says. “Don't hate the media, be the media.”

There are 34 Comments

"Cory Doctorow, in his book How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism, asks “What if the trauma of living through real conspiracies all around us — conspiracies among wealthy people, their lobbyists, and lawmakers to bury inconvenient facts and evidence of wrongdoing (these conspiracies are commonly known as “corruption”) — is making people vulnerable to conspiracy theories?”"

Good god... this woke dude just realized that so he wrote a book about it...

Anarchists want to deplatform people but get upset when it happens to them, will always make me laugh, same with the police, same with Violence...

that being said, anarchists who use social media to promote actions are just fucking stupid and immature, they give the date time, and location to the police before it even happens, remember J20...

Well aren't you a stupid little crybaby. You come to an anarchist site to talk shit on anarchists, and then you want to tell us how to organize, apparently by keeping our entire existence a secret. And why should we trust you to have our best interests at heart? You sound like a cheaply-written bot.

I come here because I am an anarchist and I think Organizing on social media is fucking stupid. are you trying to tell me putting out the exact time and date and location on social media and the police don't see it? do you not remember J20 where the police already mapped out the kettle points because they knew the exact locations and places they were going to march

are you really trying to say telling the police where you are going to be is the best way to organize

if you're an anarchist, you might want to stop making lazy, sweeping assertions like "anarchists cry about [blank] but then they hypocritically [blank]" because you're ... saying that you do that?

emmm i dont think thats how it really went down, but i agree SM is stupid and crying over being banned is stupid too

"do you not remember J20 where the police already mapped out the kettle points because they knew the exact locations and places they were going to march"

This is 100% bona fide bullshit. Look at the maps of where that march went—Crimethinc has them—and you'll see it's fucking nonsense. The cops would have used other kettle points much earlier if they had planned to. The march went around in circles, absurdly, and was kettled on like the second loop de loop. It was a little ridiculous, but your lie is a real howler.

This poster is clearly a troll and almost certainly a fake.

The Police said they used social media, the website, and meetings to know where the points were and where the march was going

Just going to the crimeThinc site makes you a mark. The FBI is logging your IP and they;'re going to take you out with a drone strike.

d00d, if the police had that much of a legal right to force, i could actually compete with the village idiot in my hometown! I'm not liking this trumpian politics one bit: people like ME should have a say in the power plays!

That report does talk about the police knowing where they were going to be and how they blocked off places that made them go in the direction they wanted, so they are kind of right

the worst part about that article is the moralizing about property damage

Anarchists want to deplatform people but get upset when it happens to them

Looks like you got an axe to grind.

So what happened a few years back? Your fascist buddy(ies) got deplatformed over posting racist and/or homophobic rants on social media, then it all meant war to uuu?

Let's make this clear that the "anarchist" crowd outraged over Facebook censorship is just as fucking dumb to me as those crypto-liberals like YOU who keep pushing for free speech, same liberal free speech that got several liberal democracies in big trouble over allowing antagonistic factions to gain prominence due to the very fact of being given a tribune. among other essential things like being able to get funding and have gatherings.

anon said, while their own axe sang against the grinding wheel.

But I like your axe tho. Similar make and model to my own.

1. Why is your go-to saying I "had fascist buddies" assuming I was fascist or ran in fascist circles because I criticize some stupid fucking anarchists, and yes I can be an anarchist and criticize other anarchists because I don't organize on social-media

2. no, Free-speech doesn't exist, if you believe in free-speech you believe in the constitution or some form of authority that grants you the freedom of speech, that doesn't exist,

so nice try with that libertarian bullshit

my main point was you have anarchists that complain their social media is being taken away, and are the same ones asking to take away other social-media, the same anarchists who ask the police to arrest other people

my other main point was organizing actions on social media is fucking immature and stupid

Look... I can't agree anywhere less than totally with your second point.

As for the first point you were making, this just sounded like some gross generalization, but there's also the fact that I simply can't consider those people (who've been organizing radical shit through FB), as legit anarchists.

I mean for christ's sake... Facebook is so fucking obviously authoritarian, and a kind of government in itself. I can't see any excuse for using this for organizing, besides being retarded.

I can agree with that, I guess it would be better stated that self-identified anarchists have been using social media for promoting their actions

By your logic, people who drive cars aren't "legit anarchists." Neither are people who pay rent or have bank accounts or live indoors. You're fucking stupid. Next.

Why do ppl say Facebook is inherently “right wing” when, objectively speaking, they are and have been banning ppl both from the left AND the right.

Fundamentally what they’re banning are extremists and generally any group or page (left/right) who challenges the states monopoly on force.

I keep tabs on both wings, and the funny thing is that both left and right are publically whining about FBs political bias. I.e: the left gets banned and whines that FB is pro-right. The right gets banned and whines that FB is pro-left.

Both sides are migrating their shit onto alt-social media platforms.

Understand that the state doesn’t take sides in the left-right binary war. The state is interested in a different binary:

The state vs. All that is non-state. Period.

Basically this. Interesting that this article toes the same line: "In August, Facebook purged a number of anarchist news organizations and left-wing activists from the site under the guise of a larger ban targeting far-right extremists and QAnon conspiracy theorists." Everyone has their biases I know, but the idea that the larger ban was cover and the real target was the anarchist groups is just pulled out of your ass. Occam's razor would suggest the real target was the larger ban, and that they wanted to throw some anarchists in there to make it seem more balanced.

but have you looked at the numbers tho? I mean, I generally agree with this assessment about it being market logic, not overt partisanship but in the american context, "market logic" leans heavily to the right. like, do you think the zuck doesn't land firmly to the right on law and order issues? most people are right leaning or at least centrist compared to antifascist/anticapitalists and there's definitely more leniency for far right calls for violence.

I would question the motives of anyone who doesn't acknowledge that the extreme right enjoys far more leniency when it comes to online censorship and one of the primary examples of this all throughout the Trump era has been the zuck and his ship of fools.

> I would question the motives of anyone who doesn't acknowledge that the extreme right enjoys far more leniency when it comes to online censorship and one of the primary examples of this all throughout the Trump era has been the zuck and his ship of fools.

Question away. For every 'left' individual or group censored online I can name you three from 'the extreme right'

yes probably ... because there's more of them. do you get how ratios work? as usual, I can only wonder if you're this dense cuz of ideology or some other form of brain damage

But what is a left position on "law and order issues"? Always more police state.

While I totally agree with the fact that Facebook only cares about their own corporate agenda, the reality is that Qanon types, even after the mass bans, are still way active on the platform and keep pushing their MAGA crap, no matter what. It was also shown lately that FB was favoring pro-GOP news during the elections. The Zuck is an authoritarian dick head, likely tied to China as well as the Israeli Far Right. Left or Right, he'll just stand by the position that gets the site more global hegemony, or may save its entire boat at this point...

facebook is pro-money and anything that supports their ability to make money, ive seen zero evidence that the people who run the website have a vested interest in right wing politics even though i wouldnt be surprised if they did.

I doubt it because you see more techno-authoritarianism in the U.S specifically with Lefth Rulers, and Biden will only bring even more techno-authoritarianism

I don't believe that Russian Interference, But I agree that Trump is just as much as Obama was and Biden will be worse. if the Biden administration gets their way they are going to further what Obama Started and what Trump continued as far as increased techno-authoritarianism

tailored news media for whatever peoples particular ideology in the US significantly helped Trump. the echo chambers circle jerks that comes with tailored news for you helped as well. this non-stop whining about Trump I've seen on here and elsewhere = $$$$ and many ate it right up and regurgitated it to others. For example: anon 11/15/2020 - 09:49 ate it up hook, line and sinker and regurgitated it on here with this russian troll farm, cambridge anal-tic sideshow.

just use freenet, gnunet, i2p, or tor

mastodon maybe decentralized, but that doesn't mean it's secure. it would be a bad idea to organize anything on there

Add new comment