After much procrastination, I finally deployed a snac fediverse instance today. Snac (an acronym for social networks are crap) is a lightweight fediverse server written in C, the only programming language I still use. It is fast, has few dependencies, was simple to install and works well with some solid clients like Tusky and the Phanpy web client.
So some dude is having feverish dreams of turning San Francisco into some sort of nightmarish, tech-controlled dystopia.
Now, San Francisco has always been packed with people trying to mold the city into their very own personal fiefdom. This dude just happens to have money and influence, so he’s getting more attention than most. He will, of course, fail, and he probably knows it, but sharing these types of fantasies will still bring him some clout in certain circles.
Anyone who was around the early days of social media remembers the horrible content that circulated. Our feeds are better now, in no small part due to the millions of dollars spent by large corporate social media networks like Facebook and Twitter on content moderation.
But who are the people, the actual individuals, moderating the content and protecting billions of people from the trauma of graphic atrocities and abuse? And are they being fairly compensated and taken care of if they develop PTSD, depression and a litany of other mental health conditions related to content moderation?