Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech (2019)

>a workable plan that enables more free speech, [...] That approach: build protocols, not platforms. To be clear, this is an approach that would bring us back to the way the internet used to be. The early internet involved many different protocols—instructions and standards that anyone could then use to build a compatible interface. As I've commented before[1][2], discussing protocols and advocating for them is a popular topic but it does not make progress. The real issue is funding and…

What I'd like to see is a model where you a federated network of moderated groups. Something like Discord except more micro-blog than chat and where you can see popular posts of sister/brother servers, very popular posts on cousin servers and so-forth. Basically, a filter-tree keeping things reasonable and creating groups of folks with some relation to each other.

I think this is largely a futile effort because the equilibrium the author thinks of when he talks about protocols does not exist. All existing internet platforms already sit on top of protocols, the internet's running on them. Anyone can built a platform on top of ActivityPub, on whatever crypto network or what have you. The old internet consisted of smaller islands not because of protocol technology, but because it had a small userbase overall and discovery was bad. The…

(2019)