@ikuturso @mastodonmigration @mackuba if you're EU based doing a query from here to each server to determine ASNs might be an interesting research project, maybe you'll get different results?

@ikuturso @mastodonmigration @mackuba for instance, Hachyderm has US based POPs but core infrastructure is all in Germany

@ikuturso @mastodonmigration @mackuba I'm pretty sure deeper research showed that many instances that looked US based were actually using CDNs in front and hitting US based POPs

@mastodonmigration @mackuba right, but arguing about protocol superiority isn't servicing this cause for anyone, and it divides us when we should be working together to tackle these risks

@mastodonmigration @mackuba highly centralized targets.. you mean like this?

Like, if a regulator wants to enforce action, it's easy for them to find targets that would have a chilling effect on the entire network.

We aren't necessarily as decentralised as we may think, and I'll remind again that many platforms are either hosted by Hetzner, OVH, or behind Cloudflare.

You really don't want to draw the ire of regulators, but that's the way things have been going.

@mastodonmigration @mackuba there's literally been a bunch of sex work and adult positive instances shutting down, and a bunch more questioning if they can afford the liability.

One service (bluesky) decided it was safer to avoid legal liability and find ways to work within the laws, this included a protest move to prohibit access from a state with a terrible age verification law (the very same thing Pornhub does).

The other (mastodon), seemingly decide that it didn't want to deal with any of the legal liabilities, essentially leaving admins to fend for themselves, whilst also ignoring the fact that Germany has had age verification requirements for accessing adult content since 2007 or something.

But fighting between us isn't going to win any push back against these terrible laws.

@mastodonmigration @mackuba as mentioned, there's nothing stopping regulators or prosecutors from going after mastodon or other activitypub software for non-compliance. It's probably quite easy too given most servers are hosted in Germany, a country with one of the oldest age verification laws on the books and a right wing politician with a fetish for regulation enforcing it. Seriously, this guy had an entire AI bot built to help prosecute adults in Germany who posted material against his laws

@mastodonmigration @mackuba @wjmaggos@liberal.city so the thing is: mastodon can implement, at a single server level, age verification. Just like there are other apps for bluesky/AT Protocol that don't implement age verification (deer.social, blacksky, others)

Mastodon does actually track IP addresses [ 1, 2 ]. It could do IP geocoding in order to provide integration points to perform age verification.

Yes, I think these age verification laws are terrible, but it is irresponsible for us to claim that age verification laws can't be followed by the software, and this just leaves server administrators liable and at risk, which isn't good either.

1. https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/blob/main/db/schema.rb#L1019
2. https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/blob/main/db/schema.rb#L655

@breathOfLife @mackuba @mastodonmigration @ikuturso @stefan not sure, but they are currently forming a new EU non-profit. My point still stands that the legal structures are mostly the same: a gGmbH must reinvest in itself instead of pay out to shareholders, and a PBC needs to create benefit for the public instead of for shareholders

@breathOfLife @mackuba @mastodonmigration @ikuturso @stefan they're not "for-profit" in the traditional sense, being a public benefit corporation (that's what PBC stands for in Bluesky PBC), but in most locales, even your non-profits are technically for-profit corporations.

e.g., Mastodon gGmbH is still a GmbH (especially so when German authorities stripped them of non-profit status due to weird/bad german laws)

@andypiper @deadsuperhero I'm really wanting all the tribalism to stop, because it really doesn't help anyone, it just invokes anger and negativity.

I still write occasionally, when I have the capacity for it.

@stefan @fontenot @mastodonmigration I'm certain in time this graph will change, just as that of ActivityPub adoption and distribution has changed over the years.

AP has a 5 year head start at least here compared to AT Protocol, and I think the efforts ongoing at promising.

@Lambo probably best places are:
- https://blog.rudyfraser.com/
- https://bsky.app/profile/rudyfraser.com

@skarnio AT Protocol is moving to being maintained by community, though they're just starting this process

@jakeyounglol there's multiple archiving relays, and you can always point your domain somewhere else (if you bring your own domain). The protocol is designed to resist such a hostile takeover though.

@lanodan @mirabilos @ahltorp you mean MIT / Apache 2.0 license? https://github.com/bluesky-social/atproto/blob/main/LICENSE.txt

The social-app repository is also under what appears to be a MIT license except where explicitly noted otherwise.

And Blacksky's rsky is under Apache license: https://github.com/blacksky-algorithms/rsky/blob/main/LICENSE

@ikuturso @mastodonmigration @breathOfLife @stefan there's plenty of DID methods that have been developed; There are some people using did:web, there's also did:webvh — but there's definitely still more work to do in this space.

I think ActivityPub could theoretically adopt did:web or did:webvh as an alternative to webfinger.

@mastodonmigration @breathOfLife @ikuturso @stefan there's also NorthSky in Canada that's building on Blacksky's work, and I'm sure there'll be something similar in the EU too

@mastodonmigration @breathOfLife @ikuturso @stefan this exists in the ATmosphere — https://tektite.cc/

and a demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SdmiCRYeZA

@mastodonmigration @breathOfLife @ikuturso @stefan Blacksky already recently managed a mass migration away from Bluesky hosted PDS's for their community. Similar could happen if needed for other communities.