Why an open, decentralised social media network like Twtxt and Twt.social matter

TL;DR: You should reconsider the social media platform you choose to use. Many of the large popular ones like F***B***, T******, T**T**, I*********, etc; are all based on exploiting their users ‘Digital Data’ ultimately to profit from by selling that Data to Advertisers.

Open and honest

It is more important than ever before to be open and honest with one another. We live in an ever increasingly complex world, what with confusing information being spread around like wildfire, various political agendas and now a world-wide crisis. Never before has it become more important to share openly and honestly with one another.

Twtxt.net and the Twt.social hosting platform aim to provide exactly that. A platform that you can either join, purchase or spin up yourself where you can be open and honest.

Decentralised

Did you know? When you use the “traditional” social media networks, you are effectively giving away a part of yourself, a part of your identity your story, your conversations, your thoughts and feelings away. For free! Every single day that you use other social media networks whose sole revenue stream is based on advertising, this is what you give to them! You are the product!

How is Twtxt.net and the Twt.social the hosting platform different you ask? That’s easy! Most of you that are not “tech savvy” are probably unfamiliar with the world “decentralisation”. Simply put it is the opposite of ‘centralisation,’ the opposite of “being central”. Traditional social media giants that we have all become used to and rely on every day of our lives for various reasons or another are “centralised” large-scale hosting platforms where you give them your content! Because they are centralised, it is very easy for these platforms to monetise you as the product be collecting and processing various bits of data about what you read, what you like, photos you share, what you are likely to engage in, etc. This so-called “Metadata” is then sold to advertisers where other companies that sell consumer products and services use this data to target you in their advertisements.

Not specifically you! This would be highly illegal and unethical. But they use this data nonetheless to target groups of people with similar “world views”, “ideals”, “behaviours”, and so on…

Here at Twtxt.net and the Twt.social we don’t do this. We will NEVER do this!

Why? Reas on…

Data Ownership

The author of the Twtxt.net softwatre and the Twt.social hosting platform believes in some very simple ideas:

  • Data Ownership and Sovereignty
  • Data Privacy
  • Self-hosting
  • Open source

What does this all mean for me? Well, this is easy! When you signup to Twtxt.net (one of the first Twt.social pods every launched) we don’t ask you for anything but a Username and Password (you are welcome to use any pseudonym you like), In fact we don’t even really require that you provide an Email Address. As long as you never forget your password, you’ll be fine! Otherwise put in an email address we can send an “Password Reset” token to in case you ever forget your password!

When you post on any Twt.social pod like Twtxt.net (we call these Twts) you own that piece of data! Its is yours! You are welcome to, Delete your Account, Download your feed file, or Continue enjoying the platform!

But stick around there’s more!

We also support what we call Twt Blogs where you can also enjoy longer-form writing and publish articles all with the same benefits of short-form Twt(s).

Again, the Data is yours! If you wish to go elsewhere, you are more than welcome to. If you want to run your own pod, take your data away from a Pod you were using that might belong to someone else or you puchased a hosted Pod from us, go for it! We don’t mind!

Privacy focused

Now this is a slight oxymoron, but we actually do respect your privacy! But because we also believe in openness and honesty, there is very little in the way of what the industry called PII or Personal Identifiable Information. Therefore we might even comply with FIPS-140! What this means for you is that we do not collect or store every much in the way of personal information about you! This is very important for several reasons:

  • We are less likely to suffer from cyber threats and data breaches
  • You are less likely to have your identity stolen or personal data leaked
  • And…

Pluasabie deniability

Last but not least, you get to enjoy all of this whilst at the same time being confident that as you grow and mature as a person things you might have said once upon a time in short-form (remember we call these Twts) are eventually archived away! Just like human memories! Eventually the system “forgets” naturally over time (this is of course configurable on a per-Pod basis). The only written and visual works that remains more permanent are Twt Blogs! This is why when you write a Twt Blog the button changes to “Publish” as if to indicate to you that you are about to publish a more permanent article for the world to read and enjoy!

So… This means you can enjoy both aspects of writing, sharing, blogging, photo blogging (even video blogging one day) and be assured that as you mature as a person what things you said once or thought about cannot easily be held against you!


If you read this far, congratulations! And thank you! 🙇‍♂️ Please Join Twt and help grow our little community of Twt’er’s and Twt Bloggers! 🤗

James Mills @prologic