Plastic Free Swindon joins the Fediverse!

29th May 2021

Facebook logo, reads, 'You won't find us on Facebook'

Being able to freely communicate without hinderance is vital for campaigns like Plastic Free Swindon. We left Facebook last year because of concerns about how social media platforms such as Facebook were being / could be used to deceive and manipulate. This is made possible by a few factors: profit-driven organisations, the selling of data, closed source software, and large centralised instances. Read more in our Facebook article.

Software to empower users, not for profit and domination
A pentagon of interconnected circles in space containing icons from software such as Friendica and Mastodon
Image credit

It's a pleasure to announce that the campaign is now part of the Fediverse. In contrast to Facebook, Twitter and the like, the software is free and open source. There are many instances which are joined together / federated, hence the name Fediverse. Users control their data, it is not for sale. If you dislike how an instance is run, data can be moved / removed.

We are using Friendica which is similar to Facebook. Mastodon is similar to Twitter. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Friendica and Mastodon users can connect with each other thanks to the use of a standard protocol (way to communicate) called ActivityPub. This ability to connect with other software extends beyond social media. For instance, Friendica users can connect with PeerTube (similar to YouTube) users.

With a community of developers working to empower and share, the Fediverse looks to be a great social media alternative. You can follow and engage with us at plasticfreeswindon@libranet.de or https://libranet.de/profile/plasticfreeswindon.