The group wants to leverage this tech to create an open social media ecosystem which cannot be controlled by a single person or company, including Bluesky itself.
A new fundraiser set up by a group called ‘Free Our Feeds’ seeks to protect Bluesky’s technology from being controlled by any single company or billionaire.
The campaign has launched just days after billionaire Mark Zuckerberg announced the removal of third-party fact-checking on Meta’s platforms. The move, which will phase in over the next few months, will remove guardrails provided by the platforms, instead allowing users to write and rate community notes. This is similar to the process at X, the platform formerly known as Twitter that is owned by the world’s richest person Elon Musk.
Bluesky, which is a rival to X and saw a huge surge in popularity late last year, uses the AT Protocol, which ‘Free Our Feeds’ positively referred to as “scaffolding for a new kind of social web. One where we all have more say, choice and control.” According to the group, it wants to leverage this tech to create an open social media ecosystem which cannot be controlled by a single person or company, including Bluesky itself.
It counts a number of technical advisors and custodians among its ranks, including Mark Surman, the president of the Mozilla Foundation, and Robin Berjon, the editor of HTML5 specification and an independent technologist.
The group’s open letter has also been signed by prominent figures such as actor and activist Mark Ruffalo, founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales, and Harvard Business School professor and author Shoshana Zuboff.
“We want to create an entire ecosystem of interconnected apps and different companies that have people’s interests at heart,” the group added.
Intended use of the funds
The group has set up GoFundMe page with a $4m goal. It claimed that it would use the funds to build a public interest foundation in an effort to support the AT Protocol and to fund developers so that they can build a wealth of social applications on top of open protocols in an attempt to make social media a “healthier” space.
“This isn’t just about bolstering one new social media platform,” the organisation emphasised. “Our vision offers a pathway to an open and healthy social media ecosystem that cannot be controlled by any company or billionaire.”
Bluesky, which now has more than 27.3m users, has already garnered a significant amount of funding in the last few months. Last October, the platform managed to raise $15m to grow its network.
And last week, it was reportedly being valued at around $700m in a new funding round.
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