Replied in thread
@jeremy @pluralistic calling #ATproto aka. #BlueSky "federated" is as much as a #lie as calling #Discord instances as "#Servers"...
- Unlike #ActivityPub there's no cleanroom & fully self-hosting capable implementation!
#atproto
2 posts2 participants0 posts today
bibliome.clubBibliome - Building the very best reading lists, together
We've got a first "normal" independent #Bluesky community PDS with >100 users, from Rudy Fraser's Blacksky :) Rudy has officially launched the PDS this weekend and has been helping people from his community migrate there from Bluesky PBC hosted servers whole day.
(There's also a new third party migration tool that was launched this week, which has been very helpful in this: https://pdsmoover.com 
)
Stats at: https://blue.mackuba.eu/directory/pdses
Beyond Microblogging: AT Protocol for Building Unique Social Apps (FediCon 2025)
by Boris Mann @boris
@mmasnick's latest piece for @techdirt.com is an absolute must-read if you're interested in democracy, technology, and the possibility of a better future.
"The solution isn’t building better platforms — it’s making platforms an obsolete concept. Platforms concentrate power; protocols distribute it. Platforms extract value from users; protocols enable users to create value for themselves. Most importantly: platforms can be captured by bad actors, but protocols resist capture by design."
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/05/take-back-our-digital-infrastructure-to-save-democracy/
Techdirt · Take Back Our Digital Infrastructure To Save DemocracyWatch the tech oligarchs who lined up behind Donald Trump at his inauguration, and you’ll see the most important story of our time: the fascists are winning because they’ve built a dire…
Continued thread
Of course my blog supports AP but it needs a lot of work before I can use its social media thing as a replacement for anything.
I'm pretty much exclusively on Bluesky now.
https://bsky.app/profile/kyefox.com
I rarely send newsletters, but if you want to keep up, hit that subscribe button and I'll eventually get around to figuring out what I want to do with the blog:
Bluesky SocialKye Fox (@kyefox.com)Known to write and make music sometimes. they/them. ace. Athens, GA
Fox propagandist. ΘΔ
kye@kyefox.com
https://kyefox.com
https://ko-fi.com/kyefox
https://www.patreon.com/c/kyefox
Continued thread
Also appreciate @cyberlyra’s pragmatism - using Discord because it has the tools to safely moderate a chat community with high usability.
Today we have OOYE to sync Discord with Matrix https://gitdab.com/cadence/out-of-your-element/
And Roomy https://roomy.space has plans to sync with Discord, linked with #ATProto accounts
cc @erlend
Gitdabout-of-your-elementMatrix-Discord bridge with modern features.
There’s even an #ATproto competitor to ForgeFed / Forgejo: https://tangled.sh/
Interestingly, it has a different follow graph than what Bluesky offers.
tangled.shtimeline · tangledsee what's tangling
Replied in thread
@purpleidea @j12t there are many “yes ands”
Higher quality software comes from? Funding, business models, serving users that pay for things.
Lots of good nuance from @j12t in his talk about not just “social media”
I have some of these themes in my talk this afternoon about all the not-microblogging apps on #ATProto
Continued thread
Questions to @quillmatiq about other apps and ecosystems and ends up mentioning Sprk (open video platform, longer than what Bsky supports), Roomy (Discord chat alternative), and Germ (e2ee messaging) on the #ATProto side
Continued thread
@quillmatiq shows some power tools, including Airport, the #ATProto account migrator
I kinda hate that my only two options for getting mention notifications from #atproto seem to be plugging into the firehose or polling https://bsky.social every minute. Anybody know about a simple pubsub type thing for listening to mentions for a single handle/did?
BlueskyBlueskySocial media as it should be. Find your community among millions of users, unleash your creativity, and have some fun again.
Now that the release has dropped I can say that it is pretty cool that we (@limeleaf@social.coop) got to partner with @Flipboard@flipboard.social for their @surf@flipboard.social announcement promoting their custom feeds on https://blueskydirectory.com
https://about.flipboard.com/press/now-discover-surf-custom-feeds-on-bluesky-directory/
If you also use Bluesky, check out https://surf.social and use the code in the announcement post to sign up.
#Bluesky #ATProto #Flipboard #News #Decentralized
https://about.flipboard.com/press/now-discover-surf-custom-feeds-on-bluesky-directory/
If you also use Bluesky, check out https://surf.social and use the code in the announcement post to sign up.
#Bluesky #ATProto #Flipboard #News #Decentralized
Continued thread
We will be hosting talks on #atproto #mcp #webapplets and web payments, and give publishers the opportunity to interact directly with developers working on these frontier technologies.
Thank you to Unternet, Graze, Free our Feeds, and Betaworks for their support.
I've updated my template project of a #Bluesky feed service in #RubyLang, first time since 2023 
No big changes, but I brought it up to date with what I have in my (private) live project, updated it to latest gem versions, and added several new sections in the readme about how feeds work & how the app is built. #atproto
GitHubGitHub - mackuba/bluesky-feeds-rb: Template of a custom feed generator service for the Bluesky network in RubyTemplate of a custom feed generator service for the Bluesky network in Ruby - mackuba/bluesky-feeds-rb
Destroying Autocracy – July 17, 2025
Welcome to this week’s “Destroying Autocracy”.
It’s your source for curated news affecting democracy in the cyber arena with a focus on protecting it. That necessitates an opinionated Butlerian jihad against big tech as well as evangelizing for open-source and the Fediverse. Since big media’s journalism wing is flailing and failing in its core duty to democracy, this is also a collection of alternative reporting on the eternal battle between autocracy and democracy. We also cover the cybersecurity world. You can’t be free without safety and privacy.
DA comes out on Thursday and is updated through the end of day on Friday. Then we start over. So take your time in perusing it and check back in over the weekend.
FYI, my opinions will be in bold. And will often involve cursing. Because humans. Especially tech bros. And fascists. Fuck ’em.
We are back from holiday and brief respite from Fascism Friendly Florida.
Featured Item
Hamish Campbell writes:
Capitalism’s invisible hand has always relied on hidden data. In the digital age, that data is metadata the overlooked, under-the-hood information that tells us who, where, when, how often, and what next. It doesn’t matter what you say or do if someone else controls the context around it. That’s where the power lies. Let’s be clear: the battle for metadata is the battle for the future.
Capitalism: Metadata is hoarded by the dotcons. This is the tech-feudalism of today—soft fascism in algorithmic form.
Chinese Communism: Here, the state doesn’t outsource metadata – it owns it. Surveillance is centralised. Social credit systems reduce people to patterns and can be used to penalise deviation.
Liberalism: Wants to privatise metadata to the individual, to revive the mythical free market of rational actors with perfect information. But this is a fantasy—metadata’s power comes from aggregation, and no individual can match corporate or state capacity to hoard it. The liberal path leads to a slightly less abusive cage.
Anarchism and the Commons: A Fourth Way
What does anarchism want? It wants the social conditions for free association. It wants autonomy, not just individual, but community autonomy.
In commons vs. the market, capitalism uses metadata to target, extract, and sell. We use metadata to share, trust, and build. The Open Media Network proposes a radical shift to replace the market with metadata commons. In capitalism, knowledge is hoarded for advantage. In the commons, it is shared for coordination. The market’s “invisible hand” becomes the commons’ visible knowledge, messy, partial, human, but rooted in mutual aid, not profit.
Metadata and the OMN Path: Who Controls the Invisible Hand?
We start and end with good news to make the middle bearable.
The response to Russia’s War Crimes, Techno Feudalism, and other douchebaggery
TechCrunch reports:
Ukrainian hackers claim to have destroyed servers of Russian drone maker
The Kyiv Independent reports:
EU slaps new sanctions on Russia over hybrid threats, disinformation
BleepingComputer reports:
Europol disrupts pro-Russian NoName057(16) DDoS hacktivist group
ETH Zurich announces:
A language model built for the public good
Open Future reports on:
It’s FOSS reports:
Europe on a Roll: Plans Open Source Alternative to Confluence and Jira
OpenProject shares:
Empowering the Public Sector with OpenProject: An Open Source alternative for project management
Bloomberg Law reports:
States Target AI Hiring Tools as Federal Freeze Attempt Fails
404 Media has:
The Open-Source Software Saving the Internet From AI Bot Scrapers
Immigration Raid Tracking App ‘ICE Block’ Keeps Your Data Private, Researcher Finds
Open Ice is a new resource:
TechPolicy reports:
States Are Fighting Back To Defend Medical Privacy and Safeguard Democracy
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
Despite Supreme Court Setback, EFF Fights On Against Online Age Mandates
Neutral
TechPolicy reports:
How the EU’s Voluntary AI Code is Testing Industry and Regulators Alike
Making Media Pluralism Work in the Age of Algorithms
The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports:
EFF’s Guide to Getting Records About Axon’s Draft One AI-Generated Police Reports
The Evil Empire (AKA Autocracy) Strikes Back
Platformer reports:
The campaign to make it illegal for ChatGPT to criticize Trump
Krebs on Security reports:
DOGE Denizen Marko Elez Leaked API Key for xAI
404 Media reports:
ICE Is Searching a Massive Insurance and Medical Bill Database to Find Deportation Target
TechPolicy reports:
The US Just Logged Off from Internet Freedom
ProPublica has:
The IRS Is Building a Vast System to Share Millions of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE
A Little-Known Microsoft Program Could Expose the Defense Department to Chinese Hackers
Ars Technica reports:
Trump sues Corporation for Public Broadcasting directors who refused to be fired
Pariah States
BleepingComputer reports:
North Korean XORIndex malware hidden in 67 malicious npm packages
DarkReading reports:
China-Backed Salt Typhoon Hacks US National Guard for Nearly a Year
4 Chinese APTs Attack Taiwan’s Semiconductor Industry
Noyb has:
How TikTok, AliExpress & WeChat ignore your GDPR rights
Big Media
404 Media reports:
The Media’s Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work
TechPolicy reports:
Old Tricks, New Tech: How Legacy Media Capture Fuels Today’s Digital Authoritarianism
Mediations in an Emergency reports:
Please Shout Fire. This Theater Is Burning
Big Tech
Ars Technica reports:
New Grok AI model surprises experts by checking Elon Musk’s views before answering
TechCrunch reports:
Of course, Grok’s AI companions want to have sex and burn down schools
OpenAI and Anthropic researchers decry ‘reckless’ safety culture at Elon Musk’s xAI
The Verge asks:
Where are the iPhone’s WebKit-less browsers?
Pluralistic by Cory Doctorow has:
Where are the iPhone’s WebKit-less browsers?
404 Media reports:
a16z-Backed AI Site Civitai Is Mostly Porn, Despite Claiming Otherwise
The Markup reports:
AI is helping students be more independent, but the isolation could be career poison
This times 1,000.
Terror
404 Media reports:
3D Printing Patterns Might Make Ghost Guns More Traceable Than We Thought
Cybersecurity/Privacy
Bleeping Computer has:
Google Gemini flaw hijacks email summaries for phishing
Malicious VSCode extension in Cursor IDE led to $500K crypto theft
Sounds like a win-win.
Police disrupt “Diskstation” ransomware gang attacking NAS devices
Ars Technica reports:
Hackers exploit a blind spot by hiding malware inside DNS records
DarkReading reports:
Military Veterans May Be What Cybersecurity Is Looking For
Beats being in the National Guard.
Women Who ‘Hacked the Status Quo’ Aim to Inspire Cybersecurity Careers
The Next Web reports:
Whisper emerges from stealth with ‘God Mode’ to tackle cybercrime
Fediverse
Connected Places has:
Age Verification Laws: Are the New Social Networks Different, Or Not At All?
Steve Bate has:
ActivityPub Client API: A Way Forward
The Social Web Foundation has:
Seeking interop testing for geosocial ActivityPub client
Mastodon has:
Privacy Guides has:
Privacy and Security on Mastodon
Bandwagon has an update:
Elena Rossini has:
My adventures in self-hosting: day 211 (CDN edition)
Forgejo announces:
TechCrunch reports:
Meta appoints generative AI VP to run Threads
I guess it wasn’t shitty enough.
Slightly Federated Social Media
Connected Places has:
Reuters reports:
European project Eurosky aims to reduce reliance on US tech giants
CTAs (aka show us some free love)
- That’s it for this week. Please share this edition of Destroying Autocracy.
- Follow me on the Fediverse. Or this site via the button in the footer. Or via RSS.
Keep fighting!
Ringleader, Battalion
Reuben Walker
Follow me on the Fediverse
#125 #ActivityPub #AI #ATProto #Autocracy #Bandwagon #BigJournalism #BigTech #Bluesky #Democracy #Fascism #Fediverse #Forgejo #Mastodon #StopChina #StopIsrael #StopRedAmerica #StopRussia #SupportUkraine #TechnoAnarchism #TechnoFeudalism #Threads
I've been following ATProto's development from the sidelines since 2022, but I somehow missed this great take by @eloquence on Bluesky interoperability with Mastodon and ActivityPub: https://github.com/bluesky-social/atproto/discussions/1716
"We currently have two emerging alternatives to X that deserve to be taken seriously: the fediverse and BlueSky. The fediverse tends to attract folks who highly value open source in principle and practice; BlueSky tends to attract folks who are looking for a drop-in Twitter replacement.
In this context, I would argue that a clear commitment from the key parties (that includes @Gargron's Mastodon gGmbH and Bluesky the company) towards an interoperable social web is essential. We should be able to follow each other no matter where we decide to make our social media home. Even Mark Zuckerberg's Threads has at least made a commitment towards interoperability."
It's a good read. Year after year, it feels like ATProto and ActivityPub, Bluesky and Mastodon, couldn't be further apart. Even Nostr and WordPress support ActivityPub. We're seeing more servers and clients in the Fediverse adopting ActivityPub. As far as I know, 99% of ATProto is still powered by Bluesky's main server, which makes it not very decentralized. I wonder why anyone would want to set up a server for ATProto when ActivityPub is so much more widely used.
I see Bluesky and ATProto's future as just another private company, like the rest. It's easy to pretend decentralization and open source just for marketing.
GitHubInteroperability with Mastodon/ActivityPub · bluesky-social atproto · Discussion #1716What are the current plans from BlueSky (the company) for interoperability with Mastodon/ActivityPub? We currently have two emerging alternatives to X that deserve to be taken seriously: the fedive...
Replied in thread
"At the beginning I thought it would be a nice idea to have the different layers ... the complicated stuff like the big firehose as a service, and ... smaller services that connect to that big one, to ... lower the barrier to be part of the network.
But to implement a [PDS] is still so much to do ... it could be even impossible to do that with PHP on a shared hosting environment."
@pfefferle, 2025
Replied in thread
@lauren
> There is a parallel here to what happened when Google disastrously tried to integrate YT comments with G+ threads
Difference here being that what's bridged is the fediverse (#ActivityPub) and the ATmosphere (#ATproto), which are protocol-defined networks, not monolithic platforms. There is already a need to address different kinds of UX within each network. So bridging them doesn't introduce new UX problems to either.
@DavidBHimself @mastodonmigration @moira @quillmatiq @anewsocial