Nostr Web Client

A week ago, I was hand-picked by the team at MeWe as one of their first MeWe Ambassadors. In this role, I'm going to be focused on growing and promoting MeWe to the world, help any newcomers and take part in campaigns to show off how different our platform actually is. This is amazing timing, too, considering what's going on in the world regarding censorship and invasions of our privacy.

I won't pretend that MeWe is the ONLY social platform that resists censorship and protects your privacy; I'm literally posting this on one of the best places for free speech. We're not interested in bad-mouthing competition, we're simply interested in creating an awesome space for people to hang out in parallel with existing people-first platforms and protocols!

MeWe is a social network designed to prioritize privacy and authentic online socialization. "Don't leave social media, hit reset". I can speak from first-hand experience that MeWe is one of the closest experiences you can get to the old school, human interactions we used to have before the creation of "Web 2.0". Having recently conducted a migration of the platform's back-end to a specialized blockchain (Frequency) and with all sorts of cool features in the works, it's a place like Nostr that's trying hard to change the way people interact online, by reminding us of what the internet was designed to be.

All that being said, I'm not trying to make this sound like an advertisement, just an invitation to check things out or, if you're curious, ask me about MeWe!

#mewe #letsmewe #meweambassadors #decentralization #socialmedia

librekitty 4mo ago

i saw a number of issues that concerned me:

## Pro-Censorship

the CEO has made pro-censorship remarks regarding the platform ([source](https://www.npr.org/2021/01/22/958877682/fast-growing-alternative-to-facebook-twitter-finds-right-wing-surge-messy ))

you are also able to report users ([source](https://support.mewe.com/hc/en-us/articles/360053010433-Report-a-user )), pages ([source](https://support.mewe.com/hc/en-us/articles/360052758754-Report-a-page )), and groups ([source](https://support.mewe.com/hc/en-us/articles/360053542593-Report-a-group )) to MeWe that violate their ToS

(a ToS which includes speech restrictions, on for example Gambling and Pornographic content)

## Not Decentralized

the reputation system used by MeWe ([Soshi](https://support.mewe.com/hc/en-us/articles/32108053992599-What-is-Soshi-and-how-does-it-work-with-MeWe )) is actually centralized as it requires "Reputation Providers" to register with a central SOSHI reputation system, and then must be approved by SOSHI administrators ([source](https://soshi.network/docs ))

MeWe is also missing key indicators of being decentralized, such as alternate clients (DualCamera app is also by MeWe) ([source](https://support.mewe.com/hc/en-us/articles/31641827592855-Can-I-take-my-MeWe-identity-to-other-apps ))

but i can just chalk that up to being new

## KYC

although based on a somewhat legitiment looking protocol called [DSNP](https://dsnp.org ) ([source](https://projectliberty.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/22565363730836-How-does-Frequency-Access-work ))

i couldn't find a way to create an ["universal handle"](https://projectliberty.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/22565363741716-What-is-my-Social-Identity ) besides through providing KYC to Frequency Access

which appears to be the reccomended way to start ([source](https://support.mewe.com/hc/en-us/articles/31640448917655-What-is-Continue-with-Frequency )) ([source](https://support.mewe.com/hc/en-us/articles/31640605683991-Is-signing-in-with-Continue-with-Frequency-safe ))

## Proprietary/Anti-FOSS

i couldn't find source code for any of the MeWe apps

hopefully it seems that Soshi's github is coming soon

additionally they seem to be openly hostile towards those looking for the source too:

according to their [terms of service](https://mewe.com/cms/terms ) you may not

> Attempt to decipher, decompile, disassemble, or reverse engineer any of the software used to provide the Site or Services.

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i did a fair amount of research on this, but maybe you could provide some insights as an ambassador 💜

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Discussion

Jacob | Five Eye Tea 4mo ago

Sure thing, I'd be happy to! I definitely get where you're coming from with some of it.

To address the first concern, that statement was released under the previous CEO, Jeffrey Edell. He never really acted on his view toward censorship, but even so, he's no longer with the company. He has since been succeeded by Carlos Betancourt, who has doubled down on both the free speech aspect, as well as the privacy aspect. Obviously, MeWe isn't Gab, there is an expectation of civility, but you're allowed to speak your mind otherwise. If you're curious about the ideals of Carlos, he was just on the 100x Podcast where he goes over some of this: https://youtu.be/B-peHYZVfVE

Regarding the reporting aspect, every social network has that, just as every major online community in history has had some form of reporting. Even Nostr has reporting to some degree, though relays don't have to act or honor reports. Free speech is one thing but in order to cultivate a pleasant community, you have to make sure that people are being adults and not causing chaos & drama when none needed to exist.

Things are still in the works with Soshi but Soshi itself is more like a rewards program and governance scheme. The blockchain that powers MeWe's back-end for user data & ownership is called Frequency, and it was specifically designed for MeWe and to enable other social networks to build upon it. The concept is that you own your social graph and can port it over to other social apps built on Frequency. Soshi is essentially building the foundations of a plan to boost and reward engagement within MeWe communities. As I said, it's still pretty early with Soshi, more will be revealed on that soon.

To address your other concern about decentralization, it's not decentralized at the app level, but I'm not sure if that's in the works or not. When I refer to it as a decentralized social media platform, I mean that the infrastructure is decentralized. This goes back to the concept of Frequency.

As for DSNP, that was the original concept and protocol that Frequency was based off of. MeWe received a major investment from Frank McCourt's McCourt Global, as part of their nonprofit initiative, "Project Liberty", which is a research group intended to experiment and fund projects to push social networking back to a user-centric, democratized approach rather than having a singular company dictate everything. In the case of MeWe, to strongly simplify, Frequency laid the foundation for the user-centric part, while Soshi is building the way to incentivize people to get involved in communities so that their voice factually means more when it comes to how the platform adapts over time.

Finally, to touch on the open source aspect, I can't really say a whole lot about that but I can certainly say that the company is looking into ways to improve the approach to open source. I suspect that the attitude to FOSS will change under Carlos, given his very positive attitude toward respecting the users and their freedoms. The team is very small (comparative to big tech) and is trying its best to overhaul the experience with a fraction of the budget of big tech, so it will definitely take some time for things to change over time, but he's already making noticeable waves for those who use the platform a lot.

All that being said (I know, it's a lot), I hope I was able to answer your questions and at least give you some context for why I'm proud to be an Ambassador! Feel free to shoot some more questions my way, if you have any, and I'm happy to further discuss the above as well.

librekitty 4mo ago

sounds like it seems to be going in a more positive direction under the new CEO 📈

still scary to use right now, but will keep an eye on it 👍

Jacob | Five Eye Tea 4mo ago

I wouldn't say 'scary' but I understand the concern, hopefully you'll see/hear enough to be convinced in the future! 🙂

librekitty 4mo ago

GM 🌞

i was wondering what the nostr community thinks of #MeWe

i had some concerns which i got to talk to one of their ambassadors about:

nostr:nevent1qqs8daq6dhdhkty2qdxuzeest3x2dd3m5sw3cyhghjrs30jnvrpqdqspz3mhxw309ucnydewxqhrqt338g6rsd3e9upzquz4l3pvnf3c4dt26ptsz63da7kwj767an335wn6gee84kz83x09qvzqqqqqqyltex4g

it sounds like the new CEO is moving the platform in a more positive direction, but still too many red flags for me at the moment 🚩

what do you think? #asknostr

#GM #askingnostr #socialmedia #decentralization