Zeta Syanthis @zetasyanthis@awoo.space

“The fediverse” is not a place you have to enter and announce your presence to witness. It’s not a house, it’s not a party. It’s a data stream and most of it is public, and the bits that aren’t are reliant on actors outside of your control to keep private.

Cancelling someone who outed them self as working with the feds isn’t going to keep the feds out. A lot of you know this and to a lot of you it’s symbolic and ideals-based, but it needs to be stated explicitly for those who do not know.

Most of the fediverse is public, most of it is unredactable, most of it is undeniable. Our current security calculus means it’s trivial, once an instance admin (or the wayback machine) gets a hold of your post, to prove you posted it— forever. Even if you delete it.

The fediverse has the same infosec concerns as birdsite did, and more, and worse. It presents opportunities for a better social space, but in the end you need to either limit posts to things you don’t care who sees, or things you’ve done very in depth risk assessment on with deep knowledge the fediverse security and deniability calculus.

That’s a shortcoming of the fediverse and AP. It’s one specific actors are working on fixing, but it’s not there yet and won’t be for some time.

Keep your “stuff” deniable. Keep it off line. The fed taps do not have high visibility accounts like that guy. The fed taps probably do not have accounts.

Few things in the world make me feel more validated or loved than when my cat comes and curls up next to me on the bed and purrs while I pet her