The Promised Land? Source: Microsoft's AI image generator
For two years, I've felt homeless in the social media world. I left Twittter/X when Elon Musk completed his takeover, repelled by the boorish swath of firings that ensued. I vowed not to return, but in truth, I did periodically when there was a breaking news story, and my dark information junky side was overwhelmed by less than robust principles.
December 2nd marks the day when my craving for Twitter was finally broken. A work colleague remarked that martial law had been declared in Korea. While I was generally aware of Korean political volatility, I had no understanding of the most recent political gyrations, which led to President Yoon Suk Yeol's 11 PM attempt to subvert democracy. Usually, I would have turned to Twitter to see what was happening. Instead, I opted to go to BlueSky and quickly learned the Korean President's order had been issued under the pretext of supposedly destabilizing North Korean anti-state forces.
South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol official portrait. Source Wikipedia
The story continued to be updated on BlueSky as more information emerged. I'd concluded quickly that an attempted coup was in progress; it was another autocratic grab. Would the Korean people come out on the street in protest and protect their democracy? I hoped that the ugly memory of prior periods of martial law would activate a resistance, and that's precisely what happened. All of these developments played out in almost real-time on BlueSky.
December 3 TakeAways
What all this means to the beleaguered would-be autocratic President of Korea remains to be seen. My takeaways from the events of December 3 are twofold:
- Thin-skinned, would-be autocrats will be more careful when they attempt to grab power
- Twitter's magnetic hold on news junkies has begun to break
Why Mastodon Failed
I'm not convinced that BlueSky is some Promised Land, but it has potential. I've spent the past two years posting on Mastodon, which was congenial but has never seemed to gain sufficient heft to become a viable alternative to Twitter. I have my suspicions about why Mastodon failed to achieve critical mass. Various issues come to mind:
- A barrage of news stories stating the platform was hard to use.
- Potential platform users were daunted and confused by the myriad of choices for establishing a presence on the platform.
- Lack of Mastodon thought leaders advocating for the service in straightforward, comprehensible ways.
- Perception or actual hostility directed towards journalists who wanted to participate on the platform.
The Importance of Decentralization
Ironically, BlueSky has many of the same features and capabilities as Mastodon. The service is built on a foundational AT Protocol, which enables decentralized social media. That sounds like a mouthful, but this is why it's crucial: it discourages platform capture by billionaire types. Since February, individuals or organizations have been able to set up their own AT Protocal-based server independent of BlueSky and participate on the platform. Folks on BlueSky can now migrate to other servers if they dislike how BlueSky runs the shop. Not only that, but participants can take all their data with them rather than having the painful experience many are feeling right now as they establish a presence on BlueSky. If you're on BlueSky, how much time have you spent looking for folks you followed on Twitter?
I Have Questions
I'm going to continue writing about BlueSky and the AT Protocol. I have lots of questions that I need to explore:
- What is BlueSky's revenue model - who pays for servers and development?
- What has BlueSky implemented to prevent hate speech, unwanted solicitations, and disinformation?
- How convinced can I be that BlueSky is immune to billionaire capture?
- How many successful implementations of the AT Protocol exist on the web
More to Come
