Is digital sovereignty in social networks important?

Reply to Is digital sovereignty in social networks important? on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:34:27 GMT

mikelbyl@mstdn.ca — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:34:27 GMT

@faraiwe @evan I can answer that - it's because it's a meaningless or at best confusing term that shares almost no characteristics of *actual* sovereignty. We should resist such platitudes and come up with unique concepts for the context or environment. At worst it's a self-congratulatory buzzword designed to make people feel important.

Reply to Is digital sovereignty in social networks important? on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:53:48 GMT

faraiwe@mstdn.social — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:53:48 GMT

@evan who the hell are the 4% saying "no" or "no, but" ???? Are those bridgy interlopers in the fediverse, or what??

Reply to Is digital sovereignty in social networks important? on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 12:38:48 GMT

mark_harbinger@mastodon.social — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 12:38:48 GMT

@evan

'Just asking questions', I see...

Reply to Is digital sovereignty in social networks important? on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 07:31:00 GMT

badrihippo@fosstodon.org — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 07:31:00 GMT

@evan yes, but we shouldn't stop at the level of (or ideally skip even trying to fit) the level of "countries" and instead let there be sovereignty all the down to smaller organisations and individual humans

Reply to Is digital sovereignty in social networks important? on Wed, 15 Apr 2026 19:33:48 GMT

epic_null@infosec.exchange — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 19:33:48 GMT

@hamishcampbell @witchescauldron @evan It's a good point, it I have this vauge feeling like a key piece of information is still missing from the conversation around social media, and around the adoption of the term itself ...

Reply to Is digital sovereignty in social networks important? on Wed, 15 Apr 2026 19:09:30 GMT

hamishcampbell@mastodon.social — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 19:09:30 GMT

@Epic_Null @witchescauldron @evan

Yes, the #openweb in inherently social as its sites linking to sites, so, the term is an overlay from the #dotcons - its very much not clear what value this term brings when we try and scale horizontally rather than vertically. So in this sense its more compost to shovel. But for meany people here vertical scaling dose matter so for them, it's useful?!

We currently do not attempt to bridge this divide.

Reply to Is digital sovereignty in social networks important? on Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:35:27 GMT

tassoman@orwell.fun — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:35:27 GMT

@evan@cosocial.ca yes, but software should be developed by own country developers

Reply to Is digital sovereignty in social networks important? on Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:24:42 GMT

evan@cosocial.ca — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:24:42 GMT

@tursiops

Reply to Is digital sovereignty in social networks important? on Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:24:21 GMT

tursiops@tooting.ch — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:24:21 GMT

@evan as the admin of tooting.ch and president of FairSocialNet non profit I very much agree with the fact the social network sovereignty is not only important but crucial.

Reply to Is digital sovereignty in social networks important? on Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:58:37 GMT

astro@c3d2.social — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:58:37 GMT

@evan "Yes" without a "but" this time!

Reply to Is digital sovereignty in social networks important? on Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:26:49 GMT

epic_null@infosec.exchange — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:26:49 GMT

@witchescauldron @evan This makes me want to take a good hard look at the term social media.

Reply to Is digital sovereignty in social networks important? on Wed, 15 Apr 2026 13:50:19 GMT

promovicz@chaos.social — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 13:50:19 GMT

@evan Yes, but as a long-time hacker I keep thinking of issues like "international waters". It should not be in the interest of the Fedi, to clarify sovereignty over the whole network. Exceptions should be accepted/respected (if they are benign).