Protecting Social Media from Billionaires: A New Campaign Takes Shape

A group of tech leaders and advocates has launched a campaign called Free Our Feeds to protect social media from being controlled by billionaires. They want to safeguard the technology behind Bluesky, known as the AT Protocol. Their goal is to create an open social media ecosystem that can't be controlled by any single person or company, including Bluesky itself. The campaign comes at a time when big changes are happening in social media. Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, has relaxed its rules on content moderation and fact-checking. This has raised concerns about who controls what we see online.

Free Our Feeds wants to support the creation of new social networks that operate on the AT Protocol. They believe that if Bluesky were to be bought by a billionaire, users should have alternative options with independent infrastructure. The team hopes to raise $30 million over three years to make this possible. Robin Berjon, one of the project's custodians, said that just like roads shouldn't be owned by a few billionaires, digital infrastructure should also be governed in the public interest. He believes the AT Protocol could be used to build various types of social apps, from Instagram-like platforms to entirely new concepts. The campaign has the support of notable figures like actor Mark Ruffalo, director Alex Winter, and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. They aim to have the independent foundation up and running by the end of the year.

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