Ok, let's do this. The Harris campaign should not be on mastodon. It would be bad for both the campaign, and mastodon.
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#UsPol #FediMeta #MastodonForHarris, for muting purposes
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Ok, let's do this. The Harris campaign should not be on mastodon. It would be bad for both the campaign, and mastodon.
🧵
#UsPol #FediMeta #MastodonForHarris, for muting purposes
Jenniferplusplus
in reply to Jenniferplusplus • • •First, some terms. This feels necessary, otherwise, we're going to just talk past each other.
Mastodon is software, a network of services running compatible software, and the people using those services.
Kamala Harris is a person. She could be on maston, if she wants, but I can't imagine why she would want to right now.
Harris for President is a legal entity that exists to facilitate her presidential election campaign. That's what this thread is about.
Jenniferplusplus
in reply to Jenniferplusplus • • •Jenniferplusplus
in reply to Jenniferplusplus • • •Social media posts are a place where some of that can happen. It serves the campaign's goals to make space where supporters can cheer and critics can argue. It builds enthusiasm, shapes discourse, and keeps people's attention where the campaign wants it to be.
That makes moderation absolutely critical for the campaign.
Jenniferplusplus
in reply to Jenniferplusplus • • •On Mastodon, anyone on earth can attach slurs, hate speech, threats, or shock images to any post the campaign makes. The nature of federation and the design of mastodon is such that this cannot be prevented.
It may or may not be visible to the campaign. It may or may not be visible to any individual user. It may or may not be visible to the server moderators.
Mastodon is fundamentally unsuited to this scenario.
Jenniferplusplus
in reply to Jenniferplusplus • • •Imagine Harris for President decides to create a mastodon account anyway. Where do they do that?
On mastodon.social? And they just make this whole moderation burden a few volunteers problem?
Do they set up their own server? Moderation is still some volunteers problem, but they're campaign volunteers, who could have been phone banking or whatever instead. Plus now they have to manage server infrastructure and security. Imagine being that infosec team.
How is any of this a good idea for anyone?
Jenniferplusplus
in reply to Jenniferplusplus • • •And all for what? About a million active users, probably less than half of which are even US citizens?
How is this anything other than a distraction for the campaign? Whatever benefit they could possibly get from mastodon has already been achieved. Donations from about 3,000 people. Roughly the population of a large highschool.
For the campaign, this place would be all cost and no benefit.
Jenniferplusplus
in reply to Jenniferplusplus • • •And, it would shine a supernova-bright light on all the worst parts of mastodon. The pervasive nice white liberal racism. The petty tyrants and their power trips. The absolute state of safety and moderation tools.
The best thing for both mastodon and Harris for President is if they post on Threads with federation toggled on.