Re: Minds.com

[Valentino Giudice]

   I am not American, but I of course agree with Leland.
   Freedom of speech is not just a law or a legal principle. It is a
   fundamental human right.
   This does not mean that anyone specifically *ought* to provide that
   right (for example, I do not think that platforms should be forced to
   host content). However, it's important that people have access to that
   right.
   Legally, the US, like every country, do have some absurd restrictions
   on freedom of speech, such as those caused by software
   patents: [1]https://wiki.endsoftwarepatents.org/wiki/Freedom_of_express
   ion or DRM
   systems: [2]https://www.defectivebydesign.org/blog/lawsuit_could_be_beg
   inning_end_drm.
   However, within the bounds of whatever the laws of any specific
   jurisdiction allow, we should strive to maximize access to freedom of
   speech and of expression, as well as to promote a free speech culture.
   Freedom of speech has always been a value of the free software
   community and the hacker community, and to associate it with fascism is
   bizarre to say the least.
   Filtering what we read and write through the whims of those trying to
   please advertisers isn't wise. Censorship is an anti-feature.
   For Leland, I should mention that Michael, at the FSF, is part of the
   staff (web developer), but not of the board and he is not the executive
   director.
   In general, the FSF has always supported freedom of speech. I already
   provided a reference for that. But, of course, this could sadly have
   changed, as it has for other organizations.
   If, as I hope, we manage to solve FreeCaptcha's problem by building a
   free alternative, if a viable one doesn't exist yet, I think it would
   be consistent with the principle of the FSF to add Minds to the
   platform it uses.
   Until then, however, and this is slightly out of topic for the thread,
   I think the FSF should support Nostr, which is a public domain protocol
   with free software clients, the same way it currently supports
   ActivityPub, as it has many of the same benefits (not necessarily all)
   and corrects some significant shortcomings.

References

   1. https://wiki.endsoftwarepatents.org/wiki/Freedom_of_expression
   2. https://www.defectivebydesign.org/blog/lawsuit_could_be_beginning_end_drm