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[A] Melbourne-based company Assembly Four created Switter after its founders learned that social media platforms were either removing sex workers' content or banning their accounts. Without the time or resources to build a whole new network from scratch, the group turned to Mastodon.
Sex workers are running out of safe online spaces. Craigslist is no longer displaying personal ads. The controversial classifieds site Backpage, which many escorts used to screen clients, has been seized by the FBI. Adult content is disappearing off Google Drive, and many sex workers say they're being forced off social media. With the news that President Trump has signed the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), their options will continue to dwindle — and with it, the ability for many sex workers to pay their bills, let alone do so safely.
Over the past few weeks, sex workers have been turning to an unexpected platform to remain online: the social network Mastodon, under a new instance called "Switter." Melbourne-based company Assembly Four created Switter after its founders learned that social media platforms were either removing sex workers' content or banning their accounts. Without the time or resources to build a whole new network from scratch, the group turned to Mastodon.
Although ostensibly aimed at sex trafficking prevention, FOSTA's reduction of legal protections for websites is having disastrous consequences for sex workers. Faced with the new potential for litigation, many websites are removing any content or avenues that could possibly violate FOSTA. It's disconnecting many of the most vulnerable sex workers from crucial resources.
[...] Switter may offer a temporary salve for the community, yet sex workers say it cannot stand as a last bastion, an end-all be-all answer for their profession. Assembly Four says it's prepared to continue working to make it a safe destination for sex workers, but that they need real change.
"The best-case scenario would be the opposite," says Hunt. "The best-case scenario would be if we didn't need to have safe spaces, if public spaces were somewhere we were accepted."
Fast-Company, Buzzfeed, Vice and Techdirt have related stories.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 15 2018, @12:22PM (8 children)
Let's build a social media platform that has a charter to:
* To put peoples interest first
* Never sell out to corporate interests with a profit motive
* Distributed so no one jurisdiction can control it.
* Based on open standards so never again we will have to be reliant on one entity.
* Put systems in place to stop one group from having undue influence on others.
..BTW the way I wanted to title this post as "Bitches stop complaining and let's build something!", but I didn't want to be dismissed as frivolous.
-A. Non
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 15 2018, @12:34PM (3 children)
Diaspora, Tor, Freenet and others should qualify, covering the needs of mainstream users and degenerates alike.
What needs to be done next?
(Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Sunday April 15 2018, @12:41PM
What needs to be done next?
Well, it needs to get enough income to advertise it, of course.
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Sunday April 15 2018, @02:21PM (1 child)
Simple: People need to actually use them, instead of whining about the corporate-owned centralized platforms they refuse to abandon. Good luck with that.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday April 16 2018, @01:16AM
Folks will use the ones that get them laid. That's what made Facebook great. And if this Swiffer works for that, it'll become great too. But my money's on Facebook!!!
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 15 2018, @01:12PM
(Wikipedia [wikipedia.org])
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday April 15 2018, @01:25PM
Right there, you've cut your potential funding by a factor >99.9% - people do donate to good causes, but that rate of return is a tiny fraction compared to the sellouts with profit motives.
It's got to be dead stupid easy to use, like Craigslist. As such, it will be as easy for law enforcement to find it as it is for the users. And, with shoestring financing, good luck defending it against the first villager with a sharp pitchfork looking to burn a witch or whore or whatever they can get their frustration out on.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 15 2018, @03:48PM
Have you heard of Mastodon/ActivityPub? Because you just described it. It's already built.
(Score: 2) by terrab0t on Monday April 16 2018, @11:52AM
The problem is that we’ve become focused on single entities and platforms instead of protocols.
From the linked article on Mastodon [theverge.com]:
If a major email service provider started censoring emails or doing stupid things with its interface, email wouldn’t die. People would ditch that email provider for one that’s not run by idiots. The same goes for RSS. I still use both actively.
Mastodon has a main hub run by the creator, but anyone can setup their own Mastodon server and send and receive messages through it. Ideally, lots of independent Mastodon instances will spring up just like email and IRC servers. Then there won’t be one major organization that can fail.