katzenberger 🇺🇦<p>Federated <a href="https://mastodon.de/tags/SocialMedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SocialMedia</span></a> requires <a href="https://mastodon.de/tags/federated" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>federated</span></a> <a href="https://mastodon.de/tags/services" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>services</span></a>, too.</p><p>There is a discomforting trend to undermine the <a href="https://mastodon.de/tags/Fediverse" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Fediverse</span></a> by introducing <em>high-level</em> <a href="https://mastodon.de/tags/API" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>API</span></a>s that foster irreversible <a href="https://mastodon.de/tags/centralization" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>centralization</span></a>, and enable <a href="https://mastodon.de/tags/surveillance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>surveillance</span></a> and <a href="https://mastodon.de/tags/censorship" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>censorship</span></a>.</p><p>APIs for supporting the ingestion process of external search engines, inevitably leading to centralization: There's only so many search engines a Fediverse server admin is willing to feed, and much fewer even that people are willing to use. And with inevitable centralization comes frustration: neither admins nor people have choice.</p><p>APIs for "moderation as a service" that help submit all media to external actors, in the very same hash-and-match way that is one of the battlegrounds of the <a href="https://mastodon.de/tags/ChatControl" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ChatControl</span></a> assault on privacy (and has always been, for those who can remember the <a href="https://mastodon.de/tags/UploadFilters" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>UploadFilters</span></a> debate).</p><p>And it's always "only an API". That can be implemented by "whoever wants to". That is targeting "only the <a href="https://mastodon.de/tags/FourHorsemenOfTheInfocalypse" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FourHorsemenOfTheInfocalypse</span></a>", never any legitimate posts. That is "innocent" of its glaringly apparent potential for abuse, and the course it sets, ignoring the history of the net. That you just misunderstood, or didn't look closely enough at.</p><p>And, that does not suggest or even mandate any kind of federation between its implementations.</p><p>Essentially, these APIs are an order, a call to surrender: Acknowledge the inferiority of federated systems – resistance is futile, you will be assimilated.</p><p><a href="https://mastodon.de/tags/nonmention" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>nonmention</span></a></p>