Convener: Evan Prodromou (@evanprodromou@socialwebfoundation.org)

Participants who chose to record their names here:

• @ozoned@social.ozoned.net
• Ben Werdmuller (@ben@werd.social) [until 2pm ET, sorry]
• Anca (@anca@allpeep.social)
• William Maggos (@wjmaggos@liberal.city)

Notes

Question: What has been the role of social media over the last two years? And the fediverse?

Oct 7 marks two years since the Hamas attack on Israel with 1200 dead. In the subsequent war on Gaza, ~67,000 have since died. But Oct 7 in some ways is a shorthand that refers to the whole thing, much as 9/11 refers to the attacks and their aftermath.

Evan: There has been a lot of discussion on social media that didn’t take place in the mainstream media. There’s been a lot more discussion on the topic than there have been in prev

William: In the run-up to the Iraq war we had different kinds of information presented to us, which wasn’t everything about it. If we had social media in 2003, maybe people would have made different decisions.

Ozoned: local alert system in Israel hooked up to Mastodon (very interesting!)

Gaza-Verified system was built to vet some donations

Ben: Most impactful has been Instagram. People on the ground telling their own stories, including children, created an emotional and empathetic connection. Fediverse didn’t have very good empathetic connection. Fediverse did have drive-by responses, dehumanizing. Worst responses on Threads. Murderous and genocidal language.

“drive-by responses” = “reply guys” = people who you don’t know who just reply to you

Ben: Videos very powerful

Ozone: Question about Tiktok, Chinese ownership, pro-Palestinian positions by Gen Z caused a lot of concern that required, maybe, US buyout.

Anca: Interpersonal issues on Social Media. Incredible division. People stopped talking to each other. “If you post this kind of thing, you’re a terrible person,” etc. Adults posting memes and things that were just terrible. Contrast to Ukraine war; not nearly as hostile.

Ozoned: When you take out the algorithm, people become gentler. Polarisation: if you’re not in one corner, you’re obviously in the other corner. Some other issues, such as current state of US.

Evan: Guppe groups were useful for following the conversation. What other features, tools, ideas were there that made the conversation easier, harder, etc?

wjmaggos: Mondoweiss has two Fediverse servers, and that’s great. Questions about mastodon.social moderation?

EP: Definition question about being in Germany, higher requirements around what is defined as “genocide” and how people can represent these conflicts in German-controlled media

Unattributed: Acknowledge genocide in Gaza. Taking on a more hands-on participation in moderation. Gaza-verified is a fantastic program. Where technology and community organising can meet. Promotion of mutual aid. “The fediverse is a community self-selected to be one that cares.” Using the software that meets community needs. (What if we put mutual aid int the Mastodon moderation panel??)

EP: How has antisemitism and so-called leftist antisemitism appeared on the Fediverse?

WJM: Jerk fedi has gone into this area. More universalist fediverse. Compare Jesse Singal on Bluesky. Filtering so people don’t have to see things they don’t want to. If we want to be Big Fedi, we want Fox News as well as Mondoweiss.

EP: One of the hard things is defining the line around antisemitism.

Unattributed: Such a difficult conversation; we need IFTAS for these discussions. Also, Mastodon is not necessarily left-leaning. Don’t forget about truth.social! Model of technofeudalist structures by Nathan Schneider, fiefdoms that don’t interact, shunning, shame.

AM: How can we create a public discourse space? Is it discourse or competition? Less of a fight for the high ground.

WJM: “Democracy of reach”. “Freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach” - Elon Musk. On Fediverse, we collectively decide what goes viral. Attention layer on the web itself. We need everybody connected, including right-leaning and left-leaning. But you can’t be a jerk!

EP: What have we learned?

AM: Ben talking about videos of people actually affected, very personal person-to-person social media is very powerful. Individual connection can still happen and can be really important.

WJM: We can find each other.

Unattributed: A lot left to learn! Newfound appreciation for deep support.