At the core of Bluesky’s philosophy is the idea that instead of being centralized in the hands of one person or institution, social media governance should follow the principle of subsidiarity. Nobel Prize-winning economist Elinor Ostrom discovered, by studying grassroots solutions to local environmental problems around the world, that some problems are best solved locally, while others are best solved at a higher level. In terms of content moderation, posts related to child sexual abuse or terrorism are best handled by professionals trained to help keep millions or billions safe. But many decisions about speech can be resolved on a community-by-community basis, or even on a user-by-user basis when people compile Bluesky’s blocklist. So, all the right elements are present in Bluesky to create this new architecture for social media: independent ownership, new popularity, strong contrast with other dominant platforms, and the right leadership. But challenges remain, and we can’t rely on Bluesky to do this right without support. Critics point out that Bluesky has yet to make a profit and is now running on venture capital, the same corporate structure that brought us Facebook, Twitter, and other social media companies. Currently, there is no option to exit Bluesky and take your data and network with you, as no other server runs the AT Protocol. Bluesky CEO Jay Graber deserves credit for his stewardship thus far, and for trying to avoid the perils of advertising incentives. But the process of capitalism destroying technological products was so predictable that Cory Doctorow coined the now popular term: enshittification. That is why we must act now to secure the foundations of this digital future and make it enshittification proof. This week, the famous technologist started a new project, supported by New_ Public, called Free Our Feed. There are three parts: First, Free Feed We want to create a non-profit foundation to manage and protect the AT Protocol, outside the company Bluesky. We also need to build redundant servers so that all users can leave their data or build whatever they want – regardless of the policy set by Bluesky. Finally, we need to drive the development of an entire ecosystem built around this technology with seed money and expertise. It is important to note that this is not a hostile takeover: Bluesky and Graber recognize the importance of this effort and sign their agreement. But the important thing is, can’t rely on him. In order to free us from the fickle billionaires, some force must reside outside of Bluesky, Inc. If we get this right, we can do a lot. Not so long ago, the internet was full of builders and people working together: the open web. Email. Podcast. Wikipedia is one of the best examples—a collaborative project to create one of the best free public resources on the web. And the reason it still exists today is the infrastructure built around it: The non-profit Wikimedia Foundation protects the project and protects it from the pressures of capitalism. When was the last time we built something good together? We can change the balance of power and take back the social life of these corporations and their billionaires. This is an opportunity to bring more independence, innovation, and local control to our online conversations. We can finally build the “Wikipedia of social media,” or whatever we want. But we have to act, because the future of the internet cannot depend on whether one of the richest people on Earth wakes up on the wrong side. Eli Pariser is the author of The Bubble Filter and Co-Director of New_ Public, a non-profit R&D laboratory working to reimagine social media. Deepti Doshi is the Co-Director of New_ Public and a director at Meta.
