Fediverse

GNU Social (previously known as StatusNet) is a distributed service created by The GNU Project to provide a fully-free network for social networking. The fact that it is distributed means that there is not a single service that you are locked to. A person who uses Quitter, for instance, can follow people on The Rainbow Dash Network due to them both using the GNU Social network.

The network software itself is much like Twitter, but the actual interface differs between implementations. Some websites, such as the aforementioned Quitter, are designed to look like Twitter, while the aforementioned Rainbow Dash Network is designed to look more like a message board, for example.

This is the only Social Network that RMS endorses, and the only one he actually uses (through a posting bot). GNU Social has no Code of Conduct but it is assumed you won't be a dick or else face the ban-hammer.

GNU Social is the sister service to GNU FM.

Controversy

A large number of GNU Social sites require Javascript to work properly. This means that many web browsers (such as Lynx) can not use the site. However, the Javascript has been put under a Free Software License under the guidelines of The GNU Project's Javascript Guide.

Exodus from Twitter

In 2016, with the #RIPTwitter tag trending due to dramatic changes, a massive flood of twitter users went to GNU Social (mostly on Quitter). This boosted the post count from 20 posts per hour to 20 posts per minute. A large amount of spam and Normie accounts have been created, however. This developing event is to early to decide if it is a new Eternal September.

The mass-exodus from Twitter made a large amount of users not even understand what the hell GNU Social is. This caused the moderation of Quitter.se to post a disclaimer explaining it. It linked this article as a brief explanation of the network.

The massive influx also caused massive errors in the GNU Social network due to bandwidth it had never seen before. Since the majority of Twitter users switched to quitter.se, they had been most affected the most by these errors. The site itself could not be accessed by many. Later in the day, Quitter temporarily stopped registration of new accounts to combat not only this, but the spam as well.

The next day, registration was re-enabled. A universal Terms and Conditions for all Quitter sites (not GNU Social as a whole) was released. It actually being a Code of Conduct, it says:

"Quitter is not a service and you are not a customer here. We are a small part of a bigger social change, creating a large decentralized community. This means that we don't have to be neutral toward the content on our GNU social instance. If you don't like the direction this instance is going, you are free to move to another instance or start your own. You will still be able to follow and be followed (and blocked) by users on this instance.

In contrast to the top-down authority of commercial social media, this creates a kind of flat power structure. We are enabled to protect eachother from harassment and opression, but without censorship.

On this instance, users who harass others will be removed. We also take a strong stance against e.g. racism, sexism, ableism, homo- and transphobia. Such expressions make the site unsafe for other users, and in practice limit their freedom of speech.

The Public Timeline is considered an especially sensitive place. It is what new users see, and all registered users will see the posts published there. Moderators can exclude users from appearing in the public timeline it at any moment, without warning, permanently or temporarily. Consider it a privilege to be published in the public timeline, not a right. If you are excluded from the public timeline, you can still use all other features on the site just like any other user.

Advertising and commercial entities are not allowed on this instance. We are completely non-profit and all our expenses are payed for by donations from individuals. We can help you start your own GNU social instance if your intention is commercial.

All content on this site is licensed with Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International.

Each user is responsible for the content they submit. If you have any questions about something posted on this instance, contact the user in question first. As a last resort you can email the admins."

Days later, it seems that the massive influx has slowed. A Ycombinator article was made showing the superiority of GNU Social over Twitter and other services, causing the official homepage for the software to address it. Quitter added this statement to their frontpage, adding to the previous statement:

"Read our Terms of Use before registering. Quitter.se is about taking control over the means of communication, NOT about "freedom of speech". This is a moderated instance! We take a strong stance against e.g. racism, sexism, ableism, homo- and transphobia. Other instances may have other policies."

By nightfall, they changed their front-page message again. Erasing all it said previously, quitter now says:

"Please read our Terms of Use. Registrations are now temporarily closed. Shitposters and conservatives might like shitposter.club, gnutan.xyz or freezepeach.xyz."

A thread on Endchan was made to discuss this.

This has shown a great divide between ideology of implementations. While previously unknown, the split has been exposed greatly. Some people are a part of the "PC culture" and are using it as a Safe Space, while others wanted to use it as a part of Free Speech and a simple Free/Libre service. The majority of the later have moved to other implementations based on this, such as shitposter.club, freezepeach.xyz, and a variety of others.

While this is happening, the moderation of Quitter.se (arguably the implementation that started this) has yet to make questionable decisions based on their SJW-teir ToS. This has caused some people to stay on quitter.se temporarily, waiting for an objectionable decision.

External links

• Official Website
• The English Wikipedia article on GNU Social