Twitter’s co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey recently unveiled that the social media giant is backing a small team of researchers who will build a decentralized social network that will cater to problems concerning the spread of false information on social media.
The twenty-first-century internet is all about the fast movement of information and digitalization, and social media platforms are one of the biggest internet sensations ever. With a billion user base across the globe, the issues of privacy and security often get compromised in this massive centralized platform. Thus, came about a new wave of decentralized social media networks where need not worry about confidentiality even while networking with thousands of people at the same time.
It appears that Jack Dorsey has taken a strong liking in this concept and wishes to further it. On 11th December 2019, Dorsey announced on Twitter that his company is setting up an independent team of researchers, consisting of up to five engineers, architects and developers, who work on an open-source, decentralized infrastructure, called Bluesky, for social networking websites, and essentially an initiative in which Twitter is a part of. He also admitted that the process could require years of research and development before it is rolled out.
Twitter is funding a small independent team of up to five open source architects, engineers, and designers to develop an open and decentralized standard for social media. The goal is for Twitter to ultimately be a client of this standard. 🧵
— jack (@jack) December 11, 2019
Referring to a proposal received from Techdirt’s founder, Mike Masnick, who promotes the idea of protocols over platforms, Dorsey claims that the concept is partly inspired by this innovative idea and possibly the only solution to social media’s biggest hurdle so far – information abuse.
According to him, centralized platforms face a huge scalability issue and cannot prevent the distribution and abuse of misleading information without placing the burden on users. Thus, the ultimate goal of this project is to design a framework that eliminates information abuse and content modification across social media platforms. Once successfully executed, Dorsey assures that Twitter will be its first client.
Blockchain experience preferred
Parag Agrawal, CTO of Twitter, replied to Dorsey announcement by offering a background on the ideal candidate. According to him, a desirable profile would include someone with hands-on experience on blockchain technology, has a strong and opinionated vision for this initiative and is excited to become a part of next-generation social media.
The ideal candidate is someone who is hands-on technically, curious across disciplines, has experience working in the open on the blockchain, an opinionated vision for this effort, and is thrilled by the idea of shaping the future of social media.
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) December 11, 2019
Dorsey also highlighted that Bluesky would specifically emphasize on curbing damaging and violent content that include child pornography, hate speech and sexual abuse. Through this way, he continues, the platform will put users back in control of what they wish to see and what goes viral instead of algorithms making the decisions for them. Dorsey has also repeatedly claimed that social media must focus on becoming a content host rather than basing itself on recommendations.
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