What a terrible article 🤦

Like there is literally a social network build in Europe with millions of users (Mastodon and friends), and the article doesn’t even mention it and rather shills for a marginally more popular (mainly in the US and Brazil) one that is made in the US and isn’t very decentralized either.

That is fail on so many levels…

Here’s an unpopular opinion: This won’t happen because the policymakers don’t want it to happen. It’s fundamentally opposed to what they want. And I’m not spinning some conspiracy tale here. Listen…

The debate involves many ambiguous terms that people like him interpret one way but which actually mean something entirely different. The correct understanding is ultimately the legal definition. That’s the one that determines if armed people (ie the police) will come and take away your computer.

the AT Protocol allows users to own their data

To a copyright person, this would mean functioning DRM. It means complete control over what happens to their content, regardless of where and how it is stored. They have the law on their side and the policymakers. Mind that the media is part of the copyright industry and they have outsize influence over public opinion. As far as they are concerned, the problem with Big Tech is that they are not paid enough for their rights.

Many people on Lemmy feel the same way about GDPR. Unfortunately, Lemmy’s hive mind is dominated by misconception about GDPR. But it is true that it is far-reaching and would be well served by the same perfect DRM of which copyright people dream.

The ideal European internet is one that has DRM built-in from the bottom so that everyone can exercise their legal rights under copyright law, the GDPR, the data act, and possibly others.

A freewheeling federated network is legally problematic. Even insofar that it is legal, it is fundamentally opposed to what policymakers and much of the public want. Free speech is an American value and emphatically not European.

If you don’t believe me, you can look at tax-funded projects like Gaia-X and then imagine what the social media equivalent looks like.

For a while I have this idea of basicly giving people free webpages, like some providers are doing but without a private company running things. Like everyone living in the EU has the right to claim a small Wordpress Blog (or something like it, I know Wordpress is shit for some reason) where they can freely express themself. This part with some sort of feed from the pages you subscribe to would be realy cool I think :)

Not bluesky please

Improve the fedi, a lot