Consentful social software seems so foreign in modern times. Knowing that almost every piece of software is somehow keeping track of some part of your activity, it feels not only out of place to have some form of control over what we put into the internet, but also like we've been given something that we didn't know we needed or even wanted. We've become used to the idea that someone or something is keeping an eye on us. Not everyone is even actively aware of their activity being fed into algorithms and code, and people who are have to make choices on how to proceed. Do they seek out alternatives to the software that many people consider to be the foundation of our online lives? Do they try their best to ignore any narrative, advertisement or tricks pushed on them by tech companies that have been gathering data not only on them but like minded people for years?
One question I have considered is how does Togethernet seperate itself from mainstream social media? Asking for consent when you first use it isn't really rocking the boat, it's not too different from terms of service, and even with the invitations to thoroughly read their consent forms and policies, I can't imagine a larger scale user base treating a consent form different from a terms of service form. It's not the initial consent, it's the continuous consent that makes the difference. Being able to revoke your consent from a software and have it carry some actual weight means something. If someone decides to take down their profile on software like facebook, their data is still left behind, its like as if they haven't really left. But being able to wipe the slate clean changes things. Everything archived that you've said or shared gone, like if you pulled up an anchor instead of cutting it loose. And while this seems like a good thing, I also see some issues with it. The internet already provides anonymity to it's users. It makes acts like harrasment and stalking easier, so what happens when you give them the ability to retract everything they've done with no concequences? Togethernet is used for small scale communities, so ideally a group of people should be able to self moderate it's users, but when you leave a session and log in again, you'll be seen as a new user. I feel like this might leave the software vulnerable to bots and unwanted guests that might have gotten in, we've already seen similar events happen with zoom when someone gets a link and distrupts a meeting. There are always going to be bad actors in any scenario on the internet, a few ways to deal with this might be having something like a connection limit that can be activley changed so the group can make sure only the right amount of people are accessing the server at once. Or maybe allow users to ban ip addresses by voting (although that might violate the retracting consent concept). While im all for giving power back to the users, I do think we have to think carefully about what and how much power is available to them.