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Building a Better Internet Together (Patreon)

Published:
2025-08-26 13:00:07
Imported:
2026-10

Content

Hello, valued supporters!

We have been reflecting on what it means to us to build a better internet, and wanted to highlight Andy Piper, our Head of Communications, speaking about digital sovereignty and freedom at FrOSCon 2025 in Germany. His message built on themes he first shared at RubyWorld 2024 in Japan, but with new urgency about the challenges facing our digital freedoms.

Andy's message was clear: "Freedom in the digital world is inseparable from who controls the infrastructure we depend on." The internet started as a decentralised system—a web of interconnected digital libraries where anyone could contribute. But today, we've created private, profit-driven platforms that prioritise data collection and engagement over user well-being.

What makes Mastodon different is our commitment to returning to those collaborative roots. As Andy put it, we're part of the toolbox that can help us build "resilient, diverse, locally-owned and managed systems." We're not just building software—we're proving that the Fediverse can provide real alternatives to centralised control.

Why this matters now: With increasing concerns about digital sovereignty across Europe and beyond, communities want local control and the freedom to make their own choices about how they connect online. The Fediverse changes the game—anyone can run their own platform, build their own community, and still communicate with others around the world.

Your support makes this possible. Every contribution helps us demonstrate that there's a viable alternative to surveillance capitalism. You're not just funding development—you're investing in infrastructure that belongs to communities, not corporations.

Together, we're building proof that the internet can remain decentralised, community-owned, and designed for human flourishing. Thank you for believing in this future with us.

Watch Andy's full talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApLjFlCuOGkRead more: https://andypiper.co.uk/2024/12/24/building-a-better-social-web/

Comments

DJ Archangel

I am completely in alignment. The problem that faces us in creating this paradigm shift is that it has to be a mass migration or people will not want to leave their social circles behind. Further, many users of the surveillance-based platforms do not find Mastodon as intuitive. It is much harder to get grandma on Mastodon than it was to get her on Facebook. If we can fix these two issues, I think the way will become clear to take back the internet.

bla laber

A large part of migrating users is keeping the communities together and helping them find each other again on the other side. Maybe we can make use of more fields in the bio that say "formerly known on Insta as x, twitter y, tiktok z" to make people easier to find in the feduverse again automatically.

Gaëtan Perrault

> that it has to be a mass migration or people will not want to leave their social circles behind I think you may be struggling with the paradigm shift here. A mass migration simply makes no sense. We can't take 1B Facebook users, dump them into a random instance and call this change successful. That's neither "decentralised" nor "community-owned". For Mastodon to be host to hundreds of millions of people, we are going to needs hundreds of thousands of community owner and volunteers to step up and take on this role. This isn't a technological shift, it's a human one. > It is much harder to get grandma on Mastodon than it was to get her on Facebook And that's always going to be true. Democracy comes with Rights AND Responsibilities, they are connected. Facebook requires very little in terms of Responsibility and it grants basically zero Rights. On Mastodon, you get to be a Member, on Facebook or Bluesky you are only ever a User. We can't make these things "equally easy to use" because their not the same thing. So instead of blaming "the technology", let's first start by talking about what success means from a human perspective. What it means to have humans connected by community and what people are willing to trade off to make that happen.

DJ Archangel

Wow, Gaëtan Perrault. What a ridiculous reading of what I typed. Why on Earth would someone direct so much vitriol at a comment from a fellow supporter of the technology? This isn't Youtube; it's Mastodon's Patreon. Why would you even assume I meant any of those ludicrous things? I absolutely do not appreciate your juvenile and thoughtless interpretation of my well-intended comment. I guess I just gained a little insight about the Mastodon community that I was not expecting. "Mass migration" does not have to be read in the way some IT person would read it. "Mass migration" was a common phrase in animal and human historical studies for hundreds of years before IT. That was how it was meant and it was not at all unreasonable for me to assume it would be taken that way. I never mentioned any af the asinine processes you came up with because they would, in fact, be very stupid. It's funny how you quote me and then just start swinging at strawmen that weren't in the quote. Congrats for defeating those terrible ideas that you alone came up with. If you read for comprehension instead of assuming I am some enemy in the Patreon, you can see that my whole point was agreeing with your point that it is a "human" paradigm shift. I think you may have further missed my point regarding ease of use, but I'll just assume that at that point you had made up your mind that you needed to be in full condescension mode and weren't really trying to understand me in earnest anymore. Look, dude. clearly you are up for a fight but I'm not really. I responded only because your brazen hostility and disingenuous read of my post was jarring and should actually be some cause for concern in the community. Please dial it back a notch. We're all here because we think Mastodon is an excellent solution to the needs of social media.