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Free Our Feeds

Social media is broken: controlled by a handful of billionaires who shape what people see, say, and believe. These platforms profit from division, exploit user data, and lock people into closed systems.

Campaign — Free Our Feeds

Launched in January 2025, the campaign set an ambitious target to raise enough funds to back the development of an ecosystem of applications and users for open social media, focused initially on the AT Protocol, which underpins Bluesky. Our funding targets include:

Ricochet Media (@ricochetmedia.bsky.social)

Crowdfunded & independent, we practise public-interest journalism Send us tips and pitches ➡️ editor@ricochet.media Support us ➡️ https://ricochet.media/donate Subscribe to our newsletter➡️ https://shorturl.at/PsR42 Check us out! https://ricochet.media

FediForum | Growing the Open Social Web:<br>An Online Un-Workshop

Since the Twitter takeover by Elon Musk over three years ago, the Open Social Web has been adopted by an enthusiastic community. People world-wide are building and using open social platforms and open social protocols to better interact with others online.

Reclaiming Social Spaces: Are Open Source Platforms a Path for More Human Connection?

What if social media platforms were built to serve their communities, not billionaires? Join us with the founders of Blacksky as we explore the potential of open source social media.

RSS Feed to Social Media | Fedica

Fedica's RSS Feed to Social Media auto-posts new articles, videos, or podcasts to 13 platforms via Pipeline, with auto-formatting and thread-splitting.

Building A Prosocial Media Ecosystem | NOEMA

There’s never been a better time to make social media what it always should have been: a tool to strengthen rather than strip-mine the social fabric.

Empowering Users, Not Overlords: Overcoming Digital Helplessness

Disclosure: I’m on the board of Bluesky, so feel free to take as many grains of salt as you want in reading it, though all of it applies equally to other decentralized social media ecosys…

Social Media Is Now Parasocial Media

When practitioners used the term “social media” to describe the internet tools that emerged in the mid-aughts, they were giving a name to the kinds of platforms and protocols that allowed people to socialize with friends and communities of interest by using digital technologies. Twenty years later, users of social media are far more likely to scroll than post – and the content that they consume is often strategically produced and algorithmically curated. In this essay, I argue that the very essence of social media has changed. To more effectively interrogate what we are witnessing, we need to stop presuming that these tools are “social media” and begin recognizing that they are now “parasocial media.” Doing so raises new questions about digitally mediated sociality, not to mention the politics and governance of these platforms.

Shifts in U.S. Social Media Use, 2020–2024: Decline, Fragmentation, and Enduring Polarization

The social media ecosystem appears to be in flux. Twitter’s rebranding to X has come to symbolize a broader reorganization of online publics – political reshuffling, user attrition, and uncertainty over the role of legacy platforms. Simultaneously, the shift from text-based, networked feeds toward algorithmically curated, short-form video has accelerated, with TikTok setting the pace for the wider ecosystem [18, 14, 16]. At the same time, everyday communication increasingly migrates from large, open networks to semi-private spaces such as group chats and messaging apps. Commentators describe a digital public sphere in transition: smaller, more fragmented, less dominated by traditional social networking sites, and rise of more broadcast-oriented forms of media – with some even suggesting that we are seeing the beginning of the end of the social media era.

Declaration of Social Media Rights

Five fundamental rights we need for a free, open, and humane social media ecosystem

Let's fund the open social web

A pro-social approach to building better platforms

Public Service Social Media as a Democratic Safeguard | TechPolicy.Press

Christine Galvagna proposes an EU fund to support decentralized, public service focused social media networks to protect digital rights and democracy.

Social Media Analysis - Signup

Plans for everyone! Fedica's free plan allows you to post to many platforms with 1 click, paid plans to supercharge your social media game! Map followers by country, state or city What followers are talking about now