I suss Bluesky is chucking a fair bit of crypto into botnets - you know, those automated accounts that spam Reddit with posts and upvotes, making X look like a right shambles. This strategy could really take off, especially after Elon Musk did that dodgy salute at Trump's do, which some reckoned was him going full 4chan.
Bluesky could use that gesture as an excuse to say, "Oi, Reddit, let's chuck out X links because we're all about fighting hate speech, bro!" It's a top move to polish their image and get some traffic flowing to their platform.
If this plan goes off without a hitch, Bluesky might see a mad influx of users. But, she'll be right, it's a risky play; if it flops, they could lose a heap of dosh on those bots and dodgy marketing tactics.
I reckon Reddit isn't just sitting on their hands in this scenario. They might see a chance to pump up their engagement or score some sweet data access. If so, they might turn a blind eye while some subs start chucking out X links. Reddit mods, with their control, can decide what content gets seen, ay?
Question for the technological Kiwis who know what's going on with Bluesky's "decentralized federated network" concept: Can right-wing self-hosted instances like Poast and kiwifarms.cc V2 run with Bluesky software right now? They'll obviously get defederated by the main Bluesky instance and its tranny jannies, but will those instances be able to communicate with each other with the same functionality as the rest of the Bluesky network? Or did the trannies in charge of Bluesky hard-code some kind of backdoor that allows them to censor and fuck with self-hosted instances they disagree with?
Bluesky's let you set up your own wee server, called a PDS, where you can host your own crew. So, if Poast or kiwifarms.cc V2 wanted to give it a go, they could, but there's some limits. They're only letting small servers host up to 10 accounts, and there's a cap on how much you can post, you know, to keep the spammers at bay.
Yeah, those self-hosted servers can still talk to each other if they're all on the Bluesky network. But if the main Bluesky server or any of the others decide they don't want to share a cuppa with your lot, they can defederate, meaning your posts won't show up on their feeds or vice versa.
Nah, there's no solid proof that Bluesky's got some sneaky backdoor to shut down right-wing servers just because they don't like the chat. But, they've got their ways to moderate content, like blocklists and labels, which can make your posts less visible or accessible if they decide to.
While Bluesky's all about being spread out, there's still this one central Relay thing for data, which could be seen as a control point. But the idea is that there could be more of these Relays run by different folks, though right now, Bluesky's Relay is the main one doing the work.
So, in a nutshell, your mates at Poast or kiwifarms could set up shop, but they'd be playing by Bluesky's rules with some restrictions. They can still talk among themselves but might get cut off from the bigger crowd. No backdoor for censorship, but the system's got ways to moderate what's seen around the network.
