39 Billionaires Destroyed the Web, But Rebuilding Social Media Is Easier Than You Think | Mallory Knodel, Free Our Feeds

Social media platforms have become the “default” for most of the world’s 5.5 billion Internet users, which means everything we see and post online is controlled by billionaires and squeezed for maximum profit – shredding democracy, mental health, and human rights in the process.

But what if it didn’t have to be this way? In fact, the Web wasn’t this way until very recently. So how did we get here? And how can we claw it back?

The bad news is it will take a LOT of work, investment, and convincing. The good news is, we already know how to do it - and it’s way easier than you think.

This week, activist and public interest technologist Mallory Knodel joins Matt to discuss a huge initiative to reinvent social media and rescue online discourse from billionaire control. Mallory is the executive director and founder of the Social Web Foundation, a non-profit working to build sustainable and fair social network infrastructure.

She’s also a custodian of Free Our Feeds, a coalition proposing new standards and protocols that would make social media open, inter-operable, and free from billionaire control.

In layman’s terms: Imagine if friends on Bluesky could subscribe to your Instagram Reels. Imagine if you decided to leave YouTube and take all your videos with you to Mastodon. Imagine a social media ecosystem where everyone can talk, free from sensationalist algorithms and constant surveillance.

It’s not only possible, but happening now, via federated networks like ActivityPub and AT Protocol. But as Mallory explains, getting your friends to ditch TikTok for Bluesky is a “hearts and minds” battle that’s just getting started.

Mallory and Matt discuss why all of our public discourse has moved onto “private property,” the importance of data portability, the burden of “switching costs,” and why now is the time to free our feeds from the billionaire class.

Plus, some Amish trivia and your questions and voicemails.

Learn more about Free Our Feeds: https://freeourfeeds.com/

The Social Web Foundation: https://socialwebfoundation.org/

And subscribe to Mallory’s newsletter, Internet Exchange: https://internet.exchangepoint.tech/

This show is made possible by listener support: https://www.patreon.com/influencepod

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