EU Joins Mastodon Social Network, Sets Up Its Own Server | Hacker News Reader

EU Joins Mastodon Social Network, Sets Up Its Own Server

pcmag.com

81 pointsgeox20 comments

>EU Voice provides EU institutions, bodies and agencies with privacy-friendly microblogging accounts that they typically use for the purposes of press and public relations activities.

I wonder if this usage specification is in anticipation of the can of worms that might be opened if a state were operating one of these platforms for the general user-base as it exists on Twitter or FB or wherever currently? I suspect institutions, buddies, and agencies all self censor and are unlikely to use much 'speech' that the housing state would rather not host. I'm just imagining if this was the US as host and the general public as users. Free speech laws protecting the public from government censorship don't apply on platforms controlled by private entities like Twitter, FB, and the like, but if the state were hosting, they'd either have to implement virtually no rules or deal with every violation potentially being made into a quite literal federal court case. That doesn't seem sustainable. And I'm guessing the same would be true for most other 'free' rule-of-law based states.

I wonder if a PBS/NPR style model for social media could sidestep that issue though? PBS's ad-free claim is a laughable joke though, so a strict analog wouldn't be ad-free like this EU instance.

I think many orgs and companies will follow this route into the Fediverse, hosting only a few official accounts under their own domain.

Having EU joining in such a confident way, not only dipping their toe by signing up an account on someone else's server, helps other bigger orgs doing the same.

Why sign up to a service controlled by a third-party (like Twitter, Facebook or another Mastodon server), when you can own and control your own communication platform?

Small correction for the title (I know it's just copied from the source): it's the European Commission, not the entire EU. Saying that the EU joined would be like saying the USA joined after the White House does.

https://social.network.europa.eu/system/site_uploads/files/0...

A little bit transparent huh?

I don't understand what point you're trying to make, so... not really transparent.

I assume they're referencing the not very subtle visual that a single mother with a mixed race child is the face of Europe. I suppose the argument is that since they only picked a single image to convey "The EU Voice", that's an intentional choice.

Why single? Why mixed race? We could accept it as a mother and child or a woman and child.

He linked you the image but I guess you didn't bother to look. And I'm not the one making the argument, but it does legitimize their argument when it's the same thing begin pushed over and over and over. At some point you can't pretend it's coincidental. Imagine the same thing in Asia or Africa and see if the reaction is the same..

I'm not European so I guess I don't care if their culture is supplanted. But maybe they do.

Oh, I looked. The point I'm making is that both "not so subtle" things I asked are not in the photo - they're something people choose to imagine themselves. Women that are in the photo without husbands are not necessarily single. Babies that look like that are not necessarily mixed race (assuming that's a thing that has some real meaning either way). Given this is an European project, you can check what people from the north end to the south end of Europe look like.

I'm not sure what culture you think may be supplanted here. If it's the culture of "a classic white mother holding a darker baby can't represent us", then I can't wait for it to be supplanted.

>I can't wait for it to be supplanted.

You could have saved a lot of typing by leaving it at this and saying what you meant. No reason to be coy any more. The quiet part is being said out loud now.

Please read the beginning halves of sentences, not just the latter halves. As a European, this whole thread reeks _painfully_ American.

I honestly had no idea what the original commenter was even talking about before I started reading replies, which in hindsight was a mistake.

You sound like you may be the right person to ask about European feelings towards gypsies..thoughts? As an American, I don't understand the almost universal contempt held for them by Europeans.

It could be interpreted this way: the woman on the picture symbolizes Europe saving refugee child.

Ah yes, the Great White Savior trope.

Ok, here is more transparent picture for ya https://s15.stc.yc.kpcdn.net/share/i/12/10297121/wr-960.webp

states hosting their own bastions of their own citizen's speech is such a vast moral cause. these sites need to provide some attestable proof, signed http exchange vouchers for content, hosted on state sponsored sights OR upon feeds of their citizens. but any measure states take today: any of it is vastly more prp-democratic, pro-value based than the fat load of nothing we've gotten up to. this os such a basic & essential first baby step to governments doing anything useful in the new world.

> states hosting their own bastions of their own citizen's speech is such a vast moral cause.

The instance is not for citizens of the EU.

EU Voice provides EU institutions, bodies and agencies with privacy-friendly microblogging accounts that they typically use for the purposes of press and public relations activities.

https://social.network.europa.eu/about

i don't know why the responses to your comments are acting like yours is off topic. this article is clearly showing the possibility of sovereigns running their own social media networks to the benefit of their citizens and i'd agree this is very exciting and while it may turn out to have some free speech drawbacks down the road it sure does seem like a great way to disentangle discussion and communities from private profits as the primary motive.

Fantastic to see that you haven't read nor understood what this headline is about, and constructed a whole paragraph based on your misconception of one (1) headline on Hacker News. Do better.

Ironically, you seem to have missed the point of their comment, which is only slightly tangential to the article and extremely interesting in the social media discussion at large. And then you tailored an entire paragraph to show off your narrow mindedness and lack of critical thinking ability. Stop trying so hard.

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