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The BBC on Mastodon: experimenting with distributed and decentralised social media (www.bbc.co.uk)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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"As the social media landscape ebbs and flows, the team at BBC Research & Development are researching social technologies and exploring possibilities for the BBC. One part of our work is to establish a BBC presence in the distributed collection of social networks known as the Fediverse, a collection of social media applications all linked together by common protocols. The most common software used in this area is Mastodon, a Twitter-like social networking service with around 2 million active monthly users. We are now running an experimental BBC Mastodon server at https://social.bbc where you can follow some of the BBC’s social media accounts, including BBC R&D, Radio 4 and 5 Live. We hope to be able to add more accounts from other areas of the BBC at some point."

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[+] [email protected] 228 points 11 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

[deleted]

[-] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Why an instance instead of joining an existing one? They can join the effort and do few ones where several publishers can use to create official accounts

Edit. Why you guys are downvoting a discussion? Is this place becoming reddit? We are just chatting, relax

[-] [email protected] 64 points 11 months ago

Because then someone else would be able to control and censor their content. Really every business should make their own server to ensure that they're the ones fully in control of their content - this is the entire point of federation.

[-] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago

Good point. You guys are right. It is a good choice

[-] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago

Just for records sake, we can see recently with Musk and Twitter and how he manipulated NPR's image by denoting them as "state media".

[-] [email protected] 39 points 11 months ago

I think the USA's National Weather Service Twitter presence is a good example.

If you look deep enough you'll see caveats like "supplemental service provided by NWS" and "Twitter feeds and tweets do not always reflect the most current information", but the truth is that a lot of people (and news organizations) depend on Twitter as their main interface to the NWS, and rarely if ever go to their website.

That obviously creates a tension, which bubbles up in scares like this:

Before last weekend’s storm, the National Weather Service’s Baltimore-Washington office sent this tweet saying that because of a new Twitter policy, automated tweets that show advisories, watches, and warnings might not load.

Contrast that to a world where NOAA (the federal administration which runs NWS) has their own instance: they get the benefit of being able to disseminate updates in a consumer friendly 'social media' style and they retain full control of platform and can be sure the service won't be held hostage, or go down in the middle of a storm.

Finally: if you're reading this from the USA, consider contact NOAA/NWS to let them know you'd like a fediverse presence, I did!

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[-] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Having their own instance as a public organization adds more legitimacy to their publications. Think of government officials using the organizations domains for email instead of gmail.

[-] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago

Them having their own instance would serve the same purpose as being verified because of the domain.

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[-] [email protected] 151 points 11 months ago

Even though I take issue with the BBC, I hope they choose to stay on mastadon in the long term. A large organisation like the BBC on a federated platform is sure to spread word and hopefully convince more people to join the fediverse and see it a a feasible alternative to the current big tech landscape.

[-] [email protected] 66 points 11 months ago

This is how twitter and Youtube picked up pace. News organizations stsrted slowly creeping towards it and they have a lot of incentive to do so with how twitter is becoming a cesspool of Nazis and CSAM.

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[-] [email protected] 101 points 11 months ago

I think this is exactly what I want to see, news orgs (not just "mainstream" news, but let's say, professional orgs in an industry) hosting their own instances with closed signups for accounts with JUST relevant topics. I tried to find some journalists on journa.host to fill in tech and local news, and while I found the people, it was way too much personal/personality content and not as much news.

[-] [email protected] 57 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Relying on a third party for your social media presence is a bad idea. Imagine if Elon got a bug up his ass and banned all BBC accounts; they’d be left in a lurch. Or if, as we saw, someone else got a blue checkmark and pretended to be the BBC.

But by running their own site they have control over who posts what, while still able to interact with users on other instances.

[-] [email protected] 44 points 11 months ago

I think governmental organizations should do the same. It's absurd that FEMA or whoever essentially has to rely of Elon's goodwill.

[-] [email protected] 45 points 11 months ago

The Dutch government already made an official mastodon instance: social.overheid.nl

The Netherlands just can't stop being based

[-] [email protected] 42 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Someone tell me how to feel! Do I hate this or like this!?

edit: I have been told to like this, and thus... I do.

Disclaimer: please ignore my negative initial vote score, as I have the privilege of being bot-downvoted by CCP sympathizers because of comments on this post https://lemmy.world/post/2338419, there is also the possibility that I’m just an asshole.

[-] [email protected] 72 points 11 months ago

It's a news organisation, so it's okay. We definitely want more journalists and news organisations in the Fediverse. I'd much rather have them directly on mastodon than the million different bird.tld mirrors.

[-] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago

Yes, and it also prides itself on journalistic values, unlike a lot of the Murdoch empire, for example.

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[-] [email protected] 30 points 11 months ago

It is good in that it makes Mastodon more useful. People can use Mastodon instead of Twitter to see BBC tweets.

And karma isn't a thing here, otherwise I just blew a lot of it on North Korea.

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[-] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago

It's risk mitigation on their part to not have their platform controlled by somebody else, especially someone with an agenda like Elon Musk.

Would like to see them set up a Lemmy instance as well.

And of course, it's always good to get in these things early, but not too early in case things don't work out.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

Federation is the future of social media for exactly this reason, especially in the twitter-like realm where who is saying it is as (or more) important than what is being said. These people and organizations need to control their brand outside the scope of commercial pressure from the platform.

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[-] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It's interesting that they decided to make their own server and not just join a popular instances like Mastodon Social. I know part of it is then experimenting but if the goal is to just have a presence in the Fediverse, it sounds like a lot of effort for little reason.

[-] [email protected] 108 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It's interesting you have this opinion; I figured this would be the biggest draw for corporations-- they're no longer beholden to some third party for their media presence-- it's all hosted and controlled by themselves;.

In email terms, it's the difference between [email protected] and [email protected].

Edit: I don't have any idea why I went with tide, so if you find yourself wondering why I did that, get in line. haha

[-] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago

[email protected]

Lol

[-] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It also solves the verification problem. It's without a doubt the best way to go for an organization - especially news orgs.

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[-] [email protected] 81 points 11 months ago

It's instant verification for all their accounts and an instance that won't disappear on them.

[-] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago

You may as well say the same thing about having their own website vs using Facebook.

This kind of thing is exactly the point of the Fediverse. They control and own their content, they control who gets to post from their URL.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago

Treat it like email. Thats how Mastodon will grow

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[-] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago

As a Canadian I’ve sent a formal letter to the CBC asking them to do the same. I’d suggest other Canadians join me and send formal letters to CBC on their site if you want something like this here in Canada. Personally, I really like how BBC did this and would love others to follow.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago

Nice, now a BBC in the fediverse is not just that thing.

We should support them as this is a pretty significant entity moving into the space. Leave nice comments, encouraging comments.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago

Awesome news! Hopefully more media follows suit!

[-] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

This is great. I don't really care about the BBC since I'm not from or live in the UK, but more decentralization is always good.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

I mean, while that's fair, they cover worldwide as well, I'd say most of the news they cover is worldwide.

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[-] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

Is Mastodon compatible with Lemmy?

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[-] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

If you read this as the #nsfw version it's a lot funnier.

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[-] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

Pretty damn cool tbh

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this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023

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