Original post: https://bsky.app/profile/ssg.dev/post/3lmuz3nr62k26
Email from Bluesky in the screenshot:
Hi there,
We are writing to inform you that we have received a formal request from a legal authority in Turkey regarding the removal of your account associated with the following handle (@carekavga.bsky.social) on Bluesky.
The legal authority has claimed that this content violates local laws in Turkey. As a result, we are required to review the request in accordance with local regulations and Bluesky's policies.
Following a thorough review, we have determined that the content in question violates local laws in Turkey, as outlined in the legal request. In compliance with these legal provisions, we have restricted access to your account for users.
pardon my ignorance, but how is a de-centralized and de-federated online community bound to such annoyances?
Assuming you are serious:
Bluesky is ... arguably 'federated', but it is centralized, not decentralized.
https://gigazine.net/gsc_news/en/20241128-bluesky-decentralization
Their model (AT Protocol) relies on a central, authoritative ... 'Relay', that all 'federated' users and posts on federated PDS (personal data servers) must go through, to actually reach the 'AppView', ie, what all other people/users can actually see.
So, this is not a many to many, tangled spider web of connections, the way lemmy, and other parts of the actual fediverse are.
It is a top down hierarchy, a pyramid.
And Bluesky runs the Relay, the chokepoint.
If Bluesky cuts off the PDS your account is on, everyone on it is now gone.
The actual fediverse, Mastadon, Lemmy, etc, runs on ActivityPub.
In that model... every instance is essentially self contained, and every instance that is federated communicates with every other instance that is federated.
Each instance can decide what other instances they want to federate with... and users on each instance can personally block even more other users, communities, or entire instances if they choose to, but that only effects what that particular user sees.
That is what you call decentralized, approaching, or also having elements of being 'distributed'.
To bring up an example without getting into the drama that led to it:
The 'Tankie Triad' of ml, lemmygrad and hexbear have had a number of other instances defederate from them.
But, there are also a good number of instances that have not done so.
So that means if your account is on hexbear... you can't see or post on an instamce that has blocked your instance.
But, if you (a hexbear...ian?), post on a neutral instance... users on that neutral instance will see the post.
But but, if a user from an instance that has defederated from hexbear goes to to the neutral instance... they will not see the hexbearian's post.
This sounds complicated, and it is, but ... thats the whole point of a decentralized system. It is more complex in the abstract... but the entire system ends up being more robust, more adaptable, more customizable... without a central authority in direct control of the entire system.
So the decentralized version makes sense to me. The blue sky model you describe sounds like just farming out the server load. What am I missing?
That is literally how I read it as well, BlueSky is farming out server load to enthusiastic and dedicated users, while also just going ham on the PR / propoganda / marketing making themselves appear to be something they are not.
Unless I missed something and BlueSky is actually letting people run and custom configure their own relays at least semi independently... yeah, they're basically being quite shady and misleading.
For relays yes, but for PDS that's not at all true. The PDS architecture lets you own your data and migrate it away from Bluesky servers or even from the BS apps, when/if they will be available. Something that ActivityPub severely lacks. Try to migrate your account from one Lemmy instance to another.
Yes, you can host your own PDS server, that is known and stated.
The entire design of a lemmy instance is meant to be more 'self contained', as I already mentioned. This is what enables the federation network to organize in a 'many to many' connection style, as opposed to a 'many to one'.
A lemmy instance roughly has many/most of the capabilities of a PDS, Relay, and AppView... all rolled into one.
This is a fundamental difference of a 'true' federation model... all the members of the federation are capable of operating independently.
If you are in a federation of unequals, with built in dependencies... your 'federation' is much more like a king with vassal states, not a voluntary association.
Yes, migration of a user account from one instance to another would be complicated... but ... so would migrating a user from one PDS to another.
I don't even know how you could fully 'migrate away from BlueSky servers'... when BlueSky run the only Relays.
Also, many (most?) actual client apps for viewing lemmy, posting on it, etc... they pretty much hold a lot of your particular user customizations, at least as it comes to visual theming, independently, locally, not even related to the actual user account on an instance you are using.
They also support easy switching between different lemmy user/instance accounts...
...
Also also, as far as I am aware... if you have an account on a lemmy instance, you can delete your account and this will wipe out all of that account's posts and comments across the whole fediverse, aside from modlogs and internet archive web snapshotting type stuff.
I ... think you can also export your own data as well?
Not 100% sure on these last two parts, maybe an instance admin or powermod could chime in... but I think this is correct?
They are fundamentally different, the whole ActivityPub federation vs ATProtocol decentralization has been talked to death in technical detail.
Not true. Bluesky has PDS migration in its design. In ActivityPub it is simply not possible
I mean...
This is literally the first thing you see on the page you just linked.
And it was last updated 7 months ago.
So I think you mean to say that account migration in BlueSky is currently in development, and is problematic and essentially experimental, and maybe sometime in the future this will change but also maybe not, who knows.
You are right though that is not possible in ActivityPub.
That is why I said design and not implemented and perfectly working
Yes but you also just said 'Not true' when I said 'migating an account to another PDS would complicated.'
I do grant that I ... could be interpereted to have overstated the ability of an ActPub user to migrate instsnces... though I did just say 'it would be complicated'.
It is arguably complicated, so complicated it is impossible.
And I did try to make it clear that getting into that level of features/capabilities of ActPub, I was not sure, and that perhaps a lemmy mod or admin could clarify.
I am not saying you said this, but the whole problem here is that a lot of BlueSky users and fans consistently keep acting like BlueSky has all these different kinds of capabilities and features now, working currently...
... when at best, they are planned future features, and at worst, they are an intentionally misleading early access video game style roadmap, with a bunch of super enthusiastic but low technical knowledge early adopters who basically are just enthralled by buzzwords and hope... and those fanboys/girls will just be strung along by promises the devs don't actually plan on ever implementing, because they don't actually have much incentive to... and then years later the early users will either realize they've been duped, or become delusional, hardcore uberfans, bereft of logic and perspective.
People are allowed to run their own relays, but it's really expensive and nobody wants to.
Really?
Like, this is genuine news to me, if its true.
https://github.com/itaru2622/bluesky-selfhost-env
I can find tools like this, that help you set up a good number of elements of BlueSky... but the only mention of the relay (apparently also known as BGS, for... BigSky?)... is that you connect to it... not run your own.
Beyond even the price point and required server hosting heft... where, where is an actual 'here is how to download, configure and run your own BlueSky relay'?
As far as I am aware, all there has been is a mix of vague, noncommital, and hopeful musings of various people suggesting that one day maybe it will be possible to do this, hopefully they'll support that soon...
... which to me at least, very much reminds me of fanboys/girls of a video game just coping with the fact that their favorite video game with a massive bug or lacking a major advertised feature... will just have it fixed one day... even though the devs have been radio silent about it for a year.