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De-agentize social networks

Problem

In any discussion held on a social network, such as Facebook, (née Twitter) or any other, even though only two persons are conversing, the network itself is an uninvited participant. Indeed, the members of a discussion:

  • 🤨 Are under influence of feed algorithms
  • ⚠ Can face intervention from the network
  • 🔴 Including forms of censorship

Incentive misalignment

There is an inherent conflict of interests between me, as a social network user, and the network itself as an agent.

For instance, a heated conversation with verbal abuse on the verge of ban is arguably a good thing for the network: it drives engagement; it is a bad thing for me though because, being angry and annoyed, I will hardly manage to judge rationally.

Solution

To resolve the conflict of interests, I would like to disembody the social network and strip it of any interests of its own. My text editor doesn't have those, right? Why would my communication system have them then?

  • Open source

    An interested agent, human or otherwise, should be able to read the code and see what their communication system is doing under the hood.

  • Local First

    The user could choose to rely upon a cloud service provider, or rent a server, or use their own computer only, -- but ultimately the choice belongs to the user.

Decision

When considering social communication systems which might be considered alternatives to Iolanta, only look at open source and local-first systems.