I’m guilty as well.
Once thing that did occur to me just now, is how Meta’s current platforms are the focus of gov pressure to censor free speech and though crime, under the guise of public safety. What happens when this new platform federates? I think it’d be naive not to think that stink follows it. I have a sneaking suspicion Meta will filter content that doesn’t adhere to their own TOS, so does the blame shift to the rest of the fediverse?
Lots of open questions, but the whole thing stinks, IMO.
If federation takes off even the government won’t really be able to gently censor it, though. They might stomp and complain but short of breaking down a server room door there’s little they can do, and the only things that get that treatment right now in the West are child porn and stolen credit card numbers.
They could basically close off the internet like Cuba or to a much lesser degree China, but closed internets/intranets tend to suck, and then they’re in the awkward position of either rubber-stamping adult websites or banning them, which straight up won’t fly anytime soon.
