There are a few messaging systems that don’t rely on internet service. That usually means a peer-to-peer design using some form of radio link, which can work well for local gatherings (like protests), but these tend to be impractical for general use.
Note that I said the network can withstand such things, not that it guarantees your connectivity to it when using a hostile ISP. No internet messaging service can do that.
Signal is easier to use, more private, and faster.
Unfortunately, it is also effectively tied to Google services due Signal’s app distribution and push notification channels on Android (which most people on Signal use), and as a centralised service, it is vulnerable to shutdown or network-level metadata monitoring by anyone with sufficient access/influence at Signal or their data center provider (such as a government who doesn’t like encrypted messaging).
(Edit: rephrased for clarity)
Matrix is good for private general messaging. The fact that it’s decentralised means it can also withstand things like government-ordered shutdowns or back doors, since there is no central point that controls the whole network.
Two things to be aware of:
Facebook: I’ll just torrent what I need burden your underfunded project and volunteers with over 81 TB of bandwidth costs without contributing anything in return, see yaa
FTFY
To answer the question: I wouldn’t port Discord to anything, because it’s a mediocre chat service with no real privacy, run by an invasive company that imposes itself as gatekeeper of other people’s discourse and creative work.
And? The GNU General Public License and every project that uses it (including Linux) have also been likened to cancer, as have many other things that impose and spread their conventions/restrictions/requirements when added to larger systems.
The phrase “going viral” works similarly. These metaphors may not be pretty, but they are not uncommon or inaccurate, either. Stirring up drama around their use doesn’t help the project or the community.
Huz-fucking-zah. Independence from corporations like Google in the technologies we depend on is important, and F-Droid provides an unmatched service in support of that goal.
I suspect the vast majority of people turning to social media as a pressure release valve feel disempowered, and don’t know what more they can reasonably do. When voting is no longer enough, and you have little time or money to spare, what’s next? How can a fly meaningfully change the path of a rhino stampede?
This article is insightful, but practically useless. I think it would be better if it also presented specific actions and achievable goals that would lead to shutting down the encroaching fascism.
There are alternative archival sites,
To be clear, other archive sites that take snapshots of web pages are not really alternatives to the Internet Archive, which (importantly) allows uploading of arbitrary data for preservation. One example of this is mentioned in the article:
In matters where a server is needed, you generally have three options:
Sync to a CalDAV/CardDAV server instead of to Google. If you’re up for self-hosting, Radicale is a good and simple one.
I use DAVx⁵ on Android and Thunderbird on the desktop. Other sync clients are listed here: https://radicale.org/v3.html#supported-clients
Thanks!
My “client” is Lemmy’s native UI, and is rendering it correctly according to markdown and html specs. If your client is wrapping it or using a variable-width font, then that’s convenient for you in this case, but it’s violating the spec. (This is somewhat common in mobile apps, so I guess you’re reading on a phone.)
OP, can you please remove the four spaces preceding each paragraph in your post? That syntax is for code formatting. It triggers a monospace font and puts each paragraph into a single line, forcing readers into painstaking horizontal scrolling to be able to read each one. It’s like trying to read a book through a keyhole.
How would the sender prevent messages from going to the admin user that joined the room?
It wouldn’t matter if a rogue admin eavesdropped on an E2EE room, because they would see encrypted blobs where the message content would be. That’s what E2EE is for.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-to-end_encryption
How would the sender prevent messages from going to the admin user that joined the room?
You’re conflating multiple things. Merely joining a room does not grant access to message decryption keys.
I respect your curiosity, but I think you’re going to have to familiarize yourself with the software and concepts to get a detailed understanding of how all this stuff works. If you’re technically inclined, I suggest reading the protocol spec, or at least the parts that interest you. You could also drop in to the chat room and ask more questions there: #matrix:matrix.org
SimpleX has some interesting ideas, but also some shortcomings for people who want a practical messaging service. For example:
I would not recommend it for talking to family members and people in general, which is what OP requested.
But who/what gets to decide who the intended recipients are?
The sender, of course.
Can’t the homeserver admin just join the channel and then the other members would exchange keys automatically and now they can see what people say?
No. Verification prevents that.
a compromised or hostile home server can still take over the room
A compromised server could affect a denial of service attack against its users, of course. The attacker could do the same thing by simply turning off the server. That’s true on all platforms that use servers. A reasonable response would be to switch to a different server.
That admin (or even a newly minted user) can then send events
Exactly what events do you think would be dangerous?
or listen on the conversations.
No. End-to-end encryption ensures that only the intended endpoints can read the messages. Older Matrix clients have a setting to block the user from sending messages to unverified devices/sessions, in case they somehow don’t understand the meaning of a bright red warning icon. I think newer ones (e.g. Element X) enforce that mode; if you’re concerned about this, you could check for yourself, but…
not everyone will pay attention to unverified warnings
…unfortunately, there are no guarantees when trying to fix human behavior. If you need a messaging app to make it hard for your contacts to do something obviously foolish, then I suggest waiting until Matrix 2.0 is officially released and implemented in the clients. The beta versions of Element X, for example, look like everything is locked down to avoid human mistakes like the one you’re describing.
Thankfully, it’s not that simple.
A centralised service is an easy target for a government. (This is where Signal stands.) A decentralised one is significantly harder, because the government would have to be constantly discovering and processing every node in the network as new ones appear. (This is where Matrix stands, although it doesn’t have many public servers yet.) Fully peer-to-peer decentralisation makes it harder still, because there are as many nodes as there are users, with network addresses that often change. (Some of these exist today, but are mostly experimental with few users. Matrix has done some proof-of-concept work in this area as well.)
On top of decentralisation, tunnels like VPN and Tor can be helpful in avoiding ISP-imposed blocks.