this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2024
34 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

37712 readers
164 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
alyaza@beehaw.org
TheRtRevKaiser@beehaw.org
gyrfalcon@beehaw.org
rs5th@beehaw.org
coldredlight@beehaw.org
Los@beehaw.org
SemioticStandard@beehaw.org
TheRtRevKaiser@kbin.social
remington@beehaw.org
34
An evidence-based and critical analysis of the Fediverse decentralization promises (arxiv.org)
submitted 2 months ago by BodaciousMunchkin@links.hackliberty.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
7 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://links.hackliberty.org/post/2559706

Abstract

This paper examines the potential of the Fediverse, a federated network of social media and content platforms, to counter the centralization and dominance of commercial platforms on the social Web. We gather evidence from the technology powering the Fediverse (especially the ActivityPub protocol), current statistical data regarding Fediverse user distribution over instances, and the status of two older, similar, decentralized technologies: e-mail and the Web. Our findings suggest that Fediverse will face significant challenges in fulfilling its decentralization promises, potentially hindering its ability to positively impact the social Web on a large scale.

Some challenges mentioned in the paper:

  • Discoverability as there is no central or unified index
  • Complicated moderation efforts due to its decentralized nature
  • Interoperability between instances of different types (e.g., Lemmy and Funkwhale)
  • Concentration on a small number of large instances
  • The risk of commercial capture by Big Tech

What are your thoughts on this? And how could we make the Fediverse a better place for all to stay?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] pcouy@lemmy.pierre-couy.fr 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I did not read the link, but two of my biggest concerns do not appear in the summary you provided :

  • the burden of hosting an ActivityPub enabled service is often duplicated for each instance instead of being split between them (for example, my Lemmy instance has a large picture folder and database because it is replicating all posts from communities I'm subscribed to)
  • it's a privacy nightmare. All instance admins now have as much spying power as the single centralized service it is replacing

(Edit: typo)

[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The privacy point is mitigated by the unfettered ability to create anonymous accounts. Unless the admins are able to ID personal IP addresses, everyone who didn't use their real name is anonymous for all intents and purposes.

[–] infinitevalence@discuss.online 3 points 2 months ago

If you admin your own instance then you can control any IP Fingerprinting related to your use.