Privacy

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Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Project Liberty (www.projectliberty.io)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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From their About page:

Project Liberty is stitching together an ecosystem of technologists, academics, policymakers and citizens committed to building a people-powered internet—where the data is ours to manage, the platforms are ours to govern, and the power is ours to reclaim.

I just heard Frank McCourt on a podcast plugging his book "Our Biggest Fight".

It was great to hear someone with a voice talking about the problems we see with user data and social media, especially the problem of the Social Graph (the map of all your social connections, which includes weights and values).

Their solution to this problem was to develop a social networking protocol that enables any compliant app to use (think how email works - a standard protocol, SMTP), but encrypted and user data controlled by the user. They call it DSNP - Decentralized Social Networking Protocol.

I see both sides of their approach, I'm kind of ambivalent, lots of concern here long-term.

They've already acquired MeWe and have converted some users to this protocol. He wants to buy the US side of TikTok (if it becomes available) and convert it to DSNP, which would encrypt about 30 million US accounts.

I'm always cynical about stuff that sounds promising, but I don't have the tech background to really dissect what they're doing. Anyone understand this better?

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

At first glance this seems to be some bullshit by oligarch Frank McCourt. Billionaires won’t save us, or did we learn nothing from Elon Musk? Musk and McCourt are transnational billionaires and constituent parts of the US military-intelligence-propaganda-industrial complex. My first impression is that he’s trying to capture the federated social media space in order to get it under control, to bring it in line with the corporate social media space which is already integrated with the US propaganda architecture.

Seriously, anyone who’s trying to buy TikTok right now and has the means to potentially do it must have ties with US intelligence “community”.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Billionaires won’t save us, or did we learn nothing from Elon Musk?

Folks have not learned anything.

I just had a thought: How long do you think it'll take for oligarchs to start using current online sentiment manipulation techniques to get people away from distributed, non-profit media back onto the latest incarnation of traditional services?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Definitely a big concern

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I mean, McCourt has his own school at Georgetown U.: https://mccourt.georgetown.edu/

Georgetown U., situated literally in the middle of D.C., is a major center for training new generations of US domestic & imperial functionaries.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Can confirm. I consulted there a few times.

Oh, and the kids of very wealthy people.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

I don't disagree

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I looked briefly through their site:

Heavy on partnerships and ambition. Which is a good thing.
Light on technical details and implementation.
Hinting at former hype (blockchain) and current (AI)

But for me the biggest concern is development of a "new" decentralized protocol. IMHO there are enough protocols around to choose and pick from and help moving them forward instead of making one from scratch.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yea, the hype stuff is concerning. I don't trust all this data in one basket approach.

From a protocol standpoint, I think part of the intent is to have a standardized way to interconnect from disparate social platforms - think email with SMTP. But is that really the answer (like you, I don't think it is).

But that again is pretty scary in my mind - everything all in one basket, again. Do they really intend to build something secure and stable, or is it another honeypot?

It seems like they're building "The One" social graph, which is even more concerning