[Erin Kissane]

Erin Kissane breaks down some interesting research about alternative social media platforms for social justice organizations in the Majority World:

"The Engine Room team found that their informants with deep experience in Majority World civil society and social justice work understand exactly what’s wrong with and dangerous about corporate mega-platforms. They also use them anyway, because as flawed as they are, they’re still the best way to reach people both inside and outside of their communities."

In other words, when the world around you is coming down, you don't have the energy to rally people to join another social network. You just need to concentrate on meeting people where they already are and helping them effectively. The same goes for privacy concerns and other ethical tech considerations; they simply don't have the luxury of considering them.

That doesn't mean that we shouldn't be building alternative social networks or creating more private tools; if the place where people are already sharing is safer and more private, these communities will see the benefit. They will gain from a holistic, long-term move, but don't have the time or energy to concentrate on it themselves. Which is quite understandable!

A relative lack of trust and safety support is also a problem - although this is improving in leaps and bounds, there's an obvious gap today. Co-developing new platforms will help:

"The factors/characteristics include a call for alternative platforms to be both designed "from the margins" to ensure a sturdy understanding of the needs of their most vulnerable users and designed "around the needs and capabilities of non-technical communities" to make a transition to alternative networks possible."

Both of these things are vitally important - but have the potential to be real advantages of alternative social networks. There's no chance that X or Facebook would be co-designed in this way. On the fediverse, say, there's an opening for platforms to be built more inclusively, and for there to be a plurality of them so platform builders aren't stuck trying to make something be everything for everybody.

There's a lot here; Erin's summary is characteristically great, and I'm looking forward to diving into the research.

#Fediverse

[Link]