On self-hosting and social media

If your social media profile1 ran on a server you personally own and manage, you are unlikely to post the kind of garbage you now tend to share on such platforms. If the server actually shared the same roof with you, you are most likely to read, check and verify to the best possible extent before doing a boost/retweet/re-blog/share. You would treat it as something you have in your living room, apartment, lawn or backyard.

(Re)Imagine it as your personal notebook or bookshelf. Imagine it as your personal computer. It is your own computer! You wouldn't want it to be infected with every random thing you come across on the road, at school or work. You wouldn't connect devices that you are not certain to be safe. Besides, the space is limited. You are aware of the amount of data you can store.

On the other hand, when you live in a police state or a totalitarian context where free expression is severely undermined and attacked, you feel safe when you are among hundreds of others, untraceable back to your actual self and to where you live. Then, and only then you feel safe enough to express yourself fully. A shared community space can sometimes provide this sense of security as long as its integrity is not compromised. A broad social movement can sustain something of this sort. This might be the most favourable direction one could expect that things will move.

There is a false sense of belonging and safety that Facebook and other corporate social media platforms provide. At the same time, there is a wide range of social processes that find their reflection on these platforms. Actions are discussed and organized; mass protests and uprisings are coordinated on Facebook. Lot of people use them as a creative outlet. Genuine connections are established and developed. There is an independent character to it. Therefore, the above mentioned 'false sense' is intersected with a range of actual processes. This needs to be further clarified.


  1. Your typical social media profile such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. But the difference in this scenario is that you have your own instance or node, instead of a central 'service provider' hosting it along with all the other users on a centralized platform. This is similar to what you get on the federated social web : your social media profile that you can self-host, such as Mastodon, GNU Social, Pleroma, Friendica or Hubzilla↩︎